This came to me randomly while I was supposed to be researching arthritis for an anatomy project. It's due Thursday. My group hasn't done jack. This is going to be an interesting presentation; I've done like half the work so far…
I own Kate, Jake and anybody you don't recognize and that isn't on NCIS or any other television show. Reviews please! They make me all warm and fuzzy on the inside :-)
In this chapter, Kate is 25 and a newlywed. I skipped the wedding on purpose. I can't focus on writing that part right now when I don't even have a boyfriend… My friend's trying to set me up with a friend of hers, I hope it works.
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Kate sat on the edge of the tub in her childhood home and looked at the little white stick sitting on the sink counter. She had five minutes before she would know if her life would be changed forever. Her husband of almost a year, Jake Ryan, was at work. Kate had called in sick to the elementary school where she taught. It was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend; she wasn't needed to keep her fourth graders under control. They were going to watch a movie that day anyways, more than likely it was Night at the Museum 2, Battle of the Jeffersonian. The kids loved that movie.
Kate was pulled from her musings when her cordless phone began to ring. "Hello." She said as she hit the 'TALK' button.
"Do you know yet?" It was Jenny, Kate's stepmother.
"Not yet, Mom." Kate replied. "I'm nervous and I'm excited and I want it to be positive but at the same time I'm not ready for a baby." Kate babbled. "But Jake and I have been trying to get pregnant and we might be now, but I haven't told him yet, and Mom I have no idea what I'm doing and I sound like Abby after like nine CafPows! in an hour. For the love of God! Make me stop talking!"
Jenny just laughed. "I felt the same way when I found out I was pregnant with Jay-jay." Jenny told her over the phone. "It's normal, so just relax and take a deep breath. How much time to do you have left on the timer?"
"How did you know I set a timer?" Kate asked amazed.
"You're a Gibbs." Jenny said as if this explained everything. "You hate waiting for results."
Kate laughed. "Three minutes." She bit her lip. "Can you come over, please? I don't think I can be alone in case it turns out to be negative."
"I'm on my way." Jenny said. "I was going to CVS to drop off some film, but that can wait until later."
"Who uses film still?" Kate teased.
"Me and your father." Jenny said. "It works much better than a digital camera if we lose power again like we did a few years ago and the team had to go old school."
Kate sighed. "That was my freshman year of college. I flew home for the weekend for Jay's school play and got stuck in DC for a week. My professor's almost didn't believe me until one of them checked my file and saw I was from DC."
Jenny laughed. "I'm ten minutes out from the old house, Kate. Hang in there."
"Okay." Kate said. "The front door's unlocked. I haven't had the heart to put a lock on the door yet."
"You might want to once you have any kids." Jenny said. "Oh. I have to hang up. There's a bunch of police officers ahead. I don't think I can use my NCIS Director card to get out of being pulled over for talking on my cell phone."
"Bye, Mom. Don't get caught!" Kate said.
"Thanks." Jenny said and hung up.
Kate put the phone back on the counter and pushed herself up off of the bathtub. She needed to leave the bathroom before she'd be tempted to look at the results alone.
Kate went downstairs and settled herself in front of the TV and flipped through the channels until she found a program on NCIS on the Military Channel. Sure enough, there was her Dad, Abby, Tony, Tim, Ducky, Vance, and even some old footage of her Mom. At one point she had even seen herself in a few of the pictures from the NCIS headquarters. The few pictures that flashed across the screen with her in them showed her and Jay-jay growing up with the agents on her father's team and the new directors and the ever changing Minor Crime Response Team members.
"In May 2008 NCIS suffered a crippling blow when the agency was led to believe that Director Jennifer Shepard was killed in house fire in her Georgetown Brownstone. In the wake of her supposed death Assistant Director Leon Vance was promoted by the Secretary of the Navy to the position of Agency Director." The program's narrator droned on as footage of Jenny's 'funeral' was played and Kate saw her seventeen year old self holding a three year old Jay-jay standing in between her father and Tony trying her hardest not to cry and keep her baby brother quiet. "Director Shepard's death was a ploy to bring out the men behind La Grenouille's organization, almost nine months after the death of the international arms trader. It took three years to draw these three men and two women out of hiding before Director Shepard could resume her position as the head of NCIS and revealed to the capital city that she was now Director Gibbs, she had been married for seven years when she had been appointed Director the first time and had kept it a secret." The man kept going and video of Jenny returning to the office and telling Vance she wanted her office back was priceless. Kate was in hysterics as Jenny slipped into the house and the program went to a commercial.
"What's so funny?" Jen asked Kate.
"You just casually breezing into the Bull Penn demanding your office back and planting one on Dad's lips." The strawberry blond replied. "They just showed it on this NCIS show on the Military Channel."
"Ah." Jenny said. "I haven't seen it. What's the excuse for me 'dying'?" Jen inquired.
"Drawing out international arms dealers." Kate replied.
"Not because I forgot to tell SecNav I married your father?" Jen asked.
"Nope. But they did mention it." Kate said. "Can we finish this and then go check my test results?" Kate requested. "It looks interesting."
"Fine." Jenny said. "Only because SecNav 'forgot' to mention this was being made and aired on cable."
"Why aren't you at work?" Kate asked.
"I took the weekend off." Jenny said. "I have kids and that's something that SecNav knew when he rehired me, the kids come before the agency and he's good with that."
"How are the twins doing?" Kate asked eagerly. Jenny and Jethro had surprised everyone four years ago when Jenny had given birth to twin girls and the parents were over the moon; they had four biological children, one semi-adopted adult (Callen), and plenty of pseudo-children at NCIS.
"Brianna wants to start dance lessons and Brooke could care less about dance. She wants to stay home and be her Daddy's baby forever." Jenny said. "She also told me the other day that she's going to marry 'Tone-Tone' when she grows up."
Kate laughed. "I'm sure Tony loves that idea."
"Ziva's less than thrilled about it, but she's getting over it in her own baby frenzy." Jenny said.
"My kid is going to be the same age as Tony's." Kate said. "Oh my God! I had better not have a girl to his son or I swear to God Tony will be losing a certain piece of anatomy."
"Wanna repeat that, Kate?" Jenny said.
"I said that if Ziva and Tony have a son and I have a daughter that there's no way in hell that DiNozzo Jr. will be dating my daughter. Ever." Kate said. "Or Tony will lose his ability to reproduce."
"Ahh." Jenny said. "That makes more sense now."
"Let me guess," Kate said. "It came out as a jumbled mess the first time."
"Mmhhmmm." Jenny said.
The show was back and it was now giving the uniformed viewers the basics of what OSP did. None of the actual OSP Agents could appear in the segments for National Security purposes. It was incredibly boring; there weren't even people in shadows with voice alterers.
"I'm going to go check my test." Kate said as she stood up and shut off the TV.
"Let's go." Jenny said as they sprinted for the stairs.
Kate opened the door to the master bedroom and then opened the door to the bathroom. "You check it, Mom. I'm too freaked out right now." Kate said as she pointed at the seemingly innocent looking white stick.
"Alright." Jenny said as she picked it up and looked at the screen and let out an uncharacteristic squeal. "Congratulations Mommy!"
Kate looked at her mom in shock. "It's positive?"
Jenny nodded as Kate squealed and threw her arms around her. "Come on!" Kate said as she danced back into the master bedroom and began pulling on some flip-flops. "Let's go see Abby and shanghais her into running a blood test for me."
"Now that would be an abuse to my power as Director." Jenny said. "Let's do it."
The women linked arms and Kate took the test and dropped it into an empty plastic bag and dropped that into her purse to show to Jake later. There was a strong possibility they were going to be parents!
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"Abby!" Kate squealed as she raced off the elevator and into Abby's lab. The woman at one of Abby's tables was not Abby. "You're not Abby." Kate said seeing the woman.
The woman in the lab had mousy brown hair, glasses, she was almost a foot shorter than Abby was, and there was no music playing in the Lab, and the loveable Goth was nowhere in sight.
"I'm fully aware that I am not Ms. Scuito." The woman said as she looked up from the sample she was preparing for Major Mass Spec.
"Who are you?" Kate asked as she poked around the lab looking for Abby. Bert was missing from his usual perch on the workbench above the computer monitors. "And where's Bert?"
"Whom?" the woman asked as she placed the vile in Major Mass Spec.
"Bert." Kate repeated, her hands flying to her hips. "Abby's farting hippo with the spike collar."
"Oh, that thing." The unknown woman said. "I locked it up in the desk in the office. It was a hideous thing. It's with all of those dolls that woman kept in here."
"Where is Abby?" Kate said. "The Director is under the impression that Abby's here today."
"Not here." The woman continued. "I'm filling in for Ms. Scuito indefinitely."
Kate huffed and picked up the phone from Abby's workbench ignoring the woman's protests to get away from the phone. "Hey, Cynthia!" Kate said when her mother's secretary picked up the phone. Kate put it on speaker so the lab tech could hear the conversation.
"Hey, Kate." Cynthia said. "What's up?"
"Is Mom in her office?" Kate asked as she drummed her fingers on the tabletop.
"Yes, she just came in a few minutes ago." Cynthia said. "She seemed awfully giddy. What's going on with you two?"
"She's gonna be a Nana." Kate replied. "Can you patch me through, please?"
"Sure, Kate. Congratulations!" Cynthia said.
"Would you please go make personal phone calls away from my lab?" the woman asked. "This is a Federal Agency. I don't know how you got in without a visitor's pass, but you're going to have to leave…"
"Director Gibbs." Jenny said. The lab woman's face blanched; she'd just mouthed off to the Director's daughter.
"Hey, Mom, where's Abby?" Kate asked. "She's not in her lab and there's this lady that won't tell me jack." Kate said.
"Good question." Jenny said. "Abby's supposed to be in her lab. Let me call McGee and see if he knows anything."
"Don't bother." Kate said as she looked over her shoulder. "He's coming in now." Kate hung up and turned around to watch two of her favorite agents in their natural habitat.
McGee and Tony had stepped off the elevator with boxes of evidence and were joking around. "And then, McGoo, Ziva reaches over and smacks my face!" Tony said between laughs.
"Why?" McGee asked.
"She wouldn't say in English. She went off in a tangent in Hebrew and called the Director and has been giving me the cold shoulder since Tuesday."
"It's probably because you left the toilet seat up again, Tony." Kate said as she took one of the boxes from Tim. "She's had it up to here," Kate held a hand up over her head, "with you and you're lack of bathroom etiquette."
"Huh?" Tony said as he set the other box down next to its twin. "Sign here, please." Tony said to the lab woman as he held out the chain of evidence clipboard that Abby had designed three years ago.
The woman took it and signed under Tony's name and practically threw the clipboard back at him.
"Have you ever gone to sit on the toilet and gone further down than you expected to?" Kate asked.
"Yeah." McGee said. Tony looked at him like he'd grown another head. "What?" Tim asked defensively. "Abby leaves the seat up for Jethro. She says it's his right to drink out of the toilet if he wants to."
"Agent Gibbs drinks out of your toilet?" The woman asked confused.
Kate laughed. "No, it's Abby and Tim's dog's name. He's a lab mix type of dog Abbs rescued from the pound two or three years ago." Kate explained. "She just had to name him after my dad."
"And after the dog she rescued from the Marine Corp." Tony added. "Remember him, Probie?"
McGee rolled his eyes. "How could I forget the dog that mauled me, Boss?"
Tony had been made the leader of the Major Case Response Team the year before when Jethro had decided it was time to him to retire. So far his retirement mainly consisted of shuttling his four year old daughters to play dates with kids from their daycare group.
"I almost forgot about that." Tony said nostalgically. "All I remember is that Abbs went against direct orders from Gibbs for the first time with that Sheppard."
Kate laughed. "You so didn't almost forget…What's that smell?" Kate asked disgusted.
"My lunch." The lab woman, know known to Kate as LWNA, Lady Who's Not Abby, said pointing to the egg salad sandwich and salad with ranch dressing on an empty counter.
"I'm gonna barf." Kate proclaimed as she raced out the door and down the hallway to the unisex bathroom outside of Abby's lab.
Tony and McGee followed Kate into the lavatory. "Are you okay?" Tony asked.
Once Kate had stopped retching she looked at the team leader. "I am NOT okay, Tony. Did you not just see me barf out the contents of my stomach into this toilet?"
Tony grimaced. "I meant are you sick or do you have something to tell that wonderful husband of yours Mrs. Ryan?"
"Possibly that later." Kate said. "Help me up, will you T?"
Tony put out his hand and Kate grabbed it, and Tony pulled her into a standing position. "Then why are you at the Navy Yard instead of at the Hoover building?"
"I came in to see if Abby would run a blood test just to be positive, but I can't seem to find Abby and that bi-atch in the lab won't tell me anything." Kate said as she closed the bathroom door behind them on the way out.
"Abby's Uncle Bobby died last night." McGee said quietly. "She flew down to New Orleans this morning, and I'm going down to join her in a couple of days for the wake and the funeral."
"Oh my God." Kate said. "Poor Abby. Wasn't Uncle Bobby her favorite Uncle?"
Tim nodded. "That's why she left this morning instead of in a few days. I called Fornell's newest henchman, Box or something like that, and he had the FBI send us a temporary labrat until Abby can keep herself together."
"Well I hope the FBI labrat can keep up with NCIS standards." Kate said with a malicious smirk. "Wanna see how long it takes us to send her scurrying back to the House that Hoover built?"
"I'm in." Tony said gleefully. "McGeek?"
"I'm in too," McGee said with a smirk. "Let me just run upstairs and intimidate the new Probie for a minute and I'll be back down."
"Okay," Tony said. "But make sure you let the Boss's wife know what we're up to so she doesn't have the Boss man come back and rip us a new one for being assholes."
McGee nodded and disappeared up the stairs.
"Why the stairs?" Kate asked Tony.
"Probilicous has discovered that the new flunkies are much easily frightened when there's no telltale 'ding´ from the elevator." Tony said. "So what's first?"
"Us making out in the ballistics lab." Kate replied happily.
"Uh, wouldn't that make your husband a little angry?" Tony asked skeptically.
Kate sighed. "Are you an idiot Tony? Don't answer that, I know your response. We pretend to make out in the ballistics lab. It's in the back and soundproof. Little Miss FBI will be reaching for the phone in no time." Kate said, "She'll call Cynthia to report us to Mom, and then Mom will come down and all we'll be doing is having a conversation or something."
"Or," Jenny said from behind Tony and Kate, "You could come ask me what her name is, and I'll tell her she has to run the blood work."
Kate turned around with a sheepish smile. "But, Mom," she whined. "That would be absolutely no fun at all."
"For you no, but for me," Jenny said as she put an arm around Kate's shoulder to hug her, "It would be like bowling with Abby and the Sisters."
Kate and Tony shrugged.
"I'm gonna go put my Probies to work. See you around Kate, Director. If Jake calls me all excited later, I know nothing." Tony said as he headed for the stairs Jenny had emerged from. "Later."
"See you Tony." Kate said as she and Jenny walked into that lab.
"Ms. Glaser, I need you to draw some blood and run it for a pregnancy test." Jenny said as they entered the lab using her best 'Director Voice'.
"From whom am I drawing the blood, Director Gibbs?" The woman, Glaser, asked.
"Me." Kate said as she sat on a stool and held out her left arm. "Poke away and take out a half a pint."
"Is this case related, Ma'am?" Glaser asked puzzled as she began to gather the necessary supplies.
"Nope." Kate said as she popped the 'p'. "Just double checking the drugstore pregnancy test."
"Ma'am?" Glaser asked timidly, "Am I authorized to do such a thing off the record?"
"You are because I'm ordering you to." Jenny said. "Now get to work."
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Three hours later Kate was sprawled out across the couch in Jenny's office. "I'm going to be a MOM!" she squealed and rolled onto her stomach. "I can't believe it!"
"Neither can I." Jen said as she looked up from a case file. "I don't feel old enough to be a Grandma."
"You're not going to be a Grandma. You're going to be a Nana. Nana makes you seem younger." Kate said. "I'm going to the Hoover building to tell Jake, I can't wait until he gets home." Kate got up from the couch and grabbed her purse from the conference table. "Bye."
"Be careful." Jenny warned. "I don't want you to hurt my grandbaby!"
"Gotcha Ma!" Kate called over her shoulder. She waved goodbye to a six month pregnant Cynthia, her relationship with Callen was still going strong; this was baby number two for them.
Kate danced down the stairs, waltzed around the Bull Penn and seriously freaked out Special Agents Sim and Grimes as she said goodbye to McGee and Tony with a silly grin on her face.
Twenty minutes later Kate walked into the lobby of the Hoover building with the same grin on her face and waited in line for a visitor's badge.
"Kate!" Kate turned and saw Tobias Fornell approaching her. "How are you?" he asked.
"I'm good Uncle Toby." Kate replied as she hugged the older man. "I thought you were retiring this year."
"I am." Fornell replied. "Just not until the end of the year. What are you doing here?"
"I have to see Jake," Kate said. "I've got some great news that just can't wait!" Kate was bouncing in her place in line and was starting to scare the man behind her in line.
Tobias looked at her for a moment and then it dawned on him. "You're pregnant!"
Kate nodded. "Isn't it great? Can you just not mention anything until Jake does?"
Tobias nodded.
"Thanks." Kate said. "Like five people know already, and none of them are Jake."
"And let me guess, you wanted to tell him first." Fornell said.
"And it backfired." Kate replied. "Now half of my pseudo family knows before my hubby." Kate was now the next in line.
"It happens Kiddo." Tobias said. "I've got to go; I'm needed at some crime scene in some West Virginia boondocks town."
"If you hear banjo music lock your doors and drive faster." Kate said jokingly. "And don't stop and let old grannies in your car. You'll never know if they'll try to rob you."
"You've been watching too much of the Beverly Hillbillies movie." Fornell said with a laugh.
Kate nodded. "Bye Uncle Toby."
"Bye Kate."
Kate was issued her badge and rode the elevator to Jake's floor with some LEOs and lawyers. Kate didn't know which ones were bugging her more; the cologne from the lawyers of the coffee smell from the cops. Both were making her sick to her stomach. Kate pushed her way off of the elevator and zigzagged her way across the floor to Jake's cubicle.
"Knock, knock." Kate said as she knocked on the side of the partion.
Jake looked up from his computer and smiled. "Hey Beautiful." He said in greeting and pulled Kate onto his lap. "What brings you to my neck of the woods today?"
"I took the day off," Kate said, "and got some really great news." She kissed her husband on the lips.
"What kind of really great news?" Jake asked.
"Well," Kate said as she played with a strand of her strawberry blond hair. "We're going to have to pull all of that junk out of my old room in a month or two."
"Why are we going to have to move it?" Jake asked. He hadn't caught on yet. "We already have a guest room."
"We're also going to need some of Brianna and Brooke's old things." Kate said happily. "Mom already has Dad moving stuff around in the attic. He doesn't know why just yet."
Jake suddenly got it. "Are we having a baby?"
Kate's face light up. "You got it, Jake. You and I are going to be parents!"
"I'm going to be a Daddy?" Jake asked again.
"Mmhhmmm." Kate replied happily. "In about six months."
"I'M GONNA BE A DAD!!!" Jake whooped and stood up; taking Kate with him and her twirled her around in the aisle.
The men and women working around Jake stopped what they were doing and started applauding for the happy couple. There were a handful of catcalls and some chants of 'Kiss Her!'s from some co-workers, and lots of 'Aawws' from the female co-workers when they did kiss.
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Three Months Later, Late September 2016
Kate stood at the front of her classroom and watched her class work on their spelling page. One day in the distant future her little one would be in a classroom somewhere doing the same work. She just couldn't wait until the baby came.
The weekend before Tim McGee and Tony had arrived with her Dad to help Jake haul out the junk from the nursery and put her old crib together and bring up the twins' old changing table and dresser for them. So far all Kate knew was that she was having a boy. She and Jake were having issues with agreeing upon a name for their itty bitty son, but they still had three months to go.
Later that night around 11:30 Kate woke up in bed and shook Jake awake. "Jake-y" she whispered. "Can you run down to the store and get me some Moose Tracks ice cream, brownies and chocolate pudding? Please?"
Jake rolled over with bleary eyes and nodded. "You want Cool-whip too?" He asked as he pulled on his sneakers. Jake slept in sweat pants and a tee shirt now, never knowing when Kate's insane cravings were going to hit. This was one of her not so gross ones.
"Yes, please." Kate replied happily. She really wanted her ice cream and Cool-whip right now. "Just hurry please."
"Gotcha." Jake said as he kissed her temple and was gone.
When he came back ten minutes later Kate was fast asleep again, Jake just put everything away. He knew she'd be up in an hour or two looking for her midnight snack again.
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Two and a half months later, November 13, 2016, Bethesda Naval Hospital
Kate was in agony. She had been in labor for almost two full days; her water had broken at the end of the Veterans Day ceremony she had attended with Jake in Anacostia. At her parents insistence Kate had been put in an ambulance bound for Bethesda whether she liked it or not.
"What about Deric?" Jake asked casually after Kate relaxed from another contraction. She just hoped her labor didn't decide to stop as the contractions got closer again.
"Deric Andrew Ryan." Kate said testing it out. "I like it."
"Me too." Jake said.
"You've finally got a name, Little Man." Kate said happily to her stomach. "Now come out!"
He didn't budge.
"Gahhh!!!!" Kate cried. Her doctor chose that moment to enter her hospital room.
"He giving you a hard time, Kate?" Dr. Patel asked kindly as she checked Kate's vitals.
"Yes." Kate replied sullenly. "Is is too late to ask for a C-Section?"
"Actually, that's why I'm here." The doctor said. "I think you've been in labor long enough."
"Me too." Kate said.
"Me three." Jake added.
"Alright, then." Pryia said. "Let's get you into OR."
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Two hours later, they had to wait for an OR to open up, Kate held a sleeping Deric in her hospital room.
"Hey, Daddy." She whispered to Jake. "Do you want to hold your son?"
Jake nodded and Kate handed him the baby. "Do you remember the day I came in and told you I was pregnant?"
"What about it?" Jake asked as he cooed at his tiny son.
"I almost walked up to you and said 'Hey, Daddy, guess what?' That would have given away my surprise."
Jake chuckled and leaned over to kiss his wife. "That would have certainly gotten my attention. Go to sleep, I've got him."
Jethro Gibbs smiled as he watched his daughter and son-in-law from the doorway. He was eager to meet his grandson, but that could wait until the little family had some quality alone time first.
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REVIEWS ARE WELCOMED AND WANTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gibby