A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry that it has taken so long for me to get this next chapter to you, but this week has been hectic at best. Four tests in four days is not the best way to stay sane.
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The next week passed by with an amazing lack of awkwardness between the two of them. They each slipped easily back into the normal flow of the job, both seeming to silently and independently decide that work was work and whatever went on outside of work didn't get brought to the office. This agreement was made easier by the fact that neither really knew or understood what was going on.
To any outside observer, they had gone on a date. They'd gotten dressed up, gone out dancing, had a great time, he'd driven her home and asked for a second date, and she'd given him a goodnight kiss. That was a date. At least for most people it was a date. Kate and Gibbs were much less convinced of the fact.
Despite a mutual desire to see the evening as more, in both their minds it was two friends spending some time together outside the office. He had been trying to help her through a tough situation and she had been eager to take her mind off her latest dating disaster. But in reality they both knew that it had been more, that their feelings went deeper than just friendship. However, as the week drew by without a mention of that night, Kate began to worry that for him it hadn't been more.
Their case load for the week had been ridiculously light. Two murders, both of which had been solved for them by the perpetrators themselves within 24 hours. One who had confessed to the police when the guilt became too much and the other who confessed to everyone in the suicide note found with his body. Which is why, mid-afternoon on Thursday, with a long weekend just hours away, Tony made a crack about taking off early.
"It's not like we have anything better to do. Hell I've even finished my paperwork." He leaned back in his chair, waiting for Gibbs to tell him to get back to work. When he instead received a shrug and nod from the older man, he almost fell out of the chair. Not one to look a gift house in the mouth, he immediately grabbed his stuff and headed out, McGee right on his heels. Kate had not noticed the exchange, too caught up in an attempt to create a profile on their murderer/suicide for her report. It wasn't until she'd grown frustrated at reading the note a dozen times that she finally looked up.
After a confused look around the near empty bullpen, she turned to Gibbs. "Where is everyone?"
Knowing that he really should lecture her on her lack of observation, he instead gave her a tight smile and turned back to his own paperwork as he replied. "Went home already, they'd finished their reports and there wasn't much point in keeping them here."
She nodded briefly, wondering if she too should take off. His lack of comment about the previous week's activity had been gnawing at her for days and it was starting to manifest itself as very real unhappiness. Neither of them had actually committed to the second dance lesson, it had just been a maybe. Just as she had started to convince herself that he had decided to forget about the whole thing, his voice drew her back to the present.
"You can take off as well, Kate, not much to do here." She looked over at him, trying to read the impenetrable expression on his face. Just as she was about to give up, he grinned before he continued to speak. "I'm sure you have plans for the evening." And just like that the worry she'd felt for the last seven days disappeared and she gave him a mischievous smile.
"Actually I do." She stood and began pulling her things together. "I'm going dancing with this guy I know." She thought she saw an unreadable emotion pass across his face as she spoke, but when she turned fully towards him, it was gone, replaced by the sexy smile that never failed to make her weak at the knees.
"Dancing, huh? Well than you should take off. You'll have to get ready after all. I'm sure he's taking you out to dinner first." The raised eyebrow conveyed his question and he waited anxiously, despite the calm exterior, for her to say yes. After all she hadn't originally agreed to that and he worried that she would think he was taking whatever this was too far.
The sparkle in her eye as she responded set his mind at ease. "Actually I don't think he ever said anything about dinner, but it sounds like a good idea to me."
He grinned widely at her, but when he spoke again his voice was serious and left no room for debate about whom they were speaking. "I'm sure he's taking you out to dinner first." The flash of desire that shot through his eyes as he spoke almost knocked Kate off her feet, but she regained her composure quickly.
"Well then I need to go get ready." With a small smile to him, she turned and headed out of the bullpen. The elevator doors opened immediately and stepping in she hit the button for the ground floor. Just as the doors began to close, a hand stopped them. Holding the doors wide, Gibbs spoke softly, his tone gentler than she'd ever heard from him.
"I'll pick you up at six, okay?"
She nodded enthusiastically at him before blushing and looking down at her shoes. She only looked up again as she heard him retreat and the elevator doors close. With a sigh and a smile, she sank back against the wall, mind already busy trying to pick out the perfect outfit for the evening.
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Four hours after he'd picked her up, they arrived back at her apartment door and Kate honestly couldn't remember large parts of the evening. Certain key events stood out distinctly in her mind, but they seemed to block out all but a vague memory of the rest of the night.
She vaguely remembered getting showered and dressed for the evening; taking almost an hour to decide on an appropriate dress. But she couldn't recall how many other outfits she'd tried on or how much time she'd spent considering different perfume choices. She does remember having just smoothed out the last wrinkle in her knee-length, red, off-the-shoulder dress when he knocked. And she vividly recalls opening the door and losing the ability to breathe as she took him in. Black slacks, black long-sleeve button up, silver tie. She was severely inclined to say to hell with dinner and dancing and pull him in to her apartment to seduce him. From the way he was looking her up and down she doubts that it would have been difficult. But than there was the voice in the back of her mind reminding her that it would be best not to scare him off.
She only indistinctly remembers anything about dinner, though she's sure that the food was excellent and the conversation relaxed and comfortable.
She does remember stumbling as she got out of the car at the dance studio and his strong arms keeping her upright, hands clenched firmly on her hips. His eyes looked down on her with such an incredible combination of caring and desire that she again lost the ability to breathe.
She has a hazy recollection of Gibbs picking up the swing dances faster than she did and of his teasing voice as he pointed the fact out to her. She kind of remembers thinking that swing wasn't nearly as good as slower dances since she didn't get to spend as much time in his arms. But she definitely remembers how it felt when he dipped her low at the end of the last dance and about being completely lost in his gaze as he righted her. She knows with an absolute certainty that both their heart rates increased and that his eyes shifted at least twice from her eyes to her lips as his hand tightened around her waist. And she angrily retains the knowledge that the moment was abruptly cut off by the instructor telling the class about next week's lesson.
She doesn't really have any memory of the silent car ride back except that it was a comfortable quiet rather than an awkward one. But she does have the heat of his hand on her back as he walked her to her door permanently imprinted on her mind.
And once they were back at her door she knew with certainty that she didn't want the night to end, but also knew that she wouldn't stop it from coming to a close. The two nights she had spent with him outside the office had cemented in her mind that the feelings she had extended way past the gruff boss to the man himself and she didn't want to rush anything and risk everything.
She unlocked the door and turned back to face him. "This has been great; maybe we can do it next week too?" Her voice was uncertain, but sincere, and he caught the slight fear in her tone.
"Definitely." Unlike the week before there was no returned maybe, no vague possibility of another night out; it was acertainty. She smiled brightly at his confidence. She moved to enter her apartment, but a gentle hand on her arm stopped her and for a third time that evening she stopped breathing as he leaned down and placed a light kiss on her cheek. "Goodnight, Katie."
She couldn't help the blush that colored her cheeks and she merely nodded in response before entering her apartment. Setting her purse on the table by the door she heard his steps retreat down the hall. Laying a hand against the wood, she released a sigh and whispered to the quiet room. "Goodnight, Jethro."
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A/N: I hope you guys liked this. I really enjoyed writing the second half more than any other story part before. It was kind of an exercise in the use of synonyms; there are only so many way of saying remembered. Hope it worked. I'm looking to have the rest of the story (two more chapters) posted by Sunday night (CST) and I will definitely have at least one done by then.
And now I have a favor to ask of you all: I'm writing (well more like thinking about writing at this point) another story. It is NCIS but it's not ship of any kind and I need something from you all. What is ONE thing that a person does at a coffee shop besides order coffee? It doesn't have to be with ordering or being served, but just anything. I'm not giving any other explanation, but I hope you'll help me out. Thanks a bunch.