Thanks for the reviews, people!

And a big thank you to alix33, who pointed out the typo's and errors in the first two chapters, and kindly agreed to beta the remaining two.

Kate found herself holding back more tears when she entered the bullpen a few minutes after pouring her heart out to her boss. She was happy to see that both Abby and Ducky were there, so she could say goodbye to them without running into Gibbs again. Obviously her colleagues had been talking about her, because the huddle hushed and stared at her the moment she walked up to them.

"And?" Abby was the first to say.

"I've resigned," she answered while starting to collect what few personal possessions she kept at her workplace and stuffing them into a spare plastic bag. Abby made a face of disappointment and started on saying something, but Tony cut her off.

"Wowowowow!" he blurted. "What you do mean, 'resigned'? You're not quitting, are you?"

She grimaced at him. "Sorry, Tony, but you'll have to find someone else to pester." Then she looked at McGee's shocked face. "I'm truly sorry for you, Tim, 'cause that someone will probably be you."

But for once Tony wasn't joking at all. "Forget that! What about you, Kate? You're leaving?! Why?!"

"I broke the rules, Tony. Especially the one Gibbs is most serious about."

"Number 9?"

She shook her head. "Heh, no. I always carry a knife." She hesitated for a moment, not sure if she should tell Tony more than he needed to know. Then again he'd hear about it soon enough. "No, I broke rule number 12," she admitted after a brief silence. "Over him, no less…"

"And he kicked you out because you…" Tony stopped abruptly as he remembered just what exactly rule number 12 entailed. "Oh. Wow. Uhm… I didn't figure you'd be the type to… Y'know…"

"You don't have to spell it out, Tony," she bit back as she closed her bag and grabbed her coat. "Everyone pretty much knows already anyway."

"Uhm… I don't?" McGee muttered uncertainly. It earned him Abby's elbow in his ribcage.

"Her hardware accessory wanted to plug and play the master computer, but the master computer threw up a firewall," the forensic scientist explained.

Kate couldn't help but smile at Abby's translation. "Actually," she offered by means of elaboration, "the firewall was already in place. This piece of hardware just removed herself from the system before the master computer fried her beyond repair."

They all looked at her, and then Ducky nodded. "That's perfectly clear, even for an old, pre-digital dinosaur like myself."

"Oh, you're no dinosaur, Ducky," she said, giving him a fierce hug. "I'll miss you, and your stories. I'll miss all of you." She hugged her friends and colleagues each in turn.

"So what happened to the two weeks' notice?" Tony asked meekly as he embraced her.

"I've got enough vacation due to cover two weeks. It's really not a good idea for me to stay on until then, not under these circumstances." She placed her cell phone and her handgun on Gibbs' desk. Then she turned and looked at all of them once more. "You've got my home number. Give me a ring some time, okay?"

They nodded in unison, and she gave them a sad smile. A final chorus of 'goodbye' and 'we'll miss you' from her friends sent her on her way.

From the back of the room, hidden in the shadows, Gibbs watched Kate's departure with mixed feelings. She was a good agent, a friend and an asset to his team he loathed to lose. However, his professional side told him her leaving was for the best considering her feelings. It would have made working with her impossible and unnecessarily dangerous. But still his chest constricted at the thought of never seeing her again.

His Kate… In the last year he'd come very close to losing her, more than once even. But he never could have guessed that in the end she'd walk out of her own accord.

"I didn't think you'd actually let her go, Jethro."

Gibbs looked up from his thoughts to find Ducky standing next to him, wearing a disapproving scowl on his face.

"Couldn't stop her," he defended himself. "It was her own decision."

The ME sighed. "Somehow I had expected you'd put some effort into pointing out the error of her choice."

"I did." At least in her choice of men.

"So now what?"

Gibbs shot him a glare. "Now nothing, Duck. She's gone."

"Oh, for Heaven's sake, don't be so stubborn! The only reason you didn't stop her is because finding out how she feels scares you!"

"You're on thin ice here, doc," Gibbs snarled in warning, his voice dangerously low.

But Dr. Mallard wasn't put off by his friend's gruff behaviour. "It was all a lot easier when you could tell yourself she'd never return the interest, wasn't it?"

Gibbs closed his eyes, trying to shut the world out, or at least get a bearing on his own thoughts. Ducky hit a sensitive spot. He could deny it, both to himself and to others, as he had for the past year. Or he could stop running and admit that he, too, was only human.

"How long have you suspected this?" he finally asked.

"About Kate? Not until she ran out of Autopsy this afternoon."

"No, about me."

"Ha! I've suspected your affections for Caitlin to be more than just friendly ever since you set eyes on her aboard Air Force One."

Had he been so easy to read all this time? He shook his head. "Damn it, Duck. Romance between agents never works!"

The older man nodded in compassionate understanding. "Possibly. But what we both know as well, is that we may set any rule we wish, but our hearts will always refuse to be bound by them."

Gibbs cursed under his breath at the truth in Ducky's words. No amount of resolve or painful past experiences had prevented him from falling in love and remarrying several times, not to mention the various short flings he'd had in between.

But Kate was different. For the last ten years, every other woman in his life - except perhaps for Abby and his cousin Mary – had wanted something from him, usually either money or sex, or both. Not Kate. She'd admitted to having a soft spot for him for over a year, but in that time she hadn't asked him for a single thing that didn't have anything to do with their jobs. He admired that about her. That and the fact she'd managed to fall for him despite his many faults. She could do better, though.

Lost in thought, he pulled her badge from his coat pocket and stared at it in silence.

"Go to her, Jethro," Ducky said softly. "And be honest with her. She deserves that."

"Kate's a good person, Duck. What she deserves is someone better than the likes of me."

The ME smirked. "Why don't you let her be the judge of that, hmm?"