Gibbs glanced towards the elevator when it opened and Tony exited out to the bullpen. His gaze swept over the young Italian as he looked for Kate to follow him out. With a raised eyebrow, he urged the younger man to explain.
"She's at home getting dressed for work," answered Tony of Gibbs' unspoken question. When the silver haired agent said nothing, Tony felt the need to elaborate. "She couldn't very well come in to work wearing my sweats and T-shirt, now could she?"
Gibbs nodded once and returned to the file on his desk. Satisfied that he had explained things sufficiently enough for his boss, Tony sat at his desk and began to boot up his computer. McGee joined them after a bit and the three men went to work diligently clearing off their desks. Neither McGee nor Tony noticed when Kate slipped in from the stairs leading up from the dungeon they called labs. Gibbs had, and he nodded to her, giving her a rare smile as she took her seat at her desk. Tony glanced up and smiled briefly before returning to the file open before him on his desk. Kate picked up the first file on her desk and went to work, saying nothing about what had happened the previous night or that morning.
Tony tried hard to concentrate on the files but his mind soon fell into dream mode as his brain replayed the events from the previous day. From the ruined proposal to the late night crying session with Kate, it had been quite the emotional roller coaster. Glancing over at Kate, he wanted so badly to walk over to her and take her in his arms, but chose instead to clear his mind and return to the work before him. He did not want to be the only one here on Saturday morning working on old papers. He finally finished the last of his share at about 4pm and dropped the completed work on Gibbs' desk before returning to his own chair.
Kate pulled another file from the stack as Gibbs stood up to leave. With a glance and a smile at her boss, she went back to work, feeling rather than hearing the ex-marine leave through the elevator doors. She noticed that Tony had started playing an annoying video game on his computer and she smiled slightly. By all rights he could have clocked out and gone home, but a part of her didn't want him to leave her alone. She turned to her computer and began typing up a report for the file she was working on, hearing the incessant beeping that was designed to annoy any sane person. Finally she turned to her partner, eyebrow raised slightly.
"Tony, shouldn't you be working on the files?" she commented dryly.
"I'm already finished," he replied smoothly. "How about you, almost done?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," she answered. "If you're done, what are you still doing here? It's Friday night, surely you have a date or something to go to."
She was baiting him, with an obvious interest in what he would say. She wanted to test him and see what he really had on his mind. He paused the game to look at her fully before answering.
"Nope, no date. And don't call me ‘Shirley'," he gave her one of his patented DiNozzo grins, hoping that she caught his quip of Leslie Nelson. She chuckled as she pulled a paper out of her printer and added it to the file before her.
"Then what about going to a club? It's still early yet, you could probably get a couple of good leads on a girl for the weekend."
"Nah, not interested right now. Besides, I'm getting kind of tired of the club scene, you know?" He watched her stand up slowly and take the last of the files to Gibbs' desk, depositing them there with a satisfying thud.
"Then what do you plan to do that has you here this late? You could just go home." She turned and he was right there, behind her. His hands came out to steady her as she bumped into him. She stifled a gasp at his closeness, getting a whiff of his aftershave and nearly melting.
"Well, I was hoping to catch this beautiful, and I use the word strongly, woman that I know didn't have a bite to eat last night, missed breakfast this morning and skipped lunch a while ago, and ask her if she would like to get something to eat."
She smiled at his obvious attempt at being subtle in asking her to dinner. Food sounded good right about now and what else was there to do at this time? Go home and sit in the dark? She wasn't surprised when she curved her lips into a smile while staring up at him and accepting his invitation. She moved around him to gather her things, turn off her computer and light and then turned to him, waiting. He walked up to her side, and offered up his elbow in a gentlemanly gesture. She accepted it and allowed him to lead her to the elevator to get their cars from the garage.
The restaurant that Tony took her to wasn't the most expensive, but it was the most delicious food that she had tasted in such a long time. After finishing a filling meal of pasta and shrimp, she put her napkin on the table next to her plate and sat back with a sigh. Tony watched her from across the table before slipping out of his side of the booth and sitting next to her on the bench.
"Here, you have some sauce," he began before taking his thumb and wiping the corner of her mouth, popping it into his mouth to clean up the offending spot, keeping her appearance neat as always. She sighed as she looked into his eyes, wondering what to do next, but he helped her by continuing for her. "You want to talk?"
"Yeah, I think we should. Where do we want to start?"
"Talk about anything you want, Katie." He smiled with the obvious dig to her nick name. And truth be told, she actually liked hearing it come from his lips. She sat back for a moment, deciding to choose a safer subject than what happened the night before. She had a chance to get to know this man she called her partner, but she wasn't sure which question to ask first. What did she really know about him, except what he portrayed to her, Gibbs and the entire team?
"Why do you portray yourself as being a moron when I know for a fact that you are very smart?" Go for the kill why don't you Todd? She held her breath, expecting him to duck the question. Instead, he looked her in the eye and began the slow process of opening up to her.
"You're a profiler, Kate. Let's see if you can figure it out." He grinned as she drew her brows together in that way which made him want to kiss her forehead and smooth it. "Have you ever been to school with an only child? Especially in High School?"
"Yes," she answered.
"And how did it seem to you, their behavior and reactions?"
"They were trying to fit in with people they didn't know. Always doing something that would make them popular…" she trailed off as her eyes took on a new light, coming to the realization that he knew she would figure out quickly. "Tony, what makes you think you have to become Mr. Popular at work?"
"I've always been that way, Kate. It's what has made me so good at undercover work in the past." He grinned at her. "I'm a chameleon."
"That's at work, and I assume you do that with your dates as well, am I correct?" At his nod she continued. "But right now, this moment, are you in a role?"
His eyes darkened as he realized the extent of her concern. "Kate, this isn't an act. This is me, being open with you. You asked the question and I'm giving it all to you."
She ducked her head in embarrassment at having even thought that he would be playing games with her. He reached out and lifted her chin to stare him in the eyes. "No need to feel uncomfortable. You have a right to know the truth."
"Ok, next question. Do the others know about this game you play?"
"I don't see it as a game. It's more like a survival trait I picked up somewhere. But no, I don't think they do."
"Let me see if I can sort out all the personas you use." She was getting comfortable with this, sharing secrets with him. He grinned as she went silent for a moment. "First off, there is McGee. This one is the easiest to figure out; you want him to see you as a mentor. So you put on the hard nosed SOB that is always pulling pranks and keeping him on his toes. You don't want him comfortable in his own skin until he has grown a thicker hide to protect himself."
"Got it in one, Kate, good job. So who next? Abby, maybe?"
"Abby isn't hard to figure out either. You want to play the big brother type with a slightly naughty flair to make her comfortable around you. You let her be herself, you tease her and flirt with her, but she's more like a kid sister."
"I also try out my Gibbs' impersonation on her to see how close I can get," he supplied.
"Why is that, anyway?"
"You'll figure it out. Next is Ducky. What am I doing there?"
"With Ducky, you are more like you are now. You are kind and considerate and well meaning in a sensitive sort of way." She screwed up her face in concentration before going on. "You are being yourself; there is no persona you are putting on with him. Why is that?"
"Because unlike the others, Ducky has seen it all and nothing fazes him in the least. I like that and he makes me more at ease with myself." He took a sip of his iced tea. "Go on, Gibbs' turn."
"With Gibbs, you are being the mischievous child who is forever getting in trouble to gain attention." She noticed his attention waver as his thoughts took off without her. "What is it? What's wrong Tony?"
"That's more Vivian's fault than anything else." He blew out a harsh breath as Kate took his hand in hers. Glancing back at her, he tried his best to bring the lightness back to his voice. "When I first came here, Viv was always riding me to get things done right. I knew what I was doing, but she seemed to think that since I was just a cop that I was a bumbling idiot as well. In order to get her off my back, I let her think what she wanted and tried my best to stay out of the way. I didn't know that this was destroying my credibility with Gibbs, who had already seen me in action and knew what I was good at. When Vivian left and you came on board, I didn't want a repeat of the same old problems with a fresh partner, so I let it go."
"And let me think you weren't worth something?" She sighed. "Tony, when will you learn that you don't have to be anything with me?"
"You were so strong and smart, I wasn't sure of how to approach you. And it took me a year to get comfortable. But there was something else, something that a friend of mine once said. ‘Never break cover.' No matter what happens, you are what you portray."
"So, by the time you got comfortable with me, your cover was already established. And you didn't know how to let me in?" Kate wanted to cry! To think all this time Tony felt so alone on his own team! She shifted until she was holding him around the waist, her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat through the fabric of his shirt. His arms came around to cover her back and shoulders as he held her tightly. She didn't want to go anywhere else at that time, just wanted to stay right where she was.
It was a few hours later when Kate finally reached her apartment and dropped her purse on the couch. She had spent another hour with Tony in the parking lot of the restaurant talking about college, and another hour outside her apartment complex making plans for the next morning. She laughed to herself as she remembered how that went.
"So do you, maybe, want to do something tomorrow?" asked Tony.
"I have to clean my apartment." She sighed dejectedly and dipped her head. Raising her chin, he looked into her eyes and smiled.
"Maybe I can come over and help, and afterwards we can do something together."
"You don't want to come over to my apartment and clean, Tony! It's such a mess right now!"
"That settles it then. Call me when you get up and I'll bring the muffins. You get the orange juice, okay?"
"Tony!"
"No argument Agent Todd. I'm Senior Field Agent and I said I'm coming over in the morning. If you don't call me, be ready for a nasty surprise!"
"What, you're going to show up at my door?"
The look he gave her didn't make her feel good about that question and she assured him that she would indeed call him in the morning.
Kate shucked off her shoes, tossing them in a corner of her bedroom and turned to the bed where the clothing she had worn earlier that day still lay scattered. She undressed, leaving only her underwear on and reached out to take the T-shirt in hand. She was supposed to be washing these, but she wanted to be able to feel them and smell them one more time before returning them. Slipping the T-shirt on over her head, she noticed how soft it was. She raised the edge of the collar to her nose and sniffed lightly, recognizing the soft hint of Tony that she had smelt on his shirt earlier that evening. She smiled as she slipped on the sweats, turned off the lights and climbed into bed. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day indeed.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Tony has waited long enough for the woman he desires
Chapter End Notes:
Thanks in large part to Gibbsgirl, MiddleAgedCrazy (MAC) and Rinne for encouraging and Beta work of this story.
I started this at LiveJournal, took it to ff.net and fosff.net, and am now leaving it here for archive purposes.
I started this at LiveJournal, took it to ff.net and fosff.net, and am now leaving it here for archive purposes.