Chap. 3
On the way towards her desk from 'Autopsy' she willed herself to calm down, she had told Michael she didn't the man controlling her life did she not? Than why did she seem to lose all resolve when she saw a friend? Tilting her head towards the ceiling of the elevator she watched perplexed at the changing of the numbers 5-6-7-8-9, at nine she waited for the elevator to stop and open. Taking one more deep breath she plastered on carefree smile on her face and stepped out and took her first steps into the bullpen.
"Good morning Tony, McGee," she said pleasantly as she walked around her desk and hung up her purse on the coat hanger beside the file cabinet and sat down at her desk staring at how meticulously clean it was compared to Tony's and couldn't help but smile.
"Wow Kate you look…different," Tony managed to say as he leaned back in his chair for a stretch.
"Thanks Tony, because that's what every girl wants to hear when she comes in at work," Kate responded as she turned in her swivel chair to boot up her computer.
"No but seriously, how are you doing Kate?" he asked not meeting her eyes but tracing the eraser end of his pencil on his desk.
Kate looked over at him with a raised eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously.
"Been better, why do you ask?" she asked him pausing in her work and spotting McGee's head go upward and his eyes go from her to Tony.
"It's just that…" he lamented still not meeting her gaze.
"You thought I'd be a nervous wreck is that it?" she asked faking amusement, deep down though she was touched beyond belief.
"Well yah…no offence," he said but added the last part in a hurry blur that McGee had to roll his eyes and whisper across the room from him while Kate went to the next room to pour herself some sludge-like coffee.
"Smooth," was all he said before going back to work on leftover paperwork. From across the room Tony made a face ad shuffled around his desk before he came out with his eraser and chucked towards his fellow Special Agent when out of the blue and hand came out of nowhere and caught it mid-flight.
Tony gulped when he first notice who the hand belonged to. Gibbs didn't even have to give Tony a look, the younger agent apologized and turned his head and busied himself with doing whatever he could find.
Gibbs's lips curved upwards slightly and looked around the room as he threw the eraser up, catching it and throwing it up once more.
"Where's Kate?" he asked his agents looking around the many cubicles. Both Tony and McGee pointed towards across the hall towards where everyone could get a dose of burnt coffee. He shook his head unbelievingly and headed over there, but before he left their clutter of desks he put the eraser back on Tony's desk and received a sheepish grin from its owner.
Kate stood but the window staring down at the large group of NEWS Jockeys and sighed as she continued absently stir her coffee. She was so out of it that she didn't even notice Gibbs' presence until he was staring out the window at her shoulder.
"How you hanging in there Kate?" he asked causing her jump and the coffee in her hand to slosh over the side and drip onto her hand. After ignoring the burning sensation coursing through her hand she turned around.
"Seriously Gibbs you have to make more noise when you come into a room," she said feigning innocence and quickly trying to change the subject at hand.
"I'll consider it, now are you going to answer?" he asked patiently as he turned his back against the window, crossed his arms and leaned against it with his ankles crossed in a casual position.
"You I think I would if everyone would lay off the subject," she said almost heatedly. Closing her eyes she raised a hand for him to remain silent and after taking a deep breath or two she apologized. "I'm sorry Gibbs that was out of order, I didn't mean for it to come out as harsh as it did," she said as she walked over to where the coffee machine was, took a handful of napkins and dabbed her hand from where the coffee had spilt a little earlier.
"It's understandable Katie," he murmured, keeping his voice down low so as any passer-by would think nothing of it, but tended his arm out and wrapped his arm around her shoulder and brought her snug to his chest.
She stiffened at his unfamiliar action but a second later she relented and let herself be held, let someone else carry the weight that is forever slamming on her shoulders driving her into the ground. A second later she straightened herself and he loosened his grasp around her.
"It's just this whole dad thing is driving completely and utterly up the wall!" she exclaimed taking selfish sips of her coffee. The corner of Gibbs' lips curved upward as he saw her face pucker in disgust. "And then there's the issue of rotten coffee," she lamented wiping her tongue on a napkin and throwing both the cup and napkin in the garbage before heading out the door. Gibbs met up behind her and placed his hand at her elbow automatically as if to lead her and yet at the same time to protect her as well.
When Kate rounded the corner and stopped dead in her tracks. There in front of her was a man she knew all to well. A huge smile was plastered to her face as she felt her pulse quicken minute by minute.
"Mike!" she exclaimed, the man turned around from a conversation with DiNozzo. When he saw who had shouted out his name a smile as intense as Kate's appeared on his face.
"Katie?" he exclaimed back. Kate shot herself from the other side of the room and ran in the sanctum of her dear brothers arms. As she burrowed herself deep in his worn black leather jacket she felt him bring his own arms around her waist and lift her up and twirl her around as he did when they were kids. Tony shared surprised looks with McGee whose mouth nearly dropped on his desk. Gibbs had turned the corner and stopped in his tracks. Never had he seen his highly respected Special Agent twirl in the air like a young child, that is exactly the picture he saw when he looked at her right now. He pictured 5-year-old Katie with long wavy hair decorated prettily with light pink and purple ribbons, a cute puffy dress with ruffles and lace with shiny lack shoes. Not the 5-year-old little girl that was brought up the way her monster of a father brought her up.
"Gibbs?" Kate said as she, her brother, Tony and McGee were all in a huddle and were staring at him because of the starry look in his eyes.
"Boss?" Tony asked in turn.
Gibbs snapped out of it right when Kate and Michael swapped looks of confusion.
"As I was saying, Gibbs this is my brother Michael, Michael this is my boss Leroy Jethro Gibbs," she said a little more slowly bewildered from the way he was acted suddenly.
"Ahhh so you're the famous Jethro Gibbs Katie-girl tells me about," he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Kate smile fell abruptly when she hear the response her brother had given to the introduction and elbowed him in the lower stomach hard enough to hear the wind get knocked out of the burly man. "What I meant by that was that she has spoken of you in a very…dignified way," he stumbled through it. Kate rolled her eyes. Tony was snickering in the corner by the water cooler.
Michael turned towards the laughing and a smile sprouted in his dancing green eyes.
"You must be Tony DiNozzo," he said going over to the water cooler and shook Tony's hand.
"She mentioned me did she?" Tony leaned against the cooler with his arms crossed.
"Absolutely, she mentioned she was working with a skirt-chasing gigolo I just associated it with you," he said shrugging his shoulders in amusement. He turned away from Tony's statue-like figure' jaw dropped practically to the floor. He walked over to where Kate sat at the edge of her desk staring at him with smiling as but her mouth was set in a frown.
"Now what happened to that smile you were wearing a couple of seconds ago?" he said smoothly rubbing her shoulder in comfort. She smiled sadly up at him and McGee, Tony and Gibbs saw that that was their sign to leave the siblings alone. From the corner of Kate's eye she saw them step into the elevator and disappear.
Looking back to her brother a second before she hopped of the desk and strolled over to the wide-panned window and gazed down at the sea of reporters.
"Right now? Someone far from here," she murmured touching the glass lightly with her fingers.
"I know Katie-girl," he said as he gathered his baby sister in his arms and held her tight. "You want to get out of here?" he asked looking past the wave of reporters to the seaside and got an idea to cheer his sister up.
"What did you have in mind?" she asked still halfway dazed.
He smiled and went behind her desk and picked up her purse and handed it to her and grinned his famous heart-stopper smile.
"It's for me to know and for you to find out," his eyes grinned as he led her towards the elevator before she realized what she had forgotten and dashed back to her desk, left a note for her boss and jogged up to catch up with her brother.
A/N: Here's my next contribution to my story, hope you like it. Don't worry the villain re-appears for another go. This might not be the strongest hit but bear with me the next chapter will be better.