Title: This Is The Waiting

Rating: K+

Paring: Kate/Gibbs

Series: None.

Summary: "He's waiting for maternal instinct to become her signature intuition."

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

Spoilers: None.

A/N: I was driving down the road a few weeks ago and listening to RelientK's song One I'm Waiting For, and it inspired me.

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He's still waiting for her to be the one he's waiting for.

He's still waiting for the day he looks in her eyes and he doesn't see the innocence of a little girl. He's waiting for the smiles to fade and the happiness to vanish. He's waiting for her to start drinking coffee every morning and for the dark circles under her eyes to become visible no matter how much she tries to hide them.

He's waiting for her juvenile curves to turn into harsh lines, and for the sparkle in her eyes to burn out and become only bitter tools of interrogation torture.

He's waiting to see her in a wedding dress with a grin and hope for the world, and then see the saddened eyes with a miserable frown when her prince breaks her heart. He's waiting for her to forget that people in the world still care for her and love her deeply, and then he'll still wait even when the rings come off.

He's waiting for maternal instinct to become her signature intuition. He's waiting for the job offers and promotions to come in by dozens and the accolades to come in by hundreds, the best and the brightest knocking on her door for her exceptional talent alone. And he knows he'll wait to see her turn every single one of them down.

He's waiting for the day when he realizes all of his hard work to train her and make her the hard woman she'll someday become has paid off. He's waiting for her to be his prized protégé, beside him always. He's waiting for her to not be able to crack that one case she'll chase after the rest of her life. He's waiting for her and himself to be the only people that know she's excellent at her job.

He's waiting for her to sit beside him at a musky old bar late on a Friday night and listen to her tell him she's tired of trying, and life barely seems worth it anymore. He's waiting to look into her eyes and see the cold heart she covers with thick brick walls. He's waiting to watch everything else in the world fade away around her face and see her as a sharper and much more mature version of her former self. He's waiting to see the guilt of many mistakes discernible in the lines and wrinkles of her features.

He's still waiting for her to be a cruel old woman with nothing left but her job. He's waiting for her to become him, that way one day when he finally admits to himself that he's hopelessly in love with his Katie, he'll know she won't crash and burn if it all ends.

And it seems like he'll always be waiting for her to be the one he's waiting for.