Disclaimer: See Chapter One...
He hated having to chose between them, and that's exactly what he had done. He had chosen to stay by his grieving wife's side, and turn away his own daughter.
Tony had come for Alison's things a few days after her release. Tony said nothing to his boss about the current situation, he just packed up whatever was on the list of things Alison had prepared. As he was packing, he found a photo of Alison and her little brother. The picture in the frame was dated just a month before, on Alison's sixteenth birthday. Tony set the frame back on the nightstand, and left it sitting there as he turned out the light. The last thing Tony wanted to do was cause Alison more pain than she was already in.
"Tony came by today." Kate said quietly as she and Jethro sat down for a light supper. "He came by to get some stuff for Alison." Kate flinched when she said the girl's name, as if it had left a bitter taste on her tongue. She looked at her husband, he was staring at her, his fork raised in the air.
"Do you get a kick out of doing this?" he asked bitterly. He looked at his plate of food, but didn't eat.
"What?" Kate asked, her voice no bigger than a whisper.
"Damnit Kate!" he yelled, his hand swiping the plate off the table. It shattered loudly on the hardwood floor. Kate jumped, her heart thudding in her chest. She could feel his anger as it radiated off his body. His tempestuous blue eyes were raging as they bore holes into her. "I don't get it, I don't that, given the evidence from the accident, I don't know why you are resting the blame on Alison! She's a victim in this too! For heaven sakes Kate, it's not like she drove into that tree on purpose!"
"I can't..."
"She's sixteen years old! She's still a kid."
"She killed our son." Kate cried
"She's my daughter." Jethro's voice was calmer now, as if he was about to break down in front of his wife. Sighing, he shook his head at her and left. He slammed the basement door so hard the force rattled the cupboards.
She sat at the table, watching him retreat down to his basement. No doubt he'd be working on that boat again. She guessed that it was nearly finished, given the amount of time he spent on it now.
Kate frowned at the shattered glass on the floor. It was so badly broken, not amount of glue could repair it. "Kind of like us." she thought as she swept up the glass and poured it into the garbage. She wrapped up the uneaten portion of their dinner and scraped the rest of hers into the dog's dish.
Mutely, she climbed the steps and retreated to her bedroom. She flopped down on the bed and cried herself into a fitful sleep.
He sat in the darkness of the basement, listening to her footfalls across the floor above him. He guessed that she was cleaning up the mess he had made with the plate. He supposed he should go upstairs and help her, but he couldn't face her. There weren't many things in life that scared Jethro Gibbs, but a girl named Caitlin Todd scared him more than anything. He had finally narrowed it down to three things, one; she was a girl. Women had always scared him, that's why he had been divorced three times. Two; she loved him. The third thing that scared him about Caitlin Todd wasn't that she slept with a gun under her pillow, or the four others she had stashed near her bed, it was the fact that he was losing her. He hated getting angry with her, it was rare when he did. Sure at work he'd get gruff with her, but that was it. He never let his temper flare with her. Not once, during their two year marrige, has he ever gotten angry like that with Kate. He hated not being able to connect with her on every level. He hated that he couldn't see past the despair and heartache she was feeling over the loss of their little boy. He hated that she blamed Alison. He hated feeling like this, out of control. If it was one thing, Jethro Gibbs was, was in control of everything at all times. He let his gaze wander around the darkened room, and his eye caught the picture of Kate on the day their son was born. Walking over, he removed it from the wall. A hint of a smile crossed his lips as he stared at his wife and son. She looked so happy, exhausted, but happy. He couldn't stop the memory from flooding his mind any longer...
"It's a boy." the doctor announced as she lay the newborn baby on his mother's chest. Kate cried and looked up at Jethro, tears were brimming in his eyes as well. They did it, they had a son.
"Is he alright?" Kate asked after the baby had been taken to be weighed and given a bath.
"He's fine." the doctor reassured her.
"When can we see him?" Jethro asked, eagerly anticipating those first moments with his son.
"We'll have the nurse bring him by once we get Kate settled into a private room." the doctor was smiling. "Congratulations." she said.
Jethro smiled at the photo he held and let another precious memory flood back to him.
"What should we call him?" he asked Kate later that same day. Their son was sleeping contentedly in his mother's arms, full from the days events.
"I was thinking about calling him Daniel, after my brother." Kate said, she stole a glance at her sleeping baby and smiled.
"Daniel Todd Gibbs." Jethro said softly. He ran his hand over the baby's soft downy hair. "Welcome to the world Daniel."
Replacing the photo back onto the cork board, he shook his head to clear the memories away. He let his blue eyes linger on the photo a few moments longer. Then Jethro Gibbs did something he hadn't done since his son's birth, he cried...