A Dare, Or Something More Sinister?

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS... I'm just taking the characters for a spin!

Author's Notes: Thank-you all for the reviews, I'm glad you all like it... as always a few more wouldn't go unnoticed! Please!

Again a huge thank you to Kate for her brilliant ideas and inspiration!

Kate turned the television off, midday television was worse than she remembered it. She walked into the kitchen and washed up the dishes from her breakfast. She heard a noise coming from Gibbs' bedroom and went to investigate. After walking into his bedroom and finding nothing, Kate stopped at the doorway, confused until she heard a noise from the bathroom. She waited for a while, then went in to find Gibbs huddled over the toilet, he didn't look good. He looked up at her at attempted a smile, but failed miserably. He wiped his mouth with some toilet paper and tried to get up, but stumbled into the wall. Kate watched Gibbs blink a few times before pushing himself off the wall, Kate helped him back to his bedroom.

"I think, maybe it was a good idea, not to go into work today" Gibbs said with an effort, sitting on his bed

"Yeah, great deducing skills there, you should be a detective" Kate replied, tucking him in

"Mmm." He agreed "Kate?"

"Yeah"

"Thanks" With that, Gibbs fell asleep again

Kate put the movie back into the box, wasn't bad, Fight Club; she figured Tony had bought it for Gibbs. She smiled as she remembered Tony speaking of the movie for a few days, telling Gibbs that he would hire it out for him. Kate found it surprising that Tony had actually done that though, but what she found more surprising was that Gibbs had a DVD player. She put the box on the coffee table and looked at the rest of the range of DVD's, nothing caught her attention. She sighed and went back to see how Gibbs was doing, he'd now been sleeping for four and a half hours, not including last night. Gibbs had pulled the covers back and was now sleeping on top of them, but had pulled his knees into his chest and looked cold, he must be running a fever. Kate walked in but stopped when she heard Gibbs talking in his sleep.

"No… don't…not her" he whispered, his voice getting louder. "No" his voice was softer now, he sounded close to tears, "I won't let you" his breathing became deeper; "No…I love her". Kate's heart stopped when she heard this, she didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she needed to know who her boss had fallen in love with

"No!...KATE!" Gibbs yelled sitting bolt up right. He stared around the room, coming back to reality and tried to calm his breathing down, and then he noticed Kate.

"Kate," he said. Kate saw tears pooling in his eyes

"Shhh," Kate came over and hugged his head in her arms, rocking him back and forth

"I thought…somebody tried to…," he tried to explain

"It was just a bad dream," Kate told him

"Sorry, I…" Gibbs pulled himself out of her embrace and took a deep breath. Kate sat on the edge of his bed and looked at him.

"It's ok, you don't need to explain" she told him, "You're just going through withdrawals"

"Um," he started and for a while it looked to Kate like he was about to say it might be more, but instead he said, "Yeah, you might be right"

Kate sighed, "You should rest"

"I'm tired of resting" he said, but lay back down anyway and closed his eyes, "I think I've slept enough for the next ten years. I'm not even" he stopped to yawn "tired anymore"

Kate watched him fall asleep again and tucked him in once more.

Once out of the room, Kate called Ducky and filled him in.

"A fever. Yes, that's not too good. Anything else?" Ducky asked

"Yeah, he had a nightmare" Kate replied

"Really? What about? You do know that it was Fraud who said that during our dreams, our subconscious self is…" Ducky started

"Ducky," Kate said, exasperated as she rubbed her hand over her face, "No, I don't know what about"

"Caitlin, I do know that Jethro speaks whilst dreaming. Especially when he has a bad dream. This is half of the reason why one of his wives left him; I'm not sure which one"

"Ducky, he didn't say"

"So, what is bothering you darling?"

"Nothing, he just" Kate said, "I've just never seen him like this before"

"Yes, not many of us have. He puts up a fairly good show of making it seem like nothing gets to him or affects him. But underneath it all, he is still only human like the rest of us"

"I know Ducky, I know. It's just hard to see him like this"

"I understand. And how are you Caitlin?"

"I'm not the one going through withdrawals. But watching Gibbs, I don't think I ever want to be"

"I see. Well, I have to bid you farewell, my darling, I have that pointless conference to go to. If you need somebody to talk to, you know where to find me"

"Thanks Duck" Kate said and closed the phone.

Kate went to the kitchen and got a bucket of cold water and a flannel, then went back to Gibbs' room. She pulled up a chair by his bedside and carefully wiped his forehead with the flannel, expecting him to suddenly move and hurt her in some way. She had been told on many occasions not to wake a sleeping marine, Ducky had even related a story about a marine who had killed his wife because, well, now that Kate thought about it, she had no idea, she must have tuned Ducky out. Kate returned her attention to her boss, there was no sudden movements. She dipped the flannel into the water again and wiped his face; he turned his face into the cloth and sighed contentedly. Kate smiled; she returned the flannel to the bucket and held his hand.

Kate woke to hear Gibbs' mumbling. She sat up, confused, she didn't remember dozing off. She looked at the time, 1825, still early, but kind of late too. She looked back at Gibbs, he was lying on the top of the covers again, sweat was pouring down his face. Kate picked up the flannel and wiped his forehead. She didn't think that caffeine, or lack there of, would do this. She sighed and put the flannel back into the bucket.

"Hey" she heard a muffled whisper come from the bead

"Hi," Kate replied, running her hand through his hair

"Mmm, that felt good" he whispered

Kate rested her hand on his chin and looked into his eyes. His hand came up to join hers and he smiled.

Kate smiled back, "How're you feeling, Tiger?". Kate began to blush as she realised what she had called him, she hadn't meant to say that, it had just popped out.

Gibbs quietly laughed when he saw her face, but his laugh soon turned into a cough. Kate helped him sit up to help him get oxygen into his body. Gibbs groaned as he lay back down on his pillow.

"You know, in this light, your hair kinda looks red" he said quietly

Kate blushed a bit deeper; wishing the light in the room wouldn't highlight her rosy cheeks. "Really?" she asked him

"Yeah, makes you look really cute" he said. When he saw her reaction he frowned, "Did I say that last part aloud?". Kate nodded; Gibbs looked into her eyes "Right, well, I don't take it back"

For a while, they stayed in an awkward silence, looking into each others eyes. "Ah, Gibbs, are you hungry? It's about dinner time and my tummy's rumbling" Kate said and as if in response to being called, her tummy started to talk.

Gibbs laughed, "Yeah, I think I feel up to food again. What's cooking?"

Now Kate laughed, "Oh no, you don't want any of my cooking, that have you pushing up daisies for sure."

Gibbs sat up and looked at Kate with a serious expression on his face, "You can't cook?"

"No. Well, do two-minute dinners count? Like hard boiled eggs, beans on toast, scrambled eggs…" Kate asked

Gibbs shook his head, "I'm gonna have to teach you how to cook, Katie"

"You can cook?" Kate asked

"Yeah, one of my ex-wives taught me" he replied, "So back to the matter at hand, what are we getting for dinner?"

"Chinese? No, we had that the other night. Pizza?" she asked

"Only if you're paying" Gibbs replied, grinning

After ordering the pizza, Kate went back into Gibbs' room and sat on the bed. "So, can I get you anything?"
"Yeah, coffee" Gibbs moaned, tossing back the covers, "Ok, I can't stay in bed any longer. Might work on the boat for a while…"

Kate watched as he tried to stand up, but sat down when he got dizzy. She wordlessly offered him a hand, which he accepted and supported him into the lounge room

"..Or the couch sounds good" Gibbs said, as if finishing his sentence.

Kate helped him sit on the couch, then went back to his room and got his quilt cover, "Can't have you getting a cold" she explained, when she saw his look

"Thanks mum" Gibbs replied, with a small smile

Kate smiled back, then sat on the couch next to him, turning on the television. She flicked through the channels and eventually stopped on some cop show, it was one of those Law & Order or CSI shows or something, Kate had lost track of them all.

"Ah, they wouldn't know real work if it bit them in their collective ass" Gibbs commented, "wouldn't know where to start if they had a real case"

"Gibbs, it's a TV show, fiction, not real. It's meant to entertain people" Kate responded

"This is meant to be entertaining?" he asked, looking genuinely surprised

Kate rolled her eyes but kept the TV on the same channel. They watched as the detectives tried to piece together the clues and find out who their perpetrator was. Gibbs commented throughout the episode, especially when they did something wrong or forgot about something.

"Gibbs, it's a show"

"Yeah, it's a show, but it's supposed to be based how investigations are run"

"They're allowed to make mistakes"

Gibbs looked at Kate and cocked his head, "You don't know who did it yet, do you?"

Kate looked back at him "What, the murderer?" Gibbs nodded, "And you do?" Gibbs nodded again with a grin on his face, "I don't believe you. Who do you think did it?"

"I know who did it. Come on, you're the profiler."

"Just tell me"

"The disabled old man" Gibbs replied, still smiling

"The guy with a cane? Who can barely walk? Graham Tibbs? Nah, not possible"

"Why? Because he has a cane? It's an act"

"The whole show is an act. How do you know?" Kate asked

Gibbs was saved from explaining by the ring of the doorbell. Kate glared at Gibbs, then got up and answered the door. Kate paid the delivery man, detoured to the kitchen to pick up two glasses then came back to the couch. She poured the glasses full of coke then picked up a pizza.

They watched the rest of the show. This time, Gibbs remained silent, content to eat his pizza and watch Kate try to figure out if he was correct. He laughed at her expression when she realized he was right and that the old man was the murderer. She looked over at him questioningly, to which he replied by shrugging his shoulders, then said that he went with his gut and that they don't show that on TV shows.

When the show had finished rolling the credits, Kate looked at Gibbs, "So, want some dessert?"

"Nah, think I'll pass, I'm not really hungry"

"Ok" she replied. Kate picked up the box of pizza, frowning when she looked inside, "How many pieces did you eat?"

"Two" he said distractedly, as he watched a commercial about star-bucks

"Why?"

"Wasn't hungry" he replied, then looked up at her as the commercial finished, "What?"
"Gibbs, you need to eat"

"Yeah, I wasn't hungry" he reiterated, looking into her eyes. She could see that he didn't want her to push the matter, so decided to leave it alone for a while.

Kate packed up the stuff from their dinner and was about to sit down again when her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and let out a sigh.

She opened the phone "Yes, Shane?"

Gibbs looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. He tried to listen in on the conversation but Kate walked into another room. When she walked back into the room, she let out a sigh and told Gibbs that Shane was really apologetic and that she was going to give him another chance.

"And you forgave him? You're giving him another chance after what he did to you?" Gibbs asked

"He didn't do anything to me, Gibbs" Kate replied

"He stood you up, then he lied to you about why he didn't come. Why are you doing this to yourself? He doesn't like you"

"Oh, well thanks for clarifying. That makes me feel so much better"

Gibbs rubbed his hand through his hair, "That, that's not what I meant. You don't like him either", Gibbs sighed and looked up at the ceiling, "He doesn't deserve you, Kate. You deserve somebody who will be there for you every time you call, somebody who will never lie to you, somebody trustworthy. You deserve somebody who can make you happy, make you laugh and," Gibbs paused, looking back at Kate, "and God help anybody if they hurt you"

That's it for chapter 10... I hope you like it! Please review, pretty please!