Here's chapter 10! thank again to my reviewers and to Celtic Crossings for betaing!
The 10th of September dawned bright. Waking before her alarm went off, Caitie got up early. She wanted to make sure she looked good for her first day of school. After taking a quick shower she went downstairs for breakfast. Slipping into her seat she grabbed the gallon of milk and poured herself some. Gibbs stopped and sniffed the air, "are you wearing perfume?" He asked.
"When I took my shower I used some soapy stuff that Mom had left over at Grandmother's house." Caitie said, shrugging. "Grandmother threw it all out actually a few weeks after Mom died. But before she did that, I was able to get the names of the products down. When we were at the mall last week getting my uniform I snuck into the store and bought some." She purposely left out that she'd had to go into Victoria's Secret to buy the soap and lotion. He didn't need to know about that, or about the bra's she'd bought.
"Oh yeah," Gibbs remembered that she'd snuck off while the uniform store had been getting their order ready.
Breakfast finished too soon and as they were on their way out to the car Gibbs took a closer look at her face. "Are you wearing make up?"
"Just clear lip-gloss and some clear mascara, Mom said I wasn't allowed to wear real makeup until I was sixteen." Caitie said. She looked up at him hopefully. "Do you have a different rule about it?" she asked.
Gibbs shook his head, "Nope." he said. While he would have preferred that Caitie wait until she was 18 to wear makeup he knew that teenagers rebelled and frankly, the makeup battle wasn't worth the energy it would take to fight her on it. Sixteen seemed like a good compromise. It suddenly struck Gibbs that Caitie was growing up. He knew that supposedly, Caitie looked a lot like him, but whenever he looked at her, he could only see Jenny. He fully expected to have to keep boys at bay even this early in Caitie's life.
The drive to school was quiet and as Gibbs pulled up into a line of cars less then a block from the school he turned to Caitie. "You have everything?"
"Yeah," Caitie said, she fidgeted in her uniform, soothing the skirt down past her knees, Gibbs didn't like how much the skirt rode up. But, according to the uniform catalog he'd looked at at the mall, there had been several hem options to choose from and Gibbs had been about to simply order the longest length when Caitie had done it for him. The teen then picked up her backpack as Gibbs pulled up in front of the school.
"You sure you don't need for me to come in with you?" He asked, surprised at his protectiveness.
"I'm sure." Caitie said, "I found all my classes during the new student orientation meeting last week. I know where they are."
"Okay, remember to only call my cell phone in case of an emergency and by emergency I mean …"
"A terrorist attack," Caitie finished Gibbs' sentence. "I know, I'll keep my cell phone in my locker and I won't let anyone see the combination."
"Good." Gibbs said, he tried to think of something else to say but could only think of one other thing to say. "Have a good day at school." The words sounded foreign to him, it had been so long since he'd said them.
"I'll try." Caitie said. She got out of the truck and closed the door.
"Don't get into any trouble" Gibbs called through the open window.
"I won't." Caitie promised. She entered the school, unaware of the man across the street taking pictures of her again.
The man across the street again transferred pictures and called the same number again.
"Oh, I like her hair." The woman on the other end said quietly.
"She's going into the 8th grade." He said.
"I know what grade she's going into." The woman said shortly. "I know her better then you do."
"If you know her so well how come you're making me follow her?" The man asked testily.
The woman ignored the comment. "Is she still outside the school?"
"Nope, she's gone inside." But he still took a few pictures of the truck that was still parked in front of the school. "Her dad's staring at the front doors though." Then he sent the pictures of Gibbs in the truck.
He could hear the smile in the woman's voice. "I knew Jethro would fall in love with her."
"So am I ever going to find out why I have to take pictures of this particular family?" the man asked, more out of a desire to keep a conversation going then any real desire to know who he was taking pictures of.
The woman's voice was flat. "Most of the money I'm paying you, buys your silence, and if you don't like how much you're getting, I'm sure that I could find someone else to do this for me." And with that, she hung up.
Across the street, Gibbs finally started up the car again. This wasn't the first time he'd seen this man taking pictures of Caitie. He knew that there were plenty of people in DC under surveillance of one kind or another, seeing the same man twice was a coincidence but three times? It was time to call in the team. The car he saw was different then the last car he'd seen, but the man inside looked the same. The same dark hat, sunglasses and dark suit. Jethro hadn't been able to find any distinguishing marks on the man which was going to make I.D.'ing him difficult. As the man moved in the car, he could see a dark mark on his wrist. A tattoo maybe? It was probably just a watch, but Gibbs made a mental note of it anyway and turned the truck back on. It was time he talked with Abby, see if there was a way he could ID this guy. The last thing he wanted was for someone to come after his Cathlynn.
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