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Disclaimer: I don´t own any of the characters that appear on the series. I´m borrowing them for the duration of this story. I promise to return them! Really! Just recognized my mistake last time, saying I pretend to return them, instead of intend – sorry. Although – they tend to haunt my living-room ... . I swear!
Only Claire is mine.
A/N: This story is set pre-series, two weeks before Abby starts to work at NCIS.
The first chapter is about his, the second about her past weeks. I´m going to let them meet on Monday. Two weeks will follow, during which a certain subject –their jobs - is never mentioned. A misunderstanding right at the beginning only adds to this. Therefore, these two weeks become
Fourteen Days Of Sweet Ignorance...
Otherwise, things might not happen the way they do ;-)
Somehow (um, or should I say intentionally?), the first chapter is about a painful experience for Gibbs. Sorry, Gibbs!
Well, here´s the first chapter. Not happening much, provided that a suffering Gibbs is not much
Spoilers: Nope
Rating: T - trying to keep it that way ... here ;-)
Fourteen Days of Sweet Ignorance
Chapter One – Being Well Again
One Saturday Morning in October...
At eight o´clock sharp on Saturday morning Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs enters his house, slams the front door shut and throws the bunch of keys onto the small chest of drawers that is situated in the corridor near the entrance.
He wants to swear, he really wants to do so, wants to loudly curse all the damn bosses in the world, yes he knows he is one of them himself, and this is not, why he doesn´t do so. He has sworn aloud all his way home and he is tired of it now.
So not even bothering to take off his coat first, he heads for the kitchen and starts the coffee-machine.
He is okay. He feels fine again. He finally is well again, yes, even top fit after several damn weeks, and he doesn´t need two extra weeks off. He doesn´t. Not another two weeks! But ... he has to. He has to stay home for another two weeks on the director´s instruction!
Holiday!
Forced, so to speak!
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
Several weeks ago:
He feels that aching pain for the first time. Nothing major, he thinks, and indeed, the pain does not last very long.
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Some days later:
The scenario repeats itself, but then takes a different course: Gibbs doesn´t feel well the following days as constant nausea haunts him and a dull pain settles around his stomach. No wonder, he believes, these past months have annoyed the hell out of me!
Separation and divorce from his wife – the third in less than ten years, and hopefully, no, definitely the last ever – have only just been bearable in a certain way. Not only had she found it neccesary to hit him with a baseball bat at some point, no, she is still causing him feelings of discomfort in his stomach, if not a gastritis or, as the pain intensifies by the hour, he even starts to think of a stomach ulcer.
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On Friday evening Leroy Jethro Gibbs is working in his basement. The weekend will be off and he is planning to finish the replacement of the wooden staircase to his basement and maybe even make preparations for building a new boat down here. The fourth already, although none of the previous ones has ever made it close to being finished. He has given them up, or one would rather say had to give them up, each time a future wife had moved in.
He is thinking about this and that when the sudden sharp pain makes him double over and throw up his last meal which he has not even had an hour ago. Definitely a stomach disorder he decides, and being annoyed about that he thinks he should probably go see a doctor the next week if it worsens. Worsens! As if it isn´t already bad enough! Walking is practically impossible since this incident, eating results in instantly throwing everything up again and he wakes up the following night several times, being bathed in sweat.
Oh God! This is going to kill me, he laments, not knowing how right he probably is.
But Gibbs would not have been Gibbs if he wasn´t gritting his teeth and endure the discomfort. And, who would have thought it possible, on Sunday afternoon the pain has already lessened, has even kind of vanished somehow, and he feels better.
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Monday is okay and so is Tuesday morning. It has been a calm day so far and they are all busy concentrating on their paperwork. Gibbs has even had his usual countless cups of coffee. He feels extremely thirsty these days.
Then, perspiration sets in.
At lunch time one of his team members, Stan, is about to get something for them to eat. Telling Gibbs that he looks awful and asking him if he is about to develop a cold, only earns Stan a glare and the reassuring statement that he, Gibbs, has never had a cold and – above all - has never had the flu!
Gibbs hasn´t had much of an appetite lately and after having only one small bite he feels an intense wave of nausea hit him and he wants to go to the men´s room, but ... can´t. He gasps as the pain takes hold of his whole belly at the attempt at getting up. Glued to his chair he sits for the next hours.
When Stan leaves this afternoon, he shows up in autopsy to ask Ducky to take a look at Gibbs.
It takes Ducky another one and a half hour to finish the autopsy he is just performing as well as all the resulting paperwork and he has to talk to Gibbs about the results anyway. So he finally takes the elevator to the squad-room.
Gibbs is still sitting at his desk and as he approaches him, Ducky can see Gibbs´ face being twisted with pain. Beads of sweat are glistening on his forehead.
"Headache?" Ducky wants to know.
"Mm hmm...," is everyting that comes as an answer.
"Stan told me you looked ... bad."
One might think Gibbs is frowning at this comment, but it is impossible to tell, because the strain on his pain-stricken face does not really allow a change in its expression.
"Jethro, what´s wrong?" Ducky demands. But he isn´t waiting for him to answer and instead reaches out to place a hand on Gibbs forehead. "You´re running a fever!"
"It´s nothing, really, Duck! Just an upset stomach," Gibbs wants to say, but he only is able to groan through gritted teeth. Then he tries to pull away from Ducky´s touch but instead just cries out, writhing in pain.
"Upset stomach!? Jethro, are you tired of living!?" Ducky has not even ended this sentence the moment he is dialing the emergency number. There is no more time to waste!
Gibbs has emergency surgery immediately and Ducky later explains to him that he must have ignored an inflammation of the appendix and thus just has made everything worse. The appendix eventually had ruptured and as a result a life-threatening peritonitis had set in. Ducky spares him the details of how close it had been, but the doctor confirms, that it had been very close!
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After countless unbearable days in hospital and just as many countless weeks at home – four weeks having been a must, two additional having been recommended and finally added because of his job´s demands - Gibbs decides to skip the last weekend of the recommended´ ones ... and goes to the office on Saturday morning. He wants to go through some files and catch up with the latest cases.
Entering the squad-room he collides with Director Morrow, who instantly remembers, Gibbs is not expected back before Monday.
"Special Agent Gibbs," Director Morrow greets him and by entering the elevator stops Gibbs from leaving it. The Director presses the button to the entrance-hall.
"Director," Gibbs greets back.
"You are not to show up here before Monday, aren´t you," the Director wants to know.
Being caught, Gibbs guiltily looks at Director Morrow with pinched lips. "I´m ... well again," he utters.
"Really? Well, Agent Gibbs, then you won´t mind taking two additional weeks off. You´ve got enough remaining holiday to stay home until the end of the year, so be glad it will only be two weeks I want you to stay home. I need you being top fit, not only well again´. Are we clear?" Director Morrow´s words do not tolerate any contradiction.
As the doors of the elevator open to the entrance hall, Director Morrow says good-bye to agent Gibbs and also wishes him a good holiday.
"By the way," he calls after him, "your new lab tech will start working in two weeks on Monday as well!"
"Yeah, I know," Gibbs says in return, and to himself he mumbles "I might not have my appendix anymore, but my brain still works. I was present at the interview."
Already being out of Gibbs´ sight, Director Morrow just shrugs and thinks: Gibbs will find out soon enough!
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By now, Gibbs´ coat is hanging on the hall-stand in the entrance hall and he has even changed his clothing. Snorting with rage he has locked away his badge and his weapon in a drawer in his basement.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is sitting at the table in his kitchen, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.
An announcement draws his attention:
Tools & Materials
Five Day Exhibition
Saturday to Wednesday
Exhibition Center Washington D.C.
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Right! He´s read about it some weeks ago and almost forgot about it. That´s the opportunity to look for the right wood and tools to build his new boat with.
He will go on Monday, because most people have the weekend off, so there definitely will be too much bustle today and tomorrow. In the meantime he will make last preparations in his basement.
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On that same Saturday morning, at the same time that Leroy Jethro Gibbs is having breakfast and thinking about his new boat, more than a thousand miles away in New Orleans, two men climb into a van that´s loaded with pieces of furniture and all those other things you can find in an apartment. Shortly after, a young woman, dressed and made up all in black - in a bizarre sort of way - gets into her car and follows the van.
They will be on their way for the next 20 hours at least and not reach their destination until around noon on Sunday.
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To be continued...
A/N: I hope I did not cause you too much pain when making Gibbs suffer!?
A/N: I´m pretty busy at the moment. Work, of course, and I´m just trying to translate "Weekenshift And Chocolate Cake", which is a pretty weird experience, because when first writing it I was looking for idioms and sayings in English and now I´m trying to find german words for that !?
Having only a concept and writing parts of this and parts of that chapter in no specific order, I am at least happy to have finished the first chapter and I think I am content with the way it turned out. What do you think?