<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="font-size: 15px"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ff99">Kate gave Gibbs a small smile. Then she leaned over the laptop and typed quickly. <i>You're not the one who scared him off. He was only too eager to escape a discussion that we were having. And I'll let him get away with it.. for now. But I'm not letting it go. But anyway.. how did you sleep? You look better now that you've rested and had something to eat.</i> After she finished typing, she turned the laptop to face Gibbs. She noticed one of hands flexing, and without letting herself overthink it, she reached out and captured his <br/>
free hand with one of hers.<br/>
</span><br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(153, 255, 153)">And squeezed it gently. She used her free hand, to gently caress his knuckles. Before the coma, she would've never touched Gibbs. It was just the way things were between them. Neither of them had been the touchy feely type. But after everything that had happened, she didn't feel like that person anymore. She didn't want to be that person anymore. Her mind didn't work the same way it once had. She was aware of that. Sure, most things were still the same. Except for the balance issues, the deafness, and how she now found herself unable to ignore her emotions and feelings.<br/>
<br/>
It had taken her nearly dying to see what was right in front of her. This team, her team, was also her family. Kate loved them and they loved her, and she had always been bad at saying it. At showing it. But that changed now. She was going to do better, for all of them. She was going to make it a point to let them all know how much they meant to her, from the very beginning, and now. She just had to figure out how to do that. She had meant it when she had apologized to McGee earlier. And now, she also had to find a way to apologize to Gibbs and Tony.<br/>
<br/>
Assuming that they would accept her apology. The young woman looked down at their hands that were still locked together, and then back up at him. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(153, 255, 153)">And she gently took the microphone from his hand, so that she could speak into it and he could read what she said, if he had trouble understanding her speech.</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(153, 255, 153)">"Don't laugh, but I dreamed about you while I was in the coma. I dreamed about us.. being an us. Several times over. And, if I'm honest.. it wasn't as strange as I thought it might be. It was actually... kind of nice."<br/>
<br/>
"I know, it's crazy for me to say something like this. Especially since I've been a hardass to all of you since I joined the team. But I thought that it would be easier if I didn't get emotionally involved. That when or if someone got hurt, or we lost someone, it wouldn't hurt as bad. But I was stupid.. and wrong. And when Tony got sick, that scared the shit out of me. And every time McGee goes out into the field, I worry about him. I worry about you.. too. I worry about you the most.." She said the last part softly and cleared her throat, not sure how he'd take everything she'd said.</span></span></span>