Gibbs opened the door and let Amira in. She looked down and walked up to her room. Gibbs sighed and called Abby.
"Hi Gibbs! We are completely ready, well, almost, just a few more last princess touches. She likes glitter right?" Gibbs heard a suspicious thud in the background but before he could enquire about it, Abby went on and she still loves strawberries and chocolate right? I know you'll say you asked her just last week but these things change way more often than you'd think Gibbs. And…"
"Abbs"
"What do you think about…"
"Abbs." He resorted to the voice. Abby stopped mid-sentence.
"There has been an incident at school. I need to discuss it with Amira. So, Please let the others know not to come here till I call you and let you know. I suspect it will be around 7 but not before that."
"What kind of incident?"
Gibbs sighed. "A fighting incident."
"No Gibbs that can't be right. A fighting incident means a spanking and you can't spank her before her birthday."
"Abbs, I appreciate all your help with her but this is not one of those times. I need to set consistent boundaries."
"But why would she even do that? What did she say?"
"She hasn't said anything to defend herself, yet."
"Doesn't that tickle yourGIbbs' senses?"
"Maybe but I gave her more than enough opportunities to tell me and actually will be giving her one more."
Abby was silent for a long moment and then just said, "please be careful Gibbs. For both of your sakes." And she cut the call.
Gibbs, who was not used to other people hanging up on him, was confused for a moment then shook his head and went into the kitchen for some coffee.
When Gibbs entered the doorway and saw the small child leaning her head against the wall, he stopped. Her facial expression and body language were somehow worse than if she were crying. Like there was no point to anything anymore.
Gibbs announced himself with a 'Hi Amira.' The sudden jerk of her head was concerning so Gibbs took a stride towards her and put his arm on her shoulder in comfort which she pulled away from, then came back, stiffly. He led her to sit on the bed and sat on the chair opposite her.
"How are you feeling, child? Are you okay?"
"No."
"What's wrong?"
"Everything."
"Can you tell me one of the things?"
"Me."
"No child, you're not wrong. You made a mistake and we'll handle it but I'm disappointed in your actions, never in you, understand?"
Amira stared at her lap resolutely.
They were both silent for a while and as Gibbs was about to give up and break the silence, Amira whispered, barely audible, "Please don't?"
Gibbs gathered every ounce of resolve he could and said, "Talk to me child, tell me what happened."
"No matter what happened, just please don't make it worse. Please don't hit me?"
"Doesn't work that way."
Amira looked up, into his eyes with the saddest look he had ever seen. Paused, considering, then just said, "Yes Sir" and looked back down.
Gibbs decided that this was going nowhere and perhaps the child would open up after the punishment and things would get better.
He held her hand and indicated that she should stand up and as she stood between his knees, he tried again, "anything you want to tell me before I decide your punishment?"
She continued to stare at a spot behind his shoulder.
"Alright then, come here." He guided her over his lap and rested his hand on her bottom.
He took a deep breath and started swatting. "You do not fight, ever. If someone else attacks you, you tell an adult. And throwing the first punch is an absolute no. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?" He punctuated each word with a spank on her sit spots.
Gibbs was a fairly efficient spanker but he was barely using his strength keeping Amira's age and size in mind so the intensity of her tears didn't make sense. He decided to end the spanking much earlier than he had planned and gave her ten more hard swats.
Gibbs' hand moved to her back to rub it but once she realised that he had stopped swatting, she started wiggling to get up. He let her and then went to pull her into a hug but she pushed his hands away.
"Your options are being comforted on my lap or standing in the corner," he tried to joke but it took a bad turn as she started walking towards the corner. Gibbs decided to give her a few minutes to stop crying and then try again.
Gibbs decided to try a slightly different method and went into his room to fetch something. He sat down on the bed and kept the wrapped box next to him.
"Come here Amira." She walked over.
"Can I hug you, or actually Ducky would correct me, may I hug you?"
"Please don't."
"It will make you feel better, child. I'll be careful about your bottom, I promise."
"Please don't."
"Do you want some water?"
"No Sir."
"What do you want?"
"May I go to bed Sir?"
Gibbs considered that. "Alright, you may take a nap. That way my conscience is clear when I allow you to stay up an hour beyond your bedtime for your party tonight."
"I meant can I just go to bed for the day Sir?"
"It is rather early for that." Gibbs stared at the top of her head for a while then said, "come here, lie down. I'll wake you up in a while for dinner at least and then we can decide what to do."
She stood where she was.
"What are you waiting for?"
"For you to move away Sir."
"I thought I could rub your back till you fall asleep?"
"Please don't."
Gibbs took a deep breath. "Alright, child. Why don't you tell me what you'd like me to do?"
"Could you just let me be for a while, please?"
"How is that going to make anything better?"
"It will let me relax Sir."
"You can relax now. We're okay. You're okay. Your punishment is over."
Silence.
"What are you thinking?"
"Doesn't feel like it's over Sir."
Gibbs sighed then said, "It is over, child. Clean slate." And with that he walked out of the room. When he heard the sudden sobs from Amira's room it took a big chunk of his marine training to not rush in, to comfort her. The child needed to release her emotions.
He sat down on his couch, head in his hands, wondering where it had all gone wrong. He wished Shannon was around. She had been his pillar while they raised Kelly. And now, was he even doing right by the kid by taking her in. Wouldn't she be better off with people who actually knew how to handle kids. So far his teammates thought he was great with kids. Well he could absolutely connect with them but he was never fully responsible for any of them! He longed t reach for his bourbon but instead shook his head, grabbed his phone and called Ducky.
"Hey Duck."
"Hello Jethro. I hear there has been new trouble at school?"
"They claim and she concurs, that she hit someone unprovoked, or rather because she lost a game."
"And what do you believe?"
"The reason is bullshit."
"And how did you handle it?"
"Gave her more than enough chances to come clean."
"And?"
"She did not. Kept saying there was nothing more. And pleading to not punish her. But I did. I had to."
Ducky hummed.
"Where is she now?"
"In bed. Hopefully for a recovery nap."
"Can we come over? The reinforcements might help smoothen out the situation."
"Thanks Duck."
"We'll figure this out, Jethro."
Gibbs nodded into the phone.