A/N: Much thanks to Kibbslover for helping me out this time around :) Wonderful suggestions.. hope this fits everyone's bill :)

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Kate stared vacantly at a lone crack that had indiscriminately etched itself across her ceiling. She was sprawled out on her bed— not comfortable, not sleeping, and definitely not tired. She hesitantly glanced over to the clock staring at her with its threatening red digits, and sighed heavily. 3AM. Hot and aggravated, with both her broken air conditioner and her sudden restlessness, she kicked the blankets to the floor in an exasperated fit and left only the sheets on the bed. Then she lay perfectly still, with more skin now exposed to the sticky night air, and brought a pillow over her face. Into the soft goose-down, she groaned in frustration at her heated insomnia. Luckily, she thought, it's only Saturday...

"Pleeasee,sleeeeep…" she croaked aloud, soft and muffled with her face thoroughly buried into her pillow. Kate breathed deep and pulled the pillow away, tossing it irritably to the floor to rest along with the comforter. Her body was ready to sleep, that much she was sure of. But for some reason her mind couldn't seem to successfully locate her OFF switch. Typically, she wouldn't be able to sleep if she had left something unfinished, or had forgotten to do something altogether. She racked her brain to find reasons for her sudden onset of anxiety.

'Work?' She hummed, but wasn't convinced. 'John..' Kate "Mmmm'd" a little more forcefully. She rubbed her face as she exhaled, still not completely satisfied with these sources as grounds for her insomnia. And all of a sudden she stopped, leaving her fingers gently covering her eyes.

"Gibbs." She mumbled into her palms. With a groan, she sat up in bed, letting her hands tumble and fall into her lap. She sat and suddenly wondered if he was sleeping… where he was sleeping… Why should he get to sleep? Kate frowned lightly and looked over to the cell phone that rested peacefully on her bedside table. She sighed with the realization that there was no reason to do it. No reason other than some twisted curiosity that turned erratically in her brain— one that she wouldn't be able to fully explain if he were to pick up the phone... if she were to call and not immediately hang up the phone when he answered. If he answered.

Her mouth quirked with a spasm of uncertainty, but she reached for the cell phone and thoughtfully turned it over in her hands. She really shouldn't… she wasn't mad at him, so there was no sense in waking him up in some cockeyed vengeance, even if she only wanted to hear him. If he's even sleeping, she thought musingly. She bit at the corner of her bottom lip before a loud "Hmph" escaped her, and she fell back into the pillows.

She thought of the ride home— how quiet it had been, the subtle intensity that had completely filled the car. She hadn't considered it as a necessarily bad intensity… but it was something that she had fully acknowledged, despite not being able to fully recognize. She had smiled at him softly, patting his hand that rested on the shifter, and thanked him for taking her home. He gave her one of his short nods, not keeping her eyes for all that long; looking away from the angry red streak the graced across the top of her cheek. She saw his jaw clench slightly before he asked her to flip the lights when she got in. Her eyes flashed with slight confusion, followed by a hasty realization as she looked at him warmly and nodded, telling him that she would. She had gotten up to her apartment without a problem, without a sign of her previous dating-disaster. Something, she imagined, Gibbs had already thought of as he sat and waited patiently out in his sedan. She flicked the lights once, twice, three times, pulling the curtain from the window so she could see the street, and gave him a small wave. Gibbs observed her for a minute, before she watched him drive away down the darkened street.

She laid there for a good 10 minutes before her conscious resolve to keep her sleeplessness to herself faded to nothing more than an afterthought. She exhaled deeply in the muggy atmosphere that filled her bedroom, threatening to wholly devour her as her fingers carefully slid over the keypad. She impulsively punched in a sequence of numbers that she would soon never forget. She couldn't stop her fingers— and her mind yelled for her to close the phone. And then it started to ring. She still had time; time to press "End" and force herself to sleep without the satisfaction of his voice… Hang it up, Kate… Kate. Hang up the phone…

On the fourth ring, she was about to end the call; about to release the small sigh of relief that had steadily built up in her chest. She took the phone away from her ear when she heard him speak. A gruff "What…" made it to her ear. She sat there and stared at the receiver for a split second before a slightly mellower "Hello..?" came over the line.

Kate warily brought the cell-phone back to her ear. She wet her lips as she opened and closed her mouth in an attempt to speak. Swiftly snapping the cell phone shut, Kate tossed it away from her. The phone landed with a bounce at the end of the bed. She shook her head and closed her eyes with a sigh, laying back on her pillows and rubbing her face.

---

Gibbs slowly sat up on the floor beneath the boat, his brow flinching as he heard the familiar click of an abruptly ended phone call. He took the phone away from his ear and looked at it in confusion before checking the Caller ID. He recognized that number..

"Kate..." he mumbled to himself. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed the time; then frowned slightly when the tape-loop of urgent situations began playing through his head. Gibbs exhaled and raised his eyebrows as he lay back down on the floor. He held the phone above his face as he pawed at the call button with his thumb, automatically dialing Kate's number. Bringing the cell to his ear, he waited.

---

Kate's eyes snapped open at the shrill ring of the phone that rested at the foot of her bed. She sat up and looked at it blankly; bewildered, carefully crawling over to it, but not daring to touch it, she bent her face close to the phone, and read "Gibbs" off the caller ID. Kate groaned as she picked up the phone in one hand, running her thumb over the face of it. She thought of "accidentally" letting the call go unanswered, but she figured the consequences of doing such a thing were far worse than whatever was waiting on the other end of this particular telephone line. She cautiously opened the cell phone and answered Gibbs' call.

She didn't speak right away, which prompted him to verbalize his lingering concern, "Kate…?"

"Yeah… Hi, Gibbs." was what she finally managed to come up with before he was the one to hang up the phone. Good, Kate. Real smooth. Real good and smooth. Her voice was soft; her tone was almost one of defeat— she hadn't meant for it to sound the way it did, but as the words tumbled from her lips, she knew the impression they were going to leave. She inadvertently sighed at herself as she stretched and flattened her back against the mattress, slowly relaxing with the phone.

Gibbs' forehead creased as he sat back up from the floor. "Is something wrong, Kate?" His voice was low but stern as he held the phone securely between his ear and his shoulder. He was ready to get up and grab his keys off the workbench at the slightest inclination of a problem.

"No, Gibbs… everything's alright." She said softly, her smooth voice drifted through the phone and floated gracefully into his ear, immediately soothing away most of the anxiety of all the late-night emergencies he had envisioned. He nodded as if she would hear it.

"You called me..?" he drew out the question slowly, already full well knowing the answer.

Kate paused before replying. "Did I wake you up, Gibbs..?" She asked coolly. Her expression was still undercut with a slight tension, but, to some extent, her voice had relaxed. He calmed a bit more as he laid back down on the floor.

"No, Kate.. Why would I be sleeping at," he took a second to focus his eyes on his watch, wrinkling his brow, "3:18 in the morning." His voice was thick and groggy, but in truth, he hadn't been asleep for all that long—besides, he welcomed an opportunity to speak to Katie Todd, no matter the hour. He exhaled softly and looked up to the ceiling, waiting for a response. When her silent pause just continued, he looked back to the phone, "Kate?"

"Mmmm?"

Gibbs sleepily closed his eyes with a faint smirk and shook his head. "Was there something in particular that you called me for?" His tone belied the smile that mindlessly drew across his face.

"Yes— I mean, no… I just—" Kate grumbled at her inability to speak in a coherent sentence and took a breath. "I couldn't sleep, Gibbs.. I'm sor—"

"Maybe you should count sheep, Katie…" He softly interrupted her apology with his musing suggestion. He ran an idle hand over the smooth plank of wood above him as he listened to her breath.

Kate smiled quietly and softened her voice, "Yeah.."

"I'm serious…" Gibbs gruffed at her lightheartedly.

She gave a hazy chuckle and nodded, "I know you are."

After another brief moment of silence, Kate suddenly spoke, "Go back to sleep, Gibbs."

But frankly, he was already half way there: dozing on the blanket that covered the floor, the phone going slightly slack in his hand. He kept his eyes closed as he swallowed down the sleep that had settled in his throat. He grunted in the affirmative before he mumbled huskily into the phone, "Front door's always open, Katie."

Gibbs snapped the phone shut before she could respond and tossed it to the ground lightly. He crossed his arms over his chest with a sigh as he promptly nodded off with the vaguest of smirks.