A step away

1 a.m.

It was almost 1 a.m. and Gibbs was in his basement working on his boat when his phone rang, it was Jack, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳? After some seconds he answered the call "Jack is everything ok?" he asked, well...for sure there was something wrong since she called him at that hour "Ehm...actually no...ehm...can you come at my place?..." she asked, she had another nightmare and what she wanted was to be sure that he was fine and also, she wanted to have him next to her probably that would've helped her "Uhm...yeah" he answered, he was on the point of closing the call "Can I ask you something else?" she asked "Yeah..." he replied and while he was waiting the question he walked to the door "Can you keep the call open while you're coming...?" she asked, he stayed silent for some seconds "Yes" he replied.
The reason why Jack asked this was mostly because she wanted to be sure that nothing would happen while he was coming, she didn't expect that he would really keep the call open but he did and this made her feel better, now she was sure that if something happened while he was coming she would know it, another thing came up to her mind while she was waiting for him, the first night that she passed in the hospital more specifically when she woke up from the nightmare, he was holding her hand and well...that made her feel a little bit better. While she was thinking about that someone knocked at the door, for sure it was Gibbs, she went to the door and opened it, he was standing in front of her, she looked at him for some minutes and then she hugged him "Thank you..." she said in a low voice, she didn't want that hug to end but it had to end, she let him in and they sat on the couch.
They looked at each other for a while "So what's wrong?..." Gibbs asked, Jack looked at him, she still didn't know if talking about this with him could help, she decided to talk but without saying that those nightmares were about him "Ehm...I think that you understood that I'm having nightmares and...well there is this person..." she started talking but then she stopped and looked at him, she couldn't keep talking about it "Jack...if you don't want to talk about it, it's ok...take your time..." he said and looked back at her, she hugged him again, that was the only thing that could make her feel better "I...just don't know why I keep having them..." she said while she was still hugging him "Can you say to me what are these nightmares about?..." he asked "Well...ehm...a person who I care about...and in these nightmares...this person dies..." she said all the things that happened in those nightmares came up to her mind and some tears appeared in her eyes and started running down her face, in that moment Gibbs ended the hug and looked at her, Jack tried to avoid his look while trying to wipe away her tears "Jack, look at me" he said and after a few seconds she looked at him, she wanted to say everything about the nightmares but, more important, she wanted to confess also her feelings for him, maybe this was the right moment or maybe not...
They looked at each other for a while, Gibbs was asking himself if he had to make a step forward and confess his feelings for her but he didn't know if that was a good moment, both were thinking about the same thing but neither of them was making a step forward.