Crazy, But It’s True
It’s not in the way that you hold me
It’s not in the way you say you care
It’s not in the way you’ve been treating my friends
It’s not in the way that you stay till the end
It’s not in the way you look or the things that you say that you do
Every ‘strange but it’s happening’ conversation Kate had ever had with Tony, seemed to have merged to form their cases over the past few weeks. The strangest thing she ever had to deal with was the mummified remains of a naval officer who’d been missing for five years and was eventually stumbled upon by a deer hunter in an aircraft drop tank from and Tomcat in Maryland State Park.
This event had been topped by the alien found in the ceiling of a basement which had actually been a Petty Officer playing a prank only to have it backfire on him and end up dead. Things were definitely more interesting at NCIS, Kate had finally decided. It was also decided, that after tonight’s events specifically, Tony had made it his personal mission to cross all boundaries that defied normality and sanity.
They had been working non-stop for two days, catching up on various paperwork. Kate had made plans with a friend from college who was passing through town for a few days, Tony had made plans with his couch and TV remote. Gibbs had made plans to work his team to the ground.
When the call came in that afternoon, Director Morrow had immediately put his best team on the job. Special Agent Christopher Pacci had been murdered in cold blood, and Gibbs was feeling guilt over it. It had only been a few weeks before, when they were chasing Curtin, that Pacci had asked for Gibbs’ help on cold case but had said it could wait one more day for his assistance.
After some investigating, they discovered Pacci had been following a red head named Amanda Reed, who seemed to know Commander Voss; the person whom their investigation surrounded. Having died in a car crash, they wanted to find out where the money he’d stolen was. Splitting his team into two, Gibbs rented out the apartment opposite Amanda’s townhouse so they could continue their surveillance. Since he opted to place McGee with Tony, he had Kate by his side. It wasn’t long before Tony had taken the chance to speak to Amanda Reed and subsequently ended up going on a date with her, not knowing that she was in fact a pre-op trans-sexual. Amanda was in actual fact Commander Voss.
And this is where they were now. Back in the squadroom reliving the events from the past hour. Kate stood at the partition between her desk and Pacci’s as she watched Gibbs go through Pacci’s desk. She’d been worried about him since they’d been assigned this case and there was clear evidence she needed to be. It hadn’t been long since the terrorist infiltrated their building, taking Kate, Ducky and Gerald hostage and Gibbs was still hell bent on identifying the man.
“Why are you going through everything before you box it?”
“Force of habit. I don’t want his family getting an unpleasant surprise.”
Kate sighed as she continued to watch him put some of his personal demons to rest; knowing his greatest fear was losing one of his own team. Losing her. She was only half listening to the conversation that was happening behind her between Abby, McGee and Tony.
“That reminds me of The Crying Game.”
“Don’t know it.”
Tony was sat at his desk, eating aspirin like they were MnM’s while holding a now melted ice pack to the back of his head. He knew his little incident would go down in history and would never be forgotten, but he really wished that Abby and McGee weren’t sitting there talking about movies that reminded them of his encounter.
“Abby, could you pick some other movie, please?”
“Oh, um…Victor, Victoria.”
“That was a girl, pretending to be a guy, pretending to be a girl.”
“Right.”
Abby smirked while Tony contemplated the movie reference, which he usually made many of.
“Yeah, that one’s okay.”
“You gotta hand it to Commander Voss. In three years he hid in plain sight as a woman.”
Kate waited at the partition until he stood from the desk and walked by her and she put a comforting hand on his back, knowing that the rest of the team wouldn’t notice as they were too busy laughing at Tony’s expense before she joined in the conversation.
“Well, he wasn’t a woman yet. The surgery was scheduled for next month in Bangkok.”
“Getting your plumbing turned outside in is so…”
“Hinky?”
“No, no. Way beyond hinky. It’s…”
Seeing an opportunity to annoy Tony, and seeing that she needed a moment with Gibbs alone, Kate jumped on it.
“Speaking of way beyond hinky, Tony.”
“Okay. All right, give it to me, Kate. I can take it.”
She stalked towards his desk like a cat after cream and leaned forward so she was in his direct line of sight before she questioned him.
“What was it like…tonguing a guy?”
The smirk on her lips told Tony she was seriously enjoying this moment and decided to forego his initial instinct of walking away, instead he remained sitting, holding her stare with his. It wasn’t long before he succumbed to his embarrassment and letting the ice pack slip from his head stood.
“Forget it. I can’t take it.”
He picked up his backpack and stormed out the bullpen, grumbling something about needing a drink, leaving only Kate, Abby and McGee to laugh at his misfortune. Kate laughed as she began gathering up her belongings. She was going to do the usual, go home, and eat Chinese alone as Gibbs would probably wait at the office, when a voice from the other side of the room piped up.
“Hey, Kate. You wanna grab a drink? It’s karaoke night.”
“Sure. Why not. Meet you guys down there in ten?”
“Sure thing. See you later. Bye Gibbs.”
Kate slowly packed up her remaining items as McGee and Abby left. She hadn’t got the chance to get Gibbs on his own. When she had, it definitely hadn’t been the right moment to speak to him. Walking round to his desk, she knelt beside him and placed a hand on his arm.
“You okay, babe?”
“Yeah. We could’ve lost him.”
“Could have, but never did. More the point we never will, although sometimes I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. He’s a good agent, just made a mistake. Listen, do you want to come out with us tonight?”
“No. I’m really not in the mood.”
Kate got up and stood behind him. Wrapping her arms round his neck, she placed her chin against his temple and smelt the sawdust and coffee aroma that she’d grown to love over the past year.
“You smell really good.”
“Well, so do you Miss Todd. You go, have fun.”
“No. It wouldn’t feel right.”
“I insist.”
Kate knew better than to disobey a direct order from Gibbs, who was now also her better half. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out her keys and dangled them in front of Gibbs, knowing he had forgotten his that morning. Locking his front door was a habit he’d quickly instilled in himself since the day she’d moved in.
“Go home. I’ll be home shortly. Not really in the mood to wait out.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. I’ll pick up some dinner on the way home.”
“Sounds good.”
“If you change your mind, you know where we’ll be.”
“Evissa. I know.”
Taking the keys, Gibbs turned the chair around so he was facing Kate. She bent down to kiss him before heading towards the elevator. Gibbs smiled at her retreating form. For a while there, he thought he’d been out of luck, that Tony had already swept in and claimed her as his. But that night at her flat, when he made his dreams come true by telling him Tony didn’t stand a chance, he knew he loved her even more.
Grabbing his gear, he headed in the same direction Kate had gone only a few minutes before. He was just as surprised as Kate that they’d been able to keep their ever-growing relationship under wraps. The mysterious red head still occasionally picked Gibbs up and Kate still had gentlemen calling her. No one in the building knew that the red head was Gibbs’ ex-sister in law, Carole or that the guys who were calling Kate were her brothers and friends from the Secret Service.
By the time Gibbs had reached the front door, he had changed his mind and decided that he would rather be in the company of his family than wait at home for his beautiful other half to return. The past couple of weeks meant they were spending less time with each other and Gibbs wanted to put an end to it. Getting back in the still warm car, he drove down the road, back into town heading straight for Evissa.
In the bar, Kate was moping. She missed being around Gibbs so much it hurt. Just as she finished her scotch and placed the glass on the table, she smelt her favourite person walk through the door and stand behind her.
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Dancing. You changed your mind.”
“I didn’t want to be in an empty house when I could be sat here in the company of a perfectly gorgeous woman.”
“Oh, you found her then?
“Yep.”
Gibbs didn’t care at this moment if his team saw him kiss Kate. She was the love of his life and he wanted to show it to the world. They’d missed each other so much, that they desperately wanted the closeness back between them. Placing his hands on either side of her face, he kissed her deeply before laying his forehead against hers and looking in her eyes.
“Missed you much.”
“Missed you much too.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she leaned in for another kiss when she heard Abby’s distinct high-pitched squealing over the music and the person trying to sing a long with the words on stage.
“OH MY GOD!!!! Tony! McGee! Look at this.”
It wasn’t long before Abby, Tony and McGee were back at the table, staring questionably at the duo in front of them.
“Something we can help you with?”
No one said a word until a light bulb went off in Abby’s head.
“Oh my god. That’s why I couldn’t come over last night, isn’t it? Katie Todd, are you banging the boss?”
Kate didn’t deny the fact that yes, she was sleeping with Gibbs, and she wasn’t slow in answering Abby’s question either.
“That’s one of the reasons you couldn’t come over last night. And to answer the other question; yes. As a matter of fact, I am. There a problem?”
“No. No, not at all. When?”
“That is a question neither of us are willing to answer. You may take pride in divulging every detail of your sex life, Tony, but we don’t.”
Everyone laughed as Tony realised he’d worded his question the completely wrong way.
“Since March. After the whole autopsy debacle.”
It appeared that everyone was doing the math in their head and eventually they all came up with the same response.
“How did we not know? And what was the other reason I couldn’t come over? Kate, I’m your best friend…”
“Abbs, I know. We just wanted to see if we would, I don’t know, fit well in a relationship together. A working relationship, yes. Personal involvement, we had to be sure we were both heading in the same direction before telling anyone. And the other reason is because I‘m sub-letting my apartment. Have been for the past…I don’t know, month.”
The gang nodded, understanding what Kate meant. Excusing herself to go to the bathroom, Kate thought it best that she left so Tony could give Gibbs the over protective big brother talk that she’d been expecting from him.
“Gibbs, I gotta say it. If you ever hurt her, in any way, shape or form…”
McGee and Abby nodded in agreement, while Gibbs felt backed into a corner.
“When have you ever known me to do anything that would hurt or upset Kate? Guys, the only person we need to worry about hurting her is that bastard.”
The gang looked ill, as they all knew which bastard Gibbs was talking about. The terrorist that held Kate, Ducky and Gerald hostage in autopsy three months earlier.
When Kate returned from the bathroom, she noticed that her team were unusually quiet and she decided that she would spice things up. Walking to the DJ’s booth, she flipped through the tracks book until she found what she was looking for. Se put her request in with the DJ and headed back to her table, a knowing smile playing on her lips. Gibbs watched her intensely, wondering what she was up to, but didn’t have to wonder when the first few lyrics of the song floated through the speakers.
The song that had played in Kate’s apartment the night they got together was slowly washing over the team and they all turned to look at Kate, wondering why she had requested such a song. She said nothing, and kept smiling as she leant into Gibbs who was smiling like a maniac. Slowly, the team turned to look at him, never seeing a smile so bright radiating from their boss’ face before and all immediately wondered what the hell was with them. When no one could come to an obvious conclusion regarding the song, Abby finally broke the silence and asked what was with the smiles.
“That’s our song.”
There were raised eyebrows from three people at the table. Smiling at each other Kate and Gibbs ignored them, focusing all their attention on each other, they once again came to the same conclusion. It’s more than serious.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The team make a startling discovery about two of their agents