Summary: Layla was never good at making friends, so doesn't try to. When Damien Garcia moves to town, she doesn't have to try.
Spoiler: A Weak Link
Anything in bold is from the episode and not me...
Disclaimer: don't own NCIS. Never will.
It was Monday, but Layla didn't have school; Teacher Planning Day. She followed Kate into the bullpen to find Tony already there. "Hey, how was your weekend?" he asked.
"Let's see, I paid bills, did laundry, Layla babysat Marlaina, we did shopping, I vacuumed. I bet you don't even own a vacuum." Kate answered.
Tony grinned. "I lease."
Layla raised an eyebrow. "You can lease a vacuum? Couldn't throw out some of you playboy magazines to fit a vacuum in your closet full time?"
They ignored her. "So what did you do that plastered that smile on your face?" Kate asked.
"I watched a great movie." Tony answered.
"Let me guess, a horror flick."
Tony stood up and started walking to them. "Halloween Eight! I think it's the best Halloween ever, it makes Hallow Seven look like Halloween five!"
Kate was looking down at her desk, going through files. "God, I can't believe they made one of those, much less eight. Must be a men are from Mars thing." She said, walking past him with files in hand.
"Must be." Layla started, sitting on Kate's desk. "I don't like them very much."
"Ariana liked it." Tony informed them while talking a post it note from Kate's desk. Layla smacked him. "Hey!"
"Ariana? I thought you broke up with her." Kate pointed out as she put the files she was holding in the filing cabinet by Tony's desk.
"What makes you think that?" he asked, turning to her.
"Oh, I don't know." She said, closing the filing cabinet and turned to him. "Maybe because you came in the other day, saying I broke up with Ariana." She walked over to him.
Tony laughed. "Aw, you don't know much about dating, do you?"
Kate smiled. "Why don't you enlighten me." she, sarcastically, said.
"There's always the phony break up that proceeds the real break up. Everyone knows that." He informed her, tapping on her nose once.
"That makes no sense, genius." Layla pointed out.
"Fine, everyone that is not still in middle school." He clarified.
"It's my last year of middle school and school is almost over." She retorted.
Gibbs strode in, talking on his phone, pushing past on them. "Yea, got it, thanks." He closed the phone. "Grab your gear. Kate get Ducky, Tony gas the truck. Layla, go do something else." He ordered as he threw Tony the keys and left.
Kate glanced at Tony and walked to her desk. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"With Gibbs you never know." Tony answered.
"Layla, go bug Abby." Kate ordered.
Layla took the stairs to Abby's Lab. Something was off, she didn't hear Abby's music. Abby was looking over test results. "Hey Layla." She greeted, blankly.
"Hey Abby! Whatcha working on?" Layla asked, stepping by her.
"Blood test results: This petty officer had AIDS." Abby answered. "Where's Kate?"
"Dead body." Layla answered.
"Oh." She said, putting the paper down, walking past Layla.
"What's wrong, Abby?" she asked.
"Men!" Abby answered.
A little later, Gibbs and Kate joined Layla and Abby in Abby's lab. Abby was checking out their dead Seal's D link. It broke as he repelled down a cliff. The man died on impact. "There's no sign of tampering." She informed him.
"That's it?" Gibbs asked.
"That's it." She confirmed.
"So we can put this to bed?" he asked.
"Not yet. I emailed the manufacturer and if nothing's hinky, then we can put this to bed." Abby answered.
"Thanks, Abbs." Gibbs said as he walked out.
Abby nodded as he left. "You okay?" Kate asked.
"I'm fine, why?"
You're not your normal, cheerful Abby." Kate pointed out.
"That's because she's been replaced with the abnormal, dull, and mellow colleague, Abby." Abby informed her.
"McGee." Layla told her.
"Layla!"
"What? She would have figured it out, eventually." Layla said.
Abby began to walk away; Kate and Layla followed. "Something you wanna talk about?" Kate asked.
"I don't want to bore you."
"Come on, who else are you going to tell? Tony?"
"What do I look like?" Layla asked.
Kate sat down on Abby's desk and Abby started pacing. "McGee is all mad at me."
"Why, what happened?"
"We went to Busted, it's an old coffee house in Georgetown. Sunday night's like a big poetry night." Abby went on.
"I didn't know you liked poetry." Kate interrupted.
Layla nodded. "She doesn't."
"McGee likes it. So, we're popping back double espressos." Abby continued.
"Yuck." Layla interrupted.
Abby ignored her. "And out of the blue, he goes I really really like you." Abby and Kate each made a face.
"What you say?" Kate asked.
Abby shrugged. "Thanks. I mean what was I supposed to say?"
Kate shrugged and laughed. "I don't know."
"Something better than that." Layla answered. They both gave her a dirty look. "I'll stop talking now."
"Anyway, then he gets all quiet and as we're leaving and he wants to know where our relationship is going." Abby continued.
"Oh, I hate that, why do guys have to push the issue?"
"Because they're insecure." Abby continued pacing.
"What'd you say?" Kate asked.
"I said why does it have to go anywhere? Can't we just enjoy what's happening now?" Abby answered,
"What did he say?"
"Fine, whatever." Abby said, trying her best to sound like McGee.
Kate rolled her eyes. "Typical, passive aggressive."
"I know." Abby said, walking towards her. "What's next? We're going to be watching Sleepless in Seattle on a rainy afternoon? Uhhh." She made a disguised face.
"What are you going to do?" Kate asked.
"I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to pretend it never happened and hope McGee's going to do the same. Kate nodded.
"I'm never dating, it's not worth it." Layla concluded.
The next day:
Layla's second period English Class just ended and she was at her locker, which was a top locker. She was switching her books. She put her purple English blinder and black composition notebook in her locker and took out her blue science binder, textbook, and a hot pink spiral notebook. After closing her locker, she noticed a tall, dark brunette, Hispanic boy standing next to her. "Hi." He greeted.
He looked at him like he had three heads. "Do I know you?" she asked.
"I'm Damien Garcia, I just moved here from Wisconsin." He answered.
Layla nodded. "And I care why?" she snapped.
"This is my locker." He said, pointing to the locker next to hers. Layla nodded, she was waiting for this kid to leave already. "Um, do you know where Dr. Lehman's biology class is?" he asked.
Layla sighed; she wasn't getting rid of him. "Come on, I have him next, too."
Damien smiled. "Great." He said, excitedly, as he followed her to class. "So what's your name?" he asked.
Layla rolled her eyes. "Tigger." She, sarcastically, answered.
Damien raised an eyebrow. "Is that a joke?" he asked.
"No!" she, sarcastically, replied.
They entered the classroom; the teacher was sitting at his desk. Damien went to him to find out where to sit, while Layla sat at her usual table in the back corner far away from the teacher. No one ever sat with her. Layla looked through her binder to find her homework. She finished it in five minutes flat the night before. She took the paper out and closed the notebook. The bell rang and Dr. Lehman called the class to order. "Okay, class, this is Damien." He announced, pointed at Damien, who waved. "Damien, you can sit next to Layla. Layla, raise your hand."
Layla huffed and slowly raised her hand. Damien walked over to the table and sat down. "So, it's Layla." He stated.
"Wow, you're a genius." She told him.
"I'm collecting the homework. While I'm doing that, turn to page 234 and work on the questions with your tables." The teacher directed. "Damien, I need to get more textbooks from another teacher, so for now, share with Layla. Layla, behave."
Layla nodded and put the opened textbook in between them. "We're doing biochemistry. It's, supposedly, the hardest thing we'll be doing all year." She informed him.
"You don't like people, do you?" he asked.
"What gave you that idea?"
Damien looked down at the table. "You have extra paper. We just got here last night; haven't had time for school shopping."
Layla smiled, ripped out a couple pieces of paper, and handed it to him. "I have a couple extra spiral notebooks in my locker. You can have them."
"Thanks."
"Let me see your schedule." Layla instructed. Damien gave it to her and she looked it over. "Okay, we have every class from here to the rest of the day together." She informed him.
Damien smiled. She may not like him very much, but he sure liked her. "So, you wanna hang out after school?" he asked, hopefully.
Layla rolled her eyes. "Whoa, when did talking about our schedules turn us into friends?"
"So, that's a no?" he asked.
Layla smiled. "Exactly." They went the rest of the period without speaking.
Forth period was Spanish. It was an easy A for Damien; he already knew Spanish. His parents were both born in Mexico. Once again, Damien sat next to Layla in the back corner of the room. Fifth period was lunch. Layla sat at her usual table, she was alone. It was the first time she got rid of Damien since she met him. He was starting to give her a headache. He talked all through fourth period. Kate made Layla's lunch the night before. It was Tuesday and Tuesday's lunch was always awful. Layla took out her bologna sandwich and was about to eat when she saw Damien being trapped by six jocks: two cheerleaders, three football players, and a wrestler. She saw them all exchanging words, and then one of the football players pinning Damien against wall. The others stood behind him, snickering. When she saw no one running to his rescue, Layla took matters into her own hands. She walked over to them and pulled the jock off of Damien and stood between them. "Back off, Jason." She hissed.
Jason and the rest of the jocks began to laugh. "Or what, Layla, you're going to put a spell on me?" Jason mocked. A rumor about Layla being a witch started months ago. She went along with it to scare people.
Layla rolled her eyes. "I can do a lot worse than a simple spell, I know a lot of them. One can turn your body inside out." She teased. Damien thought she was nuts.
Jason stepped forward. "Come on, Babe, lets go to the bathroom and we can work this out, if you know what a mean." He said, seductively, grabbing her arm.
Layla had enough. She punched him square in the eye, knocking him to the ground. Layla smiled. "Now, be gone!" she ordered, taking a pen from her pocket and waving it around like a wand. All six jocks scattered. She turned to Damien. "You okay?" she asked.
Damien nodded. "Thanks."
Layla smiled. "Let's go eat."
They both began to walk to the table Layla was sitting at when the principal stopped them. "I don't think so, Miss Todd, my office, now!"
"She was only defending me." Damien stepped up. "You can't punish her for that."
The man knew he was right. For once, Layla had a witness. "Stay out of trouble, both of you." He scolded and walked away.
Layla turned back to Damien. "I guess you're not so bad." She proclaimed.
He grinned. "Does that mean you like me, now?"
Layla giggled and nodded. "Don't push it, I'm still deciding." She paused as Damien followed her to her table. "I'm babysitting today, but I'm sure my sister won't mind if you come over to finish our homework." She offered.
Damien nodded. "I'll call my mom after school."
After school the next day, Layla brought Damien to NCIS to introduce him to Kate. Kate, Tony, Gibbs, and Abby were all in the bullpen when they arrived. Layla walked directly to Gibbs. "You pushed Kate off a fork lift and I missed it?" she yelled. Kate told her over the phone about the previous night's events.
"Hey!" Kate said.
Gibbs smiled and nodded. Layla walked back over to Kate. "Kate, this is Damien. Damien, this is Kate." She introduced.
"Hi." Damien waved.
Kate smiled. "Hi. This is just a friendship thing, right? No dating?" she asked.
Layla sighed. "We've already been through this. Dating, not worth it."
Kate nodded. "Good."
Tony walked around his desk over to them. "So, you're Layla's friend?" he asked Damien. Damien nodded. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Tony laughed.
"Hey!" Layla fired back. "I am a fun person to hang out with!"
Abby grinned. "I agree! You, two, come!" She said, as her grabbed a hold of Damien and Layla, pulling them out of the bullpen.
A/N: Okay, this was a lot longer than I originally planned. I wasn't going to use much of this episode in the story at first. Obviously, I changed my mind. Let me know what you think. I'm definitely using Damien in a bunch of stories from here, but he's not going to be in the next one, though.