Neither of them had slept after that, not really. Fits and half dream mumbles and at one point he'd groaned his face as far as he could into her hair because she'd simply fiddled her fingers against the hem of his boxers for awhile. Rubbing along the elastic as though it was something she could worry against instead of her own stacked up thoughts, her knuckles brushing his stomach and making his skin tense up under each stroke. He groaned and when she looked up to find the sound his face was tensed, eyes squeezed shut as he clenched his hand into the center of his chest. She'd rubbed a silent smile on his bare shoulder at the sound and then slid fingers underneath the fabric, wordlessly lifting her head into his as she rubbed down into the trail of pubic hair and kissed along his jaw.

"Katya - "

"Nobody's ever done something like that for me before." She interrupted the low groaning of his voice, keeping her words soft and warm as she teased along the base of his length.

One of his hands was digging up into her hair, opening and closing to a slowly made rhythm that found his fingers entangled. "I find that hard to believe."

"Believe it." Sweetness filled up the newer brightness of her eyes and he saw the return of a lighter color to how widely pretty they were as she smiled at him. "You take the prize, Gunny."

"Yeah?" He drove his hips closer to the teasing heat of her palm, groaned again as she closed her fingers around him. "What do I win?"

"Incorrigible," she accused quietly, still rubbing her lips along his jaw as she stroked gently.

Gibbs swallowed as well as he could considering his throat had choked up on him. "Hard, actually."

"I can tell." Her fingers squeezed and he jerked a little into the feel of her nails nearly nicking him. "I don't need narration, Jethro."

"Really hard, Kate. Jesus."

"Mmmm." A self satisfied sound culled low in her throat, a sound that was even a surprise to her before she tipped her lips just in front of his ear. "Harden up, Marine."

He felt the laugh burst off his lips before he could bite it back, nuzzling his face into her hair and the warm breathiness of her teasing as he curled toward her. Gibbs tucked her closer so that they were facing each other, making a sound off his throat as she moved more comfortably into his leaning and let him wrap her up into the front of him. She let his mouth turn against her lips, his tongue slicking hers as his hands closed tighter against her, brought her closer into his chest and hips. He cocked his knee against her thigh, trapping her hand up between his legs as she kept lightly touching and stroking and squeezing around him.

He hadn't complained when she'd just changed into the t-shirt he'd discarded.

Now it seemed to annoy him, though, his frown tipping down the front of her.

"What do I win, Katie?" He was plucking against the fabric of the t-shirt she'd stolen, stroking a hand up under it so he could find one of her nipples and add a swift tug to his mischievous tone.

Kate tugged lightly in retaliation, watching the wincing thinning of his eyes as she tightened her fingers and arched into the full spread of his palm. "What'd I tell you about not being your reward?"

"That was months ago." He was all contrary and haughty and teasing as she pressed back against him again, shoving him onto his back as she watched his humor trace his lips. "Before I wooed you with furniture."

She just banked him a dry glance, rolling her eyes when he smirked in response and let his head rest into his pillow. He looked so... simply happy, pleased and comfortable and... content. It was a bit unnerving, surprising, but in a way that flushed the entire stretch of her a shade pinker. And he looked even more gratified as he sighed and shifted up the hem of his pilfered shirt, finding a way to rub and languidly stroke one of her breasts even as she sank lower down him. His fingers tweaked her nipple before he just grinned wider and palmed her breast into his hand.

"You are very hard," Kate murmured perfunctorily over him.

She purposefully loosened her fingers from his erection, dragging her breasts down between his legs so that he was gritting his jaw against groaning as he intentionally brushed the tip of his length up her stomach and then worked it back and forth between her breasts. A shudder of pleasure racked his hips and she felt wetness against her skin as the shirt got crumpled higher against her back, one of his hands jerking it up and holding it as the other kept circling the tip of his cock against an already seriously sensitive nipple. The man had a significant love for her breasts (not that she'd complain about his appreciation when he had such attentive hands). And her ass. And he seemed to be a pretty big fan of her legs, too. She reflexively smiled into his pleasure and looked over his face.

He looked so slack jawed beautiful, head tipped back and eyes shut as he unconsciously thrust between her breasts and growled a noise off his throat.

"How's it feel?" she whispered between them.

Gibbs opened one eye and cocked her a low lashed sardonic look, one that said he wasn't going to be trapped up as she drew away from him long enough to snug between his legs, avoiding the fact he'd aimed to pull the shirt off her. "Y'just told me not to narrate."

"How's it feel now?" she repeated softly, letting her lips curve on a true smile. "Knowing how much I love you?"

"Kate." The exhalation of her name sounded like he found it to be the only word he knew he could use correctly, like it was a Rosetta and she didn't need any other words to understand how softly he said it.

She grinned into the sound of it, smiling warm kisses down his stomach as she shifted lower. "Just wondering."

"Feels like I don't deserve you."

Oh, shut the hell up. You just made me something... perfect.

"Not really, no." She was rubbing teasing lips along his pelvis, his hip, nearer the side of his thigh. "You, Agent Gibbs, have a fantastic ass."

He chuckled quietly into the ghosting brush of her words and the way she was nibbling against his hip, rubbing his fingertips on her shoulder as she chastely kissed farther around his side. "My ass is not the part that's interested in you right now, Todd."

"Well, that part's pretty damn fantastic too." She grazed against him, lifting her head to find him smiling in his watching, his other hand making lazily slow strokes on his length as he enjoyed her playfulness.

Bemused surprise brightened up his eyes as he watched her turn her head. "Yeah?"

"Mmmm." Her kisses raked his knuckles as he kept the slow rhythm he'd started, the sound she'd made so appreciatively possessive as she pulled his hand away and replaced it with her own. "I think I'll keep it."

She didn't think he seemed to mind the assertion considering he reflexively jerked harder into her hand.

"That okay with you?" He made a grunted noise that was neither agreement nor much else, just a choked up sound - and she couldn't help but laugh into the fact he'd momentarily lost any form of speech. "Jethro?"

Another groan reverberated off his lungs and his clenched fist thumped into the mattress at his side, a sharp swallow grinding down his throat before his eyes met hers, one quick blink between them as he nodded unspoken agreement. She smiled into how intensely he stared at her, letting her lashes lower a little before she swirled her tongue along the tip of his cock and sank her mouth down into the echoed sound of him moaning.

She felt his legs sink as she focused her attention, raked her nails lightly on his thigh and couldn't help smirking into how comfortably he opened up under her mouth and hands as he just stretched groaning into his own mattress. So she kept slow and soft at first, felt his appreciation in the way he dropped one hand to wipe her hair back. She wasn't sure if he was watching as she worked her mouth up and down the length of him – at least not until she heard the massive breath of a groan relax from his lungs, his fingers catching her hair up from away from her face.

"So beautiful. I don't deserve you."

She licked her mouth off him slowly, "Why don't you let me be the judge of that, huh?"

"Kate." He stroked his fingers into her hair and she could help but smile at the digging of his palm, the way he stretched into the need to jerk her closer and guarded his force at once. "Please?"

She wasn't entirely sure what he was asking for.

She didn't even think he was entirely sure what he was asking for.

"Please what?" She laughed through the words, catching the way he whined a little at the brief glimpse of her dimples before he drove his head fully back into his pillow. "What do you need?"

"You." He very clearly pouted it into the room, petulant and eyes closed.

"I'm right here."

A grunt responded to the taunting of her voice, his hips jerking into her hand taking another teasing stroke up and down him, repeating the motion. "More."

Kate grinned at how flushed up and near embarrassed he seemed, suddenly so innocently shy as one of his hands scrubbed against his face and he twitched under her tightening fingers. "Being cryptic gets you nothing, Gunny."

"Mouth." Despite the snappish quality to his voice his fingers were forcefully gentle as he pried her jaw low again, drawing her lips closer to his length. "Now."

Damn. Yes, Sir.

She purred an appreciative sound into his directness, sloping her tongue back up the length of his cock, enjoying the tightness in his muscles as his thighs clenched up. One hand sloped up under the twitched rise of his hips and she rubbed against his ass, squeezing there as the other hand wrapped tightly on the base of his length. She closed her mouth down around him again, sucking hard as the taste and smell of him closed around her.

"Jesus, Kate." His voice tended to wrap up on her name, enclose it in heat. "More."

She absolutely knew the sounds he made when they were skin on skin. Who was she kidding? She loved the sounds he made. The fact that she was obviously wet and rubbing into his calf was proof of that. But he was so softly groaning this time, almost more weakly moaning as she kept working her mouth over him.

She knew how to tease him, knew what would make his hips jut up into the way she worked her tongue and lips and fingers up and down him. He couldn't keep himself still if she slowly drew her mouth to the very tip and sucked lightly, long and slow. She could taste him against her tongue, feel the slick difference between her saliva and what was obviously him tipping closer. Her palm closed tighter, leading a shivered sound out of his lungs as she kept her lips and tongue grazing on him.

She lifted her head and licked against his length, fingers massaging muscle as he let off a growl.

He couldn't not watch her either. And that made her smile as she sucked again, slowly swallowing down on him.

"Kate." He roughed a breath through his nose, hand catching into her hair and tugging. "Stop."

I know for a fact you can last longer than that.

"Gotta stop." His hands on her head were forcing her attention higher, forcing her to see that he couldn't manage a swallow all that well as he pulled at her.

"You were so close," a little sadness threaded into her tone as she rose into his pulling. "Why - "

"Get up here."

She'd known he would kiss her. He liked tasting her and especially when she tasted like him. And that was no problem at all, not in the least. Because he made those kisses seem like they'd last forever, like he was silently assuring that the combination of the both of them on her tongue was the only thing he wanted to taste until ever and ever ended. He found a way to slick his tongue along hers and still make the roughness of his fervor soft, nibbling along her bottom lip in a fashion that had her laughing even as his hands closed down around her and found purchase along her ribs.

He rubbed his smirk into her lips, "Turn around."

"Gibbs - "

"Just do," his voice went staccato and hot against the shell of her ear, "what I tell you to do."

Oh, hell, Gunnery Sergeant Tone. Hardass Marine Tone. Agent Gibbs in Interrogation Tone.

She let his palms lead the turn of her body, keeping her head angled over her shoulder to track him as he curled her around. Kate moved to reach for him again, hand lifting quickly when he batted her fingers away and roughed her into his lap. She sighed moaning into his arm catching around her waist, the other hand lowering between them as he jerked her closer and sank her abruptly down onto him. The flat of his palm pressing the back of her thigh and spreading her leg out farther as she winced into taking as much as she could into her body.

He was hushing along her ear and through her hair, making a tenderly soft sound against the side of her head as he purposefully closed his arm tighter against her and snugged her down closer. His free hand went around her, the full force of his hand spreading one of her thighs wider as he leaned her forward by the press of his chest and let her sink lower into his holding. He thrust into the angle, driving deeper into her and lifting his jaw against the side of her head as she whimpered out a pained surprise of a sound.

His lungs ratcheted out a rough exhalation against her shoulder blade, teeth nipping the tensed muscle as he stilled them a moment, letting her shift and adjust to how deeply he'd managed to stroke into her. "Okay?"

Oh, god, more than. This is way more than 'okay'.

She sighed her trust into the quiet questioning of his voice, how carefully placed the word was. "Mmm hmm."

"You like that?" And she could damn sure hear the smug smile in his voice as he rubbed the words down her neck.

How could I not?

"Mmmmm."

"How's it feel?" He teased the words gruffly against the side of her neck, the repetition of her earlier taunting making her shiver.

"Full." Kate turned her head into the nuzzling of his, felt his smile rise along her cheek. "Safe. Like home."

A full bodied groaning came off him as he turned his mouth to tease on her ear, a shudder taking him over as she snuggled down tighter onto him.

"I've got ya." The full strength of one arm bridged up the center of her body, lined along her sternum as she smiled into his palm curling loosely along her throat. "You're not going anywhere."

She charmed a half laugh into the air as she leaned into the solid strength of it, whimpering as his other hand found its way back between her legs and his fingers slid wet against her clit, "You asking or telling me, Gunny?"

"Both." He hummed it blithely along her shoulder, kisses dropped there as he lifted his hips into movement, urged her along. "I want you here."

"You mean to stay?"

"I mean," he kissed the words onto her jaw, lifting his head as his fingers circled her clit, "come home to me, Kate."

You win.

"I do." She argued into impatience, pressing closer to his hand as he roughed his hips up, driving her into a quicker rhythm.

"You know what I mean." And he bit his intention into her shoulder, teeth digging harder than she'd expected, prying another moan off her as her spine arched and his fingers rubbed her throat, his other hand working harder between her legs.

She curved her face into the twist of his hand, both palms rising to hold on his forearm as he raked his teeth on skin. "I do."

"You could just tell her."

No, he couldn't. Not as easily as the voice in his head would imply.

"You could just open your mouth and say it like a normal human being, Gibbs."

No, he couldn't. Not when it was Shannon's voice in his head telling him to confess to more than murder or more than love. More than an entire lifetime he'd yet to let her in on. More than retribution and redemption and, Jesus Christ... he'd killed a man in cold blood, he'd been the murderer – not her.

"She'd understand. She loves you. She'd forgive you."

The fantasy phantom of his dead wife knew more about his current relationship than he did.

(Well, she always had been smarter than him.)

He had to wake up. Jesus Christ, he had to "Wake up, Jethro.".

He had to let go (of something, he wasn't sure what, though - he wasn't sure if it was what he loved or what he wanted or what he'd killed or what he'd lost and he wasn't sure if he'd ever really figure it out or not).

He had to -

"Hey." She looked... almost frightened, a margin more than concerned as she pressed a palm flat into his chest. "Stop. You're dreaming."

She was sitting up with him, strangely tangled between twisting sheets and the sweat that was full down the front of him. Her hand was wiping it from his collarbone as she searched over him with a look that was full confusion and concern. There'd been no warning to her, he knew. She'd been lulled into the fact that he had no problem curling her up in some kind of safety and now she was the one that needed to be strong. She was the one waiting out the result of too many swallowed emotions. Dark eyes roved his face as her other hand pressed the mattress at his side, her head shaking slowly back and forth.

"It was just a dream."

"I'm the murderer." He negated the softness of her attempt to calm him, glaring into how gentle she was being as he looked down the naked front of her. "Not you."

Kate's head tipped slowly, her eyes still just as dark but now more aware, wary and maybe more understanding as she wiped against the sweat that had chilled his shoulder. "Thought this discussion was over."

"I can't tell you." His glance seemed focused on the dark length of her hair and blankly glazed at once. "Not everything. Not yet."

Her fingers spanned his chest, thumb finding the ridge of a scar and rubbing there. "Classified?"

"Personal."

Her jaw lifted stubbornly in the dark, as though she was partially offended, a pang of hurt wincing across her pretty face as she trailed her fingertips down against his stomach and pressed deep. "This is personal, Jethro."

"I'm trying, Kate." He roughed his hand over his face, ignoring the fact that his tone was so shredded thin, so gasping it was close to desperate.

And she seemed to know it, seemed to understand how choked he was by his own lungs and the inability to speak in a language that was, to both of them, first learned.

"I know." The hurt was still there, marginally so, but she shrugged it off slowly. "You say enough."

Blue eyes met the broken mirror mottle of hers and he just shook his head, speechless.

Kate nodded again, trying to convince them both with a whisper, "You do."