Gibbs had never taken someone's hand off before-wasn't exactly the best or fastest way to bring down a target- but if Ajax Steel held onto Kate's hand another moment, he'd be willing to reach out and give it a go. He clenched his jaw, trying to bury the anger somewhere beneath a fake smile, and wrapped his arm around Kate's back carefully (possessively) and pressed his palm warmly against her hip. Ajax's eyes ran the course of Kate again. Gibbs was telling himself it was only pretend jealousy he was feeling-though very real worry for his partner- the sort that originated from having this man leer at his 'wife' while Gibbs was as close to Kate as was acceptable for two people in public-at least without adding his tongue to her mouth(and however nice that might be, Gibbs didn't imagine it counted as acceptable).
Murder suspect aside, Gibbs could think of a few reasons to introduce Ajax to his fury, but he held onto Kate and held himself in check.
Kate, perhaps sensing the anger coiling up in him and preparing to strike, slid her other hand up over his and squeezed gently. He forced himself to look down at her, and her brown eyes were soft, and strong, and he wasn't used to being the one who felt a little unsteady. She returned her attention to their target and Gibbs stroked his thumb over the softness of her shirt, and let out a long breath. For all the bad this case involved, the dead ends they had stumbled into over and over (and the likeliness that the man standing before them was an in the flesh reminder that sometimes humans were made of darkness) he couldn't shake the feeling of having Kate tucked so safely into his side.
He had entertained the idea, for all of two minutes, that he should have chosen DiNozzo for this op (as if Kate wouldn't shoot him on sight just for the thought) or McGee. He wanted to avoid this, the touching he wanted so much, the closeness that was as required as it was torturous. It was always going to be him though. There was no chance Gibbs was going to sit by and watch either of them pretend with the woman he-well, Kate was his partner, his team member. Nothing else mattered. It was always going to be him that had her six, did no good to question why.
Shaking away those thoughts, Gibbs forced his eyes back on Ajax. He let them slide down to where the younger man still had Kate's hand trapped inside his, and this was the longest handshake Gibbs had ever been forced to witness. Instead of testing out new hand removal techniques (it wasn't worth the paperwork...yet) he cleared his throat and forced a smile while Kate gave a strong tug. It seemed to jerk Ajax out of some sort of daze and he looked right up at Gibbs.
Ajax cleared his own throat, dropping Kate's hand and running his palm over the leg of his jeans. He ducked his head for a second, cleared his throat again. If he was acting, only faking losing himself in the smile of a beautiful woman, Gibbs couldn't begin to find the edges of the lie to pick it apart.
"Right, sorry about that," Ajax said, giving them both a smile now.
He hadn't even realized he was still glaring, searching out answers, until Kate's elbow started digging into him. Gibbs bit back a grunt, reminding himself that he was here to play nice. He was a slightly jealous husband, not a Special Agent right now. And losing his mind around Kate, wasn't exactly something Gibbs had to pretend to understand.
Gibbs shrugged, tried to ease away from Kate's insistent digging and find the words needed to calm the situation.
"Can't blame ya," he finally said, glancing down at Kate's arm. He was going to give her about three seconds to remove her elbow before he did it himself. "Lola does that to people."
He saw Kate's jaw tighten, felt her elbow finally stop trying to perform over the skin surgery on his stomach. Gibbs rubbed his hand over the tender skin, glancing at the top of Kate's head. What a way to get a message across, Kate.
At least Ajax was smiling again, and for the moment Gibbs felt like he had disarmed them both.
He watched Ajax drop the garden shears he'd been holding, and tried to picture this twenty-four year old writer murdering ten people-all couples- in their beds while they slept. The neighbors only had good things to say about him, largely unprompted, and Gibbs found himself struggling to see the dark-eyed man as a killer. Not that his gut was listening to his brain though, twisting itself tighter by the moment.
"Haven't had new neighbors in a while," Ajax said, looking around them at the house they had moved into. "It has a bit of a history, think it scared some people away."
Yeah, some history, like a double murder. Gibbs said nothing though, he and Kate were to play this as if they were from out of town (possibly living in a bubble where the news did not exist) and knew nothing of the murders in that house or of the ones in the surrounding neighborhoods. Still, Gibbs didn't expect their lack of knowledge to be anything but accepted. Dumb worked, a lot.
"Oh, does it?" Kate asked, smiling innocence and curiosity in Ajax's direction. "Anything we should know?"
Ajax shook his head, dropping down to return to shifting dirt around a newly added bush along his front walk.
"Nothing you need to worry about," Ajax said. "Just nice to see some new faces. Been far too long."
Gibbs knew that Kate's warm questions were far more likely to get them somewhere than him glaring and making threats, so he kept his ears on them and looked around the house. It was white-sided, well maintained. In fact, this house looked almost exactly like the rest on the block. It was all a bit ideal for Gibbs, all unbroken dreams and white picket fences, with a little less fence. He'd take real, and worn, over this any day.
"I think we're going to enjoy it here," Kate said, and laid her hand over his chest. He jerked his head, looking down at it for a moment. She was acting, but that didn't mean that he needed her to stop in the near future. "We need to be going though. Date night. Right, dear?"
Dear?
Oh, right, him. He was dear.
"Right...sweetheart," he said, pressing a kiss to her head for good measure, and not all because he could do it now without Kate giving him a second glance.
"Oh!" Ajax said, jerking to his feet so fast Gibbs wanted to reach for a gun on his hip that wasn't there. Kate's hand tightened into his shirt, over his thumping heart and he forced himself to relax into her touch. "I'm having a get together tomorrow. A little party, come meet the neighbors."
"We'd love to," Gibbs said, before turning Kate around and steering them back to their house.
When he was far enough away, he glanced over his shoulder. Ajax was back to yard work, and Gibbs let out a sigh. "Tell me you have a visual, McGee."
"Got it, Boss," McGee agreed. "Do you have the bugs from Abby? You can set them up at the party tomorrow."
"Yeah, McGee," Gibbs said, starting up their front path. "We got 'em. Don't lose sight of him."
"We won't, boss," Tony chimed in.
Kate looked up at him, as they stepped up on the porch and he had to admit it was probably safe to let his arm fall free from around her back (not at all wanted, but safe). She looked annoyed about something, eyes narrowing dangerously as she opened the front door. Gibbs thought about not following her in, before he realized that it wasn't an option to stand on the front porch like a coward, so he stepped in and closed the door softly behind him.
He locked it, taking longer than was necessary (he would claim he was simply out of practice if pushed) and hoping that maybe when he turned around she wouldn't be glaring at him with her arms crossed. He took in a breath and turned around. She was glaring with her arms crossed. He was pretty sure she'd slug him if he told her that she was just as stunning now as when she had a smile on her face.
What he couldn't figure out exactly, though, was what he had done wrong. Was it the arm? The kiss?
"Lola!" she said, huffing out a breath. "You picked that name didn't you."
Oh, that. Again.
"Told you, Kate," he said, with sigh, and brushing past her to move into the living room. "Random. 's not like I love my name either." That was a lie, but there was no way he was telling her that.
She followed him in, and for a moment, it was silent. He sort of wondered if it wasn't mostly put on anger, the sort to keep him on his toes, let him know he didn't actually have the upper hand. He was more than okay with that.
"Think its him?" she finally asked, after he shed his coat and settled onto the couch. He almost patted it to suggest she come join him, but self preservation kicked in.
"Don't know," he said. "Sure looks that way."
He watched her think, biting at her lip for a moment. It was not, in any way, distracting.
"I just don't get murderer from him, Gibbs," she said, shifting to look at him better.
"Why? Because he's handsome?" he asked.
He should have filtered that one. Gibbs had told himself going in, that the soft spot he had for Kate where he (sometimes) didn't let all the stupid, bastard like thoughts fall out of his mouth, was going to have to grow a lot larger to make this work. He wanted to make their time here okay, not great maybe, but livable. He wanted to make her happy. This wasn't a great start.
"Yeah, Gibbs," Kate said, rolling her eyes. And this, the quiet sort, was the real anger. The dangerous anger. "That's it. Not my years as a profiler, not my gut, nothing like that. He just smiled and I forgot he could be the cause of ten murders."
Gibbs only managed a shrug, to look away. No way in hell he was apologizing with McGee and DiNozzo on the line. They knew he was a bastard, he wasn't inclined to let them know he was one in love.
"Fine," Gibbs said, leaning forward. She was jabbing at the keyboard now, her back to him. He could see the tension in her shoulders, and he wanted to make that better. He wanted to say he was sorry without actually saying it. "So, date night? I'll even let you pick what we eat."
He was pulling out his phone as she turned back to him. She was still pissed, still glaring daggers at him (if that was effective she would have killed him a million times over by now) but she was looking at him. He figured that was a good start. Maybe he could slip a sorry in over dinner if he turned the TV up loud enough.
Kate
Her anger had faded somewhere between dinner ,where she thought he muttered something that sounded like an apology, and her shower. He was... Gibbs, and it didn't make it right, and she didn't like it, but for all that he was an ass, he still made her feel safe. Sometimes, not as often as she'd like (but more and more it seemed), loved and wanted. It was enough that she was still able to forgive his faults, for now anyway.
Kate was left staring at the bed in their bedroom, hovering in the doorway, trying to decide if there was actually any risk involved with one of them sleeping on the couch. It wasn't as if the neighbors would see, or care, probably. Of course, with someone murdering people in their sleep, the thought of another gun wielding body so close did have its appeal. And maybe this would be helpful in the fact that sleeping beside Gibbs and not sleeping with Gibbs might be enough to shut up the dirty little part of Kate's brain.
Probably not, nothing else had worked. Maybe she should pick another fight, at least then she'd been thinking about hurting him instead of...other things.
"I don't think there are any ghosts, Kate," Gibbs said, the breath of his laugh tickling against the back of her neck as he brushed past her into the bedroom. His chest was only against her back for a moment, but that was all that was needed for her breath to get confused and stay lodged in her throat until she forced an exhale
"I know that, Gibbs," Kate said, working up to a glare that she couldn't maintain when he stopped by the bed.
He was so relaxed. Casual, and if she had to spend a long while here pretending to be married, this view alone would make it worthwhile. His pants looked worn and soft looking, and his white undershirt was just tight enough to show that he was still very much in shape. Kate had picked the least sexy pajamas she could find on the shelf, and wasn't quite sure if she regretted her choice or not.
Kate licked her lips, and wondered how he could look so comfortable with this as he pulled back the covers on what he had claimed to be his side of the bed-closer to the door, but she couldn't say if it was a choice he made, or some sort of protective instinct.
He looked at her, and smiled, and she realized that maybe this was okay. They were partners, friends (she hoped) and if Tony could share a bed with him, then there was no way that she wasn't up to the challenge. Not that she knew Tony had shared a bed with him, there were just a few stories floating around. Kate walked around to her side, slowly and carefully pulled the covers back, and slid onto the bed.
"Just a bed, Kate, "Gibbs said after a moment, still standing. "Just doin' our jobs."
Was that a reminder for her, or maybe just a bit for him too as he was the one who was looking nervous now. Kate wiggled down into the soft blankets, trying to ignore the fact that she was now actually considering the possibility of ghosts, and shut off her lamp.
She felt a bit bad for Tony and Tim, that they were stuck in the van, sleeping in shifts. She'd buy them a nice meal after this, assuming Tony didn't drive her out of her mind before the op was over.
Kate felt the bed shift, saw the other light go off. She rolled up on her side, looking at the nightstand. Her gun was in the drawer, not as close as she would like, but close enough. Gibbs was warming his side of the bed, and she knew for a fact that he would die to try to protect her. It wasn't necessary but the thought was comforting all the same. She scooted a bit closer to him, and closed her eyes.
"Good night, Kate," Tony said softly in her ear. "Boss."
"DiNozzo," Gibbs muttered. "McGee. Do your jobs." There was a pause. "Stay safe out there."
Kate smiled, and concentrated on breathing. It wouldn't be the first time she willed herself to sleep. She was nearly there, when she felt the softness of lips on her temple. She just avoided jerking awake, aware that it was only Gibbs this time. The smell of him was all around her.
"Goodnight, Kate," he whispered, and she felt him roll away from her, taking a large amount of her blankets with him.
It just figured he would be a bad bed sharer. And the kiss, so unexpected and tender that it was burning its way through her skin and into her mind. It was going to be a very long night.