A/N: Oh my... how long has it been? I haven't forgotten about this story, trust me :) I do apologize for falling off the face of the Kibbs earth and out of the writing groove. Back on track? I hope so o.O Read and enjoy :)
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Shreds of sunlight snuck through the cracks in the blinds, softly streaking along the hardened grain of the hardwood floor. It wasn't the morning light that made Kate shift and turn, but the muted snoring that lazily came from her right. She rolled from her back and onto her side in a drowsy curiosity, opening her blurry eyes just enough to see Gibbs' face— up-close.
Her eyebrows rose and her eyes popped in surprise as her hand flew to her mouth, feeling it absolutely necessary to hold in her sudden shock at all costs. When Kate came to the hazed realization that Gibbs wasn't awake, or rousing anytime soon, her hand faltered, sliding down from her mouth until only her fingertips grazed her lips. She scanned Gibbs' sleeping face and felt a peculiar urge to brush her fingers across his cheek— she wet her lips and kept herself in check as she remembered the past several days.
She rolled carefully away from Gibbs, sitting up and swinging her legs to the floor in one fluid motion. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes with one hand, she cautiously pushed herself up off the bed with the other as she padded quietly across the floor and into the bathroom. It was going to be a long morning— whatever hell time it was.
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Before long, Kate had just about finished her morning routine; she had taken a shower, cleaned up the very little that happened to be a mess, made the appropriate colleague phone calls, and was about to start some semblance of breakfast when she realized it was a little late in the morning for Gibbs to be so awfully quiet.
Kate set down her dish towel and took swift and careful steps towards the bedroom— poking her head in once she got to the door, not wanting to catch him in a state where she'd have to profusely apologize for not knocking in her own apartment. She smirked before frowning, seeing that he was still laid out in a tangle of blankets. Looking to her watch –11 AM– Kate wondered when the last time was that Gibbs slept past 6am. She wondered if he ever did.
She wandered across the floor, anticipating her footsteps would be enough to wake him as she came alongside the bed. When Gibbs didn't even stir, let alone wake up, Kate cocked her head and debated whether or not to leave him. If he was voluntarily sleeping at this ridiculous length, then he must need it… Kate shook her head and closed her eyes— if Gibbs woke up an hour from now, she knew he'd relentlessly let her have it for not waking him.
Kate sighed and nudged the side of the mattress with her leg, "Gibbs…" she whispered hesitantly. She rocked against the bed a little harder as her voice got a little stronger: "Gibbs." When she didn't get so much as a mumble from him, she exhaled and looked around, spotting the empty cough medicine cap that she used to dole out his small amount of pain medication in the middle of the night.
"Guess you took the Percocet…" she mumbled softly to no one. Kate ran a steady hand through her hair as she let out another sigh, gazing around the room, wondering again whether she should just leave him, or try to gently shake him from a pain-killer haze.
She bit the bullet and leaned over him quickly, putting her face right above his, pausing for a moment as she calculated how best to approach the undesirable task of waking a drug-coated ex-marine. She opted for steadily rising volume and mild shaking.
Gibbs had found the middle of the bed sometime mid-morning, so Kate gained better leverage as she crawled up next to him, resting one hand on his far shoulder and the other on the pillow. She carefully pushed against his shoulder as she called for him, softly at first. Around the tenth or so try, she was pinching his upper arm and was just about yelling in his face. She growled lightly and gripped his bicep—she was determined now, if for nothing else, because he was just being so un-freaking-cooperative. He would wake up, 'or so help me…'
Kate leant down and took a deep breath to sustain another good-sized yell-in-the-face before a hand reached up and covered her mouth. With her gasp successfully suppressed, Kate's eyes widened in surprise as she looked down to see Gibbs slowly open one eye and raise one eyebrow, looking up to her in saucy accusation.
Kate pried his hand from her mouth and exhaled in disbelief, "You were awake…"
"I wanted to see how far you'd go." He mumbled cheekily, a satisfied smirk slowly forming. "But I had enough of the yelling.." he sat up carefully while Kate softly grunted her lack of amusement. She climbed down from beside him, smoothing out her clothes and standing next to the bed.
"Hungry?" She asked after a minute of silence.
"You cooking…?" He gently raised an eyebrow of skepticism, subtly looking over her form.
She smiled and chuckled softly. "There's some leftover Chinese food if you don't trust me."
His mocking stare fell away to reveal an expression that Kate couldn't quite describe. Gibbs nodded and rubbed his face with both hands before running them through his hair, mumbling: "Anything you wanna do… I'm easy, Kate." He looked up to her when he said her name, noticing that she wasn't moving or waiting to say something snarky.
The sheets had pooled around his waist, leaving him bare-chested when he first sat up in bed to talk to her. He followed her line of sight down to the bandage that was securely medical-taped to his lower abdomen. He frowned slightly before ducking his head down in an attempt to catch her eyes.
"Kate..." He was only answered with her steady stare and a visible swallow. "Hey..!" he barked and raised his voice, not enough to make her jump but enough to grab her attention. It had done the trick— Kate's eyes fluttered as they shot up to his face. Gibbs nodded slowly with slightly widened eyes and raised eyebrows, the infamous "what the hell are you waiting for?" stare.
"Are you going to make some food or what..?" He mouthed off incredulously. Kate would have been taken aback by this, had she not seen the familiar twinkle of affirmation and encouragement in his eyes. She paused, looking to a vacant spot on the wall before looking back to his face.
"God, Gibbs... get a grip…" she huffed softly and placed a hand on her hip. She stood there for a moment, both of them having a silent stand-off of holding their best poker face until Kate's smirk got the best of her. The corner of her lips tugged upward as she turned away from him, striding out of the room with a distinctive purpose in her step: to put an end to all skeptical misgivings about her cooking. She smiled on down the hallway.