POV changes between Gibbs and Jenny.
Vacation Part 2
So here we are, on day two of Jen's insane idea. I thought I was the first to wake up, but Ziva beat me to it. Its ok, Ziva's not that bad. She's pretty quite. I like quite when it comes to the children. Not that I mind their banter all the time, but lately they've been squabbling a lot.
That's one of the reasons I had decided to only have one child. Kelly would have enjoyed this trip, she liked going camping.
"Coffee?" Ziva asked.
"Do you really have to ask?" She smiled and handed me mug. "Thank you."
"So when will the others wake up?"
"I'm not sure, DiNozzo will sleep forever if given the chance. Abby, I'm surprised she is still asleep, but then again she didn't bring a Caf-Pow machine with her, so who knows. McGee will probably be up soon, and when I left Mommy she was going to shower."
"Gibbs?"
"Yes Ziva?"
"Are we supposed to call you Mom and Dad now?"
I couldn't help but laugh. I mean Jenny and I kept making those comments to one another, but that was all in jest. Then Abby is calling Ducky Pop-pop and had called me Daddy, but once more that was a joke. So how are you supposed to respond to this? "Ziva, you can call me whatever you want."
"So I can call you Suzi?"
"That's not what I mean, Ziva. Please don't start acting up now, you've been so good. I don't want to have to get a new favorite." I said.
Just as I had Abby came in, "I thought I was your favorite?"
She started to pout, "Ok, silly child. You're all my favorite. Just some times others are more favorites then the others."
"Morning girls. Jethro." Jenny said.
Well, this was an amusing sight. They were sitting around drinking coffee, all looking like they could use a good run with a hairbrush, but this is nice. This is why I wanted to come, quite moments with them.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long, from another room I heard shouting. "Are you going to deal with this Jethro?" I asked him.
"Come on Mommy, lets go see what the demon spawn are up to now." He said and we walked over to find McGee and Tony at one another's throats again. I was going to say something but Gibbs beat me to the punch in a deadly soft voice he said, "You two, be dressed and outside in ten minutes." They scurried up the stairs, not waiting to piss him off any further. "Why did we have them?"
"I'm not sure, it seemed like a good idea at the time." I said. We stood there for a moment, "So what are you going to do with them?"
"Make them burn off some of that energy and try to get the boys to get over whatever it is they've been going through, I liked them better when they were pulling pranks together, now they're just cranky."
I kissed him for a second until Tony cleared his throat, "Hello, children in the room." He said.
"Right, with me, children." He said and they followed him out the door.
"DiNozzo, see that wood pile over there?" he nodded, "Double it."
He looked horrified, "Boss, I can't do that all by myself." He stopped his protest after I shot him a glare, then his shoulders fell forward and he set off to do it.
"Uhm, Boss, do you want me to help Tony?" McGee asked. Poor McGee, he's like a little kid, terrified of being in trouble and always wanting to help his big brother.
"Did I tell you to help DiNozzo?"
"Uhm, no. So what do you want me to do then."
"Follow me McGee, is that hard?" I asked. He shook his head and began to trail after me.
We got into the car and I began to drive it took McGee a few minutes to work up the courage to talk. "Uhm, Boss?"
"McGee."
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Grocery Store, unless you want to be left on the side of the road." He didn't reply, just looked out the window. "McGee, didn't your parents ever split you and Sarah up every so often to keep the two of you from ripping one another apart?"
"No, not really. Sarah is a lot younger than me. But unlike Tony, I didn't pick on her constantly." He said with a bit of anger in his voice.
"Yea, older brothers are tough sometimes, but that's what parents are for. So while Tony is chopping fire wood for no real reason, you are going to the store with me."
"Is that supposed to be a prize or a punishment?" he slapped his hand over his mouth the second he realized he had said that aloud.
It just made me laugh, "You don't want to spend time with me McGee?"
"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that, I mean, uhm…I…it just kinda….are you mad at me now?"
"Not at this moment, no." we sat in silence again for a couple of minutes, "Answer this for me, why do you let DiNozzo push you around as much as you do?"
"I don't know."
"That's not an answer Tim. Try again." I said as I pulled into a parking space.
"I really don't. Its just the way Tony is. I guess." We got out and went into the local market, local being a loose term, it was twenty miles away.
It had been about an hour and a half sense Gibbs had taken the boys outside and I was beginning to wonder what was going. So I went outside to find Tony chopping wood? What was that about? "Tony?"
He stopped and turned to look at me, "Yes, mother?"
"What are you doing?" I choose to ignore the pissy tone he said mother in.
"Well Daddy-Dearest took off with his beloved McFavoriteChild and left me here to do this by myself." He sounded like a moody teenager.
"Last I heard, Ziva was his favorite child. So what did you do that caused him to tell you to do chores?" I asked. I knew very well that it was because he wouldn't stop screwing with McGee, but I was curious as to whether or not he knew it.
"Because you guys think I'm too hard on Probie." He said flatly.
I felt bad for him, not that he didn't deserve some punishment, but his facial expression was screaming we hate him.
"Stop that for a little bit, come and sit." I told him. He looked unsure as to what to do, "I promise, you won't get in any trouble." Reluctantly he went and sat next to me.
"So is he going to be mad at me forever?" he asked.
"Nah, he can never really stay mad for long. But it would be nice if you could manage to not harm McGee for a day or so." He looked a little sad.
"I don't mean to hurt him, it just seems to happen. I just like to mess with him."
I laughed, "Spoken like a true older brother." Just as I finished my sentence Jethro and McGee returned.
"DiNozzo, with me."
I got back to find Tony sitting with Jen instead of working on his woodpile, but the look on her face said not to think about it. We walked down the road a little while until I was sure we were far enough away from everyone so I could talk to him. "Tony, can you tell me why you keep tormenting McGee?"
"I don't really know. Because Abby is the baby and trying to do anything with her could get me killed, and Ziva would kill me herself, and Probie is a lot of fun to mess with, he doesn't go running off to tattle tale or anything of that nature."
I laughed, that's my Tony. "You are probably right there, maybe I should tell Tim to learn how to tattle on you so you will lighten up on him."
"But that's how my and Probie's relationship is." He protested.
"I know." I said quietly.
"You do?"
I nodded, "I do because that is the exact same thing McGee said earlier. So if you two want to duke it out, that's fine, but you are going to lighten up on the pranks, or at the very least, make it to where we don't have to hear about them, work together some times."
He smiled, "If you recall, last time me and Probie worked together Dad grounded us."
"I'd do it again in a heartbeat. But that was different, you two were supposed to be working, you were in a federal building and stealing other people's possessions." Thinking back on it, it was pretty funny, annoying but funny.
Now here I am a blink later with my oldest son thinking I didn't like him anymore. I really don't know what to do. He's not McGee or the girls, so I can't just hug him and make it all better. I wish he was one of the others right now.
Thankfully, I didn't have to wonder about it much longer, he went to hug me. I hugged him back, "Something you want to tell me DiNozzo?"
"Nah, Boss."
"Boss, wasn't I Dad two minutes ago?" I asked him with a laugh.
"Fine, nah Dad, I'm swell." He said with a smirk. Then I cuffed him on the head.
"Shut up, Ziva!" Abby yelled.
"I'm not taking orders from a gum head like you." Ziva shot back.
"Bubble Head, Ziva." McGee corrected.
"Stay out of it Timmy if you know what's good for you." Abby shouted back.
Tim informed me that they had been going at it like this for at least twenty minutes. He didn't know is what they were fighting about. "I'm going to give you to the count of three to stop fighting and tell me what's going on." I stated. Neither of them said anything "One…Two…Three."
They still hadn't said anything, Gibbs came up behind them with Tony, "She asked you a question." They still didn't speak. "Ziva, what was your fight about?"
"We weren't fighting." She said.
"Did they teach you in Israel that lying is a bad thing?" he asked.
"They did." She said.
"Then why don't you try again, what was the fight about?"
"I don't think we were fighting there was no bloodshed."
"Semantics is not a good defense. Abby, what were you fighting about?"
"Ziva was being mean." She said in a whiney little kid voice. I love Abby, I really do, but some times she pushes the baby bit a little too far.
How many times am I going to have to go through this stuff? They are adults? Or at least I was pretty sure they are. "Right, Ziva, go sit on your bed. Abs, do the same with your own."
"Gibbs, come on, she attacked…." Abby started, but the look I was giving didn't leave room for argument, "Right, I'll be sitting on my bed."
"McGee, DiNozzo, any ideas what the hell is going on?" I asked.
"Well, uhm, its stupid." McGee said.
"Care to elaborate Tim?" Jenny asked.
"Its about you saying Ziva's your favorite. Abby had been making comments at Ziva, trying to bait her into getting in a fight, and possibly hitting Abby so that you'd get mad at Ziva and Abby get her place back." We were all looking at him like he was insane. "I told you it was stupid. Well, it ends with Abby finally managed to get Ziva mad enough she started to fight back."
"So all this is over Daddy's love and attention?" Tony asked in a very sarcastic tone.
"Looks that way." I turned to Jenny, "I warned you, we shouldn't have had kids, but oh no, you thought they'd add fun and adventure to our lives."
"Well you can't say there isn't any adventure Jethro."
"Where's the fun? It seems like every time I turn around I have to deal with another tantrum."
"Its just the way it goes."
I pinched the bridge of my nose, it seems I've been doing that a lot in the last two days, Jen is never going to live this one down, oh no, there'll be pay back for years. "Right, I'm going to go have a nice little chat with the girls." I got to the hallway between their rooms, "Girls, come out here please." Slowly they both made it out to greet me. "So who is going to tell me what's going on between you two?"
"Nothing, Gibbs, it's not important, I'm sorry Abby." Ziva said.
"Me too." Abby said back, then they went to hug one another. This is what I like about girls, they get over things a lot faster then the boys do.
"No more fighting?" they nodded, "And no more acting like toddlers?" They exchanged glances and then grabbed on my legs and sat on my feet. "I guess that's a no then."
Jethro, Abby, and Ziva all came back down stairs looking no worse for the ware. "Everything ok?" I asked.
"Yea, everything peachy, how much longer are we going to be held in 'Family Vacation' hell?" he asked.
I couldn't help but look sad. "You're not having a good time?"
"No, I'm having a great time wondering what to do with these five year olds."
We left to go take a walk outside. "So are you really that unhappy?" I asked him.
"Nah, just frustrated, if they don't grow up soon, I'm going to give up and spank them." He said.
I couldn't tell if he was joking or being serious. "You know, Dr Spock says you should let your children blossom with no boundaries to allow their creative sprits to bloom."
"He sounds like a jackass." He said with a bit of a laugh.
"Maybe he's right though." I said.
"What the hell does this man know about gardening? If you don't weed the plants they die."
"True. Well I don't know. Maybe we should just go home and they can go back to normal." I offered.
"Nah, we are already here, besides the second we get back they'll still be fighting, just have their weapons and whatever else to attack one another with. Whatever's going on has got to be dealt with before we go home."
"I guess you're right."
"When am I not right, Jen?" he asked. I could think of at least one time, when we were in Paris, before I left, I asked him if he loved me, he didn't respond, that's what sealed it, I left, he was wrong then, I doubt he knows it though.
"Well I guess we should get back and make sure our little hooligans aren't at one another's throats." I said.
To be honest I wasn't sure myself if I could bring myself to spank them, even if they have all been dancing on my last nerve. I had to spank Kelly a few times it nearly broke my heart.
Flash Back Sequence:
After two weeks of field training I returned home to find a harassed looking Shannon. "Why Mrs. Gibbs, you look beautiful." I said to her.
"You shouldn't lie, its not a good thing to teach our daughter." She said back.
"Where is the little one?" I asked her.
"In her room, sulking."
"What happened?" I asked her as I grabbed my gear from the back of the truck.
"She has been having a lot of tantrums recently. Today's including breaking a vase and throwing a baseball at the way, which by the way, do you think you can fix the hole in the wall this weekend?"
Well, Kelly is nothing if not my child, I had quite a few of those tantrums at her age. Mine were a little more violent, but still. "Yea, I'll get on that some time later tonight."
"Gibbs, don't do anything about the wall, I've already taken care of that, but you can have the next tantrum, its all yours, I promise." She said, trying to lighten the mood. I always loved that about her, she could make anything not seem horrible at all.
"Anything you want my dear." I said as I kissed her.
I mended the hole before dinner and went up to Kelly's room to collect her for dinner. Unfortunately, she wasn't there. I checked the head, she wasn't there either. "Shannon?" I called down to her.
"What?"
"Did you send Kelly somewhere?" I was beginning to panic.
"No, she should be in her room." She called back.
"Well, she's not."
"What do you mean 'She's not?'" I could hear the worry in her voice growing.
"Ok, you stay here, call the police, and I'll start a search for her." I told her as I headed out the door.
Where could this child have gotten to? Its not like she could just hop in a car and drive off. After an hour of searching and several phone calls, Shannon managed to track Kelly down at a friends house down the street.
I went and collected her, I was a total mix of emotions, one I was happy she was safe and two angered that she had run away like this.
Once we got home I had calmed down enough to figure out what was going on in her little head, "Kelly, why did you run away?"
"I didn't run away, I was only at Becky;s house."
"You left without telling Mommy or Daddy, that's running away."
"It is?" she asked. I nodded, "I didn't mean to run away."
"Then why didn't you ask Mommy if you could go see your friend?"
"She would have said no." she said sadly.
"Why is that?"
"Cuz I was in trouble." She was right about being in trouble, and I could see the guilt starting to eat up at her. It did it the same way every time, she would start to shift in her seat a little and her hands would start knotting themselves up around her stomach. So I had to spank her…..
End Flash Back
"Jethro?" Jenny called from behind me.
I shook my head, "What?"
"You just looked a little spaced." She said.
"Yea, you might say that." I could see smoke coming up from the chimney, "Bit warm out for a fire? I guess DiNozzo wanted to put his wood to good use." I took her hand we walked back to the cabin to find that they were all sitting around with sticks and marshmallows making s'mors.
"Gibbs!" Abby looked like her normal super excited self. "I made one for you and one for the director." She said as she trusted the campfire treat at us.
"Thank you Abby." Jenny said as she went to sit near them, I followed.
So maybe this won't be as terrible after all, they seem to be getting along, Abby is trying to show Ziva how to make s'mors, McGee is being Mr Perfection on his roasting, and Tony is imitating some western while he tries not to burn his marshmallow.
"I don't understand what is supposed to be fun about burning a piece of fluff and eating." Ziva said.
"Because, Zee-vah, it just is." Tony said as he blew the flame out on his marshmallow. We were all expecting it, a few seconds later Tony was at his feet, "Let's watch a movie!"
"Only if you all will stay awake for the movie, I'm not carrying you upstairs again." I said.
"Please don't watch that stupid Mars on Fire movie." Abby pleaded.
"Fine." He came back a few minutes later with The Seven Year Itch. Two days down, three to go…..
I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Oh well. Hope it didn't suck hardcore.