<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ff99"><span style="font-size: 15px">Kate smiled when Gibbs lifted their clasped hands and kissed the back of her hand, pressed it to his face, and closed his eyes. The smile on her lips widened when he opened his eyes once more, and she could see that he was letting himself be vulnerable to her. That he had put down all of his walls... for her. She squeezed his hands in hers, and then something occurred to her and she released one of his hands to reach for the laptop and typed two simple words on the screen.<i> Rule 12....?  </i>She was asking him what this meant for them, for him, with his rules. <br/>
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He'd been very adamant about his rules since she had joined the team. And though she wanted a chance to explore what this was between them, it would only happen if Gibbs was sure that he wanted this. She wasn't going to try to force him into anything that he didn't want. After a few moments, she decided to try something to see how he'd react to it. She started to lean forward, and lost her balance and nearly fell out of the bed and into his lap. </span></span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(153, 255, 153)"><span style="font-size: 15px">But thankfully, she managed to catch herself and right herself before she'd have fallen and looked stupid in front of him. <br/>
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Once that happened, she took a moment to secure herself better in the bed, and then leaned forward and into Gibbs, and pressed her lips gently against his. Her mind whirled as she did this, and it brought back the dream she had had of them drinking and kissing in his basement. The kiss went on for several moments, until she forced herself to pull back from the kiss and look him in the eyes. She couldn't tell what he was thinking right now, not even with all of his barriers down. She was sure that he had been surprised by her actions.<br/>
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But there was also something there, something that she couldn't read. She was worried that he would think they were betraying Shannon and Kelly in some way and that was the last thing she wanted to do. She would never want or try to replace his family, and she only hoped that he knew that. She wasn't asking him to replace them, but to open his heart to loving more people. It was something that she was trying to get used to doing, too. It would just take some time for both of them to learn how to do this. Maybe they could do it together.</span></span></span>