DISCLAIMER: Don't own them. If I did, I'd stop killing people off on the show!
A/N: This is the first NCIS fic I've written and I've only just really got into the show in the past few months (I know-shocking!) so I'm sorry if I've accidentally made people way out of character or something. I tried!
It was not often that Special Agent Caitlin Todd found the time to have a bath. But then again, it wasn't a common occurrence for Kate to discover she was being cheated on by the guy who was breaking up with her. Nor did she frequently sort through her letters only to find a speeding fine. She couldn't remember ever having a baby throw up on her while she was waiting in line for coffee, either. And she had never, ever experienced all three disasters in three consecutive days.
For this reason, Kate felt completely justified in deciding to spend her Friday night in a warm bath, filled to the brim with bubbles. She didn't plan on getting out until her skin was so prune-like it would put her grandmother's to shame.
Everything was perfectly planned: the bath was just the temperature it ought to be, the candles were laid out in an exact plan and a nice fluffy towel was waiting for whenever Kate was ready to finish her bath. Even after three nearly sleepless nights of crying into her pillow over that jerk and three tiring days of one bad event after another, Kate could still pay attention to detail when it mattered.
The scented candles flickering around the room mixed with the scent of her bubble bath, and as the smell of lavender and wisteria hit Kate's nose, her body relaxed into the deliciously warm bath, the hellish past three days becoming more and more bearable as sleep took over.
************************
To say that Kate had been out of sorts for the past few days was the understatement of the year. Tony had been the victim of her moodiness and irritability for what had almost been eighty-four hours now. And here he was, standing at her door about to subject himself to even more of it. What could he say? Her behaviour was like a sequel; hard to sit through and horrifying, but you endure it because you always know you have the original to return to. And he was hoping he might be able to switch Kate 2 back to Kate 1 tonight because, if truth be told, he missed the original. A lot. Kate 2 scowled and frowned and, when she thought no one saw, looked like she was about to break. Kate 1 smiled and teased and made leaving work everyday hard.
Not that he'd ever tell her that.
He knocked on the door several times but after a couple of minutes of waiting and no response, Tony decided to take matters into his own hands. He unlocked the door with the spare key Kate had given him when she'd gone away for the weekend and needed someone to feed her fish.
He was met with an empty room. She'd definitely returned-her jacket and bag were resting on the table. And he knew it was the jacket she'd worn today because he'd marvelled at the way it hugged her slim figure before deciding he never wanted her to put it on again after he saw the top she'd been wearing underneath.
"Kate?" he called out, making sure his voice wasn't too loud. Maybe she was asleep and he could wake her up with a kiss and then pretend she'd just been dreaming…
No, no, NO! Tony mentally slapped himself on the back of his head. This was Kate he was thinking about. She wasn't like all the other women Tony knew. For one thing, she was slightly more frightening and intimidating. And she had the power to make his work life hell if he stepped over the line.
As he breathed in, he picked up on a soft, floral smell and suddenly it made sense. She was in the bathroom. Presumably taking a bubble bath. A million and one images overflowed Tony's mind, none of which he was certain Kate would condone. He tried to think about his boss taking a bubble bath, his old tenth grade maths teacher taking one but nothing could erase the fact that it was Kate in that bath just a few steps away from him. It was overwhelming, uncontrollable.
"Think, DiNozzo," Tony muttered to himself. Surely there was an appropriate excuse he could come up with for going into that bathroom.
Carefully, he turned the door handle, praying it wasn't locked. God heard his prayers-the door opened without a fight but emitted a loud squeak as it swung open.
Kate awoke with a start, her heart pounding wildly and a scream leaving her lips as she recognised the sound of her bathroom door opening. Well, at least, Tony thought it was Kate-the bath was so full of bubbles that it took him several seconds to find her.
"It's okay-it's just me!" he said quickly.
"Jesus, Tony, what are you doing here?" Kate exclaimed wildly, glaring at him as she checked that the bubble level was still high enough not to reveal anything.
"Well, I…I thought maybe you were being drowned in the bath," Tony replied as his mind locked on to a relevant movie, "and couldn't move because you'd been given halothane or some other drug like that. So I just wanted to make sure that wasn't the case."
"But the bath was meant to overflow in What Lies Beneath and you didn't hear any running water when you came in, did you?"
Damn. She'd seen the movie. Kate continued to glare at Tony and he realised that his behaviour was just prolonging the screening time of Kate 2.
"Actually, I came here to talk to you," he said. "Do you wanna talk in here? Or will I wait in the living room?"
"Living room," she answered immediately. "Go. Now."
Tony quickly escaped from Kate 2 and the overpowering floral smell, closing the door behind him and trying to ignore the tickle in his nose.
"And I want my spare key back!" Kate called out right as Tony gave a massive sneeze.
**************************
Kate walked into her living room ten minutes later dressed in jeans an a simple top, sitting down next to Tony and looking at him expectantly.
"First things first, I made you some of this green tea stuff I found in your kitchen," Tony said, handing her a mug. "I also made you this."
He gave her a sheet of paper lying next to him and Kate's expression softened instantly at the apologetic look on his face and his attempts to make it up to her. She looked down at Tony's untidy scribble:
"This voucher is redeemable for either of the following:
a) a glimpse of me-Anthony DiNozzo-in a bath with or without bubbles (your-Caitlin Todd's-choice)
OR
b) a fully paid dinner with me-Anthony DiNozzo-at the restaurant of your-Caitlin Todd's-choice."
Was he imagining things or did he see a glimpse of a smile on her face as she put the voucher down on the coffee table?
"And, most importantly," Tony continued, trying to ignore the pride rising up in him commanding him not to say the next two words, "I'm sorry."
The expression of surprise on Kate's face was blatantly evident but she managed to collect herself quickly.
"You're forgiven-this time," she said simply. "Now, what did you really come here for?"
Tony searched here eyes intently for several moments. Something had definitely happened-he'd known that for the past few days. But sitting here in front of her and really looking at her showed him that it was no minor annoyance. Without make-up, her eyes were slightly red and puffy and the same could be said for the tip of her nose. Like she'd been crying a fair deal recently.
"Are you okay?" he asked seriously, a frown creasing his forehead. "You haven't really been…you all week."
Kate wondered if she was going to walk around with a permanent look of surprise on her face for the rest of her life. Not only had Tony apologised tonight but after she'd spent the past few days cutting him to pieces, he was sitting here asking her if she was okay.
"Tony," she said quietly, "I've behaved like a bitch to you for the past few days and-"
"Looked like you're sad and lonely when you thought no one was looking," he interrupted so quietly she almost didn't hear it.
She'd always expected that there was sensitivity lurking beneath Tony's exterior but she'd never expected it to be directed towards her. Nor did she expect it to be so raw, so evident on every part of his face; his eyes were full of concern, his forehead was creased into a frown. Even his typical smirk had been replaced with a serious expression.
Kate wanted to shrug off the question but his face wouldn't allow it. Even if she didn't tell him she felt as if he would somehow know, somehow find out. She felt that he was in tune with her.
"The past few days have just been…stressful," she finally answered.
"What happened?" he asked.
She found herself telling him all about that jerk of an ex and the leggy blonde he'd been seeing for almost the entire time they were together. Her spirits lifted as Tony's face clouded with anger and an intense dislike for a man he'd never met. By the time she got to the speeding fine and baby vomit, these matters seemed so trivial that she found both herself and Tony laughing hysterically about them.
"You can be a surprisingly good listener," Kate told him once she'd finished relating her dramas to him.
"Don't let anyone know-ever," Tony warned her.
She reached over and picked up her tea, a look of amusement crossing her face as she stared into it.
"What?" Tony asked.
"Did you…put milk in my green tea?"
"Unless you filled your milk carton with something else, then yeah."
"Tony, you drink green tea straight," Kate said with a giggle, putting it down.
"I'm sure that's not-"
"You try it, then," Kate insisted.
"Fine, I will," Tony said, picking up the mug.
Kate watched in delight as he took a sip, trying his hardest not to show the look of disgust on his face as he tasted it.
"See, it's…good," Tony said, immediately putting the mug back down. "Really good."
"Liar," Kate smirked.
"Do you miss him?" Tony asked suddenly after a few moments of comfortable silence.
Kate shook her head and realised it was the truth.
"I can't really remember what I saw in him in the first place and we were never all that serious. It's just my pride that's been hurt."
Tony wrapped an arm around Kate's shoulders and pulled her in towards him, giving her forehead a kiss as her head rested on his chest.
"The guy's an idiot, Kate," he said. "You're much better off without him."
If she hadn't been broken up with, then she never would have been in Tony's arms right now, listening to the steady beating of his heart. She could never say it out loud but that alone was enough of a reason to make her believe she was better off the way she was now.
"Thanks, Tony," she said quietly. "For everything tonight. You've made the past few days much more bearable."
If he had the nerve, he'd place a finger under her chin, tilt her head up and kiss her right now. But this evening had gone so well-apart from the minor bubble bath incident-that he didn't want to do anything that might remove even half a brownie point.
With some disappointment, he felt Kate remove her head from his chest. He wondered if that meant he had to remove his arm from around her but before his thoughts got any further, he felt long, soft fingers resting on the side of his face and saw Kate's lips approaching his own. Was she going to pull away in a second and start laughing-was it just some joke?
It wasn't. Her lips brushed delicately against his before returning with more force. She smelt like her bubble bath and scented candles but this time, his nose didn't itch. He was too busy noticing how amazing it felt to have her body in his arms and her lips pressing against his.
She ran her fingers through his hair, exploring his mouth with her tongue. She wanted to stay like this forever; wrapped up in Tony's strong, protective arms but eventually they had to come up for air. They gazed into each other's eyes for several moments, seeing the other person in a completely new light before Kate lay herself down on his lap.
"Was that-" Tony begun but Kate's finger pressed against his lips and she closed her eyes.
She didn't want to know what Tony was going to say. She didn't want to run the risk of finding out he thought it was a mistake. Just for one night, she wanted to fall asleep on him and pretend that he was all hers.
Tony watched Kate drift of to sleep, her breathing evening out and her face relaxing as her dreams took her away. He didn't know how long he sat there for, just watching her and wondering if tonight had really happened, but eventually he scooped her body up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom.
Carefully, he lay her down in bed and tucked her in, unable to resist brushing the hair out of her face and giving her a kiss before turning out the light and leaving her room.
He didn't know if she really meant the kiss she gave him tonight. He didn't know if anything more would happen. But that one kiss, that one moment, had meant more to him than any other encounter he'd had with a woman.
And for now, that was enough.
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