Chapter 11

As Gibbs sits next to Julianna's bedside, his mind wanders back to the thought of what her future holds in store for her. The girl is eight-years-old and all alone. His own daughter was in similar situation sixteen years ago. Both situations have differences and similarities. And both occurred at the same age; eight.

With how he's been here for her this entire time, saved her life twice and cares for her, he begins to wonder if she'll ever know him. After the Calder case is over, will he be forgotten? Gibbs doesn't want to be forgotten, especially after all of this. The thought of adopting Julianna slowly creeps into his mind. A debate goes on inside his head. A debate on whether or not the concept of adopting Julianna is within her best interest. It confuses him because this idea popped into his head without warning and without a clear reason as to why. He doesn't know if the reason is for him, or for her. It should be about and for her, so the recent reminiscing about the past is clouding his judgment.

The thoughts quickly dissipate as he hears commotion outside the room. He exits to find a young blond haired woman arguing with the two police officers; Julianna's protection detail.

"I'll take it from here." Gibbs said as he gently grabs the young woman by her arm and escorts her to the side. They're now in a somewhat private area. "I'm Special…"

"Agent Gibbs." The woman finished his sentence. "Jethro Gibbs… I know. I mean, I remember." She notices the look on his face and quickly realizes he probably doesn't recognize her after so long. "But you probably don't. I'm Maddie… Maddie Tyler. It's been a long time. Umm…" There's a brief pause. "I used to come over to your house. I was Kelly's best friend… Or, I mean, at least I remember of myself… Being her best friend. I like to think she thought so too."

"I remember." Gibbs said. He doesn't particularly recognize her because the last time he saw her was when she was a child. But he remembers Maddie coming over quite often to play with Kelly. The eyes are what he recognizes and gives away who she is. Kelly and Maddie were friends. The two of them were inseparable. "She's still alive, you know."

"I know." She said nervously. "Two days ago, I was contacted by a Timothy McGee on MySpace. It's a social networking site. Umm… I… I have a picture of Kelly on my page. And I wrote a little something for it; My first and still my best friend Kelly. Forever in my memory." There's a brief pause again. "I never stopped crying. I still thought about her after all these years. Tim stumbled across my page, contacted me and explained things. I know she doesn't go by the name Kelly anymore. I was made aware about what happened; how her identity changed and all that… Tim and I have been chatting through MySpace since than. I was planning on paying Kelly… I mean, Jamie… A visit later today."

"I'm sure she would love that." Gibbs said. "Though, don't take it personally if she doesn't remember you. Jamie's memory is a bit fuzzy in certain areas. She doesn't even remember much about her mother. The best thing you can do is be patient with her."

"Alright…"

"What exactly are you doing here?"

"I'm Julianna's big sister." Maddie stated. "I'm mean… Not blood related type of sister. Umm… The program; Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. I'm her big sister." She said. "I've been her big sister since her father left for Iraq. I came as soon as I heard. The, umm…" She notices the slightly confused expression upon his face as he's wondering how she knew Julianna is here. "It's been all over the news the past hour. So how is she?"

"Julianna has been unconscious since yesterday. She's in stable condition. At the time being, only authorized personnel are allowed to set foot in that room. So you have to leave, I'm sorry." Gibbs said as he takes out his cell-phone. "Do you remember where I live?"

"Yes." She replied. "I know Jamie lives right next door. She loved you more than anything. You were her hero. She idolized you. That's one thing I remember about her. So it doesn't surprise me that she lives next door to you."

"Jamie should be home right now. You should go over there."

"Even with my little sister being unconscious, please tell her I said hi and that I'm praying for her." Maddie said in concern for Julianna. "It was good to see you again."

"I'll tell her." He said. "It was good to see you too, Maddie."

Maddie walks away. Gibbs quickly dials a phone number. The call is to FBI agent Tobias Fornell.

"Julianna's location has been compromised. It's all over the news." Gibbs stated. "She's not safe here. We need to move her to a new location."

"Someone in this department leaked the Intel." Fornell said. "I'm already in the process of devising a plan for relocation. She'll be relocated within the hour."

"And you better find that leak."

Gibbs closes his cell-phone.

Maddie arrives at Jamie's house. The car is parked and she exits from the vehicle. She giggles slightly at the glance of Gibbs' house as it's exactly the same she what she remembered from sixteen years old. She looks to the house she parked in front of. The excited nervousness overwhelms her. The friend she cried over night after night and never stopped thinking about is the woman she's about to see.

Jamie hears a knock on the door. She walks from the kitchen into the foyer and opens the door.

Maddie's face lights up with excitement.

"May I help you?" Jamie asked.

"I can't believe it's really you." Maddie said.

"I think you have the wrong house…"

"I'm Maddie Tyler. We used to be best friends. I used to come over your house all the time." Maddie said. The expression on Jamie's face is that of not recognizing her. "Your dad said you might not recognize me or even remember. May I come in?"

"Sure."

Maddie enters into the home. The door closes.

"We used to talk about owning a horse farm someday. Train and breed horses." Maddie said. "We were crazy about horses."

"I remember being crazy about horses." Jamie said.

"But not me?"

"My memory is hazy with certain things in my life before the accident, I'm sorry." Jamie apologized. "Would you like a drink? I just made coffee."

"Coffee is fine."

Jamie walks away and goes to the kitchen. Maddie walks into the living room and looks at the pet tanks.

Jamie enters into the living room with two cups of coffee.

"Thank you." Maddie said. The two of them sit down. She looks to the tanks again. "Interesting choice in pets."

"Those are Chioke's pets." Jamie said. "The iguanas are named; Timon and Pumbaa. And the lobster is named; Simba."

"I'm taking it your son loves The Lion King."

"It's his favorite movie. He watched it hundreds of times already."

"That's like us with Cinderella." Maddie chucked. "I mean… That was like." She grabs a picture frame from a small table next to the char she's sitting on. "So this is Chioke?"

"Yeah… He's our little pride and joy." Jamie said with a smile. "My husband met him while in Nigeria."

"And brought him home."

"Yes."

There's a brief moment of silence as Maddie basically stares at Jamie. Maddie can't help but stare at the friend she never knew was still alive until two days ago.

"My dad found you?" Jamie wondered.

"Actually, it was Tim McGee." Maddie said. "He stumbled across my MySpace page. I have a picture of you posted there. I never stopped thinking about you. With all the years that went by, I still considered you to be my best friend. Always and forever." She said with a tear in her eye. "I have this picture of us together." She hands an old photo to Jamie; a photo of her and Jamie, but back then, known as Kelly.

Jamie examines the photo closely.

"I really wish I could remember." Jamie said. "We look really happy about something in this picture. As if we found something to be funny."

"We were giggling when that picture was taken." Maddie said.

"What were we laughing about?"

"We buried a time capsule in your backyard. We were sitting on it."

"With certain things about my past… Before the accident… My memory needs to be jogged."

"I know… Your dad told me to be patient with you. That is, if you want…"

"I'd like to give this a try." Jamie said. "From this picture we… We looked like we were the closest of friends."

"We were."

"How about we go unearth the time capsule…?"

"Sure."

The two of them stands up and walk to the door. They exit from the house.

They enter into Jamie's father's backyard.

"It's under the bushes over there." Maddie said as she points to the area.

They walk to the middle of the backyard where there's a closed area of stone to hold the bushes inside. Jamie grabs a hand shovel from the side. They kneel down behind the stones.

"It's under this one." Maddie said as she points.

Jamie begins digging. Maddie holds onto the bush her friend is digging under. Finally, there's a cling of metal to metal. The time capsule is found.

Jamie takes the time capsule out from its hole. She wipes the dirt from the top. The two of them look at the Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox they called a time capsule.

For Jamie, the sight of the time capsule causes a couple flashbacks of the day they buried it. She recalls it was her father who took the photo of them sitting on the buried time capsule. A slight sadness fills her heart.

"I'm sorry…" Jamie apologized. "I can't open this."

Jamie places the time capsule back inside the hole and puts the bush and dirt back in their place. She explains to Maddie why she can't open the time capsule.

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Author's Note: Within this chapter, in regards to Maddie's introduction into this series, I used some of her actual dialogue from the episode "Requiem" because it fit well with what I wanted to do here. So for those lines I used, credit goes to the writers of "Requiem." Actually, major kudos to those writers for the entire "Requiem" episode… My favorite NCIS episode. And with it being my favorite, that's why I wanted to bring Maddie in.