Relationships

Disclaimer: I don't own anything connecting to either of the shows.

Summery: Olivia's struggling with her feelings for Peter and the guilt of not being honest with him regarding his origin, so she goes to visit her father, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. But Gibbs has his own problems in the person of his young Israeli agent. Meanwhile Peter learns the truth and leaves Walter... After some misunderstandings and meetings between old lovers and new friends, the two teams are brought together not just to solve a bizarre case but their personal problems, too. (Zibbs, P/O)

Okay, so I took the liberty and made Gibbs Olivia's father. I tried to stick to the canon in both of the shows as much as I could but obviously I had to divert from it at some places. According to this, Gibbs still married Shannon and they had Kelly but Olivia had been born before that. Her mother married Olivia's step-father and Rachel is her half-sister. That's just the basics. If everything goes according to plans, the details will become clear during the story. The story itself starts during "Jet Lag" (7/13) in NCIS and somewhere after "Olivia. In the Lab. With a Revolver" (2/17) in Fringe.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Going Home

Olivia pulled into a gas station somewhere around New Jersey and killed the engine with a heavy sigh. She'd been on the road for fives hours now and it was not past noon yet. Her eyes felt heavy but she refused to close them just yet. And anyway, she seriously doubted that she'd be able to get some real sleep even with her being so utterly exhausted. She'd been feeling so tired lately, both physically and mentally, but she just didn't seem to be able to put her mind at rest.

Her consciousness was screaming at her ever since that awful secret of Walter revealed itself to her and her own mind was calling her names she'd never wanted to use regarding herself. She felt disgusted by her own self for giving in to Walter's desperate pleas not to tell a word to Peter about his own past. And the worst thing was that she didn't want to tell him, either. It was easy enough to blame it on the old scientist but Olivia knew that her silence was more than that. She was afraid of losing Peter, as Nina Sharp had pointed out the other day. She knew if Peter found out the truth about his past, he would be furious. He couldn't see Walter's act as the testament of a loving father whose grief over his son made him cross the barriers of universes, he could only see the betrayal in it... the crime of a mad scientist.

And she would be caught in the middle of the family quarrel no doubt as one of the main target of Peter's rage. And he would be right in blaming her, too. By saying nothing, she had betrayed him just like Walter did... and last night she had just made everything worse.

After filling the tank and grabbing a coffee, Olivia parked the car and settled down by a near-by table. She spent the next half an hour or so staring into the dark liquid as it got cold between her hands. She so needed the caffeine but she seriously doubted that her stomach could handle anything at the moment.

Her stomach still clenched whenever the previous night came to her mind – and it seemed to her that it was on her mind all the time – and she just couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. Granted that she had acted on impulse and out of sheer desperation but even then, thinking that sleeping with Peter would change anything was the perfect definition of ridiculous. If anything, it had made things even more complicated and ultimately it made her a traitor even more.

She all but begged him to stay with her because she needed him in her life and he promised her that. Olivia had no doubt that he would keep his promise... if it hadn't been for that secret. Last night, desperate as she had been, in the safe and loving embrace of Peter, Olivia was all too willing to believe that everything would be all right. But as the sun began to rise, Olivia became sure that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. She didn't regret a single second she had spent with Peter but she regretted the way it finally happened. She sentenced their budding relationship to death right from the beginning. She wanted to cry...

...and she did just that as soon as she got dressed and stepped out of her door, leaving a peacefully sleeping Peter in her bed. She got into her car and she'd been on the road since then, calling Broyles about an hour after leaving Boston and requesting some personal leave. The man, though surprised at first, granted her request and told her to take her time.

And Olivia was planning on doing just that.

She wondered what Peter could be doing at the moment. She imagined him being startled when he woke up and didn't find her lying next him. She could see his crestfallen face when he finally reached the conclusion that she had regretted their night together. It made her heart ache even more… She figured that by now he had been getting worried because he no doubt had spent his morning trying to reach her and talk to her – in vain, of course, because she had turned off her phone as soon as she had finished talking to her boss. She'd give him till the following morning before he began to worry in earnest and he'd go as far as calling Broyles for any information. She felt bad about doing this to him but at the moment it felt easier than staying and looking him in the eye.

Leaving her disturbed thoughts momentarily behind, Olivia frowned into her cold coffee and after discarding it she got back into her car and pulled on the highway. She still had the better half of the road ahead of her but she was sure that she'd be in Washington before night fell.

A little smile appeared on her face... she'd be home soon.


As soon as Gibbs stepped into the house, happy giggles reached his ears which in turn made him smile, too. Following the joyful sound of his five-year-old daughter, he stepped into the living room where Shannon was sitting on the couch smiling down at Olivia whose ear was pressed against her large belly.

When Olivia heard her dad, her head shot up and looked at him with a clearly excited smile.

"Daddy, daddy! Come here," she urged him then promptly placed her head back on Shannon's belly. The woman laughed at the little girl's attics while she gently stroked her blonde curls and she turned to look at her husband.

Gibbs quickly sat down next to Shannon and after kissing his wife, he looked down at his daughter who seemed deeply engrossed in listening to the baby.

"Hey, peanut," he tried to greet the little girl but she cut him off with a "shh". Gibbs gave a bemused look to his wife who couldn't help but laugh at his expression.

"She tries to find out whether she'll have a brother or a sister," Shannon explained then looked at Olivia whose head suddenly shot up and was looking at the adults with shining eyes.

"Can I call her Kelly?" she asked, pleading with her eyes.

"Her?" Gibbs asked back and watched as Olivia nodded seriously.

"Pleeeease…" Her green eyes were shining with so much excitement that Gibbs suddenly didn't know how to answer his daughter. He didn't want to disappoint her. He knew that she didn't get to name her baby sister, who had been born a couple of months before, because Marilyn, Olivia's mother insisted on calling her Rachel. And he liked Kelly, too…

"I like it," Shannon spoke up. "Kelly Gibbs. It sounds nice."

"It does, doesn't it?" Gibbs chuckled as he watched his two girls beam at each other clearly satisfied with the baby's name.


Gibbs stilled his hands on the sander as he could hear movements coming from upstairs. He didn't abandon his work, though, assuming that it was Ziva shuffling around in the house. He was so engrossed in his task at hand that he didn't even realize that Ziva was out of town at the moment.

His youngest agent took up the habit of visiting him not long after their incident with Ben Gidon. She would show up in his house whenever she felt the need for company and Gibbs didn't protest. He always felt more content when he could know Ziva around. And, although he would never admit it, he cherished the sense of domesticity of hearing Ziva working in his kitchen and seeing her moving around the house with an air of familiarity when they were doing the house work – because she'd do that, too, without a word.

Sometimes, he allowed himself the luxury of imagining Ziva as a constant part of his life. He wondered how it would be if he didn't have to say goodbye to her at the end of the day and he were able to kiss her goodnight while holding her in his arms.

But whenever his stubborn mind conjured up those images, he made conscious efforts to expel them. They were just the cruel reminders of what he wanted but couldn't have.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the creaking of the stairs but when he looked up at the descending figure, it wasn't Ziva who greeted him.

"Hey, daddy," the young woman greeted him with an uncertain smile which quickly became a huge grin when the initial surprise of Gibbs wore away and a rare smile appeared on his face. He didn't waste any time to walk up to his daughter and wrap her into his arms.

"Hey, peanut," he murmured into her blonde hair as he squeezed her affectionately before letting her go. "Why didn't you tell me that you're coming?"

"I didn't exactly plan on it," Olivia shrugged, trying to stick to the truth without actually telling her father that she had all but run out of her apartment, leaving the man she loved behind. She didn't want to talk about it just yet and hoped that her father wouldn't pick up on her distress. No such luck, though, because Gibbs expression turned concerned.

"Everything's alright?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Olivia was quick to nod. "I just needed a little time away from everything that's going on right now. I hope you don't mind."

Of course he didn't mind. The only thing he did mind was that Olivia wasn't living with him in Washington, in his house where he could look after her and could have prevented that broken look in her eyes – because he did notice that. However, he didn't mention it. He knew better than to push a subject his daughter was obviously trying to avoid. He'd do that later. For now it was enough for him that his little girl was home; the rest would come eventually and he'd be damned if he didn't try to make everything all right again.

"I'm glad you're here, Liv." He pulled her once again into his embrace.

"Me too, dad," Olivia murmured contentedly. "Me too."

"Come on, let's have a coffee."

"Now, that's a great idea!"

They made their way up and Olivia settled down by the dining table, maintaining a companionable silence. While Gibbs moved around preparing the coffee, he used the opportunity to glance in the direction of the living room and the threshold, quickly noticing the lack of any bag or whatsoever.

"Your bag's still in the car?" he asked casually and when he saw Olivia's sheepish look, he quickly realized that his daughter hadn't been joking when she told him about her visit being totally unplanned. "That unplanned, huh?"

"Well… you can say that I was in a hurry when I left," Olivia stated enigmatically while standing up with the mug of coffee in hand, still determined to avoid the reason behind her sudden visit. It wouldn't be easy, she knew it. Her father was a good interrogator and it was only a matter of time before he'd pop a seemingly irrelevant question, and Olivia would answer whether she was ready or not. But it wouldn't be today.

Gibbs watched as she began wandering around the kitchen and the adjacent living room, taking in everything she saw. He smiled at the investigator in her. She'd been always like that; even as a little girl there were no things left unnoticed by her. She was a keen observer so when she turned back to him, it didn't quite surprised him to see a knowing smile creeping on her face.

"Who is she?" she asked, not beating around the bush. Like her father, it wasn't her style. Gibbs chuckled slightly as he stood, too, and joined her in the living room, sitting down on the couch. Damn good investigator.

Still standing in the middle of the room, Olivia raised a questioning eyebrow when her father kept smirking without giving her an answer.

"She?" Gibbs finally asked back. After all it was just fair to avoid a straight answer when she was doing the same.

"Come on, dad, don't do this. This place is just screaming 'girlfriend' to me," she beamed at him cheekily and Gibbs rolled his eyes. Sometimes it was really annoying that nothing escaped her attention.

"And what makes you say that?" he challenged her.

Olivia just shrugged as she, too, sat down.

"The bookshelves, for once," she pointed out. "You never bothered to put the books in any kind of order. I can remember Shannon always complaining about your sloppiness."

"I wasn't that bad," Gibbs chuckled together with Olivia.

"But you were. And look at your magazines. They're not scattered all over around the place like last time I was here. They are organized like everything here, even your kitchen. Now I really doubt that the man who likes roasting his steak in the fireplace would keep his kitchen in a state like yours is at the moment. And don't even bother telling me," she cut him off, chuckling, when he opened his mouth to protest, "that the marine in you likes keeping everything in military order. That is so not true, dad! Your military training's quite exhausted by making your bed."

"You've got quite a big mouth, Liv. Is that what they teach you at Quantico?"

"Nope," she shook her head, smiling. "I've learnt it somewhere else."

"Of course you have," Gibbs shook his head really amused at his daughter. She was right, however. She was his daughter after all. "Let's make a deal," he proposed. "You tell me what made you run from Boston and I'll tell you what you want to know."

He didn't know why he offered the deal. He knew that Olivia wouldn't go for it. And he immediately regretted it, too, when he saw the smile fade away from her face. He wanted to head-slap himself for his stupidity and he seriously wanted to shoot whoever had hurt his little girl.

The silence in the room began to draw out.

"Her name's Ziva," Gibbs spoke up finally after draining the last of his already cold coffee. "She's one of my agents; you remember – I talked about her."

"Your liaison officer with Mossad?"

"Not anymore," he smiled to himself in spite of himself. It was such a good feeling to know that now Ziva has nothing to do with an organization that hadn't done anything but use her. "She wants to become a US citizen."

Olivia could clearly hear how proud her father was at the woman.

"So, Ziva and you…"

"No," Gibbs quickly interrupted her, looking stern enough for Olivia to know not to pursue the subject any further. "There's nothing between us. She's my agent… my friend. Nothing more." Well, it surely looked otherwise to Olivia but she wisely kept her opinion to herself.

"Is she coming over often?"

"She went through a rough patch not so long ago," he told her, cringing to himself. A "rough patch" would be the understatement of the year. "She needs company. She needs to feel that she belongs."

"I'd like to meet her," Olivia said with a gentle smile. That woman had to be something if her father was acting so unlike himself. Seeing that tender look in his eyes felt strange for Olivia… but a good kind of strange. She had seen him with his ex-wives and some of his girlfriends but none of them had been able to bring this side out of him.

"You will. She's in Paris now and they aren't due back till tomorrow. But until then would you mind making some dinner? I haven't eaten anything decent since she le…" In an instant a cushion hit his face and he laughed out as he looked at a suddenly very indignant Olivia, who nevertheless had a hard time hiding her laughter. "Good to have you here, peanut," Gibbs pulled her closer to him and tousled her hair.

"Hey," Olivia protested giggling like a little girl while trying to wriggle out of her father's grasp. "You just need someone to feed you," she stated, shaking her head in mock disbelief.

"So?"

"You're such a man," she stood up and, after kissing her father's head, she started towards the kitchen.

TBC

Thanks for reading and a special "thank you" goes out to Zivacentric for helping with my English!