Extra big thanks to reviewers this time, because I was becoming frustrated with this, and thinking of forgetting about it, but you changed my minds. THANK YOU!!!!!

Usual disclaimer applies.

"What is it with my stubborn ass team, and coming back to work way too early?" asked Gibbs, incredulously.

"Oh come on, Gibbs," protested Kate, "A couple of bruises are hardly the same as the plague!"

"Kate, what colour are your eyes?"

Kate frowned confusedly. "Brown."

"No, I was talking about the fact that they're both still black."

She sighed. "Look, I'm back whether you like it or not. Either give me something to do, or put up with me being as loud and Tony-like as I can manage."

"I could just have you removed from the building."

She had no answer to that one.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

"So he didn't get you dragged out by security then?"

Tony and Kate were stood in the elevator. They were both on their way to see Abby. Tony, because of a case they were working on. Kate, because she needed her to verify something in one of the dozens of files of paperwork Gibbs had given her to sort through, as opposed to doing something that could, in any way at all, possibly put her in harm's way.

"No, but I'm starting to wish he had. At least I could take out some of my rage in a fight with them."

"Now, that's not a very constructive attitude."

"I'd shut up DiNozzo, the rage is still there."

Tony took the hint.

They stood in silence for a second or two. Just before the elevator doors slid shut, a youngish guy slipped through them, and stood next to Kate. Tony recognised him as the new probie on another one of the teams. He shook his head. He could have sworn the agency had started hiring honest-to-God teenagers.

It took him a few moments to realise that the…kid was staring very attentively down Kate's shirt. He looked in disbelief at Kate, but she was obliviously studying the file in her hand, absent-mindedly trailing her fingers over one of the button-holes on her top in a way that was making the probie's eyes light up hilariously.

Except that Tony wasn't finding it hilarious. He tried to ignore what was going on. It was fairly innocent, and of course, the sort of thing he had done himself to Kate a hundred times before (far less innocently!), but he could hear only one voice in his head.

"She's hot."

"You agree? She's pretty gorgeous."

Clenching his jaw, and keeping his balled fists pinned firmly at his sides, he reminded himself that Kate was fully capable of looking after herself, and that the guy almost definitely wasn't planning anything unsavory, but he just…couldn't.

"Look, she came in here to get to another floor, not to get stared at by some spotty kid!" he said loudly, walking to face the guy, and force him into a corner of the elevator.

"Tony, what are you doing?!" asked a thoroughly shocked Kate.

"He was staring down your shirt," explained Tony. He was still being loud enough for the probie to look as though he was about to wet himself, but Kate knew him well enough to know that he also sounded slightly sheepish.

"Right," said Kate, positioning herself between the men. "You," she turned to Tony, "Calm down! And you," now she turned to the other guy, "Go…buy a magazine."

"Yes ma'am," said the guy, quietly.

The elevator doors opened.

"This your floor?" asked Kate.

"No."

"Yes, it is," she said.

"Oh, right. Yeah. See you around," he babbled as he hurried out of the doors.

When they shut again, Kate hit the emergency stop.

"Okay, Tony. We have to talk about this."

"Talk about what?" he asked, as innocently as he could manage.

"You know exactly what I mean! Ever since the torture thing, you've been different." Her voice became quieter, as she watched him desperately trying to arrange his face into a passive expression. "Look, Tony. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know why you're suddenly acting so strange, but I hate it. Normally, I'd be dancing on the tables at you being so polite, and helpful, and quiet, but I'd happily let you throw whatever you wanted at me, if it meant that you didn't sleep on my sofa to make sure I'm okay at nights, and you didn't shout at people who were innocently checking me out. I'm a big girl now."

"No, you're not!" Tony couldn't hold it in any longer. "We're special agents, and yet that bomber managed to do whatever he wanted! You want to know what it was like down there? You were lying about six feet away from me. You weren't moving! You were like a corpse or something! He was touching you, and leering at you like…And you looked so little and helpless like a doll or something! And he tied you up so your face was almost as close to mine as it now, and stood there and hit you. And every time his fist hit your face, I heard it three times. I heard as it hit you, I heard you scream, and I heard him laugh! And you, well, your head was all floppy, and you were crying and crying, and we kept trying to tell him that we didn't know anything, but he didn't listen! And now, I have to face you, and look at you, and pretend that it's all the same, and that I don't want to kill the guy that hurt you, and I'm struggling with it, Kate! I can't do it!"

And with that he started the elevator back up again, and stormed out.

Kate watched him leave, and once again hit the emergency stop. This time, it was so that no one would see as she slid down the floor of the elevator, slumped on the floor, and sobbed.

Please review. You now have proof of how imprtant it is. x