The work schedule had been pretty hectic lately and it was beginning to wear on Gibbs; not to mention his team. They just pulled a forty hour week with forty hours of overtime. In most corporate offices that would have amounted to a nice paycheck with so much overtime, but not when you worked for the government. Government employees were all salaried on the federal pay scale, depending on rank and seniority. NCIS was no different, they all got paid the same if they worked a forty hour week or an eighty hour week.

Between Tony's non-stop attempts to irritate Kate and McGee's mooning over Abby, who was playing hard to get, they were all wound pretty tight. Gibbs stood in the garage, waiting for the elevator; letting his mind wander over their current case. He couldn't help but grin as he realized he was wound pretty tight himself. Not having had a serious relationship with a woman since in quite a few weeks, Karen Wilkerson, the civilian supervisor over the Bethesda Medical Information Center was proving to be quite a distraction for him.

Gibbs couldn't recall the last time he'd gone out of his way to conduct follow up in person when it was obviously something more suited to his computer geek, Tim McGee. He just couldn't help going back to the BMIC office for even the simplest of questions, just so he could have a chance to talk to Karen again. She was trim and athletic with red hair and sexy as hell. And if he wasn't mistaken, her hints about 'making herself available to him, even on weekends' was a pretty clear indication she was attracted to him as well. He steps into the elevator with the smile still on his face, wondering if he would get a chance to ask her out this weekend. He knew he could come up with some excuse to do another follow up at her office, even though his time would probably be better served following up on some other leads.

As he steps off the elevators, his smile fades as he hears Kate Todd, angrily rebuking her co-worker once again. Kate is standing in front of Tony's desk, one hand on her hip while the other one points angrily at her partner, who sits there looking as angelic as possible. "Tony, I am not going to tell you again. DO NOT access my PDA, my phone, my email, my mail, or my computer! And while you're at it, KEEP YOUR PAWS out of my desk, my purse, my gym bag, my locker and my car!"

"Kate, really? Is that tone of voice necessary?" Tony fiddles with his pen and attempts to look offended, but the corner of his mouth quirks up in a smile. He is enjoying her tirade too much to honestly believe she would put such restrictions on him. "Maybe your quiche didn't sit well with you from breakfast at Nardo's Café this morning... you know, indigestion?"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE I HAD BREAKFAST?! Are you following me now?!" She spins around to storm back to her desk, too angry to see her boss and slams into him, almost making him spill his coffee.

Gibbs' hand shoots out to steady her, but the last thing she wants right now is a man touching her. She shakes off his helping hand and sidesteps him to make her way to her chair. Gibbs just shakes his head, gives DiNozzo a hard stare for pissing her off so early in the morning then continues on to his own desk.

McGee, in his usual naïve manner doesn't realize that he is poking a stick at the hornet's nest as he offers a comment in Tony's defense. "Uhm, your discarded coffee cup in your trash can... has the logo on the side, and the receipt from the café you tossed..."

"YOU'RE GOING THROUGH MY TRASH TOO!?" She grabs her purse and jumps up, needing to get away from these two Neanderthal idiots. McGee suddenly realizes that instead of simple clarifying the situation, he has once again stuck his foot in his mouth and now Kate believes he is involved in Tony's stalking.

"NO! Kate, not me... Tony did that!" He stares after her as she storms out of the room, heading for the locker room and some privacy. He stands up, anxious to clear his name, but doesn't get a chance as their boss finally intervenes.

"McGee... let it go." Gibbs looks from one agent to the other as Tony is slowly making his way to Kate's desk to glance at her PDA as it buzzes again. "DiNozzo! Get back to work!"

Tony hesitates a moment, really wanting to spy on who was calling Kate, but then the cold stare in Gibbs' eyes has him quickly retreats to his own desk with a mumbled excuse of leaving a page on her desk. He knows Gibbs doesn't buy that excuse and quickly sits back down and ducks his head to continue his own work. Gibbs sighs and wonders how he could have gotten stuck with such an immature goof-off like DiNozzo, an innocent like McGee and a woman like Kate who didn't realize that her sex kitten good looks were a major distraction to his team... including himself. He sighs again, hoping this date comes through for this weekend or he might be tempted to do a little 'Kate stalking' too.

Just as he sees the person of his thoughts coming back to her desk, his phone rings. "Yea, Gibbs." He listens for a moment, then snaps the phone shut and stands up with his usual command, "Grab your gear!" They all jump to grab their gear and fall in line behind their boss as he heads for the elevators. "We're heading to Smokey Corners, West Virginia... got a Navy helo down and the crew is missing."

The drive to the scene is rough and bumpy and with the way Gibbs is driving, they all wonder if they'll arrive in one piece. Kate was thankful she'd been chosen to ride shotgun so she could navigate for Gibbs... something they all knew Tony couldn't do. Reading a map while driving with Gibbs always made him car sick... come to think of it, just riding with Gibbs made him car sick. They flew around a curve in the dirt road and came to a screeching halt at the military police check point. Gibbs flashes his credentials and the MP waves him on, indicating the scene is around the next curve in the road.

When they arrive, Tony almost falls out of the car, desperate to have terra firma under his feet again. Kate just chuckles and steps elegantly from the car... after all she was wearing one of her best dresses with brand new heels today. Every man present stops to watch her as she follows her boss towards the scene over the uneven ground. The farmer's field wasn't exactly the right place to be showing off her new three inch heels, but she tried to look dignified in doing it.

"Ma'am, this isn't exactly the Marine Corp Ball. Pretty rough terrain out here in rural farming country... if you know what I mean." The large muscled black man appeared beside her and was obviously one of the military policemen, given the white MP band on his arm. Kate wasn't sure if he was truly concerned for her or making fun of her predicament, but his next comment made it clear, "I could hump you over to the crime scene, Ma'am?"

Kate spins around to confront this man who just made such a rude comment to her. He stops short, not expecting her to turn on him as she stands as tall as she can and gets right in his face, "What did you just say, Marine?!" The MP stands there blinking in shock, not certain what he said to make her so angry. Before he has a chance to respond, Gibbs appears at her side to intervene once again.

"Kate, stand down... it's just a Marine term... 'hump' means to carry." Gibbs turns his cold blue eyes to the MP and catches him quickly removing the smirk from his face. Gibbs comes nose to nose with the large, muscled man and lowers his voice to a deadly whisper, "Isn't that right... Sergeant Millner? You did not in any way just make an inappropriate comment to this NCIS Federal agent, did you?"

"No, Sir! My apologies, Ma'am!" He does an abrupt about face and quickly heads back to his post.

Gibbs turns back to face Kate, who has the decency to blush after her misunderstanding. Gibbs finds himself holding back a smirk of his own at her obvious embarrassment; thinking she couldn't look more adorable if she tried. He clears his throat and then looks down at her feet, wondering why she got so dressed up each day when she knew they were likely to get called out on scenes like this. Pointing to the command post, which was located on the relatively hard packed dirt road, "Kate, check with the CO at the command post and get all the details while we 'hump' our gear out to the field to check out the helo."

Kate quickly nods and keeps her eyes down, too embarrassed to even look at Gibbs for fear of seeing him laughing at her too. Gibbs watches her go, appreciating the sway of her hips before sighing again and turning his attention back to the crime scene at hand. They are all soon busy with this new case and the day moves along smoothly as they work as a team.

On their way back to town they stop to pick up some food, but since the case is fresh they eat in the car on the way. Tony and Kate now have the back seat while McGee is relegated to shotgun, by them both. Having previously experienced eating in the car while Gibbs is driving they know McGee has the impossible task of trying to read the map, hold his food, hold Gibbs' food and somehow manage not to make a mess of it all.

Tony and Kate are silent as they eat, trying their best not to be flung from door to door as Gibbs takes the country roads like an off-road racer. On one such curve, Tony loses his balance and tries to grab anything he can to keep from toppling onto Kate. When the car rights itself, he realizes his french-fries have spilled all over the seat. Without a second thought, Tony reaches down between Kate's thighs to scoop up some french-fries that landed there.

A sudden loud slap breaks the silence in the car as Kate smacks DiNozzo's hand as he is about to reach back between her thighs for more fries. "Tony! What the hell are you doing!?"

"What? I dropped my fries... I was just grabbing them." He tries to look innocent, but once again his smirk gives his evil intentions away. He smiles and pops some fries into his mouth, moaning as if savoring the fries he recovered from between her legs.

"EEWWW! You are getting way to comfortable in my personal space, Tony! How dare you think you can grope me...!" She quickly elbows him in the ribs, causing him to gasp in pain as he doubles over with a french-fry hanging out of his mouth. Seeing him in pain, she smiles with satisfaction and scoots across the seat, as far from him as she can get. When her eyes come up, she meets Gibbs' eyes in rear view mirror and the humor in his eyes is obvious as he gives her a wink and then turns his attention back to the road.