Morning light seeps through the curtains like a hazy fog, bathing the room in its mute warmth.

Slipping out of the bed she moves her weight to the balls of her feet in an attempt to retain this sense of stillness, moving carefully across the room, before hesitating at the foot of his bed to watch him.

His chest moves up and down with a slow, lazy pace. He's lying splayed on his back, his face to one side, with his right arm flung above his head and the other across his stomach, clutching his shirt. The sheets are twisted awkwardly around his feet and legs. He's still bearing a pair of faded jeans as well.

She smiles softly at his boyish form. At least he knows to keep them on when it counts.

-

"So, Katie, what're you going to do tonight?" Tony asked, picking up his jacket from the back of his chair and attempting to help Kate pull back her hair into a ponytail. She was doing a bad job of hiding the pain her arm was still in.

"Oh, the usual," she sighed, brushing Tony's hand away with a smirk. "Get drunk, meet a random guy at a bar and have a night of wild sex until I pass out from sheer exhaustion."

"Takeout and a hot bath?" He laughed.

"Yeah…" she sighed, awkwardly pulling on her jacket in an attempt to avoid the gauzed gunshot graze on her upper arm. "I just can't wait to go home and get into my own bed. I'm sick of sterilised sheets and pillows made of brick and I've only been here for a day."

"Well, technically the doctors want you here for another two," he said, a rare wave of seriousness passing over his face.

"I'm fine. It's a graze and a slice, DiNozzo. We've both continued to work cases with a lot worse."

"Okay, okay," Tony said, holding his hands up in defence. "I just... You know, you should take a couple of days off. At least."

Kate rolled her eyes and began walking out. "Good night, DiNozzo." She suddenly stopped at the door and clutched at the frame to steady herself.

"Hey, Kate. You alright?" Tony called.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just a head rush."

"Kate, you should really stay at least another night."

"Tony, I'm a trained special agent, not a little girl. I've got my gauze and my stitches. I don't need medical care anymore. I can take care of myself."

"At least let me drive you home."

Kate sighed. "I'm not going home, Tony."

"Oh, right," Tony's eyes dropped. "Of course."

Not even Tony would have felt safe enough to return to Kate's apartment after last night.

"He's come back once, I don't want to risk it again. Alone," she said.

"So where were you planning to go?"

"Abby's."

Tony dropped his head slightly to the side in disappointment. "Kate, come on. At least Gibbs' place or something... a friend from the SS? Abby's a fierce one but she doesn't sleep with a gun under her pillow. You can't assume Keneally won't follow you there. You need to be somewhere safe."

"I don't know where I'll feel safe, Tony."

"Come home with me."

Kate stared at him for a moment. It just had to be Tony that was the last to leave. Not Gibbs, not even McGee. Although she did have a sneaking suspicion that this was probably Gibbs' way of keeping her safe without having to force her to sleep inside his boat or to stay up playing Dungeons and Dragons with McGee all night.

"Fine," she relented.

"Good."

"Yes."

She paused, bunching her brow and pointing an angry finger in his direction. "We are not having kebabs for dinner."

-

She teases a toe gently with her fingers and watches as he twitches away from her, twisting himself further into the mess of bed sheets. She absently wonders whether his tee shirt is as soft as it looks.

She smiles and pads out into the bathroom. She searches for the toothbrush she knew Tony went out and bought her last night. She finds it hanging next to his, still in the packet, and she picks it up, unwraps it and finds the paste.

She begins to hum the theme tune to an advert. A toothpaste commercial.

She's spitting the paste into the sink when she feels a pair of hands pull her hair back so it isn't bleached mint-white.

"Morning," she says through a mouthful of paste.

He's grinning. She can hear it in his sleep-clouded voice. "Hey back at you."

She spits into the sink again. "Didn't mean to wake you."

He looks up at her reflection, their doppelgangers sharing a smile. "With that singing? I think I heard dogs howling."

And she nudges him in the chest lightly with her elbow. He grins and mocks being injured. His hands loosen from around her hair and it comes to rest against her cheeks once more.

"I'm not going to get a matinee performance of ‘Outrageous' in the shower today?" he asks.

She grins at his reflection and then turns to look at him, and he smiles.

"Brush your teeth, DiNozzo."

He raises both eyebrows and grunts his discontent at this. She feels his breath brush warm on her neck as he passes to do so.

"We should get going soon so hurry up," she says.

He nods, a little dumbly, his brain still adjusting to consciousness and sees her eyes flicker back slightly at the mention of work. He needs to do something to keep her mind off yesterday.

"You know, I had the strangest dream last night. You were in it," he says softly, reaching past her wet toothbrush to his own, spreading paste onto it and thrusting it into his mouth. His words come out a little warbled from the foam. "We were in a James Bond movie. Bond, of course, played by yours truly. Gibbs was M. Without the dress. But he had the Judi Dench stare down pretty good. Abby had fun proving that all of Q's weapons and instruments were physically, electrically and relativistically incorrect. Which did mean no fun toys for me to play with, but was fun nevertheless to listen too. And Probie was Moneypenny, disappointingly enough. McGeek don't look too hot in checkered skirts. And yourself... you of course," he finally turns to Kate with a wide, boyish smile, "Were the true kick-arse Bond girl. Only you walked around in a red bikini the whole time and had this hot mane of flowing blonde hair..." Tony begins to gesture boldy with his toothbrush around the bathroom as to just how wild this flowing mane was.

She laughs, "Please tell me I was the girl that was smart enough to either leave you or get killed by you after an hour."

He smiles. Or is he still? "Well it was all over pretty quickly when Gibbs started fiddling with my toes. The reality of it just lost a little depth at that point. I highly doubt Gibbs even knows what tickling is." He mumbles the last sentence as he spits out his mouth of foam.

She laughs at the mention of her wake-up attempt.

He can feel her breath against the back of his neck again as he wipes down his mouth. Her breaths are so small that he's surprised she manages to remain conscious. He remembers falling asleep like this. Breathing her. Smelling her. He can smell toothpaste and shampoo and clean laundry, even though he knows she has done neither of the last two this morning.

"You need to shower, Katie," he says, standing with an authoritative smile.

"Excuse me?" Kate grins in surprise.

"All toothpaste and no soap makes Kate a good kiss and a bad partner to work in close proximity to."

"Oh really? A wise guy, huh? Well that's very attractive first thing in the morning."

He gives a short, pointed laugh. "So's waking people up at four in the morning."

Her eyes glisten playfully. "I did no such thing. If I remember correctly, Gibbs did."

He laughs again and a phone begins to ring out. Speaking of Gibbs. He groans shortly once again and jogs out of the bathroom.

She thinks that maybe they could go and catch some coffee before their shifts start. Breakfast. Maybe even breakfast. The most important meal of the day and all that hooha that she should really start to pay attention to. Mmm. Blueberry pancakes. With cream. And syrup.

The phone's still ringing out and she can hear him curse, the sound of objects being tossed aside in this solitary search party he's throwing for it. How does anyone manage to lose a ringing phone? In particular, a cell? She's become accustomed to the Justin Timberlake ring tone already this week. It'll be Mika in a few days.

"DiNozzo, you want to catch some breakfast?" she calls out to him.

A pause. The phone continues to ring. "You don't believe in a real breakfast."

She smiles. "The Breakfast Believers Police are we?"

The ringing stops, and she pokes her head out of the bathroom. "We can get blueberry pancakes and some bacon. Oh, and we..." She sees him talking into the phone. It's obvious whom he's talking to.

"Bethesda? No problem..." Tony turns and gives her a ‘Not gonna happen' look.

"... Don't have time." She grins despondently.

He looks up at her and smiles. He covers the receiver and mouths, "Maybe one, very, intsy, bitsy pancake?" He squeezes his fingers together to show her just how itsy and bitsy this pancake is going to have to be. "Yeah, sorry. No, I'm here," Tony takes his hand back off the mouthpiece but his eyes don't leave Kate. "No, she's doing fine, Gibbs."

She watches him for a second and then smiles, nods and returns to the bathroom and shuts the door. He hears the shower begin to run.

He busies himself with the coffee machine as he listens for the shower to stop running. His mind wanders to the slight few mornings that Kate has spent at his place. The mornings after late night paperwork slumber parties, dinner parties, birthday parties, even the odd sleepover after a night out at the local bar. And somehow she'd always managed to wheedle him out of his own bed every night.

He'd always wake up earlier than her, like clockwork. From his awkward position on the couch, he would disentangle the mess that was his limbs and linen and look to his bedroom door to see if Kate would, for once, defy history and be in the shower before he had a chance. When she would finally emerge from the bedroom, she would always wear his bathrobe, a concept he did not understand as it was several sizes too big and the extended sleeves gave her the appearance of an innocent child. But like so many other of her quirks, he learned to appreciate without questioning.

When he hears the puttering from the bathroom slowly die out, he remembers how she looks after she's fresh from the shower. For a fleeting moment, he half expects to see her clad in his old robe before remembering he'd picked hers up last night. As he remarks on her perfect timing - a first for them, if he's not mistaken - he finds himself reflecting that his robe was more becoming, and he forces himself to hold his tongue.

-

Kate was actually enjoying her bath. It had allowed her to relax, take a few breaths without fearing they may be her last, and bask in the beauty that was... hot water.

The fact that had surprised Kate the most was not that DiNozzo actually owned a bath, but that he hadn't walked in on her, or even pretended to walk in on her. At least not yet. Maybe he did have some compassion after all.

She slowly let her body sink below the waterline, feeling the heat begin to spread throughout her entire body.

Suddenly, she heard the door begin to creak open. Oh well, at least I anticipated.

However, only a crack appeared between the door and the jamb, small enough so that only an arm could slip through, brandishing a glass filled with dark red wine.

"For the pain. Your favourite," Tony's voice muffled through the timber. He placed it down on the tiled floor with a sharp clink.

Kate stared bewildered at the glass for a moment.

Her favourite? Tony knew her favourite wine? Surely he couldn't. She'd been to, at most, two restaurants with he and the rest of the team where she'd ordered wine. No way could Tony remember exactly what wine she'd ordered. Anthony DiNozzo struggled to remember the names of women he'd met the night before.

Let alone the fact he actually had a bottle of it in his apartment. She'd never picked Tony for a guy to enjoy a good glass of red wine. Beers, yes. Even the odd spirit, yes. But not wine. And not Jacob's Creek.

She slowly lifted herself from the water, still covered in bubbles, wrapped a small towel around her middle, stepped out of the bath and walked to the door. She picked up the glass and gently sniffed it.

God, it even smelt like a Jacob's Creek Shiraz.

She took a small sip.

It was a Jacob's Creek Shiraz.

-

"Shower's free," she calls, walking back into his bedroom.

"Yeah, hot water's not, Katie. You could've drowned half of Africa in there," he calls back with a smile.

Kate sniggers and begins wrapping her hair in a towel.

Tony quickly watches as she twists the fabric around and around and flings it up and over her head, forming an instant turban-slash-beehive-like structure. It seems to Tony that women are instilled with the skill to create such a structure at birth, and that men lack that one protein in their DNA that was necessary to do so. He knew no male that could do it and no female that couldn't.

"Coffee's done when you're finished."

Kate quickly pulls on the pair of cream slacks and white collared shirt that Tony has set out on the bed for her. She smiles at his gesture, though notices he's assembled a completely mismatching outfit from her wardrobe at home.

At the moment though, she couldn't care less. The thought is there.

She pulls on the grey sweater from her bag, wincing as it presses against her upper arm, and the pair of black slip-on shoes, laughing at her changing of tone from head to toe in the mirror.

The smell of Tony's freshly brewed coffee, Italian scent, she notes, finally wafts through the room and she finds herself inexplicably drawn out the door.

Two mugs are already steaming with the dark liquid on the kitchen bench, along with a half-naked Tony scribbling something in a newspaper. He is sitting in his jeans with his t-shirt is flung over the back of the couch.

"Brewing coffee that much work, DiNozzo?"

"Heating device."

"What?"

"Ten down. Heating device."

"Oh." Kate smiles. Coffee and crosswords. "How about... radiator?" she says, taking a seat opposite him.

"Five letters."

She thinks for a second. "Rdatr."

Tony looks up from the newspaper and flashes her a smile before penciling it in.

He squints at his cream-covered reflection in the mirror and yells over his shoulder as he raises his razor once more. "Hey, Kate, would you respect me any less if I grew a goatee?"

She gives him a look, as she begins to pull her jacket on over her sweater. "Who said anything about me liking you in the first place?"

He scowls. "You're evil, Kate Todd."

"I learn from the best."

"That joke's hard to take on an empty stomach this early in the morning."

She laughs lightly. "You're the one holding up breakfast with your delicate shaving routine."

"Five o'clock shadows demand attention, Katie."

She smiles. This all comes so easily. Being like this with him. Brushing her teeth with him and working with him and crosswording with him. Waking up next to him.

It all comes so naturally.

And it scares her.

She's never trusted anyone so completely with herself and it scares her to death that it's the man in the reflection on the bathroom mirror. The man who can make her skin crawl and melt her with his smile in one foul swoop.

On the worst night of her life, she knows that she could go to him and wilt into a mess of tears and tissues and tubs of ice-cream and he would take her in without question, wrap her up in his blankets and sleeping bags and listen to her for as long as she needed to cry and watch movies with her for as long as she needed George Clooney or even get her drunk for as long as she needed to be drunk. She had never made use of this odd gift until last night, but she has no doubt now that she has this - and always will.

And as comforting as that is, it also holds an element of fear, of vulnerability. In fact, it's part of the reason she's not truly acted on any of her mismatched, misshapen and surely misplaced feelings. Everything in her life seemed to have this uncanny ability to fall into a million pieces with due time and she didn't want to involve him in any of the fall-out; couldn't risk losing whatever they had for a quick fling.

So she pushed him, and he pushed back.

And he pulled her, and she pulled back.

The dance they did.

-

"That was actually not all bad, DiNozzo. You can cook when you want to," Kate grinned, following him into the kitchen with their plates.

When he had rinsed them, he walked over to the table where Kate was still seated and took her hand. "Ready for bed?"

She smiled and accepted his hand. She felt strangely unsteady for some reason. Nerves, probably. She stopped and turned to face him, still holding his hand, "Tony, thank you."

"No problem," he smiled, as if he did this every day.

Tony pulled back the blankets and sheets and helped Kate into the bed. Smiling at her, he piled the blankets back up and tucked her in. He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled down at her.

"Are you going to tell me a story, too?" Kate smiled teasingly. She didn't feel in a teasing mood, but Tony always seemed to bring it out in her.

Tony laughed gently, but didn't say anything. He leant over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. He began to straighten, but Kate reached out and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Tony…" she began.

"Kate…" he whispered back, pleading with her to not hold him there. He took a deep breath and leaned back slightly, not quite pulling away from her, but removing himself from the proximity of her mouth. "Kate…" His voice was throaty but soft. "You're in a really bad frame of mind right now. I couldn't do this to you."

"I don't want be alone right now," she said gently, tears already beginning to well in her eyes.

"You won't be. I'll be just outside on the couch all night."

"Tony…" Kate sighed, taking his hands. "I can't believe I'm saying this. You of all people know that it's not like me, but… I don't want to sleep alone tonight."

He shook his head. "With all the stuff we've been through, I just don't think it's a very good… "

"No, let me finish." Kate touched a finger to his lips. "I don't want anything to happen, Tony. If you could just lie with me, until I fall asleep." Kate's voice was almost pleading.

He sighed and then smiled softly at her. He leant down and removed his shoes and sweater before lying down beside her.

Tony stayed silent for a few moments before Kate pulled his arm over her waist.

"We're not going to violate any NCIS regulations," she said. "Or any of Gibbs' rules."

Tony wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against him. "I think we're already are violating several."

Smiling, Tony watched her fall asleep in his arms. Feeling, for the first time in a long time, completely content, he drifted off to sleep as well, lulled by her rhythmic breathing.

-

She suddenly hears his voice echo from the bathroom. "Done."

Kate smiles as she pulls her scarf around her and throws the overnight bag Tony fetched for her the night before over her shoulder, grimacing as she slides it past the cut on her neck.

"If you grow a goatee, I'm disowning you as a partner," she called.

He grins and holds her gaze for a moment. He's watching her with an intensity that she's never seen before and something shifts inside her, like a tide capsizing.

"You know, we could always skip work and go to the zoo."

She laughs, "There's a difference?"

Another shrug and a smile. "Suspects don't look so happy when you feed them."

He laughs and walks back into the bedroom, doing up the last buttons on his shirt, his tie loose around his neck. He looks up at her with that liquefying smile. "So... you mentioned something about bacon and blueberries?"