a/n: I didn't even hint that I was writing a new LBSF, did I? Well, I missed the universe, and I've had this idea since I wrote 'Ferret' (well, the origin of baby Gibbs' name has been in my head since I wrote the original LBSF, but here it takes shape, eh?). LOOK MA, NO ANGST.
July 2, 2010
Most women fell asleep after they had babies.
But then, she had never been most women.
Thus he found himself attending to her wide-awake commands while he mentally filed away the information that sixteen hours of labor had to be crossed off his list of Possible Ways to Disarm, Defeat, and/or Generally Distress Jenny Gibbs.
Yes, he had a mental list, and no, he wasn't a wife-murderer, he just occasionally wanted a way to get back at her for constantly hiding his tools from him.
"Husband," she called primly from the bed. "Fluff my pillows," he rolled his eyes as he stood up, waiting patiently for the inevitable mantra that would follow. She didn't disappoint: "I just had your baby," she reminded him.
Such had been his life for the past hour, while there were baths given and sheets cleaned and gowns changed. She had given orders like a queen, and followed them all with a smug look and the sweet reminder I just had your baby. Fetch her ice chips, because she just had his baby. Tie her hair up, because she just had his baby. Hold her elbow, buy her flowers in the gift shop, massage her shoulders, because she just had his baby.
He fluffed the damn pillows for her, pulling his chair closer as he sat back down and leaned forward, one of his hands cupping the head of the baby in her arms. Jenny tilted her head, wisps of red hair curling near her cheeks.
"You don't let me hold my baby, Jen, and so help me God," he growled lightly, trailing off.
An hour since she was born, and Jenny was being the most selfish baby-hoarder imaginable.
She gave him a mock outraged look.
"You're threatening me?" she squawked quietly. "I just had your baby, you ungrateful—"
"Yeah, yeah," he broke in, his thumb brushing the baby's brow. "Come on, Jen," he coaxed softly. "Let me hold 'er."
She tossed her head fetchingly and sighed, feigning thinking it over. A smile touched her lips and she leaned back into the pillows some, shifting her arms a little.
"Fine," she acquiesced, as if it were the world he asked of her. Eagerly, he reached for the baby and took her gently, settling her into the cradle of his arms and sitting back a little. She narrowed her eyes. "But I'm watching you, Jethro."
Her words fell on deaf ears for a moment.
He hadn't had a chance to hold her since the moment she was born, and that had been all too short simply because he had passed her immediately to Jenny, and Jenny hadn't relinquished her since. Now he had a moment without doctors or nurses or monitors to just admire her.
She was swaddled in a pink blanket, a snug white cap with embroidered pink butterflies on her head. Her eyes were closed in mellow sleep, because Jenny had already fed her, but he knew they were blue eyes. They might stay blue, like Kelly's had, or they might turn the shade of Jen's.
She was warm and little, and he grinned.
Jenny rolled onto her side gingerly, pushing her hand into her hair. The messy ponytail he'd tied it up in loosened and her red locks fell down around her shoulders.
"Ooh," she cooed mockingly. "That's sexy," she drawled. She paused for a moment, and her voice softened seriously. "It is. You holding that baby girl."
He smirked at her, lifting his eyes to hers. She smiled tiredly, and he was glad she gave in to a little of the exhaustion. She took a deep breath and reached out, moving closer to the edge of the hospital bed. Her fingers brushed the baby's cheek, and she turned towards the sensation, squirming in his arms.
"Let's have another one," Jenny deadpanned.
She laughed hoarsely at the look on his face.
"I jest, Cowboy," she said softly. She bit her bottom lip and swallowed. "Jury's still out on if I can—do this again," she murmured.
He moved his hand, his fingers brushing hers.
"You can, Jen," he said quietly.
She smiled weakly, her fingertips brushing the baby's cheek again. Gibbs moved the chair closer again and shifted her in his arms, so he was sitting closer to Jenny, and she could stroke the baby's brow and see her face.
Jenny reached out and ran her fingers from his brow to his jaw, and pulled his head forward. Her lips touched his temple, and she took a deep breath.
"You still set on Lucy?" she asked.
She had told him it was on him to name the baby. She had never been able to pick a girl's name.
"Mmhm," he muttered.
"Tell me again," she prompted softly.
He tilted his head at the baby.
"Lucy," he said gruffly. "Character in Kelly's favorite book, when she was a kid. Shannon was readin' 'em to her when I was deployed. I finished 'em for her, after Shannon died."
Jenny nodded, her hair falling over her shoulders. She smiled crookedly.
"Narnia," she named the books thoughtfully. She made a quiet sound in her throat and he looked up at her. She shrugged one shoulder, her brow going up. "Lucy," she said hoarsely. "Lucy had a brother named Peter."
He nodded once, his face calm.
"I know, Jenny."
She licked her lips.
"Of course you do," she agreed, lifting her eyes to the ceiling for a moment.
She pushed her hair back, rubbing her wrist on her cheek. She cleared her throat.
He cocked an eyebrow.
"You gonna tell me what her middle name is now?" he prompted.
She had been tasked with the middle name, and she had refused to give him even an inkling of what she was thinking.
She smirked wickedly, her tongue between her teeth. She laid her head on the pillow and laughed.
"No, I don't think I will," she teased loftily. "I shall plague you with hints until she is eighteen and then you can find out what it is when they read her name off her diploma."
He glared at her.
She laughed again, her voice catching.
"Good one, Jen," he said loudly.
"I am not joking, Duke."
He glared at her more fiercely.
She sighed dramatically.
"Frightened by the look in his eyes, she surrendered," Jenny narrated in a breathy voice. "Her middle name is," she paused gallantly. "Tony."
"No, it's not," he growled.
It must be something hard for her, if she found it necessary to be so mocking about it. He looked at her and arched an eyebrow and she lifted her head, looking down at the baby for a moment.
"I need her back," she said fiercely, sitting upright again and flexing her hands.
He stood up and carefully handed her their daughter, his hand slipping off the baby's head only when Jenny's was secure there. He started to sit, but she shook her head, and made room for him next to her, pressing her palm to the blankets.
"You too," she said softly, drumming her fingers. "I need you, too," she murmured. She looked up wryly and glared at him. "Relish that, Gunny, I am never saying it again."
He sat down next to her and crossed his legs next to hers, leaning over to whisper in her ear.
"Holding it over your head forever," he threatened, his teeth grazing her ticklish spot.
She crinkled her nose. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and let his lips linger in her hair for a minute.
"Jenny," he prompted. "Name."
She dipped her head, nodding. The baby opened her eyes and looked at Jenny quietly, blinking, and smacking her lips.
"I thought—James," she told him tentatively. "James," she said a little louder, trying to clear the catch from her throat. "His, my—his name."
"I know who he is," Gibbs reminded her gently.
She nodded again, and shrugged.
"It's not—feminine, but," she hesitated, and he realized she sounded shy and uncertain, and he had never in his life heard Jenny sound either.
His hand slid over her arm, comforting her.
"It's a good name," she said hoarsely. "And it's—Lucy, James, the L and the J…they're your initials, too."
She fell silent, and he mulled it over for a moment.
He liked it.
He grinned roguishly.
"That's very sentimental of you, Jen," he drawled solemnly.
She elbowed him hard in the ribs and he snorted, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Lucy gave a small cry of annoyance, and Jenny's brows went up in surprise.
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry," she soothed, nudging Gibbs more gently with her elbow. "I had no idea you liked him."
Gibbs reached in to stroke his second daughter's brow and she quieted, eyes fluttering again. She fixated on him this time, and Jenny narrowed her eyes, tilting her head back onto his shoulder and blinking at him suspiciously.
"Turn that charm off this instant, Leroy, you are brainwashing her," Jenny looked back down at Lucy. "You want me. I have the breasts. You like me."
"Bribery," accused Gibbs mildly, and squeezed her shoulder.
He combed his fingers through her hair soothingly, working through the knots and tangles.
"You need to sleep, Jenny," he said in a low voice. He rested his lips on the crown of her head. "She'll be okay. She'll be here when you wake up."
"Promise me," Jenny ordered.
"I promise," his lips brushed her ear.
She rested against his shoulder for a moment, and then turned, gently placing Lucy in his arms. She granted the permission he'd been waiting for since the moment she'd been born.
"You may take the infant to meet her sister," Jenny offered, "and her uncle and—whatever is going in in that," she waved her hand, "familial situation."
Gibbs laughed and stood up, easily holding Lucy safely in the crook of his arm. He bent down to kiss Jenny's lips, and she grasped his shirt, searching his eyes earnestly, all pretense of sarcasm or smirk gone from her flushed face.
"You are seriously going to let me name our daughter after my dead husband?" she asked bluntly.
He looked at her intently for a moment.
"Let you," he scoffed pointedly, and then shrugged his shoulders just a little. "It means somethin' to you," was all he added.
Her lips trembled.
"I love you, Jethro," she said quietly.
He smirked.
"I know," he retorted smugly.
She pinched him hard in the chest and stabbed him with her index finger.
"Han Solo me one more time, fly boy," she warned lightly. Her lashes fluttered. "You owe me one," she hissed.
She kept a tally on the refrigerator at home of all the times she said it and he didn't say it back—and vice versa. Though the marks were never made at the same time, they were always even.
He kissed her lips again, and she curled up, watching him go with a satisfied, calmly happy expression on her face.
He walked from the room with his shoulders back and his head held high, a proud, smug look on his face. His grandson spotted him the moment he appeared in the waiting room, and Levi leapt up and let out a triumphant shout, hitting both of his parents in the backs of the head and alarming them to wakefulness.
"What's her name?" Levi demanded excitedly, running forward. He bounced on his feet as Gibbs grinned, and crouched down so he could have a better look.
Kelly and McGee approached, McGee taking Levi's shoulders and forcing him to calm down.
Kelly rubbed her eyes and leaned forward, grabbing her knees.
"She's gorgeous, Daddy," she sighed.
"Name! Gunny, what's her name?" whined Levi, stamping his foot.
"Son," warned McGee.
"Lucy James," Gibbs answered gruffly, adjusting her pink cap a little.
"James is a boy's name," Levi pointed it.
"Yeah, well, Jenny is clinically insane," Gibbs retorted seriously.
Kelly whacked him on the back of the head, reprimanding him for the wisecrack.
"Jesus, Daddy, she just had your baby!"
Leroy Jethro Gibbs looked down at Lucy James Gibbs and muttered:
"I'm never gonna live that one down."
To the glistening eastern sea
I give you
Queen Lucy the Valiant
...
and to the clear northern skies
I give you
King Peter the Magnificent
[-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; C.S. Lewis]
-alexandra
story #139