-NCIS HEADQUARTERS-
‘’Gibbs!’’ cried Kate impatiently, ’’how can you be on his side! It’s so obvious it was him!’’

Gibbs glared at her. She was talking about one of his oldest friends who was suspected of rape and murder.

‘’Because Kate, he has a solid alibi, no evidence against him and no criminal record! He was out of the country when it happened!’’

‘’So!?’’ Kate said, glaring right back. She knew this was his way of scaring off anyone with a differing opinion and she wasn’t going to be intimidated by it.’’ He’s a well respected lieutenant who could have easily pulled some strings! All the witnesses are from his unit! They’d do anything to clear him!’’

Gibbs knew this was a probable scenario but he didn’t want to admit it.

‘’ Just drop it Kate! Or do you want to be looking for another job?’’ he threatened even though he certainly had no intention of firing his most hardworking agent. For those reasons and others he’d rather not think about now.

‘’Come on Kate, he passed all of our tests and Gibbs is always right…’’ chimed in Tony, who was watching safely from behind his desk. Kate shot him a look that shut him right up.

‘’I will not drop it! He’s dangerous and he only passed the tests because he’s been trained for them! You’ve never let anyone else get away with this Gibbs! I don’t see it fair to start now!’’

Another fair point made, thought Gibbs annoyed.

‘’He’s guilty! I know it!’’ Kate added banging her fist on his desk.

‘’Just like you knew our Jane Doe was innocent!?’’ retorted Gibbs, louder than intended.

As soon as he said it, he regretted it.

She stepped back from his desk slowly, her face showing a mixture of shock and fury but most of all hurt.

The whole NCIS office was silent and watching the two agents.

Tony and McGee, who had been trying to busy themselves on their computers, gaped at their boss and their may be former colleague.

Kate finally broke the silence.

‘’I knew you still resented me for that…’’

The tone this was said with killed Gibbs inside. He didn’t resent her for anything…the total opposite of that in fact. He just couldn’t admit it. So instead of apologising like he really wanted to, he kept his face mutual and waited for her to finish.

He could’ve sworn she was going to cry but somehow she mustered up all her strength and said in a bitter voice he didn’t recognise: ’’You really are a heartless bastard.’’

And with that, she turned on her heel and walked off out of the building.

‘’Well…’’, said Tony awkwardly,’’ I’m sure she didn’t mean the heartless bastard comment…’’

Gibbs shot Tony a ‘’GET BACK TO WORK OR ELSE’’ look and tried to ignore the whole office staring at him.

He couldn’t believe what he had just said. He knew Kate was still sensitive and blaming herself for the whole thing but he couldn’t help himself. It wasn’t that he blamed her for it. God no! How was she meant to know that the woman was a suicidal maniac? Even though he did warn her, he didn’t expect her to listen. She was a good person and thought the best of everyone while he was a bitter old man who trusted no one but himself.

The reason he did it, he finally concluded, was that she was going out with that Harrison guy and he was…jealous. He had seen them kissing in the street earlier that week and had been in a bad mood since. He knew it was a petty reason to be so hard on Kate but he had to mask how he really felt about her somehow and this is how he did it.

‘’Uh…boss?’’ said Tony, pulling Gibbs out of his trance.

‘’What is it DiNozzo?!’’ snapped Gibbs.

‘’Abby wants to see you. She has the results for that test…thingy that she did for the case!’’ Tony said quickly.

Gibbs got up and went to the elevator. Once he was safely in the elevator and was on the way to Abby’s lab Tony sighed.

‘’Wow…what do you that was about probie?’’

McGee shrugged.

‘’Gibbs has been in a bad mood all week. I guess Kate just got sick of it.’’

‘’Yeh that or she has a death wish. I’ve never seen anyone stand up to Gibbs like that and walk away in one piece.’’

‘’Do you think Kate’s coming back anytime soon? Or do you think he’s going to fire her?’’ asked McGee looking over at Kate’s desk.

‘’No idea…I hope he doesn’t fire her though.’’

‘’Why?’’

‘’Because she’s the only one other then Ducky and Abby that can handle him in one of his moods.’ said Tony with a look of concern.

‘’Oh…’’

The two agents were silent as they imagined an investigation with just themselves and Gibbs in a bad mood.

They both shuddered.






-ABBY’S LAB-

Gibbs walked into Abby’s lab and was instantly deafened by her blaring music. He put his hands over his ears and yelled: ‘’Jesus Abby! Turn that crap off will you!’’

Abby looked innocently at him as she turned it down.

‘’It isn’t crap thank you very much. Jeez what’s your problem this week! Always yelling! You need to calm down and find your inner peace Gibbs! Or you know, restock the bar fridge.’’

Gibbs had to hold a smirk back.

‘’What have you got for me Ab’s?’’

‘’Well do you remember the substance Kate found on the rope around each victims neck?’’

‘’Yeah’’ replied Gibbs feeling a pang of guilt at the mention of Kate’s name.

‘’ Well I tested that and its ethoxylated nonyl phenols.’’ said Abby triumphantly.

Gibbs looked at her impatiently.

‘’And?’’

‘’Oh yeah…well that’s found in heaps of cleaning products that you can buy from supermarkets…except in Canada and the UN where I’m pretty sure it was banned which is stupid because its very effective and all other ingredients in cleaning products are pretty toxic. They only did a few tests on fish but that’s not reliable but I guess they couldn’t do it on humans because-‘’

‘’Is this going anywhere Abby!?’’ snapped Gibbs.

Abby looked at him surprised.’’ Well someone got up on the wrong side of the boat…’’

Gibbs glared at her.

‘’Whoever used it would use it for cleaning, like daily. It’s a gender bender by the way, Gibbs. That’s why it was banned.’’

‘’How do you know this?’’ asked Gibbs puzzled.

‘’It’s a well known fact Gibbs. They did a whole segment on it awhile ago and had this hell freaky man but he wanted to be a woman so he like drank-‘’

‘’I was talking about the cleaning bit.’’ Said Gibbs annoyed. He couldn’t be bothered listening to Abby’s wacky facts today.

‘’Well I’m guessing its seeped through the fingertips of whoever tied these girls up as it barley shows and for it to go through skin you need to use it excessively each day.’’

‘’Good work Ab’s, now I need to know who would use it that much.’’ said Gibbs patting her on the head.

‘’Thank you, Gibbs.’’ replied Abby smiling.’’ So are you going to tell me why you’ve been so grumpy all week?’’

‘’Nope’’ said Gibbs as he walked out of the lab.

-4 HOURS LATER, NCIS HEADQUARTERS-
When Kate walked in to the NCIS headquarters, she saw Tony leaning over her desk fiddling around with her phone.

‘’Drop the phone Tony!’’ she said elbowing and snatching the phone off him.

‘’I wasn’t doing anything…said Tony quickly, ‘’ where have you been?’’

‘’Around, where’s Gibb’s?’’

‘’Does Gibbs ever tell us where he’s going? Why do you want to know? Did you come back to shoot him?!’’ said Tony with a mysterious grin.

‘’You’d like that wouldn’t you?’’ said Gibbs appearing at Tony’s side.

‘’Uh of course not boss! Ha…I was just questioning her intentions and…McGee made me say it!’’ said Tony, pointing at McGee.

McGee looked up.’’ You’re on your own now Tony.’’

Kate rolled her eyes at Tony as he went to his desk before turning to Gibbs and giving him her report.

‘’What’s this?’’

‘’The report.’’ Kate replied coldly not looking at him.

‘’Oh…uh…’’ stuttered Gibbs.

No one had ever made Jethro Gibbs not be able to say what he wanted to. What he really wanted to say was thank you and apologise but all he could do was make a few sounds.

But it didn’t matter because Kate went and sat at her desk and started typing without looking at him once.

The tension that remained for the rest of the day was almost unbearable for Kate.

Every time she got up from her desk, said a word or even made a sudden move all eyes would be on her. She knew it was because of that morning’s argument with Gibbs but she didn’t regret what she said. She was still as angry as hell with him and didn’t plan on making any apologies anytime soon.

The thing that made her most mad was the fact that although he was a grumpy, old bastard she still had immense feelings for him. Sure it was unprofessional to think of her boss in this way but she couldn’t help it. There was something about him that made her heart skip a beat whenever she was near him.

These feelings were incredibly annoying seeing as nothing could ever happen between them but she couldn’t stop them. As much as she tried she couldn’t keep him out of her dreams or out of her mind. When they were on jobs together alone, she babbled on and on about the case scared that if she stopped talking, he would see how she felt about him.

What scared her the most was the fact that he probably did not have any feelings for her in the slightest. Sure, he was a little more pleasant to her than to the others but that didn’t comfort her anymore.

The last week had been hell for her. Gibbs was in a worse mood than he usually was and she was paying for it, Tony kept pestering her about her new boyfriend, Harrison and she had not yet found a way to nicely break up with Harrison. Or even a valid reason to break up with him. The truth was she was too hung up on her boss to be interested in other men but she couldn’t possibly say this. And he was a needy guy; ringing her all day long (much to Gibbs disgust), texting her constantly, giving her presents and wanting to spend as much time with her as possible.

Kate was interrupted from her thoughts by McGee, who was cowering by her desk.

‘’Uh…K-Kate?’’ he stuttered.

‘’What?’’ she asked annoyed.

‘’Uh…your…uh your phones ringing…’’he said before running back to his desk. He was as afraid of Kate in a bad mood as he was of Gibbs in a good mood.

Kate looked at her phone and sure enough it was ringing. She looked at the caller ID. It was Harrison. Dammit. She really didn’t want to talk to him. But she knew if she didn’t he would call and call until she did. She answered it.

‘’Hello.’’ she said ducking a bit under her desk, mainly from Gibbs,

Gibbs looked over at her and sighed. Sure enough she was answering a phone call from Harrison, he thought bitterly. Why did this guy have to call her at work so much? It drove him crazy just having to work with her and not have her let alone having to hear and see her with other guys.

He continued staring at her until she finally hung up the phone. He didn’t listen. He didn’t think he could bear hearing the way she talked to her boyfriends. And he was pretty sure she was serious about this guy. Tony had gotten McGee to hack into her emails while she was with Abby and he had found a whole lot of emails from him talking about kids and marriage. Tony had read them out to McGee and Gibbs had listened to while pretending to immersed in a text message he really couldn’t see.

They made his blood boil.

He couldn’t believe that some guy like twenty years younger (not counting) than him could steal away his dream girl. And he wasn’t all that good looking…okay yeah he was, even Abby thought so and she’s surprisingly picky in the looks standards, but so? He knew Kate wasn’t all about looks. Yes, this did sound a little immature, even in his own mind, but he didn’t care. That is the way he saw it.

Gibbs stopped ranting to himself for a moment when he realised that he was still staring at Kate. He quickly diverted his eyes before she could notice his boyish gawking.

While Gibbs began his little rant about why Kate would date someone whose name was Harrison (putting out of his mind that his name was Leroy Jethro Gibbs) Kate sunk into her chair and put her head into her hands.

She was thinking about what a mess her life was at the moment. She was also wondering when she had let it get so out of control.

‘’Hey Kate…are you okay?’’ said Tony, scaring Kate half to death.

She jumped and looked up at him. ’’I’m fine…why?’’

‘’Well you’ve been sitting there with your head in your hands for the past half an hour...’’

‘’Mmm…’’ replied Kate a little dejected.

‘’Was that Harrison on the phone before?’’ asked Tony, his usual smart ass grin appearing on his face.

McGee stopped working and looked at Kate.

‘’And why would I tell you that?’’ said Kate, not in the mood for another boyfriend chat with Tony.

‘’Well you don’t need to I already know it was!’’

‘’Oh yeah and how would you know that?’’

‘’You didn’t look too happy when you answered.’’

‘’What’s that supposed to mean?’’ said Kate, a little surprised.

‘’Don’t you wanna dump him?’’ said Tony matter-of-factly.

Gibbs looked up at this.

‘’I have no idea what you’re talking about.’’ Said Kate, hoping he would stop telling everyone about her love life.

‘’Didn’t you tell Abby the other day that you wanted to dump him?’’

Gibbs smiled to himself…hopefully…and continued to secretly listen.

Kate glared at Tony.’’ You were eavesdropping?!’’

Tony looked at her thoughtfully.’’ You could call it that…so are you gonna dump him or not?’’

‘’That is so none of your business!’’ cried Kate incredulously.

As much as Gibbs was enjoying this conversation he had to put a stop to it for Kate’s sake.

‘’How’s your report looking DiNozzo?’’

’’Uh…it’s looking…great boss! It will be finished soon.’’ replied Tony returning back to his computer. There were only two lines, including the heading, on his screen.

‘’It better be or you wont being going on that date tonight.’’ threatened Gibbs.

‘’Aye aye, boss!’’ said Tony immediately getting back to work.

Kate sighed. God she hated Tony sooooooo much right now. Why did he always have to reveal her life to everyone? And what really annoyed her was that he got nearly every detail right.

Another thing that really annoyed her, if she really needed anymore things to annoy her about Tony, was that he told Gibbs everything about her life and her boyfriends and her family. Yet all he could tell her about Gibbs was that he builds a boat in his basement, he gets pissed off very easily, he has three ex wives, he has a strange liking for red heads, his best friend is Scotch and he really really really likes coffee.

All of these things she could easily find out for herself by just spending a few days at work with him.

Kate sighed again and wished this horrible day would just end.