A/N: That's the end? For now, kiddies. For now :) Thanks for all the reviews, but most of all thank you for reading :) Makes me happy :D (You'll see at the end I kinda stole an Abby line and used it for my own devices...) I've also come to realize I never put disclaimers of non-ownership.. But.. I think everyone knows I'm some girl from Long Island and not DB sitting at a computer screen. Well, maybe I am... Wait, no. I'm not. :) So I haven't put disclaimers... so sue me. Yeah, no. Strike that..

Enjoy;)

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The crisis was over and their immediate threat was gone. The man Gibbs had been clandestinely and psychologically hunting for weeks was now on a cold slab in Autopsy— exactly where the war had started. Everyone but Gibbs got in their last visual digs, curses, and stares of satisfaction as Ari's body was taken from their hands. Gibbs had confined himself to his basement, disregarding and turning his back on the commotion that slowly faded from his house around 2 that afternoon. Only three other occupants now remained in the house besides Gibbs.

They stood around the kitchen; Kate seated in a chair while Ducky sat on his heels, squatted down in front of her, checking her ribs; Kate had doggedly refused a quick, cautionary trip to Bethesda, so this was her alternative solution to her aching ribs. Tony stood with his back to the wall, leaning with his arms folded across his chest as he offered to do Kate's paperwork for the day.

She looked over to him, about to thank him, thinking how uncharacteristically sweet it was; until it dawned on her, "You just don't want to deal with him," she scoffed matter-of-factly, motioning towards the basement. Tony smiled.

"Can you blame me?"

"No…" Kate muttered musingly as her attention was brought back to Ducky's on-the-fly examination of her torso. She looked to the doctor, "Anything I should worry about, Ducky?" He gently patted her knee as he slowly stood up.

"Nothing that a few days rest wouldn't readily take care of, my dear… you're going to be fine… sore, though, for quite some time... but fine." Ducky smiled softly as his voice smoothed over concerned inquiry.

"'Quite some time'…?" Kate repeated slowly, her eyes following him as he walked over to the counter and retrieved his medical bag and his coat, draping it over his forearm.

"Ah, no more than a week or so, I'd bet." He nodded with a soft, perceptive smile crossing his lips, "Tomorrow…" he pointed his finger at her knowingly, "tomorrow you will feel it." He crossed the kitchen and patted her shoulder, leaning down slightly to press a kind kiss to her cheek. "Good work, Caitlin," he whispered before he stood upright and took a step back. "Just take it slow, my dear... and," he threw a brief glance to the basement door with an exasperated exhale, "take mind of him." Ducky nodded, adding emphasis to his requests, before he strolled out of the kitchen.

Kate heard heavy footsteps on the basement stairs. Tony grabbed his coat and nodded to her; tilting and shaking his head slightly as he popped on his sunglasses, smiling, "That's my cue…" and before Kate could form a single word of protest, Tony slid out of the kitchen and a second later she heard the front door close. She shut her eyes in quiet frustration.

Gibbs emerged from the basement, a smear of sawdust across one cheek and slightly mussed hair. He didn't look at her as he mumbled: "Still here…" He said it as a question, but his voice wouldn't allow the courtesy of actually asking. He prowled towards the coffeepot and pressed the automatic grind, reaching to get his coffee mug with his back to her the entire time.

She was taken aback; not quite sure what to do or say, if she should do or say anything at all. She had never been on the receiving end of his silent wrath before—never like this. Just as she was about to speak, he turned to look at her; arms folded across his chest, leaning against the edge of the countertop, staring at her intently and expectantly with his features set in that unreadable gaze. She saw his eyes flicker with a number of emotions, but his stare started and ended so quickly as he turned back to the coffeepot, that she couldn't decipher any of it. Dealing with Gibbs emotionally was very much like listening to a foreign language, in fast forward.

Unable to come up with a suitable response to his silent presence or his curious stare, she slowly stood up and began to walk out of the kitchen, briefly glancing over her shoulder at him as he robotically poured his coffee. Feeling sensitively defeated, she continued out of the room and made her way upstairs; a shower would help clear the muddled mess she found in her mind.

After he heard her steps on the staircase, Gibbs set the coffee cup down onto the counter. His ego was slightly wounded that she hadn't confided in him, he'd admit that to himself, but he knew he was being unfair. And on some level of humility that he wasn't ready to admit to, he knew Kate was right. Sometimes the only way to guarantee a set-up is to make it real— even if it wasn't as real, or as much of a set-up as she thought it was..

Maybe it was his nightmares that made him angry; having to see them cruelly played out in the flesh. Or maybe it was the fact that he hadn't had the honor to pull the trigger himself. But he found it hard to believe that his pride would go so far as to be riled and incensed with one of his own agents for trying to pull a fast one on him while quite possibly having saved all of their lives. Including his.

Gibbs ran a slow hand over his mouth and sighed deeply. He chugged down the fresh brew, emptying his cup and quickly poured a refill, taking it back down to the basement.
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It had progressed to dinner time, and Gibbs hadn't emerged again from the basement. Kate had showered and cleaned up the leftover mess that littered the kitchen; she straightened up both bedrooms as well as the rest of the house—though she got the feeling he did most of his living in the basement and at NCIS. She stayed as long as she could without feeling like a complete idiot for hanging around Gibbs' house alone. Before she left, she broke down and fixed him a sandwich from the leftover groceries she had bought and made more coffee. Looking around the place, satisfied with what she saw, she jogged back upstairs and began to pack what little she had brought with her.

Coming down to the last few items, Kate folded another shirt and tucked it away in her duffel bag when she felt a pair of eyes on her. She glanced sideways towards the door where Gibbs stood ominously on the threshold; leaning against the door with his arms carefully folded across his chest. She looked back to the last shirt in her hands as she self-consciously bit at the inside of her bottom lip.

"What're you doing..." he murmured lightly as she zipped up her duffel. The room was pretty dim as Gibbs' form cast long shadows across the bed; the features of his face hidden from the light that bathed him from the back, from the hallway.

"It's over. He's gone.. so, I'm going home, Gibbs." She spoke coolly. Even though she couldn't clearly see his eyes in the slight darkness, she had to look away from him; casting her eyes to the carpet as she fidgeted with the zipper on her bag. "There's food in the fridge, and a new pot of your sludge on the counter." She nodded and built herself up enough to be able to look him straight in the face.

His mouth ached to smirk, but he calmed it to a negligible little lift of the corner of his lips. Gibbs took a step into the room and tilted his head to one side. "Say what you want to say, Agent Todd." He said sternly.

She turned to face him dead on, placing her hands on her slender hips and matched his head tilt. Her eyes looked away briefly, thinking, and she shook her head, opening her mouth to speak, "I just… I don't…"

"Spit it out, Todd…" he gruffed, slightly raising his voice as he advanced on her rather quickly. Standing in front of her, nearly toe to toe; he didn't get in her face as he did with Tony, but he was pretty damn close.

At first the surprise in her face made it look as if she might actually start to tear, the emotion beginning to well up behind her eyes. She swallowed it down quickly as she squinted at him and took a step forward, "I'm sorry you didn't know, but I am not sorry for what I did…" she spat, defensively crossing her arms, "I wasn't… I wasn't planning it, Gibbs— it was so last minute we're lucky it happened at all..! and, you know what, that doesn't even matter right now!" she shouted, getting in his face, poking a rash finger to his chest, "You're alive, he's not. You wanna desk me? Fine..." she removed her index finger from its prime poking position as her voice began to cool down, murmuring, "but I am not sorry."

After a few shocked seconds on his end, he spoke slow and calm, "Good answer.."

She wet her lips and looked away, but couldn't step away, from his softly scrutinizing stare, not noticing the careful upward lift of his mouth.

"You're wrong about one thing, though," his voice thick and rough, catching her attention.

"Yeah? What's that, Gibbs.." she looked up to him with skeptical eyes.

He leaned down and whispered by her ear, "I'm a damn good poker player, Kate…"

Kate's brow furrowed before her eyebrows rose in amazement; she pulled slightly away from him in order to see his face. "You knew?" she asked disbelievingly. The corner of his mouth tugged up further. Her mouth formed a small "o" as her eyebrows peaked even higher. She gently slapped his chest, "How— Damn it, Gibbs..! What were all the theatrics—"

He grabbed her wrist and gently closed his hand around it. "Don't do it again.. unless absolutely necessary," he mumbled.

Her eyes flashed with a slight warmth, "And what rule is that..?"

Gibbs chuckled low as he smiled, but didn't answer her question. Still holding on to her wrist, his thumb softly rubbed along her pulse, feeling the beats become faintly stronger and more frequent. His smirk transformed into a slight frown of agitated worry.

"You scare the absolute hell out of me sometimes, you know that?" He said gruffly.

Kate's smile turned into a vague grin. She nodded and murmured quietly, "I'm glad you're not dead, too." She smiled further at the smirk that she received, prompting her to lean into him and kiss his cheek. Except, ironically enough, her aim was a little off as she pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth rather than the side of his face.

She hovered slightly, but before she had the chance to pull away and correct herself, Gibbs moved his lips over hers. Taking hold of her other wrist, he pulled her to step into him as he covered her mouth with a gentle roughness; a steady mixture of affection and absolute need.

He slid a tentative hand softly, slowly underneath her shirt, delicately touching skin that he knew would already be turning shades of black and blue from the morning's escapades. He ran a thumb lightly over the upper portion of her ribs, silently thanking her and signifying a deeply running, protective concern.

Kate seemed to purr gently against his lips. She leaned into him carefully, not to press on her ribs as she submitted to his intensity while her insides melted beneath the tender undertones. She swiped the tip of her tongue at his lips before pulling his bottom lip between her own. She freed her hands and slid them up his chest, coming to rest on the back of his neck as she pressed her mouth against his with a certain fervor that made his own insides melt.

Gibbs opened his mouth to her, their inhibitions quickly deteriorating as their tongues met in a deeply fevered haste of needing to taste the other. His mind reeled, slowly spiraling out of any conscious realm of professionalism. He couldn't even say that he'd lost control of his common sense; because in this moment, it did in fact make perfect sense.

A desperate need for air pulled the two apart, both breathing heavily in the ebbing waves of a sudden fiery surge. Kate's fingers brushed into his hair, sliding up from the back of his neck as she stared hazily at a single spot on his chest. Gibbs chucked a finger underneath her chin, gently tilting her face up. She blinked slowly, a small gratifying smirk strewn across her features.

"We should play cards sometime…" she murmured, her voice full of quiet mirth.

Gibbs opened his mouth with a smile as a rough chuckle sounded from deep in his gut.