Wow..so it's been a long time since I've updated, so sorry. I'm jumping in to Chapter 11 right now.
Chapter 10
(Gibbs' POV)
I missed waking up like this. Kate with her head on my shoulder and our legs tangled together. I can't wait till this is more permanent. I'm just going to lie here and bask in this feeling.
"Good morning sunshine." I hear softly whispered to me.
"Morning. I didn't know you were up."
"I'm not really, but my mind won't let me go back to sleep. I keep thinking about my parents coming to visit."
"Don't worry about it until the time comes. You don't even think that they will be coming for at least a month, so let's just think about putting together thenursery and going on our real first date."
"That's right. I am so sorry about dinner Last night was part of what you and I are in for... and that's life. Doing what you can and accepting the fact that you can't do it all, especially by yourself. We'll have our first date, it might not involve you cooking, but we'll have our first date soon."
"When are we going to do that?" Kate asks as she holds back tears.
"When ever you want to go."
"How about tonight? To help me forget about my parents and what's going on with Abby and Tony."
"You don't worry about Abby and Tony, I will. When we get up and have had some breakfast, why don't you relax, get ready for our date. Just take it easy today."
"That sounds really nice. I'll take a nice long bath and forget about my parents for the time being and Abby and Tony." Her voice even started to relax thinking about it.
"So Mommy, what would you like for breakfast?" I ask while rubbing her back.
"There won't be any more babies if you call me mommy again before the actual birth, Daddy," she said as she turned to look at me.
"Kate, what would you like for breakfast?" I ask again while grinning at her.
"Eggs and toast would be good."
"You want cheese on your eggs?"
"Is there any other way?"
"Yes."
"Smartass," she calls me as she gives me a quick shove off the bed.
I bend down to talk to her belly, "Mommy's mad and hungry. You guys must be hungry too, hope you like eggs and toast with milk."
"I'd rather have tea."
"Milk, you need to have it. You've got little people in there that need to grow."
"Fine Milk."
(Kate's POV)
Gibbs left after breakfast sighting the need for me to relax and him to do the same. As I reach for the faucet to turn the water off in my bath the phone rings. I don't care who it is; I'm not answering it. I reach over to my stereo and turn it up to drown out whomever's voice is coming threw the machine. I can feel the heat of the water begin to relax all my muscles. The stress of my parents, Abby and Tony, and the not knowing where my relationship is going with Gibbs. Yes, I am aware that we are having our first date tonight, but I'm still worried about what happens if we aren't to be. I mean we're having children together. Damn, all my relaxed muscles are tensing again. Time to run more hot water. And try to think about the flow of the music and not all my problems.
(Kate's POV)
As I switch the stereo off I hear my answering machine beep, sounding the end of a message. I dread to find out how message I have. I grab an extra towel and start to dry my hair as I walk to the living room to check the machine.
"You have 15 new messages; message one, Friday, July first, 10:15 a.m., ' Kate, it's Abs call me!'; message two, Friday, July first, 10:45 a.m., "Hey where are you? Anyway, it's me again.'; message three, Friday, July first."
I skip over the next 10 messages and just listen to the last two.
"Message 14, Saturday, July second, 12:03 p.m., 'Kate! Where are you? You ever going to call me back? We got a long weekend. I think that you forgot that Monday was the fourth. Movie night and then out for fireworks? CALL ME BACK DAMNIT!'; message 15, Saturday, July second, 1:47 p.m., 'Caitlin, it's mom. Your father said that you're pregnant? Didn't we tech you better than that? I'm calling to tell you that we decided to drive out instead of fly. We left at 5:30 this morning. We're going to try and drive the whole way, but your father might not want to drive that far. We've stopped for lunch and if we stay on this schedule we should be there by 8 o'clock. I'll call if we decide to stop for the night."
Great, just what I need.
(Gibbs' POV)
I reach up and pull my bottle of bourbon from the top shelf. I've missed working on my boat. It's such a tension reliever.
"Gibbs? Where are you?"
"Down here Abby."
I can hear her walking around the kitchen, possibly getting a snack or something to drink.
"I'm bringing a bottle of water. It's too early to drink the stuff you have down there and if you're not drinking it, you need less coffee."
I groan. I really just wanted a few hours to work on the boat and figure out where I'm going to take Kate tonight. I wanted to take her some place nice where she could get her mind off everything that's been bothering her since we've been back.
"I barely saw you when you were in on Friday." Abby says as she makes her way down the stairs.
"I had some place I had to be yesterday. I was there only in to say what I had to."
"Where did go? I tried calling you most of the day and the McGee told me that you had the GPS chips pulled from your phone."
I don't say anything. It's not that I'm ignoring her; it's just not any of her business.
"I think that you have a lot of time on your hands. Don't you have any cases that you're working on?" I ask her.
"It's been slow. Most things I can get done in a day or two and no one has any good cases that take longer than that."
"Remind me of that when we go back to work. I'll find something for you to do."
"So tell me what's going on with you and Kate. And you can't tell me that it's nothing, because I know there is something."
"Gee, Abs jump right in there."
"Well you guys have been so evasive. I tried talking to her in Florida. I've tried talking to you. Tony tried talking to you. If you guys would be so damn evasive no one would have picked up on that something had happened."
"Abby" I get cut off by the ringing of my phone. "I'm going to get that."
I leave her in the basement while I take the call in the kitchen.
"Gibbs."
"You should answer your home phone differently than your cell phone." Kate tells me.
"What can I do for you? I thought that you were at home relaxing."
"I was until I check the messages on my machine."
"Oh yeah? How many didn't Tony and Abby leave?"
"Between the two? Fourteen, I think. I skipped over all but about 5 of them. But I had fifteen messages. The last one was from my mother."
I think I audibly groan. She had said that she thought they wouldn't come for at least a month. They must more upset than she thought.
"They are coming possibly tonight or tomorrow afternoon."
"What are the chances that they'll be here tonight?"
"They left at 5:30 this morning. When she called and left the message they were stopped for lunch. It really depends on how my father feels. He never shares the driving."
"So you think that they'll be here tonight then?"
"Yes, they left early enough."
"When will they get here?" There goes the date unless we start early.
"Maybe by 8 or 9. My dad drives a little slow and they stop often."
"I'll come over and help you get ready. They should have given you more time to be home before they came to visit."
"You don't have to do that. There isn't that much to do."
"But you shouldn't be lifting or doing heavy house work."
"I'm pregnant, not dying."
"I care. Abby's here now. How about in an hour I'll come over and help you? We can have a nice dinner before they get here."
"I'm a little afraid at how upset they might be."
"Don't worry. Those little people in you, they feel all the stress that you do. Don't work yourself up." I whisper into the phone. No need for Abby to get more information than we're ready to give.
I can hear her smile through the phone.
"I'll try not to. I'll see you soon," she said before hanging up.
I pour a cup of coffee before heading back down stairs to Abby.
"I can see why you would lay under here. It's kind of relaxing." Abby said from under my boat.
"I need to be somewhere in an hour, so you are more than welcome to relax some more if you want. I need to run do some things first."
"You wouldn't happen to be going to Kate's would you?"
"Why would you ask that?"
"Because I see things and I hear things."
"And what things do you think you heard?"
"You're going to Kate's and it's possible that she might be pregnant and that you're the father."
This time I know I groan.
"Ha! I knew it!"
"You can't say anything. Kate wants to tell people."
"I won't. I promise I won't tell anyone. Who else knows?"
"Ducky knows, her parents, the director, and, now, you. If you want to talk about it with her, you have to give me a chance to tell her that you know. And today isn't the best of day for me to tell her. Her parents are coming and they are not pleased from what I understand." I leave McGee out, because then there is less of a chance of people finding out due to gossiping.
"You guys getting married?"
"Not any time soon."
"I can see why her parents would be. She's told me a little about them. We can talk about this later. I promise I won't say anything until I get the ok."
She bouncing, but I could tell that she was holding back though.
"I need to get going."
"Right, your stuff. Congratulations Daddy." She tells me as she kissed me on the cheek, "You better get going before you're late."
"I'll have Kate call you later."
(Kate's POV)
I've cleaned everything. I've done my laundry, uncovered my furniture, and rewashed all the plates in my cupboard that I forgot to cover. I think that I've taken care of everything that my mother would notice and complain about. I even made up the guest room using my best sheets. And I managed to do it all in a relatively short period of time.
In my panic of my parents coming I called Gibbs. Part of me wants him to be here to deal with my parents, and the other part doesn't want him any where near them. Just in case they scare him off. Not saying that he scares easily, but my parents scare the crap out of me.
I don't whether to start dinner or I am stressing myself out and I do not need to do that.
It's 3 now, why am I talking about making dinner. It's probably just going to be me eating here, alone.
My buzzer brings me out of my panicked thoughts.
I depress the button that allows me to talk, "Yes?"
"It's me. Can I come up?"
"Yeah." I push the button to release the door.
I walk to door and release the chain and turn back the bolt and start to pace. I have no idea why I'm so nervous about this. Gibbs and I have been living together for nearly a year.
"Hey," he says as he enters the apartment. "Hey," he repeats softer when he sees what a wrack I am, "You need to calm down. You're going to work yourself up so much that your blood pressure will go up. You can't do that. You'll get sick and make the babies sick."
"I'm sorry. This thing is just driving me nuts."
"I'm going to make you some tea, you're going to drink it, and then your going to take a nap. I would have you take another bath, but I don't think it did much the first time around."
We both chuckle at that.
"Thank you, I don't know what I did to deserve you."
"It's me who doesn't deserve you. I feel like this is my last chance at sharing a life with someone, at being a father. I'm going to go get you some tea. Just sit down and relax."
(Gibbs' POV)
I laid down with Kate and must have fallen asleep. The sound of the buzzer alerting us that there was a visitor was what woke me. I look over at the alarm clock to see that it was almost 9.
I leave Kate in bed and go to buzz in whoever is outside, most likely her parents.
"Yes?" I ask as I push the speaker button.
"I'm sorry we were looking for my daughter's apartment." A female voice comes back at me.
"What's her name?"
"Caitlin."
"This is the right place." I hear an 'oh' in response that gets swallowed by the sound
of the door buzzing to let them in.
I got back to the bedroom to wake Kate. I'm not afraid of her parents; I just don't want to face them alone.
"I was wondering where you went off to." I hear her say in a sleepy voice.
"How are you feeling now?"
"Very relaxed. I love sleeping with you."
"Great. Your parents are on their way up."
"I didn't even hear the buzzer."
"I did, that's what woke me."
"I have to go to the bathroom, will you let them in when they get up here."
I nod after her as she walks towards the bathroom. I swear she just wants the initial introduction to be combustible. I don't know how long it takes her parents to go up a flight of stairs and down a hall, but I'm going to put some water on for tea. And hopefully the Todds will see how well I take care of their daughter.