Disclaimer: not mine

Pairing: Kibbs

A/N: This comes before the last part. You got the story last chapter and if your wanting more you can indulge in this. Tell me what you think.

Chapter Two

(BEFORE previous chapter)

By: Katie Todd

A small smile graced Caitlin Todd's face as she looked out over the ocean. Her sundress, which fit in with the crowds earlier, seemed out of place in the night. The wind whipped the white skirt around her well toned thighs and for the umpteenth time that night she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She stiffened as the corner of her eye caught movement beside her before she relaxed. Her body told her what her eyes couldn't quite see. The man that moved beside her had been Gibbs; even in the dark she knew it was him. He liked to think he was invisible unless he wanted to be seen, a marine thing she figured, but he was never invisible to her. She wondered why no one else ever heard the soft hush his shoes made or smelt the heady coffee/bourbon/sawdust scent that always followed him around like a cloak.

The taller, older man slipped out of his sports coat and draped it around her shoulders as he leaned to whisper against her ear.

"Dinozo sighted our target," she nodded tossing her chocolate colored hair into the wind. She hadn't been able to wear an ear piece or a mike. The reason had never really been stated but she was fine with it. Gibbs was beside her and he was miked, that was all that mattered.

The young brunette's world seemed to stop as she noticed the guy near the back of the boat. His gun was drawn and pointed threateningly at the individuals in front of him. Kate took a slow step forward when he pulled the trigger. It took her five seconds to recognize that she was on the deck of the boat instead of standing, that the tall glass of sarsaparilla she held moments earlier was broken under her body, that her boss's entire weight was resting on her, and that the boat floor was much rougher than it looked. Her ears registered the sharp ringing of bullets being released from their master. The mass above her stilled for a tense moment before his lips hit her ear.

"How you doin' Kate?" The rough voice questioned.

She nodded a weak reply before he slowly lifted himself off her. He offered her a hand when she had rolled into a ball and helped her stand up. The deck had done a number on her face and her dress looked like a failed piece of paper machae. She swayed slightly and her boss's arm made a quick snare around her waist. He flashed his badge and then hers, after he slid out of its pocket down beneath the bow on her dress. He shouted out the acronym in quick sharp letters as the crew captain announced that they were now docked.

The once civilized group of individuals mixed in a mash of grays, blues, and blacks. Women's hats hit the ground unnoticed and husbands held their wives protectively as they raced like a stampede off the boat. As the civilians rushed off the agents rushed on. Gibbs let his team take over as he gave strict instructions that they not let anyone aboard that wasn't NCIS.

The silver haired angle and the slight brunette managed to get through the crowd in one piece. Gibbs spied a gurney and dropped Kate onto it. He brushed her hair back and summed up her injuries when he heard a huff behind him. He turned to see a tall, thin, brunette man standing behind him. With his pad and paper in one hand and recorder in the other he was obviously a reporter and Gibbs hated reporters. He was thinking of adding it as a rule… 'Rule 23 NEVER talk to reporters' he thought it sounded appropriate. The man seemed to chew his words before they sputtered out of his mouth.

"I…I'm Rick Miller with news channel 7 and I was…" his eyes swiveled behind Gibbs and locked on the beaten brunette behind him, "Kate." It was more demand than question and Gibbs loathed the edge to his tone. Who dare speak to his Kate like that? He was too involved in planning Rick's, the name swirled like acid in his brain, murder to realize he had overstepped his firmly drawn 'can't have Kate line'.

"Miller" her voice spiked an edge to the name that Gibbs wasn't aware she was capable of. What had he done to her?

There is your prequel. I might do a high school flashback (when she met Rick) we'll have to see.