Spoilers: Any episode so far is fair game, but especially "The Good Samaritan".
Rating: PG-13 to be safe. But suffice it to say that if you can watch the show, you can read this fic.
Disclaimer: NCIS belongs to Donald P. Belisario and Belisarius Productions, et al. Not mine, don't sue.
Archive: Go for it.
Emergency Contact
© 2004, By: Ash Carroll
She watched as Gibbs headed for the elevator, shaking his head with an uncharacteristic chuckle, and stared after him, lips parted in disbelief.
"Did he just laugh?"
"Actually, it was more of a chuckle." He pinned her with a look. "It bothers you, doesn't it?"
"What bothers me?"
"Gibbs in a good mood."
"He's Gibbs. He's not supposed to be in a good mood. It's just wrong; throws off the entire balance of the world."
He grinned. "Yeah, kinda like my Aunt Ida in a miniskirt."
"I don't get it."
"Yeah, neither did I. Aunt Ida's short, weighs two hundred plus pounds, and has enough cottage cheese in her thighs to feed a small army."
She tilted her head and looked at him. "There's a mental image I didn't need. I was talking about Gibbs, Tony. I don't get Gibbs."
"Don't think we're supposed to, Kate." He tossed the wad of paper at the trash can without looking, sinking it neatly.
She rolled her eyes. "Show off."
He grinned. "That may be true, but at the moment, I'm an exhausted show-off. I'll see you tomorrow, huh?"
She nodded absently, pretending to type up the last of her report. "Yeah."
"'Night, Kate."
"'Night."
She waited until she heard the ding of the elevator door as it closed behind him, then sat back in her chair. She still had to give Employee Records the name of her emergency contact. Unfortunately, she hadn't decided on one yet.
Abby was definitely out; they got along all right, but she was just a little eccentric for Kate's taste. Gibbs was also a definite no. He could make himself very unreachable when he wanted to; he was very adept at dodging his ex-wives. With her luck, she'd get hurt on a bad day and bleed to death before they could contact him. Ducky was out too; he'd find some long-winded story to tell and she'd be in just as much trouble.
She sighed. With the other three crossed off her list, Tony was the only one left. He'd even offered himself for the position. She had to admit, it was kind of cute, if a little annoying, the way he started asking questions about what he'd have to do if they called him. She hadn't wanted to focus on the cute; thinking like that could get her into trouble. So she'd concentrated on the annoying instead, telling him to forget the whole thing.
But she couldn't.
And after the number of life or death situations she'd been in since joining NCIS, who could blame her? The bomb on the submarine, Suzanne's little bomb...the fact remained that in every single one of those situations, she'd known she could depend on Tony to have her back. Maybe he was a little juvenile at times, but he was a good agent, and when it came down to it, she trusted him with her life in the line of duty every day; why should an emergency in their off hours be any different?
Pulling the forms out of the folder on her desk, she picked up her pen and neatly printed his name and contact number in the designated boxes, scrawling her signature on the appropriate line. It felt odd, writing his name on the form, and she stared at the words.
Emergency Contact: Anthony Dinozzo.
She'd always hoped by this point in her life, she'd have a husband, or at the very least, a serious steady boyfriend, to put on the line. She sighed, resigning herself to the fact that it wasn't meant to be, not yet, anyway. And in the meantime, Tony would suffice until she found Mr. Right.
Rising from her desk, she made her way to the fax machine and following the appropriate steps, punched in the number of Employee Records, sending off the form.
Dinozzo didn't know she'd put him down, and with any luck, he'd never have to. But if the situation did arise, she knew she was in good hands. Wait a minute, good hands...Tony's hands.
'Out mental picture! Out!'
She shook her head, scrubbing her hands over her eyes to erase
the images running rampant through her mind, before gathering her things
and shutting down her computer. Heading for the elevator, she turned
off the lights and headed home.
The End.