Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of the NCIS characters
NCIS – 12 years later
Complete with three-inch flaming platforms and a Caf-Pow! in hand, Abby skipped out of the elevator into the squad room. The chains that hung from her front to back pockets chimed in time to her steps as well as her bouncing pigtails. Looking around, she spied McGee's desk and ran straight for him.
"Oh my gosh McGee, aren't you excited?"
"Excited about what, Abby?" he asked, not bothering to break the rhythm of his rapid typing.
She looked at him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Little Gibbs is coming back today!"
His fingers stopped. "Kelly? Today?" he questioned, looking up at her, puzzled.
"Do you know another Little Gibbs?" She took a large gulp of her Caf-Pow!
"No. I just thought she wasn't coming home until the 9th."
"Today is the 9th, Timmy."
Tim looked at his inspirational quote desk calendar. He had forgotten to rip off a whole week's worth of pages. "Oh."
"Ahh! I can't wait. I wonder how much she's grown, how much she's learned. I haven't seen her in forever."
"Abby, you just saw saw her before she left for training camp. It was like, three weeks ago."
"Four weeks, Timothy. That's practically a whole month. I miss her."
Tony and Ziva rounded the corner and dropped their bags at their desks. Ziva's ears were perked, listening to the conversation. "Miss who, Abby?"
"Little Gibbs. She's coming back today."
"No way!" Tony exclaimed, surprised, but still very excited. "She's not supposed to come back until the 9th."
"It is the 9th, Tony. Jeez, you guys must really be wrapped up with this case."
"It will be good to see her again," Ziva said.
"More than just good. It'll be great!" Tony practically shouted. His enthusiasm was cut short, however, when Gibbs suddenly entered the bullpen and faced Tony and Ziva.
"What did you get from the warehouse?" he asked.
Ziva stepped forward to report her findings. "The warehouse manager stated that only two of his employees other than Jenks were allowed access that night. Both have alibis on account that they were working at the same station from 2100 to 0500. Neither heard the gunshots."
"Get anything from the security cameras?"
"Just about to upload those, Boss."
"Get on it, DiNozzo. Abby, did you get anything from those casings?"
"Oh yeah, that's why I came up here. The casing found in the back left tire was a 98% match to another found three weeks ago from a case in northern Maryland."
"Who did it belong to?"
"Already way ahead of you, Gibbs." She snatched the plasma remote from McGee's desk and brought up a mug shot of a middle-aged man with a full beard and coke-bottle glasses. "Meet Nathaniel Richardson. Well, actually, re-meet. This isn't his first encounter with the law. He was arrested four years ago for aiding in a robbery. The other casing found in the victim doesn't have a match in the database, but I called some buddies at this place I used to hang out at who really owed me one because of this time that I –"
"Abbs." He shot her a stern look and she sent an apologetic one back.
"They don't sell it, their buddies don't sell it, and by buddies, I mean practically every ammo supplier throughout the East coast. I ran some shavings through Major Mass spec just to get an idea of what we're dealing with and I found random metals that are more likely to explode than fire accurately from a gun. There were also no brands on the casing other than your typical marks and scratches from the actual firing. I'm running a partial print from the second bullet now."
"Are you telling me that this guy had ammo custom made from an outside source?"
"No. I'm telling you that he probably made them himself."
"Boss, Pinner mentioned something about his workshop being cleaned. There were definitely molds and handheld torches down there," McGee interjected.
"McGee, pull up an address."
"Gibbs! When I said I was ahead of you, I meant it." She handed him a sticky note with the street number.
"Let's go." Gibbs pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and grabbed his gun and badge. He turned to make his way to the elevator when he was stopped short by Abby watching every move he made. "Got something else, Abbs?"
"Do you know when Kelly's coming?" she asked in a slight voice.
"Her train gets in at 4. Maddie's picking her up."
Abby's face lit up. "So they'll probably pick up something to eat, so that will probably take them about an hour, and with traffic it'll be about another half hour, and if..."
"Great work, Abbs." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Now go find out who that fingerprint belongs to."
Several hours later
Team Gibbs entered the squad room with a handcuffed Joseph Pinner in tow.
"Ziva, put him in an interrogation room. I'll be down in five."
Ziva yanked at his arm and guided him through the bullpen. Jethro was about to drop off his gun and badge at his desk when a buzzing at his hip caught his attention.
"Yeah. Gibbs."
"Hey, Dad."
His voice picked up a bit. "Hey, Kell."
"I'm about five minutes away."
"I'll send someone sign you in."
"Alright. Thanks. I'll let you go." He could hear her laughing through her smile. "Get back to work."
"Sure thing, Boss." He flipped his phone shut.
Grinning to himself, Gibbs rode the elevator down to autopsy. Spotting Ducky at his desk, Gibbs walked up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"I hope you're not looking for something new, Jethro, because I don't have anything, unless you wanted me to confirm or deny a theory, that is."
"Not looking for anything but a friend, Duck."
Ducky turned in his chair. "Now, that, I can provide."
"Kelly's coming today."
"Did you think I'd forgotten?"
"Not at all. Can you sign her in at the front desk in five minutes?"
"Oh. Absolutely."
With a clap on the shoulder, Jethro headed for the sliding doors.
"Thanks Duck. I'll be in interrogation."
A strong, icy blast of winter hit Dr. Mallard's face when he pushed open the front door to NCIS headquarters. Shielding his eyes against the freezing wind, he tried to keep control of his jacket that was whipping around his legs. His nickname cut through the air.
"Ducky!"
Kelly Gibbs was waving at him from a car parked at the curb. He slowly ambled toward her, curling into the wind and treading carefully so as not to slip on any ice that the sidewalk salt had yet to melt.
"Ah, there you are," Ducky managed to sound out. "My dear, you must be freezing."
She was wearing only a pair of jeans, a running jacket, and boots.
"It's not too bad," she said with a shrug, but shivering all the same. Once Kelly had lifted her duffel bag out of the back seat and waved goodbye to Maddie, he offered her his arm and they cautiously proceeded towards the doors. Sweet relief of the heated lobby soon surrounded them and Kelly dropped her bag to give Dr. Mallard a proper hug. They embraced each other as a grandfather and granddaughter would.
"It's so nice to see you again, Ducky."
"And you as well, my dear." She took in his warm smile and could not help but return one of her own.
"I take it Dad's in the middle of a case," Kelly mused, heading towards the security desk where the guard asked for her name."Kelly Gibbs. There should be a frequent visitor's pass with my name on it."
"Yes, it's quite a frustrating one. I don't think I've ever seen a suspect slip through so many cracks before."
"Bummer. Maybe Dad'll let me look at the file." The guard handed over her pass. She thanked him and picked up her duffel. "It would be great to add a few more credentials to my application."
They entered an open elevator and Ducky pushed the fourth floor button. The doors closed with a ping.
"Well, I wouldn't pester him too much. He's a little short of caffeine today."
"Uh oh. Who knocked it over this time? Maybe I should have come prepared."
"Timothy."
"Oh McGee," Kelly sighed. "I really can't wait to see everyone again." Her smile was still plastered on her face.
"They are more than excited to see you, too, my dear. Abby especially."
"And I'm especially excited to see her. Not that I'm not thrilled to see you, too, Ducky. It feels like it's been forever."
The elevator had reached the fourth floor and the doors slid open with another ping. They stepped out and Kelly pivoted, feeling Ducky's light squeeze on her upper arm.
"Welcome home, Kelly."
Her arms embraced him once again. "Thank you, Ducky," she whispered into his ear.
She turned, walked into squad room, and sighed. Not one of her dad's team members was at his or her desk.
"Everyone out on a lead?" she asked, plopping her bag next to her father's chair.
"Interrogation, actually. Your father has been at this one for quite some time."
"Shouldn't take too long, I suppose. Maybe I'll go get him some coffee. But first things first. I'm going to say hi to Abby. I'll see you later Ducky."
"Good bye, dear. Don't forget to come down and visit every once in a while."
"Oh I won't." And with that, she turned on her heel and rode the elevator down to Abby's lab. As soon as the elevator doors slid open, blaring beats of electronic metal reverberated through her chest. Kelly smiled to herself, knowing that this was one of the unique traits that truly made NCIS her home. She stepped into the lab and a wave of memories washed over her from when she would hang out with the forensic scientist after school. Dancing around to wild music, marveling at the precision and accuracy of her work, not to mention having the perfect science tutor. Coming back to the present, Kelly silently walked up behind Abby who was examining a specimen through the diopter of a microscope.
"You know Gibbs," Abby said, still adjusting the knobs and dials, "that can be really annoying. And creepy."
"I know what you mean. Dad used to do it to me all the time to make sure I was doing my homework."
After the slightest moment of hesitation, Abby spun on her heels and enveloped Kelly into one of the world's greatest hugs.
"Little Gibbs!" she squealed. "You're finally here! I've been counting down the days since you left. See?"
Kelly looked in the direction that Abby's finger was pointing. Twenty-eight days of Abby's skeleton calendar were crossed off, one by one, with a thick red marker. Kelly didn't think she could smile wider.
"I missed you too, Abby. Training camp sucked without you guys."
"Oh my gosh. How was it? Was it difficult? I've heard so many horrible things about training camp."
"Well, that's because you talk to Tony. The stuff that he said about it made me sick to my stomach and the other rumors that circulate the base beforehand make it sound like you're going to die the first day. But I wasn't the worst of the lot." Her already wind-kissed cheeks flushed with a new wave of pink. "Actually, I thought I did okay."
"I'm sure colors were flying all over the place, what with you being the only offspring of Leroy Jethro Gibbs."
Kelly propped herself against Abby's desk. "Yeah. A lot of his stuff came in handy. You wouldn't believe how many kids don't know the basic signs for tracking a subject through a forest."
"Did you learn anything super cool?"
That was another aspect Kelly loved about Abby. She asked the important questions first and kept the gossip to a minimum whenever Kelly needed someone to talk to.
"Oh my goodness. Loads. Most of it was new combat techniques, though. I'll have to challenge Ziva while I'm here. Probably get my ass kicked like always, but I'd love to try some of that stuff out. The coolest guy taught me the most wicked hold slip I've ever seen."
"A guy, huh?"
"Don't get your hopes up, Abbs. I was one of twelve girls in a group of two hundred. Of course there were guys. Even though the odds seem pretty good, all of the ones I met were losers."
"Good point, but I'm sure that not all of them were losers."
"Well, they pretty much brag to the moon and back until they realize you're the one pinning them to the mat."
"You're becoming just like you dad, Kell."
Heat built up in Kelly's cheeks again. "Enough about me. How have you been for the past month?"
"Not too bad. Not much has been going on – just your basic forensic action. Catchin' the bad guys. Well, technically your dad and Tony and Ziva and McGee are doing that part. I'm just helping them out. I had the coolest case a few weeks ago. Well, I don't know if you'd call it cool because people were dying like clockwork because of it, and people dying is never good, but this guy was using an ancient hunting weapon that's really similar to a javelin except you use this stick thing to launch it called an Atlatl and it goes like 700 feet."
"No way!"
"Yes way. I've totally got a new piece of artwork coming in the mail because of it. It's 1000x magnification of a perfect half-inch cylindrical hole running through this guy's skull, which is still intact except for the part that the pole struck through, of course."
"That sounds wicked. Don't tell me you're replacing 'The Spine,' though. It's my favorite."
"Oh, don't worry. I knew you liked that one a lot. I'm thinking about getting rid of 'The Balloon Bullet.'"
One of Abby's computers broke through their chatter with a mechanical beep.
"Ooh. What are you running?"
"Fingerprint."
"Gotta match?"
"Nope. It's been searching for the past twenty minutes. I guess I'm going to have to widen the search area by a couple of states."
"Well, I'll let you get back to work. Gotta make a coffee run, anyways. I heard Tim knocked over Dad's today. You want anything?" she asked, zipping up her jacket.
"I'm good for another hour." Abby held up her Caf-Pow! and jiggled it back and forth, making the liquid caffeine slosh around inside.
Kelly let out a small laugh. "What number is that?"
"12," Abby stated matter-of-factly.
"God, Abbs. I don't know how you down those things all day." She turned and walked towards the door.
"Hey. Did you want to stay at my place tonight?"
Kelly spun and hung onto the doorway. "That sounds awesome. I'll have to check with Dad to see if he had anything planned."
"Oh my gosh, I completely forgot. He probably wants you close by for the week."
"I'm sure it'll be fine. With the case looking like it is, he might be parking at his desk tonight. Plus, I want to hear more about what I missed this past month and no one can fill me in better than you."
"That's right!"
"Later, Abbs."
"Bye Little Gibbs!"
Kelly leaned herself against the hurling winter wind, clinging tight to a cardboard cup holder with two large drinks displaying the logo of her dad's favorite coffee joint. One was a stong, black coffee for him, of course; the other was Kelly's favorite tea. She had never acquired the taste for coffee, even when her mug contained more cream and sugar than bean. When high school exams had rolled around, she attempted to take a leaf out of Abby's book and down a Caf-Pow!, which resulted in extreme jitters and left her without a prayer when it came to concentrating on anything for more than two minutes. She finally came across caffeinated tea when Maddie introduced it to her at a local cafe. It woke her up in the morning and kept her focused throughout the day. Plus, she loved the smell.
Upon entering the front doors to NCIS, she beelined for the metal detectors, hoping that her dad's coffee would still be hot by the time she reached the squad room.
"Miss Kelly Gibbs! If you don't come over here right now and give me some sugar, I'm gonna start a fit that nobody gonna be able to control."
Kelly froze and looked over her shoulder. The security guard, a rather large woman with an even larger perm, opened her arms, and motioned for Kelly to accept her hug. Kelly placed the drinks on the desk and fell into another great embrace. "Hey Alma."
"Honey, look at you! You've grown up so much. Now why haven't I been seein' your beautiful face 'round here no more?"
"Alma," she dragged out, "I've been at training camp for four weeks. You knew that."
"Guess so. But that don't mean I have to like it."
"Trust me, I missed you more than you can imagine." She picked up the drinks.
"Alrigh' sugar. Well, I'm just glad to see you again." She glanced at the cups in Kelly's hand. "Oh, I'm keepin' you, aren't I? Go make yourself scarce."
"Thanks Alma."
"You bet, Honey."
Kelly picked up where she left off at the metal detectors and rode her way up to the fourth floor. When she stepped through the doors the team members still weren't in their usual spots. She sat down at her dad's desk and put down his coffee before fishing through her duffel bag. Kelly extracted a sketchpad and flipped through it to a clean page.
Since before she could remember, Kelly had always loved to draw. She knew it came from her mother because her dad didn't have a single artistic gene in him. Kelly's mom had always occupied her with crayons and colored pencils whenever she got bored. She would draw for hours on end, filling pages and pages of blank paper with bright squiggles and doodles, always coming up with something new to post on the fridge. When her mom drew with her, Kelly couldn't help but stare in awe at the precision and detail that had flowed onto the page. It always made her tremendously jealous when she saw the finished products because they looked like photographs rather than drawings. She would become impatient and give up on whatever she had been trying to replicate, but her mother never stopped encouraging her, explaining that one day, Kelly would be better than she was. When she heard that her mother had died in the accident, Kelly was furious. How was she supposed to learn to draw better if her teacher was gone? When she got home from the hospital, all she would do was sit in her mother's studio and stare at all of the art supplies and sketches and paintings, wishing for that day when she could be as proud of her work as she was of her mother's. Her dad always said he loved her pictures, even when they were horrendous, but it made her angry. Abby pointed it out to her one day that regardless of how good they looked, he would always love them because they reminded him of Shannon. It was then, in a new light, that she understood why she would never give up her love for art.
Today, she was adding to a project she had been working on since she was six. One day, when she and her mom went to NCIS to surprise her dad with lunch, her mom challenged her to sketch the framed photo on her dad's desk. It was of the three of them together, sitting on the beach that past summer. After complaining about the difficulty of the task laid before her, Kelly's mom picked up a pencil and began sketching the basics of their figures in the photograph. After a while, her mother stopped drawing. She encouraged Kelly to finish the picture, which she later realized was her greatest work at the age of 8. Ever since then, when Kelly had to wait for her father and Abby and Ducky were to busy to be disturbed, she would sketch the photo with whatever drawing tools she could find, always marking the date, just as her mom used to. Beneath her bed was a shoe box stuffed with sketches of that photograph on everything from computer paper to NCIS pamphlets to take-out receipts. She didn't know when, but one day she was going to give her father that box.
The lines and shadows seemed to come too easily tonight. It took her only minutes to draw everyone's basic figure and features. Soon, she was in a world of her own. Kelly leaned in closer to her sketch pad and added minute details to her mother's face, shading in just the right parts to accent the beautiful shapes. Her hand was moving fast now: contour lines became the ocean and sand, a few smudges turned into shadows, cross-hatches formed the textures on their clothes.
"You know, I hear the Lourve is getting really tired of the Mona Lisa and they need some new artwork. You should think about submitting something."
Her heart jumped with surprise. She knew that voice in a crowd of millions.
"Tony!"
Kelly leapt from her chair, clasping her arms around his neck. Tony returned the hug enthusiastically and lifted her off her feet.
"I missed you so much!" she said when he returned her to the ground. However, the moment was short-lived when she threw a punch into his left bicep. He couldn't have dodged it if he tried.
"Ow!" he cried, rubbing the spot. "That's one heck of a hello. Remind me what that's for?"
"For convincing me that the first week of training camp was all placement exams."
"It's not?" he asked, feigning surprise. "I could've sworn –"
"Oh, shut it DiNozzo. No excuse will save your sorry ass." She could barely hold back her grin.
"Hey. Even if it had been," he pointed out, "you probably would have passed with flying colors." He looked her in the eyes, smiled, and she embraced him once again. "It's good to have you back, Sketch," he whispered into her ear. Sketch was the nickname Tony had given her when she first presented him with a drawing of them together. It still hung on the bulletin board next to his desk 11 years later.
"Tony, stop pigging her. We would like to say hello, too."
Kelly released Tony and turned to see Ziva with her arms crossed and a grin on her face.
"It's hogging, Ziva. But don't worry, I didn't forget about you at all." She gave her a kiss on each cheek and a tight squeeze.
"Nor did I forget about you, McGee." He, too, smiled and enveloped Kelly in a hug.
"Good to see you Kelly. How was camp?" he asked.
"It was challenging, but I learned loads."
"Beat up anyone too bad?"
Kelly released a light-hearted laugh."Not too bad. Although, Ziva, your spin on the roundhouse saved me more than once."
"It is one of my favorites."
"Speaking of beating people up," Kelly said, "I assume that since all of you are here, my dad is done with interrogation. Any idea –" She cut off in mid-sentence and closed her eyes. Slowly, a smile crept onto her face and she spun on the spot. Gibbs had been standing directly behind her, his mouth half open, about to answer her question. "– where my dad is?" she finished.
"Hey Kell."
"Hi Dad."
Gibbs pulled her into a tight hug and kissed the top of her hair. Kelly leaned back to look him in the eye. Gibbs examined her face and frowned when he saw an elongated green-turning-yellow bruise on her jaw. He brushed his thumb across it and raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing gets by you, does it?"
"How many times did you hit the mat?"
"Unintentionally? Just twice. Once it was four against one – I was the one, and the other time I was taking on practically two hundred pounds of sheer muscle. I thought about gouging his eyes out, but that probably would have resulted in cleaning some grotesque surface with my toothbrush."
Gibbs succeeded in holding back his smile.
"Really, Dad. I'm fine."
"Good," he said, wrapping his arms around her once again."It's good to have you home, Kell."
"Feels awesome to be here."
Gibbs moved to his computer and dropped a file folder into one of his desk drawers. She leaned her hands on his desk and waited, her eyes following it until it disappeared. Gibbs could practically hear her gaze begging to take a peek at the case file. "Nope."
"How about a bribe?" She held out the coffee. He stared at it. "I heard you were down a cup this morning and Ducky told me that this guy is slipping. Looks like you'll be here for a while..."
Gibbs contemplated the situation but was distracted by the sweet aroma Kelly was blowing in his direction. "Fine. You can take a look."
She handed over the coffee. "Yes!"
"When it's closed."
"Dad..."
"You don't even like coffee."
"Point, but I'm sure any of your team members could have used that."
They locked eyes; their staredown was accompanied only by silence.
"Maybe tomorrow. It's late. Go home, get some sleep." Kelly knew her luck was out for the night.
Just then, Gibbs's phone rang and Abby's voice confirmed that the fingerprint belonged to Pinner. Remembering Abby's request earlier, Kelly spoke up. "Actually, Abby was hoping that you'd let me stay at her place tonight. We've got some catching up to do."
"Fine with me."
"Thanks Dad. I love you," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek and walking towards the elevator.
"Love you too, Kelly."