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.
Toothpaste by hewey
Author's Chapter Notes:
Toothpaste, telephones, coffee and crosswords.