Warnings: Spoilers for S8

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I wanted to make sure this chapter was the best I could put out there for you. I think I rewrote it several times before finally settling on this. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Natalie had just arrived back at her desk from escorting their victim's roommate to the conference room when Tony and Gibbs returned to the bullpen from the Pentagon. She had been confused why Gibbs had sent her with McGee, especially when Gibbs had looked a little ticked off at the SFA...

Tony, right now, looked annoyed, either that or he was tired; sometimes he partners couldn't tell the difference. "Neither Donner nor his wife were at the residence," the senior field agent reported, throwing his bag by his desk. "You put the BOLO out yet?"

Tim sighed and nodded, "Yes, Tony."

"What did you find?" Gibbs asked, gesturing for the agents to join him at the plasma screen.

"Well," Tim started, getting up from his desk, "both Petty Officer Donner and Lieutenant Ross worked in the same department." He put the file up on the screen of their suspect, noticing that Tony was paying more attention to Natalie at her desk than the plasma screen. "According to witnesses, they were both friendly and cordial with each other. None of their co-workers noticed any animosity."

"So we still don't have a motive?" Gibbs snapped, tossing a look towards Natalie, who was busy at her computer. "Maybe they had an argument in the lunch room? Someone had to have seen something."

Tim shook his head. "Natalie and I questioned everyone there today; everyone had the same thing to say. They find it hard to believe that Petty Officer Donner killed her, despite the fact we have it on video."

Gibbs glowered, watched as Tony turned towards Natalie and watched her work. If this marriage was going to interfere with their work he'd send DiNozzo back out to sea on a seven month agent afloat assignment. "Got anything else for me?"

"Petty Officer Eric Donner was formerly attached to a covert Navy Special Warfare Unit and trained in hand to hand combat," Tim reported. "So... he has the skills to kill someone like he killed Lieutenant Ross."

"An injury sidelined him two years ago to the clerical job he has at the Pentagon now," Natalie said from her desk. Glancing up she saw Tony gazing at her, intensely. And then she realized why he was staring; Steve from I.T was working on her phone and was very, very close to her. Oh, Tony, you don't cover your jealousy very well. "His wife is named Kelsey, she's a civilian security guard at the Indian Head Naval Support Facility."

Tony moved towards her desk, tapped Steve on the shoulder and gestured for him to move a few steps back. Natalie got up from her desk and slapped a manilla folder into his stomach with a heated glare. Tony quickly regrouped, opened the folder and turned towards the team. "Our victim, Lieutenant Ross was an Annapolis graduate, born in Missola Montana. Her parents and younger brother still live there."

Gibbs gave his senior field agent an equally heated glare as Natalie. "She married?"

"Single," Tony replied, "shared an apartment with a roommate in Alexandria."

"The roommate is in the conference room now, Gibbs," Natalie said.

"McGee, take DiNozzo, go," the team leader said, gesturing for the two agents to go to the conference, "Natalie, you're with me. We have a wife to track down."

Tony sat down at the small table in the staff lounge, lunch spread on a napkin before him, and sighed. He rubbed his hands over his face. He wasn't sure why he had been so jealous of Steve from I.T; she married you for crying out loud.

Someone sat down with him, he heard the chair scrap along the floor. Opening his eyes he smiled. "Back from your fun-filled afternoon with Gibbs?" Tony asked his partner.

Natalie shrugged her shoulders. "It was fine; we met with the wife. He bought me lunch...unless of course that makes you jealous and I shouldn't have told you," she teased him.

"Why would I be jealous of Gibbs taking you out for lunch?"

"Why would you be jealous of Steve fixing my phone?"

He glared at her, half-heartedly. "You weren't aware of how close he was standing to you? Everyone in this building knows he keeps inappropriate boundaries with the women he fancies."

She chuckled. "Look who's talking about inappropriate boundaries. Steve isn't my type anyways, you know that. And if we want to go the more shallow route, you are way hotter than him."

Tony flashed her one of his dazzling grins. "I appreciate you going the more shallow route."

Natalie reached out and stroked his arm gently. "Remember," she said, softly, "I said yes to you."

"I know, I'm starting to wish we hadn't rushed off to elope and keep it secret," Tony said, his green eyes studying her intensely. "Not because I didn't think we were ready, but because men still think it's okay to flirt with you; there's no ring on your finger."

"Oh, honey," Natalie sighed, sweetly, "just because men come up to me and flirt with me doesn't mean I've forgotten all about you. Trust me, I am all in on us and no matter how hot the guy is at the bar, I'm not going to walk away from you."

"My father and his marriages really screwed me up."

"Well, I'll do my best to help fix you."

Tony pushed his lunch aside and leaned in closer to her. He gently kissed her soft lips, and then pulled her in for a tight hug. "So, what did you find out from Donner's wife? Anything?"

Natalie pulled back and took a deep breath. "Nothing. She hasn't seen him since Friday. She thought he had gone back to work for his special ops unit, but we both know that there's no way he was working for them again because of his accident two years ago."

"Did she seem suspicious?"

"Not particularly. The reason I came in here, thought, was because Gibbs wants us to stake out her house tonight."

"Oh," Tony remarked, quirking his eyebrow, "all night, in a car with my wife."

"Don't get any ideas," Natalie said, slapping him playfully on the arm as she stood up, "we'll be working."

Tony grabbed his lunch and followed her back to the bullpen. "That hasn't stopped us before," he teased.

Natalie tossed him a look over her shoulder and then just to drive him crazy-she tossed her hair. Gibbs had already been glowering at Tony earlier, if they weren't careful one of them could be fired by the end of the day. She leaned down at her desk and picked up her gear, when she rose, she noticed that she had caught the eye of someone over the cubicle wall from her.

The newcomer was big-taller than Tony, broader than Tony; his physique reminded her more of a football player than an NCIS agent. He clearly was one though, he had a badge clipped to the belt of his pants. Despite his size, he offered her a friendly smile.

"Oh, good, DiNozzo, Callahan," EJ said, springing up from her seat, "you're still here. I'd like you to meet Special Agent Simon Cade."

"DiNozzo," Cade said, in a deep voice. He shook Tony's hand with a grin, "EJ's warned me about you."

"A lot of people should be warning you about him," Natalie teased as shook Cade's hand.

EJ tilted her head towards their gear. "Where are you two heading?"

Tony frowned. "Stake out."

"Sounds like a good time," EJ said as she motioned for Cade to walk with her. "See you tomorrow!"

"Fun time," Tony muttered as he boarded the elevator with Natalie. "And why did she warn Cade about me?"

Natalie hit the button for the garage. "Tony, everyone warned me about you when I first started. You have a reputation, you know? I wouldn't worry about it; I'm sure she told him all about your good qualities as well."

Tony rolled his eyes. "My good qualities. Somehow, I don't think Agent Cade cares about my good qualities."

She pat him on the shoulder. "Maybe he doesn't care about your bad ones either."

He scrunched his nose. "Why does it bother me? It shouldn't, right?"

"Come on," Natalie said, grabbing him gently by the arm and leading him towards the car. "We have a stake out to get too."

The air was damp with a spring mist as Natalie crossed the street near the Donners' house and headed back to the Charger. She had a paper bag of take-out food tucked underneath her arm, a drink tray in her free hand; the smell of Tony's hotdog wafted up and hit her nose.

Pulling the passenger door open, Natalie slipped inside. She slammed the door shut and turned towards her partner. "Here," she said, opening the paper bag on her lap, "I got you a hotdog and onion rings; just like you asked." Carefully she put the sodas in the cup holders and tossed the cardboard tray into the backseat. "Did I miss anything?"

Tony took his hotdog out of the wrapper and took a bite. "Nope," he said while chewing. "Just an elderly couple walking their ratty little dogs, arguing about the bridge club. Other then that, it's been silent. Mrs. Donner hasn't left and no one has come to see her."

"Maybe we have this all wrong," Natalie said, as she ate her salad. "I mean, we haven't found a reason why Donner wanted to kill Ross."

"How about the fact that she was pregnant?" Tony retorted, glancing at her. "Sounds like reason enough to me."

"Please," she replied, "if we didn't have a clear shot of Donner killing her, you'd be saying it was the wife."

He tossed her a grin, dripping with his natural charm. Tony finished his hotdog and shoved the wrapper in the paper bag. He then started to work on his onion rings. "If Lieutenant Ross was having an affair with Donner, you can see why he would want her dead. He didn't want his wife to find out that he was having a baby with another woman."

She took another large bite of her salad, chewed on it for a few moments, and then sighed. Natalie still didn't feel right about this. Yes, Tony and Tim had uncovered that Ross was having an affair with a married man thanks to information from her roommate, but Natalie didn't feel like it was Donner. "There's no evidence that he's cheated on his wife before."

Tony peered up the street. "Maybe he never had before Ross. Listen, marriages have secrets, I should know... my dad had plenty of them."

Natalie tossed him a look. "Our marriage doesn't have secrets."

"Our marriage is a secret."

"Only for now, only until we're sure Gibbs can handle the truth."

He didn't want to tell her that he believed their boss already knew. Tony silently ate his onion rings instead. There was no sense stirring up trouble. Another thing I learned from my father's marriages. Suddenly, his attention was drawn to headlights coming their way. For the last few hours there had been little to no traffic on the street. "Hey," he said, getting her attention, and reaching for his camera, "do you see that?"

She closed her salad container and nodded. Natalie leaned forward in her seat as the car came to a stop outside the Donner's house. A man dressed in uniform stepped out, looking around like he was afraid he was going to be spotted. She heard the shutter on the camera firing as Tony took rapid pictures. The pair watched as the man went to the door, as Mrs. Donner opened it and embraced him. "Maybe Donner wasn't the only one having an affair."

Tony lowered the camera as the man went inside the house with Mrs. Donner. He then pulled the memory card out of the camera and reached for her laptop. "Time to send these to McAbby and do a little facial recognition."

Natalie frowned. "I could just run his license plate. It would be faster."

He shook his head. "No it's not."

She gave him a teasing smile and opened her door. "Wanna bet?"

"What do I get if I win?"

"Doesn't matter; you're not going to win."

Tony watched her saunter away for a moment, before the sound of rapid typing filled the car.