Katya -Chapter 2: Family matters
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything
--------------------------------------------------------------
-Four weeks earlier-
Gibbs stood near the bulletin board when he noticed Kate talking on the phone. She seemed upset and suddenly stormed out of the bullpen. He shot a questioning look at Dinozzo, but Tony just shook his head. Gibbs followed her and found her in an empty office. She was crying, but tried to hide her tears when he came in. "Kate?" He asked tentatively and waited for her reaction.
"I´ll be back at my desk in a minute, okay?" She said and he could hear that she was upset. Instead of leaving her for herself for a moment, he stepped into the room and closed the door. "Please..." She pleaded, but he stayed.
Jethro sat down on the edge of the desk for a moment. He wasn´t very good at playing counselor or at showing emotions, but he felt that she needed someone to talk to. "What´s the matter, Kate?" He asked again and this time, she looked up.
"My dad is sick -doctor´s say it´s leukemia. He needs a bonemarrow transplant or he´ll die." She finally said, her voice calm, but still tears in her eyes. He knew that there had to be more about it. After all, her mother had died of cancer only a year ago, which she had taken rather well.
"Did they register him on the national transplant list?" Gibbs asked, not because he thought they would have forgotten, but to keep her talking. He sensed that she was slowly getting to the point, but she needed help to reach it.
She nodded and finally sat down on the desk next to him, staring onto the floor. "They did...I went in to have my blood tested, you know? They said that relatives will match in most cases. Especially children." He nodded, but didn´t interrupt her. "That call I just got...that was the hospital. They got the results, but my genetic markers don´t match."
"I´m sorry...but they´ll find someone who can help him." Gibbs said and put his arm around her shoulder, but she pulled back and looked at him.
"It´s not that...they...they told me my markers don´t match at all...they cross-checked my mom´s blood from the file, because it seemed odd to them. I don´t match hers either..." She said and looked at him, new tears rising into her eyes. "They´re not my biological parents, Gibbs...they never told me." It was finally out and he could see how much it had cost her to tell him. Her dark eyes were filled with questions.
He hesitated for a moment, then hugged her. "I don´t know what to say...You know I´m terrible at these things." He confessed, but still held her. Usually, Gibbs avoided close contact to other people and some even said he was unable to have feelings at all, but he just liked to keep a certain distance.
After recovering from the shock, Kate tried to find her real family, but all authorities seemed to put rocks into her way. She hadn´t gotten an answer from anyone she asked. At that point, she had asked Gibbs for help, who had written to a friend he knew from the marine corps, now working for the pentagon with access to many national archives.
Current time
Gibbs had read the letter at least four times, but still, he felt like he was caught in some nightmare. He looked down into the bullpen where Tony was trying to get a tuna sandwich from Kate, which she defended. McGee was watching them and all three of them seemed to have fun. He didn´t want to interrupt them, after all, it was one of the few days Kate was laughing nowadays. Her dad´s condition was still critical and he knew how much she cared about him, inspite of the fact that he wasn´t her biological father.
Turning back to the office, he still couldn´t believe it. He reached for his phone and dialed a number, but after it rang only once, he hung up again. Gibbs had never talked about all that had happened and he wasn´t sure how to deal with this new situation. He picked up the letter, closed the door and sat down on the windowsill. "Dear Jethro, I have searched for the information you asked me for. Unfortunately, it took me quite a while to get some answers and that´s why it took me so long. I hope these information will still be of help to you. Sincerely yours, David Rogers." He read out loud and smiled a bit. He hadn´t seen Rogers for a long time, only talked to him on the phone once in a while. Still, they shared the memory of a fateful mission to Croatia, 21 years ago.
He turned the page over and found an extract from a database. "Given name: Caitlin Todd. Date of birth: unknown, set July 23rd, 1978. Place of birth: unknown, set Washington DC, USA." These information were followed by a brief history and explanation for the unknown data and assumptions. For many years after he had returned from Croatia, he had asked himself what had become of the little girl. Today, he finally knew.