Learning Curves
Summary: Tim and Abby's daughter Kate gets some unsolicited help with her homework. Set in the Future Perfect universe. Warning: references to spanking.
Disclaimer: Kate and Leigh are mine; the rest belong to other people.
A/N: This is set in the 'Future Perfect' universe, which features Caitlyn and Leigh, the twin daughters of Tim and Abby.
Warning: this story contains references to the spanking of children and adults. This is no on-screen spanking. If you have a problem with that, please go read something else.
Gibbs stepped over the bag that Katie had left in the hallway and called out a cheerful hello. He hadn't seen her since Christmas. And Leigh had managed to get home for the same weekend; having both twins at the dinner table was becoming an increasingly rare treat for their family.
'How's MIT this semester?'
'I hate MIT!' she practically shrieked, not looking up from where she was rummaging in the refrigerator.
Gibbs raised a questioning eyebrow at Tim, who shrugged, equally confused. Just then, Leigh stepped through the back door, still panting slightly from her run.
'She means she hates the fact that MIT has a phys-ed requirement,' she said with a smirk, kissing Gibbs on the cheek before heading off to shower and change out of her sweats.
Gibbs wisely changed the subject.
X X X
Abby set a huge bowl of pasta on the table and checked to make sure everything else was there before sitting down opposite her husband. After a few minutes, the conversation turned to Leigh's basketball team's latest victory, and Kate started grumbling again about her own athletic ineptitude.
'I thought you'd found a health class that satisfied that requirement?' Gibbs asked. When he'd seen her at Christmas, she'd been jubilant about finding a way out of taking a gym class.
'Yeah, and so did everyone else. They had a lottery to decide who got in. I didn't. And since this is the only semester when I have time for it, I had to take something else. So I took the least physical thing they were offering.'
'Yoga?'
Kate shot him a disgusted look.
'Yeah, like I'm that flexible! Pistol.'
'As in...?'
'It sounded better than something where you have to run and stuff. And it felt kinda weird being the only one in the family who didn't know how to use a gun, so...'
'Ok... so what's the problem?'
'The problem is that I can't do it!!! The only time I ever got a bullet anywhere near the bull's-eye, it wasn't on MY target!'
Tim smiled sympathetically. He'd known his daughter had chosen pistol, but she'd always managed to change the subject when he asked about it when they talked on the phone, and he hadn't known she was struggling with the class. But before he could share his own remembered dismay about a disastrous college fencing class, Kate burst out angrily, 'This is all your fault, Daddy!'
Tim looked stunned by the accusation, but Kate continued before he could say anything in reply.
'If I hadn't been hearing about your precious MIT from the time I was two, I never would have gone there and right now I'd be at some college that doesn't have a fff... phys ed requirement! And now I'm going to fail the course, and it's going to destroy my GPA, and I'm gonna have to take another gym class if I'm gonna graduate!'
She threw her fork down angrily and started to push back her chair, but was prevented from moving by Gibbs's hand on her shoulder and a growled 'Caitlyn' close to her ear. Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her and pouted.
'Why didn't you ask for help when you started having trouble, Katie?' Abby asked. 'Like you said, you know enough people who know how to shoot.'
'Because I've never failed a class before! It's embarrassing!'
Gibbs met Abby's eye across the table. Like mother, like daughter.
'Katie, honey, you haven't failed the course yet. Let me help you. I have a meeting with a JAG lawyer tomorrow morning about a case that's going to trial next week, but I should be done early enough to get in a couple of hours at the range.'
'I can take her, Tim. I've got nothing planned for tomorrow.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yeah. Besides, it might be easier for her to learn from someone who's also right-handed.'
'Right... ok. Ok, honey?'
Kate was still in a sulk, and she somewhat resented that the matter had been decided without consulting her, except belatedly.
'Yeah, because I want to spend my weekend off working on my least favourite subject,' she mumbled.
Gibbs decided to ignore the attitude, for now.
'I'll pick you up around 10. Leigh, do you want to get in some extra time on the range?'
'No, I'm good. I'm meeting a couple of high school friends for lunch. And I'm at the top of my class in marksmanship, anyway. My instructor is always saying that I should be a sniper, not a pilot.'
Kate stared daggers across the table at her twin, feeling about ready to throttle her.
She was also alternating between being grateful that her Uncle Gibbs was going to solve her phys-ed crisis for her, and worried about the prospect of learning to shoot from a Marine Gunny. Coach Matthews was scary enough.
She stewed for a few more minutes, thinking about how much she loathed gym class, and always had, and how absurd it was to still require phys-ed classes in college. She allowed herself a moment's indulgence in regret for not having gone to a school that didn't, before quietly admitting, as she always did, that a degree from MIT was worth putting up with a semester of hell. If only Leigh had gone there with her, the way they'd both planned when they were much younger...
'What's so funny, Kate?'
Leigh always could read her moods faster than anyone.
'Just remembering how we dealt with this problem in ninth grade, and kinda wishing you'd gone to MIT with me.'
'Oh, gawd... I'd almost forgotten about that!'
Leigh was frantically gesturing at her not to go into any further detail. Hopefully their parents would just think that having her twin around to encourage her had made the class more bearable.
Abby, however, asked what she meant, and Kate answered before her brain registered what a bad idea that was.
'It was the first year when we had different schedules, and Leigh had French, which she hated, at the same time that I had gym, which I hated. So... we traded places.'
