x...x
"Okay. This is a pretty good substitute." Kate curled one hand around a coffee mug and inhaled deeply.
Her joy was so unbridled that Gibbs couldn't help but laugh. Her eyes twinkled over the rim.
"What?"
She shrugged with her good shoulder. "I just like your laugh." When he looked away, she bent her head to try and catch his gaze. "Are you blushing? Oh my god, you're blushing."
"I'm takin' that chair back."
His threat only brought out her own laugh.
"Thanks," she said. "For everything."
He tried not to think of everything that had brought them here, though he knew he couldn't avoid it entirely.
"We should probably talk about work."
Her smile fell and he kicked himself.
"Okay." She looked down into her coffee.
He leaned forward to keep the moment close. His fingertips briefly brushed across hers.
"I don't want you rushin' back," he said, trying to stay focused.
"So I still have a job?"
Her shy smirk made his attempt at a stern "Kate…" less intimidating than he intended.
The smirk grew. "What are my options?"
He leaned back but kept his body open. "You can come in on desk duty until you start physio, or you can stay home. Maybe work on some cold cases."
She winced. "Please don't make me stay home. I'm already itching to shoot something and my shooting hand is all good."
His laugh was back and so was hers.
"Okay. Desk duty. But your hours are flexible. Come in early but you start hurtin', you go home, understood?"
"Understood."
He gave a satisfied nod over his cup. "Anything else we need to do before goin' home?" He pretended he didn't notice how natural it felt to put 'we' and 'home' together.
"I need a car."
"What for?"
She looked at him like he had 2 heads. "So I can get to work?"
"Sure," he replied, "because I'm lettin' ya drive to work with that." His eyes pointed to her arm.
"What? You're going to pick me up and drop me off every day?" Her tone was sarcastic disbelief.
"Yep."
His answer was so quick and casual, it caught her off-guard.
"Oh."
"That a problem?"
"Nope." She met his eyes and was rewarded with a grin.
"Good. Anything else?"
"Nope," she repeated. "Let's go home."
x...x
It was on the way back that Gibbs realized he didn't have much reason to stay. Kate, though still not completely self-sufficient, seemed to be well enough that she was getting around on her own. He wondered when he decided he didn't want to leave, wondered if she'd even want him to-
"-make dinner?"
"What?"
"And I'm the one who shouldn't be driving? I said, can I make dinner? You know, as my way of saying 'thanks'."
He turned up her street. "You don't need to do that."
"I know." She took at his introspective profile. "You don't still feel guilty about what happened, do you?"
"Don't profile me, Kate."
"After 3 years, I hope it's not profiling. I'd like to think I know you well enough to guess what's going on behind that serious face."
He stole a glance and saw her poker face imitation.
"Jesus," he muttered, turning away. He rubbed his chin with his forefinger. "Look. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm just tryin' to make things right."
"Even things up," she suggested.
"Yeah, I guess."
"When will you know things are even? What more do you need to do?"
He never liked being forced to examine his feelings. "I dunno. Is that what you wanna hear?"
They pulled into her parking spot.
"I was just wondering if I'd get my cupboard doors above the stove fixed before you considered the debt repaid." He didn't find the humour in her teasing, and she reached across her body to touch his hand. "Gibbs, listen to me. I was mad. You were mad. We said things we didn't mean. But none of those things were responsible for what happened."
"If I hadn't made you stay late, it never would've happened."
"Maybe not that. But maybe something else."
Narrowing his eyes, he stared out the windshield, contemplating her words. He wouldn't entirely admit she was right, so instead said, "Maybe." He turned off the ignition. "Okay?"
"Okay." She watched him unclipped her seat belt. "You're still going to fix those cabinets, right?" His glower did nothing to dim her beaming smile.
x...x
He came out of the bedroom after prepping the recliner with sheets and pillows and stopped in the kitchen entrance. There was a pot of water and a pan on the stove. Kate was sitting at the kitchen island.
"I thought you were making dinner," he said.
Gesturing to her injury, she admitted, "I may need some help."
"'May'?"
"Fine, I need your help."
He walked over to the sink to wash his hands. "Okay. Whaddya need?"
Half an hour later, they sat over a hot meal and some wine.
"So the lesson I took outta this is, when you ask for help, what you mean is, 'Jethro, can you do it for me?'"
"No!" she protested. Over the glass, she said, "I would never call you 'Jethro'." A sip disguised her grin.
Lifting his own glass, he swirled the contents and asked, "Never?" The vague suggestiveness in his voice made her sputter, and it was his turn to grin. "I think you just like givin' me orders. Captain."
"Anyway, " she went on, ignoring the devil on his shoulder, "I helped!"
"I cut the tomatoes, pressed the garlic, rolled the meatballs and opened the wine."
"I boiled the spaghetti."
"You did," he agreed.
"And I have a dishwasher, so you're off the hook for that. Gunny."
"I made- my mistake- we made enough you'll have leftovers for tomorrow," he said, pretending he hadn't heard her sly address.
She parsed his words and frowned. "You won't be here tomorrow?"
Her disappointment caught him off guard. "I didn't think you'd want me hangin' around."
"Oh."
"Which is obviously wrong."
"No. I mean…"
He glanced over his shoulder at the stove. As if the thought just occurred to him, he remarked, "Those cabinets need fixin'."
"They do," she agreed. "And you've been drinking, so…"
He raised an eyebrow at the half empty glass.
"I'm just saying," Kate offered, much to his amusement.
"I'll take some measurements after loadin' the dishwasher. Maybe make some coffee."
"Oh, I can do that. Don't give me that look. I know how to make tar."
"Hmmm," he grunted. "How ya feelin'?"
She closed her eyes to take a mental inventory. "Good," she concluded. "The pain doesn't make my teeth hurt anymore, so that's great."
"Good, because you just had wine. Forgot the two don't mix."
"Because you never have wine or you never take painkillers? Nevermind." She held up a hand before he could reply. "What am I saying?"
"I've taken painkillers," he objected.
"Yeah, when you were in the hospital. Sedated."
He shrugged like a 5 year old. "Still counts." Seeing her head lower and her hair cover her grin, he stood. "Make the damn coffee."
x...x
A pot of coffee and a bottle of wine later, they ended up on the couch, fake-arguing between sports and a forensic drama when Kate yawned. She turned into the cushions as her eyes started to droop.
"Hey," he whispered, cupping her chin. "You're gonna hurt my feelin's. Bought that chair for you an' you're fallin' asleep on the couch."
Murmuring into his touch, she said, "You sleep on the couch."
"Why do you always have to argue with me?"
She giggled in her sleepiness. "It's fun."
"Fun? Fun?"
His mock indignation only made her giggle more.
"You're delirious," he told her. "Let's go to bed." The giggle turned into a snort. "You know what I mean."
He stood and gently took her hand, pulling her to her feet. She whined at the intrusion but stood and wobbled into his chest. With his free hand, he gripped her hip to stop her from bumping her injured arm against him. As she had done on the couch, she turned into the comfort and closed her eyes.
"No, no, no," Gibbs said, his voice soft. "C'mon. Bed."
"Fiiiine."
With an arm around her waist, he led her, however reluctantly, to the bedroom. It was when they entered that he saw the problem.
"You gonna sleep in that?" He looked at her from top to bottom.
Her eyes followed his. "Oh yeah. I should change." She basked in his quiet uncertainty until she couldn't hold back the laugh. "At ease, Gunny. Abs showed me how to do it myself ."
He scowled at her teasing. "I can take all of this away," he warned, circling his finger around the chair.
"You said you bought the chair for me."
He opened his mouth to object, then remembered their conversation on the couch. "I didn't think you were listenin'."
"Let that be a lesson to you," she said. "I'm always listenin'." She winked at her own imitation. Grabbing a pillow he had left on the bed, she pressed it into his chest. "I'm also very observant- you didn't use a pillow."
"You needed 'em," he said, like the choice was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well, now I don't. Please, take it."
The scent of her wafted from the pillow to his nose as he curled his arm around it.
"Alright," he said. "You sure you're gonna to be okay?"
"Would you help me if I wasn't?"
He knew she was playfully trying to get a rise out of him. Two can play at that game. Reaching out, he casually undid the first button on her shirt.
"If you asked."
His unexpected claim didn't surprise her as much as it might have three years ago, before she had learned to recognize the thread that joined them, the flame that burned between them. Still, they had both done such a good job of ignoring it, smothering it, denying it, that bringing it to the surface- willingly!- almost felt surreal. She glanced down at the fingers that hovered over the 2nd button.
"I'll keep that in mind," she said, chancing a look into stormy blue eyes that looked back with a feeling she recognized in her own. The moment stretched taut between them until she broke the gaze, and the pillow suddenly became the most interesting thing in the room.
"Good." Brushing a finger across her chin, he nodded. "Good."
x...x
A/N- First, thanks to all who are reading, following and reviewing. It keeps me motivated! Second, I've set this as if Twilight didn't end the way it did and both Kate and Gibbs are more their 1st season characters. The writers seemed to forget Kate was an intelligent woman and that Gibbs could smile. I like the idea of imagining what their relationship could have become had they stayed on the season 1 path!