She had a rather annoying(ly delicious) habit of lookin' damn fine most any day of the week anyhow. The extra effort had been completely unnecessary. The makeup? Not necessary. Sure, she always wore a little – but this level of hazy smokiness around her eyes? She didn't need it. Though, he'd (silently) admit that it bounced the jangled colors of her eyes up toward stratospheric levels of oh-holy-fuck.
But, in general, she just didn't need it.
Those eyes killed him dead most any time, made up or not.
Kate seemed undeniably nervous and her hands brushing against her stomach made him swallow as she looked down the front of her herself. "Think this is okay?"
"Okay?" Abby couldn't seem to keep her grin to herself, the natural prettiness of it accentuated by the deep color of her lipstick as she flicked a look between him and Kate. "You're smokin' hot, Kate."
Abby looked at him again, her eyes somehow implying that he should either confirm or deny (considering he was the only one with a penis in the room) – but they also said he'd damn well better be confirming right quick or he'd pay for it later.
Aforementioned penis had alerted him that she was, indeed, 'smokin' hot' before vocal confirmation was required.
Mutinous little bastard, I'm trying to work here...
Well... not 'little'... but -
"Gibbs?" Abby was not helping the situation. And she damn well knew it too. "Tell her."
Right, about that... um, "Y'look fine."
I will neither confirm nor deny that you look... delightfully fuckable.
"Fine?" The scientist who was idly fiddling with the strap of the other woman's dress seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself, enjoying the fact that she had undoubtedly seen him stop dead just inside the doors of Forensics and stare at his subordinate's hips. "She's gorgeous."
"Abby, stop it." Aaaand she's blushing.
Sweet Christ, why does the woman have to blush so much?
It's adorable. Jethro Gibbs doesn't do adorable.
He'd love to do her in that dress, though. If she asked. Wouldn't even have to ask nicely.
Stop. Looking. At. The. Dress.
"How long before you're ready?" Stop looking at the fact that the length of it was perfect for her height and that the slit that almost teased an expanse of her thigh reminded him that, more than likely, she'd be concealing weaponry somewhere in there too. As to where, he hadn't a goddamn clue.
Her head sharply nodded, just before she adorably chewed on her bottom lip and turned a wide pair of eyes on him that forced his shoulders to tighten as he forcefully turned his glance away from her. "Abby's got me wired and ready to go."
Wired too? Hell, in that dress, where?
"Waiting on you, actually." Abby grinned at him, seeming far too aware that she was witnessing the closest thing to embarrassment he'd actually allow. "Earpiece?"
Yeah... there'd been an actual reason for entering the room. Unfortunately, he'd lost track of it about the moment he'd really allowed himself to take in how smoothly and silkily that particular shade of red wrapped her hips and waist and curved on her breasts like it had been sewn in around her. Subtly sexual, still classy enough to make him swallow half his tongue.
"DiNozzo's got 'em at the meet." He dropped his tone of voice, let it sway quiet because he knew they all paid more attention when he hushed his tone. "All we need is you."
"I feel... a little... this is a bit much. Right? I mean - "
"You look fine." You look... inevitably gorgeous. "Kate, you look nice."
"Yeah?"
Gibbs finally let a grin grace over his lips, nodding humor into how nervously and warily she was watching his reaction. "Yeah."
"Not too... over the top?" She asked quietly as she focused on him, as though she didn't even realize she was fidgeting her fingers against the flat of her stomach and unconsciously doing her very best to kill him where he stood.
She was asking, in her own Caitlin way, if she looked... slutty.
He had the idea that very little in the world could make her look near as trashy as she feared she might.
"Not at all." You could be wearing a garbage bag and duct tape and I'd still think "You look good."
"'Good' in Gibbs Speak equals 'pretty'." Abby's interruption lifted his shoulders higher again, a minute shake to his head as she drew up some sort of... makeup weaponry in the other woman's direction. "C'mere, though."
"Don't add, Abs." His argument went quick but quiet and loosened off his lips before he could trap it back and swallow it down. "She's... this is perfect."
"Okay."
He shook his head into her smiling, "It's perfect."
It only took him half a breath to realize they were both smirking at him.
The combination of Kate and Abby smiling in one particular direction, in that particular (knowing and smug and amused) fashion was akin to some sort of raid on the senses. Complete invasion. Annihilation of all.
That was, officially, a prime example of 'you've said too much'. Now get the hell out.
"You riding with me or McGee?"
"You." Her smiled faltered a little as she searched around her, snatching up the clutch that had been laying lonely beside Sciuto's keyboard. "I'm coming."
"Be patient, Gibbs." Abby's voice tracked after them both, still a taunt of exactly how humorous she found his predicament, despite the fact Kate was acting as though she was mostly oblivious to it. "This is a science, ya know?"
A science? Witchery, actually.
Some sort of trickery that was too far effective on human males.
Or... maybe this particular reaction was limited to him.
Nope.
It wasn't just him.
Because McGee couldn't seem to stop staring at her ass, even when it was just on camera.
"McGee." He repeated the younger man's name with a drop in patience and a rise in annoyance, banking his shoulder hard into the open door of the van. "Let's take in the view above the horizon line, shall we?"
Not that I can entirely blame you but, hell, find another ass to drool over.
"Sorry." At least the younger man still had enough sense in his head to blush as he stuttered, shaking his glance away as he settled his fingers outstretched against the keyboard he was cramped around. "I'm sorry."
"He can't help it, Boss." DiNozzo was lounging his way across the rest of the space in the cramped van, his legs looking longer just by the way he'd stretched out behind the other man's seat. "He's never seen Kate without her 'smug' on."
Gibbs slanted his glance slowly in the other man's direction, noting how deftly DiNozzo dropped the grin he was wearing and flattened his feet to the floor. "And what particular outcropping were you enjoying the view of, DiNozzo?"
"Right," Tony nodded and waved a hand toward the surveillance set up, dipping his head toward it as his voice went tacit, "so the mic's coming in fine."
"You can talk to her if you want, we've tested everything. She's live."
"She's listening to the entire conversation, boys." Kate's voice echoed droll into the van, fenced right between partly annoyed and irrepressibly amused.
"Hey, Katie-cat." Tony's upper body lifted forward from his chair, leaning toward the electronics as he smirked. "I'd just like to point out that it was McGee gettin' busted for - "
"Sit-rep, Kate."
"He's here." She answered into his order easily, unconsciously reminding him that when it was important, he trusted her to be more than proficient. "He's got a fan club hanging off him, though. I can't get close."
"Sure you can." Gibbs shrugged looser into the opening framing of the doorway, feeling a smirk twitch at his lips and doing his best to keep it from finding a home. "Find a way."
She made a snorting noise, one that generally scraped on him because it was sort of cute but at the same time it meant she was about to do whatever she damn well pleased anyhow, regardless of what he was telling her. "I'm just supposed to wedge myself up his - "
"Exactly." Gibbs tossed back, letting his glance rise over the changed angle of the cameras, studying her angled lean into a table, guarding the fact that she'd seem as though she were a loon for talking to herself if anyone caught on. "Start wedging."
"You make it sound easy."
"Should be for you." He gave her a half laughing sound in return, jaw jerking toward the screen regardless of the fact she couldn't see the movement. "I'm watching six men stare at you right now. And six wives are planning your murder."
A groaning breathed off her quietly and echoed into the small space. "Why'd I agree to this?"
"Because you can't seem to tell Gibbs 'no'."
Shut up, DiNozzo.
"Shut up, DiNozzo."
"Both of you shut it." The words weren't as impatiently cut as they could have been, a sigh shuddering off his lungs as he blinked his eyes shut. "Kate, get this done."
"You're not being helpful, Gibbs." Her response was tinny over the microphone but he heard enough concern in the words that he cast a glance toward the camera feed, watching her as her jaw lifted her glance out toward the crowd.
She was still sweetly nervous, a hand still fidgeting against a bit of fabric just below her breasts.
"You need to want it." Gibbs let his voice cull gentler than it had been, ignoring the silence of the other agents watching him speak. "You want the win - but you need to want the attention too."
I do. Just not his.
Yours would be nice once in a great goddamn while.
What are you, a fucking eunuch?
"Got it." She shot it back quickly, turning to set her still mostly full glass to one of the small tables that had been littered throughout the banquet room, wiping her fingers off it slowly.
"Y'look fine."
Fine.
Sure, because that's what every girl wanted to hear when she was cinched into something nearly unbearably tight along the ribs and felt like she was about to swallow her own breasts if she tried to look at her matching shoes.
Son of a bitch.
Fine.
Fine?!
"Show you 'fine', you arrogant son of a - "
"What?"
"Nothing." she hissed at the innocent echo of McGee's voice in her ear, squinting as she pressed her lips together and searched out her target.
Of all things, of all the word choices in the entire English language... he'd settled on 'fine'?
However...
God... there'd also been 'perfect'.
"She's... this is perfect."
How exactly had he gone from 'fine' to 'perfect' in that short amount of time?
She couldn't help but forgive him a little, fingers unconsciously twisting against the hem that edged along her left breast. Her hand turned along the wave of her hair, twisting into it so that she could brush it back off her shoulder and glance back toward her target.
"It's perfect."
"Gibbs?" She wasn't sure why she she'd even asked for him, wasn't sure she really wanted to know if he was watching. Except, for some reason, she needed to know he was there. And for a brief moment she'd dropped the guise of pride long enough to just reach for that assurance.
"I gotcha, Kate. I'm right here." At least the warmth in his voice didn't sound mocking. In fact, it sounded more like heat than just warmth. "Get it done so we can go home."
So we can go home?
I'm ready now. I'm not doing anything...
"Okay." She murmured it with barely a movement to her lips. "I don't..."
"No single heterosexual male is gonna turn you away lookin' like that, Kate." Then he'd gone teasing, all Gibbs and cheeky charm. And she felt her spine loosen relaxed. "Trust me."