A/N: Here's the second chapter! Pretty short, I know, but after all I'm only just beginning ;)
So enjoy, and tell me what you think!
Adapting
Rain's been streaming down the window front of NCIS headquarters all day long, as if it wants to drown all of Washington today.
During daytime the steady rivulets that are winding down the glass just blurred the image of the outside world, but now, in the darkness of a late evening, it looks strange. Reflections of the office's nightlights and few lonely desk lamps make the whole front look like a huge Christmas decoration, street lamps and headlights of passing cars outside just enhancing the impression.
Kate's been staring at it forever, looking for her own reflection amidst all the glittering, but it's hard to tell whether she's there or not. Just the way she feels right now.
It's been a long day in the office, trying to work the case the Director assigned them, and not getting anywhere really because, actually, everyone's got something else on their minds, and everyone's trying to fit the team's own case, their real case into the schedule of interrogations and research. Shepard's getting impatient, and they know it. They are beyond caring, but it adds to the tension all the same.
Kate catches herself tapping the tip of her pen on her desktop yet again, closes her eyes in frustration and wills herself to stop. It can be annoying to be a profiler sometimes, she can interpret all these subconscious things too well. Then again you probably don't have to be a fully fledged profiler to know that tapping your pen on something continually, chewing on your lip until it starts to bleed, twirling that lose thread on your sleeve until it becomes a knot you'll eventually have to cut off, means that you are nervous. Restless, anxious.
She glances at her watch and sighs. And starts playing with a strand of her dark, glossy hair.
Before she can start thinking about that, however, Tony finally emerges from wherever he's been, probably down in autopsy with Ducky. They've discovered another corpse today, and the team's pretending to care where it came from. Kate doesn't want to know what their doctor found out right now, however, and Tony doesn't start about it. Most likely he can't remember anyway.
They exchange a quick glance and grab their things, switching off lamps and computers, and then leave for the hospital.
They're both tired and in need of a bed, but going home is not an option.
"Ducky not coming?" Kate asks as they wait for the elevator to descend.
"He's just tidying up. Said he won't be long."
It's a fake conversation, actually, one whose sole purpose is to eliminate the oppressive, humming silence of the elevator for a few moments.
Of course Ducky's coming. Everyone's always coming. It's not a question.
They cross the parking lot through a misty drizzle, collars flapped up. There's a smell of late autumn in the air, it won't get any warmer again this year.
With a short gesture, Tony tells her they'll take his car tonight, and a few moments later they're on the road.
For the first few days, they used to go each in their own cars, saying it would be far too much trouble to drive back to headquarters after the visit to the hospital, or for one of them to drop off everyone else at their homes, but they've stopped that. They ended up driving right back to headquarters each time anyway, and home for a quick shower and a change of clothes during lunch break, because otherwise they would have been late for work.
Kate's never drunk more coffee in her life. She got all trembling hands sometime around noon at first, but now her body seems to have adjusted. Actually, she's the type of woman that would worry about that and switch to green tea or mate tea or some of that crap because too much coffee's bad for the system, but right now she merely finds herself thinking if Gibbs can drink all the coffee, then the hell she'll do and fall asleep on some Chinese wonder-broth.
She never thought she could get so sentimental, but sticking with coffee because Gibbs does, makes her feel a little better.
A few miles down the highway Tony asks whether she wants to know the results of the autopsy Ducky just did. He sounds as enthusiastic to talk about it as Kate feels to hear it, but she answers "Sure", all the same, because then at least they'll be talking, and not about what they'll do if… .
They make a few half-hearted attempts at guessing what happened to the young petty officer that landed on Ducky's table today, and Kate thinks that if they were to present those conclusions to Gibbs, the ground would have to open up and swallow them for shame.
Never mind, though. It's not their case as Gibbs' team, so it's not that much of a case at all.
Arriving at the hospital, they see Abby's car parked a few spaces away from where Tony pulls his Mustang up, and they know McGee should be there too.
Kate fishes a fleece blanket out of the bag she's thrown on the backseat before, she's always cold and spending the night in a hospital chair doesn't warm you up. Tony rummages in the boot for some magazine he promised Abby to bring when they were having some silly conversation the other day. Watching him, Kate actually has to smile.
"You could think we gonna move in there soon", she comments, and Tony chuckles.
"Yeah, I was planning to give up my apartment next week. Just will have to talk that blonde nurse into serving me some food as well."
Kate shakes her head. The blonde nurse. Of course. She'll probably be happy to do that.
TBC