Title: Necessity

Rating: K+

Paring: Kate/Gibbs

Series: Inevitable (5/5)

Summary: "He thought they'd be ok."

Disclaimer: NCIS doesn't belong to me, and it never will.

Spoilers: None.

A/N: KibbsLover, don't read this one at the office.

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He picks up a bottle, carefully holding in his hand as he turns toward his boat. He throws the bottle and it breaks on impact as it hits the worn wall of his basement. The tiny shards of glass clatter against the cement floor, and the liquid once inside the bottle spills over the splintered glass. He's breathing heavy and he curses under his breath at his missed shot for the boat.

It's his own fault.

He wrote that note, he left her those roses, he broke her heart. He thought it would be easy to walk into work Monday morning, he thought the weekend would have given her time to hate him and then get over it. He thought they'd go back to normal, with an alluring stare here and there and a few laughs when no one was looking.

He thought they'd be ok.

Instead, she had given him the cold shoulder all week, talking only when she had to and never once giving him the honor to see her smile or laugh. He'd even brought her coffee on Wednesday, but it had sat untouched until Thursday night when she'd knocked it into the trash while working on a case report.

He talked to her tonight, just hours earlier, in the elevator as they rode together. He'd barked 'Agent Todd' to make her turn toward him then looked her in the eye, and with a gruff voice and irritated tone he had told her 'I love you'.

And in a second the doors had open and she had walked off without a word. And as he watched her go, he kept hoping she'd turn back, that somehow she'd realize he had one of the toughest weeks of his life without her by his side. He wanted to see that he meant every word from the bottom of his heart.

Cause he needed her tonight. He needed those warm eyes and the tender touches. He needed deep silence with her by his side. He needed Katie and no one else.

And his boats and bottle of Jack aren't giving him much peace tonight.