Gibbs wasn't in a good mood today and it was getting on everyone's nerves.
Actually, if he was honest with himself, he wasn't in a good mood for about a month, since FBI agent Mark Andrews came into his life and it was even worse since the same agent came back into Caitlin Todd's love life.
Their collaboration had been quite brief, with the FBI's information and his team's work, the case had been closed within a week during which he had taken time to thoroughly study Andrews' interaction with his female agent.
He'd heard all of their ‘Do you remember… ?' stories, noticed his deep knowledge of her family and inwardly grimaced at the thought of how her mother used to call him ‘her perfect son-in-law'. He had pretended not to listen or care but he'd heard all of that.
And everything had been worse the day they'd closed the case.
Tony and Abby had decided to celebrate the end of the investigation with a few drinks in a bar. They had invited agent Andrews and also asked Gibbs to join them. He'd surprised everyone including himself by agreeing to go with them.
Afterwards, he'd told himself, it wasn't to see what was going to happen between Kate and Andrews that he'd accepted.
That evening, they'd drank, talked and laughed. And after a fair amount of alcohol and a few dances, the ‘perfect couple' had been re-formed, his Kate and her cute FBI agent were getting back together in front of Tony, Ducky, Abby, McGee and himself !
And since that day, he had been unbearable.
He actually didn't know why exactly, but today was worse than usually.
This morning, Kate had appeared with a bright smile on her face and homemade cookies in hands and that was it !
He had barked, all day long, at everyone who'd crossed his path and especially at Kate who was still trying to figure out what she'd done wrong in the past weeks for him to be so pissed at her.
They were now the only ones left in the bullpen. McGee had quickly finished his case report and Tony had left early for a date, mouthing a sympathetic ‘Good luck' to Kate.
They were working in silence but the tension that had desperately drifted between them the whole day was still present.
Kate was the first to break the quietness and the seeming peace that reigned in the bullpen.
" Do you have Abby's note on the Truman's case ?" she simply asked.
As soon as she opened the mouth though, she heard a long sigh coming from her left, something that had happened an awful lot of times for a few weeks and that was already too much for her.
" Now that's enough !" she heard herself blurting out.
" Do you have a problem, agent Todd ?" Gibbs asked in a calm and controlled tone that only unnerved her more.
" A problem ? Do I have a problem ?" she couldn't help it but she couldn't stop herself now, it was about time to sort this thing out. " You're kidding me ! I'm not the one with a problem here, agent Gibbs !" she was almost yelling at him now and he was looking at her with a deadly glare.
" And what the hell make you think I have a problem !" he asked his voice turning sharp as his eyes narrowed slightly.
She moved around to stand in front of his desk and crossed her arms in a defensive posture.
" Oh, I don't know maybe the fact that you've been an unbearable bastard for a few weeks now or the fact that you don't even tolerate any word coming from my mouth anymore. I'd say that's pretty obvious that you've got a problem with me so I wanna know what the hell is the matter with you ?"
" I do not have a problem. Do I have to remember you who the boss here is, agent Todd ? If you still want to have a job when you'll leave this building, you'd better watch your tone with me. Do I make myself clear ?"
Ignoring his question, she quickly went back to her desk and gathered her stuff.
" I asked you a question agent Todd !" she heard him exclaimed from his desk as she turned her back on him. She then slowly turned around to look him in the eye.
" You know what ? Go to hell !" And with that she promptly stormed off, letting him no chance to stop her or reply.
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When he'd called her she was on her way back to home, he'd asked her to come his apartment and she'd hesitated.
She was so angry with Gibbs, she was still fuming and she didn't want to see Mark in this mood and risk to have an argument with him as well.
But, right now, she really needed to see a friendly face.
She didn't understand Gibbs, she suffered his bad mood for about a month now. It seemed that it all began when Mark had come to work with them and Gibbs had been everything but friendly with him.
She'd first thought it was because he was a FBI agent but as days passed she'd started to wonder if the reason wasn't a little more… personal.
The elevator's door opened and Kate shook her head trying to get her boss out of her mind as she knocked at Mark's door.
" Hey honey ! Come in." he welcomed her, delivering a sweet kiss to her lips.
As she came into the apartment, she saw candles everywhere and a bottle of champagne on the table. She turned to face him, wanting to understand.
" This is beautiful, Mark… what's the occasion ?" she asked curious.
" I needed to talk to you, come on, have a seat." He took her cold hand in his warmer ones, gently kissed it and led her to the table.
" I've been thinking a lot recently. In fact, I've been thinking a lot since that day I finally saw you again, a month ago. I've realized how badly I screwed up six years ago. The most stupid thing I've ever done in my life was leaving you and I don't want something like that to ever happen again."
Kate was amazed and speechless, she had a feeling she knew exactly where he wanted to go, this was pretty obvious but she'd never thought he would do this so… soon.
" Katie, we've already wasted too much time, I want to go back to where we'd stopped six years ago."
He knelt in front of her and took a small red box out of his pocket, opening it to let her see a beautiful diamond ring.
" Kate, would you marry me ?"
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