Chapter 10
Gibbs arrives in West Springfield, Virginia and parks the car in front of Emily's house. He walks to the front door and rings the doorbell. Emily Saunders opens the door. Emily smiles as she's glad Gibbs kept his promise.
"Are you ready to go?" Gibbs asked.
"I wasn't sure if you were serious about coming or not." Emily said. "I never really had someone I can truly rely on before. Besides my sister, of course."
"Like I said, I'm just a phone-call away."
"It's nice to have someone I can rely on."
Emily steps out of the house and closes the door. She locks the door and the two of them walk to Gibbs' car. The two of them are now off to go to where they need to be.
After driving a while, Gibbs enters into a parking lot. He and Emily get out of the car and walk toward a building. They step inside the building and walk to the room they're supposed to go to. Emily stops outside the door and begins taking a couple deep breaths.
"If you think it's too soon to do this, then we can always leave and try another day." Gibbs stated.
"I just need a minute to collect myself." Emily said.
"Take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere."
A couple minutes go by before Gibbs and Emily enter into the room. The meeting is a support group for abused teenagers. Gibbs is there with Emily for moral support. They both sit down a couple seconds before the meeting begins.
"It's good to see you all. I hope you all had a nice weekend." James, the group leader said. "As I said last week, we'll have a newcomer. And she's here with us tonight." He said. "Her name is Emily."
"Hey Emily." A couple of the group members greet her.
"Hello Emily." Other group members said to greet her.
"Yo Emily. Sup girl." One boy said.
"Don't mind Kevin. That's just how he greets everybody." Catherine stated, the girl sitting next to Emily. "It's nice to meet you Emily. I'm Catherine, but everybody calls me Cat."
Emily shakes Catherine's hand. Emily then looks over at Kevin. Kevin grins and waves to her.
"I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm not the only adult in the room today. We have a guest and his name is Jethro Gibbs. He also has a story to share." James stated. "With the first few times coming here, it may be a little intimating…"
"You a cop, ain't you Mr. Gibbs?" Kevin asked. "Ya look like a cop."
"Kevin..." The group leader tries to get his attention.
"Sorry. Ya know how I get wit cops."
"You're right, in a way." Gibbs said. "I'm a navy cop. I work for NCIS."
"What da fuck is NCIS?"
"Kevin, remember what we talked about." James said.
"My bad..." Kevin said. "I meant to say… What is NCIS?"
"It stands for Naval Criminal Investigate Service." Gibbs said.
"Cool." Kevin said. "I can spot a cop from a mile away. It's a gift."
"When Kevin first came here, his behavior was really bad." Catherine said to Emily. She then looks at Kevin. "But your behavior has gotten much better since then. And we're all happy with the progress you've made."
"Thanks Cat." Kevin said. "It means a lot comin from you." He then makes a kiss face at her.
Catherine rolls eyes.
"We all know each other's stories." James said. "But for our newcomer, let's start off by sharing our stories with her." He said. "Kevin… Since you're so eager to talk… How about you start things off for us."
Kevin stands.
"Aight, this is how it went down… I was seven when it started. My mother, she…" Kevin continues talking and everybody listens.
After Kevin finished and sat down, one by one, the other people in the group each took a turn and told their stories. With one last person telling her story, Emily becomes anxious as her turn is coming soon. She puts her hand in Gibbs' hand as her heartbeat increases. The person telling their story finally finishes and sits down. While still holding Gibbs' hand, Emily stands up.
"I know I don't have to take a turn if I don't want to. But I want to." Emily said. She takes a deep breath. "My father abused me both emotionally and physically. I was the unwanted child, so he immediately hated me. He made sure that I knew he hated me." She paused as she wipes a tear from her eye. "Throughout my entire life he was so cruel to me. He would beat me every chance he got. It's because of him that I have a really hard time trusting people, so I hardly have any friends. All I ever wanted was for him to stop hurting me. I just wanted him to love me like he loved my older sister Ashley…" Emily continues.
After mentioning Ashley, Catherine, who is listening to Emily's story, finally realizes something.
"The beatings got worse as time went by." Emily continued her story. "Eventually, my sister started being abused to. Then, for the first time, I had someone to share my pain with. My sister loved me. She loved me so much that she wanted to get me away from my father. But that's when…"
Catherine hands Emily a tissue. Emily uses the tissue to wipe her eyes.
"That's when my father found out about her plan to take me away." Emily continued. "One night, I heard some noise in the basement. I was on the stairs when I saw it." She said. "My father was beating my sister. I wanted to help her, but I just froze in fear. For a minute I watched. Then he strangled her. My sister wasn't moving. I knew he killed her. And I did nothing. I just ran upstairs to my room." Emily cried. "The next night, he brought me out to the woods where he left my sister's body. He forced me to help him bury my sister. Then he beat me with the shovel. I'm glad he's now in prison where he belongs. But I miss my sister so much." She sits down and begins bawling.
"Emily…" Kevin tries to get her attention.
Emily looks over at him.
"When I first came here, I couldn't finish my story…" Kevin begins to say.
"It's true, he couldn't." Catherine said.
"That took a lot of guts to stand-up n do what you just did." Kevin stated. "Bravo girl, bravo." He begins clapping.
The other group members also clap for Emily's bravery. After a minute, the room calms down.
"Mr. Gibbs dude, James mentioned that you got a story to tell." Kevin stated.
"I do." Gibbs stands. "My story isn't as recent as any of yours. My story begins a long time ago, back in the stone-age." Gibbs paused as the group members laughed. "My father had a major drinking problem…" Gibbs continues his story as everyone else listens.
After almost two hours, the meeting finally ends. Gibbs stands, but before Emily could stand, Catherine grabs her attention.
"As you were telling your story, I realized who you are." Catherine stated. "We go to the same school. I used to have class with your sister Ashley."
"I didn't even realize." Emily said.
"It's a big school, so yeah. Anyway, I won three free movie tickets for this weekend. I invited Kevin, but I'm still looking for another person, so if you're interested, you can come with us."
Emily looks to Gibbs who just nods. She looks back to Catherine.
"Ok, I'll go." Emily said.
"Great. It'll be fun." Catherine said.
Catherine and Emily stand up. Catherine begins to walk away. She then turns to face Emily and Gibbs.
"See you at school, Emily." Catherine waves.
"Bye Cat." Emily waves back.
As Catherine walks away, Emily looks at Gibbs and smiles. Gibbs then takes Emily for a quick bite to eat before dropping her off at home. After dropping Emily off at home, Gibbs goes back to his own home.
Back in his own home, Gibbs and Jamie are in the living room talking.
"I'm glad you're keeping in touch with Emily cuz it's good for her to have someone who understand what she's been thru." Jamie stated.
"I couldn't abandon her. Especially since I know how she feels to be completely alone in a matter such as this." Gibbs said. "So for her, it's a good thing she has someone she can rely on."
Jamie leans toward her father and places her arm around him and her head on his chest. Gibbs wraps his arm around Jamie.
"And that's a reason I love you, Dad." Jamie said.
There's a moment of silence.
"Earlier today when we were in the lab acting like lions…" Jamie begins to say.
"I'm never gonna stop hearing about this." Gibbs said.
"It reminded me of our little game, Bad Doggy."
"We had some good times with that game."
"Bad Doggy was my favorite game."
Jamie backs away from her father. Gibbs reads the expression on her face.
"Oh no… What happened earlier today was embarrassing enough." Gibbs stated.
"It's just you and me. Nobody else is here. No one will see us." Jamie said.
"Nah, I just…" Gibbs is shaking his head. He notices Jamie giving her the sad puppy dog eyes. "Oh come on."
"Please." Jamie said in a whimpering voice.
"I've never been able to resist your sad puppy dog eyes cuz you're just so good at it."
"Just go easy on me. Don't tackle me like you used to cuz I'm pregnant, remember."
"I got my Nigeria wounds, so I don't wanna get too rough."
Jamie leans forward to the coffee table. She grabs a section of newspaper and rolls it up. After rolling it up, she smacks her father's leg with it.
"Bad Doggy!" Jamie exclaimed.
Gibbs begins to growl at Jamie. She then smacks him with the rolled up newspaper again.
"Bad Doggy!"
Gibbs growls and moves toward her. Jamie gets up and runs behind the coffee table. Gibbs jumps off the couch and continues growling at her. While on his hands and knees, Gibbs advances toward Jamie as she moves away. She then tries to smack him with the newspaper. Gibbs now makes a full, forward advance toward Jamie. She runs and Gibbs, while on his hands and knees growling and barking at her, chases her around the room.