Thank you to you all for sticking with me for so long! You guys rock. Finally finished.

GIBBS

When Kate handed him his cup, Gibbs noted with approval that the coffee looked like it had more in common with tar than with anything you'd get at Starbucks. It had taken her a while to accept that he genuinely preferred his coffee this way. He appreciated that she was willing to indulge him, even if she did think he was crazy. The mug also gave him something do with his hands so they couldn't get up to mischief while he was distracted; Kate still hadn't thrown him out, but he didn't want to push his luck.

He took a sip and saw her grin at the satisfied noise he made. "Cocky."

Kate just shrugged, looking pleased with herself. "You're welcome, by the way."

He couldn't help chuckling. "Thanks."

Her smile widened, now downright smug. It was... cute.

He reminded himself sternly not to say that out loud.

She sank gracefully down into the other end of the couch, one leg folded under her, facing him but engrossed in her own coffee. She stirred it round absently, and he wondered what was going on in her head.

He picked up the DVD box from the coffee table, turned it over, frowned when it failed entirely to explain anything about the last half hour. He took another gulp of coffee, then carefully set the mug down. The silence was stretching out to the point where the only thing to do would be to leave, and he couldn't seem to make himself do that. It was ridiculous and embarrassing to admit even to himself, but the coffee was his excuse to stick around and he didn't want to finish it too fast. "So, what happens?" He gestured with the box.

"Why?"

He shrugged.

"Did you want to watch more?" She sounded doubtful.

Something in her expression made him wonder. He put the box back down and shrugged again, trying to act casual. Failing miserably, he suspected, but for some reason he felt like it was important to know what had got to her, and why. "Nah, just... curious."

Kate frowned, chewed on her lip. "He- he gets shot. Dead." She glanced up at him and then back down. "Just a bit too close to reality after this week."

Ah. Yeah, he could see why that might hit a bit too close to home. Now he almost wished he hadn't asked. "You were never in danger... Kate." He thought about it for a second, and frowned. "No more than usual."

"I know." She looked at him again, her gaze trailing across his face, as if she was checking everything was as it should be, before her eyes met his. He could see the tightness lurking at the corners of her mouth, and hear the anger in her words though she spoke softly. "I wasn't in jeopardy. I wasn't the one giving a psychopath target practice." She pressed her lips together, clamping down on whatever else she wanted to say, and then dropped her head as if her coffee mug had suddenly become strangely interesting.

He looked down and noticed that her grip on the mug was so tight her knuckles had turned white. Reaching out, he brushed his fingers over the back of her hand, not really knowing why or what he hoped to achieve, just needing to make contact, somehow. He was shaken by her anger. She had been that worried... about him?

"I get shot, you get a boss who's less of a bastard. Could be worse."

He said it lightly, with forced jollity, hoping to diffuse the tension, and was taken aback by the steel in her voice when she responded.

"Not funny, Gibbs." She looked up again, the expression on her face one that, if he had been a lesser man, would have made him want to shrivel up and die.

It wasn't having any effect on him. Really, it wasn't.

He leaned over and grasped her shoulder, squeezed gently. "Hey, Kate. I'm kiddin'." He just about managed not to apologise. "Was a joke."

"'S not funny," she muttered, leaning towards him. Instinctively, he gathered her into his arms, and she relaxed against him, fitting neatly and comfortably under his chin, mug and all. "I don't want you to get shot," she murmured into his chest. "I'd miss you."

He actually stopped breathing for a second. The words were quiet but unmistakable, and he had to swallow back his reaction. It had been one thing when she'd been drunk and exhausted. That a sober and mostly awake Kate would miss him - that she'd actually say so... He pressed his lips against her hair (not a kiss as such, not really, he assured himself), and rocked her gently.

"Shhh." He rubbed a hand up and down her back, the other holding her close. "Don't plan on dyin' any time soon, Katie." He shrugged, chuckled stiffly. "Can't leave you and DiNozzo runnin' that place by yourselves." No response. "Guess they could draft McGee in from Norfolk to keep you in line, stop you two killin' each other-"

He didn't really know what he was saying, was just rambling, verbal diarrhoea, and was taken aback by the crack in her voice when she interrupted him.

"Please, Gibbs. Stop."

"Hey, hey." He pulled away from her, gripped both of her shoulders, waited until she was looking up at him. "It's okay, Kate."

Her eyes were watery and huge - she suddenly looked incredibly young and vulnerable, more fragile than he'd ever seen her.

"I know you think you're invincible, Gibbs, but you're not." She sounded utterly exasperated. "And I- we care about you, do you realise that?"

He couldn't stop the bark of laughter at her mixture of concern and annoyance. She shot him a look that said she was not at all amused.

"Thanks, Kate. For caring."

"Much good it does when you have a death wish, Gibbs." She shook her head. "Is there any chance you could put a bit more effort into staying alive? I mean, you're a fat lot of good to NCIS if you're not, right?" It sounded like she was trying to make a joke of it, but the look on her face betrayed her.

He was still trying to process that she was that concerned for him personally. "Not really a safe profession," he pointed out, as gently as he could manage.

She humphed, sounding eerily like him again. "Doesn't mean you get to recklessly endanger yourself."

He chuckled. "Careful, Kate, I'll start thinking you actually like me or somethin'."

She glanced up at him for a moment, an unexpectedly intense look in her eyes, then carefully placed her mug on a coaster and wrapped her arms round her knees. For a few moments she seemed deep in thought, and she didn't look up again as she spoke. "I do like you, Gibbs."

There was no easy reply to that. He reached out a hand to smooth a stray piece of hair behind her ear. He'd said as much to her already today: 'I do like you, Kate, you know that.' Even that had come out too easily, too readily. He had no idea what she'd made of it.

Her response came back into his mind. 'No, I mean- Never mind. Not important.' At the time it had just been one of a bunch of things he was confused about. Now he turned it over in his mind, tried to remember her face as she'd said it, her tone of voice. What had she been about to say, before her brain caught up with her mouth?

Kate wasn't one to hold back, rarely censored herself... Now he analysed it, she'd seemed almost embarrassed. Had she blushed? Memory said she had, but he wasn't sure he was willing to trust himself to be unbiased. And if she had been blushing, what would that mean? There was one obvious possibility, but that seemed... unlikely. Bordering on ridiculous.

The thick silence lingered. Kate had leaned her head on one knee, her eyes focused on nothing, her teeth worrying her lower lip in a way that made him want to smooth his thumb across it. He picked up his coffee again so he wouldn't be able to give in to temptation.

Was it his imagination that the cheek and ear he could see had gone a little pink?

'I said I do like you.' 'I meant the other way.' 'So did I.' The snatch of dialogue that had been stuck in his head repeated itself yet again, and he sucked in a sharp breath as he realised what those lines had reminded him of, why they'd refused to let him be.

Kate looked up at his gasp, giving him an odd look. Big, honey brown eyes, full of questions and by no means helping him think straight.

"You like me?"

Her eyebrows crunched together in an expression he recognised as being her usual response to really dumb questions.

She shrugged a shoulder - and yes, her face was definitely going red. "Yeah."

"Oh. Okay."

"Most of the time."

She added it just as he took a sip, and in such a dry tone that he couldn't help the burst of laughter that sent the coffee down the wrong way.

Kate scooted over to him on the couch, gave his back a few hearty thumps as he attempted to keep breathing. He coughed and spluttered a little more, and couldn't help wondering if she was enjoying the excuse to hit him really hard.

"'M okay," he finally managed to blurt out. "You can stop hittin' me now." He could do without any more punches, but the complete sap who apparently ran his brain when he was around Kate was absurdly pleased that she didn't move away.

"God, Gibbs, could you just try not to kill yourself for five minutes?" When he turned towards her, she was sitting closer than he'd realised. Her hand was still resting on his back, and though she was grumbling, she had a slight grin on her face, her eyes warm and full of amusement. "Having you choke to death in my apartment is not my idea of a good time."

She was so near, her scent invading his nostrils, lips slightly parted and so very inviting, looking up at him with a fond affection he had never noticed before. It made him want to lean in and get in her space, kiss her, tell her things. It was dangerous.

He blinked and tore his eyes away, drank the last mouthful of his coffee to stop himself saying something monumentally stupid.

"I should... probably go..." He set the mug down on a coaster.

He looked back at her, and then cursed himself. If he'd had the sense to just get up and go, but no. He had to look. He had to see the disappointment, the way her expression shut down, shut him out, her shoulders drooping and her gaze dropping to the floor.

"Okay." The warmth had vanished from her voice. He could almost see her putting on the mental armour she wore at work, deliberately stepping back from the intimacy they had unwittingly established, and the loss made him foolish.

"Katie."

She glanced up at the nickname, her face still a careful blank.

Gibbs reached up to stroke his knuckles across her cheek, and heard the little gasp that slipped out despite her impassive expression, heard her gulp. He watched with an odd kind of detachment as his thumb moved seemingly of its own volition to touch the plump softness of her lip, as his fingers traced the line of her jaw and then her cheekbone, till he was gently cradling her face in his hand as he'd been wanting to do for what seemed like days, not hours.

He saw the fluttering pulse in the hollow of her throat jumping to attention and swallowed, noticing with the same strange detachment that his own heart rate had risen to match hers, then finally looked up again to catch her gaze.

He'd hardly dared hope to find anything other than shock there, but her eyes were dark and wide.

"Kate, I..."

"Gibbs?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

For a moment he was utterly confused, and then she was climbing into his lap and reaching for him, pulling him down to meet her, not giving him a chance to protest or ask what the hell she was doing or if she was sure this was a good idea or...

He was so shocked that she'd taken the initiative, so surprised that her lips were on his, that he didn't know how to respond. His brain couldn't deal with the enormity of Kate kissing him. After a few seconds of stunned immobility, his body took over, and then in a sudden tangle of limbs he was the one taking charge, pressing her down against the couch, her arms linked around his neck, her mouth opening under his as he tilted his head to deepen the kiss.

How long the kiss lasted he had no idea, lost in how delicious her mouth was, the sounds she made, the way her body arched up to meet him. His hands slipped up under her top without permission from his mind, and he groaned as she tightened a hand around his head and slid the other down to grab his backside.

Eventually the need for air marginally outweighed his need to not stop kissing her, ever, and he pulled away just enough to catch his breath. Kate looked up at him through half-lidded eyes, the movement of her chest under his hands proving that he was not the only one having issues on the oxygen front. She bit her lip, still a little embarrassed, but her eyes were warm and smiling again.

"So." He grinned. "You like me, huh?"

She smirked, clearly amused, and squeezed his ass. "You like me, too."

He bobbed his head. "Kinda."

The hand that had been tangled in the back of his hair cuffed his head, and he grinned a little more and rested his forehead against hers. "Okay." He shrugged, accepting defeat. "More than kinda."

She giggled, and the sound made him smile. "Good."

"Yeah. Good."

"So... What are you gonna do about it, Gunny?"

He let his smile turn wicked, wiggled an eyebrow, and when he spoke his voice was low and lazy with meaning. "Well, Cap'n, I gotta few ideas, how 'bout you?"

Her hand on his butt pulled him closer, and when she pressed herself up against him he let out a noise he'd forgotten he could make.

"You know what, I think we'll come up with something."

It took him a moment to recover, and then he grinned. "You know what, Kate," he murmured as he leaned down to kiss that smug expression right off of her face, "I think you might be right."