Hey Everybody! It's me, gibby101 crawling out of her vacation relaxation mode to gift you with a little chapter I've had for months but never typed up. My recent trip to Disney World severely hindered my updating, but hey, I was in the Happiest Place on Earth God damn it. I was the happiest gibby101 in the park! But I got some story ideas from that trip, including how Tony breaks it to Katie that he and Ziva are getting married. :) Well review please!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!!!!!!!! :D This is YOUR chapter cuz it's your b-day. Enjoy :)
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"Hey, Tony." Nine year old Kate said as she breezed into the Bull Pen alone after school one day.
Tony looked up from the computer search he was doing in the Maryland RMV database and sighed. He knew that tone of voice very well. "What do you want?" he asked the nine year old.
Kate cocked her head to the side making her strawberry blond curls bounce as she gave Tony her best doe eyed innocent smile. "What do you mean?"
Tony shook his head and laughed, "Oh ho ho ho. I know that tone of voice," he said. "It's the 'I-need-you-to-do-something-I-know-you're-going-to-say-no-to' voice."
Kate batted her eyelashes and pouted ever so slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Not working," Tony said in a sing song voice as he narrowed down the search criteria in the database. He kept his eyes glued to the screen as he hunted and pecked at the keys and every so often would discreetly glance over at the little girl.
Kate was biting her lip and looked genuinely upset. Tony sighed. Crying females was not his forte, and if he did make Kate cry, there went his brain cells. One Super Gibbs Slap coming his way!
"Come here," Tony said with a sigh as he pushed his chair back and patted his lap.
Kate dropped her backpack on the floor by her father's desk and scampered up onto Tony's lap and sat facing Tony.
"First, no crying," Tony said as he handed Kate a tissue.
Kate took the tissue with a giggle as Tony tickled her and she wiped her eyes.
"Any more tears?" Tony asked. Kate shook her head 'no'. "Good," Tony said as he took the used tissue back and dropped in the waste basket under his desk. "What's up, Squirt?"
"Mrs. Donaldson made us write about our best friend." Kate told Tony. "We had to write a whole five paragraph essay about them and why they're our best friend."
Tony nodded. "Who did you write about, Squirt?"
"You," Kate said as she shyly glanced down at her feet.
Tony grinned and looked down at the suddenly silent girl in his lap. "Me?" he questioned. He didn't understand the reason why she would write about him. He'd known her for two months, and he'd been over to the Gibbs residence a handful of times and watched a ridiculous amount of Disney movies with her, taken her to the movies when Gibbs was in Interrogation for hours… Tony quickly realized why but still asked her, "Why?"
Kate silently shook her head and blushed in embarrassment. She hid her pink face behind the curtain of curls that had fallen in front of her face.
Tony sighed silently when he realized he needed to switch tactic to elicit answers from the girl in front of him. "Did you write it today?" he asked her.
"No," Kate said quietly as she slipped off of Tony's lap and grabbed her powder blue L. L. Bean backpack off the floor and dug around in it for her purple take home folder. "We got them back today."
"What did you get on it?" Tony asked as he ignored the beep from his computer.
"Your computer beeped." Kate told him as she clutched the blue lined white pages covered in her clumsy cursive to her chest. She was hiding her grade from Tony and trying to change the subject.
But unfortunately for her, the Senior Field Agent (and Probie rolled into one), knew an opportunity to change the subject when he heard one. "Ignore it." Tony said as he turned the monitor off. "Let's see that essay grade."
Kate sighed dramatically and reluctantly handed over the pencil covered pages.
Tony's eyebrows were raised to his hairline when he saw the red 4+ in red in a neat little circle at the top of the page. "You got a four plus!" Tony said jubilantly causing many heads to turn their way. "Get back to work!" Tony snapped when he realized his exclamation had drawn a crowd.
The eavesdroppers dispersed and went back to work.
Kate smiled and nodded. "Mrs. Donaldson said I was the only one to get a four plus on this assignment."
"That's great, Squirt!" Tony said with a smile. "Can I read it?"
Kate nodded and she watched Tony's face eagerly to see his reaction to the composition.
Tony looked up from the introduction to see the girl watching him. "You know what? I have a better idea."
"You do?" Kate asked confused as she climbed up onto Tony's lap. "What is it?"
"Will you read it to me?" Tony asked her. "You wrote it about your best friend, and your best friend would like you to read it to him. But only if that's okay with you."
"Okay." Kate said happily as she took the theme back from Tony.
She took a deep breath and plowed headfirst into the essay, "Best friends are an important part of your life." She read, "They can be boys or girls, your age or not. You can see them every day, every week or just once in a while. My best friend is Tony DiNozzo. He's older than me and works with my dad. I don't always get to see Tony a lot because he's working, but when he makes a promise, he keeps a promise."
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When Jethro Gibbs had come back to the Navy Yard after picking his daughter up from school, the last thing he had expected to do was spend an hour and a half between Autopsy and Abby's Lab. But this had happened, and here he was running late for dinner with his wife's Aunt from Chicago. He had originally intended to just run up to the Bull Pen and grab some paperwork before heading home with Kate. But Ducky had discovered that the second victim in his most recent case had contracted syphilis shortly before his death. The Petty Officer had just returned from an eight month stint on the USS Ronald Reagan. Chances were the person the Petty Officer had contracted the disease from was still onboard and could be a suspect in this case.
Abby had confirmed Ducky's diagnosis, and informed him that the victim probably wasn't even aware of the presence of the disease just yet. Now Gibbs needed DiNozzo to pull all the medical files of the Reagan's personal to check for syphilis or anyone with syphilis symptoms. Then The Agent Afloat could throw the potential suspects in the brig until they could be hauled into DC for questioning. Gibbs was now planning on dropping Kate off with Mrs. Mallard and already thinking of what to say to Jenny to reschedule the dinner.
That was, until he stepped off of the elevator in the Bull Pen. He stepped off of the elevator and found Chris Pacci armed with a camera sneaking glances over a partition at DiNozzo's desk.
Gibbs felt his heart brim with parental joy at the sight before him. Kate was sitting on Tony's lap, wrapped up snuggly in the younger agent's arms re-reading her essay aloud to him.
Tony had a smile on his face that Gibbs could easily associate with parental pride. Whatever that essay was about had Tony beaming. Jethro was curious as to the subject of it. The few times Gibbs had seen DiNozzo interact whit children when it was case related had been cringe worthy. The kids had shied away from Tony, and if Gibbs hadn't known how well Tony did with Kate he would have seriously considered buying Tony "Child Care for Dummies". If such a title in the Dummies series existed. Jethro paused for a moment. He might have actually seen that at Waldenbooks last week. He had the perfect gag gift for DiNozzo for Christmas now.
"Pacci," Gibbs said as a greeting. "How long have they been like this?"
"A little over an hour." The other investigator replied. "I got a few pictures that will be circulating the entire agency by this time tomorrow."
"How?" Gibbs asked. He was a little clueless when it came to this new computer age.
"Email." Chris replied simply. "I'm sure the Agents Afloat would appreciate the little scene of the perks of being assigned to DC."
"And then the Director gets bombarded with transfer requests." Jethro joked. "I like it."
"Hadn't thought of that." Pacci said with a shrug. "Oh, well."
Jethro laughed. "Well I need to go interrupt this episode of Reading Rainbow and get the Princess home before the Evil Step Mother flips out on the poor King."
Pacci stared at Gibbs in shock.
"What?" Gibbs asked. "Is there something on my face?"
"No," Pacci said as he blinked a few times in shock. "I'm just amazed at the amount of kiddy references you just dropped in one sentence."
"I have a nine year old daughter, Chris." Jethro said with a chuckle. "These things tend to happen."
This time it was Pacci who laughed.
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"So then I told Mrs. Donaldson that you are too real." Kate said to Tony as she explained the story behind her essay. "But Lily Humphries still doesn't think you are."
"Well, what Lily Humphries thinks about my existence isn't important." Tony told her as her playfully tugged on one of her curls.
Kate cheekishly stuck her tongue out at Tony in retaliation. "Wanna do me a favor?" Kate asked him sweetly.
"Sure thing, Squirt." Tony said without contemplating any possible requests.
"Can you and Daddy come in for Career Day?" Kate asked as she batted her eyelashes. "Please?"
Tony roared with laughter. "You little manipulator. I knew you wanted something!"
Kate grinned and stuck her tongue back out. "So will you?"
"Of course!" Tony replied. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Thanks Tee!" Kate cried happily as she wrapped her arms around Tony's neck to hug him.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!! So it's my friend's birthday today so I'm dedicating this chapter to her. It's part of her present. I promised an update and a chapter in her honor and here it is! There will be another little short chapter or two and then I plan on writing Twilight and Kill Ari parts One and Two as one chapter. Well, beckons me to get started on it. Blah. 16 days and I'm done with high school for good! :D That's always something to look forward to!