a/n - No, I haven't fallen off the end of the world. I have, however, been packing up and moving, a process that is nowhere near complete. I also had end of the year challenges to get finished, which I managed to get all done, so I have several stories to post to keep you going until I get enough unpacked to start working on Aftermath again. This was my SeSa for Fingersnaps. She gave me some quote to use as a starting point and wanted Tim and Tony (and the entire team) friendship. This is what I came up with. Four chapters total, complete so I'll post a chapter a day.

Warming the Heart

"Is this really necessary, Tony?"

"We're early enough that we won't miss our reservation, I promise." Tony smiled at Angela as they pulled into the bar's parking lot. "They're my friends, okay?"

"Yes, but I like having you all to myself." As he shut off the engine, she scooted closer and ran her hand up his thigh. "Just think of what else we could do with this extra twenty minutes."

Intriguing as he found the proposition, Tony was determined to get this done. Somewhere along the way, after the Amanda debacle and the catastrophe known as CIRay, the younger members of the team had made a pact to introduce any possible significant other to the rest of the group as soon as the relationship developed past the casual hook-up stage.

They'd met various boyfriends of Abby, all assorted shades of punk and goth with tattoos and strange names. Ziva had surprised them with a mild mannered accountant that hadn't lasted long after an evening surrounded by guns. Three weeks ago it had been McGee's turn with a pretty little geekette named Melissa that hung on his every word, but knew more about movies than even Tony.

Now it was Tony's night. He'd actually met Angela the night McGee had introduced Melissa, literally bumping into her while buying shampoo at the all-night market. By the time they'd gotten their baskets sorted out, he'd had her number and despite the heavy case load, they'd managed four dates. The unwritten rule among his friends stated that was the cutoff between a fling and dating, so he was determined to do this.

Tony shook his head as he killed the engine. "Nope. We'll have a drink, you can meet my friends and then we'll get our dinner. Besides," he leaned closer. "I want to show you off."

Angela ducked her head with a smile. "I guess I can't argue with that. So, who are we meeting?"

"I think the lovely Breena has a honey-do list that will keep Jimmy home, but you'll be meeting Abby, Ziva and Tim."

"And their dates?"

"Maybe." Tony's brow creased as he thought about it. "Ziva's between boyfriends at the moment and I think Abby has a bowling game later tonight with the nuns, so she'll probably be flying solo tonight, too."

"What about the last one? Tim, wasn't it?"

"Melissa might be with him, or she might be meeting him later. Like I said, none of us will be here very long. We just try to connect outside of work whenever we can." They were out of the car and walking across the parking lot as he explained. Angela held back just enough to allow Tony to open the door for her. As he did, she looked back into the shadows, giving a subtle shake of her head, before allowing him to escort her inside.

"Tony!" Abby squealed and rushed up to give him a bone crushing hug.

"Hey, Abs, need to breathe here."

"Sorry." But her smile was unrepentant as she pulled away enough to look him in the eye. "You made it; I wasn't sure if you would."

"Afraid I was going to chicken out?" If the truth were told, he'd considered it, but knew how seriously his partner took the promise they'd made each other. "Nah, McGee would never let me live it down. Where is he, by the way?"

Abby pointed over her shoulder to where McGee and Ziva were quietly talking, heads close together, as she rubbed his shoulder.

"He okay?"

"Yeah, but Melissa's dad had a stroke this afternoon. McGee just put her on a flight back to Seattle."

Tony had liked the young web designer and hoped she and Angela would hit it off. "Ouch, okay, thanks for the heads up. Come on, let me officially introduce Angela to everybody."

Grasping Abby and Angela by the wrists, he led them over to the table. "All right, I guess this is everyone for tonight, Angie. I'd like you to meet Ziva David, Timothy McGee and of course, Abby Sciuto. Everyone, this is Angela Shaw."

"Hello."

"Hi."

"We're so glad to finally meet you."

Angela smiled and gave a slight nod before distracting Abby with a question about her jewelry. That gave the three women a starting point in their conversation and Tony slid into the chair next to McGee. "Hey, man, I'm sorry to hear about Melissa's dad. How long will she be gone?"

Tim shrugged as he swirled his wine glass. "She's taking over the family business, so – forever?"

"Damn, Probie, I know you really liked her." Tony laid his hand on Tim's shoulder and left it there as the discussion bounced around the table, not offended at all when his friend didn't join in much. It was just a little under a month until Christmas, and he knew how much McGee had been looking forward to spending the holidays with her.

After a few minutes Tony left to get the next round of drinks. The conversation slowed slightly, and Angela glanced over at a back corner of the bar several times before Tony returned with a round of non-alcoholic beers for the team and a gimlet for Angela.

Tony was just about to make their apologies to the group so he and Angela could leave for their dinner reservations when his phone rang. One look at the screen and he was pretty sure he and the rest of the team would be eating pizza in the bullpen. He held his hand up to stop the conversations as he answered the call. "Hey, Boss. Yeah, no... they're all with me. Okay, we'll meet you there."

Not knowing how much Tony had told his girlfriend about their work, Tim kept his question vague. "We've been called back to work?"

"Yep, Boss is going to meet us at the scene." He turned to Angela. "I'm sorry, babe, but I'm going to need a rain check on dinner."

"But we have reservations at Palena's. I've been looking forward to that for ages."

When he told her about the reservations three days ago, he'd warned her that his team was on call that weekend. Tony was surprised at how vehemently she reacted, so he reached for his wallet. "Next weekend we're not on call, so we'll do something special to make it up to you. For tonight, Abby doesn't have to be at work for a couple of hours, so why don't the two of you use the reservations?"

Abby perked up at the offer. She'd been hinting to be taken to Palena for ages, but that was the disadvantage of dating men with a rough edge – they tended not to spend that kind of money on a date.

Unfortunately, Angela was shaking her head. "Nothing personal to your friend, if we can't go together, I'd rather just go home."

They were all on their feet and moving towards the door. Tony slipped some cash into Angela's hand. "Okay, if you're sure. I'll have the bartender call a cab for you."

She seemed offended by the offer. "I'm a big girl, Tony. I can get my own cab. Now, go on – go to work, I'll be fine. Call me tomorrow when you get done."

sesasesasesa

Tim had been unsure about meeting the team that night, but the reassuring warmth of Tony's hand on his back told him it had been the right decision. It wasn't until Tony left to pick up the next round of drinks that Tim started noticing Angela's actions. She was acutely aware of everything around her, repeatedly looking over at the darkest corners of the bar.

When the call came in, ending their weekend, he expected Angela to accept the offer of dinner with Abby or at least the cab. As she kissed Tony goodbye, she seemed to look at a distant corner of the parking lot. Tim glanced over at Ziva, who was also watching Angela's silent communion with the dark alley. He felt better knowing he wasn't alone in noticing the subtle actions.

The next twenty-four hours were a blur of crime scene photos and leads to follow, but Tim couldn't get the worry out of his head. When both Gibbs and Tony went to the lab to see what Abby had uncovered, he moved to Ziva's desk. "At the bar, you saw it, too?"

Ziva didn't pretend to not understand. "She was very aware of her surroundings, as if she were afraid of something."

"Or someone." Now that he had confirmation, McGee opened a new window and started a background search. Ziva chewed on her lip as she watched.

"Perhaps this is not a good idea."

McGee just shook his head. "If she's in some sort of danger, then so is Tony. How can we watch his back if we don't know what the danger is?"

Eventually Ziva nodded and picked up several of the files on McGee's desk. "I'll background both victims so you can focus on the search."

"Thanks, Ziva."

"I hope we are wrong about this, McGee."

"Me too."

sesasesasesa

Gibbs gave them both a suspicious look when he and Tony returned from the lab, but the case broke soon after, keeping the four of them busy chasing down the suspects. While Tony and Ziva helped Gibbs in interrogation, Tim continued his search, not liking at all what he found.

Confessions achieved, the rest of the team returned to the bullpen to find McGee still hard at work. Tony grinned at his work-obsessed friend. "Ease up, Probie. The Boss got them to confess to even more than we knew about."

Gibbs hid a grin at the backhanded compliment as he looked at the time. They'd been at it for more than two days straight and the normal work week started in less than ten hours. Decision made, he shut off the light over his desk. "Paperwork can wait until morning, people."

"All right." Tony was the first one on his feet. He'd barely had time to send Angela a text all weekend, but if he hurried, they'd have time for a late supper and possible some quality time together.

Knowing what his friend was thinking, McGee was the next on his feet. "Tony, wait." He crossed the bullpen to stand in front of Tony's desk, clutching a thick file folder. "We need to talk – about Angela."

Tony eyed the file and shook his head. "You investigated my girlfriend, McGee, really?"

Tim spoke slowly, knowing how easily his actions could be misinterpreted. "She was nervous whenever you were out of her sight, Tony. If she was in some sort of trouble, well, we couldn't watch your six if we didn't know what was going on."

At the word 'we', Tony turned to Ziva. "So you were in on this, too?"

Tim started to say something, to take the full blame, but Ziva held her hand up to stop him. "I, too, noticed how Angela was distracted, looking off into the shadows whenever you looked away. I, too, was worried."

"Just read through what I found, Tony. If you want me to back off, I will, but I think you need to read this." Tim held out the folder and Tony stared at it for a long time before taking it. He read the first page, his eyes widening at what McGee had discovered.

"Her last boyfriend was hospitalized after being beaten by her brother?" Seeing the potential danger in black and white defused any hurt he may have felt at the intrusion into his personal life. "That's why she was scared, she was afraid he'd go after me next?"

The first hour of his search, that had been McGee's thoughts, then he'd found the rest. "Keep reading."

Tony was silent as he read, but his team could read his body language as he became more shocked and upset. Gibbs finally had had enough. "McGee, what did you find?"

Not looking away from DiNozzo, Tim gave his report. "It wasn't just her last boyfriend that was beaten, it was her last five."

"The brother?"

"Yeah." Tim glanced back over at Tony, hating the look on his face.

"How on earth..." Gibbs had seen enough of the seedy side of life to know the answer before he fully asked the question, as much as he hated it. "She's in on it?"

"Looks that way. He's been committed to mental hospitals a few times and she always gets him out."

Tony spoke up, shaking his head. "Every time, the brother conveniently finds them having a romantic glass of wine in some deserted park. Angela wanted me to take her stargazing at Rock Creek Park after dinner the other night."

Nobody had to tell Tony how close he'd come to becoming the sixth victim, but Gibbs had another question. "How have they gotten away with this for so long?"

Now that it was out, McGee sent the graphic he'd assembled to the plasma so they could all see it. "Each attack has happened in a different jurisdiction and she manages to con their mark into not filing charges. Personally has her brother committed so it looks like he's getting help."

"Then when the heat's off, she signs him out and they leave town." Tony closed the file and dropped his head. "Damn it, I should have known she was too good to be true."

"She's good, Tony, real good." Tim hated to hurt his friend. "I'm sorry, man."

"No." As much as it hurt, Tony knew it could have been a whole lot worse. In fact, it nearly was. "This is why we started doing this, right?"

Gibbs was proud of how his "kids" watched out for each other on and off the job, but his focus was on the crimes obviously committed by the siblings. "Were any of their victims military?"

Tim changed the image on the plasma. "No, but they did cross state lines."

Crossing state lines put the case firmly in the hands of the FBI, but Gibbs was willing to fight it if Tony wanted, so he turned to the younger man. "It's your call, DiNozzo."

Tony flashed him a grateful look, but they all knew that a sharp defense attorney could muddy the waters if a potential victim became one of the investigators. "Give it to Fornell, Boss. We can't let them walk on a technicality."

Gibbs gave a slow nod and picked up his phone as he watched his team. By the time Fornell had all the information, Abby had arrived in the bullpen and a slumber party was planned for Gibbs' house. Gibbs rolled his eyes, secretly pleased with the invasion. "DiNozzo, you and McGee get the pizzas, and make sure they're good ones, not that cardboard crap we got stuck with last week."

"Sure thing, Boss."

Behind Tony, McGee nodded, understanding the unspoken part of the request. 'Don't let Tony out of your sight until Angela Shaw and her brother are both in custody.' He was planning on having his partner's back a lot longer than that.