Individual Approach
After midnight Gibbs left the basement where he had retreated once he finished putting his four to bed. Depositing his coffee cup in the sink he stretched tiredly, then headed upstairs, cutting off lights as he did so.
Softly opening the door to the room his girls shared he peeped into the soft darkness. Kate lay positioned under the covers and facing away from the door. Dark hair covered her pillow. Turning his gaze to his youngest child's bed, he saw the mound of pastel covers had slipped to the floor, but could not see his daughter. Opening the door enough to flood the room with hazy light from the hall's fixture, he repositioned the blankets before backing out into the hall.
She had not made a trip to the bathroom, because it stood dark and empty.
When he checked on the boys, he discovered Tim positioned almost as Kate had been, just the shoulder of his robot themed pajamas peeping from the folded sheet and comforter. He tiptoed over and placed a kiss on the boy's soft hair.
Crossing the room he grabbed the blankets which had cascaded to the floor by Tony's bed. His son slept soundly, one arm thrown across his eyes and the other thrown across his baby sister. She snuggled against Tony with one leg slung over her brother's leg.
Jethro leaned down and caressed her cheek, and decided she resembled one of those Hummel figurines in her long white nightgown adorned with embroidered flowers.
Gibbs sighed in resignation. If Abby wandered, she usually crept into bed with him, announcing her visit by kissing him several times before settling peacefully and snuggling contentedly with her daddy.
However, her adoration of Tony made his oldest child another comforting option for little Abby. Evidently, when she woke up she left her room and crawled into Tony's bed.
Gibbs reminded himself that she had been stubborn about even going to bed earlier, coming close to staging a meltdown.
Leaning across her, he kissed Tony softly on the top of his head, then carefully began sliding Abby towards him across the mattress.
Despite his attempt at stealth, the movement woke his oldest. Tony shifted and opened his eyes. "Love you, Dad," he mumbled groggily.
Jethro smiled and responded, "I love you, too, Son, but why is Abby in your bed?"
The boy raised his head and turned back in confusion. "Sorry, Dad, I didn't realize that she was here. Musta gotten scared."
"Scared? About what?"
Tony closed his eyes, and his long lashes framed his cheeks. "I don't know, Dad. Want me to help carry her?"
Gibbs smiled at the thoughtfulness. "No, I've got her. Go back to sleep, Son."
Nodding, the child did just that, and Jethro thoughtfully carried his baby back to her own bed.
She curled under the covers the second he turned loose, and he stood and regarded her several seconds, making certain she had fallen back asleep, wondering what had scared her so much.
He reminded himself that the apparent, obvious variations in temperaments and personalities manifested at early ages with all four children.
Born a showman, even in baby and toddlerhood Tony sought to entertain, and quickly finessed the art of charm. Somehow he had ascertained that he could manipulate adults with his personality.
Gibbs treasured reliving the first unsteady steps Tony had taken as he, an excited new father, animatedly beckoned his baby towards him across the room.
"Come on, Son, come to Daddy," he encouraged, clapping his hands enticingly and motioning the child forward. "Daddy wants you here, Tony."
Grinning, the baby regarded him shrewdly, throwing his arms wide as though to show in the expanse that the journey across the floor deserved personal accolades.
Jethro remembered that the tiny pajama top featured a row of yellow ducklings across the front, but the pants part of the little outfit had disappeared. Unless the bottoms had actually been fastened to the shirt, Tony had long ago figured how to rid himself of articles of unwanted clothing. The child preferred to conduct himself au natural, stripping of socks, shoes, tops, and pants, so Gibbs congratulated himself anytime the baby allowed his diaper to remain intact.
Today, though, clad in his pajama shirt and diaper, Tony grinned mischievously at his father from across the room. Still nearly bald, his green eyes flashed excitedly as he assessed the challenge and he giggled at Jethro, showing off four little teeth.
"Tony, come here to Daddy." Jethro called, his voice enthusiastic and expectant as he eased himself to sit crosslegged on the floor. "Come on, Big Boy. You already know how to take steps. Just put them in a line and walk across the room to Daddy, ok?"
The baby regarded him thoughtfully and cooperated by taking several hurried steps before stopping about halfway. He tilted his head down and then observed his father from under his lashes, popping a finger in his mouth as he waited.
He smiled, and used his other hand to wave at his daddy.
"Keep going," Gibbs encouraged, his voice almost cooing. "Keep coming to me, Baby Tony. Come on, come on, Son."
As a response, the baby removed his finger and puffed out his lip. A stormy expression followed as the baby stood rooted instead, swaying a bit.
Gibbs hastened to halt any tears. "Uh oh, don't cry now. Daddy wants you to come here. Hurry, Tony, and Daddy will clap when you get here." Smiling invitingly, Jethro clapped loudly to demonstrate and sang out, "Good boy, Tony!"
That promise sealed the deal, and with a giggle, Tony toddled a quarter of the distance further before stopping again and regarding his daddy expectantly.
Jethro laughed out loud at the child's obvious manipulation. "What a conniver you are! Ok, I've got it now. You want attention and fanfare before you complete the task, my baby boy!" Clapping enthusiastically, he called out enticingly, "Come on, Tony! Daddy's right here."
The chubby baby staggered the rest of the way until he ran into his father's crossed legs and launched himself into Jethro's arms. His proud dad leapt up with his son hugged tightly against him and covered him with kisses. "You're the smartest boy in the world, Anthony, and you have made Daddy proud!"
Those ecstatic moments of triumph never left Jethro's heart.
Yes, Tony proved an extrovert extraordinaire even from the bassinet, delighted anytime the attention of his audience allowed him to perform. By toddlerhood he had perfected his charm so that no matter where he found himself, people gravitated to him. His charismatic personality, combined with his incredible good looks, separated him from any crowd.
On the opposing side, though, his daredevil approach to life and acting before thinking landed him into trouble with his father more than once, despite Jethro's clear expectations as a parent and Tony's good intentions as a child.
Genuinely skilled at talking himself out of trouble with other adults, his machinations usually failed to sway his father.
Jethro recalled one incident illustrating his son's devil may care approach to life which transpired when they visited Ducky and his mother. Tony, then four, wandered away from the house and yard and the adults searched frantically for him for nearly ten minutes.
Suddenly he reappeared, flashing his incredible smile and clutching a fistful of verbena flowers he had, the adults discovered, crossed a forbidden road to obtain. He presented them to Mrs. Mallard and assured her that he had gathered them specifically for her.
The little charmer simply could not fathom why his purpose for disappearing, his gift of the flowers, would not act to cancel out his daddy's decision to spank him for leaving the yard without permission.
On the opposite side of the spectrum from Tony, Timmy's introverted nature steered him into consciously avoiding fanfare and attention as much as his older brother craved and sought it. Not as confident or as comfortable with risk, it took some time before the reticent child would attempt a new activity or join an unfamiliar group of playing children. He relied upon his brother and sisters, happily, to supply his social interactions, but his father seized every outside opportunity which availed itself to encourage Tim to interact with other children.
Agent Gibbs recalled that even he had begun to doubt that Tim would ever give up his tricycle. Despite the fact that he watched Tony and Kate show off their cycling skills and tricks and Jethro talked up two wheelers in an enthusiastic voice, Tim stubbornly stuck to the family's red three wheeler. No amount of enticement would sway the little boy, and he clung to the safety of what he knew with a tenacity that seemed unbreachable.
Privately worried that the boy would never make the transition from three wheels to two, Gibbs watched him one day as he jetted around the backyard on the trike, pedaling furiously. Wearing red overalls over a blue and white striped shirt, his green eyes determinedly fixed upon each corner of the backyard as he zoomed towards it.
Scrutinizing the sturdy little legs pedaling with such determination, an idea popped into Jethro's head. Depositing Abby into the baby swing of the family jungle gym, he gave her a push and followed Tim's focus as the child navigated yard toys and bushes. Suddenly a solution popped into his reasoning and he hastily gave the baby a better starting push and planted himself at the yard's center point.
Since babyhood Tim had gravitated towards figuring out what made things work, and how components fit together to create objects. Even barely walking, Tim would pull a chair up to the kitchen counter to study the steps the coffee pot employed to create a pot of coffee, or crawl behind the entertainment center to inspect what appliance attached to what, for example.
Gibbs narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
These days, a favorite activity for his son involved a hand held label maker a neighbor had given him, and the boy routinely dismantled it and reassembled it, as much interested in how it worked as actually embossing the sticky labels with letters and words.
After checking Abby, Jethro called Tim over to him, taking his seat on the outdoor bench. He motioned for the little boy to dismount from the tricycle and come to him, and when Tim obeyed, he put his hands on each of the boy's hips to hold him.
Licking his lips, the preschooler shifted from one foot to the other trying to puzzle his father's motive. "Did I do something wrong, Daddy?"
Gibbs shook his head dramatically. "Absolutely not, but I want you to bring me your tricycle, please, and then wheel the bike with the training wheels over to me."
Kate and Tony had long ago discarded the bike with training wheels, and it leaned forlornly against the side of the house, its bike horn drooping.
Tim regarded it indecisively, turned back to his father, and then focused again on the bike. "Why do we need that bike with the training wheels, Daddy, the one Kate and Tony used to ride?"
Jethro patted his cheek, then rubbed the boy's soft blond hair. "Just go get it and wheel it over here because I want to show you something about it."
Glancing over his shoulder, Tim maneuvered first the bicycle, then the tricycle, to his father. Looking from them to Jethro, he crossed to the bench and used his father's thigh to launch himself onto the seat on the bench beside his dad.
"What do you need them to do, Daddy? Are they broken?"
Jethro turned and winked, and Tim brightened. He understood that a wink meant he and his dad had their own little secret.
Moments later Jethro arranged both the trike and the bike to rest upside down on their handle bars side by side. Placing his right hand over his son's left one, he traced the child's fingers across the chain and wheels and narrated the workings of each feature. Intrigued, Tim listened raptly, slipping off of the bench and backing himself against Jethro as he contemplated his father's words.
"So the wheels revolve just like the ones on my tricycle? They turn like that because of the chain?"
"Correct, Son, so with the exception of the size of the wheels, which you and I just traced, and a difference in the frames, they take off from inertia, then revolve and create the same motion."
Silence followed, and the little boy turned and regarded his father seriously, his green eyes both calculating and fearful. "Will you stay with me if I drive the big bike?"