She had always been a little ashamed of it. She was young and drunk when she got it, and wanted to prove to her friends that she was able to do something crazy, that she was more than the uptight Kate Todd that everybody saw. But, the truth was that, sober – and as much as she wanted to deny it – she was the uptight Kate Todd.

In every of her relationships, it had always been one of the moments she dreaded the most, the discovery. She always feared to be misjuged, as if a little bit of ink on her right butt cheek made her who she was. It was stupid but there was always a tiny part of her that was ashamed of it.

At least, there was, until she met Jethro Gibbs, until she had him in her bed for the first time and until she discovered the almost insane fascination it drew out of him.

Since then, whenever they spend a night together, there is always a moment when he rolls her over and sets himself the goal of making that little part of her body all his, in a shared dance of hungry lips and tongue and teeth on her skin. And every time, her head buried in a cushion, she laughs at herself and silently thanks and winks at a drunk, younger and not so uptight version of Katie Todd.