Tony made sure he was at work early Monday morning. Gibbs was due back, and while normally Tony would have been hard-pressed to beat him in, the director had barred him from entering the building before 0900, which gave Tony a decided advantage. He would have time to clean off his desk before Gibbs could return, and given that he’d been a little distracted towards the end of last week, it really did need tidying.

There were other reasons for coming in early, too, Tony thought as he hung his jacket up and glanced at the unoccupied desk across from his. He beat Kate in too, and that meant that he would have first-on-site advantage–

“Morning, Tony.”

–although not by much. “Morning, Kate. Slept in, I see.”

She shrugged. “Got used to it,” she said. “You see, someone told me to once, and I’m afraid I picked up the habit.” She put her coffee down on her desk and turned her back on him to shed her coat.

“And what terrible person did that?”

She turned back to him with a grin. “Well, if you must know–”

“Who wants odds?” Abby’s perpetually perky tones interrupted them. She had popped in from one of the hallways and was walking over to them.

“It’s 0700! How early do I have to be here to be the first one in?” Tony said.

If Kate was relieved that Abby had shown herself at that exact moment, she didn’t show it. “Odds on what, Abby?” she asked.

“On Gibbs trying to sneak in before 0900,” Abby said, leaning on Tony’s desk. “What time he tries, and whether he gets in or not.”

“I’ll take that action,” Tony said, digging into his pocket for his wallet. “What’s left?”

Abby took a pad of paper from the pocket of her lab coat. “Umm... Seven fifteen, seven forty-five, and eight forty-five.”

Tony looked over her shoulder at the neatly drawn list. “Aw man, Ducky has the one I wanted.”

“Which was?” Kate asked.

“Seven thirty, succeeds.”

“If you think that, you’d better get started on cleaning up your desk.”

“I like to think of it more as a welcome-back present for Gibbs. A neatly wrapped reason to yell at me.”

Kate shook her head at him, but he just smiled disarmingly, handed Abby a five, and put himself down for seven forty-five, succeeds. Abby bounced over to Kate then, who took a look at the list. “Abby, you got the Director to place a bet?”

Abby hung around for a while, chatting with Kate, and Tony started reorganizing the case files on his desk. It didn’t take too long, and when seven forty-five came around, he went to the windows and looked out at the parking lot. “Damn,” he said.

“No sign of him?” Kate asked.

“Nope. What did you bet, Kate?”

“I didn’t. I think he’s going to follow orders.”

“You don’t have faith, Kate. Maybe he’s trying to sneak in through the service bay.” He returned to his desk and tied himself into the security network. But Gibbs didn’t show up on any of the cameras. Eventually, the clock ticked over to eight (the Director’s chosen time). Tony sighed. “Just when you think you know a guy.”

“Come on, Tony,” Kate said. “Unlike you, Gibbs follows orders in the morning.”

“Since when?”

Tony popped out of his chair. Gibbs was walking to his desk from the direction of the staircase, briefcase in one hand, coffee in the other. “Boss!” he said. He looked over at Kate, who seemed just as shocked at Gibbs’ sudden appearance, and mouthed. ‘Five minutes!’ She bit down on her lower lip to hold in her laughter, and shrugged at him. “Good to see you. How was your vacation?”

“Enforced,” Gibbs replied, inserting himself behind his desk. “How do you think it was?” His eyes scanned the pristine surface, as though taking in the sight of a lost friend.

“I’ll bet you were just ready to go first thing this morning,” Tony said. “And, just... what exact time were you ready to go?”

Gibbs looked up at him, and Tony remembered how hard it could be to read his face. “And why would you want to know that, DiNozzo?” he asked, in that tone that could either be joking or extremely dangerous.

Tony wondered which it was. He hesitated for a moment before deciding that even Gibbs would be in a good mood after two weeks off. “No real reason,” he said, leaning on his cubicle wall. “Just... for my own personal enlightenment.”

Gibbs looked at him, then over at Kate, who had also risen from her desk and was leaning on the wall that separated her cubicle from Gibbs’. “And you, Kate? Would you care to be... ‘enlightened’ as well?”

“That depends, Gibbs,” she said, and Tony noticed she didn’t bother to check her amusement. “Who would you rather win the pool, Tony or the Director?”

“The Director won’t win, he said he wouldn’t be able to get in,” Tony pointed out.

Gibbs looked from one to the other, and then his severity relaxed. So did Tony. Thank God. He was in a good mood. “Then maybe I should just keep it to myself,” he said. “Until I can talk to Abby about gambling on her boss.”

“How did you–” Tony started to say, but cut himself off. It was Gibbs, after all. He just knew things.

“Anything exciting happen while I was away?” Gibbs asked then, looking at the top sheet of the pile of reports on his desk.

Tony glanced at Kate. Her lips moved slightly in a smile, and she winked at him. “No,” Tony said, winking back. “Nothing exciting.”

“Did you two have a good weekend?”

At first, Tony thought it might be a dig, that Gibbs might know this as he seemed to know everything else. But when he looked at his boss, Gibbs just raised his head and fixed a mildly curious look on him, then on Kate. Tony smiled. He didn’t know. It might be fun to tell him, see what kind of reaction he would have. Kate and I had dinner with my family, and played a couple for forty-eight hours. We were so good, my family thinks we’re getting married soon. It would almost be worth it to see his face.

Almost, but not quite. “Yeah,” he said. “I spent some time with my folks.”

“I watched a movie,” Kate added.

They looked at each other. Neither was a lie, but they weren’t the whole truth either. Amusement danced in Kate’s eyes. Tony grinned at her, and turned back to Gibbs. “Nothing exciting,” he repeated.

Gibbs looked from him to Kate and back. He seemed to be evaluating. Tony knew there was a new undertone in his relationship with Kate. He’d been aware of it from when she’d first arrived that morning. But it wasn’t a fundamental change, and it wasn’t readily apparent. Being Gibbs, of course, their boss would pick up on it, but he didn’t seem to be able to put his finger on it, because he only said, “Good. Now get back to work.”

“Yes, Boss,” Tony said.

“Right away,” Kate added.

Tony turned and started back to his desk, but turned back. “Boss?”

“DiNozzo?” Gibbs replied, looking up again.

“It’s good to have you back.”

Gibbs nodded, acceptance of the welcome and all it implied. Tony nodded back, then dropped into his desk chair and pulled the current files towards him. When he looked up a moment later, Kate was also behind her desk, looking at him with a mischievous expression on her face. Tony could help but grin at her. She glanced to her left and back to him, and shrugged. Tony raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “If you two are done making faces at each other, I believe you have some things to do,” Gibbs said.

Tony returned his gaze quickly to the file in front of him. “Yes, Boss.”

“Sorry, Gibbs.”

Tony didn’t look up again, even when Gibbs sighed. “Thank God,” Tony heard him say. “Everything is back to normal.”