Chapter 2- Hidden talents

Gibbs led Sophie through the front door of his house and he guided her to her temporary room, it contained a single bed in the corner and a large wooden dresser. The dresser caught her eye, it was almost too extravagant for the room. It was stained a dark maroon and the wood carving was intricate and detailed, it was beautiful.

"You like?'

"Yeah I do its beautiful, were did you find it?"

"I made it." He stated simply running his hand over the carvings.

"You made it, my God, were did you find the room to make something in the tiny place"

"Aha my secrets are now your secrets, follow me" with that he moved out of the room and headed to the lounge, Sophie hurried off after him. He led her through the lounge and to a door, which when opened revealed a dark room which smelled of sawdust. He switched on the light and made his way down the wooden stairs Sophie closely in tow.

"A boat, your building a boat" she said surprised, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, well what did you expect, a bed head?

"Well yeah, something small, but not this, its, amazing. She said moving her hands over the skeleton of the boat. "How long has thing taken you?"

"Well up to this point its taken me about14 months, its really starting to take form."

"How often do you come down here to build?"

"Whenever I need to think, with my job that's about every night, its how I wind down."

"Wow, your easy I need good tv to do that, speaking of television what have you guys got in the way of television?"

"I don't know I don't watch the carp that's on now days, all I watch is the news channels. Find out for yourself its in the corner."

"Okay, what if I take this upstairs and hook it up in the lounge that way you can work on your boat in peace?"

"Oh, Soph you don't have to do that."

"Yeah I do, you said you come down here to think the last thing you need is me down here with the tv up loud, interrupting your train of thought."

"Alright, I'll help you carry it, although I'm afraid you'll have to connect it yourself I'm not really one for the whole technology thing."

"Thanks"

Together they carried the tv up the stairs and placed it on the coffee table in the lounge. Sophie proceeded to the back of the set and set to work on hooking up the cables. Alright that's all attached, should be all set up. And it was, she turned on the set and settled herself on the couch.

"Where did you learn to do that?

"Its really not that hard, I taught my self." She said smiling proudly

"Alright give me a yell when you want something to eat, k?

"Yep sure, you go 'think' now wont you!"

"That wasn't your reason to bring the television up here was it?"

"Well it was and it wasn't, if you haven't noticed the only seating you have down there is a metal stool, not exactly the most comfortable piece of furniture to watch tv on."

"Alright, holler if you need me."

Gibbs disappeared back to his boat and Sophie picked up the remote and got comfortable, she flicked through the channels, 'ABC, CBS, NBC, WB right okay here they name their channels whatever happened to 7, 9 and 10' she laughed to herself although in Australia they did have the ABC but it was nothing like what the Americans had it, the only decent shows on the ABC in Australia was Australian story. And that a thrilling adventure of the nations most inspirational people. The sort of stories that your teachers tape and make you watch as educational videos, thrilling…

Sophie settled on CBS, it was CSI, she had watched it before in Australia. 'What is it with acronyms in the country are they that lazy that they can't even say the full names of things?' she thought to herself. It wasn't to long until she could feel her eyelids getting heavier and after then it wasn't too long until she had drifted off to sleep.

At 11pm Gibbs emerged from the basement and made his way over to Soph on the couch he noticed that she was asleep, jet lag, probably, he scooped her up and carried her off to her room. He pulled back the covers and lay her down on the bed and tucked her in. Kissing her on her forehead and made his way to the door and switched off the light and closed the door.

Tomorrow was Saturday, he was off duty, Gibbs figured that he might as well get some rest. It had been a while since he had had a decent nights sleep and the effects of sleep deprivation were becoming evident on his face, especially under his eyes. He made his way into the lounge room and turned off all the lights making sure all of the doors were locked he made his way to his room and got into bed.