DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NCIS. NOR DO I OWN THE SONG SECRETS.
-NCIS-SECRETS-NCIS-
I need another story
Something to get off my chest
My life gets kinda boring
Need something that I can confess
Jenny Shepherd entered NCIS one morning with a little girl in tow. Grabbing a visitor's pass for the girl, she ignored the obvious stares of her subordinates and headed up to her office. It wasn't her fault that the child was sick and had to stay home from school, and the daycare at NCIS was also shut down, due to the same illness the child was sick with. This was not how she wanted her day to go, she had called ahead and had her assistant cancel 90% of her appointments before she got to the office that morning with the excuse that she was feeling under the weather and would prefer it if she didn't have to leave the office that day. When she reached Cynthia's desk, Jenny cleared her throat, waiting for her assistant to acknowledge her.
"Oh, good morning Director," The assistant greeted with a cheery smile as the director handed her a cup of coffee, "And who's this?" she asked referring to the 6 year old behind Jenny,
"My name is Talia Marie Shepherd-Gibbs," Jenny hadn't even considered the possibility that that would happen, she sighed, and waited for the assistants questions to start about her daughter's father. She'd single-handedly raised his child up until now, it definitely wasn't going to change now. He couldn't find out, she'd kept it secret for this long, it wasn't getting out.
The assistant, gasped and looked at her boss, shocked, "Ma'am did I hear that correctly?"
"Yes you did. Under no circumstances is Special Agent Gibbs to be told about this little girl, and do everything you can to keep Team Gibbs out of my office, if you would please."
"That could be a problem as a high profile case just came in, I tried to call you but evidently you were busy. Ma'am assistant director vance is missing, presumed dead." Her assistant informed her, "And Abby is a wreck and waiting inside your office, says she can't work a case this close to home, not since Kate."
"Oh Great." She sighed, pondering her options. Could she really trust Abby with the biggest secret of her life? More to the point, could she trust the raven haired forensic scientist to keep the secret from Gibbs, the man who Abby trusted the most? "Talia?" She addressed her daughter, who was chatting happily to Cynthia. "I need you to tell the nice lady in my office that your name is Talia Marie Shepherd, okay? You can't tell her that your name is Gibbs too, because that's our secret."
"Okay Mommy." The little girl smiled and took her mothers hand, waving goodbye to Cynthia.
Jenny opened the door to her office and braced herself, expecting Abby to run at her, because she was scared. However, this didn't happen. She looked around for the woman before spotting her on the sofa, sleeping. "Abby... You need to wake up now, okay? I'm here now.." She gently shook the woman's shoulder. "I have someone here who you'll absolutely love, if you just wake up.."
Abby rose, stretching as she sat up. "Did they find him yet? Have they found Assistant Director Vance?" She looked so hopeful, yet so downtrodden, broken, almost.
"Not yet Abby, but there's someone I want you to meet... Talia! Introduce yourself."
"My name's Talia Marie Shepherd G-." The young girl remembered what her mother had told her and stopped before she gave herself away. "What's your name?" She asked.
"My name is Abby, I work with your mom here." The raven haired woman smiled at the young brunette, "How come you're here at your moms work, instead of atschool?"
"She got sick last night and although she's been fine ever since, I didn't want to risk it so I was going to leave her at daycare but daycare is shut." She thought for a second, "Gibbs doesn't need to know about this, okay? But I need to work now so I'll get a temp for your job and you can stay at get to know her if you want."
"I'd love that. But I have a question about her first."
"Shoot."
"Why does she look like Gibbs?"
"Abby please, I don't want to talk about him."
"Does he know?" The Raven haired woman refused to drop it.
"No, Abby, he doesn't and he won't. I left him, I didn't know I was pregnant, okay? I wouldn't have left if I did know, but now it's too late and he's gonna hate me if he finds out."
"Tell me everything."
"Gibbs and I worked an op together in 99, lived and worked together after our other successful ops. I was in love with him, I loved him more than nearly anything. But I was young and self centred. I was offered a promotion, a job in Cairo working alongside Mossaud, so I left, got on a different plane to him, left him a note in his coat. Three weeks into the op with officer David? She asked me how far along I was. I took the test. Ziva helped me throughout the entire pregnancy and for that, I named my baby after her younger sister, in memory. I called him, when I was done with labour, to get him back, he was already married to Stephanie. He'd moved on, so I took our little girl and moved on with my life."
'Til all my sleeves are stained red
From all the truth that I've said
Come by it honestly I swear
Thought you saw me wink, no
I've been on the brink, so