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I know! You all hate me for not updateing in so long!

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xoxElle

10 steps back
You're still a mystery

Bete Noire

[Translation – Dark Beast]

Three months later Ari had visited 10 times, each time he stayed for a few nights and the two had become more serious, well as serious as you could get with a secret relationship where they were hardly together. She was now used to the almost-weekly visits. When he would leave he would always leave something in promise that he would be back. The first week it was his jacket, which she hung in her cupboard for him after retrieving it from its heap on the floor. The fourth week it was a shirt, which she had claimed as her own and wouldn't give back to him Right now she was trying to get dressed for work.

"Good view?" She smirked over her shoulder, seeing Ari leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom.

"Very" He answered walking up behind her and running his hands down her body. She leaned against his chest and sighed happily.

"So what are you doing today?" Kate asked stepping away from him and grabbing a pinkish-purple shirt from her draw and putting it on. He sat down on the bed.

"Caitlin, you should know that whatever happens today, do not be angry" He said. She sat down next to him and stared.

"Why, what's happening?" She asked worriedly. The sides of his lips twitched up slightly and he leaned over and began to kiss her neck.

"Do not worry, it will be fine"

She continued to look at him "If you say so" She said getting up and walking into the bathroom to brush her hair. She looked in the mirror and her eyes widened. "Ari!" She screeched almost running out into her bedroom, where Ari was sitting on the end of the bed.

"Yes?" He asked looking innocently up at her. She sent him a death glare and went back into the bathroom and began to attack her neck with cover up makeup, covering the many hickeys all over her neck that the man in the other room was responsible for. Ari slowly came up behind her and kissed the side of her head.

"I must go now Caitlin" He said. She turned her head to kiss him.

"Are you coming back tonight?" She asked.

"If everything goes as plan today, then yes" He said kissing the opposite side of her neck, the side where she wasn't frantically applying makeup. She smiled softly as he did.

"Bye Ari" She said. He left her with one last kiss.

"Shalom Caitlin"

'When did lab rats, start carrying Sig Sauers?'

A hundred thoughts were running through Kate's head as she lay on the autopsy table.

What was he doing here? Why was he holding Ducky and Gerald hostage? That bastard! Why was he-

His voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Special Agent Caitlin Todd" He said looking through her jacket. Ducky and Gerald sat on the floor looking at her.

"You any good with this gun Caitlin?" He asked.

As he continued talking to Ducky all she wanted to do was turn around and either shoot him or scream at him.

But she stayed still.

'You Bastard!'

'You seem like such a bright young woman and that's all you can say?'

"What the hell are you doing?!" Kate yelled after Ari had put Gerald and Ducky in the cooler. She was lying on the autopsy table again after Ari had ordered her there, which she had been pretty angry about.

He walked over, putting his hand on her arm, but she pushed it away from her.

"Caitlin, I am on a mission" He whispered in her ear. She stared at him for a moment before sitting up and glaring at him.

"So that gave you the right to shoot Gerald? What the hell were you thinking?" She hissed. He chuckled and leaned against the table next to her. "Ari! This isn't funny, Gibbs will want to kill you" She said.

He lifted his hand and ran it through the side of her hair, leaving his hand on the side of her neck. "It will be fine" He leaned forward and kissed her slowly, when he went to deepen the kiss she pulled away.

"This is so inappropriate" She said breathlessly. He just leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers again, at with point the rational side of Kate's mind went out the window.

Her hands were on his shoulders as he gently pushed down onto the autopsy table, one hand running up her thigh, he began to kiss down her neck. She looked over his shoulder and saw a small camera coming through the roof. Her eyes widened.

Oh no...

"Gibbs!" Abby gasped as they looked at the screen in front of them "She's...he's...You have to go save her!" She screeched.

Gibbs was staring at the screen with murder in his eyes. He watched as the terrorist pushed Kate down on to the Autopsy table, blocking her face and his from the screen. He saw Kate's hands on the Terrorists shoulders, trying to push him off when suddenly he saw her face over the man's shoulder. He saw her eyes widen, but he couldn't see anything other than that. The Terrorist's head suddenly turned and he pointed a gun straight at the camera, shooting and making the two in the lab loose the picture.

Gibbs quickly ran out of the room.

'Why?'

'Why Not?'

Kate sighed and rubbed her temples as she sat at her desk later that night with only Tony for company.

"The way he escaped was always his backup plan. He just needed someone he could count on to shoot him in the chest to trigger the assault. Gibbs figures he was wearing a bullet proof vest all along." He said from his desk. Kate looked up at him briefly.

"He was" She took a breath "I felt it"

"You felt it?" Tony said shocked, standing up and walking to her as he spoke "Well, how close did you get to feel it? Close enough to touch him. With your hands or did you touch him with…?"

Kate cut him off "Close enough to stab him with the knife in my hand." She said and sighed again, she knew she couldn't do that. She knew he wasn't the evil Terrorist that everyone else thought he was. The unknown man who shot Gerald and what Gibbs and Abby thought, tried to rape her. No, the man she knew was Ari. The one who can be a bastard and annoy her to the point where she wants to shoot him, but he always kisses that feeling away. The man who sneaks into her apartment in the middle of the night between missions and kisses her shoulder every time he gets into her bed.

"And you didn't" Tony stated.

She swallowed "No"

"Stockholm syndrome?" He asked. Her head snapped towards him and he sat on the edge of her desk.

"You can't identify with your captor in an hour" She said, almost saying Ari and 3 months. Tony gave her a look.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's like falling in love. That can happen" He snapped his fingers "... like that."

Kate walked into her apartment and saw Ari sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. All she wanted to do was give him an earful after what he had done that day, but something that Tony had said to her was making her think, and this had to come out first. She turned around and shut the door, taking a deep breath and putting her things on the table in the entry way. She turned back around with tears forming in her eyes. Ari looked up and saw her standing there. He put down his newspaper and stood up.

"Caitlin…?"

She took another deep breath and looked away from him "I can't…I can't fall in love with you"

He walked around the couch and stood a few feet in front of her and crossed him arms over his chest "Good luck with that"

A tear fell and she laughed slightly wiping it away. She looked back at him and he was smirking. She wanted to slap the smirk off his face. So, she did the next best thing she could. She closed the gap between them, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him.

She would yell at him later.

Review!

Next chapter'll be up quicker!

xoxElle