Katya Chapter 3: Roots
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything
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Kate was sitting at her desk when her phone rang. The caller ID told her it was Gibbs. She looked up to where she had seen him just a moment ago, but he was gone. "Yes?" She answered the call and wondered where he had gone.
"Can I talk to you for a moment? I´m in McHugh´s old office, next to the elevator." He told her briefly, but from the sound of his voice, she knew something was up. She confirmed and told Tony to stay away from her desk while she was gone. Of course, he would take the chance to poke into her privacy, but somehow, she didn´t mind today. Her PDA was locked up in her drawer and her sketch pad was in her car. Since he had showed it around once and almost gotten her into trouble with Gibbs, she never took it inside the office anymore.
Gibbs was waiting for her, sitting on the windowsill with a letter in his hand. "Have a seat." He told her and she obediently sat down. "I got an answer from my friend at the pentagon today. It´s still your choice whether you want to know everything or if you decide not to know about it." He looked at her and Kate could see something in his eyes she had never seen before. For the shortest of a second, the look on his face sent a chill down her spine. She was closer to knowing about her roots than ever before, but for some reason, it made her nervous.
"I want to know where I come from, Gibbs." She told him and braced herself for whatever came now. Maybe he would reveal to her that her parents had abandoned her in some filthy street or that her mom died or something like that. For a moment, a part of her wanted to run out and hide from whatever was going to come now, but she kept her eyes on him and waited.
"All right then. You can tell me stop any time, if you don´t want to go on." He took out the letter again and started to read it to her. For some reason, he didn´t want to do this, but it was her decision. "Birth name: Katya. Family name: Unknown. Date of Birth: Unknown, year 1978. Place of birth: Croatia." He stopped and looked at her. There were tears in her eyes and she had her hands locked around the armrests of the chair, but she wasn´t saying anything yet. Gibbs knew that the next lines would be the hardest part, for both of them, as they revealed a bond none of them had been aware of all these years. "Found buried under debris in the town of Tivatira on August 17th 1981 by L. J. Gibbs of the US marine corps. Brought to Washington Navy hospital for treatment, diagnosed with amnesia, adopted by Dr. William Todd and Mary-Ann Todd of Washington. Renamed Caitlin after adoption."
He stopped reading and put the letter down. The tears in her eyes were now rolling down her face and he could see an expression of disbelief and horror on her face. She tried to say something, but not a single sound came out of her mouth. Gibbs saw the shock in her eyes and felt tears rising into his eyes as well. He squatted down next to her and put his hand on her arm. "I didn´t know, Kate...I really didn´t know." He told her and watched for a reaction. The sun was shining through the half drawn curtains, creating a peaceful atmosphere of some kind. For a short moment, Jethro wished that he would have never gotten that letter. He knew that this moment would change something for her -and for the team as well. Maybe it was selfish to think like that, but who could tell?
Kate just stared into thin air. She had no feeling for time and space anymore. His words echoed in her mind, again and again, but she couldn´t make sense of them. She felt his hand on her arm, but she couldn´t move. Slowly her vision started narrowing down to a long, grey tunnel.Without a sound she blacked out completely while her mind was trying to process the new information.