When she woke up in the morning, she was glad to see that she was still on her side of the bed, and not draped all over her boss. She realized that the reason she had awoken was because Gibbs was getting up, so she discreetly peaked over her shoulder. He certainly didn't seem to be as stiff as he had been the previous two mornings, even though he had apparently slept the same way he had on their previous trip, since the bedcover on his side remained untouched. Bishop rolled onto her back and lay there a few minutes before getting up and heading into the kitchen.
"Sleep better?" she asked him when she saw him standing in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee he had just made.
When he heard her, he shrugged noncommittally, and grabbed another coffee cup out of the cabinet, which after filling he turned around and handed to her.
"Thanks," she said, as she took a sip. He might not be willing to admit that he'd slept better, but she could tell.
They continued their investigation, but were making little progress. The CIA had had Bonner's under surveillance for months, and still couldn't prove anything was going on. Since their Air Force pilot/spy hadn't been killed in Bonner's, or even in Michigan, Gibbs was hesitant to upset their ongoing operation. The CIA team hadn't seen any of the suspected terrorists leave during the time Trapp was in D.C., so it didn't appear as if someone from the Michigan cell had killed him themselves. Bishop had gone over the store's financials, but couldn't find anything the CIA had missed.
With no more leads to follow in Michigan, Gibbs had decided to spend one more day before flying back on Christmas Eve. They would peruse Bonner's one more time, and try to get as accurate a picture as possible of Trapps last movements in Michigan before heading back to D.C.
That night, Gibbs casually moved towards the couch, but heard Bishop say "Nope" as she breezed by him on the way to the bedroom, so he reluctantly followed her.
It wasn't that he hadn't slept better in the bed than on the couch, he obviously had. But as much as Bishop might have been completely okay with sharing a bed with her boss, he was less comfortable with the arrangement. And in no small part to the fact that he actually didn't mind it. This way he could at least argue that he had tried to sleep on the couch, but she wouldn't let him.
While Bishop was in the bathroom changing, Gibbs got into the bed, under the covers this time. She had managed to stay on her side of the bed the previous night, and he knew he wouldn't roll onto her side of the bed.
As Bishop climbed into bed a few minutes later, she noticed the Gibbs had forgone his typical spot atop the covers, and was actually sleeping on his side under the covers tonight. It brought a smile to her face as she drifted off to sleep.
By the time Bishop woke up the following morning, Gibbs had already woken up and was in the kitchen making coffee. She looked to make sure she wasn't on his side of the bed, worried that she'd invaded his personal space, but found that she was still firmly on her half of the bed. She walked into the kitchen, and looking around found him sitting on the couch drinking coffee.
"I didn't curl up next to you again, did I?" she asked worriedly.
"Oh, no, you stayed on your side. I just woke up early and decided to go ahead and get up and make coffee. You were fine. Your cup's next to the coffee pot, I didn't know how long you'd be asleep, so I didn't pour you any."
Waking up Christmas Eve morning, Bishop realized how warm and comfortable she was waking up next to her boss. It had only been a few weeks since she'd found out that Jake had been cheating on her, and she knew the last thing she should be okay with was waking up next to someone she wasn't married to. And yet here she was, plainly enjoying it. It wasn't like they snuggling up together, they weren't even within two feet of physically touching each other, but there was still something nice about it, and that bothered her. Thinking about it, she realized that she was actually a little disappointed that they were heading home that morning, because it meant that there was no necessity for them to sleep in the same bed again. She quickly pushed this out of her mind, wondering what had gotten into her.
Several hours later, Gibbs and Bishop had made it back to D.C. Earlier that morning Gibbs had invited Ziva to take Bishop out shopping, so after a quick lunch at Gibbs' house, Bishop left with Ziva.
When Ziva asked Bishop where she wanted to go, Bishop told her that she had plenty of clothes from when she went shopping with Gibbs before leaving for Michigan, and that she really just wanted to do some Christmas shopping, since Christmas was the next day, and everything she'd gotten had blown up with the rest of her apartment.
While shopping with Gibbs had been surprisingly pleasant, it was nice not to have someone tailing her around the whole time. Both of them of course silently agreed not to tell Gibbs about how 'lax' Ziva's security protection had been, but both of them had their guns with them the whole time, and it's not like they were ever out of each other's site. They were both trained federal agents, constantly vigilant, and it was highly unlikely that their killer would attempt to kill her in such a public place.
A few hours later, Bishop had found everything she needed, and her and Ziva stopped off at a small Greek restaurant for supper before driving back to Gibbs' house. While eating supper, Ziva drilled her on the juicier bits of her trip to Michigan with the boss. Ziva had of course heard for Tony that Bishop and Gibbs had gone undercover as a couple, and wanted all of the details. Though Bishop had sworn to herself that she would never tell anyone that her and Gibbs had slept in the same bed, four times now, and had tried to push it completely out of her mind, she soon found herself telling the whole story to Ziva, who listened with rapt attention.
"So, are you going to keep it up?" asked Ziva when Bishop finished.
"What! No, of course not! Why would I do that? That's just—No. Definitely not," Bishop sputtered.
Ziva didn't say anything about it for the rest of supper, but she could feel her giving her looks, and her mind kept wandering back to her thoughts when she'd woken up that morning, along with Gibbs comment about her 'secret fantasy of marrying him'. But all that was just ridiculous. If anything, he was just a father to her; plenty old enough, for sure.
Walking in the door of Gibbs' house, she saw him sitting on the couch, watching Die Hard.
Christmas Eve, she thought to herself. What else would he be watching.
"Hi, Gibbs, I'm back."
"How did it go? Find any good clothes?"
"Oh, we didn't go clothes shopping," Bishop replied, as she sat down on the other side of the couch. "We just picked up a few Christmas gifts, and then got supper. Nice little Greek place."
"Oh, I thought you said you wanted to go clothes shopping with her. A fellow girl."
"No, you said I wanted to go clothes shopping with her. I never said that."
Gibbs just raised his eyebrow at her for a moment, before returning his attention to the tv.
An hour and a half later the movie ended, and Bishop took her purchases upstairs. Coming back downstairs, she saw Gibbs arranging his pillow on the couch. Standing in the doorway watching him, her thoughts from the last few days, along with her conversation with Ziva over supper, came flooding back into her brain.
One more night can't hurt anything, she thought. He'll feel better than sleeping on the couch, and it's not I'll really be sleeping next to him anyway, we stayed well separated in Michigan.
Finally making up her mind she cleared her throat to let him know she was there and said, "I don't know why you won't sleep in your bed, and it's none of my business. But I'm not going to let you sleep on the couch on Christmas Eve. We've slept together the past three nights, you can do it one more night. Anyway, how is Santa supposed to come if you're sleeping in the living room?" she finished with a smile.
He looked up at her, an unreadable look on his face.
"Come on, it's Christmas Eve. I'm not taking no for an answer." And with that, she turned around and headed back upstairs.
Gibbs stood there for a second, debating what to do. One one hand, he knew it was completely inappropriate. Rule twelve and general workplace rules about bosses not dating their employees and vice versa aside, he was more than old enough to be her dad, and it went against everything he knew.
On the other hand, he wasn't exactly opposed to sleeping in the same bed as her (he would never admit it, but it had felt slightly nice to wake up with someone curled up next to him; it had been a long time since he'd really enjoyed waking up next to someone; the ex-wives never seemed to count), and she certainly wasn't bothered by the age difference. She was twenty-seven after all, and perfectly capable of making her own decisions (Jake was nearly fifteen years older than her, after all).
Meanwhile, upstairs, Bishop was almost hoping he refused. She didn't know what had gotten into her over the last few days, but a little separation and it was sure to go away. Admittedly, there was only so much separation that could be had while she stayed at his place, but sleeping with him certainly wasn't going to help clear her mind.
But a minute later she heard his footsteps on the stairs. She wasn't sure if she was surprised or not that he had consented to join her, and she wasn't entirely sure if she was glad about it or not, either. But as she climbed into bed after him a few minutes later, all her worries drained away for the time being, and she quickly fell asleep, cozy and warm, with a smile on her face.
Christmas morning, Bishop woke up bright and early. Christmas was one of her favorite days of the year, and she had never been one for sleeping in on Christmas. Normally, she would have been up in an instant, and in the kitchen making coffee and enjoying the day, even if she didn't have a pile of presents under the tree to open like she had when she was a kid.
But this particular Christmas morning, she was content to stay in bed a little longer than she normally would have. She knew she would probably be in trouble when he woke up, and she would have her own confusing feelings to deal with later, but for the moment, she was content to stay where she was.
And where she was, was lying with her head on her boss's chest, one arm thrown around him, cozier than she'd been in months. In fact, now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she'd woken up like this with Jake. Between Dubai and the nights he was elsewhere with Taylor or actual work, they hadn't actually even slept together that much the last few months they were together. And even when they had, they hadn't really woken up close to each other very often.
She had nearly drifted back to sleep when she felt a hand gently running through her hair.
"Awake, I take it?" she asked.
"Awhile."
As he made no indication of being uncomfortable with the situation, and was still lightly stroking her hair, she continued to lay there, enjoying the moment. After a while, she knew they were eventually going to have to get up. Finally, she broke the comfortable silence.
"Merry Christmas, Gibbs."
"Merry Christmas, Bishop."
"Sorry about this, I know is this isn't what you signed up for."
"You're okay. At least this time I don't have a different ex-wife to show up and gripe about it. But we should get up. Don't you want to see if Santa brought you anything?" he finished, teasingly.
At this Bishop rolled her eyes, but rolled off of him nonetheless. "You don't even have a tree for Santa to put any gifts under," she retorted cheerfully, getting out of bed. Not bothering to change, she went to make breakfast.
Gibbs smiled to himself as his youngest agent headed down the stairs. When he heard the yelp of surprise, he chuckled lightly and headed downstairs himself. He found her standing in the middle of the living room, staring at the rectangular wrapped package sitting in the spot on the couch she typically occupied. That had "To Bishop, From Gibbs" written on the side of it. She slowly turned to look at him.
"You didn't really expect me not to get you anything, did you?" he asked as he walked past her towards the kitchen.
Bishop rushed upstairs to grab the gift she had gotten for Gibbs, and then grabbed his present for her before walking into the kitchen. She sat her present on the kitchen table before handing her gift to Gibbs.
"Sorry it isn't wrapped, but I didn't get it until yesterday."
Gibbs smiled as he took the gift from her. He wasn't surprised that she'd gotten him something; she had after all got him a cinnamon cake after hearing he liked cinnamon, and that had been within the first few weeks of starting joint duty assignment at NCIS. But he appreciated it nonetheless.
Bishop walked back over to the kitchen table, and started opening the present he had got her. When she saw what it was, she rushed over to him and threw her arms around him. It was a framed copy of her original NCIS application from before she joined the NSA.
"There is also your official NCIS acceptance letter underneath it," Gibbs said, and Bishop finally released him to go finish unwrapping her present. After profusely thanking him for her gifts, and another hug, Bishop began making breakfast.
After moving their gifts to the living room so that they wouldn't get any food on them while they ate, Gibbs joined her in the kitchen, and took over cooking the bacon and sausage while Bishop made pancakes and eggs.
Later that afternoon, Gibbs and Bishop were sitting in the living room when they heard a soft mewing at the front door. Grabbing his gun, Gibbs quietly walked to the front door. Peaking through the window, he didn't see anyone, so he cautiously opened the door, gun in front of him. As he saw no one at eye level, his gaze traveled downward, till it came to rest on a cat, looking up at him, unperturbed by Gibbs' gun.
Still glancing around, Gibbs cracked open the door a little wider, and the cat daintily trotted in. Rounding the corner, it saw Bishop standing in the corner, gun in hand, and ran up to her. At the same time she heard Gibbs say, "All clear," so she tucked away her gun and picked up the cat, walking back over to the couch and sitting down.
"Any idea whose cat this is?" she asked Gibbs, as he walked back into the room. "He doesn't have a tag."
"I think he's the neighborhood stray. I think I've seen him around occasionally when I drive into work."
"Can we keep him?" she asked, looking up pleadingly. "He shouldn't have to live outside in D.C. winter weather."
"Well, I'm sure he doesn't eat as much as you, and he does seem to like you, so I guess. As long as you take care of him, and take him with you when you move."
Bishop smiled brightly at him before returning to the cat sitting in her lap.
That evening, the entire team came over for supper. The girls and DiNozzo immediately flocked to the cat, while the rest exchanged pleasantries and took over the kitchen duties Bishop had abandoned when everyone congregated around the cat. But all that was left was to move the food to the table, so in a short amount of time they were ready to eat.
Since Gibbs' kitchen table clearly wasn't large enough for everyone, they pulled up chairs and ate in the living room. After a pleasant dinner and evening (where Ziva successfully cut short all of Tony's attempts to ask Bishop how her 'date' with the boss went), Gibbs and Bishop eventually found themselves alone again.
When the last guest closed the door, Bishop engulfed Gibbs in another hug.
"Thank you for taking me in, Gibbs. And thank you for a wonderful Christmas."
Gibbs hugged her back, and replied, "You're welcome, Bishop."
Bishop then proceeded to introduce Gibbs to her Christmas evening tradition of watching the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show on YouTube at full volume. DiNozzo had brought over the miniature computer speakers she had requested, and Bishop had the volume turned all the way up. It wasn't quite as close to being at a live show as when she had the surround sound at her and Jake's old apartment at full volume, but it would work.
Bishop set her computer on the coffee table, and convinced Gibbs to sit on the couch instead of the armchair he usually inhabited, so that he could see the show on the small screen. It took no convincing to get Probie Cat to sit in her lap. By the time the show was halfway over, Bishop had stretched out on the couch, with her legs stretching across Gibbs lap, playing with the cat that was laying on her stomach.
By the time the show was over, it was time for bed. Gibbs hesitated as Bishop got up, unsure of what Bishop expected. Waking up after sleeping on a bed had certainly been less painful than waking up on his couch, but he still had his hesitations about the whole thing, and he was still unsure what was going through the mind of his youngest agent.
After Bishop stood up, holding Probie Cat in one hand, she held out her hand to Gibbs, pulling him up off the couch. She held onto his hand until she was several steps up the stairs. She wasn't exactly sure what her feelings toward her boss were, but as long as he didn't protest sleeping with her, she was going to keep sleeping with him.