A month and a half flashes by. A month and a half of cases. Cases ranging from pranks gone horribly wrong to fugitives escaping prison in search of vengeance.

None of which involve the bastard who took over Autopsy one faithful day.

"What do you think you're doing?" I snatch the phone out of Tony's greedy hands, pressing it against my ear. "Hello?"

"Hello, Evaline. Miss me?"

Oh, God.

When I slam the phone against its headset, Tony jumps back in surprise. "Wrong number," is the first thing that spews out of my mouth.

"Aren't you going to yell at me?" He slips off his sunglasses. "If I'd done the same thing to Kate, she would have hit me."

"Maybe I'm not in a hitting mood."

Instead of waiting for whatever else he has to say, I grab my bag and head towards the elevator.

"Hold on."

Looking back, I see Gibbs at the top of the stair. He slowly makes his way to the main floor.

"Chris Pacci was murdered." He announces.

Kate glances over at her desk. "The agent that sits behind me?" All that's left is an empty chair.

"One of our own?"

The drive to the crime scene is completely silent. Even Tony doesn't say a word, which is a very difficult task for him.

Gibbs steps aside to speak with the detective, leaving the rest of us with the body. When he hears word about a fire alarm on the fifth floor, he silently turns to me and Tony.

"We're on it."

I follow behind Tony, up the five flights of stairs.

Easier said than done.

"Who was on the phone?" Tony asks.

"I told you already." I glare daggers at the back of his head. "It was a wrong number."

Of course, he doesn't believe me.

We are about to walk in through the door when I notice something on the ground.

"Blood trail on the next set of stairs." I call out to Tony. Carefully, we head up to the next floor.

"Looks like whatever happened started on the sixth floor."

We follow the blood marks back down to the fifth floor. There's bloody smudges on the fire alarm, meaning Pacci's the one who pulled it.

There's more blood stains on the wall, the elevator buttons, and a puddle of blood right in front of the elevator doors.

"God. Can you imagine what he must have gone through before. . ." The words stop in the back of my throat.

When we return to headquarters, Kate and Gibbs search through Pacci's desk. And he sends me and Tony to visit Pacci's home.

"Will you just talk to me?" The sudden outburst startles me. "What is bothering you so much to the point where you've been silent the entire day?'

"Tony, one of our agents was —"

"Oh, cut the crap!"

My mouth opens slightly, but nothing comes out.

The next morning, after conducting the autopsy, Ducky removes a microchip containing surveillance photos of a woman from the past two days.

Kate visits the hotel again, this time finding an NCIS-issued camera at the bottom of the stairwell.

Special Agent McGee stops by to deliver a cold case file Pacci had asked him to withdraw. An civilian car accident involving a lieutenant commander's scheme of credit fraud.

"Would you stop drumming your fingers against the computer?" I attempt to push aside Tony's hand for the third time. "My tolerance level happens to be running low because of you."

He places his hand on the exact same spot, challenging me. "With Gibbs gone, I'm in charge. So if I want to drum my fingers against the monitor, then I will." God, he can be such a jerk.

"I'm sure McGee would be able to work quicker if it wasn't for your impatience." I snap back.

"McGee, it's not like you. What's taking so long?" He turns his agitation to the agent.

He continues to type on the keyboard, ignoring Tony's words. "I've almost got it."

"You know," Tony rolls up his sleeve to check the time, "the quicker you get this done, the more quality time you have to spend with a certain tattooed forensic technician of the Goth persuasion."

"What do you mean by that?"

McGee's as clueless as Tony's talkative.

"Oh, come on!" Tony laughs, nudging my arm to get me to laugh along with him. "Abby told me you, uh, closed the deal under some pretty hinky circumstances." He circles around McGee.

"She told you that?" McGee looks at me, but I keep quiet. "The hinky thing — did she tell you that that was her idea? Because. . ."

A sigh escapes from between my lips. "Up until, neither of you had said a word to Tony about the hinky things going on between you two. Of course, Abby confided in her trusting confidant. . ." The two tilt their heads to the side. ". . .me."

"As my wonderful coworker was saying," Tony throws an arm over my shoulders, which I push off quickly, "a well-trained NCIS Special Agent is good at extracting information."

"Don't worry, McGee. You'll learn soon enough." I lean down, in level with his ear. "At least you don't have to listen to him on a daily basis." We shift our gaze towards a distracted Tony.

"Focus!"

A few beeps later, McGee declares, "I have her address."

"You do? How?" Tony peers down at the computer, his brows knitted in slight shock.

McGee proceeds to demonstrate an in-depth demonstration of his exact process in obtaining the unidentified woman's address.

Once the boss arrives, Kate and I are left with running a deep background on Amanda Reed while Tony and Gibbs drop by the address.

And since we're taking over Pacci's case, we're going on a stakeout. Kate and Gibbs take the first shift, Tony, McGee, and I the next.

"Hey." I greet Kate when she opens the door. "Don't worry. I brought along the other two."

"What's that?" She nods at the giant brown bags in Tony's hands.

"Dinner. I'm trying to broaden Special Agent McGee's palate."

We switch places with Gibbs and Kate, watching through the binoculars and listening in with the headset.

"Look, just because I'm stuck with you guys doesn't make me the immediate target to your practical jokes." I grab a sandwich out of the bag and situate myself in the chair.

"Oh, come on, Eva. Live a little." Tony urges me.

McGee comes to my defense. "You realize that any prank we pull on her and Kate, we'll also be pulling on Gibbs."

That catches Tony's attention straight away.

"That's a problem."

"Unless. . ."

"Not happening, you two."

Night turns to morning, and we're still in the damn stakeout apartment.

"Don't put on a shirt. It's hot." Tony gazes into her apartment.

I roll my eyes, tapping on his shoulder to get his attention. "Having fun watching her flounce around in a bra?"

"If you're offering, then by all means, don't let me be the one to stop you." He looks back at me, his eyes running over my figure hungrily.

"In your dreams, DiNaughty." Grabbing an apple, I make my way towards McGee, who was on the floor with Amanda Reed's trash.

"Are you finished yet?" Tony trails behind me.

McGee tosses aside a banana peel. "Yeah. And I'll have learned is she loves bananas and mangos. Also, she uses every beauty product sold on cable TV."

"Oh, I hope she didn't try the Urban Decay Marshmallow Body Powder." I cross my arms over my chest. "Those can get really addicting."

The two guys look up at me with raised brows.

"N-Not that I've ever tried it."

Tony later runs out the door to talk to our little female friend. And pick up a decent breakfast.

Fortunately, by the time he gets back, Gibbs and Kate arrive from the memorial. Abby figures out that Lieutenant Voss wasn't in the car crash seeing as he and the victim have different blood types.

Turns out, Voss has been watching Amanda the way he was watching Pacci. And now he's watching Tony since she's now well acquainted with him.

"McGee's still at the apartment, alright? I'm just here to. . .watch your back." I snap the safety off my gun. "Let's get to it, Stringfellow."

"Stay by the bar. I'm gonna get to know Ms. Amanda Reed." Tony puffs out his chest as he walks into Paddy's Pub.

I slip the bartender a few bills. "Just a seltzer." With a perfect view of the couple, I relax into my seat.

Only for my cell to start ringing.

And it's Gibbs.

"What's up?" I sip on my soda water.

"Amanda is Voss. They're the same person."

Soda water. Everywhere.

The bartender hands me a towel to wipe myself down.

Quickly flashing my badge, I point to the apron and matching bonnet. "I'm going to need that." He just nods his head, not wanting to argue back.

I dress myself as one of the waitresses, grabbing the two trays with their food. Amanda leaves to wash her hands, so Tony's the only one at the table.

"You know, my favorite movie is Ace Ventura. When the pretty lady turns out to be a guy." I give him a look.

"No. . ."

I click my tongue against my teeth. "Gibbs just called. Good luck."

Suddenly, there's a gunshot.

"Terrorist! Help!" Amanda shouts, running away from the table and leaving Tony to be handled by a few male customers.

"Out of the way! Federal agent!" I shout at the top of my lungs, attempting to push past the people crowding around the middle of the pub. "Hey, I am a —" Two men push me up against the bar.

"Stop him! Stop him!" Tony yells while being pinned down.

I try to shove them off. "Her! You mean stop her!"

Before she can make her grand escape, Gibbs is waiting at the entrance with a gun to her head. When she tries to raise her gun, he shoots her right between the eyebrows.

"Federal agents!" Kate holds up her badge for the crowd to see. "So are those two. Let them go."

"Let's go." I pull Tony off the ground.

He rubs the back of his head where someone hit him with an empty beer bottle. "Alright. You can say it."

"Say what?"

"Whatever you want."

"I'd say you've had enough after tonguing a guy."