<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ff99">It was so odd, Tim thought, to hear Kate's voice without any of its usual inflections and depth.  He knew -- because he'd immediately done as much reading on the subject as possible, when told that Kate could not hear -- that without the ability to hear their own voices, many deaf people had a flat tone -- almost mechanical.  It was still Kate's voice, but it felt... empty.<br/>
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Rather than use the microphone -- even though that piece of geek tech made him feel a little like a superhero, to have come up with it -- he pulled the laptop to him and started to type.  He knew he'd do a better job conveying his thoughts in text... it was part of why he wrote.<br/>
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<i>I haven't seen Gibbs since you woke up.  Tony said you sent him home, then told me to get my ass and my laptop here, so that you weren't alone, and we could get you hooked up to the internet.  So I don't have up-to-the-minute Gibbs weather reports, but he's been focused.  Not like he was after Ari shot Gerald, a different kind of intense.  He has been coming here almost every morning, and if he doesn't come in the morning, he stops in on his way home.  Abby told me she caught him reading you the paper one morning.  She thought it was really sweet.  <br/>
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Tony has been great.  No class clown, and he's been doing all of his work and a chunk of Gibbs's too.  I think it's the first time I've really understood why he's been Gibbs's senior agent so long.  He hasn't been by to see you as often, but I think it's because he'd rather free up Gibbs so that the boss can sit with you.  He's also been training Ziva -- she's badass, Kate.  She makes Navy SEALs look soft.  But she's never been an investigator, so there's a learning curve.  I didn't realize how much Tony knows, and how good a teacher he is.  I know we give him crap, and I'm not going to stop teasing him, but I understand him better now, I think.<br/>
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Me... I've been here a lot, and I usually bring my laptop and read you stuff I'm writing.  It sounds stupid now, knowing you couldn't hear me, but it felt like you were listening, and helping.  I know you and Tony think the writing stuff is nerdy, but it's just part of me, and it has helped me through some rough stuff.  I guess me sharing it with you was my way of staying close to you.<br/>
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I am here until Gibbs gets back, and don't try to argue about it.  This isn't babysitting.  Officially, you're still under guard.  Director Shepherd authorized we keep it up until the last of Haswari's cell is confirmed captured or dead.  When I left for the store, there was a Marine on duty in the hall.  We aren't messing around here, Kate.  Keeping you safe is part of our jobs.<br/>
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Normal is just a setting on the washing machine.  You're badass too, and my personal superhero, and I know that you're going to be better than okay no matter what happens.  But being here for you IS part of my life.  You're my teammate, and my friend, and practically my big sister.  So suck it up, Agent Todd.  You can't get rid of me.</i><br/>
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He turned the laptop to her, and rather than watch her read his message (because that felt weirdly voyeuristic) he started straightening up the non-hospital items that had accumulated in her room... the extra pillows they'd stashed for when the plastic chairs got to be too much, the fuzzy slippers that Abby tended to swap out for her boots when it was her turn here -- the framed team photo that had mysteriously appeared on the windowsill.  (Tim suspected that was Gibbs -- the wood frame looked handmade.)</span></span>