GIBBS AND RULE 51...
DISCLAIMER: NCIS charaters do not belong to me.
This takes place a couple days after...Life Before His Eyes.
SUMMARY: Gibbs thinks about...Rule 51: Sometimes You're wrong. Could it effect everyone's lives?
CHAPTER 6: RULES YOU MAKE & LIVE BY...
A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AND A HALF-LATER...
GIBBS P.O.V.
I was somewhat surprised when a couple of days after I had found the four of them in the squad room together had taken me out to dinner.
FLASHBACK *
"What is this about?" I asked looking around the table.
"For coming up with rule 51." Abby had replied with a smile.
I sat and watched the four of them talking and then it came to me...
For the first time in a long time, I had made a decision that made everyone (almost everyone) happy.
I thought back to the days when I had been as happy as they were...
The day I met Shannon...
The day I married her...
and the day Kelly was born...
* END FLASHBACK
So I wasn't to surprised when a couple months later, the four of them took me out to dinner. That day at work, they could hardly sit still and I knew something was going on, I thought I knew.
As it turned out...I had been right.
That evening after work, I walked into the restaurant they had chosen. I found the table; they had invited Duck, Palmer and Breena (Palmer's wife of a few months.) I sat down and Abby couldn't seem to stand it another minute.
"Tim asked me to marry him and I said, yes." Abby told me.
"I also asked Ziva to marry me." Tony said.
I had seen this coming...rule 51: Sometimes you're wrong
Now I could almost think of another rule...
'If you love someone, tell them and don't let them forget it.'
It had been six months later, when just a couple of days apart...
First Tim and Abby said their vows...
Then...
Tony and Ziva said theirs...
Then I waited for the next chapter in their lives and the news I knew would soon come, but this time...
No dinner came.
Instead, the four of them invited Ducky and Palmer up from downstairs.
Abby stood beside Tim's desk, then the news came...the news I had been waiting to hear since the day they had each couple had announced their engagement and the day they got married.
"I'm pregnant!" Ziva and Abby said at the same time.
That was almost two years ago.
Now I stand in my living room with Duck, Palmer, Breena, Tim, Abby, Tony and Ziva...
The new generation of McGee and the new generation of DiNozzo had begun.
Tony and Ziva DiNozzo- Had a baby girl- Caitlin Talia DiNozzo (Caitlin after former NCIS Agent Kate Todd and Talia after Ziva's sister)
She had only been fifteen minutes old then...
Tim and Abby McGee had also had a little girl - Jennifer Colleen McGee (Jennifer after Jennifer Shepard)
When Tony had begun to rub it in a week after they were born and everyone was here in my living room.
He got a few slaps on the head. (Abby, Ziva and me)
Though I lost my girls (Shannon and Kelly) so many years ago, I still had my family.
Maybe not blood or marriage related, but they were still my family.
Already the two girls were not only starting to look like a mix of their parents, but it also seemed that they to be picking up a few things like their parents. When I looked at
Kate and Jenny...
I could see the two were going to become best friends and become close.
I wondered what they would be like in the future.
I thought back to amongst one of the last memories I had of...Kelly.
FLASHBACK *
Kelly Gibbs was in the back yard with Maddie Tyler (her best friend) they were sitting on some the ground and laughing about something.
* END FLASHBACK
I had only found out recently from Maddie what it had been. (They had buried a time capsule.)
I could see Kate and Jenny doing something like that. I hoped they would get to grow up and not have their life cut to short...As Kelly's had been.
It was Saturday, but I knew the three DiNozzo's and the three McGee's wouldn't be staying much longer.
After all the girls had just turned one today, in a little while they would get tired.
So after cake and presents the two families would be heading home. So would everyone else and I would once again be left as I had for so many years now in my empty house.
My house was empty when everyone left, but my life was full.
All of us...
Breena, Palmer, Duck, Tony, Ziva, Kate, Tim, Abby and Jenny
Would all get together at least once a week.
We all worked together at NCIS, but every since Ziva had joined as the last member we had become a family.
We had all been a family before I had told them rule 51, before rule 12 had been broken.
I had seen it years ago, when Tim first met Abby and I knew they would one-day break rule 12.
I had watched since they first met:
Grab ass...
the jokes they told...
the way they flirted...
the way Abby was jealous when Tim had a date with a girl...
the way Tim was jealous when Abby had a date...
They had broken rule 12, before Ziva had become a part of the team. That was a rule that never seem to have apply to them, they had known about and that didn't stop:
The day I enforced...
Rule 51: Sometimes you're wrong
A lot changed and as for the other rule...
Rule 12: Never date a co-worker
Well I guess you could say I stopped enforcing the rule and broke one of my own in the process.
Rule 6 - Never apologize, it's a sign of weakness
As well as a couple more rules, then as they say...
'SOME RULES ARE MENT TO BE BROKEN.'
Everyone had left several hours ago and now I was sitting, once again looking at the pictures and the rules.
I learned something that day at the diner, something I had written down.
I might have written it down, but it took looking at what my life could have been like if other choices had been made and then I finally understood what it meant.
RULE 51: SOMETIMES YOU'RE WRONG
RULE 52: SOMETIME YOU HAVE TO LOOK TO THE PAST TO SEE HOW TO CHANGE THE FUTURE.
Looking back just a few years ago...well I can now smile and say:
I may have lost Shannon and Kelly, but as I had been told...I had done so much good since.
If things had turned out differently, I probably wouldn't have been able to do all the good I did or helped so many people.
Finally, I say one final thing...
RULE 5: YOU DON'T WASTE GOOD
THE END