Part 04 of Forever
Disclaimers: See Part 01
"You look like you haven't slept at all, Jethro," the medical examiner remarks when he sees Gibbs entering autopsy, alone. "What's the matter?"
"My life is getting very complicated at the moment," he turns to look at his long time friend. He knows Ducky will understand. He has known since the very beginning.
"Complicated? How so?" Ducky puts down the report he's reading and walks to sit beside Gibbs, recognizing that this is one of the heart-to-heart sessions between the two friends that have ceased to happen for quite some time now.
"Remember the ring?"
"Have you given it to Caitlin yet?"
"She turned me down."
Ducky doesn't say anything. He just sits beside Gibbs, taking in his words and trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Caitlin - sweet Caitlin who has worn her love for the senior agent on her sleeves for so long - has turned Jethro down. Something isn't settling right for him.
"Tell me what happened exactly," the doctor demands.
"We were having dinner last night, and after that, I asked her to call me Jethro, because it'd be silly for her to call me by what will soon be her last name."
"And you call that a proposal?" the doctor smirks. He knows his friend isn't good at romancing, but he should have been better than that. He has been married thrice, after all. But despite all that, Ducky knows Kate, and he knows that she won't turn him down simply because Gibbs wasn't exactly Mr. Romantic last night. She'd make him grovel a little more, tease him a little, and accept.
"Kate knows that I don't do romance well," Gibbs retorts, and Ducky simply nods.
"Tell me more. What else?"
"I said that I want to be with her and the baby, that I want to do the right thing for us."
"Baby?" Ducky's eyebrows go way up. "What baby? Caitlin is pregnant? Good Lord, that's why she's been throwing up and turning green. How far along is she?"
"I don't know. I didn't have a chance to ask and she didn't tell me."
"What do you mean by she didn't tell you? Why didn't you ask when she told you she's pregnant?"
"Because she hasn't told me yet," Gibbs clarified. "Technically she still hasn't told me directly. I found out by accident."
"And she didn't know you knew," Ducky concluded.
"Duck, what does it have to do with anything? I want to be with her for the rest of my life, baby, or no baby."
"Did you tell her that?" the good doctor turns to smile at his long time friend. Jethro Gibbs has an exceptional mind when it comes to catching bastards that are harming those serving their country, but he is a jerk when it comes to dealing with people, and he is an incomparable jerk with those he loves.
"Not in so many words," Gibbs rubs his face tiredly. "I'm asking her to marry me, isn't that enough?"
"Maybe it's not, Jethro. Maybe she thinks you're doing this for the wrong reason."