Probie's Coffin: Chapter 12

By LMR

Chapter 12: The Obligatory Tate Chapter (Tate 'shippers: Woo-hoo! Kibbs 'shippers: D'oh! Tate 'shippers: Ha, ha! McAbby 'shippers: Eat my shorts, man!)

"Oh, good, you're back, McGee." Kate looked up from her desk.

"Where's the boss?" McGee looked around.

"Downstairs with Ducky," Kate answered. "Probably learning the origins of the word 'boring.' Or in his case maybe 'anal retentive' and 'bossy'? Who knows?"

Tony looked right behind Kate. "Oh, hi, Boss."

Kate jumped and turned, panicked. Nobody there. "I hate you, Tony."

Tony grinned. "No you don't. I've got you and Gibbs both wrapped around my little finger."

Kate smiled. "Um, Tony," she pointed. "You might want to look behind you."

"Yeah, right, how dumb do you think I am?"

Kate took a sip of coffee and moved around her desk holding her mug.

"Pretty," Gibbs answered from behind Tony. Tony winced.

Kate turned to make fun of Tony while she was walking, holding her mug out in front of her, but before she could get a word out, she slammed head on into McGee. McGee wasn't looking her way; Gibbs was approaching him.

Kate's coffee soaked McGee's collar. "Oh, I am so sorry, McGee. You're going to have to wash that off."

"Oh, it can wait."

Kate poked him. "No. I think you better go wash it off right away." She was giving him a funny look.

"Um, okay."

"McGee," Gibbs called.

"Um, just a minute, okay, Boss? I'm gonna go wash this off." He headed to the restroom.

"Fine."

McGee shook his head. So what if he had coffee on his shirt? He got to the sink and examined his collar. Not much coffee, really, and then there was that black smudge. . . oh. Thank you, Kate!

"Alas, it is time for me to take my leave," Eleanor said sadly and a little too dramatically to the agents at their desks.

"That's too bad," Kate said sincerely. "I was starting to get attached to you. I guess I thought you'd be here forever."

Tony looked glumly at nothing out across his desk. "In this job, you can't get attached to anyone."

Kate looked at him puzzled. "Are you okay, Tony?"

He looked uncharacteristically serious. "I don't know." He looked at Eleanor, she seemed the type. "Do you believe in clairevoyance?" he asked quietly. She nodded solemnly. "Something's happening. Not here. But somewhere, I'm dying. Not me, really. A shadow of me. I've never felt like this before, but it's as if something is throwing a light on my life, projecting it on a screen somewhere, and something's gone horribly wrong. Something that's not happening here. This shadow of me. . . it's suffering." He felt comfortable talking to Eleanor because she would be leaving. "It doesn't know that it's just a shadow. It thinks the world is really ending, and doesn't realize that he's just an illusion."

"Don't mourn a shadow, Tony. This is the reality that's been dealt to you." She looked around to make her point. "It's beautiful. Live it." She smiled and hugged him. "I'll miss you. And stop hitting McGee!"

She moved to Kate. "Take care. Email me, okay?" She turned to Gibbs. "Bye!"

"Leaving already? And you were just starting to fit in," he grumbled.

"Gee thanks." She started a little sing-song. "We accept her, we accept her-"

Abby had come upstairs and helped her finish. "Gooble, garble one of us!" They laughed while the others looked confused. As soon as McGee came out of the restroom (sans lipstick), she hurried to him to say goodbye.

"Bye, McGee. I've loved being here. And I just have to tell you, not to be rude, but you're an inspiration to geeks everywhere." She kissed his cheek. She hugged Abby.

"Email me. And we'll get together to see the next Dark Castle movie, okay?

Abby nodded vigorously.

As Eleanor passed Kate's desk, she noticed a book plainly marked "Journal." "Kate," she hissed, "You know better, he'll see it!"

"Oh, thanks, I write in that every day, and if he ever got a hold of it, I can't imagine the ammo he would have!"

"Wow. Every day. How long have you been journaling?"

"Well, I guess I've kept a journal since I was. . . a sophmore in college. Wow."

"It might be fun, you know, to look back at some of your older ones." Kate nodded.

That night, she took out her second journal. She'd kept it through her junior year of college.

March 14, 1994

I am hating Beatrice today! She took me to this bar last night, I got totally trashed, and after I'd had way too much to drink, some jerk guys talked me into being a wet-Tee shirt contest. It's so embarassing. and I have a feeling it will come back to haunt me. Some guys were there, frat guys, it was their five year reunion, from Iowa, I think. Some of them were real jerks, but there was this guy standing in the corner. Omigod, he was so hot! Only I was acting really stupid, and I hardly remember. I actually started hitting on him, I remember that. And I remember what he said, the rest is kind of a blur. I asked if he wanted to come back to my room. He said, "You, my dear, are inebriated." I told him, no, I'm a Catholic. At the time I thought that was the funniest thing in the world. So he said, "Okay, you're wasted." He looked right at me with the most beautiful blue eyes I'd ever seen. He said, "You're too special to be wasted." He kissed me, and I'm very happy that that's part of the night I can remember, because, damn. I think I threw up on him. . .

Kate quit reading, incredulous, and another night came to her memory. Trailing a suspect in the park, the suspect doubling back, and that feeling of familiarity that made sense now.

She flopped back onto her sofa, wondering if she ever dare show her face at work again. This was going to be a very long Alternate Universe Season!

Coming up in Episode 1 of AUSeason 3: KATE LIVES: Chapter 1: Moonlight.

"There seems to be an organ missing."

"Removed by the killer?" Gibbs wanted to make sure they weren't going to go on a wild goose chase based on this only to find he'd had an appendectemy.

"Well, I would certainly hope so," Ducky said, "It's his heart." Tony looked at Kate and raised his eyebrow, his face still set with the disgust he felt looking at the body. Her expression mirrored his.

"Think it's a trophy, Boss?" McGee postulated.

"Most likely," Gibbs said, his tone making it clear that he was not happy about this possibility.