A deep green Mercedes pulled into a parking space between a red pick-up truck and a white Sedan in the hospital parking lot. Kate shut down the car and took a deep breath. This was the first time she had come to see Gerald alone. All of the other times she had visited him Ducky or Abby, and even Tony once, had been with her. It was like an excuse to be there with someone from the office, an alibi, being able to say she was there for the support and comfort of the people at work.

But today she couldn't say that, she was there on her own free will on a Saturday afternoon. She couldn't get away with 'I'm just here to see how your doing', not with the kind of feelings she had for him, not with the horrible nightmare she had the night before playing through her head.

She had never had a nightmare in her entire life, not once had she been scared enough that the event had followed her into her sleep and cause her peaceful slumber to be interrupted by beasts and other evils lurking in the dark.

Until last night.

Until she had seen that horrible terrorist's eyes glimmer and shoot Gerald, but instead of his shoulder being hit, this time he had aimed to kill and put a bullet in his head. He had laughed, flashed his smile at her and acted like nothing was wrong. She tried to stab him, like she had before, and again failed. That was when she woke up, when she had sat up in her bed and felt so scared and so alone.

Kate pulled her pocketbook out from in between the two front seats and opened the door of the dark green car she had been driving for the past few years she had lived in DC. She stepped out of the car and the cold air of the day hit her full force and blew her hair in all directions, she grabbed her coat from the passenger side of the car and pulled it close to her small frame. After closing the door she made her way up to the main entrance of the hospital.

A pair of sliding glass doors swooshed open as she walked into the cool yet quaintly warm lobby of Bethesda Naval hospital. It had one of the best rehabilitation treatment centers in America and Gibbs had pulled a lot of strings to get Gerald (who was not in the Navy and had never been in the Navy) into the care of the hospital. Even though Gibbs himself had only visited Gerald a few times, Kate knew he cared by how much time and effort he had put into getting him the best care possible.

Kate pushed her sunglasses through her hair and pushed her hair around with them until they sat sweetly on the top of her head. She always took the same path to Gerald's hospital room; up the elevator to the sixth floor, right at the first hallway, left at the third off of that one and room 638 on the right hand side at the end of the hallway. All six times she had visited she had taken the same route, and today was no exception.

She caught an elevator just as the strong and shiny silver metals doors were closing, she politely thanked the man standing beside her for holding the door then turned back to the many thoughts spinning through her head.

Gerald had been in the hospital for over a week now, nine days and thirteen hours to be exact but she wasn't counting, due to the massive blood loss and a few complications during the surgery to restore the main blood flow to his left arm. It was going to be a long time before he could come back to work for Ducky at NCIS, with the mass amount of writing involved with the job.

The elevator 'dinged', indicating it had reached her level. She walked off slowly and made her way to the first hallway and made a left.

She hoped she wouldn't be disturbing him. He had told Ducky, Abby, and Kate that they were free to drop by any time, but she was still worried about just showing up unannounced.

She made a left and walked the last few yards to his room. The butterflies in her stomach seemed to grow incessantly as she took the doorknob in her hand, she didn't think it would be this hard to open a door.

She knocked lightly with her left hand and waited for a response from the other side.

"Come in," Gerald called through the thick wooden hospital door.

Kate pushed back her fears and opened the door, just enough to allow her slim body to slide through.

Gerald looked up as she walked into the room, it had been two days since she had visited last but to him it was more like two months. Kate smiled at him from the other side of the room. Man, she looked beautiful today; her gently wind-matted, brunette hair hung freely around her face with a pair of green sunglasses pushing her bangs away from her eyes, she wore a brown tank top that brought out her wonderful eyes and tan Capri's that matched nicely with the top.

"Hey," Gerald said as she walked over to his bed, sitting up more than he had before.

"Hey, you feelin' any better?" she asked as she sat down on the edge of his hospital bed.

"A little, I'm still having some trouble with moving my arm though." He smiled lightly at Kate.

Silence accompanied them for a few minutes. He looked back over at Kate; she was staring at her lap playing with the green bracelet on her right arm. She looked a little confused today; normally she would dive right into a conversation and carry on talking with him till it was time for her to leave. Something was wrong, he wasn't sure what it was, but he was sure something was wrong.

"So," he started, "what's going on at the office?" he asked, just trying to get to a good point and ask her what was wrong.

"Um," Kate wasn't sure what to say, nothing had really happened, "Ducky thinks he's found someone to fill in for you until you come back to NCIS." 'Yeah, Kate,' she thought to herself, '"you're being replaced" is a great way to start off a conversation.'

"Oh, guess it'll be good for Ducky to get a full time replacement, instead of whoever happens to be down at autopsy."

"Gerald," Kate started to get his full attention.

"Yeah?" he looked over to her, again wondering what was on her mind.

"Do you--" she stopped, really not sure what to say, "Well...do you ever think about...well…" Gerald was looking very confused at that point, having no clue what she was going to say or ask.

"Do I ever think about what, Kate?"

"Well," she looked down at her fingers, "the terrorist?" she asked quietly.

Gerald took a deep breath, "Of course I do." He thought about her question a little more, certain that the subject of the terrorist was the thing on her mind. "I've had nightmares," he said almost as quietly as she had asked him about the terrorist.

"You have?" Kate asked, realizing she wasn't the only one who had been followed into their sleep.

"Quite a few times," he looked down into her eyes, "Have you?" he asked sincerely.

She looked away from his eyes for a moment, sorting through her thoughts before she began. "Once, last night." She looked back at Gerald, "It happened all over again. Everything. But he shot you and killed you this time." Kate was fighting back the tears now, trying to keep herself together. "He smiled and just laughed," she wiped furiously at the tears streaking her face, "And I still couldn't kill him, I still couldn't take that knife and kill him."

Gerald took his right arm and pulled her as close to him as he could, and whispered comforting words into her ear. She wrapped her left arm around his waist and her right arm around his neck, making sure she didn't hit his wounded shoulder.

They sat like that for a good twenty minutes, Gerald at sometimes crying with her and others just holding her close to him.

When they both finally stopped crying, Gerald pulled back just enough to see her tear-streaked face.

"In mine, he had you." Kate could tell it was just as hard for him to tell her his nightmares as it was for her. "He killed you and I had no idea how I was going to live without you." A small set of tears trickled down his face and she wiped them away.

"I'm scared Gerald, I'm scared he'll come back, and I don't know what I'd do if he did." Kate looked down at the white sheets of the bed, "You make me feel beautiful, you make me feel safe, you make me feel special, you make me feel like I'm worth something, you make me feel like I'm in love. And I don't ever want to lose that."

"Sweetie," Gerald said as he again pulled her close, "I love you and I'm not going anywhere. If that terrorist plans on ever coming back, I'll kill him myself; nothing is ever going to scare you again."

Finis