The Game Plan
Gibbs slumped down onto the couch and put his head in his hands, "How much does military school cost?" he mumbled.
"Jethro," Jenny sighed.
"Jen, this is ridiculous. She's rude. She's mean. She's…She's having sex now. She's completely out of control." He said.
Jenny rubbed her stomach, "I-I'm sure she didn't mean it-."
"Yes, she did, Jen. Now, this time is enough. She can't go around calling her sisters names, and our unborn child. Our, child. Jen, enough's enough. I want her out, now."
Ziva stood there speechless, "W-well-."
"Ziva, go upstairs." Gibbs ordered.
"But-."
"Ziva, just do as your father says, we'll discuss this later."
Ziva didn't move.
"Now!" Gibbs shouted.
Ziva obeyed quickly and rushed down the stairs.
"Guys, I think we took it a little too far." Ziva said as she shut the door to her bedroom. "Is she crying?" Kate asked.
Ziva nodded, "Sobbing. Dad says he gonna have her do a pregnancy test."
Kate smiled, "Good. She deserves every bit."
Ziva rubbed the side of her arm, "I don't know…I feel kinda guilty."
"Why?" Alexi asked.
"Maybe they were really in love." Ziva said.
Kate scoffed, "Yeah right, she was just using him for props. She was gonna dump him anyway."
"So? She was gonna do it on her own time."
Kate looked at her sister strangely, "Since when do you have a conscience?"
"Yeah, you threw a rock at my brother!" Alexi added.
Ziva smiled, "He pulled my hair." She responded.
Kate shrugged, "But anyway, now I won't have to worry about gagging in my own house."
Ziva put her hands on her hips, "Kate, the used condom was a little much."
"Oh, you can say condom but not sex?" Alexi teased.
Ziva rolled her eyes, "Still."
Kate laughed, "I thought it was kinda funny."
"Her face wasn't funny," Ziva said. "Neither was Tony's. And mom and dad are pretty mad."
"Whoa, whoa. Like how mad?" Kate asked.
Ziva shrugged, "Sounds like they're fighting right now."
They all shushed and listened closely, barely, just barely, you could hear them shouting quietly at each other.
"They really are fighting." Alexi murmured.
"And it must be bad, my parents never ever fight, this is not good. Not good at all."
"Bye, Lex!" Ziva called as she shut the front door. "Did Alexi leave already?"Jenny asked as she walked down the stairs.
Ziva looked at her mother, her eyes were red and puffy, and even though she tried to smile it wasn't convincing for her.
"Mom? Are you okay?" Ziva asked as she stepped closer.
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine Ziva, but come on. Dinner's almost ready, go wash up." Jenny said as she wiped her face.
Ziva hesitated but nodded before climbing up the stairs,
"Still no…you know who?" Kate asked quietly as she walked into their bedroom.
Ziva shrugged, "He's probably busy."
Kate nodded, "Yeah, you're probably right."
They heard their father knock on Jeanne's door, "Jeanne, come on, dinner's ready." He said gruffly.
They heard Jeanne sniffle before the shuffling of feet down the stairs.
Kate and Ziva looked at each other before slowly following, "Have a seat at the table." Gibbs commanded.
All three girls sat down next to each other and looked down at the plate of food in front of them.
"Eat." Gibbs said as he plopped angrily down at the table.
They all picked up a fork and picked through the parmesan chicken.
"I said eat, not pick at it to death." Gibbs hissed.
It was so unlike him, that is scared them half to death. So they didn't bother trying him.
They eat quickly until Jenny stopped them all.
"Jethro, they're girls. Not one of your agents." Jenny said in a scolding tone.
Kate, Ziva, and Jeanne looked from one end of the table to the other, at both of their parents.
Gibbs sighed and shook his head, "Yeah, but my agents are of the legal limit for sexual reproduction."
Kate played with the edges of her fork and was the first to dare to speak, "Dad, can we not talk about this at the dinner table?"
Jenny smiled softly and nodded, "I agree with Caitlin."
All three girls looked at each other; they knew it had to be bad for Kate to be called, Caitlin.
Gibbs stood up from the table and grabbed his jacket, "I'm going out for coffee."
"We have coffee right here." Jenny called.
Gibbs turned around and looked at the table, four little faces looked back at him and he shook his head,
"I just need to clear my head Jen." He murmured before shutting the door.
They could hear his combat boots clunk on the wooden porch and then they heard his car start and speed off down the street.
Jenny placed her head in her hands and sighed.
"Mom," Ziva said quietly.
Jenny held up a hand before standing up, "I am going to lay down…I'm sure you three can clean up without killing each other, correct?"
"Yes, Ma'am." They all said in unison.
Jenny nodded before walking up the stairs quickly and shutting her door.
Kate and Ziva looked at each other before looking back at their plates.
"I'm not really that hungry…" Jeanne muttered as she pushed her plate away after a while of silence.
"Yeah, me neither." Kate and Ziva said.
"Um, well. How about I clean off the table, and, maybe Kate, you could wash the dishes, and then Ziva, maybe you could, um, put them in the dishwasher." Jeanne said cautiously.
Both girls nodded and stood up, Jeanne took all three of their plates and dumped them back into the pot. She walked back over to the table and looked at her parents, untouched, cold plates.
Jeanne wiped face once more before scraping off their contents and handing the plates to Kate.
Ziva was perched up on the counter next to the dishwasher, waiting for Kate to hand the plates to her, and they all had frowns on their faces.
"I don't want mom and dad to get a divorce." Kate said to no one in particular, but they all got the point.
"Me neither." Jeanne muttered as she leaned against the counter top.
"So, you know, we should, maybe try and stop all the fighting." Ziva said.
"But we're girls that's what we do." Jeanne emphasized.
Ziva rolled her eyes, "So? I know tons of girls who don't fight as much as we do."
Jeanne shrugged, "But we're sisters, maybe not my blood but-."
"Stop mentioning that! We're god sisters. It doesn't matter. We're sisters because our parents wanted us to be, do you think that your parents would want to see you like this?" Kate asked, fiercely.
Jeanne and Ziva's eyes drifted to the ground, "No." they both murmured.
"So, look, we know that Ziva didn't send that text message and Jeanne didn't have sex with Tony."
Jeanne crossed her arms across her chest, "And how would you know?"
Ziva scoffed, "You would have tweeted it."
Jeanne sighed, "Alright."
Kate placed her hands on the counter, "So, let's just start over with a clean slate. No more yelling, no more fighting, just loving, caring sisters that we use to be. Are you with me?"
Ziva hopped down off the counter and looked down at Kate's hand.
"Well, Kate it's not we don't do stuff to annoy each other."
Kate rolled her eyes, "Ziva stop making excuses."
Ziva placed her hands on hips, "They're not excuses. They're…reasons. Like, we fight, when Jeanne takes hour long showers." Ziva said.
Kate looked over at Jeanne, "If you wanna take hour long showers can you please, either do it at night, wake really early, or be the last one up." Kate explained.
"And since when did you become the peacemaker?" Jeanne asked.
"Look, remember my friend Quinn?"
Ziva nodded, "Yeah, whatever happened-."
"Quinn killed himself. Because his parents were always fighting and one day he couldn't take it anymore, so he just hung himself."
As tears were already forming in the corners of Kate's eyes she had to swallow back sobs as she tried to finish.
"….and I don't want that to be any of us, or that little baby. I just want us to be a happy, normal, family, before all this stupid shit started happening."
Kate looked between her two sisters, "So can we please stop the fighting, before, Grandpa Ducky has to take one of us out in a body bag, please." Kate pleaded.
Ziva but the edge of her lip and nodded before placing her hand on top of Kate's and Jeanne soon followed.
"So, what now?" Jeanne asked.
Kate wiped her face before pointing upstairs, "We're all gonna write some apologies to mom and dad, and then you'll even do one for the baby. And then we're gonna fix up the nursery for them. They're really pissed at each other, so, we gotta hatch a plan, a really good plan."
"A Game Plan."
