Wow, what can I say? So many people were surprised at Ziva and her reactions. Is it really surprising?
"Ducky?" Tim asked, seeing Ducky casually leaning against the wall when he lead his father down to the special care nursery on level two. He had two badges pinned to the lapel of his jacket. Tim noted that one was just like the badge his father would soon have pinned to his jacket and the other one had medical personnel insignia on it.
"Timothy, my dear lad." Ducky leapt off the wall to shake his hand. "Congratulations on the birth of your wee little one. I can not wait to meet your baby."
"Tim, go to the bathroom before we head in." His father advised. "Go clean yourself up." Gibbs wanted Tim to wash the tears off his face and give him a minute to fill Ducky in before Ducky accidentally put his foot in it.
Tim nodded and excused himself before Gibbs quickly explained that Ziva had left the hospital AMA, she left a letter that she was leaving both Tim and NCIS and she gave up her parental rights. Ducky was floored, speechless. He'd been worried for Ziva in the last month or so, it had seemed her mental health had been deteriorating. He'd urged her to speak with someone, before her acidic tongue let out a nasty barb that had left him reeling for a day or two before she gave a half-hearted apology.
"Tim, thank you for meeting me." Dr Nash said, shaking his hand. "Mr. Gibbs, thank you for joining us."
"This is Doctor Mallard, we work with him and he is a dear friend of our family's." Jethro introduced Ducky. "Duck, this is Doctor Nash, he was Ziva's obstetrician."
"Thanks, I'm also Baby Gibbs neonatologist. I'm a dual speciality doctor." He said warmly. "First off, let's go see her."
Doctor Nash lead Tim, Gibbs and Ducky into the neonatal intensive care unit or NICU for short, stopping inside to thoroughly wash and dry their hands and rub them down with alcohol. Gibbs and Ducky were encouraged to put on the protective yellow gowns and gloves, while Tim slipped off his tee and put on a cotton gown. "For the first week or so, she needs to form a bond with Tim, so no cuddles yet, boys." Dr Nash instructed as they made their way through the maze of isolettes, cribs, bassinets and recliners. "We're going to set Tim up with kangaroo care immediately with our little lady. Kangaroo care is a way for our sick and premature babies to bond with their parents through skin to skin contact. Tim, do you wax or shave your chest?"
"Neither, I just don't really have that much chest hair. It's more like peach fuzz." Tim answered, somewhat wary of why the doctor asked him about his chest hair.
"Good, leave it be. Most fathers hear about Kangaroo care and their first instinct is to run out and shave or wax. But it encourages the baby to flex their little fingers." Dr Nash explained. "No soft touches when you do touch her, firm strokes. Light, soft touches tickles them and can disrupt their cardiac rhythm. I strongly encourage talking to her, introduce yourself using what she will be calling you, for example Daddy. Read her books, tell her stories. It helps her learn your voice and down the track, it helps with language and speech development."
"What kind of timeline are we looking at here?" Ducky asked. "Obviously, she isn't ready to come home yet."
"We need to establish feeding and she'll need to put some weight on. It's hard to measure, but we tell the parents in here, to aim for their due date. Anything less is a bonus and anything more is extra love and care."
The trio approached the isolette, it was like a fully enclosed crib with portholes on either side that keeps the inside at a constant temperature. "You open up the side doors to do cares and reposition her. First, this is Jo. She's baby Gibbs' nurse today. Jo, this is Tim. He's the Dad here and the Primary Caregiver." Dr Nash said, introducing todays nurse Jo. She smiled at him, giving him an encouraging nod. "Let's get the paperwork out of the way and start that Kangaroo care. What's her name?"
"Her name is Annabelle Nicole Gibbs." Tim said smiling at his dad.
"Your mum would like that, so would have mine. Jackson is going to love it." Gibbs confirmed, looking down at her in the isolette. He could see a small sprinkle of strawberry blonde hair, with olive skin, although it was more reddish than normal, but that was probably just the heat of the isolette. She was wearing the smallest disposable diaper he'd ever seen. It was like a doll's size, she had three leads on her chest held on by white fixamol tape, a black lead held on with a gold teddy bear sticker and a pair of nasal prongs in her tiny little nostrils that was attached to a huge tube that made a gushing noise and lead back to the wall behind the isolette. He also noted she had stickers on her cheeks, protecting her delicate skin from the nasal prong tubing rubbing on her cheeks too.
"Her official weight was 1.95 kilograms or four pounds five ounces, she was twenty eight centimetres long or eleven inches long. Her head circumference is twenty five and half centimetres or ten inches." Dr Nash said, reading off her chart. "When she was born we immediately put her on CPAP, which is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. It is a means of providing respiratory support to neonates with either upper airway obstruction or respiratory failure. We've since moved her off CPAP and onto Humidified High-Flow (HHF) air is a form of respiratory support in preterm infants where their breathing is spontaneous. HHF delivers humidified gas at increased flow rates by binasal prongs. We weaned her off the oxygen and she's on room air at 6 litres per minute, this help maintain her airways. Overall, given her situation at birth, she's doing remarkably well."
Tim took a deep breath, cleaning his hands again, paranoid of any and all germs. He settled himself in the recliner, before undoing the gown, leaving it on his body but loosely draped over him. Jo worked quickly, opening the drop down side of the isolette, feeding her wires and breathing tubes through the guide hole, before removing Annabelle and placing her under the gown on Tim's naked chest. Jo bundled her up with a few bunny rugs and a blanket before popping a small woollen, hand knitted beanie over her tiny head. "Hello my beautiful girl, I'm your Daddy." He whispered to her holding her close. The whoosh of air through the Flexi tube that the nasal prongs were connected to, could be heard in his ear. It was almost a deafening sound like the sound of a plane overhead but never easing or tapering off. 'Annabelle, I never knew that I could love anyone else, as much as I love you.' He thought, as he looked down at her sleeping form. 'I promise I am going to be the best possible parent I can be' he kissed her forehead gently before smiling widely at her. He watched as she reached out, flexing her fingers a long the way.
The two older men watched as Tim watched her. He didn't take his eyes off her. Gibbs watched intently, as his son placed a gently kiss on her forehead, Tim bought his hand up to stroke her fingers and capture them around his index finger. Her whole hand only came up to his first knuckle just below the fingernail. "This is the best feeling in the world, holding her." Tim gushed quietly to his father in a hushed tone.
"You're right son, wish I'd got to hold you when you were little like this. But it feels just the same as when you hold your adult child too. That feeling, it never goes away." Gibbs explained, using a soft, gentle voice Ducky had never really heard his friend use before. "I felt it, the first time I hugged you. At your apartment, the night we first suspected you were my son. I felt it again, when I held you when Kate died and I have felt it every time in between and since those moments. It's always going to be there. You'll look at her and wonder, what you did to deserve something so perfect." Ducky rose his eyebrows at Gibbs' comment. Not having any biological children of his own, he hadn't been in that situation before, but he had felt like that when he comforted Jimmy too, from time to time. But what had surprised him most about his friend, besides the amount of words his friend just used, was that he was affection he had shown with his grown-up son. In all the time since he had known and suspected his friend was the boy's biological father, he'd never seen anything to the contrary. "Congratulations, Dad." Jethro said as he kissed his son on his head.
Gibbs stood back in awe for a moment, watching Tim hold his tiny daughter. A real little miracle fighter, by the sounds of it. He thought she looked like Nikki a little, but he could see Kelly in there and Tim too. She had Ziva's skin colouring and her nose. Those lips though were his and it made him smile. "She's beautiful, Tim." Gibbs said beside him, crouching down for a better look at her. He stroked her back, firmly like the doctor had explained. He couldn't believe he was a grandfather now, and to such a petite, delicate little girl. "Hi gorgeous girl, I'm your Poppy." He whispered to her, continually stroking her back in firm, fluid movements.
"Smile!" Ducky instructed, causing Tim and Gibbs to look up. "Three generations of Gibbs' right there." He beamed, holding up the photo he'd just taken on his cell phone.
"Wait until Dad's here tomorrow. Then we'll have four. Can you send that to my computer at the yard? It's going on my desktop!" Gibbs asked, proudly. His little phone was too small to show photos off on, but he could at least show Ellie on the desktop.
"Ducky, in Annabelle's bag, in the cupboard behind you, is a small digital camera. Can you please take a photo on that, as well? That's my camera." Tim asked and Ducky immediately got it out and snapped the happy family photo, before Jo offered to take one of the four of them.
Ducky was looking down at her with amazement in his eyes too. He'd never seen a baby that small before, sure he'd seen them in his line of work, but never living and breathing. "Timothy, she is simply divine. Very beautiful. Congratulations."
"Thanks, Uncle Ducky." Tim said, trying his new moniker on for size.
"I love it and I love little Annabelle." He replied, his eyes dancing in wonder. "Jethro mentioned your mother Timothy, was her name Annabelle?" He asked gently and he saw a flash of pain flit across his friend's face quickly.
"No, Mum's name was Nicole. Dad's mum was Anne, but Grandpa called her Annie-bel, as a pet name. Her name, Annabelle is a diminutive of that." Tim explained. "Dad called her Nikki."
"Called her many names," Gibbs laughed, reliving many memories of teasing his friend. "She was the girl I liked for a long time before ... anyway, she was the girl I teased playfully. But I was the only one who ever called her Nikki. She was my friend, my best friend for a long time."
All too quickly, the time had come Annabelle to go back into the isolette, Tim lightly kissed her forehead and promised her he'd be back in a couple of hours. Jethro Gibbs explained to the doctor, that in Ziva's note she was relinquishing her parental rights, that they were going to see a lawyer and they'd like it noted that she absconded from the hospital, making no effort to see Annabelle. Doctor Nash agreed and offered to make an affidavit to that effect too, for his lawyer.
"It is possible that Ziva is suffering from some kind of pre and post natal depression and anxiety." Ducky surmised. "She may have even had a breakdown. She needs to get herself some help."
"She has to want to get help first, Duck." Gibbs agreed. "But I have a gut feeling, she's gone back to Israel. I hate to say it now, but I thought she'd do it all those months ago. But I never thought she'd abandon her own child, though." He didn't voice that he actually expected her to abscond with her child in tow and never let Tim see their child. That was one of the possibilities, he didn't dream up that night in the basement. He'd always planned to have Tim, see a lawyer to get an order to prevent Ziva fleeing the country with their child in tow.
Ducky had the unfortunate task of returning to NCIS, updating the Director on the situation and extending Timothy's parental leave to the Primary Care Giver's leave, allowing him an additional three months on top of the month he was already entitled to. "What a mess?!" Leon Vance exclaimed. "Does anyone know where she is at this very minute?" He asked perplexed by Ziva's actions.
"I can safely assume not, with the exception of a quick trip to a lawyer today Timothy is holed up in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with his daughter, assisting in her care and bonding with her." Ducky explained. "Finding her hasn't exactly been Timothy's number one priority and rightly so. It is her wish that we leave her be, her cell phone's SIM card is shredded and apparently she left a letter to you at their apartment. I imagine Timothy will get that to you tomorrow."
"I'd normally ask DiNozzo to at least check flight manifests to ensure she's is, as we think headed for Israel. But Agent DiNozzo is MIA as well." Vance explained, frustrated. He'd clearly spent the morning searching by for him.
"Oh dear!" Ducky sighed loudly. "I hope I am wrong, but Jethro said that Ziva had implied that she had been intimate with Anthony as well. The Neonatologist at the hospital has began matching DNA to verify that Timothy is the biological father, at his lawyer's insistence." Vance looked like he was going to explode now. He too, had noticed the downward spiral that both parties were on and had been watching closely. He'd never have thought that Ziva would cheat on Tim.
"I hope you're wrong too." Vance prayed, but his base instincts told him Ducky was right.
"I have a photo, if you'd like to see it." The ME told the Director and passed over his cell phone with the photo on it. "Meet Annabelle Nicole Gibbs."
"There's no doubt about it, she's Tim's daughter. She looks like Tim. Although, I can see Jethro in there too. She has Ziva's colouring. Very beautiful baby girl." Leon said softly.
In the last six months, Vance and Tim had buried the hatchet, so to speak. They'd put past transgressions behind them with apologies and forgiveness. Vance had Tim working with him on various cyber security cases and projects too. Leon Vance had been one of the few people not surprised by the announcement that the former Timothy McGee was actually Timothy Gibbs, son of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He'd always thought that the men had a lot in common and were very similar. He'd observed them at crime scenes and training exercises and they moved the same way and squatted the same way. At first he'd suspected that it was learned behaviour, after all Tim was Gibbs' probationary field agent. But one night, after a case was wrapped up, the team were sharing a pizza for a late dinner and he was watching from the mezzanine level above. It had been like a mirror image of father and son eating their slices, side by side, right down to the way they wrapped the stray strand of melted cheese around their pinky finger and licked it off. The Director had thought it was amusing at the time, laughing it off. But when the announcement was made, all the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place for him.
Vance assigned Rodriquez from DiNozzo's team, to check the outgoing flights for Ziva and Tony, before reassigning his rest of his team else where. He left Rodriquez as a floater at the navy yard until he spoke with Tim to see what his plans were for returning to work, now he was unexpectedly a single parent. He'd be a good SFA for Gibbs if Tim took one of the jobs he was going to offer him. Rodriquez had worked with Gibbs before and wasn't afraid of him. More importantly, the older man can tolerate Rodriquez's presence.
Gibbs stride into Vance's office the following morning at 0700, barely enough time for Vance to stow his gear away. "Director" Gibbs tone of voice was clipped. "This is for you." He tossed the sealed envelope with Vance's name on it to the man.
"Congratulations, Grandpa." He smiled at the gruff agent.
"Poppy!" He corrected him with a smile. "Grandpa's flight is due to arrive in five hours at Dulles. Did you see her, yet?"
"Uncle Ducky may have showed me a family portrait. She has a lot of Tim in her. She even has some of you, Poppy." He smiled. "How is she and Tim doing?"
"He's doing the best he can, considering that his partner, the mother of his child has abandoned them. He's hanging in there. Our little miracle, she's doing amazing. Doctor Nash told us last night, that I might be able to hold her by the end of the week if she continues to improve and Tim texted me an hour or so ago. He said they've reduced the breathing support even further."
With the exception of SITREP's and case details, he had never heard the man be so vocal about a non work related topic. He was slightly surprised by it. Even though Ducky had pre-warned him.
"Please pass on our congratulations to Tim, on behalf of the whole agency and myself." Vance said. "However I do have an update for you, DiNozzo has been found."
"He was missing?" Gibbs asked, surprised. No one had told him that Tony was missing.
"Yes, Ducky gave me a brief explanation of Tim's letter from Ziva and it goes no further than the three of us." Vance explained their theory to Gibbs. His and Ducky's theory. "Did she really tell him that she'd been with DiNozzo, too? Never thought he'd do that to Tim."
"She insinuated it. Not like I'm going to interrogate him." Gibbs answered. Yes, he had been disappointed with what Ziva had written. He'd thought she was lying, trying to rile Tim up. But when he thought about all the times that Tony had screwed him over, bullied or belittled him and teased and tormented him. Tony was certainly capable of bedding Ziva behind Tim's back.
"Ziva got on a flight to Israel, yesterday afternoon, alone. I imagine it was about the time you and Tim were in Fornell's lawyers office." Vance announced, tactfully. "Thought you had a rule about lawyers?"
"Lots of them," Gibbs laughed. "But not going to let her waltz back in and take Annabelle from Tim. She abandoned them. We're Gibbs', we take care of our own."
"And if it's some form of pre and post natal depression and or anxiety, what then? Tim's in love with the woman. He'll take her back, especially if it means they can be a family."
"We'll deal with it then, but she relinquished her rights in that letter. The letter was written before the baby was born." Gibbs explained. "Tim found several shipping slips in her desk too, looking for the letter she said she'd written you. She's been shipping belongings home to Israel for a while now. Tim found a slip marked, just two days ago too, she was shipping her things to Mossad HQ. Judging by the size of the shipment on the invoice, it was all the boxes in the spare room she'd refused to unpack. The drawers in her cupboard and her closet was empty, as was her desk and her laptop was gone. She must have had an accomplice. I watched Tim lock and arm that house yesterday morning."
"Well you can't question DiNozzo, but I certainly can. He's just re-surfaced after thirty six hours missing. He has some explaining to do, in regards to his whereabouts at least." Vance said. "I'm temporarily adding Rodriquez to your team. Tim's out temporarily and Ziva's position is still empty. I have a job offer to make Tim, that might be a better fit for him, especially, if Ziva doesn't return. He's always welcome in CCU, we both know that. But I'd like to slot him into a training leadership program when he returns. O'Halloran is set to retire at the end of the next financial year, almost fifteen months from now. I was thinking Tim would be a good fit in there."
Gibbs looked at Vance, he knew Tim would be a good team leader over in cold cases, but he'd barely been a SFA six months. "It would offer Tim a certain flexibility that MCRT can't offer, as would CCU. But he's fairly new to the SFA position."
"If Ziva doesn't return, he's going to want a position where he's in less danger than MCRT, trust me." Vance studied the look on Gibbs' face. "You're worried about how little SFA experience he will have."
"Well yeah." Gibbs quipped. "Tim has the potential, but he needs at least two years experience as a SFA, before he can move up to team leader."
"Well I thought his leadership skills might shine through more, when my pilot program for team leaders is implemented, in which teams buddy up to clear all the backlog from the last administration. I was thinking of pairing cold cases with MCRT. You and Tim in the lead, both in charge of your own teams, but with you to guide him on how to lead. Like a mentor role. He already has a project in the works to streamline cold cases to the computer network to save lugging files between departments."
"That's doesn't surprise me, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here." Gibbs laughed. "Let Tim sort out the mess with Ziva and focus on Annabelle first. You read what was so damn important, that Ziva had to screw Tim over."
