A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. See, my parents took away my CPU (central processing unit... the thing that stores all of the information ona computer) and I hadn't actually written Ch. 20- I only typed it. And I couldn't- for the life of me- remember what in the hell happend! And anyways, it was on this CPU... So, because I was all evil, I stole my CPU back from my parents... They don't know, so SHHHH. Oh, by the way, this is about to get interesting... Really interesting. I got hit several times for the next few chapters, and it hurt...
Ducky stared momentarily after Gibbs. "So Jethro… It has come to this." He stood there a moment later, shaking his head, before heading back down the stairs to the autopsy lab.
Kate turned angrily to Tony. "You are insufferable!" He looked at her with wounded puppy dog eyes, which only served to infuriate her further. She started to tremble.
Tony looked at her and quickly grabbed his desk chair, running over and sliding it underneath her. He looked down at her trembling form and sighed. "Kate, relax and breathe…" She sat defiantly in his chair and crossed her arms. "Kate, relax…" he whispered soothingly in her ear as he gently rubbed her shoulders. "Relax…"
"Tony, don't you dare-" She sighed happily. "Stop…"
Tony grinned. "Was that a 'Tony, if you don't stop, I'm going to castrate you'? Or was that an 'Oh God, Tony, please don't ever stop'?"
She reached back and thwacked him on the back of his head.
He took one hand off of one of her shoulders and rubbed the back of his neck. "Holy shit Kate! That hurt like hell!"
She looked at the floor with mock sheepishness. "Whoops…"
He frowned, even as he began rubbing her shoulders again. "Funny, I didn't really sense any remorse in your reply."
"Yeah, well, I thought about trying to make an attempt at sounding convincingly apologetic, and- according to Abby- it really is the thought that counts." She sighed miserably. God, she really missed Abby!
Tony knew the reason for Kate's sudden silence and he gently pushed her over to his desk. "Hey Kate, please don't worry, okay?" He pulled out a pen and paper, setting them carefully in front of her. "I promise, we are going to find her…"
"Tony, you know you can't promise me that…" She picked up the pen and started scrawling directions anyways.
He sighed and returned to rubbing her shoulders and neck.
She smiled, but continued to write, pausing every now and then to read over her instructions. She moaned softly. "That feels really, really good Tony."
He grinned. "Keep writing…"
She turned her head to face him, a mixed expression of hurt and confusion on her face.
"Kate, if you don't have those directions ready for Gibbs the second that returns from where ever the hell he is, he'll make you go down to autopsy and listen to Ducky ramble. And, judging by Ducky's mood, it'll either be him telling you all about every single time that Gibbs could have- and should have- done something, before it was too late, or else he'll go off on all kinds of torture methods used by terrorists." He paused to look at her. "And I'm sensing that neither of those topics is particularly appealing to you at the moment."
She sighed and looked back at the paper. "No, they really aren't…" She scribbled the final line with a flourish and turned back to Tony. "Just for the record, I'm really glad it didn't take something this big for you."
"Didn't it? Ari held you hostage twice and had to take Abby before it finally clicked."
It didn't quite register in Kate's mind that this meant that Tony had liked her for almost as long as she had liked him. "Okay, but I was never in any real danger…" She gave him an encouraging attempt at a smile.
"Kate, the first time he had you, he locked you in a freezer!"
"Oh, come on. Someone would have eventually figured it out!"
"Yeah, after you and Ducky had been turned into ice cubes!"
Gibbs chose that moment to walk in. "Um, I think I've missed something. What's all of this about Kate and Ducky turning into ice cubes?" Gibbs turned to Kate. "You'll have to forgive me for not letting you off of work Kate, as you look nothing like an ice cube to me and I highly doubt if your body temperature is the same as one. But, just to be on the safe side, perhaps DiNozzo should check?"
Tony gave her a slow, lingering look. "I don't know boss… It looks to me like she's pretty damn hot, but that's just my personal opinion."
Gibbs looked from Tony to Kate and then back to Tony. He got it. "So Kate… The Unseducable has finally met her match. I was wondering how long you could really resist the infamous DiNozzo charm."
"No, Gibbs, Tony didn't- I mean, we would never- What the hell do you mean 'the Unseducable'? I've been seduced plenty of times! And by guys much sexier than Tony too!"
Tony gave her an alarmed look, and she grabbed his hand under his desk, hoping that Tony would understand without Gibbs calling her bluff.
"You think I'm sexy?" he asked her with a grin, knowing exactly what she meant.
Kate grinned back and opened her mouth to respond, a fresh retort begging to be released.
Gibbs held up a hand to stop her. She gave him a puzzled look. "Rule number eleven: Don't ask, don't tell… Now, where are those directions Kate? I hope you weren't too wrapped up in other things to do your job."
Kate glared and chucked Tony's yellow legal pad at her boss. "You know Gibbs; I've got my own set of rules. Rule number one: Never let your personal life interfere with your job."
Gibbs chuckled and bent down to pick up the notepad. "Maybe so… But when the two collide, so much the better, right?"
Kate glared at him as he turned to the elevator to leave. "Ah, what the hell do you know anyways?"
Tony looked at Kate and grinned. "Sexy, huh?"
She tugged her hand free of his and headed for her own desk. "Oh, put a sock in it DiNozzo…"
He looked at her thoughtfully. "Is it one of your socks?"
"Tony…" She sat down at her desk, but that was the extent of her efforts to even attempt to appear as though she was doing something productive.
Tony slid his chair across the bullpen and settled down behind Kate's desk. "You know Kate, I don't think I've ever seen you wear socks. Do you even own a pair?"
"Yes, of course I do!"
He leaned closer to her and put his lips at her ear. "Really? Why don't you tell me about these… socks?"
She spun her chair around and their heads nearly collided. "Oh, for Heaven's sake Tony, either you have some weird fetish for socks, which- by the way- I have no desire to hear about, or else we're not talking about the same socks."
"Actually, none of the above, from your sock drawer I was going to go to your underwear drawer and from there-"
She held up a hand. "This conversation is now officially over!"
"Aw, Kate, come on. We were bonding!"
"Well Tony, I never 'bond' like that before the first date."
"So? We could call it our third date… Or we could make it our first date…" He grinned seductively.
"Tony, you can't seriously be that desperate… Go pick up some poor unsuspecting girl at the mall."
"When you're sitting right in front of me with your cute little nose barely two inches away from mine? I can think of better things to do…" He closed the distance between his mouth and hers. "And, just in case you were wondering, I wasn't talking about that kind of bonding…"
"Huh… Really Tony?" Kate gave him a skeptical look. "All you ever think about is bonding."
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