Leroy Jethro Gibbs looked down at the bundle in his arms in amazement. He never thought he would get to experience this feeling, the feeling of fatherhood again. Not after what happened with Kelly and Shannon. But here he was, holding onto his own little baby girl again.
"Hey girlie. I'm your daddy." He whispered quietly for her ears only. The little girl yawned, and her tiny fist reached out and grabbed onto his jacket. He chuckled and replaced the jacket with one of his fingers.
The 6 pound, 3 ounce girl had been born that morning at 0654, on January 16 and was completely healthy, all ten fingers and toes. She had the blue eyes that all babies had, and hair that was as black as her fathers. It was now 2000 and Diane had long since fallen asleep, exhausted from the work she had to do that day. But Gibbs was fine with that. Right now it was just him and his baby girl, Whitley Julianne Gibbs.
"I'll keep you safe." He promised her. Gibbs refused to bury another daughter.
"No leave, Daddy." Whitley looked up at him with giant blue eyes, the exact same color as his. "Stay wif Whit." Gibbs felt his heart cracking in two. He bent over and picked up the tiny two year old. He cradled her to his chest, smoothing down her wild black curls. He glanced at Diane, who gave him a look clearly telling him she wasn't helping him, their marriage was going downhill fast, only Whitley keeping them together now and with him leaving to be Agent Afloat for 3 months wasn't going to help much.
"Daddy has to go, Bug. He has to go keep the marines safe." He gently explained to her.
"Who keep Whit safe?" She asked innocently, her eyes filling with tears, that were close to spilling over. Gibbs didn't know how to answer.
"Well Whit, how about, Mr. Burns?" Gibbs asked, grasping at straws to make this easier for her. Mr. Burns was her teddy bear her aunt Delilah had given her at birth, and she never went anywhere without him.
"Mr. Burns?" Whitley looked at him. "Yeah. Mr. Burns, we'll make him a temporary NIS agent until Daddy gets home. How does that sound?"
Whitley smiled, clearly liking the idea. "Badge?" she asked. His daughters love for his badge had never failed to amuse him. She liked shiny things, and she had also used the leather it was on as a chew toy when she was teething.
"Sure, we can get you AND Mr. Burns badges. But right now Daddy has to go okay, Bug. So give me lots of kisses, kay." He held her tight to him, and then kissed her forehead, as he handed her to Diane.
"Bye Jethro," Diane said as she kissed him goodbye. "We'll be here waiting for you."
But when he came home after only three months on the Mediterranean instead of the 4 he was supposed to be on, only Whitley was waiting for him. Diane was in bed with the man who would eventually become one of his best friends. Or the Gibbs equivalent to best friends.
"Mommy's having a baby." 4 years and 3 months old, Whitley was as precocious as they came. "Toby's excited."
Gibbs smiled pulling on her one of her pigtails. "Is mommy happy?" he asked. He was definitely not still in love with his ex, having married and divorced Theresa already. That was a disaster, lasting only 3 months. They had gotten married just before Whitley's fourth birthday, and it had fallen apart. Gibbs had just gotten Senior Field Agent at the DC MCRT, so close to the most coveted position for a field agent, leading the DC sector of the MCRT, and as such had taken more intense hours, when he wasn't with Whitley he was at the office, in the basement building a new boat after he had burnt Diane's or asleep.
Then that bastard, Kyle Boone, had popped up and Gibbs was more worried about keeping Whitley, and all the other kids in DC safe, and Theresa had eventually left him.
Whitley could care less; she never liked Titi as she had called Theresa, which "Titi" had hated.
"I dunno." Whitley answered, focusing on her picture she was intently coloring. "She eats lots of ice cream. Sometimes, she lets me eat some too. Toby doesn't get any, cuz mommy says 'bias you did this to me, you no get to eat my ice ceam!'"
"She does, does she?" Gibbs grinned. At least Fornell got the same treatment he got. "Wanna know a secret."
He loved watching her eyes light up, with the joy of getting to know one of 'Daddy's secrets'. She loved them almost as much as the rules. Her little head nodded violently.
"Mommy said the same thing to me when she was having you." He touched his finger to the tip of her nose. "Now, if you're done that picture, do you want to go work on the boat?"
She smiled, offering him the picture. He looked at it, grinned and stuck it on the fridge, picked up Whitley and headed down the stairs.
And on the fridge, two figures messily drawn, one under the heading Daddy and the other Whit, smiled and held hands.
"DADDY!" a voice screamed as Gibbs walked down the stairs at the airport. 6 year old Whitley sprinted to him, crashing into his legs. He laughed, and gathered her into his arms. "I missed you!"
Gibbs held her tightly, mourning how big she had gotten in the year he had been gone. He nodded at Ducky, the only person other than Jen that knew about Whitley. He had asked him to bring Whitley to the airport.
"How was Russia, Gibbs." His friend asked, grabbing the carry on bag Gibbs was holding so he could get a better grip on his daughter,
"Fine, it was fine Duck. Way to long though." Gibbs said, pointing at his suitcase on the carosel, silently asking Ducky to grab it as Whitley was hanging on with all her strength. The British doctor complied, grabbing it and heaving it over. Gibbs grabbed the handle, and rolled it quickly to the exit, wanting to get home to spend the night and the entire week with Whitley, not having to report in until next Monday, and Whit only had school on Monday for some reason.
"Even with your company?" Ducky asked, a glint in his eye when he knows he's about to push to far.
"Even with Stephanie. And that's over Duck." Gibbs finished that conversation quickly, shooting Ducky a glare that clearly said, not in front of Whitley.
"Whatever you say Jethro. Whatever you say."
"And how's Ducky, Dad?" 8 year old Whitley asked through the phone while she was currently at her grandma's house in Newport for Christmas, with her mom and little sister Emily, who was three.
"Ducky's just fine, Bug. We got a new forensic scientist a couple months ago, a girl named Abby. I think you'd like her a lot. We're going to go out, the three of us and get a few drinks together, celebrate Christmas that way." Gibbs smiled into the phone. Abby Scuito had just joined the NCIS team, and was definitely a character. Not a bubblier nor a friendlier goth will you ever meet. She reminded him of Kelly, and Shannon, they were exactly the same, unlike Whitley who was almost a carbon copy of his own mother.
"What's she like, Abby?" Whitley asked, she loved hearing about his work, and all of the hijinks his team gets up too, which had been greatly added to since the addition of Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, an Italian-American jokester who he had stolen from Baltimore after his partner when dirty.
"Well, she likes to dress up in black, she wears spiked dog collars, black lipstick, pigtails, miniskirts, and she bowls with nuns. She has a stuffed hippo named Bert, and she treats Tony like a big brother. She drinks a Caf-Pow an hour, and is really really quirky." Gibbs described for Whit.
"She bowls with nuns?" out of everything he just said, it figures that that would be the thing she took out of it.
"Yeah, she bowls with nuns. And there's even a rumor that she sleeps in a coffin."
"Wow." Whitley said lowly, "She sounds like fun."
12 year old Whitley sat complaining in the backseat in her mom's car, protesting her unfair removment from DC.
"Whitley Julianne Gibbs, stop complaining. Your dad says it's for your own safety, and Tobias agrees. Obviously there's something going on." Diane exclaimed from the backseat, fed up with her eldest child's whining. Emily was in the passenger seat, fast asleep, her white blonde hair surrounding her like a halo.
"But why? I have camp, I don't want to miss it, we're practicing spikes tomorrow!" She said.
"Listen, your dad called me and told me that you were in danger, that someone close to him had already died, and another had been shot at. You and your sister are going to spend time in Newport with your Grandmother, and when your dads say its safe you can come back to DC. Are we clear?" Diane ended the discussion.
She had never gotten on well with her oldest; Whitley clearly liked her father better, preferring to stay at his house when his schedule permitted it. She only really stayed at Diane's mostly when Emily was there, Whit was a devoted big sister and would do almost anything for the little girl.
Whit sighed, slouching down into the front seat, clearly not impressed. Her phone buzzed, she had gotten on her birthday, her dad worried about what could happen if she had no way of contacting them.
I just want to keep you safe, Bug. You'll be home soon. I love you – DAD said the small screen. She smiled to herself, wondering how long it took him to figure out how to reply to the angry text she had sent him, complaining about being sent away.
She would always forgive him, because she knew she was all he had.