Title: The Only One
Summary: In line with my 'missing scenes' from episodes – as I re-watch ideas come to me. Episode 15x01 House Divided (and a scene from 15x02 Twofer). Gibbs didn't go to McGee's there's only one person he wants to see after he leaves NCIS. His little girl.
Disclaimer: I only own Charlotte.
A/N: I had to write this when I watched these two episodes, I just couldn't not write this.
Ellie smiled as she came down the stairs from the mezzanine. She was glad that McGee and Gibbs were back on American soil and home, safe and sound. She was going to finish up at the office and then head over to McGee and Delilah's apartment for a 'team dinner'. To Celebrate the homecoming of their team members. She looked up from her phone and paused when her eyes fell on the man standing at the window staring out at the night sky. Gibbs cut an imposing figure and he could be intimidating at the best of times but right now…he was just a man who had gone through so much to stay alive and make it back to his home, his friends, his family. Ellie had thought he was with McGee so she was surprised.
"Gibbs, I…I thought you were with McGee." She said.
"I was." He replied turning to look at her, she gave a breathless sort of chuckle before embracing the older man. She felt the affection he felt for his team, fatherly and protective, in that embrace.
"Welcome home." She whispered.
"I'm proud of you, Bishop." He said as they parted, "kept the team together. I'm proud of you."
"Well, I just…did what I thought you would do." She said honestly. He turned back to the window to looked back about at the skyline, he'd said what he needed to.
"Um," Ellie faltered, "everyone's meeting at McGee's house. You want to come?" she asked.
"Nope." He shook his head.
"Well, call me if you need anything." She said.
"Thanks, Bishop. But there is someone I need to see, before I even think about spending any more time away from her." Gibbs said.
"Charlotte." Bishop said.
"Charlotte." He agreed.
The sound of the front door opening set Charlotte in edge. She knew it could be Nick, Ellie, Abby, Ducky or Jimmy coming to see her, but she knew they were at Delilah's for dinner tonight.
"Hello?" She called, standing up from the dining table where she had sat to enjoy the dinner, she prepared for herself. She'd cooked extra in case her father returned sometime in the night and was hungry.
"Charli?" The voice made her start. She walked into the lounge room and felt her eyes burn with tears. She hadn't cried since he had been blown up and forgotten the last 15 years of his life. Thankfully, he hadn't forgotten her – but she had stayed away until he came to understand that he had lost 15 years and she was 17 then and had grown up.
"Daddy!" she ran to him wrapping her arms around him tightly, holding him like her life depended on it. She felt his strength as he held her to him – he had always promised to come home to her and now here he was.
"Oh, I missed you, Charli." He whispered.
"I missed you more." She teased.
"I missed you most." He laughed.
"I love you, Daddy. I'm so glad you're back. Safe and…mostly unhurt." She said, the tears beginning to fall. He tightened his hold on her as he heard her voice breaking with her tears.
"Are you hungry?" She asked stepping back and wiping her eyes, "I cooked steak and potatoes. Just like you do." She grinned.
"Starved. T-Bones?" He asked.
"But of course. What else do you eat?" Charlotte asked. "I even made blueberry pie."
"Oh, you spoil me, Charli." He sighed.
"You're my Dad. Who else do I get to spoil?" She grinned, putting his plate in the microwave. She watched as he grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and took a long pull from it. Truthfully, Charlotte wouldn't have cared if he'd asked her to order some tofu or something else for his first meal back – she was just so happy that he was here and alive.
"Come in." Grace Confalone called out at the knock on her office door.
"Hey. I know I'm early." Her eyes widened at the sight of Gibbs as he poked his head in.
"Uh, Gibbs, is everything okay?" She stood up and he shook his head.
"No, I got here faster than I thought. You want me to wait out here?" Gibbs said.
"No, no, no. Don't leave. Stay, sit. I mean, I mean, um…g-grab a seat and get a water, and…" He walked in and looked around her office but listened to her ask to have her 3 o'clock postponed, citing a family emergency.
"I thought I was your three o'clock?" He said after she hung up.
"Who knew you'd show up?" Grace replied.
"Like I had a choice." Gibbs said.
"Never stopped you before." She pointed out.
"Been getting stared at a lot since we got back." He said when he saw her staring.
"I'm sure. For most, it's likely disbelief, and gratitude that you're home safe. And for me, it's that, and that you're here at all. How does it feel? To be stared at?" Grace asked.
"This mean we're starting?" He asked.
"Yes, Gibbs, my assessment of your mental health has begun. Commence with the one word answers." She said.
"Now who's being glib?" He joked.
"Sorry. Where were we?" She asked.
"How I feel being stared at." He said.
"And?" She prompted.
"I-I don't know. I-I feel…happy." Gibbs said.
"Happy?" She asked.
"Yeah. To be alive. Grateful." He said.
"Grateful." She echoed.
"Yeah, look, I-I've survived worse. I cheated death a bunch, but…this was different. I thought it was over. I feel different." He admitted.
"You seem different. I mean, what did I call you this morning—sunnier." She said.
"Hey it's not like I'm whistling rainbows of anything like that, I…I mean, maybe, I don't…I don't know." He said.
"Even after they tortured you? It's in your file. Torture, starvation. I can't even imagine." She said.
"We can talk about that. I'm more interested in where it left me. I don't know why or how, but it's not where I expected. I feel like I just want to…savor being back." He looked up at her to see her smiling at him, "What is so funny?"
"I'm not laughing. I am smiling." She said.
"Well why are you smiling?" He asked.
"Well, why not? If you'll pardon the cliché, Gibbs, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you might just have a new lease on life." She said.
"You think?" He said.
"You've just said more to me about how you feel in the last two minutes than in all the time I've known you. If that's not a new you, I don't know what is." Grace said.
"I think I might know why I survived." He said suddenly.
"Oh, yeah? Why is that?" She asked.
"I had someone to live for." Gibbs said.
"Oh? Who?" She cocked her head to one side.
"My daughter, Charlotte. She's nearly 30, but she still lives with me and she's, my reason. She's the last part of my past I have. My distant past, my first wife and eldest daughter – before they died, we had Charlotte and she is my entire world." He admitted, honestly. Grace smiled again, this was what she liked to hear, someone who had a close call with death and found that they survived because they had someone to survive for, to live for.