Reading Vance In

Ducky watched Tony leave, then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and sent him a quick text. Let me know how Jethro is handling this. A few moments later he received a thumbs up emoji.

He headed for the elevator, wanting to catch the director in his office. Vance had been working late while his family was visiting relatives, so Ducky hoped to talk to him here rather than having to drive to the Vance residence. Some conversations needed to be in person.

He was in luck. Vance's office door was open, and the director sat at his desk, reading through some papers. Ducky knocked on the door, and Vance looked up. "Doctor Mallard! You're here late. What can I do for you?"

"Good evening, Director. I hope I'm not interrupting?"

Vance smiled and shook his head. "Trust me, I could use a break." He stood, stretching, then gestured to the armchairs at the side of the room. "Have a seat, tell me what's on your mind."

They sat, and Ducky looked seriously at Vance. "I need to speak with you about Jethro."

Vance sighed, pulling on his shirt cuffs. "What's he done now?"

Ducky smiled. "Nothing, actually. We have a situation, one about which Jethro is currently unaware." Ducky's expression changed, becoming serious again. "This is going to affect him very strongly, and I believe he will need some time away from work."

Vance frowned. "Shouldn't you be talking to Gibbs about a medical issue before you tell me?"

"Indeed, if it were such, I certainly would. To do otherwise would be a violation of the oaths I swore to uphold many, many years ago." Ducky sighed. "No, this is something else entirely, a situation unlike any I have ever witnessed."

Vance tilted his head. "Now I'm intrigued."

Ducky sat forward, hands clasped together on his lap. "I will try to be as succinct as possible. In an attempt to protect Jethro, and by extension the team, from threats similar to that posed by the children of Pedro Hernandez, our dear Ms. Sciuto has been monitoring the internet for any chatter related to Jethro's past."

Vance grunted. "We should have thought of that sooner."

"Yes, indeed," Ducky said ruefully. "Well, last week one of Abigail's machines alerted her to a discrepancy. A young lady living in Rosedale came up as a fingerprint match to Jethro's daughter."

Vance's eyebrows shot up. "You're joking."

Ducky shook his head. "Not a bit. We kept this quiet from Jethro, investigated, and long story short, the young woman is downstairs in Abigail's domain. We have run fingerprints and DNA, with rather shocking results. This young woman, who goes by Samantha Hawthorne, actually is Jethro's daughter, Kelly."

Vance stared at him. "Hell you say."

Ducky nodded. "Abigail emailed you the report a short time ago."

Vance rose quickly and went to his computer, tapping some keys and staring at the monitor. "I'll be damned." He looked back at Ducky.

"Anthony left just before I came upstairs, on his way to inform Jethro. We're not certain how he'll react, but I assume he will need some time. Samantha, Sammie as she prefers to be called, is anxious to be reunited with her father… whom she has never quite forgotten despite the head trauma and resulting memory loss she suffered in the car accident that killed her mother."

Vance looked back down at the monitor, which showed the pictures of Gibbs and his daughter, along with the matching DNA markers. "I can't even begin to imagine how he's gonna feel. If I had lost Kayla, and years later got her back…"

"Just so."

Vance glanced over at Ducky, then moved back to the chair opposite him, sitting heavily. "Tell Gibbs, whenever you feel it's appropriate, to take as much time as he needs. Sick time, personal time, vacation days… he certainly has enough built up. He can even borrow against next year if he needs to. And let him know if there's anything I can do…"

"Thank you, Director. I'm sure Jethro will be appreciative. I believe Samantha hopes to see him tomorrow. In the meantime, I have offered my home to her. I believe she will be going there soon, along with Abigail and Ziva to keep her company."

Vance nodded approvingly. "Very kind of you." His eyes narrowed. "Is McGee still in the building?"

"I believe so."

"Can you ask him to come up here?"

Ducky stood, as did Vance. "Right away."

"And tell Gibbs… if he needs another father's perspective, I'm happy to talk."

Ducky smiled. "I will be sure to let him know." He shook Vance's hand, and headed for the door. "Good night, Director."

McGee's Marching Orders

A short time later, Tim McGee arrived at Vance's office and knocked on the door. Vance was standing behind his desk, staring again at the pictures on the monitor.

"Agent McGee… come in. What can you tell me about how the hell this happened?"

McGee stepped forward quickly. "We don't know much yet, sir. Ducky got some information from hospital records; this could have been an accident. The hospital was understaffed and hit with a large number of trauma victims from a highway pileup; right now we're thinking somehow Kelly Gibbs was misidentified as Samantha Kendall, and was later adopted by the Hawthornes."

"How's it possible no one noticed?"

"There's no record of any living relatives of the Kendalls. It doesn't seem anyone questioned the identifications, although we probably need to look into that. Shannon and the girl everyone thought was Kelly were buried before Gibbs could get back home, so he never got to ID the bodies."

"Who did?"

"From what Ducky found out from the hospital, Mike Franks did the initial identification. Shannon's mother was contacted as well as Gibbs… I guess since she was here and Gibbs was deployed, whoever was in charge went along with her wishes."

Vance grimaced, muttering something about mothers-in-law.

McGee cleared his throat and continued. "Kelly suffered memory loss, apparently didn't remember her name or most details about her parents. Tony could explain it all better than I can… he's the one who's spent the most time with her so far."

Vance pursed his lips. "I want to know how the hell NIS agents dropped the ball on this."

Tim cleared his throat. "Mike Franks was in charge of Shannon's and Kelly's protection detail."

"Of course he was," Vance commented sourly. He looked sharply at McGee. "Doctor Mallard requested time off on Gibbs' behalf. I'm granting it, as much as he needs. DiNozzo will be team lead in his absence, you'll be acting SFA. I want to meet with you, DiNozzo, and David as soon as DiNozzo's back… if he's needed at Gibbs' place, that's fine. I'll approve a few days off for all of you if you want it. After that – I want to know the extent of NIS' involvement in this mess… if we're responsible for this family being torn apart, I want to know about it. Every detail."

"Yes, sir."

"Get me a write up of what you know so far, tomorrow morning if you don't take the day. Tell DiNozzo to be ready to go to Mexico… with backup."

"Mexico?"

Vance snorted. "Franks will have less chance to weasel away from this if he's confronted in person."

McGee smiled slightly. Vance nodded to him and glanced at the door; McGee returned the nod and left.

Vance looked back down at the monitor, shaking his head. He glanced at the time, then quickly shut off his computer and packed his briefcase, feeling a strong need to get home and call his children.

Telling Gibbs

Tony drove to Gibbs' house, parking the car and taking a deep breath before getting out, grabbing the slim manila folder, and heading toward the door. He had no idea how Gibbs was going to react to this news… he knew how impossible the whole story sounded.

Tony went in through the unlocked front door, shaking his head as he always did at Gibbs' lack of home security. "Boss?"

Gibbs walked over from the kitchen, looking at Tony curiously, glancing at the folder in his hand. "We have a case?"

"No… at least, not a normal one."

Gibbs' brow furrowed as he gazed at Tony. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Tony chewed his lower lip, looking back at Gibbs thoughtfully. "Means what I'm about to tell you is going to be unbelievable. And difficult. And you could probably use a drink first. Got any bourbon up here?"

Gibbs sighed. "Just spit it out, DiNozzo."

Tony shook his head. "Trust me, this is not something that just gets spat out. Spitted? Anyway, you have any plans you need to cancel?"

Gibbs shot Tony a look that clearly showed he thought his SFA had gone crazy. "Wood'll still be there later."

Tony nodded, then pointed in the direction of the living room. "Have a seat, Boss."

Gibbs cocked his head. "Abby okay?"

"She's fine. Sit, Boss."

Gibbs crossed his arms, glaring at Tony. "Why?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "What are you, twelve?" Gibbs' eyebrows shot up at that, and Tony winced. "Sorry, Boss… just, please, remember what I said in the elevator, about how you might find out everything? You don't want to be standing for this."

Gibbs dropped his arms by his side, his eyes searching Tony's. Finally, he nodded once, turned and moved to the couch. Tony followed him, sitting on the opposite side from Gibbs. He stared at the floor for a moment, then ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He looked up at Gibbs, who sat forward, resting his elbows on his legs.

"You alright, DiNozzo?"

"Me? I'm fine, Gibbs. Trying to figure out how to tell you this. Gonna be difficult."

Gibbs' expression became concerned. "You leaving the team, Tony? Finally got that overdue promotion?"

Tony sat up, surprised. "No way, Boss… I have no interest in going anywhere. And even if I did, why would I think you need to be sitting… anyway…" He took another deep breath. "Okay… here goes. So… when Abby called me down to the lab last week, it wasn't because she had a friend in trouble and needed to talk. She'd gotten a really weird hit from a surveillance program she set up after you took care of Reynosa and Hernandez."

"Surveillance?"

"Yeah… she's been monitoring the internet for chatter related to you, Franks, Layla and Amira, anyone that could be used against you." Tony glanced at Gibbs, who looked surprised. "You do get that we all care about you, right Boss?'

Gibbs shot Tony a small smile. "Guess so."

Tony shook his head. "Okay… so, she also included anything she could dig up related to your family… Jack, Shannon, Kelly."

Tony watched as Gibbs reached up to rub his hand over his mouth, then through his hair. "Okay," Gibbs said, as he looked back at Tony.

Tony looked away, thinking about what to say next. "Did you know that Shannon had Kelly fingerprinted? At one of those child safety clinics?"

Gibbs sat up, head tilted to one side as he thought. He nodded slowly. "Yeah… she wrote to me about that when I was deployed. In the year before they died." He cleared his throat, then resumed his former position, arms resting on his legs, looking down at the floor instead of at Tony.

"So, here's where things get hinky," Tony continued. "Someone living in Rosedale submitted an application to volunteer at a nursing home. That includes fingerprinting. Abby's program pinged because the prints were a match for Kelly's."

Gibbs turned his head and stared at Tony. There was a long pause, then he spoke. "Go on."

"We – Abby, Ducky, Tim, Ziva, and me – we figured someone was planning to mess with you. We've been doing a crapload of research in addition to cold cases. Anyway, last weekend I went out to Rosedale and tracked down one Samantha Hawthorne, who came up as the match." He opened the folder he was holding and took out Sammie's picture, handing it to Gibbs. Gibbs took it and stared at it; his eyes widened. He didn't say anything, simply eventually looked back at Tony.

"Sammie and I talked. It's her story to tell, and you're gonna want to hear it. But anyway… I was pretty sure she wasn't the evil mastermind Abby initially suspected, and I brought her to Abby's lab around lunchtime today. Abby double checked the fingerprints and ran the DNA, and…" He took a deep breath, reached for another sheet of paper from the folder, one that had Samantha's picture, Gibbs' picture, and the DNA matches that indicated the father-daughter connection, and handed it over.

Gibbs stared at the paper in his hands. "How…?" he whispered. Tony watched with concern as the color drained from his face.

Tony shook his head. "We don't know, not yet. There really was a Samantha at the hospital at the same time Shannon and Kelly were brought there, except her last name was Kendall. We think someone accidentally switched ID bracelets. Ducky checked hospital records; they were understaffed and really busy that day. Samantha Kendall's parents died in a car crash, and there were apparently no other living relatives, no one to catch the switch. Sammie Kendall was adopted by the Hawthornes two years after the accident. Except that, based on fingerprints and DNA, she wasn't Sammie, she was Kelly." Tony hesitated, then continued. "She had a head injury, memory loss. She told me things didn't fit, but she couldn't remember who she had been."

Gibbs stared at the picture, at the DNA match. He closed his eyes and let the papers slide from his hands to the floor. His head dropped into his hands for a few seconds, then his hands fell and he stared at the floor. Tony watched as Gibbs' face turned red and twisted into something almost unrecognizable, his teeth exposed in a snarl. Gibbs shot to his feet, grabbing an empty glass that had been sitting on the coffee table and hurling it at the wall; the sound of shattering glass seemed magnified in the silence.

Tony reached for Gibbs, but before he could make contact, the man was half-running toward the basement. The door slammed behind him; Tony could hear Gibbs pounding down the stairs. Then there was more silence, followed by a sound, half yell, half scream, that tore at Tony's heart and brought tears to his eyes.

Then there was silence for a long time. Tony sat there on the couch, waiting, unsure of what to do, except that he wasn't going to leave Gibbs alone. Eventually he reached down to pick up the papers Gibbs had dropped, putting them back in the folder. He waited a while longer, finally checking the time on his cell phone, surprised at how late it was. He stood, grimacing at how stiff he felt. Then he cleared his throat and headed for the stairs, folder still in his hand.

The basement was dark. Tony flipped on the light, and saw Gibbs sitting on the floor on the far side of the room, his back to the workbench. His knees were drawn up close to his chest, his arms resting on them. His head lay back against the wood, face tilted up slightly, eyes closed. He didn't react as Tony descended the stairs, then slowly walked across the floor, past the boat, sitting quietly next to him. Tony could see partially dried tracks from tears on his face.

Tony simply waited. After a while, Gibbs spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. "Are you sure?"

Tony nodded. "Yeah." He glanced at Gibbs, who had turned his head and was looking at him through reddened eyes. "She has your smile. And she remembers things. Rules with numbers. Other stuff. She picked you and Jack out of a photo lineup. And Abby and Ducky… they're convinced too." Tony smiled slightly. "You know what Abby says… DNA doesn't lie."

Both men were silent for a while. Gibbs finally spoke again. "Give me her picture?" Tony quickly took the picture out of the folder and handed it to him. Gibbs stared at it for a long time. "I… it's… so hard to believe. But… I see Shannon in her." He reached up, finger and thumb squeezing the bridge of his nose for a moment. "Lost so much time," he whispered.

"I know," Tony said. "And you can't get it back. But you can have her in your life again." Tony fell silent for a few minutes, watching Gibbs, whose head rested against the wood again. "She's staying with Ducky tonight… Abby and Ziva too. And her dog… his name is Jack."

Gibbs choked out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. "When she was five, Kelly told my dad she was going to have a dog one day and name it after him." He reached up to wipe at his eyes. Both men were silent for a while; when Gibbs spoke again, his voice was a whisper. "When can I see her?"

"Tomorrow, if you want." Tony reached up to scratch the back of his head. "Ducky went to talk to Vance, get you time off. Figured that would be easier than you having to ask." He looked at Gibbs, who nodded. "In fact," Tony reached for his phone, "let me see if there are any messages." He saw several text notifications. "Oh, yeah, just a few… Ducky says Vance says take as much time as you need. He's inviting me over for breakfast… Ducky, not Vance… says Sammie would like me to bring her here afterward if you're ready."

Gibbs shifted, turning slightly toward Tony. "Sammie… not Kelly?"

Tony grimaced. "She didn't remember her name. Not sure it's really my place to tell you… but she said when she woke up in the hospital, people were calling her Samantha, and it didn't seem right, but she couldn't remember anything different."

Gibbs stared at the floor, eyes wide, looking so lost that Tony's heart went out to him. "She does remember you, Gibbs. She remembers that you were a Marine. She remembers Shannon giving you head slaps."

Gibbs turned to stare at Tony. "She remembers Shannon?"

Tony nodded. "Not her name, but she told me she had dreams of a woman with red hair, and she recognized the picture I showed her. Pretty sure being here will trigger more memories for her."

Gibbs nodded. "Ducky say anything else?"

Tony looked back at his phone. "Not really… just that the three women seem to be getting along well, and he asks how you're doing. I'll update him in a bit." Tony swiped to the next message. "Long one from Tim… oh, wow."

"What?"

"Vance called him into the office… we have the rest of the week off if we want it. I'm temporary team lead until you're ready to come back, Tim is interim SFA. Vance wants a full investigation into how NIS dropped the ball." Tony chose not to share what McGee had written about Mexico and Mike Franks… he figured Gibbs didn't need to be thinking about that right now. He put the phone back in his pocket, and looked closely at his boss. "You don't look so good."

Gibbs laughed quietly. "I just found out my daughter, whose grave I've been visiting for twenty years, is alive and grew up without me. I have no idea how to handle this or what to feel."

Tony hesitated, then said, "Kinda surprised you're not driving to Ducky's place at warp speed right now."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows, then looked at Tony. "Want to. But… don't really want her to see me like this. Don't want an audience, either." He shook his head. "I'm not even sure I have the energy to get back upstairs, let alone drive."

Tony nodded. "I get that." He rolled awkwardly to his feet, stood, then held out a hand. Gibbs looked at it, then reached up to grasp it and let Tony pull him to his feet. "C'mon, Boss. I'll help. You can try to get some sleep."

They made their way up the stairs; Gibbs headed for the couch, hesitating as he stood in front of it. "Guest room's yours if you want it, Tony."

"Thanks, Boss. I'll take you up on that. And I'll be honored to bring your daughter to you in the morning."

Gibbs closed his eyes, feeling the tears well up again. Then suddenly Tony was hugging him, and he found himself returning the embrace, resting his forehead on Tony's shoulder. "I'm sorry you lost those years, Gibbs," Tony said softly, "but I'm so glad you're getting her back."

The hug lasted a few more seconds, then both men pulled away, not quite meeting each other's eyes. "Thanks, Tony," Gibbs said gruffly. He stood there while the younger man headed for the guest room, then looked at the couch, thinking there was no way he would get any sleep. He lay down anyway, and was vaguely surprised when he felt himself drifting off soon after.