Disclaimer: The characters belong to the creators of NCIS, CBS, and Paramount. Lucky them.

Authors Notes:

1. My Gibbs is going to be a bit more flirty than bastard with Kate. He will still have his bastard moments but he is trying to impress her so think Gibbs with Melissa from "My Other Left Foot"

2. In the upcoming chapter(s) you will notice certain lines or situations that have been taken from various episodes of NCIS's first season. In my head, Kate is going to experience some of the same situations the same way she did in the real show. Examples would be like working with Abby for the first time or having to ask similar questions about the investigative process.

3. Weekends Only is a very cute place in LA and I stole the name because I think the store is fun

4. There is one line from West Wing in here that I needed to use. It was a throwaway line from the first season so I hope no one here cares. Just in case, I don't know Aaron Sorkin and I don't own any of his material, I just borrowed it.

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Kate pulled into a parking spot, turned off her car and stepped out. The drive to NCIS had been a quick one, but not because of the distance. Kate had decided then and there she would never be following Gibbs anywhere ever again.

"Do you realize how fast you were going?"

She looked over at the sedan the team was piling out of. Tony sent her a goofy grin while Gibbs just looked at her. "You made it didn't you?"

Kate moved to follow the rest of the team into the building. "Yeah but we broke almost 100 traffic citations on the way here."

Gibbs looked over at Kate. "That many?"

"I counted the number of speed limit signs that we passed along the way. As well as the number of times you switched lanes without signaling. Plus the one red light you went through, which if you were curious, was where you almost lost me."

Tony reached the door first and opened it for Kate. "I told you to have one of us ride with you."

"Yes well I didn't realize I might die if I followed Gibbs. Next time I'll be sure to have someone ride shotgun."

The team lined up to pass through a metal detector. One by one they all went through until it was Gibbs's turn. The Security Officer gave Gibbs a smile. "It's a nice day isn't it Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs handed over his gun and passed through the detector. "We'll take care of that in a hurry, won't we Mike?"

Mike laughed and handed Gibbs his weapon back. It was then he turned his attention to Kate. "Well I see you brought your girlfriend to work this morning. It's funny though, she isn't a red head."

Kate and Gibbs both blushed at Mike's mistake. Gibbs regained his composure first and spoke up. "Mike, this isn't my girlfriend. This is Agent Todd from the Secret Service. She's going to be helping us out on a case the next couple of days."

"Oh I'm sorry Agent Todd. Here let me get that for you." Mike leaned over and took Kate's purse from her to place in the x-ray machine.

Gibbs watched carefully as Kate removed her gun and handed it to Mike. "Your backups."

Kate looked at Gibbs. "My what?"

"Your backups. You know…" Gibbs waved his hand a little bit. "A girl has to have some secrets and all that."

Kate just stood there as Mike approached her. "You'll have to hand those over too Ma'am."

Kate glared at Gibbs. "And you expect me to believe you don't have backups?"

Gibbs shrugged his shoulders as Kate removed the gun from her ankle holster and from her back. She also removed the knife she had tucked into her belt. One by one she handed them over to Mike. She turned and kept eye contact with Gibbs as she walked through the medical detector and right up to him. "Quid pro quo?"

Gibbs shook his head and laughed. Kate turned to retrieve her weapons from Mike. As he handed them back to her, he walked her through the procedures. "You'll have to have administration cut you a long term visitor's pass. You should pick that up today so you don't have to keep going through the process. Also make sure you have NCIS issue clearance on your guns."

"Issue clearance?"

Gibbs stepped forward. "It's the equivalent of your no guns on Air Force One beside the Secret Service rule. No weapons are allowed inside NCIS that aren't registered to a cleared NCIS agent or approved before stepping inside the building."

Kate shook her head. "But you just let me through?" Gibbs and Mike shared a smile over Kate's head. "What?"

"Well Agent Todd, sometimes you just have to know the right people."

Gibbs laughed at Mike's response and walked to the elevator. Kate followed quickly not wanting to be left behind. Gibbs moved his body so that his eye could be scanned. The doors opened as a beeping noise sounded.

Kate followed Gibbs into the elevator. "So when do I get my eye scanning pass?"

"You don't."

"Then how will I get up and down floors?"

"Someone will escort you."

Kate nodded her head in playful understanding. "I suppose that someone will be you?"

Gibbs didn't turn to look at her. "I suppose."

The elevator doors opened with a beep. Gibbs walked through first and Kate followed at a close distance. The NCIS offices hadn't changed much. Gibbs's bullpen looked pretty much the same as it had when she was there before.

As they turned the corner, Kate caught the eye of the lab tech she remembered from before, mostly because of the comment about protecting the President from his diet. Kate laughed a little to herself as she recalled the memory and the look on Fornell's face.

She must have laughed a little too loud for Gibbs was giving her a weird look. "What?"

Kate shook her head. "It's nothing I was just remembering something. No big deal."

Gibbs nodded his head and steered Kate over to Abby was now waiting, bouncing up and down on her heels.

"Abby you remember Agent Todd from the Secret Service."

"Sure thing. How goes it?"

"It goes well. How are…"

Before Kate could ask how Abby was Gibbs had interrupted them. "Tony give you everything?"

"Sure did."

"The why are you up here instead of down in your lab running my tests?"

"Relax Gibbs. All the tests you asked for are already running. Besides, a little birdie told me about our newest team member and I felt it was my duty to make her feel welcome."

Gibbs starred at Abby as she looked at him like a daughter looks at her father when she wants something "Fine. You've said hello, now get back to work."

"But Gibbs…"

"Now Abby."

Abby kept Gibbs in a complete stare down as she tried to get him to change his mind. Kate observed their behavior quietly off to the side. The interaction Gibbs had with his agents was interesting to say the least. On Air Force One he had always seamed somewhat playful but this behavior was a bit rougher than she had imagined he would be.

Abby was the first to break away as she normally was. "Fine. I'll go, but don't think I won't get my five minutes with her later and I'll tell her all the horrible things you do to us when you think no one is watching." Abby sent Kate one last smile before skipping away.

Gibbs continued into their office space and Kate followed. He led her to a desk that had been set up for her around the corner from where the team sat together. "This is where you'll be sitting. That's McGee's desk there. I'm across from him with Sarah next to me and Tony across from her."

"Great." Kate placed her purse into the bottom drawer of the desk then turned to Gibbs. "What now?"

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Gibbs and Kate stepped off the elevator. "Where are we?"

Gibbs walked over to the door and opened it for Kate. "Do you get queasy Agent Todd?"

"Queasy?" Kate walked into the room and stopped immediately. There was Ducky, covered in blood with his hands placed in Chief Townsley body. Her body buckled at the sight and she started to gag. Gibbs held on to her and moved her to Ducky's desk where he helped her sit down in the chair.

"Breathe, Kate. Don't forget to breathe."

Kate brought her hands to her face and placed her elbows on her knees. She concentrated on breathing in and out like Gibbs was coaching her to do. She couldn't believe she was freaking out like this. It wasn't the blood that had bothered her. It was knowing that she had just spoken to that man this morning and now he was meat on a slab of metal.

Gibbs softly rubbed his hands in circles on Kate's back. He was cursing himself for surprising her like this. He hadn't meant for this to affect her like that. His guilt was eating away at him as he watched her struggle to regain her breath. He saw Ducky approaching from the corner of his eyes and waved him off. Kate would need a moment to herself before seeing Ducky and he wanted to make sure she got it.

Kate felt like an idiot. She hadn't wanted to appear weak in front of Gibbs and now she didn't know how to recover. She forced herself to sit up straight in the chair and looked up into Gibbs's face. "I'm ok. I was just surprised."

Gibbs patted her on the back. "Sorry I shouldn't have surprised you like that. I need to ask Ducky a few questions, do you want to sit here for a minute?"

"No, I'm ok. I should hear this. The Chairman will want to know the cause of death."

Kate stood up and nodded to Gibbs. She could see his jaw start to move and knew he was about to object. She placed her hand on his arm and he looked down at her. "I promise Gibbs. I am ok."

Gibbs nodded, placed his hand on the small of her back and led her over to Ducky. Ducky removed his hands from the body on the table and stepped back. "Welcome Caitlyn. Sorry about that earlier. Gibbs always likes to plan surprises."

"It's ok Ducky. I'm fine."

Gibbs gently pushed Kate past the body, towards the monitor on the far side of the room. "What have we got Duck?"

"The official cause of death is respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. However when I examined the body I discovered some very unusual things for a cardiac arrest victim."

"Such as?"

Ducky moved back to the body, reached up and grabbed the camera. "Here I'll show you on the monitor." Kate and Gibbs both turned to look at the screen. "You see this is his right lung. There has been serious lung damage that is consistent with a heavy smoker. That damage is consistent in his throat and nose as well."

"That doesn't seem unusual."

Ducky moved the camera out of the way and beckoned Kate and Gibbs over. He moved his arm so it was right next to the Chief's. "Maybe not by itself, but look here. You see the difference in skin color? That's jaundice. It couldn't have been ignored by anyone. His skin would have been yellowing for days based on the amount of damage done to his liver and kidney. In fact all of his vital organs are in some way damaged. I find it hard to believe that they could be this damaged and not have been previously recorded in his medical history."

Kate looked at Ducky. "Is there anything that could have caused that much damage to his organs rapidly?"

Ducky nodded his head. "I'm glad you asked that Caitlyn. I believe our dear friend here was poisoned. I've sent multiple tissue samples to Abby. The question is how he would have been poisoned. Since the damage was to multiple organs, it would be hard to know if he was fed the poison or if he inhaled it."

Gibbs straightened his back. "How long till Abby has the results of the tox screen?"

"She told me about 4 hours."

"Thanks Duck."

Gibbs once again laid his hand on Kate's back to lead her out of autopsy. As they walked away, Ducky spoke up. "Caitlyn, I'm so glad you got passed that unfortunate experience earlier. Do come and see me again sometime. I have tons of stories we could go over about students I've had who have gotten sick before…"

Kate looked over her shoulder and called to Ducky. "Maybe some other time."

As Gibbs and Kate stepped into the elevator Ducky smiled. "Yes. Another time."

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When Gibbs and Kate reached the main office area, Gibbs moved straight to his desk and pushed a few buttons on what looked like a remote. The monitor between McGee's and Tony's desk lit up and the picture of Chief Townsley was displayed.

"What do we know?"

Tony started talking for the group. "Chief Townsley entered into the Marine Corps right after College where he was a member of ROTC."

McGee cut in, "He attended Florida State University where he excelled in bio-engineering and physics. He graduated at the top of his class and spent 3 years doing Graduate work at Yale, earning a Masters in Computer Programming."

Sarah interrupted McGee. "Yale is where he met his wife, then Devorah Pregor. She was a Primary Education student. They dated for two or his three years there before they married. When he graduated, he joined the Corps where he worked as an engineer."

Tony picked up where Sarah left off. "His specialty was in weapons malfunctions. If something was broken he would be the one to fix. There are numerous notes in his file about his building skills."

McGee started in next. "He also developed a lot of software programs for the Marine Corps and worked often with Government Officials on experimental hardware for all of the armed forces."

"After 20 years he was appointed by the President and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to work from the White House on a project that is classified top secret." Sarah finished.

Kate was amazed at how fast the team picked up on what the other team members were saying. They were truly a unit, always one step ahead of each other and always ready to pick up where the other left off. Kate also suspected there was an underlining need to impress Gibbs which is why at some points the junior agents were stepping on each other's toes.

"What do we know about the wife?"

Sarah moved to Gibbs desk and brought up a new picture on the monitor. "Devorah Pregor was 22 when she married the Chief. She taught at Wilhelm's Elementary School until she and the Chief had their first child, Alan. From then she stayed at home for the most part and ran various after school programs for her kids and the neighbors. She is very active in the community, PTA, book clubs, volunteer organizations, and Junior League. Lewis at the White House said that she and the chief would fight regularly. This morning they fought over the dishwasher."

Gibbs nodded. "Anything more serious?"

Sarah shook her head no. "No but Lewis did say that about a week ago the Chief was receiving a lot of calls on his cell phone that Lewis said he refused to answer, insisting the calls were just a wrong number and they would eventually go away."

Gibbs stood from the edge of his desk and moved to sit behind his computer. "Tony, pull his phone…"

Tony stepped forward and laid a file down on Gibbs's desk. "Already did Boss. The number calling in to the Chief's phone is a pre-paid phone card. And before you ask, we traced the number to a card purchased from a local Sam's Club store."

Gibbs raised his hands a little. "Who bought it?"

McGee stepped in for Tony. "We've called the Manager of the store who is pulling receipts from the last two weeks but unless they paid with a credit or debit card there isn't a way to track the buyer."

Gibbs sighed. "What about his financial records?"

Sarah spoke up first this time. "Nothing out of the ordinary. He actually had excellent finances. Did you know if you place stock on…" Gibbs growled at Sarah's getting off of topic. "Sorry Gibbs. He did have multiple credit cards with only his name on it. His wife wouldn't ever have known about them."

Tony cut in. "One of those credit cards was used to purchase multiple products from a store called Weekends Only."

Kate interrupted Tony. "I know that store. It's a cute boutique in Georgetown. Very high-end stuff. They sell some clothes, but mostly accessories and lots of jewelry; all hand crafted."

Gibbs turned back to Tony, "What did he buy?"

Sarah shook her head. "Don't know. The records don't list the item but each purchase was substantial."

"How much is substantial?" Kate asked.

"A couple hundred. It isn't the price of the individual object but more how many there are."

"Could they be gifts? Maybe to his wife as an apology?"

Gibbs looked resigned. "Tony, you and Sarah hit the store and try to discover what he bought. McGee, you keep working on the pre paid card angle."

The gang started to move at Gibbs's orders. McGee sat back at his desk and started to thumb through the paperwork. Tony and Sarah grabbed their bags and moved towards the elevators. Kate had just turned to sit at her desk when Gibbs grabbed her shoulder. "Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Kate followed Gibbs towards the back stairwell.

"To talk to his wife."

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Kate sighed to herself as Gibbs sped around the corner. She angled her head slightly to see the speedometer. Her eyes bulged as she noticed he was driving 15mph over the speed limit. As he shifted lanes and prepared to turn again, Kate grabbed the side of the vehicle and closed her eyes. She waited for her stomach to settle before she opened her eyes again.

Gibbs smiled as he watched Kate out of the corner of his eyes. He saw her grimace as he pressed his foot down a little harder on the gas. It was a game he had decided earlier in the drive. A game to see how much she could take before she said something. As he prepared to take yet another high-speed turn, Kate finally spoke up.

"You need to slow down." Gibbs pretended not to hear her. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Nope."

Gibbs took the sharp corner and Kate swore the car had actually lifted off the ground. "Seriously Gibbs, you have to slow down."

"Kate high speeds are good for you."

"In what way could dying at incredible speeds be good for you?"

"Builds character. Besides what's good about being a federal agent without driving fast? Certainly not the health insurance." Kate laughed. He was certainly right about that. "Besides Kate, you need to relax. Don't you trust me?"

"I feel like we have been through this line of questioning before."

Gibbs smiled as he took his eyes off the road to look at Kate. "That we have."

As Gibbs pulled his car into a driveway and turned off the engine, Kate surveyed the neighborhood. Each house had a lovely sculpted yard and most of the neighbors had evidence of kids; swings in the front yards or toys scattered around the place.

"This looks like something out of a picture. Like Growing Pains or something" Gibbs looked over at Kate puzzled before shutting the door to the car. "You know, the TV show?" Gibbs shook his head. "Why does that not surprise me?"

They walked up to the door but Kate stopped Gibbs before he rang the doorbell. "What exactly do I do?"

Gibbs turned to her. "Watch her body language. Observe the space around you. Make a profile on her so when we leave here we know as much about her as we can."

Kate nodded and tried to make herself look more confident. She couldn't help but feel nervous. She had been waiting months to impress this man and her first few times to impress him had been sadly lacking. Well that was if she counted the autopsy room, which at this point in time she was unwilling to do.

This could be her chance. Her chance to help with the investigation instead of just following everyone around like a puppy. Kate's fists closed together tightly as she evened out her breathing. She could do this. She was a damn good profiler and she would prove it right here.

"You ready?"

Kate looked up at Gibbs and nodded. She was ready.

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Sorry this took so long to get out. I had a mixture of writers block and real life drama going on that I had to take a little while to make sure this was right.

The writer's block was pretty stupid for some reason I couldn't start this chapter. I knew exactly where it needed to go but I couldn't get them inside NCIS. Finally watching an episode of West Wing helped.

While trying to cure myself of my writer's block I worked on Gibbs and Kate's first kiss, which helped get the creative juices flowing. I thought I might give you a small preview now for fun….

Kate knew that is she was ever granted the chance to remain in one moment forever this would be the moment she would choose. The kiss was slow and gentle, but was somewhat demanding. When Gibbs broke off the kiss they were both left standing breathless.