Title: Easier Than Love
Author: nikkinor
Rating: K+
Spoilers: Twilight and kind of everything after that.
Genre: Romance with a little Angst
Pairings: Kate/Gibbs, Gibbs/Jenny
Word Count: 545
Disclaimer: NCIS, Kate, Gibbs, and Jenny do not belong to me.
Summary: "He'd be okay if right this very moment she told him everything that had gone on between them was over, cause she's no longer the woman he wants."
Author's Note: This is what happens when I get bored at work and I run out of Sudoku puzzles.
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Cause she's easier than love.
She's smiles, stares and hopelessly irresistible to him, she's just a good memory that makes him grin when he thinks of her, she's a good dinner partner and an excellent fight when he needs to yell, she's a good night kiss and a happy face in the morning. She's a redhead with daring green eyes that help him forget a brunette with a sharp chocolate gaze.
Jen is a fun game, a fire he dances around when he needs a little thrill. Nothing more. It's not love; it's not even a romance. Cause if he loves again, he'll just burn for her until he burns out, and one day he'll break two hearts. And he really does care about her, but she's not worth shattering his own heart.
She's a simple association.
They'll have a drink here and a dinner there, but the word date will never be used to describe anything they do together. The two of them are not a couple and there is no meaning to the word 'them' beyond a working affiliation.
Her hand never wanders its way down to his, and he never looks at her with a longing gaze. She smiles at him all the time, but he doesn't give her the right to see him grinning anymore. He knows she cut her hair because he liked it better many years ago when it was short and curled under, but he sure isn't going to shave his head bald because he knows she loves bold men.
He doesn't like dependence.
She could walk away from whatever it is they're doing and it wouldn't matter to him if he never saw her again; very much unlike the woman who once shared his little redhead's yearning for independence. She'd gone to face down demons once before, and his want for her and need for her company hadn't changed her mind then, so he doesn't want to care about her enough to worry on whether she's with him or not.
It would be fine if he found out she was dating someone, especially if he makes her happy. Thought, he does know she'd half disown him if he was to ever date anyone but her, and he'd be just fine with the rejection. He'd be okay if right this very moment she told him everything that had gone on between them was over, cause she's no longer the woman he wants.
He'll never again see the woman he loves.
Jen's a replacement a for the one he misses very dearly; a tolerable substitute for the tension he cherished, the good times he misses, and the smile he longs to see one more time. Jenny is her own person with her own sense of style, an individual way of handling things, and a no-so-desirable attitude; and she'll never be the Katie clone he wishes she could be.
No matter how many times Jethro Gibbs looks Jenny Shepard in the eye and sees naive innocence or how many times she smiles at him with a sparkle in her eyes, she will never be the Caitlin Todd he so very badly needs to be behind the innocence and the sparkles.
Cause his Katie was so much more than just love.