I wasn't planning on writing another story while I had others in the works but this idea was not getting out of my head! I hope you all enjoy it.
The team walked back into the bullpen but with no McGee and a three year old being held by Ziva.
"Tony, I need you to call McGee now and tell him I need him here. Ziva, try to get the little girl to tell you something, anything." Gibbs said bring up a search page on his computer.
They had just come from a crime scene, at a Gunnery Sergeant Austin Levi's house. He was supposed to testify today in a case but never showed so Gibbs' team was sent out to figure out why. On the way, Gibbs briefed everyone as to what Levi was testifying against; apparently three of his men were found smuggling women into the states from Iran. Levi found out about it and wanted it handled in the correct manor. Up until today, the Gunnery Sergeant seemed fine with testifying, he wanted justice and his men had been cooperating so he didn't have much to worry about.
Gibbs pounded on the door and called the Sergeant's name. When they got no response he allowed Ziva to bust the door down, guns drawn and ready to fire. They spread out around the house and called it clear. There were signs of a struggle but no sign of Levi anywhere. The car was still in the garage but the door leading from the house to the garage was busted open, as was the door from outside to the garage.
Ziva and Gibbs searched the house for any other leads to what happened while Tony went around to the neighboring homes to check if anyone had seen or heard anything.
"Gibbs." Ziva called from a small room at the back of the hall.
She was standing in a room that was painted a deep purple, on the ceiling you could see a night sky complete with a moon and stars. The twin-sized bed was a mess and pillows had been tossed about the room, "He had a child." Ziva stated.
"A little girl." Gibbs confirmed taking in the seen as well.
"Do you think who ever did this took her too?" Ziva asked.
"We haven't found anything to prove she could still be here. Check all the closets again, if we don't find anything, I will put out an Amber Alert." Gibbs told her and walked into the room next to the child's to look around.
Ziva carefully stepped over the mess and looked high and low in the small closet, she found nothing and let out a sigh. She hated cases that involved kids, they were just depressing. Just as she was walking out of the room she thought she heard something open and turned around she then heard it shut with a thump. She located the sound but didn't want to alert Gibbs in case she would frighten the girl.
Ziva slowly walked to the Toy Chest that sat at the foot of the bed and knelt down in front of it so she didn't seem as tall then slowly lifted the lid. The girl screamed and Ziva was hit in the face by a plastic car and then a stuffed animal bat. The girl jumped out of the Chest and crouched next to her bed and her night stand holding a blanket with a skull and cross bones in front of her.
Despite Ziva's throbbing nose toward the child, "Sweetie, it is okay. I am an officer. One of the good guys." Ziva told her and the girl pulled down one side of the blanket to poke her face out.
"Good?" the little girl asked her, "Like daddy?"
"Exactly like your dad." Gibbs said now standing in the door.
The girl became scared again and hid herself away, "It is okay. He is with me. He is good too." Ziva reassured the little girl while she stood up to her full height. The little girl copied her but hid behind her leg the whole time not wanting to be seen by Gibbs.
Ziva craned her head to see the girl, "Can I pick you up? Would that be okay?" It was getting hard to walk with a little one fallowing you around.
The little girl nodded and held up her arms to Ziva. With the girl on her hip she introduced herself and Gibbs, "My name is Agent Ziva David but you can call me Ziva or Zee if that is easier, and this is Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, but he just likes to be called Gibbs." She smiled at the girl.
"And you can call me Tony!" DiNozzo said reentering the house, "Who we talkin'—oh!" he said seeing Ziva with child.
Tony walked closer to the two, "What's your name little one?" Tony asked ruffling the little girls hair, which made her hug tighter onto Ziva.
"Go on. You can tell him. Tony is harmless, I promise." Ziva whispered to her.
"Gwyneth." She mumbled to Ziva.
"Her name is Gwyneth." But then the girl said something else to her, "But likes to be called Gwen."
"Well, let's get Gwen back to NCIS, I think we have done all we can here for right now." Gibbs said and they left the house.
"Tony. I'm sick. This is why I called in sick this morning. What ever computer malfunction you are having can wait until tomorrow," he pulled the phone away from his mouth and let out a string of coughs, "Or ask Abby for help." McGee added at the end. This cold he had just kept on getting worse and he finally had to take a sick day.
"McGoo, I'd love to not catch what ever McSickness you have but, Bosses orders, you have to." Tony smiled into the phone.
McGee laid his face down in his pillow, "Is it a Bosses orders I'm getting head smacked tomorrow if I don't come in or a Bosses orders don't even bother coming into if you don't come in because you won't have a job?" He asked Tony.
"Good to hear, Probie. I'll see you in a half hour!" Tony said pretty much answering McGee's question.
"Can I at least know why I am coming in?" He tried to ask, "Tony? Tony!" Too late, DiNozzo hung up.
Tim sighed and put on jeans and an old MIT hoodie. He didn't care how urgent it was, he was not getting dressed up for work today. He shoved some cough drops and Kleenexes in his pockets before leaving his home.
As McGee rode the elevator to the correct floor he knew Gibbs knew how sick he had been the past few days and he also knew Gibbs wouldn't make him come in over something that he couldn't easily have someone else fix.
Just as he was stepping off the elevator someone grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back in. It was Gibbs. He didn't say anything and neither did McGee until the emergency stop switch was in effect.
"I know you are sick, McGee but, I need you on this one." Gibbs told him and took a sip of his coffee.
"What do you need, Boss?" Tim asked him.
"Do you still have your foster parents license, or has that expired?" He questioned.
McGee was thrown off, this was not the type of question he had planned on being asked but he answered it the same, "Yes, I have it for another four months until it would need renewed but I don't exactly plan on keeping it up." He told his Boss.
"I need you to keep it up for a little longer," Gibbs paused so McGee could finish his coughing fit, "We found a little girl today at a crime scene. She has no mother and her father has been taken. If she goes into the system, we will have a very hard time talking to her and I feel like she might have seen something and is just too scared to talk yet."
McGee caught on to where this was going, "So, you need her to stay with someone close but you need to do it legally." He summed up his bosses point.
"Exactly. Can you do it, I know your sick so I figured someone could help you out but I need to know so I can get paper work in order."
"I can help, sure." He wasn't one to disappoint his boss.
"Great, I'll have you meet her." Gibbs said and flicked the switch.
Tony and Ziva were at their desks, Ziva had the girl in her lap playing with her phone. Tim looked at her and figured she was about three. She wore a black long sleeve top and fuzzy black pants with little white moons. Her hair was a chocolate brown and curly, all pulled back into a ponytail and she had piercing blue eyes. Ziva set the girl down and walked her to McGee, "Gwen, this is my friend, Agent Timothy McGee. We just call him McGee but and sometimes Tim; you can pick what you like better."
"McGee." She girl said with a sneaky grin.
Ziva smiled at her, "Okay, Gwen. You are going to stay with McGee for a while. He's going to look after you until we can find your dad. Sound okay?" Ziva asked.
She nodded, "How about you say hi." Ziva told her.
"Hi." She said and stuck up her little hand to wave while Ziva went back to her desk.
As McGee responded Gwen ran back over to Ziva, "Hi, Gwen. It's nice to meet you." He sounded all stuffed up from his cold and it made Gwen crack up laughing.
"You sound silly!" she told him pointing.
Just then the elevator dinged and Abby stepped out hearing the little girls comment, "I have no idea who this sweet little girl is, but I like her!" Abby said peaking around McGee and at the girl.
"Her name is, Gwen. She is staying with me until we find her dad." McGee told her still sounding horrible. Abby fought back a laugh.
"Gosh, Tim. You sound…great." She forced a smile.
"Thanks, Abbs."
"Everyone except Abby noticed it. Gwen had walked from behind Ziva and stood right in front of Abby. She had hardly left Ziva's side since they got to NCIS. Abby loved kids though so when she did notice it she squatted down to the girls high and smiled at her, "Hi cutie. My names Abby. What's yours?"
Gwen just stared at her; her blue eyes not dare blinking almost as if she was afraid Abby would be gone if she did. She held her small hand to Abby's neck, right over her spider web tattoo, "Mama." The little girl said just above a whisper and Abby's eyes about fell out of their sockets while McGee rushed to Tony who clearly didn't hear.
"No, no, honey. My name's Abby." She repeated but the little girl didn't hear. She threw her arms around Abby and hugged her; grabbing Abby's lab coat with her small fists and she started to cry. Abby just rubbed her back and picked her up, unsure what else she could do.
"Tony, pull up a picture of Gwen's mom." McGee told him standing behind him while he typed.
A few picture popped up and the connection was clear, "Boss, you should see this." Tony said and Gibbs and Ziva walked over, "Her name was Allison."
There was a photo of Gwen and her mom. She had the same chocolate brown hair but hers was straight and in this picture her hair was done in two low pigtails, you could also see on the side of her neck a spider tattoo hanging from a small web, it wasn't the same as Abby's but close enough for a three year old. The only big difference was this women had the same blue eyes as her daughter were Abby's were green. Abby stood behind McGee with Gwen and saw for herself.
"Mama." Gwen said pointing to her mothers picture and then back on Abby's tattoo then went back to hugging her tight.
Gibbs pulled McGee off to the side, "Try to get her out of here. We have work to do and she doesn't need to be here right now."
"Sure, Boss." McGee walked up to Abby who still had a hold of Gwen. The child wouldn't let her go; Abby could have dropped her arms and Gwen would still be fine.
"You ready? We can get some lunch maybe do some shopping." McGee was trying to do anything that sounded fun.
"You come too!" The three year old demanded clinging onto Abby tightly.
Abby looked frighten at Gibbs, "Gibbs, she isn't leaving me!" she hissed.
"Then it looks like you are going with McGee. Plus, he could use some extra help, being sick and all. We'll call if we need anything and you two will do the same." He said handing Tim Gwen's things in the car seat they had taken.
Abby was worried, she was more than worried, she was scared out her mind! She had never come close to doing anything parental before and the more she thought about it, when had McGee!?
So this little story decided to creep up on me and I had to write it as I already said!
We all know Abby loves kids but so far isn't up for being a parent and I do plan on getting around to why McGee has some experience with it.
Let me know what you think of the start :)