<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ff99">"Abby has a court date today, so Gibbs is with Kate," Tony answered, distracted by the report he was reading.  With Gibbs spending so much time at Bethesda, the senior agent's workload was reaching epic proportions.  Thank God for probies, he thought to himself -- Tim was doing everything he could to step up, and Ziva was a quick learner.  They hadn't managed to keep their solve rate as high as it was with both Kate and Gibbs on, but it hadn't dropped far.<br/>
<br/>
Tony was inordinately pleased about that.<br/>
<br/>
"If Abbs has court today, I'd better go on a Caf-Pow run," Tim said, standing up from his desk.  Everyone in the building knew how Abby felt about wearing professional garb to testify in court -- and the longer she had to sit in her Career Girl Barbie outfit, the more dangerous her mood would get.  Caf-Pow would help.  Gibbs would help more, but Tim wasn't about to pull him away from Kate's bedside just because Abby was in a mood... unless Tim couldn't get her out of it.<br/>
<br/>
* ~ *<br/>
<br/>
Gibbs kicked back in the chair next to Kate's bed, his ankles crossed in front of him.  He hadn't brought the paper to read to her today -- just himself.  The nurses kept assuring him that sometimes people could hear in a coma, but Gibbs felt like a fool reading to her.  Instead, he slipped his fingers into her unresisting ones -- out of view of the door -- and stroked his thumb idly over her knuckles.<br/>
<br/>
He couldn't pinpoint the moment he'd given up on not touching her.  At first, it had been a way to reassure himself that she was still alive -- all the numbers and beeping machines couldn't hold a candle to the reassurance of feeling her pulse beneath his fingers.  But sometime in the last month, it had changed.  It felt like he was anchoring her somehow... or that she was anchoring him.  Outside this room he was still Second-B-for-Bastard Gibbs, but here, he could just be Jethro.  Just be worried, and wanting Kate to get better, and looking forward to the day when her hazel eyes would flutter open, and meet his.<br/>
<br/>
Gibbs also couldn't pinpoint the moment when he'd realized he'd come from caring about Kate as a member of his team... and falling in love with her.</span></span>