Unknown Daughter

Chapter 5

"Cassie, where the hell have you been?!" Gibbs said, rushing over to me and grabbing me in a hug.
"Dad... I'm fine!" I said pulling away just a little to look at his face.
"Vance has she been here the whole time?" asked Gibbs, turning his head just a little to look at the director.
"Yes Gibbs, she has and I can tell she's your kid. She barged in here just like you and she can strike a deal to. She has gotten me to think about giving her a job here. Along with your eyes and personality to boot."
"Cass, this true?" Gibbs asked with a hint of anger in his voice. At that point he said goodbye to Vance and started to usher me out of his office.
"Yea, I heard you and the team talk about me when I woke up. I just didn't want to be a burden."
"Cassie, you have to talk to me when you go off and get a job here! Do you know what we deal with here? Dead Marines! Just because you grew up as a Marine kid, doesn't you're ready to put up with dead Marines! What were you thinking!" he shouted, causing tears to come to my eyes.
"About you!" I screamed at him, pushing away from him and running down a hallway and to an elevator. I heard him shout and start running after me. But I reached the elevator a good twenty feet before Him. It closed with him being two feet away
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I crumpled against the wall and cried for a minute or two. Then I pushed a second button for the underground part of NCIS. I was going to visit Ducky, hoping he was still here. I really needed to talk to someone and right now he was the one person I trusted. I heard the elevator go off and I ran through the glass doors to the autopsy room. I saw the light before I saw Ducky. I ran over to him and that's when he turned around. I hugged the old man and cried into his shoulder. He patted my head and said in a soothing voice:
"There, there child. I take it you and Jethro had your first father/daughter fight? Yes, Jethro had a way with making other people upset. Yes, I believe it was both times today that he made you upset. First for walking away from you and now what? Child, I think you need to lay down. You have had traumatic day and it has taken it's toll. Would you like another story?" he asked in a gentle tone, almost grandfatherly. I nodded my head and moved to a examine table that had a sparkle to it, clearly clean. He started his story and I soon fell asleep to his Scottish accent telling a story of him as a lad, a wild horse and a toy solider.
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Again, I woke up to being cradled in a man's arms and had woken up to the smell of bourbon and coffee. Talk about Deja vu. Only this time, he wasn't walking around. Actually he was sitting down, on what appeared to be a couch. His breathing was slow, but not slow enough to be asleep. No it appeared to be the breathing of a calm, relaxed, and perfectly happy man. This surprised me; due to the fact that he had appeared to be ready to head slap me the last time I saw my dad. I opened one eye then the other, looking around at the barely furnished living room. I was getting ready to move when I heard he same gruff voice I had grown to love over the past day. And it scared the hell out of me.
"You know, you sleep like the dead sometimes." he said hoarsely, like he hadn't talked for hours.
"How long have I been asleep?"
"Well, Duck said you fell asleep around ten thirty and it's six eighteen now so about he normal nine or ten hours."
"Oh, well best get started getting ready for the day." I said getting off my fathers lap and stretching. I moved my foot and promptly almost fell flat on my face. Dad caught me and pulled me back to sit on the couch.
"Apparently you haven't gotten your land legs yet." he chuckled as he got up and staggered a bit.
"Dad are you ok?" I asked concerned, hoping that my dad would stick around a while longer before leaving me. Cause let's face it, he's like fifty five.
"Yea, my legs are just asleep a bit from having you sit on them for ten hours." he chuckled again, ignoring my sound of indignation. Ten minutes later, he came back with jeans and a NCIS shirt on. He walked around the couch and into what looked like the kitchen. I slowly stood up and started to move my legs over to the doorway. I walked in and saw my dad, surprise surprise, making a cup of coffee. I moved over to the table and sat down, only to be pulled up again by Gibbs.
"What was that for?" I asked in an annoyed tone, wondering why he always wanted me to do something different.
"Well, considering you came into NCIS with out so much as a backpack, I'm guessing you left everything behind at Chapman's Bay. So you, Ziva, and Abby are going shopping today."
"What about work?"
"It's Saturday. Have you lost track of time since you left the Bay?"
"I guess so" I said, wondering when Abby and Ziva would be here to take me shopping. Just then the doorbell went off. Gibbs walked over to the door to let in an over excited Abby and a passive Ziva. Abby ran and gave me a bone-crushing hug and going into on of her rants.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe that you don't have any other clothes! We have got to get you some platform boots and a plaid skirt and a spiked dog collar and-"
"Abby, I think your scaring her." Ziva said, coming to my rescue. Soon after that Abby ushered me and Ziva out of the door and into Ziva's Cherry Red Bug.
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Five hours later and I walked through the door with ten shopping bags. My dad was no where in sight and when I was looking for him, I dropped a particularly heavy bag( filled with shoes) on my foot.
"Ow! Shit, Shit, Shit!" I yelled through out the house, hopping on my foot only to fall on the floor."Shit!"

"Got a problem there, Cass?" I heard a familiar voice call out from the basement. I froze, wondering what he was thinking about his "Little Girl" now that he knew I cursed on a regular basis.
"Ummm yea?"
"Ok then." he said coming out of the basement, wiping his hands on his jeans. He saw the ten shopping bags that lay abandoned over by the couch and pulled on the most priceless face ever.

"What they do, buy out the mall?"
"Sure felt like it!"
"How about we go to NCIS, Vance wants to talk to us..." he said, pulling on his jacket and grabbing mine of the hook. I grabbed the coat and walked out the door.
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Vance was waiting behind his desk, obviously thinking over his answer for the fiftieth time. He saw Gibbs and I barging into his office.
"Well Special Agent Gibbs, welcome to NCIS." he said bluntly, handing over my badge of a field agent, but it was also marked M.E assistant.
"Agent Gibbs, I have been thinking, and well what is a future agent going to learn field work if their not out in the field, so when Ducky is not in need of your assistance with the body, you will be a full field agent. Your dad set that up so don't thank me." he finished his speech and gave us a signal to get out.
"Wait, don't I get a gun? I mean, if I'm going to field agent and I need to chase down a suspect, I'll need a gun right?"
"Your father has picked out your gun, now good bye."
I can tell he is now longer my friend, but my boss, so I walked out his office, following my dad out of the building. My father drove over around the building and to the shooting range. He got out of the car with a black box. The box looked new, so I got excited. I was never allowed near a gun with my mom, but that didn't stop me from learning how to shoot from one of her Marine friends. We walked through the door and dad scanned his I.D card over the door and we walked in. He went to one of the gun stalls and set down the black box. He pulled out a gray 9mm and handed it to me. I looked at him and all he gave me a raised eyebrow and crossed arms across his chest. He wanted me to show me what I experience I had so I looked in the box for bullets and loaded it with expert hands. I walked to an empty stall and pressed the button for the hanger to come to the booth while I grabbed a target and put it on the hanger. I pushed the button and watched it fly back forty feet. I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger three times. I brought down the gun and placed it on the table in front of me. I brought the target back and handed it to my dad He studied the target and gave his nod of approval. He took the gun out of my hands and placed it back in the black box. He picked it up and walked out of the door with the target in hand. I had caught a glimpse of the target and gave a sigh of relief. I guess Mark's training hasn't slipped my mind since he went to the Lord's palace. The target had three holes in it, arranged in a triangle, all surrounding the middle. Three perfect shots.
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Dad had been in the car when I went outside. I opened the door and slid into the yellow Camaro. He didn't start the car when I got in. Instead he asked me
"Where'd you learn to shoot?"
"Mark"
"Who's Mark?"
"One of mom's Marine colleague."
"Why didn't Celia teach ya to shoot?"
"Didn't want her little girl to shoot."
"Why'd Mark teach you?"
"I got in a fight with mom about it on her ship. He heard and offered to teach me."
"Where's Mark now?"
"With the Lord."
"Mission?"
"The shoot-out."
"Oh." After that he started the car and headed over to another apartment building. I was confused but didn't say a word when he stopped in a parking spot. He led me over to Apartment 174 and led me through the door. It was pitch dark when suddenly a bright light filled the room.
"SURPRISE!" I heard, but it brought back a terrifying memory. A two week old memory. It was the party poppers that threw me back into the memory.
(FLASHBACK)
I'm back in the ship, the U.S Basco. I hear my mother scream at me to hid under one of the beds. I got under the bed, far back, when I heard the door burst open. I hear my mom ask her latest ex-boyfriend why he was doing this. He answered something like because you left me. Then I heard him throw her on the bed and tried to get on top of her. She managed to punch him in the jaw and he went ballistic. He punched her in the face and pulled out his gun. First, he shot her in the leg, then the other. He shot her in one arm, then the other. He shot her in the stomach. He waited two minutes then he shot her in the forehead. Then he went through the ship and shot every living soul on the ship. He soon left the ship and I didn't come out from under the bed for two days, when the cops showed up. They tried to place me in foster care, but I told them about Gibbs and how he was in D.C and, I lied about him knowing about my existence. They offered me a ride but I didn't want them to find out that I lied. So I took out every last dollar from my mom's bank account and got on train headed to D.C. Then, I found him.
(END OF FLASHBACK)
I found myself huddled in a corner, in what appeared to be a closet. I heard hushed voices on the other side of the door and then I heard the door open. Ducky was standing in the doorway, with the team right behind him. I crawled over to him and sat in front of his feet, ashamed that they had seen me this weak. Ziva then picked me up and carried me over to the couch and started singing in Hebrew. It was a soft lullaby, something you would singing to your child when they're sick. I got a close as possible to her and started to cry.
"It is ok, Cassie..." she soothed"What happened?"
"I remembered the shoot-out, I was on the ship when it happened. My mom, she... she told me to get under the bed opposite her's. Then, then... Wait. I know who did it! It was one of mom's recent exs. He... He was crazy! He, he tried to do something to her that she didn't want. Then she pun... punched him in the jaw. Then he... He shot her. One leg, one bullet. One arm, one bullet. Her stomach, one bullet. He... He WAITED two minutes, the bastard, then he shot her in the forehead. Then he went on a rampage. I was the only survivor. The only one..."