Author's Notes: A little fluffy happy birthday fic for flootzavut.

Rating: K+
Pairing: Gibbs/Kate
Genre: Humor, Romance, Fluff
Summary: It's Kate's birthday, and there's a crime afoot.

THE GREAT CUPCAKE CAPER

There it was, sitting on her desk.

So innocent.

The icing swirled toward the ceiling.

Like one of Pavlov's dogs, she began to drool.

"Who put this cupcake here?" Kate asked, eyeing the bullpen with suspicion.

First there was McGee, who flinched and uhh'd and ahh'd until he finally got out: "Wasn't me."

Then there was Gibbs, reading glasses perched on his nose. He didn't bother looking up as he said, "Showed up while I was out."

Last there was… Where was DiNozzo? His chair was empty; his backpack leaned against the filing cabinet.

She sat, slowly, and glared.

"Uh," McGee was saying, "Happy Birthday, Kate…" Only could hapless probationary agent Timothy McGee make happy birthday tidings into an endlessly awkward travail.

"Thank you, Tim, but—"

"He's down with Abby!" McGee blurted, then he blushed.

There was a typed note next to the cupcake.

Meet me in the parking garage. Entrance B. 1300 hours.

Love,
Your secret admirer.

Kate grabbed it and stood. Okay, someone was getting their ass kicked today.

"Kate! Kate!" Abby hollered above the music pounding away in the lab — Paralytic Kittens, or whatever she was into lately. The volume was turned up so loud, the dead bodies over in the morgue refrigerator probably thought they had a front row seat. "It's your birthday!" She rushed from around her computer and engulfed her in a hug, black pigtails flying.

Kate braced herself against the assault. "Thanks, Abby, but…"

"But what!" Abby smiled. "So, I was thinking, tonight we'll go to dinner at the Magical Meat Boutique and then we'll stop by that sex shop over on 4th— Oh my god, we're gonna have so much fun!"

At the words "sex shop," Kate blanched.

Abby went on, "But Tony said he'd be our designated driver, and—"

Tony waved from where he was spinning around on one of Abby's stools.

There he was!

"Abby!" Kate interjected.

She stopped mid-word and frowned. "What?"

"First of all, there's no way I'm having Tony of all people drive us to a so-called "sex shop"—"

"It's actually pretty classy, Katie," Tony smirked.

"Whatever. It's not happening."

Abby pouted.

Kate went on, looking now at Tony, "Second, I need to know why you left this note and a cupcake on my desk."

"Me?" Tony asked, holding up his hands. "Don't look at me. This is the face of innocence right here."

Abby grabbed the note from her hand and read aloud: "'Your secret admirer.' Oh, Kate! Someone's getting some birthday hubba-hubba—"

Kate snatched it back. "No, someone is being a jackass, and I'm going to find out who it is before…" She looking at the note again, "1300 hours."

Tony shrugged. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, which meant she didn't trust him at all, but he didn't look interested in spilling the beans. He grinned and suggested, "Maybe ask Abby."

She turned to Abby.

"Oh Kate, you know I would totally sleep with you on your birthday, but I'm a taken woman right now."

Again, Kate blanched, while Tony leered from his perch on the stool. "Thanks girls," he said, "you've just fueled a week's worth of fantasies."

"You're disgusting," Kate grimaced as she left.

Kate went to autopsy next, but couldn't find Ducky. There was a snowball's chance in hell that he'd left the cupcake-gram, but everybody knew that the old ME kept a firm finger on the pulse of all the agency gossip.

Even Tony went to him for the scoop. That is, when he wasn't the mouthpiece of it himself.

Kate found Gerald by the stainless steel tub, washing a mound of instruments spattered in gore. She made a face before asking, "You know where Ducky went?"

He turned and shook his head. "No."

She debated on whether or not to ask him about the note. They didn't know each other that well, and talked even less, but that didn't mean he couldn't be the perpetrator. Kate decided to start with something vague. "So, how'd you know red velvet was my favorite kind of cake?"

Okay, so maybe not entirely vague.

Gerald turned again and gave her a strange look. "Huh?" He obviously wasn't guilty.

Kate didn't know what else to do, so she quickly said, "Never mind," and hoped she wasn't blushing too hard.

"Is that some kind of pick-up line?" Gerald asked.

"No, no," Kate denied. "Just… I think DiNozzo is trying to prank me again."

Gerald shrugged, as if he'd just been told the sky was blue. "I was gonna say. I'm engaged."

"Congrats," she offered, awkward.

"Thanks!" He continued scrubbing the instruments.

"Okay, then… See you around."

Gerald waved. Water ran down his arm. "By the way," he called after her, "Happy Birthday!"

"How do you now it's my birthday?" Kate accused.

"Uh, I don't know. Agent DiNozzo?"

Her suspicion ramped up as she huffed and walked away. She was going to kick his ass.

Back in the bullpen, the cupcake sat untouched.

But there was a new note. It read:

Be there.

She looked around. Gibbs had gone off somewhere. Tony was still down in the lab flirting shamelessly with Abby.

And McGee… McGee tapped nervously at his keyboard.

"It was you, wasn't it," Kate said.

His eyes widened and he shook his head hard. "It wasn't!"

"You'd tell me if it was Tony, wouldn't you?"

He hesitated.

"I knew it!" Kate leaned back in her chair, triumphant. Now she couldn't wait for 13:00, because she'd be ready for it. Ready to give him a swift kick in the—

"It wasn't Tony, okay," McGee blurted.

"You're covering for him."

"No, I'm not," he went on, painfully earnest. "I saw him get off the elevator this morning. No cupcake. And he didn't come in earlier, because I was here an hour before anybody else. And he didn't do it later, because I was sitting right here the whole time."

"And it wasn't there when you got in this morning?" Kate interrogated.

"No, it wasn't there."

"So, you've been here all morning, and you didn't see anybody put this cupcake and note on my desk."

"Right."

"The whole time."

"Yeah. No. Well, okay… I left my desk for, like, ten minutes. Gibbs told me to go ask Abby for something."

"And where was Tony?"

"He came with me."

Kate stared at McGee until he turned bright red.

"I'm not lying," he insisted.

Gibbs? Could it have been Gibbs?

Leroy Jethro Gibbs?

Hard ass extraordinaire?

The thought of Gibbs of all people typing out a note that included the moniker of "your secret admirer" almost had her doubling over in hysterics. He just… He wasn't the type. And while Kate was a lover of romantic games… Gibbs?

Sure, she and Gibbs had been eyeing each other heavily since the day they'd met. They'd flirted, wildly. And sometimes she liked to fantasize making a move. Even better, sometimes she fantasized about the many ways he could make the move.

A cupcake and a cheesy, cryptic love letter wasn't one of them.

No.

Maybe this was another ploy of Tony's meant to make a fool out of her. Now he was the type.

1300 hours, and Kate did a mental back and forth on whether or not she should follow the note's instructions. The anxious side of her questioned the judgment of it. What if it was the creepy mailroom guy? Then what? Or what if it was that very sweet guy who worked in legal? That wouldn't be half-bad, but he had a comb-over and the disposition of a golden retriever. It just wouldn't work, and the thought of coming up with a way to let him down gently had her mind in a knot.

You're being ridiculous, Caitlin. You don't even know if it's Lenny. Or Larry. Or, God I can't even remember his name.

The daring side of her declared: Why not? Maybe there was something to this game.

"What's the matter, Katie?" Tony needled from the other side of the bullpen.

Wait a minute. If Tony was here, then…

He cocked his head. "Got somewhere to be… Katie?"

"Leave her alone, Tony," McGee said. "It's her birthday." Afterward, his courage quickly left him, and in avoidance, he stared a hole into his own desk.

Taken aback, and perhaps impressed by the probie's unexpected assertiveness, Tony kept his mouth shut.

"Actually," Kate said as she stood up. "I do."

She'd forgotten how poorly lit and eerie Entrance B of the parking garage could be, even during the middle of the day. It was the farthest away from any outside entrance, and she always avoided parking near it, finding Entrance A the better access point.

Her heels clacked against the concrete, and the noise echoed around the space. Suddenly, she began to debate the logic of her choice. What if this was a set up? What if someone they'd put away had gotten loose?

That was her paranoia talking… wasn't it?

Or maybe it was Tony. Maybe he wanted to see her face after she returned from being stood-up by an imaginary so-called secret admirer.

No. Tony may be many things, but he wasn't quite that cruel. Was he?

"Thought you'd never show."

Kate startled at the voice, and almost tripped over her own feet. "Geez, Gibbs," she breathed. "Scared me." Then she froze.

He was leaned up against one of the concrete pillars, below the severe looking letter "B," and he grinned at her, slow and crooked. He seemed amused by something. By her.

She frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for someone."

Kate stared at him. He was still dressed for work, but he wore his Carhartt jacket over the polo shirt. He had one thumb hooked into his pants pocket. This was better than any damn cupcake she'd looked at for a long time. Stupidly, she asked, "Oh, who are you waiting for?"

Gibbs chuckled and looked off down the row of parked vehicles.

When her brain finally caught up with the situation, her face grew hot and she said, "So it was you."

Again, he grinned crookedly and took a few steps toward her. "I'd like to take you out somewhere tonight."

Kate gaped. "Huh?"

"For your birthday," he shrugged. He seemed almost… bashful.

She stared. "Like a date?"

"Yeah."

Kate frowned, remembering something. "I already promised Abby I'd go out with her."

"I don't think she'd mind a rain check." He raised his brows in suggestion.

"Okay," Kate said before she knew exactly was she was saying. "Okay, yes. I'd like that."

She meant to ask about the note and the cupcake, but… She figured she'd let it slide. For now.

After hopping around a couple upscale piano bars, they ended up at an intimate little Italian place not far from the Capitol. They sat opposite each other at a small table, a happy tea candle burning between them. Dean Martin's "Vieni su" played quietly in the background.

Kate couldn't keep her eyes off of Gibbs, not only because he looked ridiculously kissable at the moment, but because "date-Gibbs" was different from "work-Gibbs" in a way she could definitely feel but not adequately describe.

"Is it okay?" he asked. "We don't have to stay."

"No, it's nice."

He admitted, "Tony recommended this place. And, well—"

"He's a lot of things, but he has taste," Kate finished for him.

Gibbs nodded and looked back at the menu. Kate could imagine him studiously ignoring the prices listed on the far right. It was a bit expensive.

"So," Kate started. "I've been thinking about this all evening."

Gibbs hummed to let her knew he was listening.

"The note. And the cupcake. That was really you?"

"Did you like it?" he asked, looking up at her.

Kate melted like a pad of butter into those warm blue eyes. Then she laughed at herself. "I gave it to McGee," she admitted. It was a charity gesture. The poor guy had been eyeing it all day with that hungry look on his face. It was the least Kate could do…

Gibbs nodded.

"The note," she prompted. "I was sure it was DiNozzo the whole time."

He laughed. "It was."

"What?" she asked, scandalized.

"DiNozzo brought the cupcake and the note. He was gonna scare the shit out of you in that parking lot."

"That little…"

"I convinced him not to… in exchange for keeping a secret of his."

"And what's that?"

"It's a secret, Kate," Gibbs smirked.

Glaring, she declared, "I'll be having the lobster fra diavolo."

Gibbs already knew it was the most expensive dish on the menu. His eyes smoldering in the candlelight, he said, "Oh you're worth it."

The track switched to "Dream a Little Dream of Me."

Later that night, they shamelessly made out against the car in the parking lot, bellies full of exquisitely-prepared and overpriced food.

It was hard to part and return to reality.

Gibbs whispered in her ear, "Happy birthday, Katie."

She asked, "Does this have to end?"

"Not if I can stop it."

On the ride home, Kate suddenly said, "Wait a minute. What about the second note?" She could see his crows' feet crinkling in the variating light of the car.

He kept his eyes on the road as he said, "That was all McGee."

"Really!"

"Of course it took a little convincing, but from me… well…" Gibbs chuckled.

"So he was lying."

The next morning in the bullpen, Kate had her eye on DiNozzo. When she felt the moment was ripe, she asked, "Hey Tony, heard you have a little secret."

He stared at Kate, then looked at Gibbs. "Boss! That was a secret! Nobody needs to know I get my nails done at—" He shut his mouth at everybody's stares.

McGee's mouth hung open a little bit.

Kate smirked.

"I didn't tell anybody," Gibbs growled. "But it sounds like you just did."

"My cuticles!" Tony shouted in his own defense. He scowled bitterly. "I like it when they— Oh, just forget it."

THE END