Tony came out of the kitchen to find Gibbs, his little fingers all covered in band-aids.
"What have you been doing to yourself?" asked Gibbs taking in how Tony slumped down onto the couch sighing dramatically.
"I've been trying to help with making my new curtains so I can get my final badge," sulked Tony, "and the needles keep deliberately stabbing me!"
"They are doing it deliberately hey," said Gibbs stifling a laugh, "lets have a look at the damage shall we?"
He shuffled over next to Tony on the couch taking his little bandaged fingers into his larger rougher ones. Turning the fingers over to inspect them and removing some of the Band-Aids and finding no injury, he looked at Tony in puzzlement.
"Tony, who put these Band-Aids on your fingers?" he asked.
"Well, Joanne did with the first one, and I put the rest on," Tony answered, "but the more I put on the harder it became to sew and I stabbed myself even more."
"I guess all of these would make it much harder to sew," agreed Gibbs, "did your fingers bleed when you stabbed yourself?"
"No but it did hurt," argued Tony not wanting Gibbs to think that the lack of actual blood made his attempts to pin material and sew it together anything less than a valiant effort against a mortal enemy.
"Well I think we should try again without all of the plasters on your fingers and go very slowly," advised Gibbs.
"I don't see why we have to earn a merit badge in sewing," sulked Tony, "boys don't sew!"
"Hey kiddo, that's just not true, it's an important skill to have," encouraged Gibbs seeing that Tony was in danger of giving up when he was so close to completing his badges.
"But its hard to do," whined Tony.
"Yes and what have I told you previously about stuff that's hard to do?" asked Gibbs.
"That it's worth it," answered Tony.
"Yep, you're right," replied Gibbs.
"But we could just buy things already sewn together," argued Tony, "We could still get what we wanted without stabbing all of my fingers."
"We could," Gibbs paused and looked at Tony, "but we wouldn't get the same feeling of satisfaction as if we had managed to do it ourselves, would we."
"I don't know," said Tony, "I'd still be very happy to have a new superhero duvet if we had bought it."
"Look Tony, why don't you go and fetch your cub shirt and those other badges you have been saving," suggested Gibbs, "we can have a go at sewing them on together and see if you think that is worth it."
"Are you going to help me?" asked Tony.
"I will try kiddo, sewing is not something I find easy either," he admitted.
"I bet you don't ever have to sew in the Marines though do you?" asked Tony still desperately trying to find a way out of this task.
"That's where you're wrong Tony," answered Gibbs, "in fact I have some sewing of my own to do before I return to work."
Interested in what Gibbs might have to be sewing for and seeing a few further questions on the subject as something of a stalling tactic to put off having to do anymore sewing himself Tony began to interrogate Gibbs.
"What do you have to sew?" he asked.
"Well I need to sew a few badges of my own onto my uniform too," came the reply although it was a task Gibbs was not looking forward to himself.
"Have you won a merit badge?" asked Tony quite curious about the whole thing.
"No son, I have to take off my Corporal chevrons and replace them with Lance Corporal ones," he explained.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that," said Tony suddenly realizing that his own annoyance at sewing couldn't be half as bad as having to sew on new badges to show everyone that you had been demoted. "That's cos of my father isn't it?"
"No Tony, it's because of me," Gibbs tried to explain.
"Perhaps if we tell the Colonel that you are really really sorry and that you have already been punished by your Dad he won't make you do any sewing and you can keep the badges you have," Tony tried to find a way out of the punishment for Gibbs.
"Its too late for that Tony but I will get my old badges back one day," Gibbs stated.
"Sewing sucks!" stated Tony quite emphatically.
"Just like the washing up," added Gibbs, "but it still needs to get done so quit stalling and go fetch your shirt and badges."
"Yes boss," answered Tony, "I'm on it."
With that he dragged himself upstairs, all the time looking back down at Gibbs with big puppy dog eyes practically pleading to be let off with this task. It wasn't working though, however Gibbs was having to fight every inch of Tony's slow progress up the stairs not to just tell the kid to leave it.
When Tony finally came back downstairs, shirt and badges in hand, he stood in front of Gibbs.
"I've had an idea," he began.
"Oh you have? Now let me guess would this idea involve you not having to sew?" chuckled Gibbs.
"That's right," said Tony.
"Well lets hear it then," said Gibbs waiting to see what the kid was going to come up with.
"It, um involves me borrowing your superglue," stated Tony a little hesitant now it came to voicing his ideas.
"Now just why would you need that?" asked Gibbs wondering where the kid was going with this.
"You remember it sticks almost anything to anything else," explained Tony.
"How could I forget you managed to stick your hands to my vice," Gibbs reminded him.
"Yes I know," harrumphed Tony, "but that was when I didn't know how to use it properly."
"And what do you want to use it for now?" asked Gibbs.
"I thought I could just put a little bit of it onto my badges and then stick them to my shirt," Tony explained, "then I wouldn't have to sew them on at all."
"Tony, we are not going to stick them on with superglue," stated Gibbs, "I'm sure it would stick them for now but I'm sure that it wouldn't do the shirt any good in the long term and knowing you and superglue you'd probably stick the shirt to you as well as the badges."
"Would not," sulked Tony, sitting himself down on the couch again, his idea ruined.
"Well maybe not but we are going to do this properly, just like your mom did with all of the other badges you earned," answered Gibbs seeing the disappointment in Tony's face, "she spent a lot of time carefully and lovingly sewing all of the rest on, to glue these last ones would ruin all of her hard work. I want you to be as proud of sewing these on as she was when she sewed the rest on for you."
Gibbs allowed a little time for what he had said to sink in to Tony. He could see the little guy mulling it over.
"Do you think she was proud of me?" asked Tony after a short while.
"Probably more than anything else in the world Tony," answered Gibbs hugging him at the same time.
"How can you tell?" asked Tony.
"Look at the stitches Tony, each one perfectly spaced, neat, not to big not to small. The badges are all perfectly placed with just the right amount of a gap around them. These must have taken her a long time and yet she didn't rush any of them, she just continued slowly with a great deal of care and a little bit more of her love in every stitch. That's how I know she was proud of you Tony." Gibbs showed the little boy the delicate stitches.
Tony traced his fingers over each and everyone of them.
"I really miss her you know," he whispered, tears starting to fall.
"I know you do Tony, we all miss someone we love and we have to look for little bits of them in everything we have, in that way they never truly die," explained Gibbs, holding back his own tears and memories of his mother.
"I sometimes forget what she looks like and sounds like," cried Tony, she will think I have forgotten her.
Picking Tony up onto his lap and holding him tightly Gibbs rocked him back and forth to comfort him.
"She knows you haven't really forgotten her Tony," he said, "she will know about your box you made for her and I'm sure she was there watching over you when you were in that river and she will be keeping an eye on those needles that keep stabbing you now, just to make sure you are safe and sound."
Tony cried, it was like the first real time he had been able to properly grieve for her.
"We can get that camera film of yours developed as well so that you have some pictures of the time you two were together as well as some of the new memories you have," explained Gibbs, they can help jog your memory of things you did together. Shannon and I would love to hear about the stories of what you and your mom used to do and in that way we can help you never to forget her."
Tony clung to his shirt and simply nodded his acceptance. Gibbs was in no hurry to move him away.
Shannon came in to see what the pair were up to as she and Joanne had been abandoned by Tony in the kitchen and wanted to see if Tony was ready to help them sew together one of the pillow cases they were making. Seeing Tony in tears she immediately sat down next to her husband and little boy taking Tony into her own arms whilst Gibbs explained what was causing the upset.
"Hey little one," she softly said, "why don't you tell us the story of the first badge you got and about how your mom sewed it on."
Fighting back his crying for a second and hiccupping as he did so Tony pointed to the shirt and the badge he had got for helping the community.
"That one was my first," he said, "I got it for helping old Mr Grosvenor who lived down the street."
"Tell us what you did?" encouraged Shannon.
"He fell over and broke his leg," explained Tony, "he had to stay in hospital for a week whilst they tried to mend it and when he came home he was in a cast and couldn't move around."
"Poor man," said Shannon, "did he have any family at home?"
"No he was all alone," sniffed Tony, his tears coming to a stop, "my mom used to take me around to see him and she used to cook as all a meal and then help tidy his house."
"That was very kind of her," Shannon stated stroking Tony's hair, "did you help her with that?"
Tony shook his head, "No but Mr Grosvenor used to let me push him around his garden in his wheelchair and we used to talk about all of the plants he had and I would pull up all of the weeds and rake the lawns for him. He had a really big garden."
"I bet that kept you busy," commented Gibbs.
"It did," said Tony, "Mom would make us something good to eat for when we had finished."
"How long did you and your mom help him for?" asked Shannon.
"For about 3 months until he could walk again, that's when my mom first started to get poorly, then we would just go around and visit him to make sure he was doing ok. He wrote Akela a letter about me and that's how I got my first badge."
"That's a great memory Tony and must make that badge very special," said Shannon taking a closer look at the badge as well as those next to it. "Have you looked at the stiches Tony," she enquired.
"Not really," he replied.
"Look here," she showed him the careful rows of single stiches and then pointing to the last stitch she showed him how his mother had crossed two stitches over to create a little cross, almost as if sewing a kiss into the badge. She had repeated the same with every other badge. "That's how we know how much she loved you and how proud she was of you, she sewed a kiss into each and every badge so that you could keep them with you forever."
Tony started to cry again, but not in a sad way; this time they were tears of love as he individually inspected each and every badge and kissed it back.
"Will you help me sew the badges on in the same way," he asked, "I want to give her a kiss back so that she knows I live her too."
Fighting their own tears and swallowing down the hard lumps in their throats Shannon and Gibbs set about helping Tony sew on the badges but instead of just creating one kiss at the end he did three.
"Why have you done three Tony?" asked Gibbs.
"It's so I can sew in the memory of how much I love you and Shannon too," he answered.