Kate swallowed as she pulled into the NCIS lot and killed the engine. She was tired, she hadn't slept well. Her whole weekend had been consumed in trying to figure out just what in the earth had happened in that conference room. She had seen the shock on Tony's and Tim's faces when they re-emerged into the bull pen, to find her and Gibbs sitting quietly, working. Well, Gibbs was working; she had been staring blankly at the screen, her mind whirring. The look of surprise and confusion on their faces at her clear strong sense of health and comfort let her know Gibbs hadn't been lying about his unorthodox methods.
She had felt a strange sense of satisfaction as the two continued to look dogged by confusion.
Clearly, they just didn't know how to stand up for themselves. Not like her.
Gibbs had been as affable as Gibbs could be for the rest of the day, acting as if the kerfuffle had never taken place. The only conclusion she had tentatively come to, and that she clung to as she stepped out of the car, was that she had won. That she had illuminated the old man to the supreme error of his ways and he had wisely backed down. That was clearly the obvious answer. Swinging her bag over her shoulder as she started into the building, she felt lighter all of a sudden. She had won. She had laid down the law, and he had backed off, and she lived and breathed all the same.
Smiling her way past security, she held her head higher.
The physicality of the building was stripping away her ridiculous worries. It was Gibbs who ought to be worried, not her. She had leverage now, and she wasn't afraid to use it if she had to. She suspected that was another crucial element in his scurrying away. For all his bluster about the top brass, he didn't want to be on the wrong side of them. She had merely helped him see that simple fact, and surpassed a very important challenge in doing so.
Her walk into the bullpen was sprightly, her smile wide.
"Morning," she greeted brightly, spying McGee and DiNozzo already at their desks, tapping away at their keyboards. The two gave relatively non-committal grunts as she swung down behind her desk. She raised a brow. "Let's try that again, shall we?" she admonished lightly, "In polite civilisation, one generally answers a morning greeting with another greeting."
The two raised their heads and rolled their eyes.
"New case is in," Tony informed her casually, tapping his teeth with a pen in a way that made her want to ram it down his throat. "Just waiting on Gibbs to come back to gear up." He shot a grin in her direction, more specifically her very expensive new blouse. "By all accounts there's a very…leaky dead body, so you might want-"
The paper ball hit him square in the left eye.
"I think I can handle it, DiNozzo. We're not all as obsessed with our clothes as you are."
Rubbing his wounded eye in feigned hurt, Tony shrugged. "Have it your way dearest, just don't come crying to me when your shirt is beyond repair." Turning to McGee who was studiously clacking away, he recycled Kate's paper ball to grab his attention. Smirking at the angry twitch of the probationary agent, Tony held out his hands.
"Did the LEO's send over the preliminary photos yet? My usual baby is out sick for repair, and I don't want her thinking I was using other cameras whilst we were apart." He placed a hand over his heart and sighed loudly. "I'm classy that way, probie, there's not many men like me left in the world."
Tim McGee was decidedly ok with that fact as he threw his eyes up the ceiling and tossed over a file.
Opening the folder, Tony's grin instantly slipped off his face as he winced. "Jeez," he muttered, "It's a good thing I didn't have anything runny for breakfast." At his words, Kate looked up with a sigh. Standing she strode over to the senior agent's desk and thrust out a hand. "Why don't you let me look through them, so you can concentrate on the intricacies of your diet?" she scoffed, tugging the file out an utterly unaffected Tony's hands.
"Whatever m'lady commands," he conceded cheerfully, turning back to his screen.
Scanning the photos in her hands, Kate had to work hard to keep the disgust off her face. She knew Tony was watching out of the corner of his eye. She made to turn to the next lot of scene snaps, but before she could disentangle the poorly constructed file, it was suddenly whipped out of her hands. Turning in affront, she blinked as Gibbs materialised in front of her. Throwing the file back to Tony who caught it deftly, he shook his head in reprimand.
"Damnit Tony, those photos are disgusting. Kate doesn't need to see them first thing in the morning." Smiling apologetically at a stunned looking Agent Todd, he offered an overall "morning" to the three, before jerking his head towards the lift. "Gear up. Tony, your damned camera is back in action, I was paged three times about it. Apparently you put it down as a level one priority?"
Jumping to his feet with a smile, Tony shed his sudden confusion and nodded eagerly.
"She's a work of art Boss; I've been lost without her."
"Hmm," Gibbs grunted, "Well go on and get it then, McGee you go and gas the truck while DiNozzo's gone. Be ready to leave in ten, it's a bit of a drive." Nodding, the two men swept from the bullpen, Tim groaning as Tony launched into a full blown evaluation of the repaired camera. Rolling her eyes at their retreating backs, Kate side stepped Gibbs with a murmured "excuse me," before reaching down for her gear bag. Watching her silently, sipping on his third coffee, the team-lead allowed her to hoist the bag over his shoulder, before he cleared his throat.
"Oh," he said so gently that she near dropped the heavy bag, "Kate…I don't think it's a good idea that you come with us to the scene." He sighed, and dropped his voice even lower, adopting the tone one would use at a deathbed. "It's a horrible one by all accounts. The body is mutilated something terrible. No place for a former Presidential protector." He let out a skilled shudder as her eyes grew wide and shook her head. "No, no…what you can do for me though is work through the reports I'm having sent over from archives. I think a case I worked back…oh maybe ten years ago could be related."
He took a sip of coffee as she stared at him, too stupefied to speak.
"Don't worry," he added hastily, as if anticipating her main concern. "There's nothing graphic in the files. It's quite safe, tame even. It's a simple B and E if I remember correctly. It's just the method of entry is similar to what the LEO's are reporting." He broke off as his cell beeped, and cast a cursory glance at it. "Gotta go," he announced as he refocused on her, "The guys are ready." Moving to walk past her, he stopped dead and let out a low chuckle.
"God my old man would kick my behind if he could see my manners," he laughed, reaching out to a downright speechless Kate. Taking the heavy bag off her shoulder, he carried it back to her desk and nestled it neatly in the corner. "You shouldn't be lugging that thing around," he announced, turning back in time to see her pull her jaw off the floor, "You'll do yourself an injury. In future, you go ahead and ask me, or one of the boys to lift anything heavy around here."
He scrubbed a hand across his eyes and nodded to himself.
"Best get a move on," he announced, "We shouldn't be long. And don't worry; I'm going to speak to DiNozzo about throwing horrible photos like that at you first thing in the morning." He shook his head, before continuing in the quiet, gentle voice that was downright terrifying. "Not good for the constitution, that kind of thing. He knows how to treat a lady better than that, but don't you fret, I'll remind him. Right, I'll be back soon, get cracking on those files for me, won't you?"
He nodded in conclusion as she gaped at him, before side stepping her to leave.
Stopping short, he turned once more and held out his empty coffee cup to her. Acting on instinct, she took it, as the air soared down her unprotected windpipe. He smiled widely at her, and to her intense horror patted her gently on the shoulder as he turned on his heel once more, speaking to her over his shoulder, making his way to the lift.
"Be a dear and get rid of that for me, will you? They've changed all the trash rules, I don't know which way is up. Man brain, right?"
The doors swooshed, and he was gone.
…..
TBC
A/N: I didn't think a little bit of reverse psychology/mind games would hurt Kate one little bit.
_Inks.
…..