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!
And of course, again a humungous thank-you to Kate for her terrific work and inspiration!
"Tony, don't, you'll regret it" Kate warned him
Tony leaned forward, "He has to eat, Kate". He shook Gibbs, who sat bolt-upright and grabbed his shirt, ready to punch him. "Whoa, boss, easy." Tony said quickly
Gibbs blinked a few times, trying to clear the sleep and focus on something, anything.
"Ah, boss, my shirt" Tony said
Gibbs let go of his shirt and breathed out deeply a few times, not used to being woken up like that. Still blinking furiously, he squinted and tried to make out where they were. They seemed to have stopped at a deli or petrol station. He felt something shoved into his hands, he looked down and saw a brown paper bag, he looked back up at Tony.
"Eat!" the younger man told him
Gibbs opened the bag and pulled out a pie. He frowned and looked at Tony. After taking a bite, he realised how hungry he was and finished the pie in a record time. He sighed and climbed out of the car, only to fall back in. Frowning, he undid the seat belt and got out, stumbling into the side of the car. "Wha..?" he asked
Kate walked over to him and handed him a water bottle, "Here, you're probably a bit dehydrated."
Gibbs accepted the bottle and took a long swig, feeling the liquid go through his system into his stomach. He looked back at Kate, who was still standing in-front of him; he frowned as he noticed a scratch on the side of her mouth. As he brought his hand up, he saw her flinch. His heart constricted at the gesture and he slowed the movement of his hand, lightly running his thumb over the mark. "Did I…" he asked
"Yeah, you were pretty distressed. We couldn't get you to calm down" Kate replied
Gibbs lowered his hand and looked down, "I don't remember" he mumbled, "Well, not all of it, just bits and pieces"
"Yeah, Ducky said that would happen. We rang him and told him what happened, he wasn't impressed" Kate said
Gibbs nodded and took another gulp of water, then sat back in the car. "So, what else did I miss?"
"What do you remember?" Kate asked
"You resigning" Gibbs replied, sighing and closing his eyes, "Everything before that I can remember, mostly. Nothing afterwards"
Kate breathed out and leant against the car, "Well, we had an argument; I went back to the car. You came back to the car slightly afterwards, fired McGee, then we all got into a fight. You kneed DiNozzo in the stomach and hit me in the face, then DiNozzo knocked you out" Kate relayed the story, "Any questions?"
She heard him breathe out deeply, "God" he said softly. He choked back a breath, "I really screwed up"
Kate got up and turned around to look into the car, he was laying over the backseat so that she couldn't see his face. "Yeah, you did" she agreed with him
Gibbs sat up and looked at her, "The team really is falling…has fallen apart. When did that happen?"
Kate shrugged and looked away.
"Crap!" Gibbs muttered under his breath and closed the door. He put his head against the window again and tried to figure out what to do.
Kate climbed into the passenger seat with a grunt. She closed the door and leaned back into the seat, letting it support her. The car went down a bit as Tony, then McGee got into the car. Tony turned on the engine and closed the door.
"Which way, Probie?" Tony asked
"You wanna go out the same way we came in, then you need to take the first left once we're out of the town." McGee answered
Tony nodded and headed towards the end of town. The town was a small one, there was only a few buildings and one or two run-down houses that could be seen from the road. It seemed as though the road had been paved a long-time ago and was used a lot, it was rough and in desperate need of repair. As they reached the last of the buildings, Tony yawned, "Anyone wanna play 'I spy'?"
"No" Kate responded as she pulled down the sun-visor to keep the sun out of her eyes. As the flap came down, the mirror on the underside of it swung open as well. Kate looked into the mirror and saw Gibbs' piercing blue eyes looking back at her, but he looked away once he realised she had seen him. She closed the mirror and closed her eyes, pinching her nose. Leaning her head on the head rest, she tried to make sense of what had happened over the last week. Her emotions were all over the place, all because of her silver-haired, blue-eyed, emotionally reclusive, bastard of a boss. The scene from the fight kept repeating itself in her head. She couldn't help it when she flinched when he had reached out to her before, and then she didn't know whether to feel guilty or satisfied when she'd seen the hurt in his eyes.
Kate snapped out of her thoughts when she heard somebody speaking, she hadn't heard them at first because they were speaking so softly. She looked up and realised it was Gibbs who was talking.
"Ah, I think I owe you all an apology" he mumbled. Kate waited for him to continue, and when he didn't, she looked at Tony who returned the expression.
"You say something, boss?" Tony asked
Gibbs remained silent as he stared out his window. But before Tony could ask again, he spoke, "Yeah". Gibbs cleared his throat and continued, "About what happened earlier, I'm not entirely sure what happened, I don't really remember it, but I'm not going to make excuses. What I said and did, I was out of line, that kind of behavior is unacceptable" Gibbs said, taking a breath, "Except when in the boxing ring, or in the gym. But I don't want any of you to take you I said or did to you, to heart. If I could take it back, I would." He took another breath and looked at McGee "That includes me firing you, I want to take that back, I think you are a great asset to the team and I don't want you to leave"
McGee looked directly into Gibbs' eyes and bit his lip, "But I don't know if I want to stay" he replied.
Gibbs closed his eyes and nodded, turning back to the window and breathing out heavily, "That's understandable" he said softly
Tony and Kate exchanged glances. "But I don't know if I want to leave either" McGee said, "I love working at NCIS, I just don't think it'll be the same without Kate and Tony"
"Yeah, well, I don't want them to leave either" Gibbs responded, "Don't want any of you to leave, but at the end of the day, it's your choice. However if it's the case that I have to change a few rules..." Gibbs left the sentence hanging, and looked to Kate, "Or anything, I can do that. The rules, I made you learn them so you could learn how to break them, rules are made to be broken"
"What number is that?" McGee asked
"Doesn't have a number, it's implicit in rules 14 and 16." Gibbs replied
"Any other rules you want to tell us about, boss?" Tony asked
"Follow your heart, but that doesn't have a number either, it's not so much a rule as a standard to live by" Gibbs replied
"Obviously one you don't follow very well" Kate responded, with a tint of anger
Gibbs nodded, still looking at Kate's seat "Yeah and I admit it. Emotionally closed off, that's what my ex's called me, and they're right"
"I'll say" Kate said
Gibbs sighed and rubbed his eyes, turning back to the window. The car fell into silence as they each got caught up in their own thoughts. The only thing to be heard was steady sound of the humming of the engine and the occasional scrunch of the seats as they went round a corner or somebody moved in their seat.
"McGee, how much longer till we get there?" Gibbs asked, breaking the silence
"If we continue at this speed, just over an hour" McGee replied
"Right, have you contacted the local law authorities?" Gibbs asked, regaining his role as team leader
"Yeah, they've been briefed of the situation and are keeping surveillance on Brown, if he so much as sneezes, we'll know about it" McGee replied
That's it for chapter 34... I hope you like it! Please review, please!