Our Child
By that belle
A/N: This is originally a drabble I did for citymusings on livejournal. I decided to post it here with my other works. And here is the criteria:
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing/s: Gibbs/Kate
A quote that HAS to be used: "A baby?"
There was a whole stack of papers on Jethro Gibbs' desk when he walked into work that morning. He was usually in before anyone else… it had been a habit that he had had for years. It was the way the office had run for quite a while now; Gibbs was considerably early, McGee and Kate usually arrived quarter of an hour early, and Tony managed to slink in just on time. No one had any complaints.
Everything changed that morning. Gibbs didn't start looking at the papers until the rest of his team had arrived. The pattern was quite different. Gibbs came in at his usual time, and so did McGee and Tony. But Kate turned up quarter of an hour late this morning, and when she did, she looked extremely anxious. She went straight to her desk and buried her head in her work, and Gibbs didn't say anything. Instead, he turned his attention to the papers. He looked for the most interesting looking one, as per usual, and paused when he recognised Kate's loopy handwriting on one of them.
No one knew it, but Kate and Gibbs had been seeing each other outside of work for some time now. The subtle flirting had turned to meeting outside work for coffee, which had turned to dinner dates… to sum it all up, they were quite serious. Kate had somehow influenced Gibbs to get contact lenses, and he was wearing them when he read what she had written on the piece of paper.
"Kate, a word please."
Kate looked over at her boss's desk. By the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice, she figured he had read her written request, and wanted an explanation. Tony looked at her sympathetically. He hated that tone in Gibbs' voice. She got to her feet steadily, and crossed the room so she was standing in front of his desk.
"Yes, Gibbs?"
He indicated the piece of paper on his desk. In a low voice (he noticed how badly McGee and Tony were trying to listen in) he said, "You've requested maternity leave."
"I have."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "A baby?"
Kate nodded. "Can I talk to you… in private, about this?"
"I was thinking the same thing." Gibbs stood up abruptly, grabbed Kate by the arm and led her towards the elevator. He pressed the button, and almost literally dragged her in. He pressed the button for the lab, and just as the elevator had started moving he pressed the emergency stop button. Gibbs turned to Kate, a pained expression in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Kate wanted to say, "I just told you," But she knew that Gibbs was not that stupid. She knew that the way she had gone about this was wrong, so she had to try and make up for it now. "… I'm sorry, Jethro. I was stupid. I got scared because I didn't know how you'd react to… fatherhood. I don't know myself how I'm reacting to this… and I don't think I will know until I'm holding our child in my arms for the first time."
The words, 'our child' was what changed Gibbs' mind about being angry with her. Instead, he just pulled her into a hug and kissed her on the lips. "I love you, Caitlin Todd." He whispered.
She smiled, and put her arms around his waist. "I love you too, Jethro Gibbs."
