Plot bunnies come out of nowhere when you least expect it. Today, I was getting my hair cut and I was talking to my cousin (who just happens to be my stylist… :P she's like the most amazing prom hair person to go to! I know a ton of people who fight over time slots for her before dances, and Julie just goes 'Hey gibby101, what time do you want for me to do your hair for prom? One o'clock? That's great!' and that leaves everybody else scrambling to get an appointment, cuz after all, blood is thicker than water) But anyways we were talking about this guy I like and how socially awkward I am and how I'm not totally sure he's into me, but from what I told her she says he likes me… So I might go for it, even though it would totally be breaking Rule Twelve…
So anyways Kate is going to be sixteen (aka a sophomore in high school) in this chapter and to avoid her parents finding out about the guy, she'll be going to Abby for advice. I'm sorry in advance if Abby sounds OOC. She's one of the people I have a hard time writing. So just leave a review please!
~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~
June, 2007
Kate hopped from foot to foot as she waited in the security line at the NCIS building. She didn't like the looks the two new guards kept giving her. It wasn't her fault they'd never seen a teenager willingly come into a Federal Agency building before.
"Name please, Miss." Sleazy One asked.
"Kate Gibbs." Kate replied. She was hoping her last name would cause the Leering Twins to back down. No such luck. 'Maybe they haven't heard of Dad yet.' Kate thought. 'Well, they'll meet him once I tell him about the looks they keep sending me.'
"Full first name." Sleazy One instructed.
"Caitlin Gibbs." Kate said. "C-A-I-T-L-I-N" she spelled it out as she saw one of the man's fingers gravitated to the 'K' key on his keyboard.
The man nodded and corrected himself as he typed in the name to the data base. "You come here rather frequently, Miss Gibbs." Sleazy One commented as Sleazy Two chuckled from the X-ray machine.
"My Dad's an Agent." Kate replied sweetly. "And he will kick your ass once I tell him about the leering looks you've sent my way."
"What leering looks?" Sleaze Ball One asked.
"The ones you've been giving me for the past ten minutes while I've been waiting in line for my pass." Kate replied. "Sam usually gives me that blue striped one that you're using as a coaster for your coffee mug."
Sleazy One looked down at the special visitor's badge and back at Kate. "It's got your photo on it." He said confused.
"That's because it's her badge." Gibbs said as he came up behind his daughter. "Hi, Kate."
"Oh, hi Daddy." Kate said innocently as she stuck out her hand for the badge. "What are you doing down here?"
"The director might have mentioned you were having some issues at the front desk and that I come in and help." Jethro said absentmindedly. "I was just getting in from a coffee run, so no hassle."
"You take like four of those a day." Kate said. "Lay off the caffeine Pops before it kills you." Kate looked down at Sleazy One. "Uh, badge? Don't got all day here. I have a hair appointment at four thirty." It was two o'clock now.
At the intimidating glare from Gibbs, Sleaze Ball One slid the badge out from underneath his empty coffee mug and reluctantly handed it off to Kate.
"Oh, and Wyman." Gibbs said. "If I ever catch you staring like that at my daughter again, you'll wish you'd never been born."
Wyman, formerly addressed as Sleazy One or Sleaze Ball One, nodded with wide eyes. He'd heard stories in the break room about Gibbs, like he could shoot a man from twenty feet away and hit him in the heart, and that criminals would rather confess than have to sit through an interrogation with Gibbs, but he didn't think they were true until now.
Kate just breezed through the security checkpoints and stepped onto the elevator and closed the doors before her father could step onto the elevator. Kate rode it to the second floor, got off and headed down the hallway that led to the elevator to Abby's lab and Autopsy.
Once she was on Abby's floor, Kate just grinned as she recognized the new song from Stop Making Friends. Kate was pretty sure it was called "Fear"; she loved it, and was planning on downloading it from iTunes once she learned the title.
"Hey, Abbs!" Kate cried over the music.
The loveable Goth whirled around to see a slightly frustrated blond teenager with flyaway hair standing in her lab. "Kate!" Abby squealed and rushed to hug the young girl.
Kate dropped her blue L.L. Bean backpack with a THUD and embraced her pseudo sister. "I haven't' seen you down here in forever!" Abby said excitedly. "What brings you down here?"
"I need your help." Kate said as they separated. "It isn't illegal, but I don't want Mom or Dad to find out about it yet."
"Find out about what?" Abby asked as she paused her mix CD.
"There's this guy…" Kate started uncertainly as she chewed on her bottom lip.
"Ahh." Abby said. "Our little Kate has a crush on somebody!"
Kate nodded. "Can I tell you about him and you won't tell anybody, not even Timmy?"
Abby pretended to think about it and nodded. "Come on," she said as she tugged Kate into her office. "We need us some girl time!"
Kate just giggled and threw herself onto the futon in Abby's office.
"So, spill!" Abby ordered as she gave Kate her newest CafPow! The one Abby was drinking now was only a quarter of a way empty.
Kate greedily slurped on the caffeinated drink before she spoke. "Well," she said after a moment of heartfelt slurping. "His name is Daniel Osborne, but everybody calls him Oz."
"Like the kid on Buffy?" Abby asked.
"Exactly," Kate said. "That's what I asked him, and he just laughed. Apparently his older brother Mike is a huge Buffy nerd and started calling Danny 'Oz' one day and it stuck."
"I thought you said everybody calls this guy Oz." Abby said as she and Bert joined Kate on the futon.
"Yup." Kate said. "But he told me to call him Danny. His friends were kinda surprised when he said that to me."
Abby smiled. It seemed that Kate's little crush was reciprocated. "Then what?"
"Well he kinda hinted that his band was playing at this under 18 club in Arlington on Friday night and that I should go." Kate said. "But I don't think I can go."
"Why not?" Abby asked. "You take your friends, tell Gibbs you're sleeping over at Becky's and then you're good."
"No go on the Becky part." Kate said sullenly. "She has pneumonia."
"Oooph." Abby said. "What about Gabby, Jenna, Julia and Michelle?"
"Shelly's got a bat mitzvah to go to, Jenna's uncle flying in from Oklahoma, Julia's grounded for sneaking out last weekend, and Gabby's taking the SAT's the next morning." Kate rattled off. "Believe me; I tried to find out if they could just get away for a half hour."
The two girls sighed and took long slurps from their oversized caffeinated beverages.
"What about your cousin Calliegh?" Abby asked suddenly.
"The one from Ireland?" Kate asked in disbelief. "What about her?"
"Could she go with you?" Abby asked.
"She probably would if she was in the country." Kate said sullenly. "Aunt Juliette thought it would be a good idea to move back to freaking Dublin to be closer to Uncle Liam."
Shannon's older half sister Juliette had married a wealthy Irish business man the summer Jethro and Shannon had met. Shannon had gone to Stillwater for the summer to escape the craziness that had enveloped her parents as they had planned the wedding. Out of the five O'Reilly children, Calliegh was Kate's favorite for two reasons. One, Calliegh was the only girl, and two, she liked to liven things up and constantly said "Loosen up Uncle LJ! Me and Katie here aren't gonna get ourselves killed if we go clubbing tonight!" to Jethro. Most of the time it worked and the two cousins would head off to The Coach House in Arlington with Calliegh's entourage. The girl was four years older than Kate, and had friends everywhere! Very rarely did Calliegh enter a major city where some big wig CEO's daughter was tripping over herself to meet the heiress of O'Reilly Shipping Industries. Although you couldn't tell it by the way she acted, Calliegh was a very shy, insecure girl. The Gibbs family brought out the bolder wilder half of Calliegh, which was a good thing.
"Well, can't you call her?" Abby asked.
"I don't think so." Kate said. "They flew out yesterday night and Calliegh's probably exhausted."
Abby nodded and pulled Kate in for a hug. "Well, you know what that means?"
"What?" Kate asked.
"You, me and Ziva are having a girls night out on Friday." Abby firmly stated. "We'll make an appearance at the Coach House and you can schmooze with crush for a while. Ziva and I can mingle and supervise at the same time."
Kate slurped nosily on her CafPow! "I don't think Ziva should come." She said after a few minutes. "It'd look weird if I went into a teenagers club with two adults."
"Oh." Abby said. "You're right."
"You I can easily pass off as my way cool cousin in college, but Ziva…" Kate trailed off.
"I see your point," Abby said as she too slurped away. "We need to send someone on a CafPow! run." Abby commented as she shook her plastic cup. "I'm almost out."
Kate and Abby looked at each other and burst into laughter.
"So," Abby said as she gasped for breath. The two girls could easily dissolve into giggles over the simplest things, like someone stating the obvious. "What's the scoop on Danny?"
Kate actually blushed. She hadn't been this embarrassed since her 'friend' (now affectionately referred to as Aunt Flo) had made a surprise appearance in middle school. "Well," Kate said. "He's got dirty blond hair and he kinda looks like one of the guys from Stick It, and he's got blue eyes, and he always flirts with me. At least I think he's flirting with me." Kate added nervously. "What if he isn't flirting with me and I'm taking this the wrong way!"
"Relax." Abby said. "Tell me what he does when you think he's flirting with you."
"Well there was this one time during my study that I went to the library and Danny was there too, and he sat down at my table and started doing his homework like I was doing." Kate started off. "And I was having trouble with my geometry so Danny saw how frustrated I was, pulled his chair around the table and just stared helping me with it. He doesn't normally do that." Kate said. "Most of the time he tells people the basics and lets them struggle on their own to find the answer. He just sat there with me until I could do them on my own. He even gave me a little hug when the bell rang."
"He is so totally into you." Abby said. "He'd be crazy if he wasn't."
Kate giggled and picked at Bert's collar. "Earlier this week Maddie White was trying to make me feel bad about something and Danny just walked right up to her and told her to shut the 'eff' up cuz she didn't know me enough to make those statements."
"What did she say?" Abby asked Kate.
Kate shook her head 'no'. "I'm not going to tell you. I told Mr. McCurtain and he's handling it. I heard he's suspending Maddie for a few days and pulling her off of the varsity cheer team."
"Is that a big deal?" Abby asked as she heard Kate's tone of voice.
"Huge." Kate replied. "Maddie's a captain. Coach Cooper is pissed."
"I'd think she would be if he captain just got suspended for saying something." Kate said. "The bitch slapped me across the face too."
"No!" Abby said.
"Yup." Kate said with a nod. "Where do you think Dad was on Monday morning? A two hour long coffee run?"
Abby just shrugged. "I had a doctor's appointment so I came in late on Monday. I didn't even notice Gibbs wasn't here. They didn't have a case."
"Oh." Kate said as she continued to drink her CafPow! She was officially addicted to the caffeinated beverage now; thanks to Abby. "So about Friday…"
~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~
Friday night around six-ish, Kate grabbed her old soccer bag, which doubled as her overnight bag, and bounced down the stairs as she waited for Abby's hearse to pull up in the driveway.
"Where are you going?" Jethro asked his daughter when he saw the overnight bag by the front door.
"I'm sleeping over at Abby's tonight." Kate replied. "Why?"
"Did we talk about this and I forgot about agreeing?" Jethro asked her.
"Nope." Kate said. "Mom said I could go."
"She did, did she?"
"Yeah." Kate said. "She and Jay-Jay are at the supermarket bee-tee-dubs."
"Bee-tee-dubs?" Jethro asked.
"BTW. By the way? Ringing any bells there, Dad?" Kate asked with a laugh.
Jethro sighed. "Teenagers." He muttered went back to his crossword puzzle in the living room.
Kate just giggled and flung open the front door to the house as Abby's hearse pulled into the driveway. "Bye Dad! See you tomorrow night!"
"Bye Kate." Jethro said. "Behave!" he added.
"Don't I always?" Kate said and then she was gone.
"Hey, Kate." Abby said as Kate climbed into the car and threw her bag into the back. "You ready to hit the Coach House?"
"I need to change at your place first." Kate said. "There's no way I'm going there in these jeans or this sweatshirt."
"Ahhhh." Abby said with a sigh. "Young love at its best."
"Abby." Kate whined. "I thought we agreed to keep this on the down low!"
"Kate!" Abby whined imitating Kate. "I haven't told anybody, and besides, it's just you and me in the car."
Kate stuck her tongue out at Abby.
"You never did tell me the name of Danny's band." Abby said after they had been jamming out to one of Abby's CDs for a while.
"Oh." Kate said with smile. "It's um… You know, I don't know it either!" she admitted. "All I know is that he's the drummer and he says that they're really good."
"He's biased." Abby said.
"So am I!" Kate retorted. "I mean he's… he's Danny! The band has got to be really good, or at least the percussion is going to be really good."
"Oh, you've got it baaaad." Abby said teasingly as she pulled into her condo's driveway.
Kate just blushed and playfully punched Abby in the arm as she grabbed her bag and headed for the condo.
~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~
Ten minutes later Kate had changed into a clean pair of jeans and a tee shirt that had "Dingoes Ate My Baby" emblazoned across the front.
"Where'd you find that shirt?" Abby asked.
"The wonders of the internet and your mother's credit card." Kate said wistfully. "It as a birthday present."
Abby smiled. "It's very appropriate seeing you're crushing on a guy named Oz."
Kate laughed and she and Abby were off to see Danny and his band at the Coach House.
~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~
Once Kate and Abby made it into the club, Kate began scanning the crowd for Danny's shock of red hair. Kate found him on stage setting up with the rest of the band, and the name on the bass drum was blocked by Reggie Marsden, a senior who played bass for the band. When Danny looked up to scan the crowd himself, Kate waved and a huge grin broke out over the junior's face.
Abby just laughed and headed for the bar. Even though Coach House mainly catered to the local teenagers, plenty of college students and 20 somethings frequented it as well. With this clientele in mind, the management did keep some alcohol on hand, and Abby wanted to have a little and let Kate have some time with Danny before his band went on.
"Hey, Danny." Kate said as Danny appeared next to her.
"Hey, Kate. Nice shirt." Danny said with a smile.
"Thanks, my mom got it for me for my birthday."
"It looks good on you." Danny said causing Kate to blush.
"Thanks." She muttered.
"You want a Coke?" Danny asked her after a moment of awkwardness between them.
"Sure." Kate said.
Danny took her hand in his and led her through the crowd to the bar. Abby waved from her barstool and watched the two teens on their first date.
Almost an hour after Kate and Abby had arrived; the band was assembled on stage, and Tom Mosley, a senior and the lead singer, tapped on the microphone and blew into before he spoke. "Hey guys, we're My Baby ate the Dingoes…"
The crowd went wild as Abby slid up next to Kate. "Looks like Danny Boy's band is pretty popular."
"How could they not with that name?" Kate asked Abby. "It's like the band from Buffy…"
"But backwards!" Abby finished. "How original."
"Shh!" Kate said as Tom began to talk again.
"Thanks a ton for having us here tonight," Tom was saying. "We're going to start off with some covers tonight if that okay with you. According to Oz, it's a certain somebody's favorite song in the entire world."
Kate started to blush when Tom actually looked at her. "They're not going to play it are they?"
Abby just smiled. "I think they are."
"I'm going to hug him, kiss him, and then kill him." Kate said. "In that order."
Abby just laughed as My Baby ate the Dingoes started to play Sister Hazel's song 'All for You'.
Kate just sighed and watched Danny play and he watched her watching him. It was cute, Abby decided. She just hoped that Gibbs didn't find out about their little excursion just yet…
~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~
So my amazingest friend ever Surferdude lots of numbers….I'm too lazy to check them all, gets virtual tootsie pops for being my 100th reviewer! Yay! 100 reviews at chapter 20. Let's keep the ball rolling people and try to get 150 before chapter 28. That too much to ask for? Reviews are like air. I need them!