The First Time
She kissed his cheek
"You wanted to see me?" She stood at his door, alive and in one piece.
He minimized the documents on the screen of his desk and stood. "Yeah, come in. I wanted to know how you were doing after the whole…"
"Time travelling incident?" She provided. It was still strange to say, stranger, no doubt to hear. But she knew what she lived through. And standing in her captain's office, seeing traces in his demeanor of the young boy who helped her get back to her own time, she knew it wasn't a trick.
But the discomfort expressed by Jim revealed that it was something she would have to accept on her own. "Yeah, that. So, how are you?"
"I'm good. It's nice to be back in familiar territory." She purposefully refrained from saying time.
He smiled. "It's good to have you back."
She returned his smile, but her eyes soon clouded over. "May I say something?"
"Anything."
"I didn't get a chance to…to say thank you."
"To who?"
"To you. For helping me." There was weight behind her words. "It feels like you've been doing that a lot lately. For most of our friendship, actually. And, after what happened…" She trailed off, her eyes flashing to his. "You owed me nothing. And you helped me with everything you had. So, I want to say thank you."
He stared at her for a moment, wanting to say one thing which would have led to a string of other things, and instead chose another. "Anytime."
She smiled, nodded, and was about to leave the office when a memory struck her. "Okay, I actually owe you this, you won't remember why, but it'll settle the score on my side." She walked right up to him, avoiding his gaze as she leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek. She pulled back, beamed, and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't say I never gave you anything."
She took leave of his office, he could only stare dumbly after her as she did. Standing in silence, he pondered checking with Bones to see if she really was okay to be getting back to work. He blinked, cleared his throat and decided he would do so the next time he saw the man.
He circled his desk and attempted to redirect his attention to the forms he'd minimized.
But his skin tingled from the feel of her lips and he couldn't help but smile.
A/N: Hello! I've gone ahead and elaborated and altered (a little bit) each of the kiss scenes to stand as their own chapters. Thank you everyone for the reviews, favorites and follows. Seriously, I cannot thank you enough. And please know that even though a whole year has passed, this story is not abandoned.