Work Text:
Gibbs suppressed a groan as he tossed about in his bed. He had barely woken up from a forced nap of a few hours. He had been vaccinated, and the least he could say was that he was assailed and reeling from the side effects of his injection. He painfully opened one eye and then the other, and he was dazzled by the daylight that the window facing his bed let in. He winced as he reached for the bedside table to grab his glass of water and an aspirin, hoping it would make his life just a little bit easier.
Beside him, the covers shifted and a mass of brown hair began to move. A moan of pain was heard then and Gibbs smiled. In his misfortune, at least he was not alone and above all, he was in her company.
Caitlin, without even opening her eyes, reached out to Gibbs and with an automatic gesture he placed a pill in her palm before kissing her on the temple:
"Look at us, I was counting on you to take care of me… we look like two little old people," he said in a hollow voice that he was surprised to even be able to get out.
“My head is killing me,” replied the young woman, letting herself fall back on her pillow before taking Gibbs' hand in hers, “one of us is going to have to get up to cook us something”.
“I know…”
Neither of them, however, made a single move to get up. They were too tired and in bad shape to even move a muscle. They stared at the ceiling, Kate's hand resting on Gibbs' chest as he stroked her hair.
“At the next dose, we will really have to think about not doing it at the same time. We can't end up in such a state together.”
Kate laughed softly, though it cost her a whole new headache. Although it was very painful to live with all that pain, at least she and Gibbs were together in this... and if there really had to be a positive point in all this, for once they were taking a break, for once they were only the two of them unafraid of being disturbed, and for once Kate could snuggle as much as she wanted to in the arms of her shabby old bear - as she used to teasingly call him - without having to share him with his work and his boat. She ran her slender fingers through his graying hair lazily before forcing herself to stand up.
Her whole body hurt, as if a truck had run over her. She was tough, it was certainly not a small vaccine that was going to prevent her from living her life. She smiled at Gibbs who had rolled onto her side of the bed, his face buried in her pillow where her scent must be lulling him.
She put on a bathrobe, probably Gibbs' since it was way too big for her slender body, and dragged herself into the kitchen. They were due to return to work on Monday, which gave them two days to recover and be in good shape. The first step to this recovery was a good, invigorating meal.
She cut some vegetables which she sautéed in a frying pan and grilled two nice pieces of meat. Gibbs would do anything for a good steak, even get out of bed. And indeed... she felt his presence more than she heard it, but soon Jethro's hands were caressing her hips and his mouth was kissing the back of her neck, where her skin was so sensitive…
“You really are the perfect woman, you know that, don't you?”
Kate brushed off the compliment with a wave of her hand and she turned in his arms to snuggle up against him, sighing with relief:
“I miss the bed already.”
Holding her close to his heart, he picked up a wooden spoon to stir the vegetables and flip the meat before it burned. Kate loved this new phase of their relationship. She adored the simplicity of their exchanges, their domestic, homebody love. She treasured the trust she and Gibbs had built, especially when she knew how he had walled himself behind such large and solid barriers. They had known the passionate and burning love of the first months, often wondering if it was not a passage, if it was not just a physical need that they had to satisfy. And then... as the months phase, and after a lot of introspection, they had finally accepted that what they felt was not a passing fancy, nor a carnal need, but quite simply love. Today they lived together. Kate, for their job security, had switched teams at NCIS, but they went to work hand in hand every day and came home telling each other about their day. Gibbs was the constant of her life, her only pillar, he brought her everything and more.
“It's almost ready. Tray in bed?”
"Tray in bed," Kate said.
Finally warm under their covers, while enjoying their meal, Kate and Gibbs were watching TV. The show wasn't exciting, but they were far too tired to care. Gibbs gently stroked Kate's thigh and she stroked his hand.
“What do you think of a massage for your body aches?” she asked once they had finished eating.
“I really am the luckiest man in the world.”
Kate's heart skipped a beat. If he was the luckiest man in the world, what should she say for her?
He laid on his stomach and she sat on top of him. She lifted the white t-shirt he was wearing to run her slender fingers over the tight muscles in the agent's back. She did her best to make him as comfortable as possible. She wasn't feeling well, but she could see that Gibbs was even more devastated by the side effects of the vaccine. If she could relieve him just a little, she would be very happy.
She felt him relax a little under her, he groaned when she touched him in a particularly sensitive place and he seemed ready to fall asleep soon.
Life was really funny. If she had been told that one day Leroy Jethro Gibbs would agree to close both eyes and let her do whatever she wanted with him, she would have laughed in the face of the person who would have suggested it to her. In another register, she would never have thought either that a pandemic would affect the whole Earth leaving everyone destitute. No, really… life had a humor she couldn't pin down, even more so than Tony's schoolboy humor.
“What are you thinking about?”
"Tony…" she answered distractedly.
“Sorry?”
He straightened up in spite of himself. He wasn't particularly jealous, but when it came to Tony he couldn't really help it. After all, all of NCIS had believed that the beautiful, young Kate Todd would eventually succumb to the charms of the womanizing agent. Instead, she fell in love with the grumpy old man he was. Even though deep down he knew that Kate wouldn't cheat on him, he was at least still surprised to be her first choice. She had to tell him over and over again, assure him that he was all she wanted, but still, a part of him still felt he was unworthy of the young woman she was for a whole lot. of reasons.
"Relax Jethro…I was just thinking about his very bad humor. Would you mind lying down so I can take care of your tense shoulders?” She accompanied these words with a little kiss on his neck and on his shoulder blade and she applied herself even more than before to her massage.
"When I don't feel like a hundred and fifty anymore, I'll do the same for you, honey," muttered Gibbs, already half drowsy.
"Don't worry…I won't forget to remind you," she smiled, falling back onto her side of the bed.
She smiled all the more because that single thought, her side of the bed, was the simplest and most extraordinary thing there was. Sharing Gibbs' bed, his house, his life... So many things she had only thought possible in her wildest dreams.
She curled up against her man and, still exhausted, she fell asleep without any problem, her body broken but her heart healed of all her wounds.