Story: The young snipers case and the undercover at the Marine recruitment office leave not only Kate unsettled...
Spoiler: NCIS 1x13 "One Shot, One Kill"
Disclaimer: CBS, Paramount and Belisarius Productions
Author's note: I don't really know where this'll go right now, but it's another KIBBS thing. Part of it might also be familiar for you from second seasons "Conspiracy Theory", but I can promise you it's not about mental hospitals! #GRIN#

In Scope
Tina

When Kate came home she stepped over the threshold, let her purse fall to the ground and closed the door by leaning against it with a sigh.All the emotions she had tried to hide over the past days and especially the last 48 hours were now visible on her face. Horror, guilt, pride and anticipation as well as concentration, undivided attention and fear... She had been shaken by those precise, quick successioned murders, but what had truly unsettled her had been the last hours.

xXx

During the preparations for the undercover at the recruitment office Kate had felt pride and anticipation. She had been eager to prove Gibbs' decision for her as his makeshift CO right and more than willing to let him adjust her uniform. Pulling here, pushing there, making her square her shoulders...if they wouldn't have been in the bullpen she would probably have enjoyed this more then it was appropriate. But well, with Tony and who knows how many more pair of eyes around this hadn't been an option.
She had felt unspeakably self-concious hearing that she made the uniform look good and that she looked good in it in return.
But then they'd been undercover, Gibbs had suddenly had that feather in hand and her heart had sped up.
"He was already here."
His words still echoed in her mind.
The sniper had been there and she hadn't so much as given him a second glance! What a loosy profiler she was...!
And then the shot!
Plan or not, special window or not, accompanied by the heart-wrenching, crackling sound of the bullets impact on the glass she had had a flash of Gibbs getting hit, her boss falling over, blood pooling from a wound in between his eyes.
Her own gasp had brought her back to reality, her heart racing, her hands shaking. For a few seconds she had just stared at him, doubting her eyes and trying to catch up with the fact that he had come into a few inches of loosing his life, quite literally, and that he had gotten away with it!

Everything she had done after that, had happened on autopilot. Going to the snipers location, pulling her gun...even wrapping up the case, typing her final report and dissing Tony.
Well, so now here she was: Back home, save and sound, but still scared like hell!
Quite a few situations had been 'touch and go' since she had joined the NCIS team, but never had it been that obvious and never had she felt more helpless. Those few second when she had feared the bullet would go through had been hell...
She was getting soft AND she was getting attached.
If she would have simply felt comfortable in the team, that wouldn't have been a problem, but no. She especially felt comfortable around him.
Around her boss.
Around Gibbs.
Granted he was older and granted he was a grumpy bastard sometimes, but he could be different. His behavior around Ducky for example. The M.E. seemed to be like a patient and wise mentor to him, and he respected him probably even more than the NCIS director. Or Abby. The two of them were total opposites, not only by means of age and clothing, but also concerning their like or respective dislike for modern technology! Yet still they were close. Close enough for them to joke around and close enough for Abby to get away with things no other Agent would even be allowed to think! Tony, well Tony was another story entirely. He was a bright guy, there was no doubt about this, but yet he had that childish air around him. Gibbs probably saw him as a not yet grown up young man with potential who simply needed a strong hand to guide and chide him.
But what about herself? What was she to him, aside from being the 'newbie'!
He obviously had no problem with her being a woman. He had always treated her the same as any other agent - no sparing her things, no going easy on her, nothing! When he assigned tasks he did it without any pattern but more so taking into consideration everyone's personal strengths and weaknesses. She appreciated this as a refreshing change to being treated like only half an agent, because she shaved her legs instead of her face. No, not that she meant DiNozzo with that. He sure had a big mouth but in reality she would readily trust him to have her back at anytime. She trusted Gibbs with that too. And it seemed that they both trusted her...

xXx

Sleep didn't come easily.
After she had finally had picked up herself from the floor, showered and shed the uniform she hadn't even realized still wearing, she had gone ready for bed, all the time thinking about what had happened. Now, even after she had laid down, the scene of the bullets impact still kept playing in her head. Even Gibbs had looked shocked she had noticed. She doubted though, that he was even half as affect by the days events as she was. Not that she thought he was really as hard-assed as he let on, but still...
Somewhen, she couldn't say if it had been minutes or hours later, she drifted into a light sleep. Her pulse slowed to a steady resting pounding, only to speed up at one point when her ears picked up a low sound her conscious brain wouldn't even have registered. Still in sleep her brow furrowed slightly and only when the sound manifested to footsteps she woke up.
Still dazed she looked around her dark bedroom, wondering why she'd woken. It was silent now and the curtain-filtered moonlight painted shadows on the walls.
Suddenly one of the shadows in the far opposite corner started to move. Screaming was her first intention, but no sound left her mouth! Kate watched in silent horror as a human figure stepped into the moonlight and stopped at the end of her bed. The figure was clad in a Marine uniform and the white cover under it's arm glowed, illuminating the persons face.
Kate's nose however had already picked up his familiar scent and knew who it was a second before her brain had finished processing the data from her eyes.
Gibbs.
In an instinctive 'this can not be real' reaction she covered her face with her hands and closed her eyes. But when she opened them again, letting her hands fall to her sides, she was sure that he was real. Not just because he was still there, but also because of the look on his face! His eyes nearly sparkled in appreciation of what he saw and behind that she could see well contained leering. The reason: The covers she had had clasped to her chest earlier had obeyed the law of gravity, so that her barely clothed breasts had become visible.
Kate knew that she should shriek or at least clutch the covers to her chest once more, but she couldn't. She didn't wanted to... The way he looked at her now, the uniform he was wearing, the sincerity in his eyes and his mysterious presence in her bedroom - it was like a daydream come true!
He studied her without hesitation, unashamed but yet still in a very unique way that didn't offend her dignity. It was the same look, she had to notice, that he had given her a few rare times before when they'd been alone. He would narrow his eyes, stare at her and unconsciously lick his lips...before he would become aware of his behavior and would refocus.
Savoring in the warmth of his look was probably inappropriate, but it was just too easy. Especially when she could look back just as unashamedly, eyeing him from head to toe several times...
None of them had said anything and Kate suddenly noticed that the situation was - objectively seen - kinda unfair. Not because he hadn't given any explanation, no. He only could see her upper body while she got to see his whole figure!
Narrowing her own eyes for a second she caught a glance at his crotch, wondering if all that looking and lip licking had already had caused any pertinent physical reaction. But as fleeting as her glance might have been, he still seemed to notice, subtly moving his dress cap over the bodypart in question.
"Kate, Kate..." he said scoldingly and shook his head, but his tone of voice hinted that he was more amused then astonished.
"Jethro, Jethro..." she mocked him, effectively evoking a bright smile from him.
His amazingly ocean blue eyes were electrifying, her mind bringing back memories of her being pressed up against him on a submarine and also the more recent ones of him adjusting her uniform.
He must have seen this in her eyes, because he suddenly moved closer, sitting down on the edge of the bed. The mattress shifted under his weight rousing Kate from her dreamy state of mind. She looked at him with a mix of anticipation and disbelieve, but closed her eyes when he finally leaned over and touched his lips to hers.
Their first kiss was long and without any pressure for more - both of them reveling in the closeness they had long since started to crave. Kate tousled his gray speckled hair, while he rubbed her back through the thin fabric of her nightgown.
"Katie..." he breathed in her ear when they paused for air, "You looked so hot today at the office!" His voice was husky, making her insides tingle.
When he pulled back and got up she was confused for a second, but found herself watching him in amazement a moment later when he started to undress the uniform.
"I tried to focus on work." he told her absently. "I tried to, but every time I looked at you I remembered you where wearing that skirt. Just too easily I could imagine calling you over under the pretext of something, so that you would stand besides me. And while my body and the desk would have shielded you from the looks of the pedestrians I would have let my hands glide up your legs and your inner thighs to..."
Kate swallowed hard, taking in his every move. He recounted his fantasy without blushing, all the while removing parts of the uniform and glancing at her from time to time. But even though Gibbs made no show of the undressing, she was fascinated. His precise, well trained military gestures while he folded the clothes were strangely appealing. By the time he had stripped down to his skivvies Kate was already breathing deeper. He re-joined her on the bed, the rest of his tale a heated rush in her ear. And when he reached out for her, she did the same, touching and being touched, pleasuring and being pleasured...

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