Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 79

Loki pulled Gibbs' car up to the curb before Bishop's house and shut the engine off. Taking a deep breath, he removed the key from the ignition and pushed the door open. "All right, I got this," he exhaled, locking the car as he strode up the walkway to her front door.

A light tap on her door brought the sound of footsteps approaching and the door opening smoothly inward. Bishop smiled at him, head tilted to one side. "Hello, Loki."

"Evening, Ellie," Loki answered, returning her smile. Bishop stepped back and Loki walked inside.

"Dinner's just about ready," she told him, closing the door. "I hope you like steak."

Loki found himself grinning. Steak is pretty much all Gibbs eats. "Yes, I love steak."

Bishop led the way into the small kitchen and busied herself with finishing dinner. Loki, after a brief hesitation, joined in, washing lettuce and cutting tomatoes for the salad.

It was...easy, moving about the kitchen and helping Bishop with the meal. It felt...right for Loki to be there, to be beside her. Whether in silence or conversation, there was never awkwardness, never anything that was said just for the sake of saying something.

Loki and Bishop just...clicked.

"I rented a movie for tonight," Bishop said as she removed the steak from the oven. "I thought that if you were going to be hanging around NCIS permanently, you might want to get started on understanding DiNozzo's movie references."

Loki grinned as they sat down at the circular table and began to serve themselves. "So what movie did you decide to start with?"

Bishop raised an eyebrow mischievously, a smile lingering on her lips. "Ocean's Eleven."

Loki laughed. "That's perfect."

The two began to eat their steak, glancing up at each other continually. They talked about the battle, the solved case, and how they were looking forward to new cases, "normal" cases that didn't involve alien scepters or should-be-dead scientists. "Although," Bishop reflected thoughtfully. "Every case is unique in its own right. So I suppose there really isn't a way to classify any of them as normal."

The two cleaned up from their dinner and Bishop started the movie after dimming the lights. Sitting on the couch before the television, Loki placed his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him, head resting against his shoulder. Loki marveled at the ease with which he held her, with which she rested against him.

The movie was good, and all the references DiNozzo had made about Loki and Bishop being like Danny Ocean and Tess finally made sense to the god. The divorced couple eventually found their way back to each other as Danny fought to win Tess back from her new boyfriend. The way Tess acted towards Danny, all of her dislike and anger, turned back into love.

It did remind Loki of he and Bishop, in a way.

As the end credits began to roll, Bishop pulled back slightly from Loki, just enough to grin up at him. "What did you think?"

"It was very good," Loki told her. "I enjoyed it." He cocked his head to the side. "I understand what DiNozzo was trying to say now." And leaning down, he kissed her.

Loki knew that this is where he belonged, next to her. He didn't want to spend a moment anywhere else. He belonged with Bishop, and he belonged at NCIS.

Then the phone rang.

Loki and Bishop broke apart, looking back in annoyance at the landline. Neither of them made a move to get it. "Let it go to voicemail," Bishop said dismissively, leaning back in towards him.

The phone continued to ring as caller ID announced the interrupter. "DiNozzo, Anthony."

"Really?" Loki exclaimed, glancing up again. "Really?"

The answering machine kicked in. "Hey, you've reached Ellie Bishop. Leave your name and phone number and I'll get back to you!"

"Hey, yeah, I'm calling for Special Agent Loki Laufeyson." The smirk was evident in DiNozzo's voice.

"I can't believe this," Bishop groaned, falling back against the couch.

"I heard through the grapevine that you'd be over here, Loki. So, I ran some calculations –"

"DiNozzo can do arithmetic?" Loki asked. "Never would have thought it."

"– and I determined that, based off of my statistics of first dates, as well as on that lovely cinematic masterpiece filmed by Tony Stark, that now – right now – would be the perfect time to call and say –" DiNozzo took a deep breath and shouted.

"CALLED IT!"

Loki and Bishop both rolled their eyes as DiNozzo launched into how he had known this would happen since the beginning. Then, to top it all off, he began to chant.

"Loki and Bishop, sitting on the couch. M-A-K-I-N-G OUT!"

At this, Loki catapulted off the couch and strode towards the phone as DiNozzo continued on his little chant. Snatching the phone up, Loki stabbed the green button and snarled into the receiver, "DiNozzo, in the morning, you will awaken with a snake coiled on your chest, ready to strike." Then he pressed the red key and thrust the phone back, cutting off DiNozzo's laughter.

Bishop just shook her head as she stood up, Loki walking back towards her. As he took her in his arms, she asked, "Is DiNozzo really going to wake up to a snake?"

"Oh, yes," Loki assured her, tipping his head towards hers. "I promise you."

/**/

Loki and Bishop's first date! I, for one, thought it was all the better for DiNozzo's intrusion :) What say you?

And just how perfect is it that I get to celebrate 10K reads on Special Agent with this chapter!?!?!!!! Thank you, all of you guys, for helping me hit this milestone!

I apologize for the lack of an update last week - I had to study for exams and couldn't find the time to finish this chapter. But I hope it was worth the wait!

On the announcement side, you may have heard that the Watty Awards this year are for completed novels and completed novels only. Well, Special Agent will definitely be finished by submission time (how crazy is that?) and I will be most likely be entering it! I know that's quite a long time away, but I thought I would just announce that now :)

Thanks for reading! Please comment and vote!

Skylar Wittenborn