Thank you all for your reviews and alerts. I hope you're enjoying this story line with Beth.

Just a reminder that my new book His Firm Guidance is on sale now at Amazon. Just search Constance Masters. The other book which came out on Saturday is called The Grass Could Be Greener. It's available at the moment at Blushing Books.

Thank you to all who support me. You have no idea what it means to me :)

Chapter 37

Louise, Gibbs and Kim all walked into the restaurant where Ducky was already waiting for them.

"Donald Mallard." Ducky said holding out his hand. "But my friends call me Ducky."

"Pleased to meet you Ducky." Louise said shaking the outstretched hand gently.

"The pleasure is all mine."

"Smoothy aren't you?" Louise asked with a twinkle in her eye.

"I try."

Kim looked at Gibbs and smiled. "Ducky is our friend. He's also a medical examiner."

"Oh?"

"We asked him along because we thought he might know the right questions to ask."

Louise didn't answer but her eyes darted from one to the other.

"We would like to adopt Beth." Kim blurted out.

Gibbs gave her a half hearted glare. "Bottom line, yes we do. We just don't know how to go about that."

"I have a good feeling about you people." Louise said. "I've met a lot of people while trying to sort out my affairs but the few that were interested, I just didn't get the right feeling about."

"So is that a yes?" Kim asked.

"Oh I would be so grateful to you all."

XXX

"Where Mom?" Dyl asked.

"She's doing something with Gibbs." Tim said trying to run the brush through his daughter's long hair.

"Did somebody get murdered?" Jess asked.

"No Honey. We're on vacation."

"Do dead people don't die when you're on vacation?"

"You really are a dum dum." Dyl said shaking his head. "How can dead people die? If they was dead they'd already be dead they wouldn't need to die now would they?"

"Don't call your sister that." Tim said. "There's no dead people on this ship."

"Do you know that?"

"I know that there's no dead people yet." Tim said giving Dyl a stern stare to let him know the ridiculous conversation was over. "Go brush you hair and change that shirt."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It has pieces of your lunch on it."

"Oooh." Jess said. "That's gross."

Dyl stuck his tongue out but ducked into the small bathroom to brush his hair, BEFORE he changed his shirt. The fact that he'd have to do it again didn't seem to worry him."

"Right, your done Pretty Girl." he said admiring his handiwork.

XXX

Tim hustled his two into the pizza place with Ethan in his arms. Tony and Ziva were there with their brood and Jimmy and Amber were right behind.

"Where're Sarah and Zac?" Tony asked. Haven't seen them since lunch yesterday.

"No. They'll be here." Tim said. "I insisted. I want them to meet Beth."

"Who's Beth?" Kyle asked.

"Beth is a new friend of the family and she's going to have dinner with us." Tim said.

"Why?" Kyle asked.

"Cos we like her Dumdum." Jess said.

"We like her a LOT." Maddie added.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Then she must be a spaz like you. Hey!" he yelled when Tony whacked the back of his head.

"There'll be NO name calling. None. Or else."

"You didn't slap the girls."

"No well...they're not mine." He said looking to Tim to fix it.

"Like that's ever stopped you." Tim mouthed.

Tony shrugged.

Tim grabbed each of the girls arms and sat them in a chair away from the boys. "Uncle Tony's right. No name calling." He directed to Jess.

"When's Beth coming?" Maddie asked.

"Soon. Aunt Abby has gone to get her."

"Now we all need to make Beth feel very welcome." He looked at the others. None of them had anything helpful to say it seemed. He didn't want to risk the boys hurting Beth's feelings but he really didn't know what to say without pointing the child out as being different.

"Beth has Downs Syn..." she looked at Tim. "I forgot."

"Syndrome. Beth has Downs Syndrome."

"That's right she has that." Maddie said. "It makes her a bit different."

"Oh!" Mike said.

"They have a flat face and they talk funny." Dyl said.

"Dylan." Tim said.

"Beth knows her face is flat." Maddie said. "Like I said, she's a bit different but not much."

"Exactly." Tim said. "So just treat her like you would any other little girl you made friends with."

"I don't make friends with little girls." Kyle said.

"Make an exception." Ziva said with a glare.

"Ok, ok." Kyle said. "I was just joking."

"Here they come."

XXX

"Does Beth have any health problems?"

"No. Not really. She and I have been incredibly lucky in that way. No heart problems, nothing like that. She's a healthy, happy little girl. She needs speech therapy, that's all."

"Does she know?" Kim asked.

"I don't think she gets it. I want to prepare her but I haven't wanted to scare her. I wanted to be able to tell her that she was going to be alright. That she would be looked after and by who."

"She'll be looked after." Gibbs and Kim said together.

XXX

The kids all munched away and Beth seemed to join right in. As Kyle stuffed a whole slice of pizza into his mouth she gasped with horror.

"You eat like a pig." she giggled.

"No name calling!" the boys all said at once.

"She can." Maddie said.

"No she can't." Kyle said.

"She's a guest." Maddie said. "Guests get to say what ever they want."

"Not in this family." Kyle said.

XXX

"What do you think Duck?" Gibbs asked.

"About?"

"How best to tell her."

"That's a difficult thing." he said. "As it would be for any little six year old child. I don't think it's something that can be rushed but I understand that time is precious."

"Yes it is." Louise said. "I have a month maybe six weeks."

Gibbs looked at Kim and she nodded. "We would love to adopt Beth."

"Oh thank you!" Louise said finally giving into the tears that she'd held inside for so long. "You don't know what this means to me to finally have peace."

"There's one stipulation though, we need to transition her into out family slowly." Gibbs said. "For all our sakes. What do you think Duck? What's the best way to do that."

"Yes how?" Louise asked.

Ducky raised his eyebrows. "I think there's only one way. I think that both Louise and Beth should move in to your house. It will give Beth and Maddie a chance to adapt while You're still with her."

"I could never impose." Louise said.

"You won't be imposing at all." Kim said. "It's a perfect idea."

"Sounds good to me." Gibbs said. "You would be leaving us a great gift. It's the least we can do to allow you to spend the last of your days with family."

"It's true that Beth is the only family I have."

"Not anymore." Kim said. "You're about to be initiated into a family like no other."

XXX