A/N: First of all, it's high time I said Thank you to all the reviewers! You make me very happy, you know ;)
What else? Well, just enjoy, hope you like it!
Pastimes
One of these days, Kate took a bag to the hospital that she hasn't used in a while. She found there still was one of her sketch pads and a pencil in it, she must have forgotten to take them out. She came upon them later in Gibbs' room, when she was searching for her Blistex lipstick.
And, in a way, it's with Kate like it is with a real artist. When there are paper and a pen within her reach, she can't keep her hands from snatching and using them. Especially not when she can do with something to calm her nerves, and drawing always does.
She's never been one of those, though, who start pouring their hearts into their pictures. She doesn't draw allegories of her feelings, or symbolic compositions that could keep their beholders busy trying to figure out the underlying meaning for hours on end.
At school, she was one of those student who liked the arts and museums, but deemed it utterly pointless to plough through a painter's biography and historical background to dig up that one, exclusively correct interpretation of a work. She's an advocate of the thesis that artists (as well as authors, by the way) mostly just felt like drawing that picture at the time, and didn't intend to bestow some indispensable message upon future generations.
Of course, there may be exceptions. But she's not one of them.
Kate took to curling in a chair in the corner of the room, from where she's got everything in her view, and draws while the others talk in quiet voices.
As the days and nights proceed, she gets to realize some things that she wasn't so aware of before. For example that Ducky always talks to Gibbs as though nothing was wrong at all, and they were really having a conversation. He talks about everything: the weather, football, the congress he went to, something someone else told him, one of the many stories of his past. About the other people at Headquarters, whisky (and whiskey, of course), how the wind would really be too violent right now to take a boat out into Chesapeake Bay. Never about work, never about what happened.
Abby talks a lot about what happened. She often tells him she misses him, how she feels. Sometimes she talks about things Kate doesn't really understand. She talks about parties she goes to as well, about her friends, music, but mostly about things she remembers doing when he was there, or that they did together.
Tony talks about cases, and he jokes a lot. Movies, how could it be different? Most of what he says is rubbish, of course, but somehow Kate suspects that to be his purpose. Talking about silly stuff is not necessarily a bad thing at the moment. It's actually got something comforting, solid about it. It cheers everyone up a little.
McGee doesn't say a lot at all. It's hard to guess how he feels about this whole situation. When it happened, almost a month ago now, he was so mute and wore such a blank expression on his face, that Kate at some point began to worry that he might have been traumatized or something. But it's a lot more likely that, for him, things just went way too fast.
He hasn't been on the team for so long, hasn't even had time to decide on the proper positions of all his pencils at his desk yet, and already something unthinkable happens. Because Gibbs usually seems quite invincible to people who only just met him, and it takes a few extreme situations, up-all-night-weekends at the office and close calls to deconstruct that impression a bit.
In a way, not even Tony and Kate herself have had enough of that to help them really grasp this situation, so how could Probie?
Then again, the sense of unreality that laces through everything Kate has done, heard or experienced since the 15th of October, would also be there if it was any other member of team lying there instead of Gibbs. That's probably just the way it is with people who became a part of your life, whom you got used to and, actually, don't want to miss. Friends, in other words.
Sometimes Kate draws the whole group, sometimes only one of them or two, sometimes it's cartoons of Tony and McGee arguing about some stupid thing, or it's a portrait, or just Abby and Ducky captured on off-white paper while they have a conversation all of their own.
Sometimes she draws something that happened in the past, during all the nights, mornings and evenings they've already spent here.
She never draws any part of the room, though. Furniture – chairs, the small table -, yes. But only edges of the bed, never the machines, the monitors, tubes, medical things. She couldn't.
She was surprised to find the fairly new pad all used up one night when she turned the sheet that proved to be the last one. If this was a crime scene, she thinks, they could probably reconstruct it in a flip-book.
She brought a fresh one the next evening.
That was when Abby got hold of one of the drawings. Kate had left it on the table when she and Tony went for some coffee, and Abby took the chance to snatch it.
Returning, Kate found the picture (which she hadn't yet considered finished, actually, pinned to the wall with a small button Abby had been wearing on the collar of her coat. Very inventive. Emma would go nuts.
At first, Kate protested against the display of her drawing, of course, but to no avail.
It's one thing to try and persuade Abby to do something or not to do it. Nice words and a smile can do a lot, and if that fails, Caf-Pow mostly does the job. But when Abby and Tony team up, no one (except for Gibbs, that is) stands a chance.
So instead, of leaving it to Kate to collect the drawings and, at some point, probably forget them in some dusty drawer, Abby took to pinning all the pictures to the wall opposite the bed and around the windows, the old ones as well as the new ones, and now, after a week, the room looks like a gallery.
Dr. Morris, who's been on holiday those past eight days, walks into the room early on Monday morning, and blinks a few times. "I think I'm back in the Louvre", he states as he takes a sweeping glance around.
"Did you like Paris?" Abby asks cheerfully, spinning round to face him.
The medic nods, actually looking quite stunned. "I did. As romantic as everyone says. Who did those?"
"Kate. They're good, aren't they?" Abby slips her arms into the sleeves of her coat, making ready to leave for Headquarters. Unexpectedly, she receives a playful punch from Kate, whose cheeks have turned a soft shade of pink. "They're just sketches, Abby", she tells her, still a bit uncomfortable about everyone being able to see what she draws.
Sketching crime scenes for the sake of details is one thing. Sketching people for no obvious reason and without any necessity is a wholly different affair.
Dr. Morris, however, shakes his head. "No, she's right. I'm amazed." Kate can't help a smile. "Part of my job," she says, trying to sound dismissive.
"Don't you feel like sketching dead people and pieces of evidence is a waste of talent?" Dr. Morris inquires, taking a thorough look at some of the sheets next to him.
"Not at all", Kate replies. "The more talent, if you want to call it that, the more precision, the better for our investigations."
"Well, if you put it that way." Dr. Morris gives her another smile and finally turns to the monitors that show Gibbs' vital functions.
"We've got to go", Abby declares, addressing no one in particular, as it seems. She's fumbling with a button on her coat that's coming lose.
Kate casts a glance at her watch. "You're right."
She steps up to the end of the bed and watches Dr. Morris for a few moments. "I suppose there's no news for us?" she asks, the hopefulness she can't quite banish from her voice sounding silly even to herself.
The medic looks at her with a sympathetic smile. "No, I'm afraid there isn't."
Abby nods. "Yeah, well. Better no news than bad news."
She steps up to the bed once more and gives Gibbs a peck on the cheek that's become her habitual parting rite. "See ya", she whispers, and then grabs Kate's hand, barely giving her friend the chance to wave good-bye at Dr. Morris as she pulls her out of the room and down the corridor.
TBC
Reviews still very much appreciated, as always!!