Maggie pulled up in front of Gibbs' house. It was exactly what she would expect Gibbs to live in. From their conversations, she knew he'd bought it when he was married to his first wife. She knew at least one other wife had lived there too. When that wife divorced him, she cleaned out his bank account but let him keep the house. She walked up the stairs and rang the doorbell. She loved the style of the front door, the big glass window in it, even the stained glass window next to the door. She made a mental note of them for ideas for her house.
"Have a good time?" Gibbs asked when he opened the front door.
"Actually I did." She stepped inside the house, stood on her tip toes and kissed Gibbs on the cheek. Gibbs put an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
"Not good enough." He whispered and kissed her fully on the mouth. When he pulled back and moved the shut the door, he paused for a second. He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but let it go when Maggie tugged at his hand.
"Got a beer?" she asked stepping into the living room.
Gibbs walked past her and playfully swatted her on the backside on his way into the kitchen. Maggie took her jacket off and put it on the chair. This was the home of a man still holding on to his past, even if it wasn't that obvious.
"Here ya go." Gibbs handed her a beer and took her hand leading her to the couch. He pulled her down next to him. "So, what do you think of them?"
Maggie took a sip of her beer.
"They are really a great group of people."
Gibbs nodded his head in agreement as he drank his beer.
"They think very highly of you."
"Do I want to know what they said?"
Maggie laughed. "It wasn't an all about Gibbs session. You're name came up, but it was mostly in connection with Tony."
Maggie filled him in on some of the things they had asked her about Tony and growing up, what he was like, where did the movie thing come in.
"He does like his movies." Gibbs agreed. "Is that something you share?"
"Gibbs, did you see a TV in my house?"
"No." He thought for a minute. "Hell even I have one of those."
"Okay, my TV isn't here yet. Let me say that different. Tony loves movies, I love books. Tony tries to get me to see a movie if it was a book and I always argue that the book is better than the movie. The only movie I will cop to getting him hooked on is James Bond."
"And which one is your favorite?" Gibbs pulled her closer so that her legs were resting on his lap.
"Totally Daniel Craig. I have a thing for blue eyes." She told him as she leaned up and kissed him.
"What else do they know about you now that I don't?" Gibbs asked a few minutes later.
Maggie toyed with his fingers as she recalled the conversations from earlier.
"Let's see. They know that after James died, I had to learn all about football because Jamie played and I was never the football person."
"No? Was that James' area?" Gibbs asked. It was comfortable for Maggie to talk about her late husband, something he wasn't very good at; talking about his life with Shannon and Kelly.
"James did all the Pop Warner games and coached when he could. Me, I was the Red Sox fan and took Jamie to home games all the time. If the Yankees were in town, we had third base seats."
"What else?"
"Well they know that I teach, that I love working with the special needs kids. That I love sushi."
"I knew that too." Gibbs admitted.
"And how did you know that? NCIS special agent skills?" Maggie teased.
"You have a sushi set in your cabinet. I saw it this morning when I was looking for coffee mugs."
"Okay, I'll give you that. They know that I am a runner, well Ziva has seen me, and they know that I like to kick box."
"I'll remember that if we get into an argument."
"I'd never use it on you. Self-defense only."
"Yeah well I've had ex-wives that know how to use baseball bats and nine irons." He told her.
"That's just wrong." Maggie told him. "They know how James died and how Tony helped me out a lot with Jamie when things were awkward."
Gibbs gave Maggie a questioning look.
"Jamie was always a good kid, but he was 15 when his father died and during his senior year he acted out here and there. Drinking, driving too fast. Things like that. Because James was a cop, the other cops looked out for him, never charging him, bringing him home to me. Jamie resented it, said that his friends said he was a Mama's boy and it made him angrier. So I told James' old buddies that the next time they caught him drinking or speeding, arrest him. Toss him behind bars for the night; let him see how it felt."
"Did it work?"
"The phone call he made wasn't to me, but to Tony. And let me tell you Tony read him the riot act. Tony made Jamie check in with him every other day about his grades and what he was doing and who he was with."
"Really?"
"I know, it doesn't sound like Tony, but Tony knew how it felt to not have a full time dad around. He wanted Jamie to know that he'd always be there for him no matter what."
Gibbs nodded, that made sense.
"Why did he become a Marine?" Gibbs asked.
"He loved the uniform." Maggie untangled herself from Gibbs and went to pick up her purse. She took out her wallet and withdrew the picture of Jamie in his dress uniform and brought it back to Gibbs. He picked up his glasses from the table and looked at the formal headshot of Maggie's son.
"He looks a lot like Tony." Gibbs noticed the same face shape and familiar nose and mouth.
"Yeah, he got the DiNozzo gene there, but his hair is lighter and he has his father's eyes."
Gibbs handed her back the picture. "What he get from you?"
"My intelligence and amazing cooking ability."
"Trust me;" Gibbs began as he moved her back down on the couch. "You aren't hurting in the looks department."
A half hour later, somewhere around Maggie's blouse ending up on the floor and Gibb's red USMC tee shirt on the coffee table, Maggie felt a buzzing on her hip.
"You're buzzing Gibbs." She told him as his mouth moved down between her breasts.
"Ignore it." He told her, even though he knew he couldn't.
"Well then move over a little to your left and put that vibrating to good use."
Gibbs lifted his head and gave Maggie a 'are you serious' look that made her laugh. He reached into his pocket and flipped the phone open.
"Yeah..Gibbs."
Maggie started to move herself out from under Gibbs, but he wouldn't budge. Maybe this wasn't an urgent phone call.
"I'll be there in 20 minutes. Call the rest of them in." Gibbs flipped his phone shut. He lowered his head back down to where it had been a few seconds ago. He inhaled the scent of Maggie's perfume and filed it in his memory for later.
"You have to go?" Maggie asked as she stroked the back of his head.
Gibbs nodded his head and kissed Maggie at the hollow of her throat before he moved off of her to retrieve his shirt and hand Maggie hers.
Maggie stood up and put her shirt back on.
"It's okay Gibbs. It's part of your job." She told him.
He knew that. He knew that she would understand that too. Her husband had been a cop and she knew that sometimes the job would have to come first. They walked out together, Gibbs walking Maggie to her car parked in front of his house. He opened the door for her and stopped to kiss her before she got into the car.
"Call or text me when you can." She told him when she sat down in the car.
Gibbs nodded and watched her drive off down the street.
The next afternoon, Gibbs and Ziva were sitting in the company car watching the apartment of a suspect in the murder they'd been called in on the previous night. One of their cold cases was no longer so cold. It was quiet in the car, neither person speaking, just watching for their suspect. Gibbs knew that Ziva had something on her mind but was struggling with how to approach it, so he did it for her. He took a sip of his coffee before asking her.
"Why were you outside my house last night?" he asked. When Maggie rang the doorbell he had seen Ziva's red Mini-Cooper pull up in front of the house two doors down. She tried to park in the shadows, but he knew it was her.
Ziva should have been surprised that Gibbs had seen her, but it was Gibbs after all and not too much got past him.
"Why haven't you told Tony you're involved with his sister?"