Stillwater

Gibbs parked the car down the street from the store, shut off the engine, and looked at his daughter. She was looking from one side of the street to the other, a confused expression on her face.

"You okay?" he asked.

She was a little slow to respond. "Yeah… I am. It's just… I don't remember this place. Not at all." She turned to face him. "I've been here?"

Gibbs nodded, reaching out to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. "Yeah, but most of our visits here were when you were really small."

Sammie nodded as she looked around again. "I guess that explains it."

Jack whined from the back seat, and she wrinkled her nose. "I better get him out." She glanced back toward the store. "You'll come find me when you guys are ready?"

Gibbs nodded. He was still trying to figure out what he was going to say, and how. He didn't want his father having a heart attack from the shock.

"There's a park down that way," he waved his hand in the general direction. "Turn left after the ice cream shop, it's at the end of the street."

"Great!" She smiled at him. "Leash laws?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

"That's okay. I'll keep him on leash for now, then we'll see what the park looks like." She opened the car door, stood for a moment, then leaned back in. "It's not too warm, so he can stay in the car with the windows open if that works out better than bringing him in." She started to back out of the car, then impulsively leaned back in to kiss him on the cheek. "Love you, Dad."

Gibbs watched, smiling, as she opened the back door, clipped the leash onto Jack's collar, then let him out, shut the door, and set off down the street, looking down at the dog as he grinned up at her. Then his brow furrowed, and he quickly got out of the car, pocketing the key and closing the door. "Hey!"

She stopped and turned, waiting while he jogged over to her. He wrapped his arms around her, lowered his head to her ear, and said, "Love you too, kid." Then he kissed her cheek, let go, stepped back, ruffled her hair, and set off for his dad's store.

Gibbs walked into the store, stepping off to one side as a customer approached carrying a filled bag of groceries. Gibbs pushed the door open for the woman, who smiled her thanks as she left. Then he settled back against the wall to watch as his father joked with the people in line while he rang up their purchases.

After the last one had paid and left, Jack looked over at his son. "Good to see you, Leroy!"

"You too, Dad." Gibbs walked over as Jack came around the corner of the counter, and they hugged. Jack patted his son's shoulder as they stepped away from each other. "Have a seat. I had sandwiches brought in. I'll just put the closed sign up and we can eat."

Gibbs sat, waiting to speak until Jack turned back from adjusting the sign. "Let's hold off on lunch, Dad… got something I need to tell you."

Jack stood in place for a moment, contemplating his son, then nodded. "Alright, then." He sat at the table, opposite Gibbs, resting one arm on the table top, the other hand holding his cane. "What's so important that it can't wait until after we eat?"

Gibbs smiled slightly, his head tilting to one side. "This is about as important as it gets, actually."

Jack's eyebrows lifted. "Everything okay with your team? Ducky? He's okay? That man tells the best stories…"

"Everyone's fine, Dad. Better than fine."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "You said on the phone you didn't get married again."

"Hell, no."

"But you didn't say you didn't get engaged."

Gibbs laughed. "Didn't do that either. Not dating anyone at the moment."

Jack sat back, thinking. "You looking to retire?"

"Got a few more good years left in me."

"Right." Jack's eyes roamed over Gibbs' face. "Then what is this all about? What's so mysterious? Can't you just come out with it?"

Gibbs sighed and reached up to run his fingers through his hair. "Tough to figure out just how to tell you this." He looked up, meeting his father's eyes. "How's your heart, Dad?"

Jack snorted. "Doc says I'm healthy as a horse." His expression morphed from irritated to concerned. "You're not sick, are you, son? Cancer?"

"No, Dad, I'm fine." He smiled. "More than fine." He leaned forward, reaching out to place his hand on Jack's. "Dad… twenty years ago, when Shannon and Kelly were taken to the hospital, after the accident… there was a mistake."

Jack sighed heavily, leaned his cane against the table, and covered Gibbs' hand with his own. "Wasn't right, what happened to those girls."

Gibbs opened his mouth, then closed it. "This is so hard," he muttered. He pulled his hands back and resting his forehead on his palms for a moment, before sitting up and looking at his father, who was watching him, concern and confusion equally evident on his face.

Gibbs took a deep breath. "Tony and Abby… they found a woman who came up in the computer system as Kelly." He watched as Jack's brow furrowed. "Tony talked to her, did some investigating. They brought her to NCIS, and Abby ran a bunch of tests." He cleared his throat. "Remember what Abby told you about DNA?"

Jack nodded. "I remember some, but I can't say I understood any of it."

Gibbs smiled wryly. "I don't get it much either." He reached over and put his hand on Jack's arm, surreptitiously feeling for a pulse. "Dad… this woman's DNA matched mine. She's Kelly. She lived through the accident."

Jack stared at him, frozen. Gibbs kept his fingers on Jack's pulse and was relieved to feel it remain strong, if a little fast.

Jack cleared his throat. "Kelly's alive?"

Gibbs nodded. "She had a head injury. Didn't remember who she was when she woke up. She was misidentified as another girl who'd been brought to the hospital after a car accident."

Jack continued to stare.

Gibbs ducked his head, looking at his father carefully. "Hey. Dad? You okay?"

Jack seemed to shake himself a little, then his eyes refocused on his son. "Yeah… yeah, I'm alright." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Kelly's alive?" he repeated. "You're sure?"

Gibbs nodded. "I asked Tony the same question. DNA tests show we're father and daughter. And she remembers things that happened before I was deployed, that last time before Shannon died. Things no one else would know."

He sat back and took a picture out of his pocket. He handed it to Jack, who unfolded the printer paper and stared at the picture. His eyes began to fill. "She looks like Shannon." He glanced up at Gibbs. "And she got your cheekbones." He looked back down at the picture, hesitating a moment. His finger traced over the paper. "There's a touch of your mother there, around the eyes."

Gibbs nodded slowly, continuing to watch his father carefully. Jack looked down at the picture again, reaching up to scratch at his face and quickly wipe his eyes. He looked over at Gibbs. "For heaven's sake, I'm not going to keel over. I'm not made of glass, Leroy."

Gibbs smiled slightly. "Then you're good to get reacquainted with your granddaughter?"

Jack's face lit up. "She's here?"

Gibbs nodded. "Walking her dog. I'll go get her… as long as you're sure you're okay."

Jack glowered at him. "If you don't stop hovering, I'm going to smack you with my cane."

Gibbs grinned at him, and Jack was struck with the realization that he hadn't seen his son look so happy in decades. Then Gibbs turned and walked quickly out of the store, and Jack looked back down at the picture. So many questions were in his head, but he could put them aside, at least for now.

Gibbs didn't have far to go to find Sammie. She was walking back to the car with Jack; when she saw him, she quickened her pace to reach him. "He's okay?"

"He's fine. Threatened to whack me with his cane if I didn't stop worrying about him. He wants to see you."

"Should I bring Jack?"

"Sure. He'll get a kick out of his name, if nothing else."

Sammie bit her lip. "He believes that I'm… me?"

Gibbs nodded. "He saw it as soon as I handed him that picture."

Sammie sighed. "I need to have a better one taken for you to distribute."

Gibbs laughed. "Come on. Your grandfather's waiting."

He held the door for her as she walked in, handing him Jack's leash as she approached her grandfather, who was standing next to the table, cane still leaning against it.

Sammie walked up to him. He held out a hand, and she grasped it with her own.

Jack looked at her, the tears welling up in his eyes again. "Kelly?"

She nodded.

He pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly, a few tears trickling from his eyes as he clenched his jaw to prevent any sobs from escaping. Sammie returned the hug fiercely, sniffling. "Hi, Grandpa," she said quietly.

They stood like that for a while, with Gibbs watching over them. Eventually, they pulled away from each other; Jack stumbled a little as he turned toward his chair, and Sammie darted past him to grab his cane and hand it to him. He smiled at her, uncertain of his ability to speak, and settled heavily into his chair. She pulled a chair next to his and sat down, reaching out to take his hand.

Gibbs let go of Jack's leash, letting the dog run to Sammie, who smiled as he jumped up to place both front paws on her lap.

"Who's this fine fellow?" Jack asked.

Sammie grinned. "Jack Gibbs, meet Jack the dog."

Jack smiled broadly, then laughed. "You remembered me!"

She smiled at him as Gibbs sat down opposite them. "I always wanted a dog and wanted to name one Jack."

Jack looked from Sammie to Gibbs. "I remember Kelly saying that when she was a little girl… six years old?"

"Five." Gibbs smiled at Sammie, who smiled back.

Jack the dog pushed off of Sammie's lap and went to greet Jack, sniffing his pants and extended hand and wiggling his rear end. He grinned up at Jack as the man stroked his back, then took off to explore the store.

Jack squeezed Sammie's hand. "Leroy says you woke up in the hospital but didn't remember anything."

Sammie nodded. "The hospital had me listed as Samantha Kendall. I was eventually adopted by one of my nurses, and became Samantha Hawthorne." She glanced at Gibbs. "I still go by Sammie with most people, but you and Dad can call me Kelly."

Jack's brow furrowed as he took that in. "Did you remember being Kelly at all before Leroy's people found you?"

She shook her head. "No, not really. I would dream about Dad, and Mom too, but I didn't remember their names or much of anything about being Kelly. I started to remember a bit when Tony first came to talk to me, and then a lot more when he brought me to the house and Dad and I were back together." She frowned slightly. "There are still a bunch of missing pieces," she admitted.

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "That Tony… he's a good kid."

Gibbs shook his head. "Hardly a kid, Dad."

Jack shot him a look. "When you're my age, everyone's a kid." He looked back at Sammie, smiling, then back to Gibbs. "How did it happen? How could they make such a big mistake?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Don't know. Tony and the rest of the team are looking into it. All we really know is there was an influx of patients to the hospital ER around the same time Shannon and Kelly were brought in." He looked down at the table top, tapping his fingers on it. "Mike Franks identified the girl who died as Kelly." He paused, then looked back up at his father. "Joann identified her as Kelly too."

Jack thought that over. "That woman…" he said, his tone angry. "Never could figure her out." He looked at Sammie. "When your folks got together, Joann acted happy about it… but I was never sure she was." He looked back at Gibbs, who shrugged.

"She wasn't the easiest to get along with, but she never really gave me a hard time, not until we had to move away."

Sammie was listening intently. "So… neither of you saw the girl who was buried with Mom?"

The two men looked at each other, then both looked back at her, shaking their heads. "Joann had my girls buried before I could get back from the Middle East," Gibbs said quietly, trying not to let his anger bleed into his voice.

"And I didn't find out until Leroy was able to tell me," Jack added, sadly. "Joann never called."

Sammie tilted her head curiously.

Gibbs sighed. "I'd been injured, wasn't able to get home right away. By the time I did, Joann had already buried my family."

Jack nodded, his expression a little haunted. "Didn't get to say good-bye." His jaw clenched. "We held a funeral at the gravesite."

Gibbs' eyes narrowed, and he tensed as he looked at his father. He felt eyes on him and glanced at Sammie, who was looking at him with one eyebrow raised. Forcing himself to calm down, he shook it off. "I replaced the headstones she'd ordered," he said softly.

Sammie's expression relaxed, and she shook her head. "I can't imagine…"

Gibbs smiled at her. "You're here now. That's all that matters." For now, he thought to himself.

Jack looked at Sammie. "We have a lot of catching up to do," he said, his tone jovial. "Tell me about your life."

Sammie's eyes widened. "Well…"

Jack held up a hand. "Hold on." He turned to Gibbs. "Leroy, we need more sandwiches. And get some chips… I'm running low, don't get a delivery 'til Monday, so don't touch the stock."

Gibbs glanced at Sammie and winked as he got up from the table. As he headed for the door, Jack called out, "Get a cake, too! We're celebrating!"

Sammie turned in her chair. "Make that apple pie instead! With chocolate sauce."

Jack stared at her, then laughed. "You are definitely my granddaughter."

Gibbs paused at the door and looked back in time to see Jack motion to Sammie to start talking. Sammie began telling Jack about Lyssa and Will; Jack's gaze was riveted on her face. Gibbs glanced around the shop to see Jack the dog lying in a corner with a stolen marrow bone, grinned, and set out to run his errands.

Research

Late in the evening that same Friday, Ducky pored through the records that had been faxed over; the hospital administrator he'd spoken with had been only too happy to pass the issue off to someone else, with the stipulation that 'all concerned parties be made aware that they were cooperating fully.'

The medical examiner was building up a timeline of events at the hospital on February 25, 1991. It would be enough to give him a working hypothesis as to how things unfolded, and he hoped that together with everything Abby and Ziva could dig up, they might be able to provide a partial answer to how Kelly had been so wrongly identified as Samantha Kendall.

Some of it was easy to establish. Shannon and Kelly had been brought to the emergency room, and the Kendalls had been brought in from their own one-car accident roughly five minutes later. The highway pile-up had already happened, and the hospital had been notified of a large number of patients on the way. Victims of the highway disaster began to arrive soon afterward, which explained the extraordinary delay between the time of arrival and the first notations on the patient charts. Shannon was declared dead on arrival after a gap of roughly twenty minutes. The girl identified as Kelly was declared DOA some thirty minutes or so later.

Looking at the descriptions of Shannon's injuries, Ducky understood why there was no attempt to help her. She had likely died on impact, or very soon after. He very much doubted she ever regained consciousness. The injuries noted for 'Kelly' were also severe, but given the location of the head injury, he thought Samantha Kendall might have still been alive, although in all probability her brain could only support basic life functions at that point. The lack of bruising that normally accompanied a severe accident indicated that Samantha Kendall had probably not been wearing a seatbelt.

Abby's research included a picture from a local newspaper that showed an emergency room in disarray, with gurneys crowded into whatever space was available, leaving little room for doctors and nurses to maneuver. He had found himself staring at the picture, wondering if Shannon or Kelly were actually lying there.

February 25, 1991

So many announcements and warnings were blaring over the loudspeakers, making it very difficult for Jim Greer, the orderly trying to manage the gurneys and incoming patients, to concentrate. He moved one gurney next to the wall, cringing a bit at the red-haired woman's appearance… experience told him she was already gone. The girl in the gurney next to her was unconscious, but breathing. She obviously had some head trauma, but her color was good. Jim called for triage, but no one responded. He looked around… people were running every which way, trying to get ready for what was coming. He spotted one of the trauma nurses on the other side of the room, and ran to get her, to bring help for that little girl, forgetting to set the brakes.

As he left, another orderly, Sam Yates, wheeled more gurneys into the area. He gave one a push; there was a young girl on it, and it was far lighter than the second gurney carrying a groaning man. He didn't notice when the gurney he pushed hit another one, moving it several feet away from its original position next to a red-haired woman.

Moments later, a third orderly by the name of Jason Speers, acting on orders to make more room, grabbed the gurney that had been pushed away from the red-haired woman, moving it next to the wall. The second gurney, the one that had dislodged the first, he moved closer to the red-haired woman, thinking it held her daughter. The groaning man was asking about his little girl, so Jason rolled him next to the gurney he'd put next to the wall. The man quieted, reaching for and taking the girl's hand.

Ducky sighed, turning his attention to the reason for the pile-up. According to the police report Abby found, someone in a sports car had cut off a tanker truck with bad brakes. The truck was unable to stop and jack-knifed, causing a spill and a chain reaction leading to over seventy vehicles being involved. The hospital where Shannon and Kelly had been taken also received over fifty patients from that event. As the best trauma center in the area, it was the first choice for many of the more severely injured accident victims.

He looked at Ziva's research next. Joseph and Patricia Kendall's car was in disrepair; the tires were bald, and according to the police report they were primarily responsible for the accident that sent the car hurtling into a telephone pole. Patricia Kendall was pronounced dead at the scene; her daughter Samantha was badly injured. Joseph, who had been driving, had severe internal injuries but was conscious when he was put in the ambulance. None of the family had been wearing seat belts. Joseph told the paramedics in the ambulance he had driven through the night, needing to get to his new job on time.

The trauma nurse sent Jim to help out front where a cacophony of sirens indicated multiple ambulances were pulling up at the emergency entrance. Lyssa Hawthorne moved quickly to the far side of the room, looking for the little girl next to the red-haired woman. She found them easily enough, but it was clear the woman was dead, and although the girl was alive, she had sustained severe damage to her head and the side of her face. Her breathing was very shallow, she was extremely pale, and her pupils were fixed, with no reaction to light. Lyssa sighed, knowing there was nothing that could be done for the girl. She would cry for her and her mother later; right now she needed to help those who could be helped.

"Please, nurse, can you help my daughter?"

Lyssa turned around and went quickly to the man lying on the gurney past the one holding the dying girl. She spoke softly. "Hi there, my name is Lyssa. What's yours?"

The man coughed, spitting up some blood. "Joe… Joe Kendall. My daughter, Samantha… she needs help."

Lyssa glanced at the girl, assessing her breathing rate and her color, before turning back to Joe. "She seems alright for the moment, so let me take a look at you."

He shook his head. "Sammie first. She's more important."

Lyssa smiled at him. "She's very important, and I promise I will see to her very soon. Let's make sure you're taken care of too, alright?" She took his pulse; it was weak and rapid. "Can you see clearly?"

"No… everything's blurry. Has been since we hit the pole." He coughed again. "Is Sammie gonna be okay?"

"We'll do everything we can for her. What's her full name?"

Joe took a moment to breathe. "Samantha Elizabeth Kendall. We call her Sammie. Please, make sure she's okay…"

Lyssa took his hand, squeezing gently. "Joe, I promise you, I will do everything I can for your daughter." She held his hand as he smiled, then faded into unconsciousness. One of the doctors came over, moving quickly, checking his vitals and then lifting the sheet to check for obvious injuries. He grimaced and shook his head, meeting Lyssa's eyes briefly before moving next to her, at Samantha Kendall's side. "Hi, Sammie," she said to the unconscious girl, "my name's Lyssa, and I'm going to take care of you."

Ducky sighed at the lack of information concerning the emergency room operations. He wasn't going to find enough information in these files to be able to tell Jethro and Sammie exactly what had happened, but so far, putting the information he did have together with Abby's research, he could at least say he felt strongly that any errors made by hospital staff were purely accidental.

Turning his attention once again to Sammie's file, he focused on her injuries. A bad cut on her forehead and a severe concussion: they'd put her into a medically-induced coma to allow her brain to recover. The location of the external injury along with the copies of brain scans made it easy for him to understand why her memory had been so impacted. It also made sense to him that, with the passage of time, she was recovering memories as her neurons made new connections. He had no doubt that some of the memories could have been retrieved earlier as she healed, but well-meaning interference had encouraged a psychological suppression of her original identity as Kelly Gibbs.

Sammie had also sustained a badly broken left leg and had required extensive physical therapy to be able to walk normally again. He hadn't noticed a limp, and wondered if she had regained full use of the limb. No one had mentioned it, and Sammie hadn't seemed to want to talk about the accident when she'd been at his house. There was no need to pursue that, Ducky decided, as it had no bearing on the current focus of their research.

Shaking his head, he looked again at the newspaper picture of the crowded emergency room. Working on the dead as he did, he was usually removed from the physical and emotional pain these tragedies caused, but at the moment, alone in his domain, and knowing how this particular tragedy had impacted one of his closest friends, he felt profoundly saddened. He looked closely at the picture, searching for details; the photographer had taken pains to stand at an angle that didn't reveal anyone's faces.

Ducky's eyes narrowed as he looked at the lower front of the picture. He stood and walked to his desk, opening a drawer and taking out a magnifying glass. He went back to the table, angling the picture to better catch the light, and held the magnifier close. "Oh, my." Near the bottom of the picture, between two gurneys, a man's hand grasped that of a child lying on the gurney next to him. Ducky smiled; it was a sign of hope amidst tragedy.

He stepped back, surveying all the paperwork spread across the autopsy table. Looking at his watch, he shook his head, then set about gathering papers and putting them into the proper files. Once that was done, all that was left on the table were his notes, with the timeline and conclusions he was able to come to. He had invited Abby and Ziva to breakfast Saturday, to go through all of their findings. Ziva wanted to know as much as she could before leaving to interview Joann Fielding, and they'd all wanted to be able to have something ready for Gibbs and Sammie when they returned from Stillwater on Sunday, if they asked.

Ducky put his notes into a folder, then put on his jacket and hat, gathered up all the paperwork, shut off the light, and headed for the elevator, more than ready to go home, relax, and consider the effects of chance events on human lives.