"Dolphin Hero"
Chapter 2
Kate is tossing on the bed. San Diego is totally different from DC, it is much warmer. She loves warm weather but she guesses she is just not used to the change or perhaps it is not the weather. As an ex Secret Service, change and traveling are the main parts of her job.
That night, there is something worse, it is NOT the weather, it is NOT nature! It is DiNozzo's snoring…incredibly loud!
She can hear it very clearly from Dr. Dunn's chamber; he sounds like a vacuum cleaner
"Poor Gibbs" , she thinks. Kate tries to ignore the disturbing snores, but a few minutes later, she has enough. She exhales angrily, slips on her short shorts and storms out from the room.
"Bloody Tony." She is muttering under her breath only to be stopped by what seems to be her boss. "Oh, Gibbs, you are not asleep yet?" It is almost two in the morning, and then Kate sees his incredulous look.
"Don't worry, Gibbs, I'll take care of it." Kate said to her boss as she paces into the adjacent room.
Gibbs is just looking at his female agent, stunned because of her action, sure, but that's not all, he also witnesses how charming and delicious she looks with her bed hair, tank top and shorts, coming out from Dunn's room, bothered by DiNozzo's snores. She looks ravishing, Gibbs thinks.
His straying lewd mind is disturbed by a howl of pain coming from the room, it is DiNozzo's howl of pain, and what on earth did she do to him? He wonders and smiles, she never ceases to amaze him.
His Katie must be kicking Tony's ass, to stop him from snoring, and then his smile breaks into a laugh, imagining her fiery nature…never his to be enjoyed, Gibbs realizes sadly. His melancholy is disturbed.
"OK, Gibbs, done! Please! You can sleep now. I guarantee his snores won't bother you anymore." She talks to him sympathetically as she walks across to where he is sitting to go back to her room, then something caught her attention from his laptop screen and Kate stares at the screen.
A few seconds later:
"Kate…" Gibbs calls her. She ignores her boss, engrossed in what she is reading.
"Katie!" Gibbs tries again, this time more serious.
Kate is used to his tone. "What, Gibbs?" She replies, ignoring his call - this is interesting - as she keeps reading from the screen.
"It's confidential, Kate." He replies without trying to block her view.
"I know, Gibbs, so? You can read it, so can I, right, Gibbs?" she smiles cheekily.
"NCIS is already in your blood." Her boss mummers to himself.
Gibbs is distracting himself…from her, from his Katie. Oh bloody hell she is NOT his!
Kate is closing in on him, too close, much too close for his comfort to his personal space as she tries to read more on Dunn's profile. Her chocolate wavy locks brush his shoulder and more.
Kate is aware of his masculine presence, his smell and GOD! His masculine spicy fragrance. Dunn's profile distracts her for a while, though.
"WOW, Gibbs! She is…YOU! A female version!" she exclaims, but Gibbs doesn't answer.
"Scoot, Gibbs!" Kate says as she nudges him with her hip, she wants to sit and focus on Dunn's profile, she is his profiler anyway and Dunn's life seems to be fascinating compared to hers.
Gibbs willingly moves over to the next seat, too surprised to scold her, he could never slap her head like he always does to DiNozzo. While Kate is absorbed by what she is reading, the light from the screen illuminates her facial features and Gibbs's gaze is glued to her: even with no make up, she is beautiful to him, fresh like a bloomed flower, young, just ready to be picked, but not his to keep.
For about ten minutes or so, Kate is engrossed in Dunn's achievements, life and (unfortunately) failures. Her life has been amazing but strange, she keeps nodding her face in approval, and she mutters "Damn, she's been around."
"What are you so fascinated about, Katie?" Gibbs starts to wonder, he is so relaxed that he calls her Katie. He relaxed his posture, lying against the chair rest, hands supporting his head.
"Would you look at this? OK, let me profile her." Kate is concentrating, her index finger busy tapping the scroll pad.
"She is obviously NOT afraid to try, to change…you know, to be different, Dunn couldn't care less what people think about her. As we saw the first time we met her…in a towel." Kate starts.
Gibbs looks at her, waiting, not too sure what she means, except for the towel thing that was blatantly clear.
"Here, Gibbs, when she was in her thirties, she changed her major, from humans to marine mammals, switched to a completely different species, don't you think it is crazy? Well, not crazy, but…strange, but GOOD! That was a major decision, Gibbs." Kate couldn't find the words she is looking for; she is excited, being able to delve into Dunn's life.
Kate goes on while Gibbs is just looking at her. "Look, Gibbs, she became a widow twice…well, you did better, you are divorced thrice, but what's one more to go, she could easily reach your number." Kate grins.
"Ha, very funny, Kate." Gibbs is not amused. "And do you think to become a widow is a matter of CHOICE? It's not, if she didn't kill them herself, at least"
"OK, here, she changed from an MD to behaviorist, I wonder why?" Kate questions herself; she is quiet for long minutes, fingers tapping furiously, scrolling up and down the page, bingo!
"Gibbs, you think she changed her major because she was disappointed with human nature? Her first husband died in a war. Dolphins in NNMP deal with wars, Gibbs, she wants to help. Maybe, she is just heart broken…I don't know" Kate suddenly lost her enthusiasm and goes quiet.
She whispers to herself, "…just like you, Gibbs" and becomes lost in thought.
Gibbs's impeccable hearing catches the last part of her whisper. "What's wrong?" He asks the suddenly quiet lady beside him.
"No, nothing…" she animatedly shakes her head, not looking at him, she is afraid to look into his eyes, afraid for him to see her thinking.
"Kate, what's wrong?" He insists.
"At least she tries, Gibbs, at least you try." she compares her boss and Dunn.
"Divorced thrice, widow twice! Who cares! Who cares what people say or think about those! Yeah sure, Dunn failed, you failed, SURE your mentally unstable ex bashed your head with a golf club, you made terrible choices, you are AWFUL at them, Gibbs." Kate just says whatever is in her mind.
"But you try, you give it a go, compares to you guys…I am a coward." Kate sighs heavily; she distracts her emotion by glancing at the time, past two in the morning.
"You should try to get some sleep." She speaks as she stands up and walks towards her room, struggling hard to stop her tears from falling down to her cheeks. Gibbs notices that her voice changed, hears a muffled good night from her as she closed her door.
He hears her throwing herself on the bed and a few seconds later, he hears her blowing her nose.
Yep! It confirms his guesses that she cried. He doesn't know what to think of the incidents, he doesn't know what to do, and he is afraid he might do the wrong things or said the wrong thing. He should try to get some sleep before DiNozzo starts snoring again, the disadvantage of being a light sleeper.
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It is seven in the morning:
Kate and Tony are sitting at the corner table at NNMP's cafeteria, eating their breakfast. Gibbs woke up before them and went for his daily run.
They were going for breakfast when he came back all sweaty, still catching his breath. "Go! We'll meet in ten minutes" he said.
"Boss, how did you manage taking a shower, getting dressed and going there all in just ten minutes? Don't hurry, we…" DiNozzo looks at his crazy boss.
"DiNozzo, if you are not capable of doing that, is because you never were in the Corps. Counting from now! GO!!!" And he heads to the shower as he gulps a bottle of water.
In the Cafeteria:
"I slept like a baby, Kate." Tony grins at Kate, while buttering his toast and Kate just frowns at him. It was not a good night for her.
She is just sipping at her tea – ‘baby, my butt!' She is looking at Tony eating his breakfast like a wolf, not a very nice sight!
"Not for us, Tony, you snore!" Kate snaps at the hungry Tony.
"Ohhh…ifff nooo suuuu looood kett" Tony answers her with his mouth full, saying 'it's not so loud, Kate'.
Kate just shakes her head at him. Then Tony changes the topic, he quickly swallows his food, gulps down his milk and starts pissing her off.
"Kate, you should move to San Diego, I am sure they have NCIS agents here too." Tony speaks as he is buttering another piece of toast.
"You are popular here, you don't look too bad." Tony looks up and down at his team mate. Kate is way too tired to reply his joke or remark on his poor table manners; Kate just looks at him, but disregards his rude remarks, Gibbs would have kicked his ass if he was here.
"The guys have been hovering you all over you like flies, Kate, they must think you are sweet" Tony adds.
Kate gruesomely still refused to return his remark. Instead she angrily snatches his piece of toast and bites a corner delicately…but the thing cracks into pieces, earning Kate a savage smile from her partner in crime.
"Hey! Poor table manners, Kate, not nice, not at all, no wonder nobody in DC is willing to take you for a 2nd date." Tony shakes his head and starts buttering another piece of toast.
Tony continues his stupid remarks on her "…until they find out that you are a pretty sweet lady who is actually icy and sleeps with the gun under her pillow." Tony nods to himself in satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Kate is distracted, ‘there is a pair of captivating green eyes' that's been approaching their corner slowly.
"Green egg eyes" Tony thinks and the green egg eyes are looking at the sweet lady who sleeps with a gun under her pillow.
Kate has enough, "Yeah Tony, why don't you move away from me so that I can socialize with the FLIES!" Kate said angrily; then their quarrelsome breakfast is suddenly disturbed by a presence and an action.
_____TWACK_____
Tony got a head slap and Kate got a stern warning from her boss. "You'll do no such thing, Kate! You are not here to socialize…and shut your mouth, DiNozzo!" Gibbs snaps as he sits beside Kate.
He doesn't like it that a few officers are already inching their way towards her, but once they see the grumpy boss at the table, they clear the way.
Unfortunately, "Green egg eyes" disappeared about two seconds after the gun thing.
"Not a problem," Kate whispers, she thinks a pair of soft blue eyes that replaced green ones is much better, even when the blue set is piercing at her, angrily.
Gibbs feeds himself with his usual drug of choice ___coffee___ and throws a whole piece of toast into his mouth chewing angrily with cracking noises, Tony does not dare make any comments about table manners; he has already had enough slaps for the entire morning.
He checks his watch, damn former marine! Nine minutes and forty five seconds, DiNozzo can't say a word; he is impressed with his Boss.
"Tony started it, Gibbs" Kate tries to explain
"But, Kate is…" Tony tries to defend himself
"That's enough!" Gibbs snaps again, he heard DiNozzo's comments on her nonexistent love life and how the guys are hovering over his female agent: it just doesn't sit right in his stomach.
"I got an OK from Dunn, we can use her office, we are going to interview dozens of personnel by midday and I have to interrogate the SEALS before, go and set your quarters there and I want Ducky's report ASAP! MOVE!" Gibbs bellows his order.
And both of them scramble on their feet, obeying his order.
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After a few hours in Dunn's office:
Tony eyes his watch carefully. Gibbs is not there but he is used to doing it subtly, he knows all about Gibbs's wrath. Kate and he are sharing a table in Dunn's office; they have been working silently two hours or so. Tony received the information that Abby has obtained from the explosion debris; there is nothing much or certain with the result.
Kate is profiling the NMMP's personnel: Trainers and DOLPHINS. Each of them has their personal file and history. And she gets more curious and surprised as she reads.
Tony is distracting her by throwing a paper ball that hits her keyboard.
"Hey Kate!" he calls. Then, a bit louder: "KATE!"
She looks over the edge of her screen. Their laptops are back to back on the table that Sedna had cleared for them, sliding all her stuff aside. There was a dolphin's skull
( DiNozzo guesses) and some slides of glass with fish stings and God knows what else.
"That is all we have, Special Agents, not much space here, not even for me" Dunn apologized for her small office.
Then they arranged their things and thanked her. But instead of going away, she remained leaning over DiNozzo: her face a few inches from DiNozzo's nose. Tony swallowed hard, looking up at her strange shining golden eyes.
"DiNozzo, I know Kate is a careful person, so let me tell you something: if something gets broken here, you are going to see the other side of me, understood?" She explains in a very smooth and dangerous voice.
DiNozzo manages to answer quietly: "Don't worry, doc, I'll be careful."
"Good! And don't call me 'doc' " and two seconds later she is answering her ringing phone.
Tony sighs under Kate's amused look. "Geezzz, Kate! Something is wrong here! For one second she scared me more than Gibbs does"
After a fast glance to Sedna who is still absorbed in her phone call, Tony keeps talking in a murmur, just to make sure she does not overhear him. "Hey, Kate!" as he rolls his eyes towards Dunn. "Doesn't she make you think of someone?"
Kate glances at Sedna quickly. Sedna is answering the apparently long questions with a chain of yeses and no's in the most laconic way. "I don't know Tony, she is sexy… maybe one of your cyberspace girls?"
Tony sighs, evidently disappointed with Kate's unconcerned attitude. For once, he is going to be a good profiler and his pretty partner is not paying attention to him. "No, Kate. I'm not talking about how she looks, I'm speaking about her behavior which you love so much"
This time he gets a mildly interested look from Kate: "what???"
"The way she acts, Kate! She is Gibbs's twin!!!" DiNozzo whispers forcefully.
Kate is studying his face and concedes that there is more than a sex brain under his skull, obviously. Gibbs keeps Tony in his team for something and that is NOT his obsession with sex. He has been not distracted by Sedna's physical attributes.
Tony continues: "This double XX gene that you women have, although it makes her so much more attractive than Gibbs, smoothes that crappy "Gibbsian" mood a little, but the weird grumpy behavior is still there, Kate."
Kate looks at Sedna again. She finished speaking and sets the cell phone on their table with a smile to DiNozzo, then takes a pair of audiphones, puts them on her ears and sits facing her screen to run her algorithms or so…apparently, she doesn't pay attention to Special Agents' conversation at all.
Kate nods to her partner. For once Tony is right. The whole thing is a little scary, but she is not going to give in to his reasoning easily, not without fight. But he is undeniably right.
"Wow, Tony, a FEMALE Gibbs??? I could have sworn that nobody can seem like Gibbs." Kate admits.
With a wide smile Tony (who is very satisfied with himself) declares: "Except the caffeine addiction and that she is technologically skilled, the rest of their crazes are pretty similar"
"Give me a specific example, Tony." Kate is curious.
"The boat."
"She is NOT building a boat in her basement, Tony."
"That's just because she already HAS one and THAT ONE is a hell of boat, Kate!!! You and Gibbs should see, and she was married TWICE! Almost as bad as Gibbs's record"
"She didn't get divorced, Tony. Her husbands died. It is NOT the same!!!"
"Whatever" Tony insists, "a little scary, isn't it?"
Kate interrupts him, accepting his theory inside but maintaining her defense of the female gender: "A female Gibbs, Tony??? Might be scarier for you, men! But you deserve it in many ways"
"Ha ha, funny, Kate, but think about it. It is terrorizing!!! Imagine for a moment: To have a "daddy" Gibbs would be a big problem, imagine what it would be to have a "mommy" Gibbs!" Tony's shoulders shivers, like he is feeling an imaginary fear "brrrrr".
But Kate can't help the need to annoy him. One part of her justifies all her Boss's obsessions. "C'mon Tony" she smiles, "If Gibbs was a woman instead of a man, you would be in love with him, I mean…her"
She regrets saying that at the very moment. She notes that her joke is just the reflection of HER big crush on her boss. Kate can't help the blush on her cheeks and prays that Tony doesn't notice it or blame it on the mistake she made previously.
But no such luck for Kate, his frozen piercing eyes are staring at hers. "Oh shit, Kate, keep your big mouth shut." she says to herself.
Tony can be a jerk about women, but his mind is sharp and he has special skills, searching for hidden emotions. He is not that stupid and she promises to be careful in the future and what the hell! The best defense is a good attack:
"And don't keep looking at Dunn that way, Tony."
"What way do you mean, Kate?" he smiles sweetly.
"You know what I mean, the way you look at women you want to include in your personal Guinness Book, Tony. The way you used to look at me! But in case you didn't notice, she is older than the "girls" you used to date and "Einstein" in comparison to them"
"Maybe, she is older, but I'm thinking of going in a different direction. If the diving and running can produce such a body, Kate, you know what to do the next eight years of your life!"
"How in hell do you know her age, Tony?" Kate is shocked.
"I have my ways, and if fitness and weight are not enough. I'm sure the neoprene suit is not all the synthetic material that our doc carries on "
"You're a pig, Tony!" and Kate smiles and continues "she is NOT the type of woman who likes these tricks! If she hears you, she would bite your head off and I'm not going to help you"
He opens his big mouth to answer, but at that moment Sedna takes her mobile phone, almost hidden behind the skull, beside him and offers it to him:
"Why didn't you answer the call, DiNozzo? It was for you," Sedna explains – innocently.
He gapes but takes the phone with a very tiny smile. By his frozen grin, Kate knows WHO is at the other side, Oh MY GOD…GIBBS!
"Why the hell is your mobile off!!!" shouts the voice, loudly enough to be heard
Four may be five seconds go by before Tony finds his own voice. "Sorry, Boss… I don't know how."
"Surprising, for someone with your "tech skills" DiNozzo!!! I want you both to be here, NOW!!!" and hangs up.
He looks at Kate and both look at Sedna, whose eyes are on her screen again, apparently not concerned about their "domestic" drama. Tony feels his stomach twisting painfully and not from hunger.
The Special Agents go to meet Gibbs and probably the SEAL officers at the CO Office.
Sedna sends an amused look at the closing door, DiNozzo will not annoy her anymore, she is pretty certain of that.
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They find the office full of people; most of them are naval officers and some civilian. If looks could kill, Dunn and the three NCIS agents would be dead already. But Gibbs couldn't care less whether they are happy or not, the angrier they are, the better.
All he cares are who, how, when and where exactly the Navy Lieutenant was washed ashore, dead after the explosion. He doesn't give a damn about the dolphin, yet.
Tony is giving each of them a turn, and then they must wait outside under the attentive watch of the guard that the CO had assigned. Accordingly to the orders, which Gibbs called suggestions, none is allowed to talk with each other, before or after the interrogation.
The CO told them that NCIS is there to investigate the explosion that had killed a marine and added that the Navy and the country can't afford the crap of any man or woman killed in action (KIA) by someone else's mistake.
They are in the office, hearing the CO yelling from outside.
Gibbs patiently sips his coffee. Kate and Tony are piling up the files in selected classes and checking their notes.
Dunn is contemplating. The sun is playing on the ceiling as she hears the CO. She rolls her eyes in annoyance and stands up. There is no way she is going to pay attention to all of this.
At her back Gibbs says in a quiet voice "Where are you going to?"
She freezes and takes many seconds before turning back to face him, then she blinks and asks: "Why, am I included in the suspects list, Gibbs?"
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-Tbc-Dolphinsiren.novasupernova.2007.BETA (MV)
Author's Chapter Notes:
Di Nozzo may be annoying during the day... but the nigth is the worst...
Chapter End Notes:
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