Tony Dinozzo sat down heavily on the bar stool. It had been one of those days where he wondered why he ever became a cop in the first place. Tony would say that it was because chicks dig guys with a badge, but for those who knew the real Tony Dinozzo, it was because he just liked helping people. He felt it deep in his bones that he was doing the right thing being a cop, but after a day like today, he just didn't see a point.

The old barman came over and planted a cool beer right in front of Tony.

"Rough day, Anthony?"

Tking off his jacket and putting it on the bar to his left, Tony used his free hand to grab the beer and take a nice long sip.

"Next time I go to arrest someone, Henry, remind me just to shoot them. Paperwork would be a bitch, but at least I'd sleep a bit better at night."

Henry just chuckled.

"Court didn't turn out the way you wanted to, I'm taking it?"

Tony sighed. "I had done everything by the book to nail this dirtbag. No-fuck ups my end so everything would be smooth sailing once it went to court. So I dont know how the smug bastard did it, but he was able to get off on a stupid technicality."

Tony took another mouthful of beer.

"This guy was as guilty as sin, too. One of those guys that you just look at and know that hes bad news."

Tony sighed and stared at the bottom of beer bottle.

Henry just nodded and went back to cleaning empty glasses. He could tell that Tony just wanted to vent, and he had fulfilled his duty as a barman and listened. Tony had been coming in long enough for the other man to know when to just leave him alone.

Tony had the small Irish pub just over a year ago. He had just moved into the area and had spent a week just wandering around getting himself familar with the surrounding area. He had been with the Baltimore police force a week when he found this joint after a rather rough day. When he went inside for the first time he had immediatley liked the place. It was a rundown, dimly lit sort of place that most wouldnt look twice at which suited Tony just fine.

Ever since then he had always come in to get away from everything, for a little while at least.

The sound of the front door opening caused Tony to look up from his beer.

A woman with long dark brown curls had stepped into the bar. She was of average height and was wearing a pair of dark grey cargo pants that were tight enough to look painted on. A dark red

v-neck did nothing to hide her obviously fit body, either.

She stood in the doorway surveying her surroundings. To Tony, it looked as if she was assesing the place, checking exits and looking for any sign of attack. Apparently satisfied that all was well, she walked into the room. Striding confidently past tony she sat four seats to his left and quietly ordered a soda from Henry.

Tearing his eyes away from the woman, Tony finished off his beer and pushed himself off the seat with a small groan. As he passed the woman, heading towards the bathroom, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her give him a small smile.

Tony stumbled a little when he saw it. He saw right off that she was a beautiful woman to begin with, but when she smiled it mulriplied her beauty a tenfold. Getting a hold of himself, he kept on walking towards the bathroom. Looking over his shoulder as he went in, he noticed a flash of gold coming from around her neck.

Walking to the stall, his mind wandered elsewhere. After the week he just had, he didn't really want to spend his time with anyone this weekend. In fact, he was planning on just kicking back with some sports and movies and in the process try and forget about the week previous. This woman in the bar was able to change that in matter of seconds. She looked sexy as hell, no doubt about that, but there was also a hardness about her that made him instantly curious.

Finishing up ,Tony looked at himself in the mirror as he washed his hands. He had forgone changing for the want of a nice relaxing drink at Henry's, so he was wearing one his best Armani suits aswell as his lucky silk blue tie.

Turning and drying his hands with the paper towel ,Tony thanked the gods that Henry kept the place relativley clean. 'Go get her, Dinozzo.'

Smiling to himself, Tony pushed the bathroom door open about a foot when he noticed three men enter the bar and take seats right behind the woman.

As soon as Tony had spotted them, he knew something was plain wrong about them. Ever since he was little, he had always been able to spot the people that were just plain bad news. From a kid at college who carried around a huge rambo knife in his pants to the uncle who had smiled just a bit too much. He knew that there was something just worng with them.

Closing the door quietky so he wasn't noticed, Tony silenty cursed himself for leaving his weapons at home. Fucking courts, Tony cursed silently.

Thinking quickly, Tony fished his mobile phone out of his pants and called a buddy of his who owed him a favour.

Going to the furthest stall from the door, Tony whispered into the phone.

"Brad, it's Tony, you busy at the moment?"

"Yer man, quiet night tonight for a change."

Listening into the phone, Tony quickly peered out the stall making sure no-one could hear him.

"Yeah, quiet nights are the best, but listen, I need you to do me a massive favour and head over to Henry's pub for me. I think I got a situation brewing, and I may need some back up."

"Sure thing, traffic isnt too bad so we should be there within 10 minutes, try not to kill anyone before we get there ya here?

Letting out a breath in relief, Tony said. "I havent yet! But thanks man, you're a life saver. Get here as soon as you can, but leave off the lights. I'm thinking too much noise, and these guys will get spooked and the shit will hit the fan, if you know what I mean."

"Will do. Stay safe and dont do anything stupid, we are on our way."

Tony listened to the phone for another ten seconds before closing it. Taking a deep breath, he gently opened the bathroom to look out into the bar.

Henry was cleaning glasses almost in front of the exotic woman now sitting at the bar. If there was trouble, there wouldn't be much at all that he could do. At heart, he was a gentle old soul who loved his bar and the regulars who came by night to night.

Oddly enough, the woman was sitting quietly sipping her drink in a seemingly calm manner. If it wasn't for the fact that her knuckles were white from holding her glass tightly, Tony would have assumed that she didn't notice or care about the three men that kept throwing her looks.

As one of the men seemed to be getting up, Tony pushed the bathroom open with a bang, barely glancing at the men all looking at him, he strolled confidently up to the woman, who was now looking at him with a barely conceiled curiosity. Picking a seat right next to her, he sat down with a wide smile.

"Sorry, I took so long sweet cheeks, Alex and Paula called and said they were running late. So, I just told them to meet us here, and we'll all go down to dinner together."

The woman went from looking slightly confused to wary in barely a second, but she played along neverless.

"Did they say how long they would be? I wouldn't want to miss the show after dinner."

The sound of her accent hit him right below the belt. To him, it was a mixture of middle eastern and sex, and he wanted to hear more of it.

"Oh, you know them. Could be anywhere between ten minutes tand an hour," Tony said, forcing a chuckle.

The woman was about to respond when the man from earlier got up and stood directly behind them.

Tensing slightly, Tony swivveled in his chair and faced the man fully. He noticed that his two friends were still seated but watching intently. Now that Tony was close to the men he noticed a few things. They all were sort of scruffy looking as if they had just woken up, even thoough it was five o'clock in the afternoon. The man in front of him was sweating up a storm and had a glazed look in his eyes. Just my luck, junkies.

Looking up into the glazed eyes of the man in front of him, Tony cursed his luck. If I get blood on this suit, I'm going to be very pissed. "Can I help you?" Tony asked with a firm tone, hoping that the junkie would get smart and not decide to start something.

The mans eyes darted between Tony and the woman sitting beside him. She had also turned around and was facing the junkie and his friends.

"Dun wanna talk to you mister, pretty lady wants to sit with us." Tony glared at the man, but before he could say anything, the woman next to him snorted.

"The only way I would agree to that was if I was dead, and even then I doubt you could hustle up the manpower to get me over there."

"I think you mean 'mustle' up the manpower love" said Tony with a small smile, making sure to keep all three men in his view.

It took a couple of seconds for the insult to register, but when it did the man standing pulled out a flick knife that had a five-inch blade.

Pointing it at the woman sitting next to him he snarled out, "Yous coming with us now."

Tony growled in the back of his throat and was about to tackle the knife weilder when the woman jumped off her stoll, quicker then hed ever seen someone move, grabbed the wrist holding the knife and pulled.

The dulled reflexes of the junkie caused him to stumble forwards which was close enough for her to use her other hand to pull the mans head down to smack it hard against the bar top. The force of the impact caused the junkie to drop to the floor in an unconcious heap.

The speed in which this happened had left Tony flat footed. He had never seen a woman move like that before. It was just so cool.

The other two men looked down at their unconcious friend stunned before both of them stood up and lunged at the supposed easy target. Tony in a suit.

I really should feel insulted. Tony smirked as the first junkie came withing striking distance. Tony gripped the beer bottle bheind him by the neck. He swung it wide and as hard as he could, smashing it over the head of the closest junkie, efectively knocking the second junkie out of the fight.

Tony didn't have enough time to recover from knocking the second guy out, so he was unprepared for the last junkie as he plowed into the gut of Tony. Tony's back hit the bar with a jolt of pain. He let out an "oomph" as all the air left his lungs.

The junkie went to take a swing at Tony but didn't take into account the woman behind him.

After the first guy had gone down, she hadn't been idle. She watched as Tony took down the second guy but get hit by the third. While the last man wasnt paying attention, she had walked up behind him and pulled him off Tony by the back of his jacket. Tony used this and swung a good meaty punch to the other man's face.

The force of the punch spun the junkie around, which put him in prefect position to meet to smaller fist of the woman.

Dazed, the junkie started to stumble towards the exit.

"Oh, I'm not done with you yet, buddy," Tony said as he strolled purposely past the fuming woman, towards the stumbling junkie.

Reaching out, Tony grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and shoved him head first into an empty booth, breaking the table and knocking the last man unconcious.

Wincing at the damage he had caused, Tony looked over his shoulder to the gaping Henry.

"Sorry 'bout that, Henry. Chuck it on my tab, will you?"

The still shell shocked bartender just nodded.

Tony looked at the woman who was looking back with an appreciative look. Heh, I've still got it.

"All right over there?" He asked

The smaller woman gave him a small smile and a nod as she straitened her clothes. Henry seemed to snap out of his stupor and gave Tony a smile.

"I'm good thanks, Tony. I'll call cops ,then?"

Tony shook his head with a smile. "I called them as soon as they stepped into bar, Henry."

The woman looked surprised so Tony elaborated. "I called them as soon as I saw these guys. Only had to look at them to see that they were trouble, so I called in some friends of mine. They should be here as any minute now."

Just as Tony finished speaking, two uniformed police officers stormed into the bar with weapons drawn.

Tony turned around and smiled as the two officers looked over the scene. "Well, well, well, the cavalry has finally decided to arrive."

"Heya, Tony, what happened here? Didn't like the décor?" One of the officers smiled.

Tony laughed. "Nah, man I thought I'd make a first date rememberable by adding three dirtbags to the mix. Was actually kinda fun."

Behind him, the woman snorted out a laugh as Henry muttered to himself.

One of the officers smiled. "Can you give us a hand Tony, while Alex does thestatements?"

"Yeah, sure thing, Brad."

Tony helped Brad load the three junkies into the squad car as the other officer got statements off Henry and the woman that had made Tony's night very interesting.

"Thanks for that,Tony," Tony just nodded to Brad as he gathered his partner and prepared to leave.

"Thank you for the help, Brad. When you take them back to the station, mention it to Jennings. I think she has a cold case that could have something to do with these three goons. I'll add my own statement tomorrow when I get in."

Brad nodded as he left.

Tony turned around to see Henry packing up for the night. "It's been a rough night, Anthony" Tony could understand that. Henry was pretty much retired and only had the bar for the company of old friends who usually came in. His wife even came in from time to time to help run the place, so things went south it made the place seem colder than it usually was.

"Take care of yourself, Henry" Tony said as he grabbed his jacket off the stool where he had left it. He looked over at the woman as she gathered her own jacket off the table. Tony turned and heared the footsteps of the woman as she followed him out. Tony held the door open and let the woman leave the bar first.

Tony immediatley was addicted to how she smelt. He didnt know what it was, but it was sublime.

"Todah," She murmered as she walked past, squinting at the afternoon sun.

Tony walked to stand beside her while donning his shades.

"You need a lift?"Tony asked her, praying to god that her answer was yes.

For reasons Tony couldn't identify, he didn't want his brief time with her to end. They had barely spoken to each other before the fight but had gotten a pretty good vibe off her from their fake conversation.

"There is no need. I was seeing the sights when I stopped here."

Tony put on his best Dinozzo smile. "It's still rather early, so do you feel up for a guided tour?"

Holding his breath, Tony waited for an answer.

She had a thoughtful look on her face, and Tony felt his heart plummet as he figured she was about to turn him down. A small smile lifted Tony's fear. "I would like that."

If anything, Tony's grin only got larger. "Before we do anything, we havent been properly introduced. The names Anthony Dinozzo, but everyone calls me Tony," He said while putting out his hand.

She smiled as she grapsed his hand in her own. "I am Ziva David."

A/N. Yes I have started another fic. I started this just as something to get me over writers block bt it kinda grew from there. Yes it is another What If. Fic but hey I wanted to do one my way :P Havent decided if im going to do my own version of each episodes or what yet. Depends on what feedback I get really. I will tell you now tho, dont expect to see the rest of the team so soon. Im tihnking at least 4 – 5 chappies until they get there :P Anyway enjoy my latest fic and yes it will take a while for me to update. I have many many other things im working on until I get my muse to go where I want it.

A/N 2. Oh almost forgot, dont own anything to do with NCIS.

A/N 3. Huge love goes to pygmymuse who was my Beta for this. Shes been a HUGE help and I wouldnt have posted this for months without her!