So here by request (actually meherm reminded me about this chapter), is Thanksgiving 1996 with Callen being forced to come spend time with the Gibbs family by the orders of her Royal Highness, Princess Caitlin Erica Louisa Alberta Elizabeth Victoria Gibbs. The name will be explained later, it's curtsey of Mrs. Ducky.

Lol. I just realized Kate and I have grandfathers with the same name… Except we call mine Grandpa Jack instead of Grampy. And his name isn't Jackson, just Jack. But we still both have Grandpa Jack! (Who doesn't own a computer but I'm saying this anyways, I Love You Grandpa!!!!)

And I only own Kate in this story at this stage. Nobody else. "Court is adjourned! Send in the Dancing Lobsters!" (Virtual Cookies to anybody who gets that quote!)

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Five year old Kate Gibbs sat in the living room of her house in Arlington, Virginia as she watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the TV as her Daddy and Grampy Jack argued about the turkey in the kitchen. Sitting on the couch looking nervous and out of place was G Callen, Kate's newest best friend slash pseudo brother. He just didn't know it yet.

"I like Elmo." Kate told Callen as the Elmo balloon made its way down the streets of New York. "He's my favoritest monster on Seasie Street."

"Really?" Callen asked as Kate scrambled up onto the couch to sit next to Callen. "Why's that?"

"He's red." Kate said like it was obvious. "He's Elmo."

Callen smiled and tickled the little girl next to him and he was struck with a memory of his former foster sister Alina, and how they used to play together.

"Yous making thinkin' eyes." Kate informed Callen as he was prodded from his musings by the five year old's cold fingers.

"Thinking eyes?" Callen asked confusedly.

"Ah huh." Kate said. "Daddy makes 'em when he tells me stories about Big Sister Kelly and Mommy Shannon."

Callen nodded. "Are thinking eyes a bad thing?"

"No." Kate said as she played with the hem on her pretty pink Princess dress Mrs. Ducky had bought her. It was a pink dress that Mrs. Mallard had seen at JC Penny and just had to buy it for Kate. Of course the woman had added lots and lots of sparkles, some glitter and s patch of sequence in the shape of a tiara on the front of the dress. Of course a nice big thick satin pink ribbon headband accompanied the dress keeping Kate's curls out of her face. It was painfully obvious to everybody that Mrs. Mallard wanted a little girl of her own to spoil rotten. She was still telling Ducky to get a move on it and start a family before she died. "Thinkin' eyes are a good thing cuz thewe are funny stories that go with thinkin' eyes."

Callen laughed. "Well, Princess Kate,"

"It's Princess Caitlin Erica Louisa Alberta Elizabeth Victoria Emmanuella Maria Hermione Ginerva Gibbs." Kate told Callen. "You gots to say my whole name or I won't answer you."

Callen's jaw had dropped as the little girl rattled off her Princess name that she and Mrs. Ducky had come up with the day before. "Well, Princess you certainly have a lot of names."

Kate narrowed her eyes at Callen and turned back to the TV. "You're sneaky, Callen." She informed the DEA agent. Callen was in the process of joining NCIS from the DEA. "Are you any good at playin' jokes?"

Callen's smile stretched from ear to ear. "Who we playing jokes on?"

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Later that afternoon as Jethro finished carving up the turkey, Jackson grunted as he tried to open a jar. "Leroy, give me a hand with this?"

"What is it, Dad?" Jethro asked as the jar was handed to him.

"I don't know." Jackson said. "It was in the group of jars for dinner."

"Hhmm." Jethro said as he tried to twist the lid off. "Did you try twisting it in the other direction…? WHAT THE HELL?!?!?" As Jethro got the lid off of the jar, the spring loaded snakes exploded all over the kitchen and Jethro and Jackson.

"DADDY SAID A BAD WORD!!!!" Kate shrieked in shock. "Did you hear him, Callen? He said a really bad word."

"I heard him, Princess Caitlin Erica Louisa Alberta Elizabeth Victoria Emmanuella Maria Hermione Ginerva Gibbs." Callen replied with a guilty smirk on his face. "I think that's a dollar in your new Bad Word Box."

Kate beamed. "I think I'm gonna get lots of dobbers when Uncle Mikey's here."

The three adults laughed; Mike's sailor's mouth was infamous around NCIS and the Gibbs family. When Uncle Mikey came for a visit, Kate got to bring Daddy's old TV and the VCR up to her room and watch all the Disney Princess movies she wanted. Within ten minutes of Mikes arrival, however, Kate would be downstairs pouting and asking for various other movies such as Herbie Rides Again, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, and Yours, Mine, and Ours. With those movies secured in her little arms Kate would march right back up the stairs yelling in a sing song voice "UNCLE MIKEY'S HERE!!! I HAVE TO GO UPSTAIRS SO I DON'T HEAR NO NAUGHTY WORDS!!"

"Alright you two." Jethro said with a chuckle. "You got us, go wash up. It's time to eat."

Kate nodded and regally skipped down the hallway to the bathroom to wash her hands with soap and kinda hot water while she sang 'Happy Birthday' twice. Nurse Emily had come to her pre-school room and told all the boys and girls how to wash their hands when school started in September.

Callen laughed as he watched the little girl sing 'Happy Birthday' as she washed her hands and he stood behind her and squirted the soap out of the dispenser for himself.

"Why are you singing 'Happy Birthday'?" Callen asked Kate.

"Cuz you're apposed to wash your hands for as long as it take you to sing Happy Birthday two times." Kate explained. "And now I gots to start all over again!"

Callen laughed. "Well you already washed your hands for one 'Happy Birthday', right?"

Kate nodded the affirmative.

"So you and I can wash our hands together for another 'Happy Birthday' and then I'll do a 'Happy Birthday' on my own." Callen said. "How's that sound?"

Kate's frown was turned upside down into a full blown smile that blinded Callen with her little Chiclets shaped white teeth. "Okay." She said happily.

"Ready?" Callen asked, "One, two, three, Happy Birthday…"

"To you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Callen," "Kate," "Happy Birthday to you!" They sang in unison.

"How's that?" Callen asked Kate as he handed her the hand towel.

"Good." Kate said with a smile. "Now you."

Callen laughed as Kate sang to him and once he was done, he dried his hands, and scooped Kate up. "Let's go eat before your Dad has to come look for us."

"He your Daddy, too." Kate told Callen. "Daddy says you gots no Mommy or Daddy, so I tolded him that you're my big bwother and that Daddy is my Daddy and your Daddy."

Callen smiled and hugged the five year old even tighter. "Thanks, Katie."

Kate glared at Callen for a split second at the nickname and her glare turned into a full fledged smile. "That can be your special name for me."

"Katie?" Callen asked confused.

"Ah huh." Kate replied. "Nobody else gets to call me that if I'm not a crying or sick."

Callen smiled again. Kate's innocence was what he needed after his last case and his subsequent decision to transfer to NCIS. "Do I get a special name?" he asked.

Kate hesitated because they had reached the dining room that was in the awkward open space between the kitchen and the living room. "After dinner." She informed Callen. "Mrs. Ducky always has the best names."

Callen nodded. "Okay, I guess it's up to Mrs. Ducky."

"What's up to Mrs. Mallard?" Jethro asked as Kate slid down to the floor and climbed into her chair.

"Nuthin' Daddy." Kate said dropping the subject faster than a hot potato. At five, the little girl had learned how to change the subject quickly from the best, Mike Franks. Whenever Kate came downstairs for her movies, it was guaranteed he was discussing case related things that weren't for little ears.

Jethro looked at Callen and the younger man had the gall to smile innocently at Jethro. "Nothing to worry about," he paused and his innocent smile transformed into a devilish smirk. "Dad."

Jethro looked from his daughter to his father and to Callen. It seemed they'd been planning this without him. "Well then, son, sit down so we can say Grace and eat."

Callen nodded and sat down next to Kate.

Jethro looked at his father and Jackson sighed. "What are you looking at me for, Leroy? This is your home. You say Grace."

Jethro nodded as he bowed his head. Jackson and Callen followed suit, and Kate did as well with a little nudge from Callen.

"Bless us O Lord for these bountiful gifts we are about to receive and bless our friends and family who couldn't be with us today for reasons of their own. And bless our newest family member, G Callen, whom my daughter has adopted on her own. Amen."

The others echoed with an "Amen" of their own and Kate's hand shot out like a bullet in front of her and wrapped her pudgy little baby fingers around two rolls, one for her and one for her new 'bwother'.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Around eight PM, hours after dinner had ended, dishes had been cleaned and put away, and dessert had been served, Kate was curled up on Callen's lap over her Daddy's struggling to watch The Aristocats with her belly as full as it could get, and her eyelids felt like they were made of something heavy, 'Like lead,' Kate thought as she yawned. 'At least I think that's what Abby says.'

"I think it's time for somebody to go to bed." Jethro said as he watched as Kate's eyes were closing and then fluttering back open. The girl pouted in protest.

"I'm not sleepy, Daddy." She whined as she clung to the front of Callen's shirt. "I wanna stay up and see Duchess and the kitties make it home."

Jethro chuckled. "You've seen this movie a million times, Kate."

Kate pouted. "I wanna stay with Callen."

"I'm not going anywhere tonight." Callen told Kate with a smile. "I'm sleeping right here in the living room, on the couch."

Kate pouted again as she was handed off to her father and carried upstairs to get ready for bed. "I want Callen to read me my story." She informed her father as they reached the stairs.

"That's up to him, Princess." Jethro told Kate. "After we get you in your jammies you can ask him. Remember to say 'please'."

Kate nodded and laid her head on her father's shoulder. "Can I wear my Barbie nightgown?"

"Which one?" Jethro asked. Kate never failed to find the Barbie pajamas that came with a matching nightdress/pair for your Barbie doll.

"The purple one with the pony." Kate said.

"Baby Doll, that's a summer nightgown." Jethro said. "It's winter time."

Kate huffed. "The skiing one?"

"That's fine." Jethro said. He was glad Kate didn't have the energy to argue about her nightgown.

After Kate had put on her jammies, brushed her teeth, and selected the stuffed animals that she was taking to bed that night, Kate was carried back down the stairs to the living room to ask Callen to read to her.

Callen smiled as he noticed Teddy the Cocker Spaniel was held firmly in Kate's grasp along with her Betty doll, Elmo, and Barney.

"Callen," Kate said sweetly as Jethro pulled her hair up into pig tails. "Will you read me my story tonight, please?"

Callen smiled. "Sure. What story?"

Kate smiled a 100 mega-watt smile and tugged Callen up the stairs and to the book shelf in her room. It was mint green and the size of a small dresser. On the second shelf Kate pulled out a dog earned and well loved copy of E.B. White's Charlotte's Web. "It's about a piggy named Wilbur and a girl named Fern and their friends on a farm." Kate told Callen. "Daddy says we stopped at the beginin' of chapter three."

Callen took the book and flipped it open to the bookmark; sure enough it was at chapter three. "Alright then, Katie, it's time for you to get into bed so I can read this to you."

Kate quickly scrambled into her bad and pulled the blankets up to her chin and snuggled down with her stuffed animals as she patiently waited for Callen to pull the rocking chair in the corner over to her bed.

"Ready?" Callen asked as he sat down in the rocking chair.

Kate nodded and wiggled around in her bed. "Uh-huh."

"Okay." Callen said as he opened the book. "Chapter Three, Escape. The Barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure…"

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Jethro looked up at the clock and saw it was nine thirty and Callen still hadn't come back downstairs. Jethro sighed and stood up from the game of Scrabble he and his father were playing. "I'm going to go see what's keeping Callen."

"Kate probably made him read the whole book." Jackson said with a laugh. "I wouldn't put it past that little girl. She's smart as a tack, just like her father."

Jethro smiled and shook his head 'no'. "Nah. She's too much like her mother."

"I'm telling you, Leroy, that little girl upstairs is just like you were as a child at times."

Jethro chuckled as he climbed the stairs, skipping every third step. He poked his head into Kate's room and smiled. He turned around and headed back down the stairs to grab his camera.

"Dad, you've got to see this." Jethro said as he put a new roll of film into his camera. "It's priceless."

Jackson followed his son back up to Kate's room and smiled at the scene in front of them.

Kate had crawled out of bed and into Callen's lap to look at the pictures in the book. Somewhere in the middle of Chapter Four the duo had fallen asleep and the book had fallen to the floor. Callen's arms were wrapped around Kate to keep her from falling off of his lap, and Kate face was pressed against Callen's chest and his shirt was held firmly in her grasp.

Jethro took a few pictures from different angles before he looked from Callen, to Kate's bed and back to Callen. "They'll fit." He said to his father. "Help me move them to the bed."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked as he approached the sleeping man and his granddaughter. "He looks a little too big to be carried."

"It's two feet, Dad." Jethro said to his father and they somehow managed to move Callen and Kate to Kate bed, tuck the two of them in and take more pictures without waking them up.

Jethro turned out the light and shut the door. As he did this, Kate thumb found its way into her mouth, and he turned to take one last picture he couldn't wait to develop.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Reviews please!

AN: I don't own Charlotte's Web or Barbie or Scrabble. I just borrowed them to use in this chapter. Well actually I own a copy of Charlotte's Web, I used to have Barbies but my move gave them to my younger cousins :'(, and I do own a copy of Scrabble. I'm not making a profit by dropping names is what I'm saying. I don't own the Macy's parade either. Or Disney. There. My disclaimer is done, even if it's at the end!