The Royal Wedding here in Sweden on June 19 inspired this little thing. I know this would NEVER happen in real life. Then again it's a story. Here are the reasons for some of my choices in this story.
Adriana = a little nod to my favorite soap opera of all times; Santa Barbara.
Alice Désirée = the Crown princess of Sweden who is getting married. It's two of her names.
Mountbatten = in honor of Louise Mountbatten. She was queen of Sweden 1950-1965.
Granada = I know there is a place called Grenada so this is not a typo. However, Granada is my country here. I simply chose it as an honor of The British Television Company that was responsible for the Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett.
The song didn't come to me until at the very end but it works. Although bit cheesy perhaps. ;)
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Anytime, Anywhere
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Kate was just a step ahead of them into the bullpen when she stopped in her tracks almost causing Gibbs to bump into her. She seemed frozen on the spot. "Damn'"
Tony looked over at Gibbs who had simply raised an eyebrow. Both equally confused it would seem.
Kate steeled herself and continued on. As she came to her desk a tall brown-haired man smiled at her. "Your Highness." He took a stiff bow.
This time both Tony and Gibbs froze in their places. They exchanged glances and Gibbs just shrugged to Tony as to indicate that he had no idea what was going on either.
"Peter, what are you doing here?" It was a bit of a sarcasm dipped in friendliness for her friend. She knew why he was there.
"I came to deliver this." The man brought out a red envelope and handed it to her.
"You ever heard of mail?" He said nothing as she had expected. She sighed deeply as she took it. "I have a few days left."
"I know but his majesty wanted….."
"I know, I know." She waved with the envelope in the air.
"I am sorry, Your Highness." He took another stiff bow and left.
Gibbs moved then. Just what was going on here? "Want to tell us what that was about, Your Highness?"
Kate stiffened at his words. "Not really."
"Kate?" Tony came up next to Gibbs.
She took a deep breath. "However, I do not have much of a choice." She threw the envelope on the desk.
"You're not going to open that?" Tony asked her.
"I know what it is." She bent down to type a few words on her computer. A click and then another. A few more clicks. "Let's see, if one knows where to look one can find this." Then she moved the screen towards her two coworkers.
Gibbs lowered his eyes and saw a beautiful picture of a young woman. She seemed familiar. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was looking at a picture of Kate. She had tiara on her head and was dressed in a long light blue satin dress that really showed of her body. Not in a tacky way but respectable. She looked stunning. He went to read under the picture. 'Princess Adriana Alice Désirée Mountbatten of Granada.'
Gibbs looked back up at her in total shock. How the hell had he missed this?
Tony could not believe what he was looking at. "You're a princess?"
"I am afraid so." She sat back in the chair not taking her eyes of them. It was eerie how Gibbs just kept looking at her like he was searching for something.
"How come we didn't know?" Tony rounded Gibbs to get closer to Kate… eh, Adriana.
She really didn't want to deal with this. Why did Peter have to have come all the way here? "Long story short is that I made a deal with my father so I could pursue whatever career choice I wanted. For that to be possible I changed my name. Granada is a small country so I had pretty good odds of people not recognizing me. My mom had been good at keeping me out of the limelight as much as possible so it worked even better."
Tony nodded feeling like he was in some weird movie and somehow he had missed seeing the plot.
Gibbs still had a hard time taking this all in. Kate was a princess? This was not some little secret she had been hiding. "And now?"
"The condition my father had was that if I had not married by 30 I would return to Granada and get married. Have kids. The fact that my two brothers do not have any kids yet only seems to enforce that I have to return and do my royal duty." She said the last words with some disgust.
Gibbs did not want that. He didn't want Kate to leave. He wanted her here where he could be close to her. He wanted her near. He didn't want her to leave. He didn't want her…. to marry another man.
Tony thought about it. "Marry someone you don't know?"
"Yeah. Dad would love that. He has probably already found me some stiff upper lip to breed with." She shuddered slightly.
"Why not marry someone you know? I could marry you." Tony winked at her although he wasn't' sure he was ready for kids yet.
Gibbs slapped his head. What the hell was Dinozzo thinking?
"What? I am just trying to help?" Tony rubbed the back of his head with a hand.
Kate smiled at that. She was really going to miss this place.
Tony continued on ignoring the stare he was receiving from his boss. "But seriously if you did marry someone here could you stay?"
Gibbs gazed back to Kate and found how much he was interested in that answer.
"I suppose so. We mostly talked about what I had to do if I wasn't married by 30." She didn't want to tell them that no matter what someday she had to go back.
"This is unreal. No one knows who you really are?" Tony questioned.
"No, I've been very good at hiding in plain sight." She smiled at them.
Gibbs couldn't help but to break out in a small smile himself. It would be Kate to be able to pull something like that off.
"I mean a few people know and my dad does but no one around here knows." She took the envelope and put it in her purse.
"So, wait. Your dad is ok with this? That you were a Secret Service agent?" Somehow Tony had a hard time believing a king would let his daughter have such dangerous jobs.
"Well Tony, he isn't ok with that at all but I can be very tough and when I really want something I go for it." Her eyes locked with Gibbs for a moment before turning back to Tony. "It helped that I am not the next in line for the throne."
Tony nodded as he turned to Gibbs. "Can you imagine? A president was guarded by a princess? That is a movie plot right there."
Gibbs just shook his head at him.
Kate let out a small laugh as she stood up and gathered her things. "It's late and time to go home. I'll see you in the morning." Not waiting for an answer as she walked by them.
The two men just stood there watching her walk away.
Finally after a minute Tony broke the silence. "What do we do boss? We have to do something."
Gibbs wasn't sure. Scratch that, he was sure of what he wanted to do and now he had a perfectly good reason. He gave Tony a quick glance before walking over to his desk.
"Boss?"
"Good night Tony." He said as he passed his agent.
Tony watched him go. He was stunned. He couldn't believe Gibbs didn't care enough to do something about this. Well, ok so he had a few days before Kate turned 30. Wait, he had to tell McGee and Abby and Ducky. He knew they would keep Kate's secret. He waited patiently as Gibbs waited for the elevator and the moment he was gone Tony raced down to Abby's lab while phoning Ducky.
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Sitting by her kitchen table Kate was a bit nervous. She prepared herself. She knew it was coming. She heard the footsteps. The front door was opened and then shut quickly. And there he was. He just stared at her.
"You couldn't tell me?"
She bit her lower lip. She had thought about telling him often but somehow the moments had always slipped away too fast. "I thought about it." She offered knowing it wouldn't help.
He moved to sit down on a chair opposite her. "You thought about it? We've been together for over a year and 'you thought about it'?"
"This isn't easy for me. I mean, we never talked about marriage or kids. It never came up and with your history I assumed it was the furthest thing from your mind." It all came out in a rush.
Gibbs sighed then. She was partly right. He had not considered having children again. "I figured I was too old to be a dad again." He had not expected to say that out loud.
She looked at him in surprise. "You are not old." There was a small smile on his lips and she was grateful for it. "Listen, this is really hard for me." She stopped not entirely sure what to say.
"You want to go back?" He wasn't sure why he was asking since the evidence so far pointed to a big fat no. The way she looked at him now just confirmed that. "Then let's get married." It wasn't the most beautiful proposal he had ever done but he found it was one of the most genuine.
She wasn't really shocked at hearing him say those words. "Gibbs, you don't have to do this."
"I know but I want to." He was serious and he hoped she would see that. "I cannot say I have been thinking about having children again but the thought of marriage have crossed my mind once or twice."
Now that did shock her. "It has?"
He nodded. "With my ex-wife's it always seemed rushed into and I wanted this to be different. I knew my relationship with you had more meaning to it. For the first time since Shannon I was really happy and I wanted it to last."
She was stunned. She definitely had not expected anything like this. She knew him well enough to know he was being honest. "I don't know what to say."
"I thought about marriage but wanted the proposal to be more then well, this." He chuckled at just how badly he had proposed to her.
"I don't care how the proposal is done. I just care about the feelings behind it. That it wasn't done because it had to be but because you wanted to and because…." She didn't get a chance to finish as he continued for her.
"I love you." He stood up and took the two steps to be next to her. He drew her up into his arms. "I do love you Kate and believe me when I say I want to be your husband."
She gazed into his eyes. There was nothing but love there. "I love you too." Maybe this could work for them. "Jethro?"
He loved it when she spoke his name and especially like that. In her soft voice for his ears only. "Yes, Caitlin?"
She smiled at him. "Would you like to have a child with me? I do want to be a mom at some point."
He may never have given it much thought but looking into her beautiful brown eyes he found he wanted nothing more. "I want to be a dad again."
Another smile escaped her lips. Still there was one more problem to face. "Are you sure?"
He had not failed to notice that her expression on her face had changed. "Why?"
"Someday, might be next week, next month, next year or years from now but someday I will be exposed. When that happens I have will have no choice but to go back to Granada and live like a princess again."
He knew what she was saying and as she took another deep breath to continue he raised a finger and placed it gently over her lips to shush her. "I would go anywhere with you at any time." Keeping his finger on her lips he watched as her eyes widened. Clearly she had not been sure of that and perhaps that was one of the reasons she had not dared to tell him the truth. Maybe that had been the biggest reason. He removed his finger and kissed her. He drew back to whisper in her ear. "Anytime, anywhere."
She beamed. It would be Gibbs to say something that would remind her of one of her favorite songs. She was tearing up and she didn't want him to see it. She felt his finger on her cheek guiding her face to look at him. To her surprise she saw his eyes slightly shining. They were moist to.
As he looked at her the words of the song made more sense the ever. He had looked up the English translation and now he really understood it. He understood her. He embraced her and whispered in her ear.
"Anytime, anywhere."
~The End~
A few words from the song
Anytime, Anywhere By Sarah Brightman
Translated:
Many years have passed.
Lives have changed.
It was my city.
I do not know it anymore.
And I'm just a stranger
Without a native land