Twelve Things

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Title: Twelve Things

Author: GundamDelta6

Category: Navy NCIS

Pairing(s): Will be listed in each chapter.

Rating: PG to be safe

Summary: Twelve Christmas scenes in the lives of various NCIS agents, past and present. Inspired by "The 12 Pains of Christmas" by Bob Rivers (which I don't own). Drabble collection.


Pairing: None

Character: Jethro Gibbs

Season: 6

Chapter 1/12--Director's Orders

The first thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Is finding a Christmas tree

Wondering for the fiftieth time that night why he, of all the agents in the building, had been asked to bring in the capstone of the Christmas decorations this year, Jethro parked his pick-up in front of the gate. Large, faded red letters arching across the top proclaimed the place to be "Red's Tree Lot". Sighing deeply, he got out of the vehicle and made his way through the lot to find the tree.

"Hello there! I'm Red, and this here is Red's Tree Lot! We sell trees, trees, and only trees! Can I help you find something?" Jethro turned to see a rather overweight man in a patched and frayed Santa costume standing next to him and waiting for an answer. Figuring the easiest way to get this done and over with was to get the obviously fake Santa to leave him alone.

"No thanks, 'Red'. I'm just looking." The NCIS agent rolled his eyes as he turned away from the lot owner. It seemed that every tree he looked at had something wrong with it. This one tilted slightly to the left. That one tilted more than slightly to the right. Another one had over half the branches missing needles, and yet another looked like it housed a few squirrels.

This was getting him nowhere. Every once in a while, Red would pop back over to see if Jethro needed help, or to espouse the virtues of the tree his customer happened to be looking over at the time. Finally, Jethro had had enough. Sighing heavily for the millionth time since he had arrived, he left the lot treeless and got back into his truck.

It wasn't long before he reached his next destination. Parking and getting out of the truck, he looked at the sign above the lot he was in now. Very large, bright red letters proclaimed the place to be "K-Mart". Entering the place, he found what he was looking for immediately. Carrying the box to a register, he paid in cash and left, laying the large cardboard case in the bed of the truck. And without a second thought, he returned to the office.

Not much later, Jethro was adding the last piece to the boxed tree when he felt a strange presence behind him. "Yes, Director?" he asked without turning around.

"What is this, Agent Gibbs?" Leon Vance asked, walking around and looking over the tree as Jethro closed the box and leaned it against the wall behind him. Of course, Jethro wasted no time in answering.

Reading directly off the box, he said, "It's a six-foot-tall Colorado Pine." Looking back up, he noticed that the director was not amused. "You told me to get a tree. You didn't say it had to be real." Failing to come up with a logical response, Leon shook his head briefly and walked over to and entered the elevator. Looking over his work with an odd sort of smirk, Jethro followed suit. His work was done.


YAY! My first NCIS drabble! There will be ELEVEN more of these. I'm hoping to get all of the other chapters up before Christmas (which is in 9 days...roughly). If there's a particular pairing you want to see in the next chapter, or a later one, let me know in a review. (Here's a hint....if you don't review, it lowers the chances of me continuing this.....)