Normally Gibbs would be working on the fourth of July, but director Morrow had decided to be nice and give the team the day off. Pacci and Jenny had packed up his car and headed to the beach for the day, leaving Gibbs as the only team member in the area.
Every year, there was a Fourth of July parade through the small DC suburb where Gibbs lived. In past years, Gibbs had hated the parade for various reasons. Certainly because it was part of the celebrations that made tracking criminals through the area more difficult, but mostly because the last time he had gone, he was taking Kelly.
Now that he had his family, things were different. Last year, Tony had wanted to go, but Gibbs was working so he ended up staying home alone. This year, Tony had started talking about the parade early , around mid-June, trying to get the others as psyched up about it as he was, and when he found out the week before that Gibbs had the day off he really started begging him to take them.
Gibbs couldn't say he blamed him. He had never been to a parade before. The others had wanted to go as well. Abby had been particularly persuasive, and in the end Gibbs had agreed to take them all to the parade.
The day of the parade, Gibbs got up early, before everyone else and began prepping for the parade. He got a small cooler and packed it full of ice and bottles of water, not wanting anyone to become dehydrated. The parade started at seven o'clock and generally lasted until eleven or so, therefore Gibbs wasn't worried about packing lunch.
He got everyone up at six to start preparing. Abby, and Tony were the most enthusiastic and had roped Sarah and Tim into dressing patriotically. Michelle and Kate also dressed in red, white and blue, though toned down to the point where they weren't wearing anything out of the ordinary. Dwayne and Stan both dressed nondescriptly, though Dwayne wore a red shirt and Stan wore a blue one. Gibbs had a red and blue stripped shirt, which he wore, but other than that, he simply dressed normally.
It was too hot to cook anything, so they had cold cereal for breakfast, because Gibbs insisted they eat before going out. Over breakfast Stan said, "Why are we going to the parade anyway?"
Gibbs shrugged, "You and Dwayne don't have to come if you don't want to."
Tony looked at Stan, "Come on, you know it's going to be awesome," he said pleadingly.
Stan sighed, "Alright." Tony grinned and pumped his fist in the air.
Gibbs looked at Dwayne, who looked sideways at Stan before saying, "I'll come too." Gibbs just smirked.
After they had finished breakfast, and Gibbs had made sure that everyone had applied sun screen and asked if anyone needed to go to the bathroom before they left, (eliciting eye rolls from the older children), they set out. The place that they were going to watch the parade from was within walking distance of the house, so they didn't take the truck, instead moving out on foot.
Tony was bouncing up and down with excitement, dragging Stan with one arm and Kate with the other, not running too far ahead only because his father kept calling him back. Dwayne followed at a much slower pace, letting Michelle hold his hand. Gibbs brought up the rear, holding the cooler in one hand, with Abby on his back and holding Tim's hand with is other hand, while Tim was also holding Sarah's hand, as he kept an eye one everybody.
The managed to get to the street the parade was going to be going down without too much trouble. The street was already lined with people. There was a small break in the line big enough for two people, which Tony pulled Kate into. Dwayne and Stan were tall enough to see over the crowds and after some pleading, Dwayne put Sarah on his shoulders and Stan put Abby on his shoulders. Michelle ended up on Gibbs' shoulders and Gibbs helped Tim up so that he was standing on the cooler.
The parade started to go by. Tony, Kate, Tim, Michelle, Abby and Sarah cheered loudly with the crowd, while Gibbs, Stan and Dwayne watched and smiled slightly at their antics. At one point a float came by with someone flinging handfuls of tootsie rolls off of it at various intervals. They threw a handful right near Tony, so of course he and Kate ran out to grab the candy, along with the other kids in the vicinity. Kate managed to get two tootsie rolls; Tony managed to get five. Tim tried to run and grab some too, but ended up tripping after jumping off the cooler.
Gibbs bent down to help Tim up. He wasn't hurt but he was upset that he didn't get any candy. Tony was eating one of the tootsie rolls, grinning, when Tim looked at him with watery eyes. Tony looked at him for a second before giving in and handing him one of the tootsie rolls he had gathered. He also gave one each to Abby, Sarah and Michelle, who were also upset about not getting any. Stan mumbled something about things not being fair under his breath, and Kate ended up giving him her second tootsie roll.
The candy made everyone thirsty, so Gibbs took the opportunity to get some water out of the cooler and make everyone drink some, to stay hydrated, before shutting the cooler and helping Tim back up so he could see the rest of the parade.
The rest of the parade passed rather uneventfully for a parade. Once the last float had gone by, Gibbs lifted Michelle down from his shoulders. Dwayne lifted Sarah down from his shoulders and Stan lifted Abby down from his shoulders. Gibbs then helped Tim down from the cooler before picking it up and glancing around to make sure everyone was accounted for.
With a "Come on," from Gibbs, they started to head home. Abby was clinging to Gibbs' hand, talking a mile a minute about the parade. Tony was on Gibbs other side, and although he couldn't grab Gibbs' hand because of the cooler, he was also babbling a mile a minute. Gibbs just smiled slightly. Michelle was clinging to Dwayne's arm and Sarah was holding his other hand, skipping slightly, while also holding Tim's hand. Stan and Kate were just walking along, hand in hand.
When they got back to the house, Gibbs glanced around to make sure that everyone had arrived home safely, which they had, before heading straight to the kitchen and setting the cooler down. Tony, Tim, and Sarah had gone upstairs to get changed out of their overly patriotic, but uncomfortable parade garb. Sarah, Michelle, and Stan turned on the fan in the living room full blast, before plopping down on the couch in front of it. Abby was still clinging to Gibbs arm as he made his way into the kitchen and Dwayne followed them.
Dwayne sank down into one of the chairs at the kitchen table and closed his eyes. Abby used one of the chairs to climb up onto the kitchen table and sit on the edge of it. Once Gibbs was done putting the waters away, he glanced up at the clock. Seeing that it was almost noon, he turned to them and said, "How does tuna for lunch sound?"
Abby grinned and said, "Sounds good." Dwayne just hummed in agreement without opening his eyes. Gibbs opened the cabinet and grabbed several cans of tuna before opening the fridge to get mayonnaise.
Tim and Sarah walked into the kitchen a few minutes later. Tim sat down next to Dwayne. Sarah asked Gibbs, "Whatcha making?"
"Tuna." Gibbs replied as he dumped the final can of tuna into the bowl. Dwayne, who had been dozing, opened his eyes and blinked before his eyes settled on Abby.
"Abby," He began hesitantly, "Did you get sunscreen on your back?"
Abby swung her feet back and forth nonchalantly, "Of course I did. Why?"
Part of her patriotic outfit was a halter top with an open back. Tim and Dwayne looked at each other before Tim spoke up, "A-abby, your back is…It's really red."
Gibbs came and looked at Abby's back. He said, "I'll rub some aloe on it after lunch."
Abby whined, "But it doesn't hurt."
Sarah sat down at the table, and said "It will."
Gibbs set down the bowl of tuna and said, "Better tell the others lunch is ready."
Abby hopped down from the table and set off for the other room, Sarah following behind. Dwayne sighed and stood up, heading over to the cabinets for plates as Gibbs grabbed the bread. Gibbs said, "Enjoy the parade?"
Dwayne sighed, "It was…nostalgic." Gibbs hummed in agreement as his lips quirked upwords, setting the bread on the table as Dwayne set out nine plates and said to Tim, "Can you please grab napkins?" Tim nodded and hopped up to do what he was told.
Just then Abby burst into the kitchen followed closely by Sarah, who was pulling Michelle, and Tony and Stan, who were walking at a slower pace. They all sat down at the table. Tony grabbed two slices of bread and pulled the tuna bowl toward him, applying some to his first piece of bread before slapping them together then passing the tuna on to Stan, who was sitting next to him.
Abby was the first to speak, "I think we should go to the parade again next year."
Michelle piped up, "Morrow might not give dad the day off next year."
Dwayne shrugged, "Or it could rain and they'll cancel the parad."
Stan rolled his eyes, "Now that you've said that it won't."
Tony said, "Well if it doesn't rain, we could go even if dad doesn't get the day off. I bet there'll be another guy throwing tootsie rolls next year."
Kate turned to Stan, "You owe me for earlier by the way." Stan just snorted. Gibbs didn't say anything. He just grinned, enjoying spending time with his gibblets.
A/N I know it's rather late for a Fourth of July fic. I promised myself I would finish it by Saturday, but now it's Wednesday, and I'm sorry I made you wait. I based the parade on the celebrations that go on in my town on the Fourth, including the flinging tootsie rolls thing. Tootsie Roll is a trademarked brand name, which I do not own. Hope you liked it.