AN1: This belongs somewhere in the vicinity of Undercover I (Chapter 7, I think). Maybe, after a while, I'll move them around but in the meantime, I'll leave this at the end since it is the newest chapter.

AN2: Thank you to Pandora of Ithilien for some help with the end of this one.

AN3: This is officially winding down because I'm out of ideas and I haven't watched NCIS in ages. There will be just two more unless I get a sudden burst of inspiration as the new season begins. I did not find the first episode to be particularly satisfying.

AN4: I changed the rating to T because I cursed once in it. Does that warrant a 'T'? Have I cursed, or rather, have I had Kate or Jenny curse at any point before this? I can't remember.

199?

Kate had just worked an extraordinarily long but thoroughly satisfying day on a protection detail. Actually, as she thought about it, it was probably more like three days. She was past feeling tired and had moved on to punchy and playful. A drink would top off the successful completion of her assignment nicely. She started her trek over to Georgetown.

A short while later, Kate walked into the bar and saw Jenny moping over her drink. She walked up to the bar and whispered in the red-head's ear, "Did somebody kill your dog?"

Jenny jumped.

Kate was surprised she had been able to sneak up on the normally hyper-aware NCIS agent. She hadn't even received a nasty look for doing it. Something must really be wrong, she figured. "Ok, Shep, spill it. What did he do this time?"

"It wasn't him. It was me."

Kate gave her a confused look.

"I shot a guy. It's need to know stuff, but suffice it to say I wasn't supposed to shoot him."

Kate didn't quite know how to respond to that. She would only ever shoot in self-defense; her assignments did not involve her shooting foreign operatives. She assumed Jenny's assignments must involve something of the sort.

"He didn't die, in case you were wondering. And it's not going to do any damage to my career."

"Well that's good, right?"

"Yes and no. He covered for me."

"So he did do something," Kate remarked smugly.

"No profiling. I'm concerned about my mistake, not that he may have something to lord over me for my entire career."

Kate smiled. "I didn't have to. You seem to have the profiling thing down pretty well. Want my job?" She teased. "You managed to pinpoint the psychological underpinnings of your misery which are not actually from your mistake itself but from the fact that you failed in front of your boss, or whatever you're calling him these days. You are denying the very truth that your subconscious is perfectly aware of and is making known to you through your denial. In fact, that you bring these things up via a denial says something..."

"Shut it, Todd," Jenny interrupted. "I don't need a psychology lecture. I need to not shoot people I'm not supposed to shoot."

Kate thought about continuing into some Freudian theory, but thought better than to subject Jenny to the contents of her most recent training lecture and herself to Jenny's wrath. Who knew where Jenny was packing these days. "So what did he do?"

"He made it look like a "business acquaintance" wanted to make an example out of someone who didn't uphold their end of a bargain. A few falsified papers and a fake bank account later, I'm in the clear."

"It sounds like he's done this before. If you want to push his buttons sometime, ask him why he knew exactly how to take care of it."

"That's not all though," Jenny paused and continued in a whisper. "He wanted to have sympathy sex."

Kate coughed and sputtered on her drink.

"He apparently had a need for sweet and tender instead of passionate and instead of asking me, he just tried to use this as an excuse. Men!" Jenny spat.

Kate wasn't particularly sure how to respond. That Freudian lecture was starting to sound pretty good.

After moment, Jenny spoke up again. "Maybe this is the mistake. You know they always say that dating your boss, partner, whatever is a bad idea. Something about not sh*tting where you eat, right?"

Kate's head shot up. Could Jenny really be saying what Kate thought she was saying? Kate at least had the decency not to say "I told you so." Of course, that would have required explaining that she had been thinking it was not going to end well from the beginning. She'd stick to Freud for now.

2003

Gibbs made it known that Kate's failure to stab Ari while in autopsy was an unforgivable error. There was a certain tension in the room whenever they were together. It could have been worse though. At least she wasn't alone in Europe, undercover, and sleeping with him.