Woo hoo! New chapter! Thanks for all the reviews on the last one, you guys are great! I hope you like this one also and leave a review for it.
I feel like I'm writing Gibbs a little out of character, if you think I am can you leave me a comment and let me know. Also, if you want to leave any suggestions on how to fix that and get him more in character, please feel free to tell me that too. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Five minutes later Amelia and Matt were standing at the closed doorway of their father's office.
"You go in first," Amelia said, nudging her brother.
"No way, you go first," he said, pushing her in front of him. Gibbs walked around the corner and stopped when he saw them standing there,
"Is there a reason you're not going in?" he asked the pair.
"It's dads office," Matt told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Gibbs was confused,
"Yes," he said, waiting for them to continue explaining.
"We're not allowed in there. It's practically the only thing that we could get in trouble for," Amelia stated. Gibbs nodded and walked forward, gently pushing through them and opening the door.
"While there's a first time for everything," he said, taking a step in the room and expecting them to follow. Matt and Amelia looked at each other, both thinking that he was crazy, and then followed Gibbs into the room. Amelia found that packing the office was harder than she thought it would be and tried to get through it as quickly as possible. There wasn't much to pack in the room aside from the books that lined the walls and a few knickknacks here and there. Most of the papers in the desk were going to be taken care of by one of their father's colleagues as they were all legal papers and paperwork from his work. When they finally finished the room the trio made their way upstairs, packing the guest rooms first. Finally all that was left was Amelia's room and the master bedroom, which they decided could wait until tomorrow. They ordered take out for dinner then went their separate ways to go to sleep.
Amelia lay in bed that night staring at the celling. This would probably be the last night that she actually got to sleep in her bedroom, the same one she had slept in all of her life. The bedroom had changed over the years as she got older, but as she grew it had seen a light pink nursery for a baby, a princess room when she was obsessed with them as a toddler. Ballerinas came next, as she had loved to dance as a child. At the moment the walls were painted bright yellow with white furniture surrounding the room. She snuggled into her bed even more and pulled the covers tight around her body as the tears welled up in her eyes. Shutting her eyes tight she rolled over in bed, determined not to cry. Not long after she fell asleep, no tears ever falling.
The next morning seemed to come too soon and Amelia did not want to get out of bed, knowing she would not enjoy today. Finally after about ten minutes she threw the covers off and sat up in bed looking around the room. It shouldn't be too hard to pack, she thought to herself. Everything had its place and was organized perfectly, so placing it all in boxes should be easy enough. Sighing she climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom. After a quick shower she made her way downstairs and into the kitchen. Gibbs was sitting at the breakfast bar again but at the place next to him was an omelet that looked much like the one she had made herself the day before. She was slightly confused but sat down next to him and picked up the fork,
"Thanks," she said, not looking at him as she took a bite. Gibbs just nodded and continued drinking his coffee. After she finished eating she placed the plate in the sink and turned to Gibbs, "If it's ok with you, I'd rather pack my bedroom by myself." Gibbs nodded,
"That's fine. Just let me know if you need help with anything," he said understandingly. He knew that the last two rooms would be the hardest for her to pack and he wanted to make it as easy as possible for her, and if that meant she did it herself then so be it.
Amelia made her way upstairs with her arms full of boxes. Opening several of them she went to work on her room. Most of her clothes were packed in several suitcases with her summer clothes packed up in boxes. After her clothes were packed she moved on to the various other things around the room, books, pictures, and everything else were packed up and sealed in boxes to be shipped to DC. After several hours her room was packed and her parent's room was the only one left. Choosing to skip lunch she made her way down the hall and entered her parent's room. She hadn't spent too much time in here growing up, her mother had always been afraid that she would get it dirty when she was a child and she had had no reason to as a teen, except of course when she was stealing her mother's clothes. Amelia looked around the room for a moment then sat on the edge of the bed; it was the first time she had been in the room since the accident. She felt tears come to her eyes as it hit her that they would never be in this room again, they would never walk through the front door or eat in the kitchen. The past few days she had been on autopilot, trying not to think too much and ignoring the reality of the situation. But now it was hitting her full force and she felt like she might die as well. Swallowing the tears and hurt she stood up, blinking to make sure she wasn't about to cry, and then began packing the room. When she went through the closet she put aside most of her mother's clothes, specifically the ones she knew that fit her. Surely her mother wouldn't mind and it would be nice to have something of hers. She also kept most of the jewelry out, knowing it would not be good for it to be sitting in storage. She moved from the bedroom into the bathroom and continued packing things in there.
It was dark outside when Amelia finally came downstairs after she had disappeared after breakfast. As she walked through the house she was amazed by how different it looked. All of the furniture and most of the boxes had been taken to the storage facility while she was upstairs and the house was mostly empty now. She once again found Gibbs in the kitchen and she wondered why they always ended up in the kitchen. Shrugging it off she opened the fridge, only to find there was no food in there.
"Um, what about dinner?" she asked. After skipping lunch she was starving and could eat anything right now.
"Chinese?" Gibbs asked, hoping that his daughter wouldn't mind takeout. She shrugged,
"Sure. There's a really good place not too far from here," she told him. Searching for her cell phone she then called the restaurant and placed their order. "It'll be ready in about fifteen minutes. I'll go pick it up," she said as she walked toward the front door, Gibbs followed,
"You're going by yourself?" he asked worriedly.
"Yeah. Why not? I do it all the time."
"Well I don't want you to walk by yourself. It's dark and could be dangerous," he said, thinking of all the cases he'd worked where someone had been harmed or killed while walking alone late at night, "I'd rather come with you." HE was half expecting her to protest.
"Suit yourself," She said as she pulled on boots and her coat. Gibbs did the same then the two of them walked out of the house. For the first few minutes they walked in silence then Amelia spoke up hesitantly,
"So, what am I supposed to call you?" she asked. She had been wondering ever since she met the man. She didn't think she could call him dad but she didn't know how he would feel about the situation. Gibbs thought about it,
"Well, I guess you can call me dad if you want. But I don't want you to feel pressured to; I know it might be hard. I guess you can call me Gibbs, that's what everyone else tends to call me." Amelia nodded,
"Alright, that works." The two of them continued in silence once again until they reached the restaurant. The warm air in the restaurant was a welcome change to the frigid air outside. There were several other customers waiting for their food and some yelling coming from what Gibbs assumed was the kitchen. When they walked in the young man working the cash register looked up, smiling at Amelia,
"Hey Amy!" he greeted happily. Amelia smiled and walked over to the counter,
"Hey Carter, what's going on back there?" She asked, gesturing towards the kitchen.
"Ah, I don't even know anymore. Started out as the usual stuff then escalated into something bigger. But nothing's been broken yet, so that's good I guess. Just might be a little longer for your food to be ready." Amelia nodded,
"Well that's nothing new," she said. The boy smiled at her,
"So how have you been?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset her. Amelia shrugged,
"I'm here, still alive. So good, I guess."
"Right. So Marissa told me that you were moving, to DC." Amelia sighed,
"Yepp. We leave tomorrow," she told him.
"What! That's so soon!"
Gibbs had stayed back by the door when they walked in, letting his daughter visit with her friend and trying not to interrupt, though he had been listening most of the time, trying to figure out who this boy was to his daughter. He was at least three years older than her and Gibbs didn't know what to think of him. He was brought out of his thoughts by his daughter calling his name,
"Gibbs, come here!" he walked over to the counter, "Jeesh, I've said your name like ten times and you didn't answer."
"Sorry, I zoned out a bit. What did you need?"
"I want to introduce you to Carter. Carter, this is Gibbs, my dad," she introduced the two of them. Gibbs held his hand out for Carter to shake and was impressed by the strength of the boys grip. "Carter is Marissa's older brother. I've known him for practically my whole life," she told Gibbs.
"It's nice to meet you sir," Carter said.
"Nice to meet you too Carter." The trio continued to talk while waiting for their food and finally the yelling in the kitchen stopped and they were given their order. As they were paying for their food Marissa walked through the door,
"Mia!" She yelled happily upon seeing her best friend, "I didn't know you were here!"
"Just came to get food. Come eat with us," she said, looking at Gibbs to make sure it was ok for her to come, not that it would have mattered to them very much if he had said no. Gibbs nodded and grabbed the bags of food, following the two girls out of the building. They hooked arms as they walked a little bit in front of Gibbs,
"So do we hate him?" She asked, subtly gesturing to Gibbs. Amelia shrugged,
"I don't know yet. He's not that bad I guess." The two continued to talk the rest of the way back to the apartment and Marissa stayed the rest of the night, the two girls eventually falling asleep around three in the morning.
Gibbs woke them up around seven, wanting to get on the road and back home. He was worried that his team had done something stupid while he was gone and he would come back with a mess to clean up. The two fifteen year olds groaned as they got out of bed and got dressed for the day. They dragged Amelia's last two suitcases downstairs then Gibbs took them out of the car.
"So I guess this is it," Amelia said, facing her best friend with tears in her eyes.
"Yeah, you're really leaving. I've kind of been pretending it wasn't going to happen."
"Me too."
"Promise you'll come back and visit, and that I'll come visit you. And we'll text every day and we can Skype all the time."
"Of course, no matter what." Marissa wrapped her friend in a hug,
"I'm going to miss you," she whispered. Amelia hugged back even tighter,
"I'll miss you more," she said. The two girls pulled apart and looked at each other; both had unshed tears in their eyes, not wanting to cry in front of the other.
"Well, I'll text you later," Marissa said sadly. Amelia nodded and climbed into Gibbs' waiting car, waving to her best friend as he pulled away from the curb. They hadn't even reached the end of the street when Amelia's phone beeped, signaling a text,
Miss you already! It said. Amelia smiled and sent back a simple heart smilie, telling her best friend all that she needed to.
So what did you think? Next chapter they will be in DC and Amelia will eventually meet the team and start school. Once again if you have anything you want to see just leave it in a review or pm me. Thanks!
