17. KATE

It wasn't usual to be able to creep up on him, but when Kate reappeared after her shower, Gibbs was fully absorbed in what he was looking at, peering down through his reading glasses. She was slipping down onto the couch beside him before he even reacted to her presence.

He gave her a grin that was a touch sheepish and shrugged a shoulder, and she grinned back when she realised he had her phone and was looking through the handful of photos they'd taken on Nu'uanu Pali and the Makapu'u trail. She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled as he scrolled through them, stopping on the one a fellow hiker had taken.

"My favourite," he murmured, and she nodded.

Once, a very long time ago, she had secretly pilfered a snapshot of her and Gibbs from a set of crime scene photos, and had treasured it, albeit rather self-consciously, but this one was immeasurably better. They both looked relaxed and rather windswept, cheeks pink and eyes squinting in the sunlight. She was leaning back against him, grinning, looking up at him, one hand reaching up to touch his cheek. His arms were wrapped firmly around her waist, and he was laughing at something, she couldn't remember what.

Like a happy, normal couple, without a care in the world.

"Mind you, quite like this one, too," he added, flicking to another, and she thumped his arm when she saw it. He must have lifted her phone from her pocket without her noticing during lunch, and had captured her shovelling shrimp into her mouth.

"Gibbs!" She stole the phone back. "I'm so deleting that one."

"'S okay," he assured her as he put his glasses back down on the coffee table. He looked suspiciously satisfied with himself. "I already uploaded 'em all to the cloud."

She stopped, stared. "You- you uploaded a photo from my smartphone? You even know what uploading a photo to the cloud means?" She shook her head. "Who are you and what did you do with Gibbs?"

He was lucky she was in such a good mood, or his shit-eating grin might've landed him in big trouble. "McGee set me up." He shrugged. "Don't get too impressed, it's all I can do. Had a feeling it'd come in handy." His smiled widened. "And nope, don't have a clue what it means, 'cept I get to have those photos on my computer back home. All of 'em."

She shook her head. "First Skype, now this? Careful, at this rate you'll get dragged into the twenty-first century, and then the world will probably end."

He glared at her, but he couldn't quite hold on to the grumpy expression, the twinkle in his eye and twitch of his mouth giving him away. "Cheeky minx," he said finally, and she grinned happily up at him.

"Yeah, but you love me anyway." She wanted to bite her tongue off even as she said it - she hadn't meant to go near the L word with a ten foot barge pole - but he just smiled, and she breathed a sigh of relief she hadn't completely freaked him out.

She hastily got back on topic before things could get awkward. "That photo gets out, they'll never find your body," she said, evenly.

"And there was me thinkin' it'd go nice in the NCIS recruitment brochures."

She narrowed her eyes, and his grin only got wider.

He wouldn't pass it around, she was - well, she was reasonably sure - but did he have to be quite so irresistible when he was making mischief? It wasn't at all fair. "You realise there's still time for me to get a few blackmail-worthy shots of you, right?"

He shrugged. "What's life without risk?" After a moment of silence, he sighed, his smile fading. "Speaking of time. Got a call while you were in the shower."

Crap. She had a bad feeling she knew what was coming.

"They need me back sooner'n I thought. Day after tomorrow."

Her heart sank as she tried to figure out the math of flight times and time differences and- "Which means...?"

He shook his head and ran a hand over her hair. "Which means I'm on a navy transport tomorrow lunchtime." His voice was heavy with regret.

She looked down, trying to tamp down her excess emotion. She'd known he wouldn't be able to stay for long, but she'd been fairly successful at putting it out of her mind, and she'd really, really hoped she'd need to use the third day off she'd been offered. To suddenly find out they had less than a day left... She bit the inside of her lip and let herself curl into his side. Damn. This truly sucked, and she wanted to cry or scream or possibly both. "Bugger."

"Yeah." He let out a humourless bark of laughter. "Yeah, pretty much." He was softly stroking and playing with her hair, and she let her eyes close, enjoying the sensation. She couldn't think about tomorrow, not right now.

Being miserable about this wouldn't make it any easier, and if she let it wreck the time she did have with him, she'd be furious with herself after he'd gone. It was lovely to simply be held, feel his closeness. She wondered how attached he was to the hoodie he was wearing, and if he'd be willing to leave it behind for her. Something warm and soft that smelled of him would be... comforting.

Still, she couldn't help running through any remotely plausible scenario to keep him here longer or bring him back sooner.

Plausible or not so plausible, really. Any port in a storm. "McGee and Abby are basically geniuses, right?"

There was a pause as he processed her non sequitur. "I... guess..."

"You think if they put their heads together, they could work out some kind of-" she swirled a hand around vaguely "-quantum-sciencey-teleportation-instantaneous-magic-transport thingy between DC and Oahu?"

He laughed softly. "I'll tell 'em to get right on it."

"Good. Maybe then you could commute."

"That'd be nice."

"Gonna miss falling asleep on you." It wasn't particularly late, but it was so deliciously comfortable snuggling up on the couch with him, and she was warm and clean, already blissed out from her shower. She could easily slip into a pleasant doze.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You... you make a good pillow."

"I'm really very okay with that." He pressed his lips to her forehead, and she could feel his smile.

"You're all cosy, too," she murmured. God, she was so relaxed. Her voice was slurred even to her own ears. "Like you're a hot water bottle an' a pillow an' a... an' a teddy bear."

"Is that so?" He sounded amused, and she couldn't blame him.

"Uh-huh." She nestled closer into his shoulder. "I like it." She felt more than heard his chuckle, didn't even care that he was, kinda sorta, laughing at her.

"I like it too, Katie." His voice was soft against her skin. "I'll be whatever you need."

"Tha's nice."

"Yeah."

His hand had made its way up to the back of her neck, and his fingers were drawing tingly but somehow still soothing circles up into her hairline. As the easy silence between them lengthened she allowed herself to drift. She was almost obscenely chilled out. It was possible she'd melt into a puddle of goo right here; she just hoped Gibbs would be able to mop her up off the floor.

"Kate?"

"Mmhm?" She'd been at least halfway asleep, but there was a quiet urgency in his tone all of a sudden.

"If I ever... if anything I do - if I make you uncomfortable or scared or anything anytime... you tell me, all right? Anything. Ever. No matter what. Even if it seems small or silly or... whatever. Okay?"

She made herself open her eyes properly and look up at him. "I know you won't hurt me, Gibbs. It's not like you knew I'd have a flashback when you touched me like that. I didn't even know. It wasn't your fault."

"I know you know." He smiled, shrugged. "Doesn't matter. You need to be able to feel safe." He sighed. "Look, I'm bad at this, okay? You know that. I'm gonna mess up. Get caught up in cases, ignore phone calls, forget birthdays. There's stuff I'll screw up even on my best days. But I want you to feel safe with me, Katie, to know it's okay if something bothers you, to know I'm always gonna listen. No matter what. I can't promise a lot, but I'm promisin' you that."

She looked away for a moment, smiled, blinked at the sudden moisture in her eyes. He cared so much, it kept taking her by surprise. "Okay." She took a deep breath, tried to steady her voice. "You... you do make me feel safe, Gibbs." 'Safe' seemed like a huge understatement, a paltry word for everything he'd come to mean to her. "I mean - thank you. I understand, and I will remember and it means a lot, and... thanks."

She shook her head, frustrated by the inadequacy of everything she could think of to say. Whatever Gibbs might think, this wasn't small. This was enormous, it was a gift, and she couldn't begin to tell him what it meant. Not that he needed her to say it, most probably. She knew he wasn't big on talking about this stuff. That he was trying so hard meant a lot, but with Gibbs, actions spoke louder, and since she didn't have the words anyway...

"I really liked spending the night with you, you know." Despite the unexpected speed bumps, falling asleep and waking up with him had been wonderful. Kind of spectacular, really. As gestures went, as a way to say 'I trust you', this was a win-win. "I, uh, wouldn't mind that happening again."

A mischievous grin spread over his face. "That an invite?"

She nodded, smiling shyly. "If you're okay with sleeping with me when it's just, you know, sleeping, then..."

He winked. "Trust me, Katie, I am never gonna turn down an invitation to your bed."

She couldn't do anything about the heat rushing to her cheeks, but it was a very happy blush. "Well... good."

He got to his feet, and before she had a chance to protest he was holding out a hand.

She grumbled a bit but let him pull her up. "What?"

He smirked, tugged her in close and leaned down to kiss her. "Since we only got one more night to share a bed, whaddya say we make it start it as soon as possible?"

She grinned. "I say I like the way you think, Gunny."

"Good." With another laugh, he picked her up and unexpectedly slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift to carry her to her room. She yelped, then giggled uncontrollably, laughing too hard to protest, not that she had any desire to escape.

He peeled back the duvet and dumped her unceremoniously onto the bed, and she would have told him off except he was stepping out of his slacks and peeling off his shirt, and when he climbed in beside her and bent to kiss her, his body pressing her down into the mattress just for a moment, a thrill buzzed right through her.

Oh, he was dangerous. And it was wonderful.

He settled back into the pillow and tugged her closer, then pulled the duvet over them both. "Okay?"

She laughed breathlessly. 'Okay' was on a similar level of understatement to 'safe', but for now, it would do. She wrapped her arm around his waist and rubbed her cheek against his chest. "Trust me Gibbs-" She fought back a sudden yawn, Her voice had gone all low and sleepy and soft again, and she was so cosy and happy, she couldn't even find it in herself to glare at him for his amused chuckle. "I am very exceedingly definitely absolutely one hundred percent a-okay."

"Good."