Behind Enemy Lines
“If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.” - Winston Churchill
The morning had flown by once Kate got her second coffee down her throat.
Jeanne was a pleasant person to speak to once both of them had gotten over their initial nerves. Kate wasn’t normally a nervous person and she certainly wasn’t shy when she met new people, but things had been happening so fast in the past few weeks that Kate wasn’t quite feeling herself.
She never got the chance to meet with Jethro before their meeting since talking with Jeanne had delayed her slightly; she was just glad she wasn’t the last person to enter the boardroom, but she wasn’t exactly the first either.
Jethro was already there, along with a woman she didn’t recognise, but knew exactly who she was. It would explain the look of Jethro’s face if she were right. Sitting with them was a young man Kate had once had business dealings with. To her he was Timothy McGee, but to the rest of the world he was Thom E. Gemcity.
A few years back when Tim was at his writing peak, Kate had handled the advertising campaign for his books. After the success of his novels, Tim had withdrawn from the writing circle and the limelight and had vanished. She heard through the grapevine that he’d expressed an interest in advertising and had eventually came to work at Artisan, she hadn’t realised he was now one of the branch directors.
She took the only seat next to Jethro, which he had obviously been saving for her, and slid the coffee cup across to him. Resisting the urge to slouch down in her seat, which wouldn’t have gone over well with the green eyed redhead across from her, Kate could already feel a migraine coming on and it was barely nine o’clock.
Tom had come in shortly after her and they’d gotten down to business. It became apparent that Kate wasn’t the only person who could feel the tension between Jethro and the redhead, who she learned was named Jennifer Shepard, because Tom drew the meeting to a close quickly, instead of having the expected hour long chat with them. All they really needed to know about each other was that Jennifer was heading up the Paris branch of Artisan while McGee covered London.
In the elevator on their way back to their offices, Kate and Jethro began discussing their assistants. Kate didn’t talk much about Jeanne, but Jethro was raving about the college intern, Abby Sciuto, who was apparently very much like Kate was at that age; cocky, bolshy, spoke her mind. Kate liked her already and was looking forward to meeting her.
“Was I really bolshy?”
Jethro turned to her with a raised eyebrow and a disbelieving look on his face that made Kate blush and smile shyly; she knew exactly what she was like at that age because it was that same attitude that had her sitting in an office on the fifth floor today.
“The kid called me, and I quote, ‘her silver haired fox’.”
“I won’t disagree with her, but you were mine first.”
Jethro laughed and wrapped his arm around Kate’s shoulders, which allowed her the opportunity to steal back the coffee cup she’d given him, hoping his brew would be enough to get rid of the migraine which she was officially blaming on Tony. If he hadn’t kept her up till all hours, she wouldn’t be tired and therefore she wouldn’t have the damn migraine. It was the only downside to really great sex; she was a crabbit bitch the next day.
Jethro had willingly handed over his coffee, having seen her frown and mumble something about killing Tony, whoever he was. Giving Kate his obligatory once-over, he spotted a bruise on the back of her neck which hadn’t been there the last time he’d seen her; he hadn’t seen a bruise of that sort anywhere on Kate in the last ten years since the time he’d bitten her shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise lasting three weeks.
“So what happened to you last night; d’ya have a date with a vampire?”
“What?”
“My little Katie has a hickey right…here.”
Jethro touched her neck right next to the bruise and Kate’s hand flew back to cover it, her eyes going wide. She hadn’t paid much attention when Tony started nuzzling her neck last night, she was too exhausted to care what he was doing, but now she knew the son of a bitch had marked her, claimed her as his.
“I’ll kill him!”
“Who, the vampire? He’s already dead.”
“Shut up! I mean my security guard. He’s installing my security system as we speak.”
“So that’s how you got a pretty decent sized bruise on your neck?”
“Well, kinda. He was up last night -”
“I bet he was.”
“To discuss where to put the security cameras in the penthouse and one thing led to another.”
“Kate, the last time one thing led to another, we had some serious hangovers and you had to get the morning after pill.”
Kate reached out and flicked the emergency stop and turned to Jethro with anger in her eyes. They had promised each other they’d never bring that night up again, because despite what had happened between them then, it wasn’t a pleasant memory for either of them. She’d never seen him act like this before with any of the other guys she’d slept with, so why was suddenly acting like a jealous lover now. Kate knew it probably had to do with him seeing Jennifer again after all these years, but that didn’t give him the right to take it out on her. No matter how much they let each other get away with or the things they let slide, they never took their anger out on each other.
“Don’t even start about that night. It’s been ten years, so why bring it up now? Is it because you saw Jennifer and you feel insecure again?”
“This has nothing to do with Jen. This has to do with you and sleeping with guys you barely know.”
“Where the hell do you get off?”
“Fifth floor, please.”
“Don’t act like a smart ass, Jethro, it doesn’t suit you.”
“And acting like a slut doesn’t suit you.”
The stinging pain in his cheek and her palm knocked some sense into the pair of them and they each retreated to opposite sides of the elevator. Somewhere during the last day they’d gone from being close, personal, intimate friends to strangers who merely worked together. They’d never once treated each other like this before and Kate was scared that everything she knew as suddenly starting to collapse around her ears.
She willed herself not to cry, because she was stronger than that, and she didn’t want Jethro to know how badly his words had hurt her. She wanted to regain the Ice Maiden persona she’d had in college, but she just couldn’t find it in her, so she let the tears fall.
“Why are we acting like this? Are you jealous that I may have found someone? Are you pissed off that it isn’t you, because we both agreed that last time it was a one time thing.”
When nothing was said, Kate nodded her head slowly and hit the stop switch again and the elevator jolted to life. The remainder of their ride up was spent in uncomfortable silence, even when Kate handed the coffee back to Jethro not even a thanks was offered. Just before the doors opened, Kate wiped away her tears, hoping her eyes weren’t too red and stormed off to her office. Jethro stepped out slowly, and tried to find the words to apologise to the woman he’d just broken the heart of.
Kate remained in her office for the rest of the morning, only stepping out briefly for her eleven o’clock meeting and again to meet with the design team she had complete control over. They had just taken on a new campaign and Kate didn’t have enough information about it to fully understand what it was they were advertising. She loved being in the design studio watching the computer techs play with graphics and logos and the smell of the ink from the printers office; this was home to her and if she could she’d spend the rest of the day down there, reliving her previous job then she would have.
It was twelve forty-five when Tony DiNozzo walked through the main door and into the world of Artisan Publications carrying a bag of Chinese takeout, from the same place they’d ordered from the previous night, in one hand and a litre bottle of iced tea in the other. Following Kate’s instructions to the letter, he found the elevators and hit the fifth floor button.
He’d realised earlier, what with Kate being new in this office, she may not be able to make it out of her office for lunch so he was going to be generous and bring lunch to her. He figured they would need to talk about last night and if they could be heading anywhere and they couldn’t exactly discuss that in a crowded restaurant or café.
He hadn’t been in a serious relationship with anyone in two years since he called off his engagement, and eventually the relationship, with his girlfriend of three years. She had taken it entirely the wrong way when he said he didn’t want to rush into marriage and by the time they split up she was driving him crazy. Tony had finally managed to get her to stop with her persistent phone calls, begging him to have her back, once he threatened her with a harassment suit. He didn’t have much of a dating life for a while after that.
He’d had the occasional one night stand and girlfriends he’d been with for a few weeks, but none of them felt right. Running into Kate yesterday, and talking with her, he felt a serious connection with her and honestly wanted to pursue something with her. Even if she didn’t want that, if she simply wanted a friends with benefits system, he’d go along with it if it meant he got to keep her in his life.
Arriving on the fifth floor, Tony could see the door with Kate’s name on it and headed towards the desk that sat outside, which he assumed belonged to her secretary or assistant or someone who dealt with her meetings. The brunette he seen at the desk had her back to him, and was busy on the computer. He cleared his throat to gain her attention, but she kept her back to him. Tony raised his eyebrows at her ignorance, but ignored her behaviour in favor of getting to see Kate again.
“Excuse me, I’m here to see Kate Todd.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Sort of. She told me to meet her at one.”
“Ms Todd isn’t available at the moment, can I take a message?”
For the entire conversation, she kept her back to him and continued to work on the computer. It was starting to grate on Tony’s nerves and he was saved from saying something when the elevator opened and Kate walked out.
“Tony, you’re here.”
“Yeah. Promised I’d be here.”
Jeanne turned in her seat upon hearing Kate greet Tony and when she realised the guy she was talking to was the same guy she was in the middle of sending an email to, she paled. Tony was too caught up in seeing Kate to have noticed she was watching them, and Jeanne felt herself getting angry. She watched Kate lead Tony over to her and him realising who it was he was about to be introduced to.
“Tony, this is -”
“Jeanne.”
“Hi, Tony.”
“Jeanne is my assistant.”
“Nice. How’ve you been, Jeanne?”
“I’m good. Real good.”
“That’s…that’s great. Kate, we better go inside or the food will get cold.”
Kate had felt like a third wheel witnessing the conversation between the two. She nodded her head and led the way into her office, taking the bag of food from Tony who rushed through the door and took a seat on the sofa that had been delivered on Saturday morning. It was obvious to her he couldn’t wait to get away from Jeanne, but Kate didn’t know how far to push the issue since she didn’t really know him that well, but she figured he’d explain it all to her eventually.
In the end, they never spoke in detail about what happened the previous night, but mutually agreed to see where things went with them. Kate asked how the installation was going, and Tony asked how her meetings had went. Kate was as patient as she could be, but her curious streak was dying to ask about Jeanne, and he was obviously looking for a way to tell her. The tether on her curiosity finally snapped and she couldn’t stop herself from asking.
“Tony, how’d you know Jeanne?”
“She’s my ex-fiancée.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
Kate Todd is a recently promoted, highly successful business woman who embarks on an affair with the much younger security guard who works in her apartment complex. After a night of passion and excitement, the new couple are brutally attacked on their journey home. Kate sets out for revenge only to find it will never be enough.