A/N: I was never intending to write a follow up to this, but it was going round and round in my mind, and really, would Kate be able to leave it alone without eventually needing to know what the story was? And then this happened! Consider this an optional second chapter that takes place as long after the first as you think it would take for frustration and curiosity to overcome pride...

GIBBS

He ignored the banging on his door, figuring if it was important, whoever it was would just come barging in, and was totally unsurprised when they did. Seeing who it was, though, that did surprise him.

"Hi, Kate." He toasted her with his paint jar of bourbon as she slammed down the basement steps and then stood, arms crossed, at the bottom.

She glared at him like an avenging angel, and he wondered how 'molten, red hot fury' managed to look so good on her. "You don't know."

He frowned at her. "Don't know what?"

"You don't know what my tat is, do you. Do you?" She sounded like she was trying to be firm and certain, but she was failing miserably.

Oh... shit. He coughed. "Uh, I..."

"You couldn't possibly know, Gibbs, you were just bluffing, right?"

He left his response just a second too long, and the colour drained out of her face.

"You... you know?"

There didn't seem much point in denying it now. He shrugged.

"But how do you - how could you possibly - in my personnel file it says I've got one but it doesn't say where or what..."

He shrugged again. "It was... an accident." As excuses went it was a poor one, but suffered the virtue of being true, and he wasn't good at making stuff up on the fly when a beautiful woman with a gun was staring him down.

She looked at him like he'd suddenly started speaking Swahili. "An accident?"

He winced at the pitch of her voice. "It was, I swear! I didn't go looking, I was... in the wrong place at the wrong time." Also known as the right place at the right time, as far as he was concerned, but he didn't think she'd appreciate knowing that. "I just happened to see..."

"So you mean... you did actually... see it? Oh, God." He nodded reluctantly, and the colour returned to her face with interest. "Oh, God. When...? I mean, how...?"

He probably shouldn't tell her she'd accidentally flashed it at him on three separate occasions, he decided. Unfortunately, the one that most readily explained his knowledge was also the one where he'd seen rather more than her tattoo. She's gonna kill me. He sighed, rubbed his hand across his face. "You remember the Philadelphia?"

She nodded.

"You remember that night with no aircon?"

She nodded again.

"Couldn't sleep. Kept wakin' up. One time I woke up, you were comin' back from the head, an' I was gonna say somethin' but then you-"

Her eyes got really, really wide. Clearly, she totally remembered stripping down to her birthday suit before getting back into bed. "You looked?"

"I didn't mean to, Kate, honest. Didn't know you were gonna do that. You caught me by surprise, I didn't... for a moment I just... then I shut my eyes, I swear."

"Oh, God." She thought about it. "You were seriously grumpy the next day."

"Didn't get a lot of sleep that night." He smiled slightly. "And spent the day after trying not to say anything."

She shook her head. "Well. Thanks for that, I guess."

He shrugged. "Din't wanna embarrass you. Guess I kinda failed."

"You think?" She sighed. "I'll live." She slumped against the workbench, glanced sideways at him, looking a little less ready to kill. "And thanks for not making that little anecdote public knowledge. I'm not sure Tony believed you were bluffing, but I'd rather not hand him proof you weren't."

He laughed. "Welcome. I got no plans on sharing it with DiNozzo."

"Thank heavens for small mercies."

"It's a really nice tat, Kate. It suits you." He wasn't sure if it was strictly wise to comment on it, but given the situation, well, he figured there were worse things he could do than pay her a compliment.

"I just can't believe you've seen me naked. This is so unfair."

With enormous difficulty, he swallowed down the smile that wanted to emerge at the memory. "Sorry."

"Whatever happened to rule 6?"

He shrugged. "Exceptional circumstances." He sighed. "I really am sorry, Kate. Never meant for you to find out. Didn't think you'd actually come and ask me..."

"Curiosity killed the cat. Or the Kate, in this case."

He chuckled, glad she still had her sense of humour. "There are worse things that could happen."

"What's worse than your boss seeing you naked?"

He really wished she'd stop mentioning it. He couldn't help that every time she said it, that image came back to him in vivid detail. "It's not like I saw everything, Kate." Too bad, from his point of view, but good from hers. "It was just your back-" of course, that meant he'd seen her butt, and that was more than enough for him to relive with guilty pleasure, but he probably shouldn't tell her that, either "-for, what, five seconds. Less, even. At least you didn't turn around." God, what if she had? Five seconds of seeing Kate in all her glory. He would've had a heart attack, sure, but he would've died happy.

She managed a wan smile. "That's one way of looking at it, I guess."

"Besides, you got nothin' to be ashamed of."

As soon as it came out, he knew that was the wrong thing to say, said in completely the wrong way. He'd meant that it was his fault, not hers, but...

She was looking at him intently. "Well..." Her tone was dry. "I guess I should just be grateful you approve of my back view."

He closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. "God, that came out... really wrong."

To his surprise, she laughed - actually laughed. "You saying you didn't approve?"

"No. I mean-" Shit. Shitshitshit. Whatever he said in this context was going to land him in deep trouble.

She laughed again, throwing her head back. "Good Lord, Gibbs, I don't think I've ever seen you embarrassed before."

He risked a glance up at her. She was still pink, but with a reluctant smile on her face. At his expense. Though in the circumstances, he probably deserved the payback. "Don't think I should say anythin' else."

The smile widened. "I don't know, Gibbs, I kind of like you when you have your foot in your mouth." She tilted her head to one side. "It makes a fun change."

He narrowed his eyes at her. On the one hand, if she was teasing him, at least she was no longer planning an inventive murder. On the other hand, she was... teasing him.

She smiled brightly and hopped up to sit on the edge of the workbench, crossing her ankles in a ladylike manner. "I think I need a drink."

Wordlessly, he got up from his perch on the ratty couch and held out his paint jar out to her. She wrinkled her nose but took a sip, and he was vaguely impressed when she didn't cough or splutter.

"Thanks." She passed the jar back to him, and he settled his butt next to her.

"Welcome."

"In the circumstances, it's the least you could do. I think you owe me big time, Gibbs." She nodded decisively.

He took another swig of bourbon. "I do?"

"Uh-huh. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful you didn't tell Tony about this. But still. You saw me naked."

She really needed to stop mentioning that. "Yeah, I did."

"And you saw my tattoo."

He nodded again. "And your ass." He hadn't meant to say that out loud, but they were probably past the stage where he could make anything worse.

"Thanks for reminding me." She stole the jar back and took another swig of bourbon. "So yeah. I think this calls for appropriate restitution."

"Resti-what?" He turned his head to look at her, and she was looking at him, and they were a lot closer together than he'd realised. He swallowed.

"I mean, you owe me."

"Any way I can... make it up to you?" His voice had gotten a lot lower all of a sudden, and Kate was very... close.

She laughed, and her voice was low and husky, too. "Maybe you should show me yours... Only fair."

Her tone was... well, if this had been a date, he would've said that tone was decidedly flirtatious. He glanced down at her mouth, licked his lips. "Show you my what?"

She shrugged. "Tats. Ass." A slow, wicked smile spread across her face. "Both."

He swallowed hard. "You... my..." He coughed. "That's what you want?"

She leaned in towards him, and her eyes were dark and liquid. "Well you know, Gibbs... I think it'd be a really good start."

~ fin ~