WARNING: Contains non-consensual spanking of an adult.

Note: I wrote this a couple of weeks ago and just realized it never got posted. This story takes place very early in Season 1, but since it isn't canon, just know that it fits in somewhere after "Yankee White", ok?

Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. I just borrow them.

"Jethro."

"What, Duck?"

"Go easy on her. She's had a very bad day."

The withering look was not unexpected. Gibbs turned and flew out of Autopsy.

* * * * *

"DiNozzo!"

"Yes, Boss."

"Get someone to get her overnight bag out of her locker and take it to my house. Put it in the guest room."

"Yes, Boss."

Gibbs slammed the elevator button, the instructions given on the move.

"Boss?" Tony called.

"What?!"

Tony walked over to Gibbs who was glaring at the elevator for taking so long. "I was just going to say…"

"Spit it out, DiNozzo."

"She was just trying to help."

"You think I don't know that?" Gibbs asked quietly.

"I just mean…um…"

"Tony, are you trying to tell me to go easy on her?"

"Yeah."

"Hm. Ducky told me the same thing."

The elevator finally arrived and Gibbs rushed into it, again slamming the button.

"Boss, what are you going to do to her?"

Gibbs gave him a look. "I have to go get her out of jail! What do you think I'm going to do to her, DiNozzo?"

Tony didn't have time to answer because the elevator doors closed as Gibbs was transported to the parking garage. He looked at the closed doors one more time then headed down to the gym to get the bag and deliver it. He wanted to be out of the house by the time Gibbs got there with their little jailbird.

* * * * *

The drive from the police station to Gibbs' house was a silent one. Kate hadn't been on Gibbs' team very long, but it was long enough that she knew to keep her mouth shut when he was this angry. And he was definitely angry. She had disobeyed him, broken the law and broken at least three agency rules – not to mention the numerous Gibbs' rules she'd broken.

They pulled into the driveway and Gibbs turned off the engine. Instead of getting out of the car he sat quietly for a moment, still gripping the steering wheel. Kate sat staring at her lap, her hands playing with the edge of her jacket. She was afraid to move, so she decided to wait for his cue. Finally, he let go of the steering wheel and turned to look at her. When he spoke, his voice was steely. "Go upstairs and get ready for bed. Your bag is in the guest room. We'll talk when you're done."

"Yes, sir," she answered in a whisper. He'd told her before not to call him 'sir', but instinct took over. He didn't correct her.

* * * * *

She wasn't sure how her overnight bag had managed to make its way to Gibbs' house, but at the moment, it really couldn't matter less. She nervously washed her face, brushed her teeth and changed into her gym clothes, grateful that she'd brought clean ones just that morning. She wasn't sure why he'd told her to get ready for bed, but she appreciated the opportunity to wash the invisible jail slime off of her and change her clothes. She suspected he knew that.

It was the second time she'd stayed at his house so she knew where to find towels in the hall closet. The first time she'd stayed there – just two weeks earlier – her apartment had to be fumigated due to a flea outbreak from the crazy old lady next door with 19 cats. This time, she was sure it would be a much less pleasant stay.

When she knew she could wait no longer, she slowly padded down the steps. She'd expected to find Gibbs in the basement, but instead, he was pacing the width of the living room in front of the fireplace. He turned around as he heard her come down the stairs. She looked so young. As he looked at her standing nervously at the bottom of the steps dressed in yoga pants and a slightly-too-large sweatshirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, he had to remind himself that she wasn't a little girl – she was a federal agent. And she'd disobeyed him.

"Kate," he called. She looked up and he crooked a finger at her. He saw her hesitate for a moment and just as he was about to call her again, she walked slowly toward him. When she finally reached him, he put his hands on her shoulders. Reluctantly, she looked up. "Are you all right?" he asked kindly. She nodded and looked back at the floor. He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. "It's ok," he said softly. He felt her nod into his chest and he released her. He pointed to the couch. "Sit."

She obeyed and he pulled an ottoman over so that he could sit in front of her. "What happened?" he asked when they were settled knee-to-knee.

Kate knew better than to stall and since she'd had three hours in jail to think about this moment, she launched right in to her story. "After you and Tony left the scene to find Maj. Marshall you told me to escort the tow truck back to Evidence, but I hadn't finished gathering evidence from the barn. I was in the middle of doing that when you called me back to the car," she added pointedly. The look she received made her quickly return to the narrative. "Anyway, by the time I finished bagging and tagging in the barn, I walked back to the front of the house and the tow truck was gone." She stopped. The next part of the story was the part she was most afraid of telling.

Gibbs saw her bite her lip and decided that since telling the story wasn't part of the punishment, he'd help her out. "So instead of calling me, or even a cab, you decided to hitchhike back to NCIS."

"Yes, sir."

"And the person you ended up hitching a ride with just happened to be an undercover cop who was on her way to stake out a prostitution ring."

"Yes, sir."

"And when she told you she was a cop, why exactly did you not tell her you were a federal agent?"

"I was embarrassed. And I knew as soon as she told me who she was that I was going to get arrested." Kate was still staring at the floor as she spoke.

"So what did you do next?"

"I texted Tony."

"You texted Tony." Gibbs looked at her for a long moment. "Well, I know what happened next, but here's the question: Why did you disobey me in the first place? Why did you go back to the barn instead of going with the tow truck like I told you to?"

"Because I hadn't finished there yet and I didn't want any evidence missed," she said defensively.

"Did you think I didn't know you hadn't finished?" Kate shrugged, but even that afternoon, she'd suspected that he knew she wasn't done. He shook his head sadly. "Do you know why I told you to go back with the truck?" She shook her head, still staring at the floor. "Kate, look at me," his patience was thinning. She looked up. "I wanted you to go back with the truck because I was taking Tony with me and I wasn't about to leave you at the crime scene alone. I knew what evidence you had and had not bagged and because, until you went back into that barn, you had done everything I told you to do, I knew you had the key pieces. With that and the photographs Tony had taken, we had what we needed."

"I didn't know that," Kate said as she again looked down.

"No. You thought you knew better, so instead of obeying me, you did what you thought was best and ended up breaking the law!"

The sudden loudness of his voice made Kate's head snap up. "I thought I was doing the right thing!" she shouted back. She immediately regretted raising her voice to him.

"The right thing to do is obey me. Anything else will never be the right thing. Do you understand that?" he said, still clearly angry. Kate nodded meekly. "Do you?" he demanded.

"Yes, sir," she answered. They sat quietly for a moment before Kate dared to speak again. "So now what?"

"I think you know," he said. He reached over and put a finger under her chin, lifting it so that she was looking at him. "I bailed you out of jail, managed to have the charges dropped and smoothed things over with the director. But the fact remains, you disobeyed a direct order and put yourself in danger. Oh, and you broke the law," he added almost casually. He knew neither of them wanted to drag this out so he stood up. "Come on," he said taking her hand. He led her around the couch and put his hand on her back as he guided her into position.

She turned her head and looked at him pleadingly. "I'm sorry, Gibbs," she said, her voice already shaking with tears.

"I know," he said. He pointed to the couch with his chin indicating that she should bend over. With one last silent plea, she obeyed. He debated for a moment before unbuckling his belt. She had put herself in danger, after all. And, he'd promised Morrow no one on his team would ever do something so stupid again. He knew that he not only had to punish her for all the things she'd done wrong, he also needed to make an example of her. Once Tony heard, or figured out, how severely he'd punished her, he might just be on his best behavior for a while. And since he had been heading toward a spanking of his own in the last few days, Gibbs knew he could use the break from the young man's antics.

He doubled the belt over, put a hand on Kate's back, partly to keep her in position, and partly to soften the emotional blow of what he was about to do. Without another word, he raised the belt and brought it down hard against her backside. In spite of herself, Kate let out a small cry, more out of surprise than anything since it took her brain a split second to register the pain. Before long though, all she could think about was the pain. Gibbs did a very thorough job as he spanked her, making sure he covered her entire backside and the tops of her thighs. Surprisingly, her yoga pants offered almost no buffer from the belt and before long, Kate was crying out with every strike of the belt. It had been a while since her last spanking and this was actually her first strapping ever. The pain was intense.

When she was openly crying, Gibbs decided that he'd made his point. He spanked her a few more times before he finally stopped, dropped the belt on the couch and pulled her into a hug. He held her as she cried herself out, rubbing her hair and whispering quiet assurances that she was forgiven.

* * * * *

An hour after he'd sent her to bed, he quietly climbed the stairs to go to bed himself. Before he went to his room, he stopped in Kate's room. She was curled up on her side with her back to the door. He looked at her for a moment in the light from the hall before he walked over to the bed and sat gently on the edge. He brushed her hair away from her face and looked at her. In that moment, she reminded him so much of Kelly and it nearly broke his heart. She stirred, opened her eyes and rolled onto her back, squinting up at him. He continued to stroke her hair. He took it as a good sign that she was lying on her back.

"I'm so sorry," she said after a minute.

"I know. It's over, ok?" he whispered. She nodded, still half asleep. "Go back to sleep. We have to be up in a few hours." She immediately rolled over onto her side again and was asleep almost immediately. He sat on the edge of her bed for a few more minutes before he gently kissed her cheek, got up and went to bed.

* * * * *

The next morning, Kate woke to the smell of coffee and bacon. It took her a minute to figure out where she was, but when she did, the events of the night before came rushing back. Groaning, she dragged herself out of bed and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. She undressed then turned around and looked at her backside in the mirror. There was no evidence at all that she'd been very soundly strapped a few hours earlier.

After she'd showered and dressed, she stripped the bed, packed her overnight bag and nervously headed down the stairs. Gibbs was leaning against the counter in the kitchen sipping coffee. On the table she saw two place settings, a plate of toast and a plate of bacon. A pan of eggs was still on the stove.

"Morning," he grunted.

"Good morning," she answered quietly, avoiding his gaze.

"Sit down and eat. We need to leave in a few minutes." He brought the pan over to the table and divided the eggs before putting it back on the stove and taking a seat. Kate slowly obeyed, but instead of eating, she moved the eggs around on her plate. "Eat," he ordered. Not wanting to defy him so soon after he'd spanked her, she pushed a forkful of eggs into her mouth and chewed slowly.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he ate his own breakfast. After she'd swallowed only her second forkful, he put his own fork down on his plate. "Look at me," he ordered. "You screwed up. You got punished for it. Move on." This was also an order. "I can't have you moping around all day, so get over it. You start fresh today. Got it?" he said, finally giving her a sideways smile.

That broke the ice. Kate nodded and smiled back. As she reached for a piece of toast, she knew she was forgiven.

* * * * *

"Hey," Tony said as soon as they were alone. "You ok?"

"I'll be fine," she said, trying to look busy.

Tony walked over to her desk and perched on the edge next to her. "What happened?" he pushed.

She put her pen down and looked up at him. "What do you think happened?"

Before Tony had a chance to answer, Gibbs swept into the squad room. "DiNozzo," he said as he stopped next to Tony, "unless you want a first-hand demonstration of what happened, I'd suggest you get back to your desk and finish going over the photos from yesterday."

Tony cringed and hurried back to his desk with a quick "Yes, Boss."

Gibbs looked at his team hard at work and smiled to himself. He still had it.