Sorry it's been so long. Thanks for all your reviews and thanks for adding this to your favorites and alerts!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bass, but I really want to!

A Journey to Freedom

Chapter 3

Kate woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. It was 5:30 a.m. on a Friday and she had to get ready for work. She took a shower, got dressed, and walked into the living room. Ari was sitting on her couch reading a book.

"You gonna stay here all day?" Kate asked.

"Not necessarily," he said, looking up from his book.

"Okay, so I guess I'll see you later. Bye."

"Goodbye, Caitlin."

Twenty minutes later, she was walking into the bullpen. McGee was the only one there, sitting at his desk.

"Morning, McGee," Kate said as she sat down at her desk.

"Good morning," he replied as he typed on his computer.

Ten minutes later, Tony walked in. "Good morning everyone," he said, "Sorry I'm a little late, there was a tortoise crossing the road."

"A tortoise? Crossing the road. Really Tony, I know you can come up with a better excuse than that," Kate said.

"Well, why don't you tell that to my little friend," Tony said as he put a tortoise the size of a baseball on her desk.

"Tony!" Kate yelled.

"Relax Kate, it's just a tortoise."

"Why is a tortoise even in D.C.?" she asked.

"A kid probably lost it or it somehow got away from a pet store."

"It's actually kinda cute," Kate said as she pet its shell.

McGee walked over and obviously hadn't been paying attention to their conversation. "Tony, do you have any good movie suggestions, all the movies I have, I've seen too many times and is that a tortoise?"

"Yeah, that's a tortoise. Uh, I think you'd like "Unknown" with Liam Neeson."

"Thanks," McGee said, walking back to his desk. Gibbs walked in now. "Do we have a case?" Kate asked hopefully, she wanted to work late tonight so she didn't have to see Ari.

"No." Kate went back to playing with the tortoise.

"Why is there a tortoise on your desk, Kate?" Gibbs asked.

"Tony found it in the road. Isn't it cute?" Kate said.

"I need coffee." And then Gibbs was gone.

"What should we name him?" asked Kate.

"I don't know," Tony said as he picked the tortoise up and put it on his head, "let's ask Abby."

Kate and Tony walked into Abby's lab with the tortoise still on Tony's head.

"Hey guys," Abby said, "why is there a tortoise on your head?"

"It likes it up there," Tony said, smiling.

"Maybe because it resembles dried up grass," Abby said and then laughed at the face Tony gave her. "So what can I do for you?"

"We need to know if this tortoise is male or female and we need help coming up with a name for it," Kate said as she took the tortoise off Tony's head. Abby took it from her and looked at it for a minute, "It's a boy," she said, "how about Steve?" she suggested.

"No, it doesn't fit," Tony said.

"Charlie?"

"No."

"I'll make a list of names, you two go play with your tortoise."

Kate and Tony sat on the floor in front of Abby's desk. They sat a few feet apart to let the tortoise crawl back and forth between them. Twenty minutes later, Abby gave them a list of names.

They both looked through the list. "Bass?" Tony asked.

"Like William M. Bass, the forensic anthropologist.

"How about Bernie?" Kate said.

"I don't know. Abby, Bernie or Bass?" Tony asked Abby

"Bass."

"Okay, then Bass it is."

They went back to the bullpen with Bass and let him walk around for a bit while they did paperwork.

It was seven o'clock when Gibbs told them to go home. "I'm gonna go buy a cage for Bass," Tony told Kate, "Bye Kate, McGee, Boss." Then Tony left with Bass.

After a few minutes, Kate shut her computer down, grabbed her bag, and left. She really didn't want to go home, so she decided she would go to a bar instead. She knew she wouldn't be able to drive home, so she parked her car in front of her apartment and walked the fifteen minutes to the bar.

The loud bar was filled with drunken people dancing. Kate always went here to get away from her troubles. A few hours at the bar, and she was drunk. Some guys she didn't know came up to her and asked if she wanted to dance. "Sure," she told them and they led her to the dance floor. There were four of them and they were all drunk too.

She did a little dirty dance up against one of the guys and that's when Ari walked up.

"Hey Ari," she said walking over to him and started doing the same dirty dance against him that she did with the other guy, who was now dancing with some other girl.

"Caitlin, what are you doing here?" Ari asked as Kate rubbed up against him.

"Dancing, what does it look like?"

"You're drunk," he said as he tried to get her to stop, but not succeeding.

"Aw, come on Ari, have some fun with me."

"Come on, I'm taking you home," he said, grabbing her arm. A slow song came on and she pulled on his arm.

"Just one more dance," she said pulling him back and she placed his hands on her hips.

"Fine, one dance." Kate put her arms around his neck and moved closer to him, not leaving any room for Jesus.

They looked into each other's eyes until the song ended and she kissed him on the cheek. "Now we can go," she said taking hold of his arm.

"That was fun," Kate said, clinging onto Ari.

"Yeah," he said. Kate almost fell over and he had to steady her. "I think you had way too much to drink."

"It was really fun when you came," she said as she slipped her hand in his. Ari just looked at their hands for a moment. He didn't know what to do. "You are so drunk, you have no idea what you're doing," he thought.

When they got in Kate's apartment, she sat down on the couch pulling Ari with her. "It's getting late, aren't you tired?" Ari asked.

"No, are you?"

"No, but don't you think you should get some rest?"

"Nope, I don't have work 'til Monday," she said as she started playing with his fingers, and slid her fingers in between his. There was a knock at the door and she let go of his hand. Ari went to hide in his room while she went to answer the door.

Kate opened the door to see Tony holding a cage with Bass in it and a box of strawberries. "Hello Tony," she said as she tried to balance herself.

"Oh good, you're drunk," he said, knowing her being drunk will make his job a lot easier. "I was wondering if you would take Bass, I'm not allowed to have any pets in my apartment, neither is Abby, and McGee said no, and Gibbs just shut his door in my face, so you're the only one left."

"Sure." She took the cage and the strawberries and shut her door in Tony's face. "Why didn't I come to her first?" he said to himself before leaving.

"Is that a turtle?" Ari asked when he walked back into the room.

"Tortoise," she corrected him.

"Is there a difference?" he asked.

"Yes," she said as she grabbed a bottle of vodka from her fridge. He sat back down on the couch and Kate came over and sat next to him, this time sitting even closer to him.

"Why is a girl like you drinking vodka?"

"I like the taste, wanna sip?"

"Sure," he took the bottle, drank some and gave it back. She drank the rest then put her head on his shoulder.

"I think it's time for you to go to bed," he said as he started to get up and Kate tried to pull him back down.

"No, I don't want to sleep," Kate whined.

"Caitlin, you have to go to sleep."

"No."

"Fine," he said before he picked her up and carried her to her room. "No, I don't wanna go to bed!"

"Caitlin, you're acting like a child."

He opened the door to her room and tried to put her on the bed but she wouldn't let go of him. "Caitlin, let go," he said.

"I told you, I don't want to go to bed." He started tickling her so she would let go. She started giggling. "Stop. Ari, stop."

"Not until you let go of me," he said.

"Never." He continued to tickle her.

She finally let go, but was tickling him back. They were both lying on the bed, tickling each other, and laughing. Kate had him pinned underneath her now. They were staring into each other's eyes again and she slowly leaned down to kiss him but instead he said, "As much as I love this position, will you go to bed now?"

"Okay." She got off him. "Good night," he said and kissed her on the cheek.

"Good night."

Ari went across the hall to his room. He took off his shirt and pants leaving him in only his boxers then he got in his bed. He laid there in the dark for about five minutes before he heard his door open and Kate walked in. She wore light blue pajama shorts with penguins on them and a black thin-strapped tank top. He thought she looked so cute. She climbed into the bed and put her head on his bare chest.

"Um…Hello, Caitlin," he said.

"Hi," she said as she snuggled closer to him. "She's just drunk," Ari had to remind himself.

"I guess you're sleeping in my bed tonight."

"You're the one who said it was time for me to go to bed. And don't leave," she told him.

"Oh, you're going to have a really bad hangover in the morning." And they both fell asleep.

So did you like it? Does anyone wanna guess where I got Bass from? Review please!