"You know, we are going to have to eat at some point today."
"Mmmm," he mumbles, wrapping his arms more securely about her. "Later. Not gonna let you go yet."
She can't really argue with that; this is so new, so wonderful, she's reluctant to leave their bubble of intimacy any time soon. "Pizza later?"
"Sure," he murmurs, clearly more interested in idly tracing the scars on her back with his fingertip. With anyone else she would have shied away, but this isn't anyone else. This is him - the one person with whom she is safe, in every way a person can be safe.
"Gibbs?"
"Hm?"
"When did you know?"
"Know what?" She looks up, the question in her eyes, and he takes a deep breath. "Oh. That this was..."
"Yeah." She tucks herself more firmly into his side; she isn't nervous, not really, and yet...
"I wanted you the minute I met you," he admits, somewhat to her surprise. "And I knew you were... special, during the Hicks case - when you told me about the cabinet?" She nods, makes an affirmative noise in her throat. That day is branded into her memory, too. "By the time you told me about Afghanistan I'd already have moved mountains for you. But when you stared down Hakim, reminded him that he was the monster and you were nothing of the kind - I was so proud I almost burst. You're the bravest person I've ever met, Jack. I looked at you and something just... clicked." He hugs her, tight, and kisses the top of her head. "I didn't want to rush it - couldn't risk going too fast and screwing this up. But that's when I knew."
Gently, he chucks her under the chin. "Your turn."
Her eyes are so soft.
"Oh, I don't know, Cowboy - "
"Bullshit," he says calmly, and rubs his hand up and down her arm. "Go on. Fair's fair."
She sighs, nestling even closer, and God, but he loves this feeling - the soft warm weight of her in his arms, her hair spilling over his chest, her body relaxed against his. Loves it, loves her, with a painful intensity he thought he'd never feel again.
"I wanted you from the start," she admits, and he nods - the chemistry between them had been crackling almost as loudly as the storm outside, as undeniable as the pouring rain. "I wouldn't have flirted with you that day in the courthouse if I didn't think it could be... real. I don't play games, Gibbs. I'm too old for it and I've seen too much. I knew I loved you when you went missing during the lockdown - with the body on the roof? The idea of you being..." She swallows, hard, and he nods, presses a kiss to her hair. The way she'd hugged him when she found him, up on the roof with a hole in the skylight, had said more than any words could have.
"I know," he says, gently, and strokes her hair. "I know, Jack."
"I knew I loved you then," she continues, her voice rough. "But the day I knew that this was it, that there would never be anyone else for me for as long as you lived - maybe as long as I lived - was..." She trails off, swallows hard. "The Vietnam tapes. You took my hand in yours and our fingers just... meshed. Your hand fit in mine like nothing in my life had ever fit before."
That is a surprise, and yet, looking back...
"That's why you pulled away."
"Yes," she says emphatically, and their fingers twine almost unconsciously on his chest. "If I didn't let go then I'm not sure I ever would've been able to. And... I was scared."
Now he's startled. "Of me?"
"No," she says, rubbing her thumb along his fingers. "And yes. I..." When she looks up at him, her eyes are impossibly vulnerable. "I know how much you love Shannon," she says at last, softly. "And I don't want to replace her, or..."
Oh.
Well. This, at least, he can deal with.
"Jack, look at me," he says firmly, and meets her eyes with his. "The man who married Shannon? That man died with her. Yes, I will always love her. I will always cherish her memory. But you aren't a substitute for anything. You get it - the darkness and the light. That's why I can trust you with everything. I love you, Jacqueline May, as much as I have ever loved anyone in my life."
"Oh," she says, as her eyes mist over. "Oh, Jethro."
"I told you once that nothing had ever eased the ache in my heart. Nothing ever will. But you balance it out. And until I met you I never believed even that was possible." He blinks his own misty eyes clear, then continues, his voice gruff. "Rule number five, Jack. You don't waste good. And you... you're the sunshine after the storm."
She holds his eyes for an impossibly long moment, his heart pounding as something beyond words passes between them.
And then she leans up and kisses him, fierce and wild like the storm that brought them together, and there is nothing left to say at all.