I apologize for the length of this chapter but I had a puppy emergency, this is what I had written before it all happen I haven't had a chance to write more but I wanted to give you something. He's healing up nicely.
Kate felt she was on repeat when she answered the door, hug after hug, person after person "I promise I'm okay." Gibbs stood back watching, whispering with Rachel as she and Danny were the first to arrive.
"I like this." Abby smiled looking around at the group, normally if they were having a meal together it was because they were working late and had take out.
Kate was frowning, looking down at her plate, saying nothing she stabbed at the vegetables.
"Kate?" Tony eyed her.
"I should have done potatoes, maybe rice." Kate shook her head.
"That's what on your mind?" Tony asked.
Kate looked up hesitantly saying "Yes."
Laughing Tony shook his head before looking at Abby and promising the Goth "She's good okay Abby."
"I told you I was." Kate pointed out.
"Yea but, we work undercover which means you can lie." Tony pointed out before reaching for her plate with his fork only to get his hand smacked "See, she's fine, if she wasn't I would have been able to grab her food and she'd have said nothing."
"You're an ass." Kate chuckled.
"That's what big brothers are for, am I right Danny?"
"He was the nice one." Kate informed Tony "It was the other two who were asses."
"Still a brother thing." Tony said before taking a bite from his own vegetables.
"He's not wrong, my brother and I did all kinds of things to bug each other." Abby piped up.
"We just worry little sister," Rachel reminded "the three of us have been through a lot and so much of it alone."
"If this had been last year I'm sure it would be a whole different story, but I had to see a therapist before returning to work, I didn't just talk to him about the shooting, I talked to him about other things. I've worked through a lot, I still have some work to do but I know it's them and not me, not us. And I'm just not saying it, I believe it."
"Believing it is the hard part but a big part in recovery." Rachel agreed.
After dinner they put the food away and said good night to the team before settling into doing dishes, well rinsing off any big pieces of food before being loaded into the dish washer. He'd shooed her away when she tried to help so he found her on the couch with her sketch book, he took the other side knowing that in a few minutes her feet would end up in his lap.