Thanks for the reviews guys! Just a little note – Tony's partner in this fic may be called Danny, but he is not the Danny from the 'Baltimore' episode. The name may be the same, but it's purely coincidental. :)

Chapter Eleven

The three men walked straight over to Gibbs' team's section of the squadroom, and halted. The older guy in front, with the black haired guy just behind to Gibbs' left, Tony next to him.

"Special Agent Gibbs?" The older guy asked.

Gibbs nodded. "Yeah. You the guys from Baltimore?"

"Yes." He pointed behind him, at the black haired guy. "Detective Danny Cooper." Then at Tony. "Detective Anthony DiNozzo, or Tony, as he prefers, and I'm Captain Eli Crunch."

Gibbs blinked. The rest of his team had been watching curiously, but now McGee and Kate were trying not to say something. "Captain... Crunch?" He asked incredulously.

"He's very delicious," Tony piped up with a grin. That got a snort out of Detective Cooper, and a long suffering eyeroll from Crunch.

"Yes, Captain Crunch. I've heard it all before, or at least I thought I had until I met him," he said, gesturing at the still grinning Tony. "I see you have received the case files from DC Metro, we have some of our own research with us, in the car downstairs. Tony, will you-"

Gibbs interrupted. "It can wait a few minutes, if you could just walk us through what you know so far and we can work from there."

Crunch looked surprised for a moment, but went with it. "Okay." He glanced back, seemingly at Tony in particular. "Is there somewhere more private, perhaps that we can discuss this?"

Gibbs glanced over as the elevator dinged again, this time delivering Abby and Ducky to the floor. "Sure, conference room. Follow me," he said, knowing that his team members were confused, but if the need for a private room was for what he thought it was, they would understand soon enough. He paused, gesturing at the two latest arrivals. "This is Abby Scuito, she's in charge of the forensics lab and Doctor Donald Mallard, our chief Medical Examiner. They will be helping with this case, so it would be helpful if they also heard whatever it is you have to say." He was playing dumb, but he wasn't sure if Tony was even going to let on that they knew each other.

Crunch glanced at Tony, who gave a barely noticeable nod. "Sure, that's fine."

Kate gave a pointed cough, and Gibbs realised that he'd been so wrapped up in seeing Tony again, he'd forgotten to introduce his team. "Right. Since we're all introducing each other... this is Special Agent Kate Todd," he gestured. Kate smiled. "Agent Tim McGee, and Mossad Liaison Officer Ziva David."

The mutual hello's and handshakes were exchanged, then Gibbs led them all to the conference room.

.

Once they were all seated around the table, Kate spoke up. "Why does this need to be in here? We usually talk about cases down by our desks, it's easier."

"We'll get to that in a moment, Agent Todd. Now, what do you all know about the case so far?" Crunch asked.

"Only that a Melanie Simmons was kidnapped outside her apartment building six weeks ago by what appeared to be a vampire. DC Metro caught the case and asked you guys to help, for whatever reason and since they weren't getting anywhere with it, the father asked SECNAV to ask us to take a look." Gibbs responded.

"Right. We identified the vampire in question through security cameras on a house across the street. We knew he frequented a building known as Spring Court, which, up until two weeks ago was a sort of hotel for vampires. No questions asked, kind of place."

"That's where Gibbs was." Abby said quietly.

"Yes, we know. Detective DiNozzo went in undercover to track down the vampire, Kevin Goulding. No-one really knew him, but he turned up there eventually and we arrested him and shut the place down. Now he says he was paid to grab the girl and had to leave her in the trunk of a car parked on Howard Road, right next to Anacostia Park. Gave us the licence plate, and we tracked it down but it had been found burnt out two days after she went missing, no evidence. That's when we got stuck. Goulding says it was a man who he spoke to on the phone, but that doesn't really help much, call was made from a public payphone, no cameras covering that spot either."

"They knew what they were doing," Gibbs murmured. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Kate interrupted.

"Hang on, how exactly did Detective DiNozzo come to find out this information? You can't go undercover in a place like that, it's impossible."

"Not for me," Tony said softly.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so do tell me, are you so good undercover that you can fool a vampire into thinking you're a vampire or something? Cause, if you went in as a human, you wouldn't be standing here right now."

"Don't need to. I am one. Vampire, that is." Tony said, just as quietly.

"Oh, come on. Really? You're a cop, it's against the rules here, they don't accept vampires and if you get turned while you're on the force you get kicked out. So really, tell me."

Tony sighed and looked away, obviously uncomfortable with the subject. Knowing what he now knew, Gibbs didn't blame him.

"He's telling the truth." Danny spoke up for the first time since they'd met.

"So, how is he still a cop?" Kate was still on the attack.

"Special circumstances. It's complicated." Danny looked at Tony, who was looking back at the rest of the group once more, but wasn't attempting to join in the conversation.

Abby jumped up to her feet. "Hang on! Baltimore cop! Four years ago, a Baltimore cop, he was taken hostage by a vampire and turned, that was you, wasn't it?"

Tony nodded, but didn't speak. Danny did it for him. "Yeah, that was Tony."

Abby opened her mouth, eager to ask more questions but Gibbs stopped her tirade before it could begin. "Which has nothing at all to do with this case, I'm sure. Detective DiNozzo... Tony... could I speak to you outside?" He asked, pointing at the door. Tony nodded and got up.

"Jethro..." Ducky started. Gibbs looked back. "Are you sure?" The rest of the team were looking over in obvious concern.

"Duck, it's fine. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Gibbs turned to leave, Tony following.

.

Neither man spoke, Tony following Gibbs along the hallway and into the elevator, leaning against the silver wall and watching Gibbs silently as the older man set the elevator in motion then flipped the stop switch.

"Are you allowed to do that?" He asked.

Gibbs shrugged. "They've never told me not to," he replied.

Tony snorted. "Probably too scared to." Gibbs smiled, and Tony sobered. "Okay, I guess you had a reason to bring me in here, and I doubt it was to discuss whether the staff of this building are scared of you or not, so what was it?"

"Just... wanted some time alone with you I guess. Missed you."

"Missed you too," Tony said, smiling slightly.

"Why didn't you come find me then? You saw my credentials and you're a cop, couldn't have been hard to track me down, so why didn't you?"

Tony shrugged. "Didn't know if you'd want to see me. Didn't want to come down here and find you, then get ignored entirely."

Gibbs would have headslapped him if it wasn't for the fact he'd had almost identical thoughts the day previous. "You really thought that?" He asked.

"Yeah. I mean, back at the room it was like this little bubble, you know... away from the real world. Out here... we're both cops. For all I knew you had a wife or girlfriend or boyfriend or something."

Gibbs shook his head. "Nah." He reached his hand down into his t-shirt and pulled out a chain. "This proof enough for you?" He asked the younger man, showing him the key attached to it.

"You kept it," Tony breathed. Then shook his head, laughing at himself. He unzipped his leather jacket, revealing a deep green t-shirt that brought out the colour in his eyes, and his silver detectives badge hanging on a chain. So that's what I saw a few weeks back. He dug around in an inside pocket in the jacket, before heading for the pockets in the jeans he also wore. Not the painted on effect ones, Gibbs observed sadly. He watched with interest as Tony finally found what he was looking for.

A key, identical to the one Gibbs held on a chain, on the same short piece of cord that Tony had taken one from the last time Gibbs had seen him.

"Great minds think alike?" Tony grinned. Gibbs chuckled, before taking the initiative and pulling the younger man into a soft kiss. The vampire quickly took control of the situation and began backing Gibbs up against the wall. "So... how long before they start to worry about how long the elevator's been stopped for?" He murmured into Gibbs' lips.

"Not long enough. Later, we've got a missing girl to find." Gibbs said, pushing Tony away gently.

Tony sighed. "Fine. Spoilsport."

Gibbs kissed him again, and flipped the switch, then pressing the button to take them back upstairs.

"Your team... they seemed... very concerned when you wanted to talk to me. Something wrong?"

Gibbs groaned. "They've been bugging me and bugging me, ever since I got back, to talk to them. They've got it into their heads that something happened to me while I was at Spring Court, and I can't get them to believe me when I say that nothing did."

"Well, they've got good reason to be worried, considering." Tony reasoned.

"I know they do, but Kate dropped a booklet on my desk yesterday. I think you can guess what for."

"Ah."

"Mmm."

Tony went silent, then a slow smile crept across his face.

"What?" Gibbs asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. Nothing you need to worry about Jeth." He said, grin never faltering.

Gibbs was interrupted by the elevator doors opening, and Tony was straight out and heading back to the conference room so he didn't get the chance to question the vampire further.

Back in the room, Gibbs was met with his team's anxious gazes.

"Are you alright, Gibbs?" Ziva asked him.

"Fine, Ziva. Tony's not gonna hurt me."

Kate meanwhile, was quizzing Tony. "So... if you were at Spring Court, why didn't you rescue Gibbs? You had to have known he was there, so why didn't you? He's a fellow cop, didn't that mean anything to you?" She was advancing on the young vampire, who took a step back.

"I did rescue him. He stayed in my freaking room for three weeks while I tried to find out where Melanie was being held, and no, I didn't touch him before you ask," Tony snapped. "No more than he wanted me to, anyway." He added, his gaze not once moving from Kate's face.

Gibbs, meanwhile, wanted to sink into the floor when his entire team plus the two Baltimore cops looked at him. He'd never felt embarrassment before, not for a long time at least, but Tony had managed it, and managed it well. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to find out the best and most painful way to do it, then I'm going to kill him.