We're Still Here
Zach came home to the sound of girlish laughing that he had never heard before, and his dad's recognisable chuckle. It wasn't that often that he heard his dad's laugh, but this was the chuckle he did when he was genially happy, it was a quiet laugh but filled with so much warmth it made the teen happy that his dad was too.
He spotted a large suitcase next to the front door and a box filled with stuff, obviously someone was going to staying here for a while. He wondered who it was; maybe it was Mike with his granddaughter and daughter-in-law. Well, there was only one way to find out.
"Hey Dad, I'm home from…" He rounded the corner into the living room, his sentence dying on his lips the second he saw who was there.
It wasn't Mike Franks with his girls, it was a woman and a young lady in her late twenties, both of whom he had never seen in person before but were very recognizable.
"Uh… Hi.." He was gobsmacked as he stared at who he knew to be Shannon and Kelly Gibbs, back from the dead and sitting on his sofa.
Shannon looked up from the photo album that Kelly was holding in her lap in the middle of her and Gibbs, giving him a smirk that he could only describe as 'the cat who had gotten the cream', while his dad and his half-sister didn't even bother to look up and greet him. He decided he didn't like Shannon.
"He's here" The red-headed lady rolled her eyes, looking over to her husband, or ex-husband, or what-ever they were, as if she was telling him about a house pest that he needed to get rid off.
Zach really didn't like her.
Gibbs looked up from the album, looking like he hadn't even noticed, or cared, that his son had just come home. That was not like the man he knew at all, usually he would ask him how his day went, if sports practise was any good, and warningly ask him if he had behaved in class today.
"Oh… yeah… Zach…" Was it just him, or did his dad look really uncomfortable with him being there?
That when the blond teen spotted it. On the mantle piece, where there usually stood a few pictures of him along with Kelly, Shannon and the whole family, there was new pictures. The one's of him had been replaced completely, and the family portrait they had had done, a cut out of Kelly had been placed over him and Shannon had been added to the picture.
Zach couldn't speak, not without the overwhelming threat of tears. All he could do was bite his bottom lip, drawing blood, to try and stop his emotions coming to surface. There had to be a simple explanation for this!
Gibbs could see his son had seen the new pictures, and shrugged "I knew you'd understand Zach. Your suitcase is packed by the front door, and there's a flight ticket in the box. Bye"
"What?" The teen frowned; surely he could not have heard that right?
Shannon and Kelly shared a look with each other, before both of them burst out in a fit of giggles, with Gibbs looking at them curiously, once again ignoring his son's presence.
"What's so funny?"
"The boy." Shannon managed to speak through her shrill laugh "He… he actually thought you'd want to keep him now we're back."
"Oh.." His dad started to chuckle now, and Zach found for the first time ever, he hated his laugh. It was so cruel and callous; it was not the same laugh he was using before.
The silver-haired man got up from his seat, speaking to the two girls when they looked up to ask where he was going "Just let me put out the trash, and I'll be back."
Trash? He didn't mean… no, no! He couldn't do! But a hand clapping him on the back and steering him to the front door, he knew it to be true.
"Don't be too long daddy!" He heard Kelly call out as Gibbs shoved the box at his son, before taking a hold of the suitcase and carrying it out on the front porch.
"What… what's going on dad?" Zach couldn't even think straight. This just couldn't be true!
"I… boy this awkward…" Gibbs rubbed the back of his neck "You know you were just a replacement for Kelly don't you? Not a very good one, but you still were"
The teen's vision blurred, his heart beating faster and his breathing becoming very irregular. No! This couldn't be! His dad loved him, didn't he?
"Well, since they came back, I really don't need you anymore"
"No, no, no, no…" he shook his head in disbelief.
"Come on, don't say you thought I actually cared about you?" Gibbs scoffed at the thought "You're like white coffee. I tolerated you because you were all I had and thought it was impossible to get black coffee, but the second the black coffee did come back, I throw the white crap out for the real coffee."
Did his dad honestly just compare their relationship to coffee?
He was pushed out onto the porch, his suitcase dropped as his dad stepped back over the threshold. "Don't bother coming back. And leave everyone else alone too; they don't want you anymore than I do."
The door was then shut in his shocked face, and for the first time ever in history, locked, and his dad was walking away, back to his first family.
Zacharriah Jethro Gibbs sat up straight in his bed, panting heavily and sobbing uncontrollably.
It took him a few minutes to realise that it was all a dream, his dad hadn't just kicked him out and Shannon and Kelly were not back from the dead. He untangled himself from his bed sheets, noting it was still dark outside so must have been very early in the summer morning as he made his way to the bathroom.
He drank the water straight from the tap, using a warm flannel to wipe the tears from his face and hopefully get himself to calm down and stop shaking so much.
It was just a dream! Pull yourself together! He berated himself, wondering why he had let a nightmare bother him so much. His dad would never do that to him, he knew that, even if he would, which he wouldn't, it was impossible for Shannon and Kelly to come back from where they were.
He still couldn't stop shaking though. He used the wet flannel to wash the sweat off his bare torso, feeling himself relax more from the warm water, but only slightly.
It was a comfort when his hand gripped the ever present, slightly charred, dog tags that his dad had given him. It was a token that his dad loved him and would never let anything happen to him. Also when he caught sight of the tattoo on his left side of his chest, a little heart with the initials S.M (which his dad had gone ballistic about when he found out), reminding him of his beautiful girlfriend and just how lucky he was. But even those two didn't help him calm down much.
"It was just a dream, just… just a dream" He gulped as he said it, looking into his ice blue eyes in the mirror, trying, but failing to convince himself of the fact.
He could feel it, deep in his gut, something was coming their way, good and bad. He didn't know what, when or anything really except for the feeling, so he didn't really have much to go off. He just knew, after months and months of working as an intern for his dad's team, that he should trust in his gut.
He quietly slipped out of the bathroom and into his father's bedroom, seeing the man breathing slowly from under his sheets. Zach didn't care that he was going to be seventeen in just over a week, he needed his dad right now, so he slipping under the covers on the spare side of the bed.
He felt his dad's arm come behind his neck, pulling him closer to the man's shirt glad chest and a kiss on the top of his blond head. "You okay, bud?"
Zach shook his head, breathing in the scent of sawdust, coffee and bourbon, and feeling a lot safer in his father's arms.
"You have a bad dream?" Gibbs asked softly.
"Yeah…" The blond nodded, feeling very childish now, but he knew his dad understood.
"You want to talk about it? it helps sometimes you know"
The teen shook his head. He couldn't tell his dad that, it would be well embarrassing. It would be best if he let the man think he had dreamt of something like the end of the world, or evil dentists with needles, not the girlish dream he had of his dad not loving him. Even if he thought it was girlish, he still couldn't shake off his emotions from it.
"It was just a dream bud, nothing to be frightened off" He rubbed his son's back soothingly, hoping to ease him back to sleep.
"I'm not scared" The teen said adamantly. But the fact his way curled up next to his dad, kind of ruined what little effect the statement would have had.
"Everyone gets scared with bad dreams Zach. It's not a bad thing." He assured his son.
"Well I'm not scared" He declared, scowling in the dark. Why couldn't his dad just take his word for it?
"Okay, okay, you're not."
Gibbs left it at that, keeping his arm around the boy and listening as his breathing evened out. He closed his own eyes after a while, positive he was asleep, before he heard him speak again.
"You… you… don't think I'm white coffee do you?" Zach said it so quietly, that Gibbs was sure he hadn't heard him right.
"White coffee?" When had he ever given any indication that he thought of anyone as coffee.
"Yea…"
"No. No I don't."
Then it was silent again for another five minutes, but Gibbs could feel his son had more questions that needed answers so he didn't even try to go to sleep.
"Dad…"
"Yes bud?"
"You… you know…. you know if Shannon and Kelly were here?" He asked, in a tone that was clear he was unsure about asking what he wanted.
"Yes?"
"Would you… would you still want me?"
Gibbs knew that this was a very serious topic for his son, so he chose his words very carefully to make sure they weren't interpreted the wrong way.
"If I could, I'd have all three of you, Shannon would love you like you were her own and Kelly would be you big sister. But I can't, it's impossible, Shannon and Kelly are gone, and they are never coming back." He told him.
"So… you wouldn't kick me out if they came back?" Zach asked, wanting to confirm what he already knew.
"Zach…" Gibbs gave him a friendly shake, meaning 'don't be so silly' "I love you, no matter what. I'd never kick you out, and I would never choose Shannon and Kelly over you, I love you all the same"
The blond breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling like he could sleep the rest of the night now. "I love you too, dad"
"I know you do. Now let's get some sleep. We've got a long day in the office tomorrow, and I don't think Dinozzo, or you, will last the day without getting a concussion if I don't get at least a few more hours sleep"
Zach chuckled softly "I don't think Uncle Tony will last anyway, he's gone a bit loopy and even more annoying than usual from lack of sleep from baby Ant."
"Nah, your Uncle Tony has always had a screw lose."
A/N: Ha, bet you can so guess where I'm taking this? I've had this idea in my head for a while now, but I've just wondered how I was going to do it. I will get round to your idea, Kushie, or maybe add it to this story. And I'm still working on a younger Gibbs story, I just don't get anytime with work, collage and reading the hunger game books.
I want to give you some sort of time frame, so… I'd say this is around July time, the start of the summer holidays. Baby Ant would have been born around March time. And that would make the wedding around the start of October-ish, and LA, like end of October.
Thanks for all you reviews for my other stories. Ovbs don't own the characters. And this may or may not contain Spanking, probs will though.
Bit of a fluffy start.. not sure whether to make it a bit of drama in it... or maybe a bit of crime and danger? or is that too over done? Ovbiously there will be fluff. Or maybe just a bit of everything? I'm entirely not sure.