Cause you're my, you're my, my true love, my whole heart
Please don't throw that away, cause I'm here for you
Please don't walk away and please tell me you'll stay…
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – Your Guardian Angel
Chapter IV – Small Steps
"Oh shit…" Anthony mumbled and glanced at his co-worker who just got up from his makeshift bed on the slightly too small couch.
"What´s wrong?" Tim asked and rubbed his eyes, still looking sleepy after a night on Gibbs´ couch and switching places with his fellow agent every three hours. One of them had to be awake so they could prevent another attack on one of their lives. It wasn´t a big surprise that both federal agents looked pretty crumpled and overtired but at the same time determined to find the attacker of their boss who was probably at the same time the killer of Brady Carmichael´s parents.
"I just got an email from Abbs…" The Italian said and pointed at the screen of the laptop which was standing on Jethro´s kitchen table so his co-worker could read it. "Looks like the Carmichaels were under Witness Protection since she says that she had to hack the Marshall´s database…"
"Crap. Guess they will show up in only a little while." The younger man replied and read what else their forensic found out about their current case. "At least she found a match to the bullet."
"Yeah they have to explain a few things, but I guess they won´t serve it to us on a silver platter because they know they screwed up… I think, no I´m pretty sure that Abby´s results might lead to a file which is sealed by the Marshals simply because it is related to some very important case."
"The Marshals as in U.S. Marshals?" Caitlin asked and the men nodded. She woke up when Gibbs hit the shower and decided that nine o´clock was a decent time to get up, unlike her male fellow agent she could sleep the whole night at least what was left of it after they set everything up. "Shoot."
"Yep you say it where is the boss?" DiNozzo asked and the brunette just mumbled `shower´ while opening the cabinets. "Here is nothing to eat, just coffee. We have to grab something for breakfast on our way to the HQ. By the way what will happen to Brady? We can´t put him under the custody of the youth welfare since someone is still after him and I don´t think we can play the babysitters all day long…"
"Well, I thought about NCIS day-care. It is the safest place for him when he isn´t with one of us." Kate explained and poured herself a mug of still steaming coffee. "And I don´t think Gibbs will stop working right now."
"You´re right Kate." The silver haired man said and slowly approached the group with the five-year-old next to him. Obviously the boy eased up a little at least in front of the other team members. He let his gaze wander over the scene in front of him and focused on Caitlin at last. "Are you ready to go back to NCIS?"
"In a minute." Timothy answered and shut down the laptop, putting it into the case. They cleared the table from the files and a few minutes later they were driving towards the HQ, only stopping at a bakery to get something to eat. Nobody dared to question Jethro´s decision to get back to work just a few hours after he was attacked. None of them wanted to be the victim of the gray haired man´s icy stare. Tony and Tim never dared or tried to stand up to their supervisory agent, it was only the brunette who mustered the courage to say something.
"Dear god Gibbs-Man what are you doing?" The Goth stated and hugged the gray haired man tightly, almost knocking him over since he was a little unsteady on his legs. After her stormy greeting she glanced at the sandy haired boy who was holding onto Caitlin´s hand and her face lit up in recognition. "So you must be Brady, right?"
"I will be fine here at work Abbs and yes this is Brady." Jethro replied when he recognized that the child was almost hiding behind his female agent obviously the forensic was a little too odd for his liking. "What did you find?"
"Sealed files… The bullet led me to one and…" Abigail glanced uncertain at her boss and lowered her voice before she went on. "DNA under the Gunny´s fingernails led me to the other."
"Who sealed them?" Gibbs asked and exchanged a meaningful look with his agents.
"U.S. Marshals we are just waiting for them to show up." DiNozzo spoke up and grinned at Abby, who was bouncing a little on her balls in her very unique hyperactive way.
"Yeah I´m sure they found out it was me who was knocking on their virtual door." The black-haired woman said and left the bullpen again.
"Just great…" The gray haired man mumbled and turned around to face his team. "Try to get a hold of the Marshal who is responsible for this, I don´t want to wait for them. Kate we go to the day-care."
The younger men just nodded and gave each other questioning looks. Both recognized that the tension between their co-workers had almost ceased and wondered what had happened. They didn´t know that Gibbs went straight to the brunette after he came home from hospital and asked her for a second chance, which left them wondering why their co-workers were suddenly at ease. "Alright."
The group parted and everyone started the task at hand. "Brady do you remember what I told you earlier?"
The five-year-old just looked up at with sad blue eyes Jethro and nodded, but still saying nothing. Kate just gave the former Marine a questioning look but decided to ask about that later. They entered the smaller building after they showed the guards their badges. The day-care was as well protected as possible because all of these children were prone to get kidnapped since their parents were NCIS agents.
"Ah agent Gibbs." A red haired woman said and eyed him skeptically. He was kind of a living legend also known at NCIS day-care but she had never actually seen him. "Brady?"
The boy looked at the female agent and when Kate nodded, encouraging him to trust the new woman, he looked at the redhead. "Hi, I´m Ava and I´ll show you everything and introduce you to the other kids. I´m sure we´ll find somebody who wants to play with you."
"Don´t worry everything will be fine." Caitlin whispered to the five-year-old and he nodded slowly, still not convinced that everything was going to be fine here. The whole situation was still too much for him. He only knew that his parents were dead and that Kate and Gibbs were taking care of him. By now the five-year-old was trusting them completely and didn´t wanted to be separated from them and go with that new redhead.
"Good." Jethro replied and gave the boy an encouraging smile. After another moment Brady finally let go of Caitlin´s hand and followed Ava slowly into one of the rooms where other children where already waiting for him to arrive.
"You shouldn´t be here, you know that don´t you?" The brunette asked and gave the gray-haired man a glance from the side. "And probably you should use the crutches the Doctor gave you."
"Yup, I know you aren´t the only one to tell me that." Gibbs replied curtly and looked at her, meeting her concerned glance, smirking about it. "But you know me I can´t sit at home and wait while you do all the work here."
"Well, yes I know that." Caitlin stated and gave him a small smile. She was glad he made a step towards her last night and accepted his apology, but she was still a little skeptical that he could really change his closed-up behavior. She wanted nothing more than believe him that he could change, but she was hesitant to make any moves or indications in front of the team afraid that it could end in the same scenario as the last time. After all it was her who would get hurt the most and she definitely didn´t want that. "We could do everything alone so you could rest, like the Doc ordered you to. I know what a concussion means; a headache and definitely not one of the slight."
Jethro just chuckled but had to admit that she was right. "How do you know?"
"I have four older siblings, three of them are boys and there are lots of trees in the backyard of my parent´s house. I think that is enough of an explanation." The female agent explained and the older man just nodded.
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at all: Thank you for the reviews, they keep the story going. =)
at droledange & Evy8: Thanks for adding „Adrift" to your favorites.
at BAMACRUSH: Thanks a lot, I think Ducky is the only one who can –if possible- stop Gibbs or tell him that something he does is wrong with Gibbs actually caring.
at Katie Todd: Well, I´m sorry, but I couldn´t resist that cliff hanger. I hope you like how it turned out. =)
at dolphinsiren is me: Thanks I hope that made up for the OOC Gibbs in the last Chapter, but on the other hand who actually likes hospitals?^^