Title: Forgiven
Fandom: NCIS
Author: Alidiabin
Words: 2,415
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Warnings: none
Spoilers: S7 especially 'Faith' Goes with the idea Jackson survived his kidnapping.
Parings: none.
Summary: Jackson sent money to the family of the man he killed in his store. The girlfriend of the bad guy confronts him. Jackson gets a lot more than he expected. Happiness.
Forgiven
Jackson Gibbs sat in his Stillwater general store. He was restless and bored. He sat at the counter lost in memories. He remembered his wife Katherine Green-Gibbs He remembered her red hair and smile. He remembered his business partner LJ. He could still remember Leroy running into the store from Katherine's arms and shouting 'Uncle LJ' before 'Daddy'. Then he remembered, that day Katherine got sick. She thought she was pregnant at first. She and Jackson sat on the porch swing imagining Leroy with a little brother or sister. The next day Katherine's boss called her; Katherine had collapsed while making a telephone call. He had grabbed Leroy from school and headed to the hospital. Katherine was not pregnant; it was some kind of cancer Jackson could not pronounce, for a while she fought. Then with Leroy in her arms, she took her last breath. Then Jackson recalled the day some bigot drove in and knocked LJ out because of the color of his skin. LJ seemed fine, but that night when he went to sleep that night, he never woke up. Jackson then though of those Fridays when Leroy was deployed when Shannon and Kelly would drive down to see him. He remembered Kelly's smile. Then he remembered the call from a guy named Mike Franks. Jackson stared at his empty store. He thought of what had happened the previous December. He felt an urge to wash his hands.
Raven haired and blue-eyed Callie Cross sat in her tiny one bedroom unit, a few towns over in Glenbrook. She watched as her two-year-old son Henry showed the photograph of his dad, the paper planes one of the girls at the diner she worked at had made him. She lined the four envelopes up in a row, they had started coming a week after Drew died. It was mostly twenty-dollar bills but the week of Christmas, they had gotten a fifty-dollar bill. There was no return address on the envelope just the word Stillwater written on the back of it.
"Henry" she said, "We're going on an adventure," she said picking him up. The raven-haired boy smiled.
"Wer?" he uttered before waving to his father's picture.
"Stillwater" Callie uttered.
Jackson Gibbs was in the back of the store when the bell rang. He expected it to be Betty Hanigan after her daily newspaper and gossip.
"One minute" he shouted. Callie stared around the store. She blocked out the idea that she was standing where it had happened. Standing where Drew had been killed. It had not taken Callie long to figure out it had been Jackson Gibbs sending the money, the lady in the post office Betty Hanigan had recognized the penmanship. Jackson walked out of the storeroom.
"Stop sending these" she shouted laying the envelopes on the counter. "We are not a charity case"
"It's just I know it's hard raising a kid on your own" Jackson said "I raised my boy Leroy on my own from when he was twelve" Callie had heard of Leroy Gibbs. He was a football legend at the high school that served the four towns in the county. Callie had also read about him in the county newspaper. He was a local boy made good. Callie had also read about the elder Gibbs in the newspaper he was a local hero and Drew was the local villain.
"With all due respect sir two is a lot different from twelve" Callie replied. "And send your money to your grandkids or something"
"I don't have one anymore" Jackson replied sadly "She died with her mom when she was about eight, she'd be about your age now" Callie looked down it seemed she had underestimated Jackson, he had buried as many people as she had.
"This is where" Callie uttered. Jackson nodded "Drew wasn't a bad guy you know" she paused "He just made a really bad choice" Henry made a noise. He pointed to a chocolate bar.
"Pwease" he begged.
"Well little man you've been a good boy all the way here and why mommy was talking" Callie said. She picked up her wallet. Jackson saw it was empty.
"He can take it," Jackson said. He handed Henry the bar.
"And how will that look in your books" Callie said. Jackson raised his eyebrows "I was an accounting major at university, I had the little guy about two months after I graduated"
"Well my books don't really look like anything," Jackson said, he pulled out the dog-eared messy books. "I'm not to good at the whole accounting thing," he said "Wanna take a look?" Callie smiled and thought this man is shameless "I'd pay ya" Callie looked at him, he was a sweet old man and in all honesty she needed the money. "There's a computer over there," Jackson pointed out. Callie moved toward the computer and turned it on.
"I thought you said you didn't have a family," Callie said as she looked at the desktop background, Jackson was surrounded by a group of people. One man in his fifties looked a lot like Jackson, there was another elderly man, two women; one dressed like a Goth, the other with foreign features, each of the women were in the arms of man. The Goth was in the arms of a man who was in his early to mid thirties the foreign looking woman in the arms of a man who looked a little closer to forty.
"They're my son's team at NCIS" Jackson said, "It stands for Naval"
"Criminal Investigative Service" Callie said "I know, my Dad was in the army and Drew told me he was a marine"
"Is that how you too met" Jackson asked. Callie looked down.
"Not exactly" Callie said.
Callie drove into the cemetery in the smartest clothes she could afford on her minimum wage job that barely paid for food. She had the flowers in her hands. She had decided to visit her father's grave on Veterans' Day. They had moved around a lot when Callie was a child partly because of Jason Cross Naval career and because after his wife's death when Callie was a week old Jason did not like to settle down. When he had died when Callie was nineteen he had written in his will he wished to be buried in his hometown. She got out and walked to the grave. A man was staring at the grave. Callie lay the flowers down.
"What war did he die in?" the man who was perhaps a year younger than Callie asked.
"He didn't" Callie uttered "His smoking caught up with him when I was nineteen, did you know my father?"
" No" the man said "It's just I served in Iraq and today I wanted to be by a military man" he said "Out of respect is all" he paused extended out his hand "Jason Lucas"
"Callie Cross" she sat down next to him.
"I lost my best friend out there," Drew said. "Dane Henry we signed up together" Callie touched his hand offering him comfort. "We were ambushed, and the first thing Dane did was jump in front of me"
"That night" Callie said, "We well" Callie blushed "We talked at first, I told him how I got my running scholarship to college and I told him about how hard I was working to live in the big city. He told me about how he had gotten injured in Iraq, a head injury he told me that it affected some part of his brain that made decisions. I thought he was lying to get me into bed." Callie paused again "Well that night we conceived Henry." Henry hearing his name drifted toward his mother. "I found out I was pregnant around Christmas of '06" Callie let Henry go as he touched the small boat Leroy had made him. "Logic told me Drew wouldn't be there or anything. But I wanted to tell him in person I felt he had a right to know"
Callie covered her nose as she walked into the crowded bar in Lewistown where Drew was working. The smell of alcohol made her want to throw up. She ran her hand across the bump she was managing to hide with baggy clothes.
"Drew" she said tapping him on the back. He turned around she admired his blonde hair and the hazel eyes that he would give their son.
"Hey Allie right" he said.
"Callie" she replied. "Can we talk outside I don't feel so good." Drew led her to the door.
"So I'm pregnant" she said "A little boy" she begun to blabber "It's too late to you know, and I don't expect nothing, I just thought you ought to know" she paused "I'm going to stay in the city, have him over the summer and in the fall I'll put him in day care and get a job. You can come and see him and stuff"
"Or I could help you raise him" Drew whispered, "He's half mine I want to be fully involved in raising him"
"So, he came to the city with me" Callie said as she set up an excel document. "For a while, it was really ok we were both working. My dorm and school costs were covered by my scholarship until I graduated. He was sleeping in his car until I graduated and we could save up and get a deposit for an apartment." she paused. "Then he got laid off, and I couldn't get a proper job that'd let me take maternity leave" Jackson placed a cup of coffee in front of Callie. "Drew heard of job out here, so we came back. We got an apartment and Drew was a great. He even delivered Henry in the back of my old car half way to the hospital; we named him Henry Jason Lucas. After Drew's buddy and my dad" she paused "Drew was a great dad he always got up during the night and everything" Henry floated back toward her holding the toy boat. "I got a job in the diner at night so I could look after Henry during the day. I found me and Drew had somehow fallen in love. We weren't no Partridge family but we were happy. Drew and I decided we'd move back to the city once Henry was old enough for school and Drew would go to college or something. We'd give Henry a better life." A tear fell down Callie's pale face "Then Drew got laid off the week before Christmas" tears fell more freely "Who the hell does that" she snarled.
"It's all right" Callie reassured him "I'll take extra shifts at the diner and maybe in the New Year we'll go to the city, there might be work up there" Drew sat on the bed as Henry played on the floor with his toys.
"And what are we supposed to do about Christmas Cal" Drew shouted. "He's goanna notice he don't got no presents"
"He's two he won't remember" Callie cried. "And we'll give him a great birthday" Drew got up.
"No" Drew rushed up.
"Where the hell are you going?" Callie shouted as he ran out with his car keys.
"He just wanted to give Henry a proper Christmas" Callie said the tears rushing down her face. "I guess you know what happened next" Images of the Jacksons bullet hitting the man he now knew as Drew's' skull played in slow motion in Jacksons head.
"If I had known" Jackson begun "I would have" Jackson paused and pondered what to say, he had not had any other choice but to shoot Drew.
"I don't blame you Mr. Gibbs," she said. "I never really did" she paused "It was just a bad situation and Drew just made a stupid choice"
"Please call me Jackson," he said.
"Jwackson" Henry shouted making his presence known.
"I think that candy bars kicking in" Callie said.
Somewhere somehow Callie and Henry made regular appearances in Jackson's life. It started when Callie needed as baby sitter.
"I know you're busy," she whispered over the telephone "But I can't bring him in when I have day shifts" Jackson agreed partly out of guilt and pity for their situation but also because he rather enjoyed Henry's company. Henry enjoyed his too. The intelligent little boy liked playing with the toy boat Leroy had sent Jackson. He still sent them money; Callie informed him it was 'going to the city' fund. So Callie could build a better life for both of them.
A year after it happened, Jackson led Callie into the store.
"One of the people my Leroy works with her name is Ziva and she's Jewish and in their religion they light candles on the anniversary of a loved one's death and they pray and stuff" Callie let Henry out of her embrace as Jackson handed her a candle. She let tears fall down her face, as she hummed the tune of a Stereophonics song 'Could You Be The One' which she had told Jackson was playing in Drew's car the night Henry was conceived.
That Christmas it was Jacksons turn to host Christmas. Leroy drove down to Stillwater along with the team. Jackson tasked his son with laying the table.
"You gave me two extra plates" Leroy cried "Don't tell me Betty Hanigans coming over"
"She's gone to visit he nephew and his boyfriend in California" Jackson replied "Just lay the table son" Gibbs returned to the dining room laying the eighth and ninth places. Callie rushed in with Henry who had a Santa hat on holding her hand.
"Jack" she said, "I hope I'm not imposing on your Christmas." Jackson looked at his son who stared at the woman who resembled Kelly a little bit.
"Not at all" Jack insisted. "I invited you"
"She's bit young for you isn't she Jack" Abby hollered as Jack led Callie and Henry to the table. The younger Gibbs raised his eyebrows. He then turned to Ziva and Abby who seemed very smitten with Henry, which created alarmed looks on Tony and McGee's faces. Gibbs again raised his eyebrows this time in concern that by next Christmas there would be two more guests at the dinner table.
Later that night Henry left in his mother's arms carrying his favorite Christmas present ever. A wooden toy boat with his name painted in cursive letters.
A/N: I wanted to explore the trauma Jackson mentioned in 'Faith' and show what some cop shows (not NCIS) fail to show, that some criminals are desperate and though that is not an excuse it is a part of crime. Hope ya like.