Gibbs cocked his head and gave his crooked smile. "Well, yeah. Lily is my daughter as far as I'm concerned. We're going to make us legal; we may as well make her legal too."
Mimi kissed him, laughing. "You make her sound like she's illegal or something."
Gibbs smiled. "Well, I guess it comes with the job." He looked at Mimi. "So, are you ok with this?"
"Oh, yes, Jethro. It is the most selfless act I have ever seen." Mimi leaned her head on his chest.
Chapter Thirty-Six: "Welcome to the Family"
Mimi looked at Gibbs. "And all that wedding stuff? I know you were probably just thinking of going down to city hall for a civil ceremony."
She took a deep breath. "Jethro, I had my big huge wedding when I was 19 years old. I don't need all of that. All I care about is that you and Lily and our family are there."
"Well, I was thinking more of the lines of a small ceremony, at home with a big party afterwards, but whatever you want is fine with me." Gibbs said quietly.
"And when were we thinking about doing this?" Mimi asked.
Gibbs smiled. "As soon as possible, but I guess that's not realistic. You know, my team is going to go into shock. You may need to resuscitate some of them."
Mimi giggled at that. "Well, I agree we get married at home…our home, not here in Florida. My family has all seen me married. None of your team has seen you get married. Or have they?"
Gibbs shrugged. "Tony, Ducky and Abby are the only ones who have lived through any of my marriages. If they went to one it was the last one. It was so long ago, I don't remember."
Mimi chuckled. "Well, we will make sure every one of them are there this time. If my family can come, great. If not, they'll have to get over it. Come on, let's get back inside. We only have one evening left before you leave tomorrow. Let's make it a fun one."
Ronald Reagan Airport-Washington, D.C.
Tony, Ziva and Karina went to pick Gibbs up when his flight came in. Tony was standing at the window with Karina watching the planes come and go.
She laughed and clapped her hands. "Tony!" Ziva called out. She had spotted Gibbs coming out of the terminal area.
They watched him walked toward them, with a broad grin on his face. "Ok, either he is really glad to be home, or he had a great time in Florida." Tony whispered to Ziva.
"Papa!" Karina squealed, her little arms reaching out. Gibbs walked toward the family, put his bag down and took Karina in his arms.
"Hi, Princess. Were you good girl while I was gone?" Gibbs asked, planting kisses all over her face that made her giggle.
She looked past him, and then put her hands on his face. "Momoli-li?"
"Not yet, sweetie, couple of days." Karina kissed him and laid her head on his shoulder. Tony took his bag, so Gibbs could hold Karina as they headed for the car.
"How was Florida, Gibbs?" Ziva asked once they got into the car.
"Hot." He replied drily. Tony smirked.
"No, not the state, your trip." Ziva pressed. Gibbs smiled.
"It was…a lot of family, a lot of memories for Mimi. A lot like our get-togethers, except I only knew three people there, well four counting myself." Gibbs answered.
"Mimi, Lily, who's the other person you knew, Boss?" Tony asked.
Gibbs looked at Tony like he had a screw loose. "Bailey, who do you think?"
Tony looked at Ziva with a worried expression on his face.
After they got settled into the car, and got on Route One, Gibbs spoke up.
"How are you guys? Any cases come up?"
"Uh, no, Boss. But we did have an…incident at home." Tony said.
Gibbs sat up straight at that. "What are you talking about?"
Tony explained what happened at his house and then what he and Tim found on their front doors.
"Why didn't you call me?" Gibbs growled.
"Why? So you could leave your family holiday and look at some black ribbons? There were no prints; finger, shoe or…ass."
Gibbs stared at the back of Tony's head. "Uh, Boss. You're staring at the back of my head, aren't you?"
Gibbs just sat there for a few minutes. Finally he couldn't stand it. "Ass print?"
Tony looked at Ziva. "Ok, well since the body wasn't real, I guess there wouldn't have been a print anyway."
Gibbs looked worried. "Body? What body?"
Ziva turned her head so she could see Gibbs as she was talking to him.
"Your security lights went on Friday night. Tony and Tim went to check it out and found another mannequin, only this time it was sitting on your deck glider. It was not dressed in military uniform, just regular clothes."
Gibbs' face drained of color when Ziva said where the mannequin was.
"There's more, Boss. As soon as we got to your house and found the mannequin, our security lights went on." Tony added.
Gibbs sat up straight. "At both houses?" He asked, now getting mad.
Tony nodded. "Ziva called me and I high-tailed it home. Found a black ribbon tied around our front door knob. Same with Tim. We gave them to Abby to process."
Gibbs rubbed his face. This had now gone too far. It was bad enough when it was the team in the field, but this person now knew where they lived.
Tony continued. "We all think the mannequin at your house was a ruse to get Tim and me away from our own houses. We both looked at our security camera footage. We saw a figure dressed in black; face entirely covered, with mirror sunglasses on. There were no identifying features except height and build."
"Abby has reviewed the footage and has estimated that the person is probably male, five feet, ten inches and approximately 170 pounds." Ziva finished.
"We haven't looked at your footage, Boss. Figured you would want to do that before Mimi and Lily get back home." Tony said.
That reminded Gibbs of their little secret and he smiled. Tony caught it and grinned himself. "Miss them already, Boss?"
"DiNozzo, just keep driving. I want to see that footage." Gibbs then tickled Karina, who laughed so loud it made everyone in the car forget for a moment what was going on.
Gibbs' and Mimi's Home
When they were about three blocks from the house, Ziva called Tim and told him they were almost there.Once they got inside the house, Ziva went to the back to let Tim, Abby and Jethro inside.
"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs! I missed you so much!" Abby gave him a bone crushing hug. He hugged her back and kissed her temple.
"I missed you too, Abbs." He laughed. He then became serious. He looked at Tony and Tim. "Show me."
They took him out on the deck and showed him where the mannequin had been sitting. Gibbs turned to them. "Where's the damn thing now?"
"In my lab, Gibbs. I've gone over it with a fine toothed comb but have come up negatory so far. Same with the ribbons. Nothing special, anyone can buy it anywhere."
Gibbs then realized that his team had worked the weekend, trying to find out who this guy is. He turned to Tim. "McGee, can you bring up my security footage?"
"Sure thing, Boss." Tim replied, going to Gibbs' laptop, his requirement for having the security system in place. "I just need you to sign in."
Gibbs grumbled, but sat down and signed into his security system software, then relinquished his seat to Tim.
Tim began typing rapidly. "Ok, here we are, Friday night footage." Tim began playing the streaming video until they caught sight of the figure."
"Stop!" Ziva said. "There, I see something."
Tim stopped and rewound in slow motion until the first frame showing the figure came into view. They then played the tape in normal time, watching the intruder slowly make his way to the back yard.
He was carrying the mannequin and a rake.
"Why is he carrying a rake? We didn't find a rake anywhere." Abby asked.
"I'll bet I know. It had rained that afternoon, remember? That would make the grass wet." Tony muttered.
"So we should have seen foot impressions in the grass." Tim said.
"Yep." Tony said grimly.
They continued watching as the security lights went on as soon as he neared the deck. He took his shoes off and ran up the steps to place the mannequin, quickly descended and slipped his shoes back on.
He then ran back the way he came, dragging the rake behind him and effectively removing his foot imprints. They watched it again, this time going over it frame by frame, but other than figuring out his shoes were canvas slip-ons, nothing new could be seen.
"Send this to Abby." Gibbs said. He didn't like this one bit. This didn't fit any prior M.O. that they had investigated in the past.
"He must have taken his shoes off before he came up to our doors, otherwise there would have been wet shoe prints all over the place." Tim said.
"Abbs, take another look at the footage from your house and Tony and Ziva's. See if you can tell if he is wearing shoes or not." He turned to Tony.
"Neither of you saw any foot imprints on your lawn, or shoe prints on the sidewalks leading up to your houses?" Tim and Tony both shook their heads "no".
"So what we know so far about this guy is his build, he can escape detection and he must be one hell of a runner." Gibbs summarized.
"Ok, well I'll get working on it right away, Gibbs." Abby said.
"Whoa, you're not going anywhere. It can wait until tomorrow. You've done enough work this weekend." Gibbs held her arm.
Abby melted into his arms. "I've missed the Great and Powerful Gibbs." She sighed.
Tony and Tim looked at each other. "Wait a minute! Are you saying I'm not great?" Tim asked.
"Or I'm not powerful?" Tony pouted.
Abby grinned. "No, I am saying neither of you is Gibbs."
Ziva put her arm around Tony's waist. "Well, I think you are great AND powerful."
Tony grinned, and then he saw the gleam in her eye. "I sense a 'but' in there."
Ziva grinned back at him. "BUT, Abby is right. You are not Gibbs. No one can replace my Abba."
She left Tony and joined Abby at Gibbs side. He just smiled wide and shrugged, as if saying "What can I say?"
Tony looked at Ziva like she was nuts. "Why would I want to be your father? Come here." He pulled her back, like a caveman marking his territory. Ziva just chuckled, patted his chest and gave him a quick kiss.
"You are so predictable." She murmured.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Fortunately, there had been no further "mannequin" incidents since Friday. Abby continued to work with the videos and wasn't able to glean any more information from it, which frustrated her to no end.
The other thing that frustrated her was her restriction on Caf-Pow. No matter how hard they tried, No-Caf-Pow did not taste the same and Abby was ready to sue the advertisers after being off of the "real" thing for almost two months.
Ziva pulled old case files to see if she could find a similar pattern, but had so far come up empty. She was already chafing at the restrictions Gibbs had placed on her, but she didn't mind when she felt like she was actually accomplishing something.
"Take a break, Ziva." Gibbs said mildly, after Ziva slammed down another file. He turned away to hide his smile. He knew desk duty was a chore for her, but she had several more months to go, so she better get used to it.
Trying to lighten the mood, Tony piped up. "Hey, Boss! Have you heard from Mimi and Lily yet?"
"Yep." Gibbs said.
Tim looked at Tony, who looked at Ziva, who looked at Gibbs, who looked up to see his entire team staring at him, mouths open in disbelief.
"What?" He asked. Inside, he was laughing at their expressions. He couldn't wait to see their expressions tonight.
They all got up and stood in front of Gibbs' desk. Gibbs studiously ignored them for as long as he could before he couldn't hold his straight face anymore.
"Ok, they'll be home around four p.m. Everyone is expected over tonight to properly welcome them home. Spread the word. Bring the dogs. Bailey is lonely."
Tim smiled. "That's great, Boss! I'll go down and tell Abby. She can use some cheering up." Tim headed for the elevator.
Tony just grinned and squeezed Ziva's hand as they headed back to their desks.
Gibbs' and Mimi's Home
Gibbs got home around five p.m., even though he wanted to leave earlier. He was uncharacteristically nervous about tonight. "Get a hold of yourself, Gibbs. You're acting like a first-timer!"
Mimi and Lily had made good time, and were home and unpacked by the time he got there. Mimi was running a load of laundry, when Gibbs came up behind her. He slowly put his hands on her waist and then kissed her neck.
"You better be careful." Mimi whispered. "My fiancé will be home any second." Gibbs chuckled and turned her around so he could kiss her properly.
"Welcome home, Babe." Gibbs murmured in her ear. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too. Babe." Mimi teased him. Gibbs didn't often use terms of endearment, but "Babe" was his favorite. Mimi didn't mind, as long as she was the one he was saying it to.
"Will the others be over later?" She asked, hopefully.
Gibbs chuckled. "Knowing them, probably sooner rather than later." He looked out the kitchen window. "I see Bailey and Jethro are already playing."
Mimi looked out as well. "Lily called Tim and Abby and asked them to open their side of the gate as soon as they got home. As soon as she saw that door swing open and Jethro come bounding through, she let Bailey out."
Mimi shook her head. "You would think they hadn't seen each other in years. Bailey got rid of a lot of excess energy, so now they are pretty calm."
"Yeah, well wait until their girlfriend gets here." Gibbs smiled. "Speaking of girlfriends, will Sean be joining our get-together tonight?"
"Yes…he…is! Hi, Daddy!" Lily almost jumped into his arms. Gibbs smiled and swung her around. "I'm so excited! Do you want to know why I'm so excited?" Lily twirled around.
Gibbs looked at Mimi and mouthed. "Is she high?"
Mimi looked shocked and said, "Leroy Jethro Gibbs, wash your mouth out with soap and take yourself to the woodshed!"
"Ah, gee Lily. I can't possibly imagine what you could be so excited about." Gibbs looked at Lily seriously.
She stopped mid-twirl and looked at him. "Ok, I get it. You think I am crazy, but I don't care! I have held this secret for…seven days! I mean, can you imagine?"
Gibbs looked at Mimi, who was trying not to laugh. "Well, yeah, Lily, I can. I've been with my team since Sunday and have had to watch every other word to make sure I didn't accidently say something."
He pulled her into a hug. "But I'm happy you're still excited about it. So any thoughts on how we are going to…make our announcement?" He directed this at Mimi.
"Well, I thought I'd do an 'Abby' for a while and just keep flashing my hand around to see if anyone picks up on it. If that takes longer than, oh I don't know, what do you think? Twenty minutes? Then you get everyone's attention and you pretend to propose to me again." Mimi smiled.
Gibbs looked confused, while Lily said "Genius, Mom." Lily turned to her soon-to-be adopted father.
"Daddy, what Mom means is that you say there is something you'd like to do, then turn to Mommy and say something like "I'd like to ask you to marry me…oh wait! I already did that on Thanksgiving Day! It's priceless. I need to film it!"
Gibbs groaned. It was hard enough the first time with a room full of strangers. He would be hard pressed to do it again, but he had to admit, it would shock the team.
"Lily, I seriously doubt that it will get to that point, but if it does, I will go along with the plan."
"Yay!" Lily hugged Gibbs again.
"How long did it take you to pick up on Abby's ring, Jethro?" Mimi asked.
Gibbs had to think back. "If I remember correctly, it was when Ziva was on bed rest with Karina. Abby came upstairs and just stood there for a while, with her arms crossed. Then she made some remark about me and Tony being Neanderthals. She started this tirade about how she slaves for me and no one pays her any attention."
Gibbs chuckled at the memory. "She ended her yelling by pointing her left hand at me. I still had no clue what she was going on about. I finally looked at McGee and he had covered his eyes with his left hand and was pointing to it. That's what it took for me to figure it out."
"Boy, you're pretty clueless, aren't you, Daddy?" Lily said in surprise.
Gibbs opened his mouth, but then chuckled. "Well, with Abby you just never know what you're going to get. Speaking of which, here are our first guests."
After two hours, everyone had shown up. Only Tony and Ziva had met Sean, so he was subjected to a thorough examination by everyone else. Lily stuck right by his side, holding his hand. He handled himself well, and everyone gave him a thumb's up to Gibbs and Mimi.
Mimi had taken her ring off until everyone was there. Now she was wearing it and was making no effort to hide it. Not surprisingly, no one picked up on it.
She handed people things, brushed her hair out of her eyes, pointed and waved her left hand around, but everyone just kept talking and visiting. Just as the twenty minutes was almost up, Ziva let out a gasp.
"Oh, my God!" She cried out. Tony looked up and ran to her side. "Honey, what is it, is it the baby?" He was shaking. Everyone immediately ran to Ziva, worried that something had happened.
Gibbs went and stood by Mimi, watching in amusement as everyone fussed over Ziva, who could not get a word out edgewise. Finally, Gibbs put his fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle.
At that, everyone went silent and looked at him. "Hey, Ziva is fine. She's just surprised that's all." Gibbs smiled.
Tony looked at Ziva, who was grinning. "What, what are we missing here?"
"Oh, nothing. We are just adding to our family, Tony." Ziva chuckled. She got up and hugged and kissed Mimi and Gibbs. Lily was jumping up and down. Suddenly the light bulb went on, and Tony grabbed Mimi's hand.
"Boss! Nice job!" He said, smiling. At that, everyone ran up and finally saw Mimi's ring. Mimi was crying, Gibbs was grinning, Tim was stunned and Abby and Lily were embracing each other.
Ducky came up to Gibbs and Mimi. "My Dear, my heartiest congratulations. You cannot do better." He kissed her and turned to Gibbs. "It's about time, Jethro; I thought I was going to die of old age before you got around to it."
Gibbs just laughed and gave Mimi a huge kiss. Karina had been watching all of the excitement and laughed and clapped with everyone else. When she saw Papa kissing Momo, she crawled over to Jamie, who was sitting on his baby pad. She went up to him and kissed him.
"Hey, look at Karina! Better watch out Tony and Jimmy. It looks like we may have another engagement here!" Tim laughed. Tony looked alarmed and went and scooped up his daughter.
"Oh no. We are not going anywhere near that any time soon, are we Daddy's little Angel?" Tony held her close to his chest.
"Daddy." Karina said. Everyone looked at her in surprise. Tony just beamed. "Hey, did you hear that? She said 'Daddy', didn't you punkin?" Tony was slightly embarrassed that he had tears in his eyes.
Ziva was quickly at his side, smiling wide at him, her hand on his arm.
"Well, you are her 'Daddy' aren't you?"
The team knows, yay! May not be as quick with these updates, as I am trying to finish my other story "Deceit" before January 8th. Thanks as always for the great reviews. Glad many of you are intrigued by the "mannequin" case.