Chapter Three: The Eye Twitch Giveaway
Present Day
"You know if Gibbs were here, he would…" Gibbs heard as he stepped off the elevator. God, did DiNozzo ever stop?
"I would what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs smirked as Tony jumped in surprise. The kid never learned, even after all this time.
A flash of red from beside DiNozzo caught his attention and his heart leapt in his chest. For a moment, he was back in the '90s when a young, ambitious redhead worked on his team. How many times had he crossed a room back then, smiling as he watched her laughing at some joke Decker was telling or brushing off the passes Johnson was always making at her? He always loved to catch her doing the latter, cementing that she only had eyes for Gibbs himself.
But today it wasn't Jenny waiting for him and never would be again. This time it was her daughter – a daughter she didn't even trust him enough to tell him about. He wondered what it must be like for the young girl living without Jenny. For him, seven years passed and there still wasn't a day that went by he didn't think about Jenny. Jenny wormed her way into his heart. Even when they were nothing more than Director and Agent, she would still invade his thoughts, making herself impossible to forget. And with the sudden appearance of her daughter, it was becoming apparently obvious that Jenny had no plans to let herself fade from his memory – even from the grave.
"Oh, hey there Boss," Tony called. "You got to learn not to sneak up on people like that."
At Tony's acknowledgement, the 'flash of red' stepped out from behind DiNozzo, providing Gibbs with his first good look at the girl. Giving the girl a simple once over was enough for Gibbs to freeze in place. When McGee originally called him, his first guess was Tony had conned the younger agent into assisting him with some practical joke. On the other hand, McGee had matured over the years and had gotten better at standing up to Tony. It was due to the later that Gibbs' curiosity peaked enough to leave halfway through his lunch date to determine what crazy situation the boys managed to get themselves into this time.
What Gibbs did not expect was to come face to face with the spinning image of Jenny Shepard. "Um…hi," the girl said awkwardly, returning more closely to Tony's side under Gibbs scrutiny.
'Oh great! She's attached herself to DiNozzo.' He stood there dumfounded at the girl who was slowly getting annoyed by his silence. Gibbs knew he should say something, anything, but the image threw him for a loop. He watched her cross her arms across her chest and raise a questioning eyebrow in such a Jenny fashion. Frankly it was the exact posture Jenny took on the first day he met her, straight down to the long red hair tied up in a ponytail. 'Come on Gibbs, you're great with kids. Pull yourself together!' he tried to encourage himself, but when he actually spoke he felt like an idiot. "Uh…hey. I'm Special Agent Gibbs." Was that really the best he could come up with?
The girl rolled her eyes before breaking out in a smile. God, she even had her mother's facial expressions down. Moving away from Tony, she walked over to where Gibbs had frozen in place. "I know. I'm Emily Shepard," she introduced, holding her hand out to him. "It's good to finally meet you, Agent Gibbs."
"The pleasure is all mine," he said, taking her hand. She glanced up to look at him and flashed him a smile. It was then he finally got a good look at the one feature that differed from Jenny's…the girl's eyes. Instead of looking into Jenny's gorgeous green ones, Gibbs felt as if he were looking into a mirror. "Emily…" he started.
"She prefers Emma, Boss," DiNozzo announced looking quite proud of himself. Much to Gibbs' dismay, she tore her crystal blue eyes away from his identical ones and turned her attention to DiNozzo.
"Actually, I really do prefer Emily. Only Aunt Ziva is permitted to call me Emma."
"Why's that?" Tony asked and Gibbs smirked as he watched Tony's pride fade.
"I used to go to school with a girl who's actual name was Emma. Everyone used to get us mixed up."
"It used to drive Emma up the hall, so naturally I continued to call her that," Ziva added laughing.
"Ziva, it's up the…" Tony started to correct, but Gibbs cut him off.
"So you knew Jenny had a daughter?" Gibbs spat accusingly at her and she at least had the decency to looks sheepish.
"Yes, Gibbs, but I assure you I disliked the secrecy very much."
"Agent Gibbs, don't blame Ziva."
"Has she been staying with you?" He asked, temporarily ignoring the young girl.
"No."
"Where has she been staying then?" Ziva stayed quiet, but by the way she avoided his eyes, he knew he was getting closer to determining just who Emily really was. When she still didn't respond, he walked straight up to her and growled, "Where?"
"With Mike Franks in Mexico," Emily stated sternly, a flash of red-head temper in her eyes. The glare she sent him for harassing Ziva was enough to intimidate even him, as well as silence any angry outburst he could formulate over learning Mike also knew. When she saw he wasn't going to explode, she started to explain, "That's why I'm here. I want to move back to D.C. I was hoping you might be able to help with that. I need your signature, as the lead investigator on her case, to vouch that my mother is actually…dead." Her voice quivered on the last word, finally drawing his eyes from giving Ziva the Gibbs stare.
That's when her words sunk in. Jenny's daughter wanted his help with emancipation? Hell no! Her eyes aside, this was Jenny's daughter and he would not let her have to fend for herself. If she wanted to move back, then he would take care of her. He owed Jenny that much. But before that, he needed to know why she had his eyes and if he might possibly have even more responsibility for her. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen," she answered, without thinking and only after the word left her mouth did it register what she'd done.
Sixteen years? Oh God…Paris! He was standing in front of his daughter, his and Jenny's. His first reaction was to be pissed! How could Jenny not tell him? Then he realized exactly what Emily was here for and it got him even more riled up. His daughter was here asking for emancipation from him!
But as he looked into her eyes, his mood softened. He and Jenny created this beautiful young woman and somehow that thought sounded so right to him. He walked over to her and bent down to her eye level. "Who is your father?" he asked, needing to hear her say it. Say it so it could finally be real.
He saw her gulp and look pleadingly toward the other three agents, but he taught them well enough to know they wouldn't interfere. "I…I don't know. Mom never got a chance to tell me," she lied and he almost had to smile when he noticed her 'tell.'
"Your mother's right eye twitched when she lied…and so does yours."
Her eyes widened and she stuttered out, "You know about that?"
"Yep," he laughed. After a moment, he realized she might need some encouragement. He tilted her chin up to meet his eyes when he told her, "Emily, you have my eyes and you have no idea how happy that makes me. I love you."
Her eyes started to water and he wiped a stray tear away, as she whispered. "Hi, Dad."
With those two simple words, his heart fluttered and his own eyes started to tear up. Pulling her into a hug, she molded right into him, crying on his shoulder as he told her he loved her again.
"I love you too, Daddy," she said and he hugged her tighter. "But you may not love the fact that Tony is making a lot of money on this."
Reluctantly he let go, hollering, "DiNozzo!"
Tony yelped and froze midway through collecting money from McGee. "Sorry, Boss."
Before Gibbs could chastise Tony more, a familiar voice distracted him, much to Tony's relief. "Emily Ziva Shepard, look at how beautiful you have become."
"Ducky!" Emily lit up running over to where Ducky and Abby had just arrived. She quickly ran into his arms.
"Our phone calls are not enough, my dear. I must see you more often or pretty soon I won't even recognize you."
"Ducky's right, Emily. It has been too long."
"Abby," Emily laughed. "I saw you last month."
"Well, then you need to stop growing so fast," joked Abby pulling her into a bone crushing hug.
"Air, Abby! I need air!"
"Right," Abby laughed releasing her. "Did you get the present I sent?"
"Yes! I love the black lipstick," Emily said excitedly. "They don't have any in the stores near Mike's sorry excuse for a house."
Gibbs stood there in disbelief. First Mike and Ziva and now Ducky and Abby! Ducky was his best friend, for God sakes! "Alright, that's it! How many of you knew?" he screamed. Ziva, Ducky, Abby, and Tony all raised their hands guiltily.
"Tony?" everyone yelled at once.
Tony held up his hands defensively. "Well, I didn't know know. I just…" He started to explain before figuring it'd be easiest to just focus on Emily. "You were asleep on Jenny's couch once when I went up to her office. She told me she was babysitting…obviously that wasn't the case."
Gibbs rolled his eyes before slapping DiNozzo on the back of the head.
"Thanks, Boss."
Before Gibbs could say anything else, he felt someone grab his hand and start dragging him away. "I think it's best if we continue this in private."
[][][][][][][][]
Everything was going completely wrong! All she wanted was to come, get her father to sign the stupid emancipation from, and leave before she lost her nerve and confessed everything to him. How hard was that?
Apparently excruciatingly hard because she hadn't been with Gibbs for more than ten minutes before he had her whole plan dissected, not to mention had determined he was her father.
Damn blue eyes! Damn eye twitch! And damn her for enjoying the idea of having a father! 'So much for in and out, Emily!'
She knew getting his signature was basically out the window, so here she was dragging her father to the NCIS cafeteria. If her mother could see them now, Emily knew she'd be in hysterics. Thankfully, when they arrived at the cafeteria, the place was empty. "Alright, let me have it," she offered, ready to take on any anger or questions he had.
Instead he just stood there with that damn smirk on his face. "Okay, you don't want to talk? Then I will. No, I don't know the real reason why my mother left you in Paris or why she never told you about me. She did leave some things for you, so you may find your answer in one of those.
"Yes, people did know about me. Ziva worked with my mother since I was born. She and Ducky are my godparents. Abby met me when you were in the hospital one time and my mom stayed with you. My mom's security detail knew so that they were able to protect me too. And lastly Cynthia found out when my mother was kidnapped and Ziva and Ducky couldn't get away to pick me up from school without you realizing. Anything else I can help you with?"
He simply stood there smirking and steam was threatening to emerge from her ears. "What?" she questioned annoyed.
"Nothing. You know your mother was very good at ranting without taking the time to breathe too."
'Oh…My…God!' Her mother would fall in love with someone this annoying. "Do you have anything you want to say?"
"Yea," he said, gesturing for her to sit at a table. "I don't care about any of that stuff. Those issues are between me and everyone else. What I care about is what issues are between you and me."
"Issues like?"
"I don't know," Gibbs shrugged. "Maybe there aren't any. But let's start with why are you here?"
"Well…I," Emily began, but her father cut her off.
"I don't mean the fact that you want emancipation – which by the way, there is now way in hell I'm giving it to you. I mean why are you here? You obviously didn't plan on telling me I was your father, so why come all the way here? Why not just sign my name?"
Emily sat there stunned for a moment. Why was she here? Had she really believed she could trick her father into signing an emancipation agreement? The more she thought about it, the more stupid the idea sounded. Plus she was hardly disappointed to hear he wouldn't sign it. Getting to see her father, hug him, tell him the truth, hear him say he loved her…all that meant so much more to her than if she had managed to convince him to sign her away.
But in the back of her mind, she wondered if she could tell him all that. There was still that voice telling her not to get too close to him. How many times as a girl did she have to curl up with her mother who was crying form something Gibbs said or did? A part of her wondered, would her mother want this? After all she never told him about her. Maybe her mother wanted to keep her from getting hurt. And if that's what her mother wanted, Emily would do her best to keep one foot out the door.
"Forging your name would be illegal and I want to be an NCIS agent when I grow up," she decided on, hoping that might keep him at arm's length. Not a lie but it still left out enough truth that she knew he'd walk.
And it worked just as she suspected. He pushed his chair back and started to stand. "Alright then."
Only she didn't expect her heart to break as he started to walk away. "Wait," she called and he halted at her command. "I do want to be an NCIS agent and forging is illegal, but it's not why I'm here." He turned around at this, giving her the means to continue. "I came here because I wanted…no, I needed to see you. Mom was all I really ever had. I mean sure, I had Ziva, Ducky, Abby, and Uncle Mike, but Mom was everything to me. Ever since…" she trailed off, tears starting to form, before she took a deep breath to continue. "Ever since she died, I've felt so alone."
And finally it was out in the open. She had finally admitted it out loud, but more importantly, she finally admitted it to herself. Uncle Mike had always known. It's why he never pushed, why he let her come around to things like holidays when she was ready – though that still had yet to happen. Leila used to try and get her to talk countless times and failed. Yet here she was confessing to a man she'd known for less than an hour. Maybe she did need her father after all.
Two strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and she had to smile because she hadn't even noticed him move across the room. This must be what Abby meant when she said he would always just appear out of nowhere. "I know the feeling, sweetheart," Gibbs said, holding the girl tight as she shook from her sobs. "But you are not alone anymore. I am going to be in your life from here on out. I promise you that."
Smiling she pulled back to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I'm really glad I decided to come."
"I'm so glad you came too. Should we go back before DiNozzo has the chance to make more bets?" he asked, holding his hand out to her.
"I have a funny feeling Tony's already had plenty of time for that, but why give him a chance to make more," Emily laughed, allowing him to help her up. Wrapping his arm around Emily, he kissed the top of her head as they ventured back to the bullpen.
[][][][][][][]
The group watched Emily drag Gibbs off in a remarkably similar way as Jenny would have. "Oh she is just like her mother, though she has a mean Gibbs stare! I mean did you see that, Probie?" Tony exclaimed the moment the two were out of ear shot.
"Honestly, Tony," Ziva chastised, shaking her head.
"I do have to agree with Tony on this one, Ziva. That look was scarier than even Gibbs," McGee pointed out, regretting it instantly when Tony started doing a victory dance.
"That's because it wasn't just a Gibbs stare," Abby said, a smile wide on her face.
"Oh yes, Abigail. It most certainly was more than a Gibbs stare," Ducky concurred with a smile.
"What are you two getting at?" Tony questioned curiously, excited everyone was agreeing with him.
"Tony, it was a really crazy awesome combination of the Gibbs stare and the Directors glare," Abby explained jumping up and down in excitement.
"Why would Emily have Vance's glare," McGee questioned, causing everyone to stare at him. "What?"
"She means Jenny, McGenious," Tony said, whacking McGee in the back of the head.
"She always has been a good mix of both her parents," Ducky explained. "While she may outwardly have Jennifer written all over her, Emily can be scarily like her father at times."
"Oh that is such an understatement! You guys remember that young boy Zack from that case nine years ago. Well, she is even more like Gibbs than he was!" Abby exclaimed excitedly, not even giving them time to think back to that case. She loved the little Gibblet!
"How much you want to bet she knows all the Gibbs rules?"
"Tony, now I think you're pushing it. Gibbs didn't even know who she was."
"Bite your tongue, Timmy," Abby scolded. "Emily is a perfect Gibblet and a Gibblet would know the rules!"
"Not to mention, she's been raised by Jenny and Franks. Trust me, Probie, she knows the rules."
"It would be most logical that, at the very least, Franks would have begun to teach her, as Anthony believes."
"Ah-ha!" Tony cried in victory. "Take that, McProbie! Schooled by the senior field agent again!"
"Tony, just because you still have yet to take any offers to head your own team, does not mean Ziva and I are still probationary agents."
"For the last time, we are a team and as long as I have more experience I will always be the senior…"
"Yea, citizen," mumbled Ziva.
"You would get that idiom right," groaned Tony.
The elevator dinged and they all dropped the conversation, assuming father and daughter would be returning. Only it wasn't Gibbs and Emily who emerged, but someone who crushed all their spirits. Someone who all of them thought was gone for good seven years ago, only to show up last year – the newly full bird Colonel Hollis Mann.
"Good afternoon, everyone," the Colonel greeted the team, oblivious to the animosity in the room.
"Hello, Colonel," Ducky greeted, trying to be the gentleman he generally was. After all, they didn't dislike the Colonel, only that she had prevented Jenny and Gibbs from reconnecting again before Jenny died.
"What's with the big family meeting?" asked the now extremely tan Colonel with a warm smile.
"Family meeting?" Ziva asked, faking confusion.
"I just mean the gangs all here," Hollis laughed, gesturing around.
"We're not all here," Tony answered quickly, only incriminating them further.
"Palmer," McGee offered up.
"Yes! Yes, Palmer!" Tony exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Palmer is…?"
Gesturing to Ducky, Tony indicated for him to save the day. "Mr. Palmer is at a doctor's appointment."
"See…we're not all here."
"O-kay," Hollis conceded. "Is Gibbs around? He left something at the restaurant and I wanted to return it."
They all shared frantic glances with each other, knowing Gibbs should be the one to tell her he had a daughter. "Uh…who?" Tony asked stupidly.
"You know what? I'm going to go sit over here," she said gesturing to Gibbs' desk. "And let you guys continue whatever it is I interrupted and when you guys 'remember' who your boss is and where he is you can just let me know."
"Gibbs is um…conducting an interview," Ziva finally came up with.
"We would be more than happy to give him whatever he left, if you like," Tony offered, praying she'd take him up on it.
"That's okay," Hollis said, leaning back in Gibbs' chair. "I'll just wait for him to be done."
"Oh…super," groaned Tony quietly, so only McGee could hear.
"I'm sure Gibbs will appreciate it," McGee said quickly, hoping to cover if Hollis had overheard Tony.
The sound of laughing around the corner alerted the group to their Boss's return, causing them all to tense up. Gibbs rounded the corner into the bullpen, arm wrapped casually around his daughters shoulders, completely oblivious to the panic swelling up in his team. When he finally glanced up to see the blonde casually lounging in his office chair, he froze bringing Emily to a screeching halt with him.
"Must have been some interview," Hollis commented to the team, noticing how close the two seemed. Taking a closer look at the young girl, Hollis felt as if she were looking at a mini mirror image of a woman she'd known just shy of a decade ago.
"Uh oh! I have a bad feeling this is going to be another Gibbs' trainwreck," Tony whispered to Ziva and McGee.
"I thought you greatly enjoyed these trainwrecks," Ziva whispered, recalling the time Hollis, Jenny, and Gibbs' ex-wife Stephanie were in the same room. Tony had been like a child at Christmas.
"Normally, I do. Just not when they involve hurting a young girl, when she simply misses her mom."
"You're starting to like her, aren't you?" McGee laughed, watching Tony get flustered.
"She's starting to grow on me."
"Oh no… you are really starting to like her," Ziva chimed in.
"Okay! I think she's interesting, alright. I mean she wasn't even the slightest bit intimidated by Gibbs. I've seen heavily armed soldiers fall prey to the Gibbs stare!"
"Oh boy, McGee. Next thing we know, he'll have her calling him Uncle Tony and will be cheering obnoxiously at her baseball games."
"The kid plays baseball?"
"She is quite good actually."
"Nice! Though, it would be even better if I could get her to start shooting hoops!" Tony exclaimed, excited their new addition might be an athlete too.
"Really 'Uncle' Tony? Basketball? I'm all of five-two," Emily objected, popping up beside him.
"Emma!" He cried, surprised she snuck up on him. Under her intense glare, he instantly corrected. "Ha-ha…I mean, Emily. You sure this is the first time you met Gibbs cause you sure got his appearing out of nowhere thing down pat."
"I hardly came from nowhere. My father went over there to talk to Blondie and told me to come hang out with my good buddy, Tony," she joked, lightly punching him in the arm, before turning more serious. "So who is she?" she asked glancing over to windows where her father and the unknown blonde woman were having a rather heated discussion.
Tony glanced nervously towards the rest of the group, his eyes pleading for assistance. When no one came to his aid, instead choosing to find the ground extremely interesting, he finally broke the news. "Her name is Colonel Hollis Mann," he said, hoping she didn't know who Hollis was.
"You mean the woman that caused my mom to get those blonde highlights? I thought she moved to Hawaii."
Tony's eyes widened in excitement from getting juicy gossip and for a moment he forgot that this probably was not the time or the place. "Wait a second…that's what the blonde highlights were about? Oh pay up, Probalicious!" He exclaimed, only to be wacked in the head by none other than Emily.
"While ordinarily I would be happy to provide you with all the gossip you've been waiting to get on my mother and Gibbs, right now you should probably be more concerned with preventing me from going all rule number nine on Colonel Mann and my father over there."
"Rule number nine?"
"Yes, rule number nine. Never go anywhere without a knife," she clarified, lifting up her pant leg up to reveal a small pocket knife in an ankle holster. "God, I thought you guys of all people would know my father's rules on how to be a good NCIS agent," she said shaking her head in surprise. She thought for sure her father would be teaching his agents the rules.
"So you know the Gibbs rules," McGee asked in surprise, hoping she only knew number nine. Otherwise he would owe Tony quite a bit of money by the end of this little get together.
"Oh, so you guys do know about the Gibbs rules." When they all nodded their heads, she finally answered McGee's question. "Cool because I do too. All fifty one of them, courteously of my mother and Uncle Mike."
"Ah ha, Timmy! You now owe all of us," Abby laughed, pointing out that everyone had agreed with Tony.
"Hey! Ziva never agreed," McGee argued.
"Only because she would have known, young Timothy," Ducky pointed out as if it were obvious. "Ziva spent the most time around Jenny and Emily, after all."
"How did you get through the airport with that?" Tony interrupted, musing that the metal detectors should have gone off.
"You've never been through Mexican airport security, have you?" Emily asked, amused. "Once Uncle Mike even managed to sneak a gun through. Though after about the third time, they started to catch on. I'm telling you one of these days he's going to end up on the no fly li…st," she managed to finish, stuttering when she noticed Hollis running her hand up Gibbs' arm affectionately.
Hurt flashed lightly in Emily's eyes before the anger took over, but it stayed long enough for the team to take notice. When she turned back to the group, she tried to mask both emotions. "Um…" she struggled, pretending to look at her watch. "Look I have to go. My flight back to Mexico leaves soon."
"You're leaving so soon," Abby whined, disappointed she wouldn't get to hang out with her favorite Gibblet.
"Sorry, Abby. I didn't want to be too jetlagged for school on Monday. Mis professores y professoras would not be very happy if I fell asleep in my classes," Emily apologized, giving her a huge hug, doing the same to Ducky and Ziva right afterwards.
She then turned back to McGee and Tony. "It was really great to meet both of you," she said reaching out to shake McGee's hand. "My mother always said you were the best computer tech NCIS had, so make sure you don't let these guys take advantage of you, Agent McGee."
A little taken aback at Emily's recollection of the Director's opinion of him, McGee just managed to shake her hand and stutter out, "Good to meet you too and I won't."
Emily then turned and hugged Tony, rising on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I wouldn't object if you did fly down to cheer at my games, Uncle Tony," she joked. Giving them all one last glance, she pivoted back towards her father, the anger rising once more, and stormed off to grab her bag from Tony's desk before heading for the elevator.
[][][][][][]
When she stepped of the elevator and saw the team plus Abby and Ducky standing there watching her, she knew she had interrupted something. Walking over to them, she couldn't help but notice the obvious tension her appearance was causing. She would have been a fool if she didn't see it. They had all been this way since she moved back to D.C. just over a year ago. She recognized their reaction from when she first met them all eight years ago. Eventually they all started to warm up to her…at least a little bit. Gibbs had explained to her that the group was tight nit and took a while to adjust to strangers, but after eight years they were hardly strangers now.
"What's with the family meeting?" she joked, as a means of a peace offering. Of course, she picked up on their nervous glances about and naturally she was hardly being fooled by the teams stalling her questions of where Gibbs was. Eventually Ziva told her Gibbs was conducting an interview, but Hollis was hardly stupid enough to miss that the woman was holding something back – that they were all holding something back.
Hollis had to bite back a laugh at how each and every one of them gulped nervously as she made herself comfortable in Gibbs' chair, claiming she would wait for him to return. Gibbs had left in the middle of their lunch date in a hurry without any explanation and had forgotten his cell phone on the table. Taking it as an opportunity to see what was so important for him to rush off when he agreed to try and make time for them this time around, Hollis decided to pop in and return it.
A quiet laughter drew her attention away from observing the team's strange behavior and finally her lover rounded the corner, with an arm wrapped around…a teenage girl? Somehow Hollis doubted Gibbs had been interviewing a suspect or even a witness. "Must have some interview," Hollis said, calling them out on their so called bluff.
Hollis watched as Gibbs finally drew his attention from whatever story the young girl had been telling him and noticed her sitting in her seat. "Why don't you go talk to DiNozzo and the others," she overheard Gibbs instruct the girl. The red hair should have screamed out at her, but it was in fact the way the girl carried herself that reminded her of an older red head from years back. She walked proud and strong, giving her the appearance of being much taller than she really was, with a slight smirk on her face at whatever she overheard Agent DiNozzo saying.
Her observations were cut short once more by a hand coming to rest in front of her. "Come with me," Gibbs ordered and she disliked the tone in his voice. Deciding to pick her battles, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her over to the windows, out of ear shot of the team.
"I thought I told you I needed to leave to work on a break in the case," he growled and now she really did not like his tone.
"I was simple returning this," she defended, holding up his cell phone. "I thought you might need it."
"You should have called me here at NCIS," he argued. "I told you I was busy. You can't just drop in here unannounced."
"Yes I can see how wrapped up you are in this case," she snapped, nodding towards the girl in the bullpen. "Who is she, Jethro? And don't tell me she's just a witness because even if she is, she's still obviously a hell of a lot more than that to you."
"She's just a girl who misses her mom," he said solemnly, the anger fading from his voice. 'Yea…just a girl he literally dropped his lunch and ran here for.'
Hearing the tone of his voice change drastically, Hollis ran a comforting hand up his arm, affectionately. "Hey," she whispered, trying to draw his eyes back from the ground to her own. "Talk to me, Jethro. I came back so we could give this relationship a real try this time around and part of that was your agreement to open up more. No secrets."
"You came back a year ago because you missed the thrill the job gave you. Retirement just wasn't suiting you. It wasn't until recently we chose to give this another go and I did not say no secrets, you did."
"And I was under the impression you agreed with that. After all, I believe that was one of the terms and conditions of us rekindling our romance."
"Well, that is exactly why I have a rule about not making assumptions."
As much as she would have loved to retort that, she never got the opportunity because just as she opened her mouth, the young girl who'd been with Jethro earlier practically sprinted by them towards the elevator. "Where do you think you're going, young lady?" Jethro bellowed, obviously upset to see the girl running off.
When the girl whipped around, Hollis was taken aback by the fierce anger in the glare the girl was throwing both of them. "First of all, do NOT call me young lady," the girl spat and the anger lacing her voice actually scared Hollis. "Second of all, I have a plane to catch and trust me when I say, the last thing I want to do is miss it."
Hollis glanced over to Jethro, to see if he was as shocked at the girl's outburst as she was, only to find this gut-wrenching hurt in his eyes. "You're going back to Mexico," he practically whispered, defeated. What was going on here?
"Well, I hardly have any place else to go, seeing as you burned my house down!" The girl screamed, turning straight back around to head for the elevator.
Jethro took a few steps forward, arguing, "You can't leave."
As she waited for the elevator, the girl glanced back at him once more, only this time the anger had evaporated and Hollis saw for the first time that the girl was definitely missing something, which according to Jethro was her mother. "You may be my father, but you are not my legal guardian." The elevator dinged and as she stepped in she took one final look around the bullpen, tears starting to form before her eyes once again hardened over. "Which means legally I don't have to listen to you," she said just before the elevator doors slammed shut and she disappeared, leaving a wounded Gibbs and a shocked team in her wake.
After a moment of disbelief, something inside Gibbs seemed to reawaken and he twisted sharply towards his team who were all watching him cautiously. "What are you all looking at? Ziva, tail her and by that I mean insure she gets to the airport and on her plane safely." With a simple nod, Ziva quickly grabbed her bag and hurried off to catch the elevator.
Hollis desperately wanted to say something, demand Jethro tell her what was going on, but his attention was still one hundred percent on giving his team orders. "McGee, get me a ticket on the next available flight to Mexico and that flight damn well better be today. Claim it's official NCIS business if you have to."
"On it, Boss," McGee responded, already dialing the airport.
"What about me?" Tony asked, eager to help.
"Find wherever the hell you decided to store my go bag!"
"Right, Boss," Tony nodded and Hollis could tell by the look on his face that he didn't have a clue where that was.
As Tony started to tear apart the bullpen and the surrounding area for the missing bag, Gibbs walked over to his desk and fell defeated into his chair. "Ducky, Abs, you guys want to help me figure out what went so horribly wrong."
When they didn't answer, he looked up to see them both giving him knowing looks and even Hollis could tell what the girl outburst had been about. "Well, yea I know that," Gibbs said responding to their looks. "But…she wouldn't even let me talk it out with her."
"Well, you see my silver fox, the second mistake you made was calling her young lady," Abby explained.
"Okay…so she doesn't like to be called young lady?"
"Jennifer would often call her young lady. I'd say hearing someone call her that probably just brought up some bittersweet memories."
"Jennifer? As in Jenny Shepard?" Hollis asked, but the group was too caught up in their own conversation to notice she'd asked anything. She had always known there was something between those two. Originally she believed if she could get the two to just admit it, she would be happy and could simply continue on knowing in the end he had chosen her over Jenny. However, hearing it now, her suspicions finally confirmed, made her anything but happy because she now realized exactly what she was to Jethro…a replacement, a way to forget the two women he truly loved. What bothered her the most was that the team had known that all along and she had ignored their observations. When they had first met, they all pegged her as the future ex-wife number four because they recognized the way Gibbs interacted with her. After all they, or at least Tony, had seen it three times before.
"I really screwed this up didn't I," she heard Jethro say to Ducky and Abby, drawing her attention back to what seemed to be the only way she would learn anything.
"It's not so much what you did, Jethro, as when you did it," Ducky explained.
"Yea, Gibbs. That's why I sent her black lipstick. She likes to wear it in times of mourning."
"Times of mourning?"
"Um…yea," Abby began looking uncomfortable. "Yesterday was…" she trailed off looking to Ducky for help.
"May 20th Boss," Tony finally answered, popping up from behind one of the bullpen's cubical walls.
"The anniversary of Jenny's death? Why didn't anyone tell me?" he asked angrily, more at himself for forgetting than anything else.
"Well, we were going to ask if you wanted to come to the bar with all of us like we do every year, but when you said we needed to hurry and finish our reports because you had plans for the night, we thought you might be trying to…move on," Tony said, trying to inconspicuously nod towards Hollis.
"We thought if that was the case, reminding you might not be the best idea," Abby finished, hoping to take some of the blame off Tony, who smiled gratefully at her.
"I wasn't trying to move on…I just…we've been working nonstop. God, I haven't seen a calendar in days. How could I have let myself forget?" He screamed the last part, slamming his computer monitor, causing everyone to jump. Hollis, on the other hand, was less concerned about him forgetting than she was about him not trying to move on. He really was just using her to try and keep the memories of Jenny at bay!
"Jethro, we need to talk," Hollis demanded in a tone that said she would not allow herself to be ignored any longer.
Silently he stood up and led her over to the windows, where she made sure to ignore the haunted look in his eyes, so that she could really let him have it. "I thought you told me Kelly was…"
"She is," he said shortly, not happy that she brought up his other daughter.
"So you just happen to have another daughter you failed to tell me about."
"No…" he started to explain, but she caught him off.
"No? Jethro, she's a teenager! I may have been retired for a few years, but I can still do math and we have known each other for nine years or so, which means you were keeping her a secret from me since the day we met."
"Her name is Emily Shepard and I am just as angry and surprised as you are because I only found out about her for the first time, TODAY!"
Hollis opened her mouth to argue back, but then his words finally sunk in. "Wait a second…today?"
Before Jethro could say anything further, McGee beckoned him back into the bullpen. "Boss!"
"Yea, McGee?"
"I managed to get you on the Redeye to Mexico tonight."
"Gracias, Elflord," Gibbs thanked before turning to find where DiNozzo went off to. "DiNozzo, what are you doing!" he chastised, when he finally found him.
"Looking for your go bag, Boss."
"Well, I think we both can be pretty damn sure it's not in Ziva's desk drawers."
"Right. Sorry, Boss." Tony said sheepishly before an idea hit him. "The Truck!" he cried excitedly, accidently banging his head on the underside of Ziva's desk.
"What?"
"I remember now! I cleared a space in the truck for our go bags."
"Good job, DiNozzo," Gibbs said grabbing his things from his desk. "Let's go," he ordered, heading for the elevator with the rest of team wishing him luck. As Hollis watched the elevator doors shut, she had to wonder if the door was also shutting on their relationship once and for all.
On the catwalk above, a loner took in the whole scene happening in the bullpen below. 'So Jennifer Shepard has a daughter…that is going to complicate things.'
Authors Note: Thanks so much for all your reviews. They help keep me motivated! I promise Hollis won't be around much longer for those of you who dislike her as much as I do. I simply needed someone to provide some tension and what character aggravated us Jibbs fans more than Colonel Mann (Vance not included of course!).