Disclaimer: All publicly recognized characters, settings, and dialogue, belong to Donald P. Bellasorio, not me. No copyright infringement intended.

Rating: T

Pairings: Kate + Gibbs = Kibbs (yes I know she's dead but I'm in twilight denial OK), Paula + Tony = ?????? (I know she's dead but I decided to bring her back anyway), McGee + Abby =McAbby

A/N: Hi! This is my first ever case file and I am having a little trouble creating/bringing up clues, finding chapter breaks, and so on… please bare with me during the duration of this story. I really am trying my hardest. Please, no flames…constructive criticism and encouraging reviews, however, are acceptable.

A/N 2: I have stayed almost perfectly realistic in scientific and profiling aspects; therefore you all can try to solve the case on your own if you want to…message me through my profile when you figure it out…

A/N 3: So funny story…I have been receiving reviews, PM's, and messages from my betas correcting the name of the guns I use in my story and I find it important that the name I use is accurate. But I noticed, however, that no one really seems to know because each review, PM, or Beta message I get says something different so I put up a poll to find out. I thought well the name that has the highest vote will be the correct one. Currently three names are all equally tied. So long funny story short…if someone wants to research it and send me that research I would love you forever…

On another note sorry this took so long…this chapter is a little different… I hope you enjoy.

Now Enjoy!

Can it be Bliss?

By: Katie Todd

STEVENSON KITCHEN

"Don't get me wrong Jet," Kate smiles sweetly, "I want the security but I'm not too sure I want Tony watching my every move."

Gibbs reassures her with his eyes, they will make it through this whole ordeal, including breached privacy. He leans down and stubbornly restarts their formerly rushed kiss.

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NAVY BASE: NEAR GRANDVIEW NEIGHBOR HOOD

STEVENSON HOME: KITCHEN

ONE WEEK LATER

"Turn left McGee" Kate instructs as she bounces Belle on her hip, "No McGee. You turn left. Trust me, it's left." Kate stuffs a bag of tomatoes on a shelf in her refrigerator.

"Ok, I'm turning left Kate" McGee assures as he rubs a finger over Abby's dry hand, "now where do I go?" he asks.

"It's a military base McGee" Kate takes a deep breath and checks her tone. Belle lets out another yelp and Kate tries to soothe her, "don't you have a lap top? You can MapQuest it. Or better yet use the GPS"

"The internet connection keeps going in and out and the GPS got annoying" Abby supplies, reaching over McGee to yell in the phone.

"Lovely" Kate comments sourly as she tries to tempt Belle with a teething ring, "mommy is almost done, sweetie, but she has to get these cold things in the fridge." She soothes her child as she picks up a gallon of orange juice and transports it into the fridge.

"Kate we're at an intersection" McGee states nervously.

"You want to go to towards Grandview. If you are where I think you're at you turn left. Is there a School looking building to your right?" she questions in a huff.

"Yes" McGee answers already turning the wheel.

"Good. Turn left and go straight until you get to the Grandview street sign. It should be on your left"

"Ok, got it. I see your house." McGee states.

Kate hangs up the phone without saying good bye and focuses on her whining child. The baby snuggles against her exasperatedly and Kate kisses her head before shoving a jar of organic peanut butter in the white wood cabinet above her head. She coos softly to Belle as she tries to get the child to calm while she puts the milk away in the fridge, the door bell rings and she almost drops the stout container. Catching it rigidly in one palm, she shoves it on the shelf and races to answer the door.

McGee stands in his usual dress pants and button up shirt. His appearance seems a little ragged, his shirt is half un tucked and wrinkled, his shoes are scuffed, and a tie is missing, they are all little things but they help him fit the part. An easy role, a brother in law from half way across the country, his first name was Thomas, something he had insisted upon amongst gentle giggles and knowing looks from Abby. The friendly Goth looks pleasantly but uncharacteristically normal. Her eye makeup is lighter than usual, her hair is in soft curls that are not as rigid as her 'court room curls', the strict tight curls she wore when she had to testify, her dress has a high collar and falls gently above her knee, and a sparkly headband rests in her hair. Bright eyes assess the foyer as Kate invites the couple in and directs them upstairs to their room, with a crying tot on her hip.

She looks as unrefined as McGee does at the moment. Her lush auburn curls are in a gentle but mangled maze around her head, her shirt is crumpled, her white shorts look worn, and her makeup is half done and smeared. It had been a long day of grocery shopping, soothing a crying daughter, and answering hounding phone calls.

The phone rings and Kate rushes to her bed room to grab it, leaving the new couple in the hallway.

"Hello?" Kate half hisses in exasperation as she resituates Belle against her chest. The small child is close to sleep.

"Katie?" the voice on the other end of the receiver is uneasy, "bad day?" He states without waiting for conformation to his earlier question.

"Thomas and Amy just got in" she ignores his question with the statement and settles her ear closer to the phone.

"I'm leaving in five minutes. You want me to pick up a couple pizza's?" the question elegantly lifts half the stress off of Kate's shoulders and she sighs into the phone.

"Please" she accepts and he chuckles.

Belle's thin hand reaches for the object in her mother figure's hand and she kicks her feet warily against Kate's thigh.

"You wanna talk to daddy?" Kate sings and when the small child nods she places the phone in her tiny hands.

"Is that my girl?" Gibbs gasps in fake surprise when he hears the phone being transferred.

The answering giggle is music to his ears. He pretends to understand her gurgling as he asks her questions about her day.

"All done?" Kate asks pushing her hands open to symbolize her question.

She gently pulls the phone away from the girl and smiles into the receiver as she says, 'hello' again.

"You'll be home soon?" the agent asks exasperatedly.

"I'll see you in ten." He promises.

He says a deep goodbye and she responds in turn before hanging up the phone and returning to the hallway.

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Laughter fills the room as the man on the TV in front of the small group of people trips down the hill. When Gibbs had arrived to find Kate so tired she was about to tip over and shatter he had thrown the pizza on the table, dug out a movie, tucked his daughter into bed, and told McGee they could start installing surveillance equipment tomorrow. It would give them a whole day without interruption, he didn't have work.

The small group of colleagues had crashed on the living room couches to eat their pizza and stayed there to finish the movie after they finished their dinner.

Kate's hair paints Gibbs's jacket a deep shade of red as she rests her head against it. He tucks his arm around her shoulders and squeezes her to his side, enjoying the gentle smile he receives in return.

"you doin' better?" he asks, his gruff voice tickling her ear softly.

"Much" she sighs as she cuddles closer to him, beautifully oblivious to the gazes of her friends who sit cuddled together on the couch opposite them.

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STEVENSON HOME
NEXT DAY

"A little higher," Abby prompts and Kate holds a chuckle behind her teeth as McGee almost drops the camera while standing on his tip toes.

Gibbs idly rubs her shoulder as he squats down behind her chair. They had drawn out a floor plan this morning to place the cameras. Kate had to say she wasn't entirely happy with the arrangement. The two cameras pointing into the kitchen had been necessary, the camera in the foray had been common sense, the two cameras in Belle's bedroom had been precautionary, she could even rationalize the four cameras in the living room as extra protection, and she knew that all the cameras randomly placed in the hallways were essential. She couldn't rationalize the cameras stationed in all the little niches around the house, the camera on the porch, the cameras pointing under the doorframe of her bedroom and Gibbs's, or the camera stationed above their coffee niche; the lack of privacy was getting hard to take. The agent lifted a pale hand up to her temple massaging her hand through her hair.

"Mommeeee!" Belle whines softly. Both Kate and Gibbs's faces brake into smiles. It hadn't been the first time the little girl had called her parents mommy and daddy but she is different from other children in the fact that she didn't usually say mommy and daddy. The little one usually didn't call them at all. She was perceptive and it seemed to both her pretend parents that she was well aware that they weren't her real mommy and daddy; it was as if she found it awkward to call them something she knew they weren't.

Kate stands gently dislodging Gibbs's hands from her shoulders as she rounds the couch into the family room. The little girl claps her hands gently around the tangled ribbon that is sandwiched between them. Her pale pink lips pull into a soft pout. Her hair had made a soft appearance recently it had come in a gorgeous read as they had expected. Half the girl's family had red hair.

"I'll fix it" Kate assures.

She sits down beside the small child and untangles the purple ribbon from the girl's petit hands. Expertly tying it around Sophie's neck, Kate lifts both the girl and the bunny up in the air and onto her hip before going into the kitchen, once again.

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NCIS HEADQUARTERS

BULL PEN

SAME DAY

"So," Stan states as he slaps through a manila folder that had only grew a mere inch since this mission had started, "What exactly do we have?" he asks as he brushes a frustrated hand trough his hair.

Tony looks exasperatedly at the stack of papers in front of him. They had started trying to sift through everything, to re start so to speak, this morning.

"Well…" Paula drags as she leans against the front of Kate's desk. A printout of a PowerPoint McGee left her with and a folder of highlighted documents in her hand, "Tony can you get McGee's PowerPoint running?" she asks as she points to a flash drive on the desk in front of her.

Tony fumbles around with the gadget, eventually getting the plasma screen to start working. He clicks the mouse and the first page pops up on the screen.

"Let's start with the victim's then. Sixteen victims confirmed out of a rough possibility of nineteen. We still have a year that's not accounted for. The murders started in 2002 when our killer murdered John McClain. He worked at CDT and when Abby looked up his file she discovered he was reported to have a wife named Laura and a daughter named Carrie. This is the only victim that was found without a wife or child." Paula states.

"So we are assuming this is the killer's husband." Stan states as he scribbles something down on a post it note.

"Sure." Paula restarts, "a wedding ring was found between his teeth." She pauses to fetch a water bottle from her temporary desk before continuing, " The sanders were murdered on May 4th of 2003. The Fenton's were killed on the same date the year after. They were followed by the Rhodes who were followed by the Pope's. Then we have a year we know nothing about before the Fickly's were killed."

"Ok." Stan nods as he scribbles a note.

Tony smiles roughly at Paula before trying again to pay attention.

"What's next?" Stan prompts.

"The how. The woman is always between the ages of 27 to 30 the man between the ages 45 to 50. The men are also all ex-marines. The women have no correlation outside of being the wives of marines. The little girls are all killed when they are roughly twenty three months old, and they all have birthdays in mid or late May and early June. All the murders took place within three different base neighborhoods. There seemed to be a rotation between which neighborhood was picked but it fell apart the more it was studied." She pauses and takes a large gulp of water from a bottle she sets on McGee's desk before continuing, "The men are poisoned with what is confirmed to be diluted arsenic which they most likely drank. We presume that it was mixed in their coffee. The women show signs of gas poisoning but no gas has been able to be pen pointed. Ducky's working on it. The children are suffocated."

"Has Kate sent in a profile sense last time?" Tony asks as he sips his cappuccino.

"Yesterday. It says that the murderer's gender can't be determined but her gut goes with a woman even though she can't see a woman murdering small children. As for her mental state, Kate thinks that it's stable enough that she could function in the real world but that there is a physiological problem. The fact that the murder victims fall in a pattern suggest that the murderer is attached both to the scenario of a perfect family and the date May 4th. We are looking for someone with a big tie to that date. Kate thinks maybe a serious disturbance in her family…like a death or a divorce."

"The killer takes trophies and they seem personal. She doesn't take money, or jewels or even something like the security system from the house to taunt investigators with. This is passion not publicity. She takes stuffed animals, pearl necklaces, the man's work id, and the man's wedding ring. Her anger is at the man. According to Kate" Paula finishes her water, "the killer seems to taunt that killing in the removal of both the ID and the wedding ring. The way the children are killed is a quandary. They are suffocated which is painful and suggest the killer is angry with them, the killer takes their life after that of their parents which could be because she wants their fear to pile up or because she doesn't want to take their life and does it because she feels she needs to. Kate can't decide on one or the other. She wrote here that there isn't much evidence towards one in particular. We don't know enough about how the women are killed to make a conclusion but Kate thinks that the killer is killing the image of what she wants or wanted to be."

"So in short," Stan scans his scribbled notes, "our killer is most presumably a woman that has been scorned and is now killing small military families."

"Plus," Tony starts, "she's a man hater"

Stan rolls his eyes and Paula holds back a rough giggle.

"We know our murderer uses hair dye so she does change her appearance. She doesn't want to be apprehended. So she has method behind her madness. Our possible suspect whom we found under Laura, Marie, Carrie Marie, Marie Isabelle, Michelle Lynn, and Tara Lee was discovered because of parking tickets and traffic violators. So she's not supper careful. We believe our suspect is changing her name and having her documents forged."

"Laura was considered because Tony found record of hospital documents that had her signature on them. Her daughter died of suffocation when she was almost two. Her primary income until 2001 was from CDT. We supposed she had a husband that worked there. She listed her address on the hospital papers as Grandview. Kate beliefs that the first victim was probably the husband, the passion behind the kill suggest that." Paula rattles.

"So we could know who our murderer was it's just a matter of finding out who she is." Tony says solemnly.

"And evidence seems to show that she will probably try to come close to the family."

"Meaning Kate and Gibbs probably have already met her…she's probably checked out clean as well. We need to search everyone again." Tony put the tension in the room into words.

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STEVNESON HOME

SAME DAY

The gentle knock on Kate's bedroom door has her looking up from the passage she is reading. They have been going to the church on base with Alice and her family for several weeks now and the sermons on trust and joy have really been hitting Kate. She felt very guilty at first for her decision to be baptized into the small Christian Church. She was Catholic and she felt bad for betraying that but the joy that came with the decision had soon overcome her. Making the decision was easy, she wants to talk to God herself and wanting that had finally felt right, telling her family was going to be the difficult part.

This new decision is against her Catholic upbringing, but if she is totally honest with herself she has been doing things that are against her upbringing for a while now.

"Come in" she answers softly.

She knows who it is without even asking. McGee and Abby are cuddled up watching a movie down stairs and Belle is in bed. On top of her deductive reasoning it smells like him. The saw dust smell his clothes seem to be washed in even without his boat present.

The door creaks open and she smiles up at the broad man as he enters the room with a basket of laundry from the laundry room down stairs. She almost laughs when she sees its contents, her sheets. She is currently lying on a mattress that is only covered by a thin mattress cover.

He grins as he dumps the mass of mint green out on her bed and gently teases her with a blanket that he manages to wrap her up in.

"That feels great" she exclaims both complementing the soft massaging Gibbs is doing to her feet and the warmth that seeps off the sheets and into her body.

Gibbs smiles as he moves around the bed and gently drapes his body around hers. She has spent all day playing hostess and he knows she is tired but he can't wait.

The preacher at the tiny church had the same effect on him as he did on Kate. He is still working to trust God with his family but he knows it is a place to put his trust. The last sermon clearly showed that God didn't want to hurt him that his wife and Kelly dying and three divorces were because of the world not because of God. He felt shame after that sermon for the first time in ten years and he was surprisingly proud to feel it, to feel something.

He blamed God and he was done with that. He and Kate made the decision to be baptized together. He was getting his life on the right track. He had always had a life…but work was becoming less important every minute he looked at Kate. He wanted this woman.

Even though a bare mattress and warm sheets wasn't the atmosphere he had in mind when thinking about this engagement he knew it was time. Kate doesn't want a romantic ring in wine glass proposal and he knows that. The ring feels heavy in his pocket.

"Katie?" the serious tone in his voice combined with the loss of contact has her sitting up on her knees to move towards his voice.

Kate turns to face him flabbergasted to find him kneeling at the edge of her bed his hands extended.

"Will you marry me?"

The shock that crosses her face both thrills and scares him. He knows how awkward it can be if she says no and he knows there is a very real chance of that. He hadn't wanted to love again and he had. Loving again felt right and so did this.

Tears spring to her eyes as she tries to get out an answer, "I'd be proud to" she says in a half sob.

He can't help it. His eye brows rise. "Really?" he asks in a puzzled tone.

She smacks his chest with two open hands as she wobbles on the edge of the bed. "yes"

Kate never excepted this and she is floored with the meaning of it. He trusts her. He trusts her to not leave him, to not break his heart.

"I love you" he says carefully and simply and he removes her pretend engagement ring and slides a perfect replica onto her finger.

She blinks back tears as she promises her love and simultaneously lifts her hand to the light.

"I overheard you saying you loved that ring. I even heard a rumor that you picked it out. There isn't a good way to explain a new ring on your finger." He pauses as he strokes her hair out of her face, "what I'm trying to say is that if you want a different ring, I'll get you one when this mess is over"

"I did pick it out," she confirms, "it's so beautiful"

Gibbs reaches up to gently cup her face before he pulls her in for a long and very heated kiss.

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STEVENSON HOME

NEXT DAY

Kate is humming why she washes the breakfast dishes in the sink and Gibbs comes to gently wrap his arms around her. He nuzzles her neck, bathing her hair in his exhales. It feels wonderful knowing that the engagement ring that now sits on her finger is his.

The pair had spent a long time talking about wedding plans and what would have to change at work. Kate had said she wanted a wedding ceremony as soon as they got out of here. She had insists it be small and casual. He had readily agreed. Gibbs is toying with the idea of retiring a fact that shocks Kate. She had said she was well aware that the profiling squad needed to management and she was prepared to be it. They would figure it out she is sure. Together is a wonderful word.

Gibbs took the day off to help McGee. How he is supposed to be helping he didn't know yet. The younger agent had mumbled something about a short in some electrical board. Kate had walked down the hall and Gibbs's attention had shared that electric short.

"Mornin' beautiful" Gibbs whispers in Kate's ear. He's pleased with her smile.

The silver haired man pulls her from the dishes and kisses her softly. Her pale dish soap covered hands come to rest against his cheeks and he smirks slightly, still keeping their lips together.

Abby stands shocked behind the island a tired Belle resting against her side. The small child had begged to be removed from her crib early in the morning but she was doing nothing but snuggling with anyone that picked her up. Kate and Gibbs kissing isn't what holds the forensic scientist still it is how they are kissing. It is soft, something she had never imagined with Gibbs. His hands rest in Kate's hair and hers are gentle on the sides of his face, framing it. A large paw slides down to find her lower back and makes itself comfortable there. There is no pushing, no shoving, no desperate grabbing at the other, nothing that will lead to heated regrets.

The older man releases the smaller woman slowly. The Goth watches, still hypnotized, as the man dips a finger in the sink and dots his loves nose with the suds. The auburn haired woman giggles as she whispers something to the man and hits his chest with a soft open hand.

Abby ducks out of the room. Something was different about the two of them. It wasn't that they loved each other, she had already known that, it was almost like they admitted it to each other. The black haired beauty shakes her head, that couldn't be it.

A/N well… you know want to fill my inbox.