It's annoying how you have scenes in your head that are just the way you want them to be but once you have typed them they do not turn out as great as they were in your mind. Is that a proper sentence? ;) Thank You for your kind words and hopefully you'll like what is to come.

……….

"Shit."

Kate quickly got up and hurried over to her passed out friend. "Ducky?" She gently slapped his cheek. "Ducky."

He opened his eyes and quickly remembered what had happened and also past conversations. "Kate, I am sorry." He sat up with her help. "I forgot."

"No need to apologize. Are you ok?"

"Yes, perfectly fine." He smiled at her. "And how are you?"

She smiled back to him. "I am fine."

The door opened and Abby screamed out in shock at the scene in front of her. Kate was looking back at her. How could that be? Kate was dead.

"Abby…" But as Kate tried walking over to her Abby bolted from the room. "Damn, not good." She started to hurry after Abby when she heard Ducky call her. He turned to face him. "What?"

"Not to mention you are dead but you don't want to go like that." He pointed at her.

She looked down and noticed she was still naked. "Oh."

Abby paced in the elevator. "This is not real, this is not real. It can't be real." Her hands were shaking. "Come on, come on." As the doors opened she ran out into the bullpen towards Gibbs.

He saw her approach and right away noticed something was wrong. He got up in time for her to throw herself into his arms. "Abs?"

"It's not real, it's not real." The image of Kate looking at her was still on her mind.

"Abby?" He gently removed her too look at her. "What is not real?"

"Kate, she's downstairs. In autopsy. I saw her, she looked at me. She talked but how can that be? She's dead Gibbs."

Her words came so fast he was not sure he had heard her right. "Abby." He tried not sure what to say. "We are all taking this hard."

"I saw her Gibbs. She was there. She was there."

Gibbs could see Abby was taking Kate's death harder then he first suspected. He put his arm around her and guided her towards the elevator. "Let's go and take a look.

"Ok." It was barely a whisper.

They entered the elevator and he let his arm stay around her.

"I saw her, I am not crazy."

"No, you are not." He didn't know what to say.

They stood in silence until the doors opened and started walking. They soon reached the door to autopsy and opened it. All of a sudden Gibbs froze.

"I told you I wasn't crazy." Abby's voice was barely heard.

There, inside, standing next to Ducky and looking right at him was Kate. Clad in a blue NCIS overall. She was alive? How was this possible?

"Kate?" He found he had trouble to get the name out as he approached her.

"Hey." Kate should have known Abby would go to Gibbs.

He couldn't believe it. She was there. She was looking at him. She talked. She stood up. She was alive! His inside was screaming with joy.

Abby couldn't take it anymore. So this was real and Kate wasn't dead. She quickly strode over to Kate and gave her big hug. "You're not dead!" She yelled.

Kate smiled as she hugged Abby back. "No, I am not dead."

A small smile started to appear of Gibbs' face. Abby's display of emotions was just how Gibbs felt.

Kate gently pulled away from Abby. "Listen, I am sorry for putting you guys through that. It was a rouse since we were sure Ari would come after us. So we stepped up the game and got me killed first." Kate hated lying but it was for the best.

Gibbs looked at her. There was something wrong here. Something did not add up but he would let it go, for now. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Worked better with less people knowing about it."

"So, now you are going to stay dead then?" Abby had kept an arm around Kate.

"I suppose so but Ari still might come after someone else."

"I'm just so happy you are alive." Abbey hugged her from the side and grinned.

Gibbs smiled as he was giving Kate a look she couldn't quite place.

"Now then, can we all keep this a secret for a while then?" Ducky suddenly spoke.

"My lips are sealed. Good thing no one was around when I found you Gibbs."

"Yeah." He replied not looking away from Kate. He closed the space between them and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "I am really glad that you're alive." He whispered in her ear. He found that she shivered a little as his words had been spoken. Then the urge took over and he pulled her into a hug.

Kate was a little surprised at this although she returned the favor. It felt so nice being this close to him.

"So, for a while I need to be dead so I can't come to work Boss."

Gibbs laughed then as he withdrew from her.

"Right, I need to sneak out of here. I'm staying at Ducky's so I can keep an eye on him too." Kate and Ducky started to leave as Gibbs spoke again.

"Kate."

She turned to face him. "Yeah, Gibbs."

He walked over the few steps to her. "Be safe." She smiled at him and with that he left.

He hurried over to the elevator and as he got inside he let out a deep breath. Almost right away he hit the emergency switch to give himself a moment and clearing his head. Kate was alive. Alive! It had been a long time since he had felt such happiness.

……..

It had only been a few days but she felt like she was going crazy. Ducky's mother was nice and all but she wanted out again. She wanted this to be over. When she had heard about the shot against Abby and Ducky's kidnapping she had almost bolted from the house. A voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

"Hi."

She turned to the voice and saw Gibbs. She had not seen him since that night when she had been revealed to be alive. "Ari?"

"He is dead. Ziva shot him."

She nodded. "So, it's over."

"Yeah."

There was that look on his face again. She wasn't sure what it meant. "I need to make calls to people and tell them I am not dead."

He nodded. "I have some guys with me you might want to see."

"They are here?"

He smiled at her. "Outside."

Quickly she got up and he followed behind her as she went to the front door. She yanked it open.

A door had been opened so both men turned towards the sound.

This had to be a joke. Tony blinked a few times making sure he was seeing this right. "Kate?"

Tim stared at her and then towards Gibbs. Gibbs simply nodded back to him.

"KATE!" Tony ran the few steps up to the porch and hugged her hard.

Kate laughed as she returned his hug. "Yes, it's me."

Tim did not move. How could this be? He saw Kate looking at him over Tony's shoulder. She let go of Tony and walked over to him. "Hi, Kate." He said. "I'm glad you're not dead."

Kate laughed again as she embraced him. "Me too, McGee." Yes, she had missed these guys so much.

Tony turned to Gibbs. "So, you knew?"

Gibbs did not take his eyes of Kate. "I found out by accident the same evening it happened. Abby did too. We promised to keep it a secret until Ari was dead."

"Or caught." Tony interjected.

Gibbs gave him a quick look before turning back to Kate.

"Right." Tony got the message loud and clear. He walked towards Kate and Tim.

Gibbs sighed. For a few days now he had pondered with the idea of telling Kate how he felt. Was it the right thing to do? Now that she was coming back to life he felt he had been given a second chance. He needed to tell her. He watched as they all laughed and more hugs were given.

………….

Gibbs drank some of the coffee that was in front of him. He waited as Kate said her goodbyes to Tony and Tim. Soon he heard her footsteps coming nearer. "So, are you heading home too?" She seated herself on the opposite couch.

He took a deep breath. "Not right now. I need to talk to you Kate."

"Oh, this sounds serious."

She watched as he ran his fingers through his hair. It looked like he was having some trouble getting the conversation going.

He looked down at his hands. Why was this so hard? "I am thinking of breaking one of my rules." What the hell was that? Is that how he was going to say this?

Kate wasn't sure where this was going. Abandoning one of his rules? That was strange. Why tell it to her?

"Rule twelve." He took another sip of coffee. He was so stupid.

Rule twelve. She knew it well since she had wanted to break it a couple of times herself. Wait, did that mean? Was that why? "Never date a coworker."

"Right." He looked up at her.

"Why?" She needed to know. She had to know.

Couldn't she figure it out? Or maybe she needed confirmation. "There is an agent I like."

"Oh." It was there. She could see it and she had longed for something like this for a long time. "It's not a bad rule Gibbs."

Was she rejecting him? "No?"

She didn't say anything. Was afraid her voice would betray the ray of emotions in her at this moment.

"You are rejecting me?" He wasn't sure why he asked but when it came to this he had to be sure.

"If there was any other way then I would want nothing more than to date you."

Now he was confused. So, she did have feelings for him. "Then why…?"

It was so much easier when she thought he did not have feelings for her. Now it was going to be unbearable. "It just can't happen. I wish it could but…" She trailed off as she got up and walked out.

He got up and hurried after her. "Kate, what are you talking about?" He grabbed her elbow and she spun around to face him. "You seem to have similar feelings towards me so why….." He stopped when he saw how incredible sad she looked.

She sighed. "There are things about me you don't know. Things I can't tell you."

"Nothing, absolutely nothing could change my feelings for you." He said with determination. He saw tears threatening to form in her eyes.

"Please, don't." She stepped away from him and made her way upstairs.

"KATE!" Letting out a growl he started to follow her. As he got to the top of the stairs he saw her disappearing in to one of the rooms. He quickly walked over and tried to open the door. No such luck. "Kate, open the door."

"Gibbs, go away."

"No, not until you open the door."

A key was turned and the door yanked open. "Fine, I opened it now go." She found it weird how he just kept looking at her. "What?"

"Listen Kate, if you had told me you weren't interested in me I would have let it go. It would have been tough but the right thing to do."

She looked away nervously not wanting to hear the rest.

"But don't expect me to walk away when it does seem you have feelings for me too."

She exhaled and turned back to look at him. "Gibbs, you have your rules for a reason and trust me; you don't want to break rule twelve."

The more she spoke the more confused he became. "I thought that was for me to decide."

She surprised him when she leaned in to kiss his cheek. Leaning back she sighed. "If you have to break that rule why not ask the new Director out?" He was about to interrupt when she put a finger to his mouth. "Yeah, I heard about her. Red head isn't she. Right up your alley."

He should have known Kate would know about Jenny. He removed her hand. "Kate, don't…"

There was a warning there but she ignored it. "Come on now. You love red head's and I am not changing my hair for a guy."

Fine, if this was the way she wanted to have it then why should he even bother? She clearly did not want this as much as he did. Without a word he turned and walked away.

She watched him leave. That was the hardest thing she ever had to do.

TBC……