Chapter 18 - Breakup
Gibbs plopped Trisha down on her bed and knelt down in front of her. He got a serious look about him and thought for a moment. "Ok kid, listen to me now, because I'm never repeating this. Sometimes, when a man and a woman love each other very much---"
"Gibbs!" Trisha cried. "What's the matter with you? No, no, no, no, no…" She stuck her fingers in her ears and shut her eyes tight. "La la la la I can't hear you la la la la…"
He sighed and tried to remove Trisha's fingers from her ears "Come on, we should talk about this," he said. When Trisha stuck out her tongue at him, Gibbs took her wrists and pushed her back on the bed, pinning her down. "Listen." He towered over her.
Trisha rolled her eyes. "Gibbs, we don't need to talk about it. First of all, I'm only eight. Eight, Gibbs," she repeated, holding up eight of her fingers. "There will be plenty of time for this discussion later!"
He smiled and released her wrists. Gibbs moved his hands and placed his palms against Trisha's on the bed. "I just want to make sure, you know, you're alright with it. I don't want you to get mixed signals or…" He let out another sigh and looked up at the ceiling before he sat down next to her on the bed. "I just want you to understand…"
She giggled at his obvious frustration. "Hey, if you and Kate want to get all down and funky, you don't have to ask me about it. In fact, don't even tell me about it; I don't wanna know." Trisha sat up and nudged him with her shoulder. "By the way, you've got Kate's lipstick all over your face," she laughed.
Gibbs groaned and put his face in his hands.
Trisha moved to a kneeling position behind him and put her chin on his shoulder. She made a sniffing noise by his ear. "Oh man, you even smell like her perfume!" She put her arms over his shoulders and leaned forward. "And look at that! She left a trail of kisses on your shirt!"
"Ok, that's it!" he exclaimed and flipped Trisha over his shoulder. He held her upside down for a moment before dropping her onto the bed and tickling her. "Get changed, Abby should be here soon," he eventually said. He bent at the waist and placed a kiss on her head, then turned to leave.
"Hey Gibbs?" Trisha asked.
"What?" he asked, turning back around.
"Please shower and change the sheets before I get back later!"
Gibbs just smiled and shook his head. He walked out of her bedroom and shut the door behind him. He found Kate, Abby, and McGee in the living room.
Abby held up a large printout of the Christmas card McGee had just recently created. "So whatcha think, Papa Gibbs?"
"Abby," he growled in response, "please tell me that's the only one you guys have."
She did her best to suppress it, but Abby couldn't help looking guilty. "Ok, then I'll tell you that this is the only copy we have in our possession."
Gibbs sighed in relief. "Good," he said as he walked into the kitchen to get coffee.
"The other copies are already in the NCIS mailroom!" Abby called to him. When Gibbs came storming back into the room, Abby threw McGee in front of her. "It was McGee's idea, get him, not me!"
McGee's eyes grew wide. "What? Boss, it was not!"
Trisha stood next to Kate in the hallway. When Kate showed her the picture she had taken of Gibbs with Trisha curled tightly into him, Trisha giggled at the sight. Both Kate and Trisha's attention quickly turned back to the scene in the living room when Gibbs became a little more vocal.
"Damn it, I don't care whose idea it was! You better get them all back before anyone sees them, or I'll make sure you both get janitorial duty for the next month! Do I make myself clear?" Gibbs' face was now only inches away from McGee's.
"Kate?" Trisha asked. "How come Gibbs is makin' such a big deal out of this photo? Doesn't he want people to know about me or something?" She looked up to Kate, her eyes holding confusion.
"Oh, it's not that, honey. It's just that Gibbs has a reputation for being such a tough bast… errr, tough guy; he doesn't want people to see his caring side." Kate smiled at her and put her hand on her shoulder.
"Oh," Trisha replied quietly, her eyes on the carpet. "It's just that, I don't know. He tells me he loves me and then goes and acts otherwise…" Trisha shook her head. "Yea, I'll see you later, Kate." She shrugged Kate's hand off her and went for the door. "C'mon Abby, McGee. Let's go get something to eat," she said flatly.
McGee and Abby quickly darted past Gibbs and out the front door.
Back inside, Gibbs had no idea what he had done to Trisha's feelings. "I thought they'd never leave," he muttered as he turned to Kate. Gibbs was startled when he saw the angry look she held on her face. "Kate?" he asked.
"Why do you have to be such a bastard all the time, huh?" Kate asked loudly, an edge to her tone. When Gibbs stared back at her, she shook her head. "You just don't get it, do you?"
Gibbs was puzzled. Twenty minutes ago he and Kate were kissing, now she was yelling at him. "You have something you'd like to share with me?" he asked, a hint of agitation in his voice.
"Why yes, Gibbs. I think I do!" She held out her phone and showed him the picture she had taken of him and Trisha.
"What about it?" he growled.
"Trisha thinks that because you don't want those Christmas cards to go out to people it means that you don't want to be seen with her!" Kate was fuming. "You know what she just said to me? She said, 'He tells me he loves me and then he goes and acts otherwise.' Honestly, Gibbs, so far you've been pretty lousy at this whole father thing." She stormed past him and out the front door, slamming it shut behind her. Kate stomped down the steps and into Trisha's path. "Trisha, I thought you left? What are you doing?" she asked.
"Abby told me to go grab a jacket, I forgot it. Did you and Gibbs just have a fight?" Trisha asked worriedly.
Kate sighed. "We had an argument, yes."
"It wasn't over me, was it? You didn't tell him what I said, did you?" Trisha's eyes darted back and forth between Kate's.
Kate nodded. "Yes. Yes I did. He needed to know that he was being insensitive. And honestly, right now I just don't have the gumption to put up with him. I'm tired of his emotional self-inadequacies!"
Trisha's eyes grew wide as she listened to Kate blow off steam. "Kate, take it easy, I'm sure Gibbs---"
"No. You know what, you tell him that when he's ready to be the sensitive man I know he can be, then you tell him to come find me. Until then… I just need a break from all this." And with that she briskly walked to her car, got in, and drove away.
A/N: Ok, well, I think I might take a break from writing for a bit. One: I've hit a writer's block. Two:Where the heck did all my reviewers go? Three: If you guys want to see this story continued, please let me know. When I only get one or two reviews it makes me think that people aren't reading it anymore and/or they've lost interest...