Quick question, is anyone still freaking out about House Divided? Because I am.
Kate was the only one who understood Delilah's feelings. She didn't pressure her, didn't bombard her every day with offers to buy onsies and bottles, or condescendingly encourage her to do some breathing exercises. Kate didn't try to act like everything was okay, because they both knew it wasn't.
Delilah knew Tim would have wanted her to stop working by now, and start to prepare for the birth of their baby, but she couldn't make herself. It felt wrong to get ready without him, it felt like moving on. And she couldn't allow herself to even start thinking like that.
The team thought they were handling it very well, which is exactly what Kate and Delilah wanted them to think. It had taken several hours of heated discussion with several people for Kate to even be allowed to stay at work, and therefore somewhat in the loop, and Delilah had to rely on her composure to get herself any information at all. If anyone discovered any evidence of either of them breaking down, Kate would probably be forced into taking leave, and Delilah wouldn't hear a word about her husband until her turned up on her doorstep.
So they cried secretly, quietly, and without telling anyone. They cried together.
There was no one else to cry with who wouldn't tell Vance, and Kate especially needed to get it out so she could be strong for the team and for her kids.
Their husbands were missing, and, according to the DoD, probably dead. They didn't know what to do with themselves. They had both been expressly forbidden from using any of the considerable resources at their disposal to look for their husbands, and it was causing them no end of frustration and pain. They both had their jobs, and Kate had three children to care for, but somehow they found that their days were unbearably long and filled with reminders of Gibbs and McGee, and the fact that they couldn't (officially) search for them.
Of course that hadn't stopped them from trying, but it was hard to make any sort of progress when your clearance code suddenly didn't work anywhere important anymore. And so, two or three times a week, when she felt herself breaking under pressure and defeat, Kate would drop her kids off at Ellie's and drive as quickly as she could to Tim's and Delilah's. Delilah's cycles of coping and cracking and breaking were remarkably aligned with Kate's, and so whenever Kate showed up it usually took only long enough for her to close the door behind her for them both to burst into tears. Sometimes Kate made it to the couch and would curl up there, Delilah in her chair in front of her, sobbing, and grasping Kate's hands for dear life, but normally Kate would just sink to the ground crying.
They couldn't hold each other, the wheelchair made it kind of awkward to try, but they had a system. On non-couch days, and when Kate was in worse shape, she kneel would hug Delilah's legs, and Delilah would stroke her hair as Kate sobbed her terror and pain into Delilah's lap.
When Delilah needed the majority of the comforting, Kate would kneel in front of her, as straight as she could, and Delilah would lean forward and throw her arms around Kate's neck, shaking and sniffing and coming apart at the seams.
As the weeks went on, and the two women got more comfortable breaking in front of each other, the crying sessions got shorter. Whoever was comforting whom the most, Kate was typically the first to pull herself together, and she would gently dislodge herself from Delilah's either comforting or desperate embrace. They wiped each other's tears, smiled private, broken smiles, and Kate left, usually after giving Delilah a quick kiss on the top of her head. They never spoke during these times, there was nothing to say. The team would try to tell them everything would work out, and the DoD would tell them that Gibbs and McGee would be home soon, Kate and Delilah didn't need to hear it from each other.
They only needed someone to cry with.
A/N: Thanks for reading, please review! (No, seriously. I want your opinion.) I'm not very good at emotion without much plot, but I like how this turned out.