Disclaimer: See Chapter 1, as per usual. Y'all should be used to this by now. Lol!

Spoilers: Between Starts off after "Missing" but before "Split Decision"

All The Elevators In Between

Chapter 13

When she finally decided to call it a night, she went home alone. Gibbs had still been working and Tony had long since disappeared. She needed a night to herself, to think. At least that's what she told herself on the long, dark ride home to her apartment. Gibbs hadn't said a word as she was leaving, but nodded in her direction. She got the impression that he didn't want to push her to fast, or himself for that matter.

As soon as she locked the door behind her, Kate was down the hall and into her bedroom. She stripped out of her work clothes, leaving them where they fell. She wanted a hot bath, dinner, and then maybe some mind-numbing television. She just wanted to relax. She ran the water in her bathtub and poured in a little lavender oil to help her relax. The steam from the hot water and the oil mixed, making the whole room fragrant. She eased herself into the water and sighed contently. It felt so wonderful to let the hot water ease her muscles.

Her thoughts turned to Gibbs, as they often did with nothing else to occupy them. She could see him, in her mind's eye, still sitting at his desk, signing this, filing that, tossing something into a completely different pile for later contemplation. Thinking of him brought a smile to her face, as he usually did. She thought back two nights previous, when he'd spent the night with her. They were comfortable sitting together on the couch, and eating dinner together. Even when she'd invited him to sleep next to her, he hadn't objected, but those first moments after getting out of her car, she'd thought he was going to run from her. She'd seen the doubts plaguing him. She wasn't sure what all they were, but she knew they were there. But after she'd told him that she wasn't expecting anything, he'd relaxed. Maybe she was pushing him for too much too soon.

The water was cooling, when her mind returned to her current activity, so she got out and dried off. It was hard not to think what it would have been like to join him in the shower he'd taken that morning after he'd spent the night. She would have liked to wash his back for him, and help dry him off. She could picture his surprise, and enjoyment of her joining him in an intimate task. The thought of seeing him naked sent a bolt of desire shooting through her. He was a gorgeous man; there was no doubt about that. She shook her head over where her thoughts had turned. She dried off quickly and wrapped the towel around her before walking into her bedroom in search of her pajamas. They were still lying on the bed, where she'd left them the morning before. As she picked up the shirt, his scent wafted up to her. She pressed her nose to it and could smell him, lingering on her clothes. She'd spent most of that night lying on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, so it came as no surprise that her shirt smell like him. She pulled it on, allowing his scent to envelope her.

She made a light dinner and flopped down on her couch to watch TV for a little while. It didn't matter what came on the screen, her thoughts refused to focus on it, and instead remained firmly glued to Gibbs. She thought about the way he worried over the team, how he looked out for the, even if they really didn't seem to notice it. She thought about how hard he worked on each case, because victims mattered to him, and their deaths seemed like a personal insult to him. She thought about how he looked at her, when there was no one else around to see them. That thought provoked a warmth in her chest she'd never felt before. He made her feel more than anyone else ever had. There was something about him that made her soul scream out that he was perfect for her. She didn't know what it was, but she didn't want to lose it. However, they still knew very little about each other. She knew he'd been married before, and that he'd been a Marine, and that he built a boat in his basement, but how much did that really tell her about him.

When she finally took herself to bed, she curled up in the place where he'd slept. She breathed in his scent. It was fading, but still definable. As she slowly drifted into sleep, she felt close to him in a way she hadn't before.

Morning came too soon for Gibbs, not that he got a lot of sleep to begin with. It hadn't been a bad night. He'd worked on his boat for a little while, and for once he didn't sleep under it. He'd felt himself getting drowsy, and climbed up the stairs to his bed. Looking at it, he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept in it, but it was comfortable enough. When he's closed his eyes, just before sleep claimed him, he'd felt off, like he was missing something. It had jolted him into enough wakefulness, that he'd looked around trying to figure out what wasn't right, or wasn't there. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was expecting another warm body next to him. It had only taken on night of sleeping with Kate on his chest to accustom his body to another person. He found that he liked having her slight weight on his chest, and next to his body, so it was disconcerting to realize that he missed it already.

He got up and made his coffee. He felt out of place still, not quite settled in his own skin. It had been much the same after his exes had packed up and left. This time it was different though. This time she wasn't leaving him. He knew deep down that Kate was nothing like them. She would never lie to him. She would never cheat on him. She wouldn't abandon him. She always told him what she thought, whether she intended to or not. It was how she operated. She couldn't keep it all bottled inside. That was part of the reason he liked her so much.

He smiled to himself to think that she was with him. She was what he'd always wanted and needed. She was very much like Shannon had been. The smile dropped from his face at the thought of his beloved wife. She'd been torn from him along with his daughter, Kelly. Could he withstand that pain again, if something ever happened to Kate? It was one thing to go through divorce multiple times, but the death of a spouse, was quite another. His thoughts returned to Kate. He could see her and Shannon side by side, one brunette and one redhead. They had similar qualities, like speaking their minds, and a gentleness that seemed to appear when it was needed most. Kate had other qualities that Shannon hadn't possessed, things that set them apart, besides that obvious physical ones. Kate had the ability to be hard, with a suspect, with him, with a friend, as needed. It was a strength of character that allowed her to be a good agent. She was a good judge of character, for the most past, as well. Shannon was stern with Kelly when needed, but that was the extent of any hardness in her. She had tolerated all of his outbursts, his attitude, his obsessive ways without comment. She was good for him then, but he had to wonder if she would have been able to cope with him as he was now. He was a very different man than the one she married all those years ago. Kate was more equal to the task of being with him than Shannon would be, and it hurt him to think that had she not been taken from him, their marriage wouldn't have survived into the current time.

He shook himself free of his thoughts. It was time to get to work, and not dwell on the past and what could have been. It was time for him to start looking into the future and what he could have with a very special brunette, who hadn't threatened to shoot him lately.