A Penny for Them by Star 24
Disclaimer: Characters of Navy NCIS belong to Paramount Studios and Belisarius Productions. Don't own them or profit from them.
A series of vignettes of the characters thoughts.
Keeping it Professional
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A snippet from Kate's perspective. There's been a bit of sizzle evident between her and Tony in recent episodes and this is one take on what's running through her head.
I sit and tell myself that I really should have learned my lesson about romantic involvement between colleagues. Tim and I really clicked, but I still wonder if our relationship didn't blind me to some little thing that I should have seen that might have saved his life.
I don't want to ever be in that position again. Tim and I didn't really "work" together on a normal day-to day basis. This time around it could be that split second of distraction caused by drowning in that megawatt smile of his, or losing myself in those eyes, that results in his dying in front of me. If that happened I couldn't live with myself.
That's what I tell myself every night on the way home from work. It's what I tell myself when I'm driving in to work in the morning. But then I get there and he's sitting at his terminal, hunting for a case so he can get out of a sexual harassment seminar, or googling the web for info on Puerto Rico or some other exotic place he's dying to go to. And I feel that melting sensation inside when he looks up and sends me one of those patented grins of his. I wonder exactly how many females he's dazzled with that smile, but at the same time I don't really want to know.
So I say something snarky to him, just to be sure he doesn't pick up on my reaction. It's only hormones I tell myself. Anthony Dinozzo is one gorgeous male specimen, and any woman who didn't react to being the recipient of one of his looks or smiles would have to be either dead or gay. I think so far I've managed to keep him off the track. He seems to be buying my story that I think of him as a brother. At least I hope he is. Even if he doesn't, I'm not going there. I can't go through that again. Maybe someday if one or both of us quits this line of work, it would be something to consider.
Until then, the most I can do is be a friend to him. I'll be there for him when he has one of his attacks of insecurity over Gibb's treatment of him, and I'll even play matchmaker the way I did for him and Paula. Even though when I went home that night, I couldn't help thinking about where they were and what they were doing.
There's no room in this job for entanglements between agents. Gibbs was right about that. Aside from that, Tony is a dangerous guy to fall victim to. I don't think that commitment or long term are words that even remotely apply to him.
So we're just friends, colleagues, brother-sister. That's the best thing for everyone. Who knows, if I tell myself that enough times I might even start to believe it.
