"This place is nice." Maggie looked around the restaurant as Gibbs held her chair out for her to sit down.
He had called her earlier in the day to make the plans. The Scotch Grille had always been a favorite of his. Whenever Mike Franks had been in town, the two of them had made sure to go there at least one time. This was a tradition that Gibbs carried on with Mike's daughter in law Layla and her daughter Amira. Now that they were both living in the DC area, he tried to take them there a couple of times a year and he would tell Amira all about her Grandfather. Well the stories that a little girl could hear.
"Yeah, it is." Gibbs said as he sat down across from Maggie.
The lighting in the restaurant was subdued with candles on each table. When he'd come here with Franks, they'd sat at the bar and when he was here with Layla and Amira they sat in one of the larger booths that gave a young child like Amira room to move around. But tonight he'd asked for a table with a little more privacy. They were seated near the back of the restaurant and due to it being a weeknight, there were few other patrons in the restaurant.
Due to the unseasonably warm January day – temperatures had been in the 50's the past few days – Maggie had decided to wear a long sleeved turquoise sweater that was warm enough to wear with a light jacket, grey pants and boots. When she asked Gibbs where they were going, he'd told her not to get too dressed up and Maggie could tell that Gibbs had a certain "look" that he didn't seem to vary from. Pants, polo, jacket and the ever present white tee shirt. She knew that the tee shirt was a military thing. Her son Jamie had never worn them until he joined the marines, now she knew he had dozens of them.
"Can I get you a drink while you check the menu?" the waiter asked as he handed each of them a menu.
Gibbs ordered a beer and Maggie ordered a white wine.
"So what looks good to you?" Maggie smiled and asked Gibbs.
On the short drive from Maggie's house to the restaurant, Gibbs told Maggie he had chosen this place to take her because it was one of his favorites.
"Can't go wrong with steak." He answered.
Maggie looked up to see Gibbs looking at her. The menu lay under his hands as he leaned forward to look at her. Maggie fidgeted with the corner of the menu. Gibbs was giving her the same lopsided grin he'd had in the truck when he'd picked her up. He was on time, right at 7:00 just like he'd said he'd be, he helped her on with her coat and put his arm out for her to place her arm through as they walked over to his truck in the driveway. He walked her around to the passenger side and held the door open for her while she climbed in. Gibbs closed the door, walked around the front of the truck, all the while looking at her. When he got into the truck, Maggie was looking down trying to put the seatbelt on, but kept fumbling with it.
"Here, let me. Sometimes it sticks." Gibbs leaned over and took the end from her and placed it in the lock.
And before she knew it, his hand tipped her chin up to him and he kissed her. He'd started out gentle at first and then moved his hand up from her chin to the side of her head, his fingers sliding into her hair. Maggie could taste mouthwash on his lips as he kissed her. She moved her hand up to rest on his chest and Gibbs ended the kiss. Maggie could hear her heart pounding in her ears and she was completely breathless. She opened her eyes; Gibbs' face was still inches from hers, his fingers moving down from the side of her head, down along her cheek and back to her chin.
"Pressure's off the second kiss now." He smiled and leaned back to start the truck.
Since that kiss, any time Gibbs looked at Maggie, she'd felt her tongue tie and the back of her neck start to turn red. Gibbs liked that he'd caught Maggie off guard; just like she had the night before and all day long he'd been thinking about her. It was nice to see the effect he could have on her.
Maggie closed her menu and leaned forward, crossing her arms as she leaned on them knowing full well the view Gibbs was getting of the v-neck of her sweater. She became a little more grounded watching his blue eyes glance down and then back up while he quietly cleared his throat.
"So, how was your day?" Maggie asked sweetly as the waiter placed a glass of wine in front of her and Gibbs' beer in front of him.
Gibbs shrugged his shoulders and made a dismissive face as his answer.
"That good huh?" Maggie took a sip of her wine. She had to admit that she'd have rather had a beer; she wasn't a true wine lover, but at least sipping wine would make it last longer and Gibbs wouldn't get the wrong idea.
"What about you? When do you start your new job?"
"I have to go in tomorrow and set up some meetings." she answered.
"Are you ready to order or do you need a few minutes?" The waiter appeared at the table again.
Gibbs ordered steak and Maggie ordered mahi mahi and the waiter left them alone again to get the chance to know each other.
"What kind of meetings?"
"I will be working with elementary aged special needs children, children on the Autistic spectrum. There is a new program at the Montgomery School in DC that tries to integrate Autistic children in main stream classes."
Gibbs wasn't totally surprised. Even though he resisted in asking McGee to do a background check on Maggie, he had pegged her as someone who had to be good with working with people. The fact that it was special needs children touched him.
"I've heard of that school. They do wonderful things with Autistic children. Is that what you did back in Boston?"
"I started out as a regular classroom teacher, teaching 3rd grade, but the opportunity came up to specialize in this field and once I started training I never looked back. This job opening up at the Montgomery just cemented my decision to move down here."
"It was that easy for you to just… up and leave?"Gibbs asked Maggie.
It was Maggie's turn to offer up a shrug as an answer.
"Jamie was down here, I don't really have any other family in Boston. And well, James wouldn't have wanted me to just stay in Boston because that is where he's buried. He'd have packed my bags for me and started the car."
"Not a great marriage?" Gibbs was hesitant about saying how many bad marriages he'd had and maybe if she'd had a bad marriage, she'd understand.
"No, great marriage actually;" Maggie paused to take a sip of wine. Talking about James on a first date was usually a bad sign. "We grew up in the same neighbor, went to school together up until college. He went to the police academy and I went to college and lived there. Connected again after college, fell in love and got married."
"He was a cop?"
"Yup, good old Southie cop. Third generation in his family."
"Southie? He was from South Boston?"
"Both of us were, he was born there, I moved there with my parents when I was 5."
"Line of duty?" Gibbs knew he was being blunt, but Maggie had been a cop's wife; she knew about being blunt.
"Yes." She nodded her head as she gazed down at her wine glass. "Ten years ago. Drug bust gone bad. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Gibbs knew how she must have felt. Not a day goes by when he doesn't think of Shannon and Kelly being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Maggie shook the cobwebs out of her head and turned the questions back to Gibbs.
"What about you? What's your story? Don't try to convince me that you are a confirmed bachelor."
The waiter appeared with their food and while they ate, Gibbs filled Maggie in on his three ex-wives and by the time dinner was over he'd told her about Shannon and Kelly. Maggie reached across the table and rested her hand on his.
"Guess we both know about losing the person who was the love of our life."
Gibbs gazed down at her hand and noticed she no longer wore her wedding ring. Maggie saw where he was looking and offered an explanation.
"I don't wear it because I'm trying to forget James, I can't forget him, and we have a son together. I took James' ring and mine and put them away. Maybe someday Jamie will want them for himself." Maggie gently squeezed Gibbs' hand which was now holding hers back. "Besides, I'm sure you have a collection yourself." She teased.
"No, no collection." He grinned back. "I think each ex got it in the divorce."
The waiter came back to the table and asked them if they wanted coffee. They both said yes. Neither one of them was ready for the night to be over but both unsure of what would happen next. Gibbs loved listening to Maggie talk. Her accent was classic Boston. Her "r's" came out as "ah" and she may not have realized the number of times she used the word "wicked" but he did and he found it endearing. They discovered they had a mutual like of baseball and Maggie had an encyclopedic mind for it. Not just the jocks of the moments, but the real games from the past. Her recall reminded him of someone but he was too wrapped up in listening to her that he couldn't place it.
"You moved to Boston when you were 5? Where were you before?" Gibbs asked.
"I was born in New York, but my parents divorced when I was 5 and my Mom moved back to Boston, that's where she was from. She reconnected with my stepfather and they married. He raised me as his own."
"They still alive?"
"No, Dad died of cancer about 5 years ago, Mom followed three years ago. How about you?"
"Dad is still alive and a pain in my ass most of the time." Gibbs kidded. "Mom died when I was young."
"No brothers or sisters?" Maggie asked as the waiter poured coffee in their cups.
"Nope. You?"
Maggie took a sip of her coffee.
"I have a half-brother. Younger than me. From my biological father's second marriage."
That was telling; Gibbs thought. She called him biological father, not just Father.
"Take it you're not close? You and your brother that is."
Maggie put her coffee cup down and thought the best way to answer that question. Sometimes people thought she was cruel when she spoke of her biological father. But it is what it is and there wasn't anything she could do.
"See Gibbs, it's like this. My biological father was always looking for the next big thing. He met my mother and thought he'd be happy with the white picket fence and all that. But he had champagne taste and ginger-ale pockets. After I was born he went to New York to find the opportunity to make his mark and make money. My mother followed him with me and well, long story short. He found his opportunity when he met a trust fund with blonde hair and blue eyes. I was five years old, and suddenly my father says that he loves me, but he won't be around. My mother didn't cry, she just packed us up and off we went. "
"Sounds cruel. You were only five and all." In the back of Gibbs' mind, wheels started to turn.
"It is what it is. I can't blame my step-mother. She was actually nice to me. Never missed my birthday or Christmas. Even made sure I got to know my brother."
"Was your Father around when you spent time with your brother?"
"Not really. And I had a huge chip on my shoulder about my brother being the favorite son and all."
"Did it affect your relationship with your brother?"
"No. I really felt bad for my brother. Especially when his mother died. He was only 8, and his father didn't know what to do with him. So my brother was shipped off to boarding school and summer camps while he went from the next wife to the next big thing and so on."
Gibbs felt his gut begin to turn and it had nothing to do with the steak or asparagus he'd eaten. Why did Maggie's story sound so familiar?
"So, your brother. Where is he now? You said you had family in the area." Gibbs fished and started preying he was not going to hear what came next.
"He is. He works for the Navy, NCIS. Have you heard of them?"
"You could say that." Gibbs reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge.
"You work for them?" Maggie was surprised. "Then you must know my brother Tony."
Gibbs thought this couldn't be happening.
Getting out of her car in her driveway, Maggie juggled her book bag, purse and takeout. It had been a long couple of days with meetings with parents and teachers about the children she'd be dealing with. For the most part, her mind was on the meetings, but if she had to be completely honest, she'd been thinking about Gibbs too. They'd gone out and had a good time three nights ago. She thought he'd had a good time too. But he hadn't called or texted. Nada, nothing, not a word. Every time she'd checked her phone there were messages from her son or her brother, but not Gibbs. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he wasn't really that interested. And she had a rule; she would not be the one to call him. She may be a modern take care of herself kind of girl, but the ball was in Gibbs' court, if there was to be a next move it had to come from him.
A chorus of barks told Maggie that Freckles desperately needed to go out.
"One sec Freck."
Maggie put all of her packages on the kitchen island and unlocked the back door. She had barely opened it and Freckles bolted out the door and into the yard. Maggie watched her dog for a few seconds and then took her phone out. Still nothing from Gibbs, but there was another text from her brother.
"Avoid much?" Tony had texted her.
She supposed that she had been doing just that. She thought about calling him earlier to ask about Gibbs, but another of her rules was that she kept her private life private. She never introduced any guy she was dating to her son or told Tony about them until there was anything to tell. Tony had a great relationship with her late husband James. It was James who convinced him to become a cop and each time he transferred (from Peoria to Philadelphia and finally Baltimore) James made phone calls and helped to pave the way, even when Maggie told him to let Tony figure things out on his own.
She tapped her iPhone to contacts and tapped on Tony's speed dial number.
"Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo."
"Why do you say you are very special? It makes you sound…well…" Maggie teased her brother.
"More than a little special?" She could almost hear Tony grinning on the phone. "Finally decided to stop avoiding me?"
"I'm not avoiding Tony; I've had a really busy week." Maggie answered as she took the sushi out of the bag and put it in the refrigerator. "I had meetings and some things to do around here. I asked you to come over."
Tony made a shuddering noise. "You know I don't do manual labor."
"Yeah I know." Maggie let the dog back in and gave her some water. "Senior gave you a power sander and you still don't know which end to plug in."
"I do too know how to use it. And besides, that beast of yours doesn't exactly like me."
"Freckles like you fine." Maggie reached down to scratch behind the dog's ear. "It's you who doesn't like her."
"Dog doesn't like men. You even said that yourself. Didn't she bite some guy you were dating?"
"She's got a great sense of whose nice and who's not." Maggie thought back to the night Gibbs just showed up at the door. And that thought led her to think that she was talking to Tony who was at work and made her want to ask about Gibbs. But she didn't, she obviously had judged Gibbs wrong and he wasn't interested.
"You there Mags?"
"No, sorry Tony, what did you say?" she shook the thoughts of Gibbs out of her head.
"I said, do you want to get together tomorrow night? My treat…"
"Oh wait, you're treating huh, no way I can turn that offer down."
"I'll pick you up at 7."
Gibbs had overheard part of Tony's phone conversation when he'd passed Tony's desk. Tony was on the phone with Maggie. Gibbs sat down at his desk and tried to overhear what Tony was saying. Not that it was hard; Tony was being loud enough as if he wanted someone to ask who he was talking to.
"I'll see you then Mags." Tony said as he hung up.
"New woman?" Ziva asked from her desk. Like Gibbs and McGee, they'd heard most of the conversation and new that Tony had been on the phone with a woman with whom he was going out with tomorrow night.
"No." Tony moved his chair back from his desk and prepared to drop one of the bombs he'd kept a secret. "I'm taking my sister out to dinner tomorrow night."
Tony looked from Ziva to McGee to Gibbs to judge their reaction. Ziva and McGee looked surprised, McGee's mouth actually hung open; Gibbs just looked up and said nothing.
"Sister as in one of the Nuns Abby bowls with?" McGee questioned skeptically.
"You said you do not have a sister." Ziva added.
Tony leaned back in his chair, folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the skylight.
"Ah, one of my many secrets." He grinned and paused for dramatic effect. "But yes, Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo Jr. does have an older half-sister."
"From which parent?" McGee asked.
"Why have you never said anything?" Ziva asked at the same time.
Tony put his hands up "One at a time children, one at a time."
McGee nodded to Ziva to go first.
"Why have you never told us of this older half-sister?"
"Maggie, her name is Maggie." Tony said.
Ziva shook her head. "Why have you never told us about Maggie?"
"Maggie is a private person and I respect her privacy."
Gibbs wondered if Tony would respect Maggie's privacy if he'd know that he and Maggie had gone out on a date and shared a couple of kisses. Amazing kisses Gibbs reminded himself.
"From which parent?" McGee asked his question.
"Her full name is Margaret Elizabeth DiNozzo Sullivan. Does that help?"
"So you share a father then." Ziva nodded her head. She'd had a half sibling from her father; she understood that sometimes those ties could be somewhat confusing.
"How come we've never met her before?" McGee began. "Like when you had the plague."
Gibbs had wondered why he'd never heard of Maggie from then either. Maggie seemed like she would have been the type of person who'd have dropped everything to be there for her family.
"Because I had the PLAGUE McNosey." Tony shot at McGee. "I didn't want her to drop everything and come take care of me, but she didn't listen, she came down and spent that first week with me."
This was a surprise to Gibbs. Wouldn't Tony have mentioned him or any of the others when she was there?
"I called you a bunch of times when you were sick, so did Kate. Neither of us talked to a woman when we called." McGee questioned.
"You called my cell phone and I kept it with me. Maggie only got the house phone. I don't give that number out freely."
"So is she down here visiting?" Ziva wanted to know more about this mysterious sister.
"No, she just moved to the area, Alexandria to be exact." Tony looked from Ziva to McGee before he dropped the next comment. "Her son is stationed at Quantico."
Ziva shook her head and put her hands up in front of her.
"Hold on Tony. You have a half-sister and a nephew that you have never talked about? I find this all hard to sip."
"Swallow, it's hard to swallow Ziva." Tony corrected. "And I have mentioned Jamie, that's my nephew. I just never said 'my nephew Jamie.'"
"You have mentioned going out on the town with Jamie a couple of times." McGee remembered.
Tony pointed over at McGee "Aha..See Ziva, McGee remembers. Thank you McGee."
"I just assumed that Jamie was one of your frat brothers."
"No, he's a Lance Corporal in the Marine barracks at Quantico. Lance Corporal James Michael Sullivan."
"So your sister is married?" Ziva noticed the different last name.
"No, widowed unfortunately. Maggie's husband was a cop in Boston. He was killed in a drug bust gone bad."
Gibbs half listened while Tony filled in Ziva and McGee on things he already knew about Maggie. Things she'd told him at dinner the other night. He didn't know how many times he'd picked up the phone to call her and hung up. He wasn't sure what to do. He liked Maggie and wanted to get to know her better but she was DiNozzo's sister and that was a form of Rule #12 – Never dates a co-worker. Okay, technically Maggie wasn't a co-worker, but she was the sister of a co-worker. On the other hand, DiNozzo did say that she was a private person and didn't talk to him much about her personal life.
"Boss, you'd like Maggie." Tony's comment brought Gibbs out of his thoughts.
"Is that so DiNozzo?" Gibbs said as he stood up and began to collect his wallet and coat to head out for the night.
"Yeah, she's a red head and she loves to fix things."
Gibbs smirked as he turned his desk light off. "Go home people. It's Friday night, have a good weekend."
"You too Boss." McGee replied.
"That's weird." Tony said as he watched Gibbs step into the elevator.
"What is weird? You mastered weird tonight Tony." Ziva said as she put her coat on.
"Gibbs leaving before 9 on a Friday night? Hmm, I wonder." Tony grabbed his car keys and joined Ziva and McGee in walking to the elevator.
"Wonder what?" McGee let Ziva step into the elevator first.
"Wonder if Doc Ryan is back in town. Gibbs has seemed a little different this week."
Maggie moved the ladder over to the other side of the garage to make some space for her table. Seamus O'Bannon may have been her step father, but he raised her and instilled the love of fixing things in her. He'd come home after his shift and there would be some new treasure he'd have found. A table, a bookcase, even a row boat one time; if it was fixable, Seamus would bring it out to the garage, strip the paint off it and bring it back to life with wood glue, nails, a new coat of paint, whatever it needed. One of Maggie's prized possessions was an old wooden jewelry box that Seamus' mother had brought over from Ireland. Seamus refinished it and gave it to Maggie when she was 16. The story was Seamus's father made for Seamus' mother as an engagement present. They couldn't afford a ring at the time so the small wooden jewelry box was his promise to her that one day it would be filled with all that he could give her.
Maggie loved spending time out in the garage with Seamus bringing old things back to life. The things that meant more to her came from the heart not from the store. She hoped that she'd been able to pass that on to her own son. But before she did that, she had to organize her workspace. Freckles stretched out by the closed garage door on her dog bed, happily snoring away. Maggie pulled up several smaller boxes and started organizing their contents on the work bench.
"Ah, here you are." Maggie exclaimed when she'd found her iPod. She checked the battery level and saw that there was enough battery power in it to get through setting the work bench up. She put the ear buds in her ears and queued up the song list. Pink's song "Try" started playing and Maggie danced a little bit as she set out to work.
Gibbs rang the doorbell and looked inside. He knew Maggie was home because her car was in the driveway and the lights were on in the house. When no one answered he walked back down the stairs and up the driveway. Maybe she was in the yard with Freckles. When Gibbs walked around the back of the house he stopped short in surprise. The two times he'd been at her house he'd never looked in the back yard. At the far edge of the yard was what could only be called a small barn. It easily rose up 1 and one half stories and had a loft window in the top and a pair of barn doors that slid open to the side. On either side of the front barn doors there was a window. Light came from the windows and Gibbs saw Maggie walk….no…it looked like she was dancing…by. He walked over to the barn and saw that on the side there was a door and it was slightly open. He gently moved the door open a little wider. Freckles lifted her head from the dog bed and wagged her tail. Gibbs motioned her to stay quiet and stay in her dog bed and turned his attention back to Maggie.
Whatever she was listening to on her pod thingy was making her dance and whatever that song was, Gibbs was thankful for. He was thoroughly enjoying watching her hips sway to the beat of the song. Yeah, he grinned, he needed to find out what that song was.
Maggie's back was to him so she didn't see him leaning against the door frame, eyes travelling over the length of her body as she moved. He looked at the way her sweat pants hung low on her hips and when she lifted her arms up to hang a tool on the peg board, her lower back was exposed. He liked the way her waist curved in and then flared out curve out to her hips and then back down to her legs. Gibbs was so engrossed with appreciating Maggie's back side he didn't pay attention to what she was doing. Maggie had stepped up on a turned over paint bucket to reach up to a shelf. She was putting several smaller glass jars on the shelf when she lost her footing. Gibbs snapped out of his fog and ran across the room to grab her just before she fell.
Maggie let out a scream as Gibbs scooped her up in his arms. The jars that she was putting on the shelf fell and shattered on the floor.
"What the.."Maggie realized that she was in Gibbs' arms. "What are you doing here?" Maggie yelped.
"I guess I'm making a habit of rescuing you from dangerous shelves." He smiled at her as he still held on to her.
When he put her down, Maggie nervously tucked the hair behind her ear that had fallen out of her ponytail and adjusted her shirt. She watched as Gibbs grabbed the nearest broom and begin to sweep up the broken glass.
"Stay." He commanded Freckles when she tried to chase the broom.
Maggie brought the trash bin over and a piece of cardboard to help sweep the glass up and into the trash. She wasn't sure what to say to Gibbs. She hadn't heard from him since he kissed her goodnight at the door the other night and wondered if he'd said anything to Tony. No, that couldn't be it; Tony most definitely would have said something. She squatted down while Gibbs brushed the broken glass up into the cardboard.
"Be careful. Some of those are big." Gibbs said referring to the glass.
Maggie just nodded her head. Gibbs knew Maggie wanted to know what was going on, he'd kissed her goodnight at the door; but that kiss wasn't anything like the one he'd given
her in the car. She probably thought he'd changed his mind about her. But that wasn't it. He was trying to figure this all out. This was not familiar territory for him.
Gibbs' head snapped up when he heard Maggie let out a string of curses. He propped the broom up against the bench and stepped over to her.
"What happened?"
Maggie's back was to him but when she turned to face him, her hand was bleeding.
"There must have been a piece on the work table I didn't see and I put my hand on it." She explained as she cradled her hand, palm up.
"We need to get a better look at it."
Gibbs guided her by the arm out of the barn, across the backyard and into the kitchen.
"First Aid Kit?"
Maggie motioned over to the sink. Gibbs took her by the wrist and led her to the sink.
"I can do this Gibbs."
Gibbs ignored Maggie's protests and positioned her in front of the sink and stood behind her. She was pressed up against the sink in the front and Gibbs was pressed behind her. Their height difference made it easy for him to see over her and turn on the sink faucet. When the water warmed up, he ran her hand under it. She let out a quick gasp at the sting. Gibbs moved her hand out of the water and blotted at it gently with a paper towel.
"Oww."
"There must be a piece in there still." Gibbs poked gently at the cut.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his knife. Maggie tried to step out from between Gibbs and the sink, but he used his hip to keep her in front of him.
"You have to be kidding. You're going to use a knife to get the glass out? I have tweezers in the first aid kid."
"Don't you trust me?" Gibbs' voice was right next to her ear. "Turn around."
Maggie turned slowly around. Gibbs hadn't stepped back when she did this so her hip brushed up against him and his eyes briefly closed. Maggie swallowed slowly and hoped that she'd just felt his badge in his pocket. Gibbs put his hand on Maggie's hip and moved her to the side, away from the sink and then lifted her up to sit on the counter.
"Flash light?"
"In this drawer." Maggie indicated the one that was now behind her knees where she sat on the counter.
Gibbs' eyebrow arched up when Maggie moved her knees apart so she could open the drawer. He smiled when she began to blush.
"Here" Her voice came out softly as she handed him the flash light.
He clicked it on and moved her hand closer using the light to get a better look.
"Hold the light here." He said giving her the flash light.
Taking an alcohol wipe out of the first aid kit, he wiped off the tip of his knife and blew on it so the alcohol wouldn't sting. Then very gently he picked up Maggie's hand again and brought it up closer to his face and placed the tip of the knife at the cut to ease the piece of glass out of the cut.
Maggie closed her eyes and held her breath while Gibbs used the knife to ease out the glass. She barely felt him moving the sharp tip of the knife into her skin.
"You can breathe now." Gibbs told Maggie as he wiped off her palm with cotton square and put a band aid on the cut. When he finished, he placed a soft kiss on her palm. He let go of her hand and put his hands on either side of her legs on the counter and looked at Maggie. Their eyes locked, neither one saying anything.
Gibbs closed his eyes and took a breath before he began to talk.
"I have these rules that I go by."
Maggie nodded her head.
"One of them is to not date a co-worker."
Again, Maggie nodded.
"And I'm Tony's boss."
"Yeah, you are." Maggie began to understand.
She reached out with her unbandage hand and touched his cheek.
"But I keep relationships to myself. Unless there is something to tell, I don't. And if there is something to tell, then we 'll cross that bridge at that time."
Gibbs liked the feel of Maggie's soft fingers touching his face then moving back to the side of his head. He tipped his head and kissed her. Gently at first, then when he felt her tongue touch his lips, he moved his hands up her legs and pulled her to him. Maggie let out a gasp when he pulled her knees back to either side of his hips; she knew now it wasn't his badge she'd felt.
Gibbs broke the kiss and rested his forehead against Maggie's. He ran his hands back and forth slowly from her shoulder blades back down the outsides of her thighs and back up.
"This is going to be tricky." He said with a smile.
"Yeah, it's going to be tricky." Maggie said as she ran her hands across Gibbs' shoulders and down his arms. "But there is no other way."
Gibbs nodded. If Tony knew about them seeing each other it would be difficult at work to say the least. But as long as both he and Maggie kept work – his work – and their private life private then it should be okay.
"I'm not saying we have to sneak around." Gibbs added.
"Sneaking around could be kind of fun." Maggie teased. "But I understand. The less Tony knows, the better off we'll all be."
Gibbs smiled at Maggie and leaned in to kiss her again. Hands explored while lips and tongues tasted. They pulled back from each other realizing they had to slow down a bit.
"I don't know about you, but I could use a drink." Maggie cleared her throat.
"Me too." Gibbs moved back from the counter and helped Maggie down. "Maybe a cold shower too."
"That could be dangerous in this house." Maggie winked at Gibbs as she took two beers from the refrigerator and walked over to the living room. Gibbs followed.
They sat down on an overstuffed couch, which must be new because it wasn't in the house the last time he was here.
"New?" he patted the cushion on the couch.
Maggie handed him his beer as he sat down beside her on the couch, one arm on the cushion behind her. She watched as he took a long drink of his beer.
"No. I saw it on Craig's List and bought it yesterday."
"Craig's List?" Gibbs asked slightly confused.
"People advertise things they are selling on a website. I actually heard about this couch from one of the teacher's at my school." Maggie patted the back of the couch. "I like it, it's comfy. Good for reading a book or the newspaper."
Gibbs looked around the room. Besides the couch, there were curtains and shades on the windows, and on the fireplace mantle she had a few pictures of Jamie, her parents and one of James and Jamie.
"What else you looking for?" Gibbs wondered. "I'm pretty handy with tools and building things." He noticed there was no television in the room.
"I'm really looking for a nice roll top desk. One that I can refinish the way I want. Maybe another chair or two. A coffee table." Maggie gave him a general list. "I have some things coming down from Boston next week. Stuff that I didn't sell with …" Maggie got distracted by Gibbs leaning and trailing kisses down the side of her neck. "Keep that up Marine and we'll end up christening this couch."
"Could be nice." He answered between kisses.
"Mm mm…would be." She sighed.
Gibbs leaned back and took another sip of his beer. He saw the pictures up on the mantle.
"None of Tony or your Dad." He noticed.
"Tony's picture needs a new frame; the only other one I have is upstairs in my room. It's of me and Tony when we were kids and I don't have any of Senior."
"Senior? You call him that too?"
Maggie gave Gibbs a confused look.
"Tony usually refers to your father as Senior and he calls Tony Junior."
"You've met Senior?"
Gibbs nodded slowly. "A few times."
"How'd that go?"
Gibbs tipped his head and smirked. "Well I wouldn't say we're going fishing any time soon."
Maggie sipped her beer and nodded. Gibbs noticed she'd gotten quiet. He traced his fingers back and forth on the back of her neck.
"Hey." He said softly to get her attention.
Maggie pulled at the label on the beer bottle. "Well you obviously know what Senior is like then."
"You never call him Dad or your Father."
"No, I don't." Maggie shook her head. "That's because my step-father is who I consider my father. Senior is just Senior. Nothing more. I suppose that sounds awful."
"Nope." Gibbs tipped back the last of his beer. He didn't like the way their father treated Tony, he can't imagine he was any better with Maggie. But Gibbs was wrong…he was worse.
"See." Maggie pulled her feet up underneath her legs and turned more to face Gibbs. "When Senior left my mother, he never looked back. She got no child support or alimony or anything. I don't think I even heard from him until Tony was born.
Gibbs pulled Maggie's legs out and rested them across his lap. He put the empty beer bottle on the floor and left one arm on the couch cushion behind Maggie, while the other hand rested on her knees.
"How many years was that?" he asked.
"He and my mother divorced when I was 5 and Tony was born 3 years later. And I think that I only heard from him was at Mary's urging."
Gibbs' eyebrow rose up. "Mary was Tony's mother." Maggie explained. Gibbs realized that he didn't know Tony's mother's name. Just Senior.
"Did you spend time with Tony then?"
"Sometimes. They lived on Long Island and they would never come out to South Boston. So on weekends, when Tony's mom would ask for me to come out so my Uncle Vincenzo.."
"The one who was a butcher right?"
"Tony mentioned him?"
Gibbs nodded.
"Well Uncle Vincenzo never liked what Senior had done, leaving my mother and me, and he kept in touch with my mother, he was my Godfather…sorry I'm rambling…but Uncle Vincenzo would take the train to Boston and pick me up to bring me back to Long Island for the weekend. Friday nights until Sunday night."
"Did you see Senior?"
Maggie shook her head. "Nope, I just stayed at the house with Tony and his nanny. Don't get me wrong, Mary was nice to me. She would make sure I got birthday presents and Christmas presents and all that, she was who she was. She loved going to the movies."
"So that is where Tony gets it from."
"Yeah, when he was 6 or 7 I think, it was before she got sick, I was around 14, she had us get all dressed up to attend a movie premiere in the city." Maggie smiled at the memory. "I don't remember the movie but I remember she took me to get my hair done and bought me a beautiful dress. She even let me wear these pearls of hers that I loved. Then it all changed."
"She got sick."
"She did. By that time even my mother had come to like her too. I think Mom felt bad for her. She'd figured out that Senior was good at acting like he'd had money, but he always backed the wrong horse. When she got sick, Senior just shut down. All he thought about was how her dying was going to affect him, not the fact that his 8 year old son was losing the only person who was there for him."
"You were there too."
Maggie finished the rest of her beer and nodded.
"When Tony got shipped off to Rhode Island Military Academy I was furious. Tony wasn't even 10 and he was sent away. How could he do that? Then Senior had the nerve to call my parents and ask if he could have what Mary had left me."
"The pearls?"
"Yes, the pearls. It was a set, a necklace and bracelet. Senior hit a money flow problem and needed some cash. He argued that I wasn't her blood and they belonged in the family."
"Couldn't have gone over well." Gibbs commented.
"No, no it didn't. Let's just say I never knew my Mom could throw a right hook like she did."
Gibbs tipped his head back and laughed.
"After that, I had no contact with Senior. When I was old enough to drive down to Tony's school I did almost any free time that I could. When Senior abandoned Tony there for the holidays, I'd sweet talk the headmaster to let me take my brother back to Boston so he'd be around family. Tony really loved being part of that. My father taught him all about basketball. Always took him to a Celtics game. They bonded over sports and police work."
"Isn't that why Tony was disowned? For becoming a cop?"
"That's what he likes to say, but you can't be disowned if there is nothing to disown from. His mother's family made sure that there was money for Tony's education. They didn't like that he majored in Phys. Ed at Ohio State; they thought he could have done better. But no matter what Tony did, I told him I'd support his choices. Sometimes they can be cringe worthy but I kept my promise."
"And you haven't seen or spoken to Senior in that long?"
Maggie shook her head slowly. "Senior never came to my wedding, my son's christening…he sent nice cards and checks that I never chanced cashing. But what sealed it for me..he never even acknowledged when James died. I know he knew about it because Tony told me he told Senior all about it."
Gibbs didn't say anything. Not acknowledging his son in laws death was worse than having his father show up with a date to Kelly and Shannon's funeral.
Tony pulled up to Maggie's new house and parked in front. Getting out of the car he looked at the house. He had always liked the house she and James had in Boston. Any time he'd been there the house was filled with friends. Neighbors sitting in the back yard passing time. Jamie's friends shooting hoops in the driveway. That house screamed welcome. That house was what Tony would call a home. Not that there wasn't anything wrong with Maggie's new house. Tony had checked it out for her before she came down from Boston to look at it. It had everything she wanted. Nice front yard, driveway on the side, porch that ran the length of the front of the house. There was even a mini barn in the back that she could use as a workshop.
He grinned at the thought of Maggie in her workshop. She was so the perfect woman for Gibbs. Loves to build and repair things, she was smart, stubborn and a red head.
"Maybe I should make sure they never meet." Tony said out loud to himself. "That would be scary."
"Still talking to yourself?" Maggie asked from the front door.
"Just saying you made a good pick Mags." Tony walked up the front stairs and across the porch to stop in front of his sister. "Glad you're finally here." He grabbed her in a bear hug and kissed her on the cheek.
"Nice to see you too Tony. Come on in."
"Cujo around?" Tony looked inside the front door to see if Freckles was lying in wait.
"Tony, she's not a mean dog. She just senses your fear of her."
Tony tugged on the sleeve of the leather jacket he was wearing and cautiously followed Maggie into the living room.
"Fear is good. Keeps you sharp." Tony stepped into the living room when he didn't see the dog in there.
"Well don't worry, she's out in the kitchen with a big bone and she won't bother you."
"She kill the animal before she brought the bones in?"
Maggie laughed at her brother. "Tony, Pet Smart only sells rawhide, not fresh kill. Come on let's go."
Tony drove them to one of his favorite pizza restaurants in Old Town.
"You'll love it here, I promise." Tony held the door open for Maggie as they walked in.
And Tony was right. The place screamed Little Italy from the red and white checked table clothes, to the faux-frescos on the walls to the candles dripping down the wine bottles on the tables.
"Reminds me of…" Maggie began. And Tony finished her sentence "Gino's Place in Baltimore."
"That place was wicked."
Tony smiled at his sister as they sat down at a table. "Can take the girl out of Boston but can't take Boston out of the girl."
"Amen little brother." She winked at him as she slipped her jacket off and put it on the free chair at the table.
"You need to try the Atomica." Tony kissed his fingers. "It's amazing."
"Okay, I'll trust you."
The waitress came to the table, and after Tony flirted a little, he placed the order and added a couple of beers.
"So, how's the new job?"
"It's good. There are a lot younger kids in this program, but I meet them on Monday and I'm really looking forward to it." Maggie explained. "I miss being around the kids. It was hard to leave my kids in Boston."
"Why didn't you wait until June? It would have been easier."
Maggie shrugged her shoulders. She had only told Tony part of the reason she left mid-year.
"I heard about this job and it's a smaller school that specializes in children with Autism. Besides Jamie is here, you are here, so why not finally live closer to my baby brother?"
The beers arrived along with a basket of fresh rolls. Tony flirted more with the waitress until she left the table.
"She's a little young for you don't you think Tony?"
"A little harmless flirting never hurt anyone." He replied. "And speaking of flirting, how did Joe take you leaving Boston?"
Joe Antonelli was the man she had been dating back in Boston. Tony met him the last time he came to visit 6 months earlier.
"We broke up four months ago." Maggie told him.
"He seemed like a nice guy. Someone you could have settled down with."
Maggie didn't answer and took a long sip of her beer.
"Something you want to tell me Mags?" Tony worried about the look on Maggie's face. He knew she began fiddling with the napkin in front of her that she was hiding something.
"Mags…really come on. You're kind of scaring me here. Is there something I need to know?" Tony reached his hand out and stopped Maggie from shredding more of the paper napkin.
"Joe got to be suspicious."
"Suspicious of what?"
"Anything. If he saw me talking to anyone who was male he'd give me the third degree and accuse me of flirting with the guy."
"Okay, so he's jealous. Come on Mags; you're a beautiful woman."
Maggie made a face at Tony. "So that gives him the right to check my mail when I'm not home, drive by the house or call in the middle of the night if I accidentally left a light on. No Tony, jealousy isn't a reason, he became a stalker."
"Did he ever do anything to hurt you?"
"He tried…ONCE…"Maggie emphasized the word once. "My father taught me how to defend myself and the first time he grabbed me was the last time he grabbed me. I broke up with him that night and had a restraining order put on him."
"Helps to have friends in the police department. James' friends must have given Joe a hard time."
"Well I never had a problem after that." Maggie lied, Joe had continued to find ways to harass her, but Tony didn't need to know that now. "Then the job listing came up, Jamie got transferred, and the rest fell into place."
The pizza arrived and Maggie put a slice on each of their plates. The pizza lived up to its name of Atomic It had tomatoes, fontina cheese, olives, mozzarella and tons of hot pepper flakes. One slice alone had Maggie finishing her beer and asking for another.
"Speaking of Jamie." Maggie began when her mouth finally cooled down. "Would you like to tell me why you took him out on a DC bar crawl that ended at a strip club?"
Tony's head snapped up, his mouth hung open, a slice of pizza hung in front of his mouth, his face plastered with a "Who Me?" look.
Gibbs looked up from his workbench in the basement. He reached over and picked up his watch off the table. It was almost 11:00 now. He knew Maggie was going out to dinner with Tony at 7 and wondered if she was home yet. He stood up, stretched out the kinks in his back and picked up his phone. He punched out the numbers of Maggie's cell phone and hoped she was home and not out still with Tony.
"Bet you're hoping I'm at home answering this." Maggie said when she answered.
"Would have made for an interesting conversation if you were still out to dinner." Gibbs sat back down on the wooden stool. "How did it go?"
"Got home a few minutes ago. It was actually really nice to spend time with Tony, just the two of us."
"Are you washing dishes?" Gibbs could hear the sound of water running in the background.
"Nope, filling the tub."
"Bubble bath?"
Maggie laughed. "Yes, I'm a girl. Girls like bubble baths. I can like hammers, saws, baseball, and football and take a bubble bath. I'm guessing you're not a fan of them."
"Nope, not bubble or regular. I'm a shower guy."
"Not even if you had company?" Maggie teased as she tested the temperature of the water and adjusted the taps.
"You asking for company?" Gibbs had a mental image of Maggie in the tub.
"I don't think you're the coconut mango bubbles kind of guy."
"I could be if you wanted." Gibbs offered.
Maggie thought for a second. She wondered if he would come over if she asked.
"I don't know Gibbs, I've been looking forward to this bath all week." She teased. "I'm not sure if I want to share."
Gibbs laughed at her shyness. Then again, would he really go over if the bubbles were all fruity and girly? Hell yeah he thought; naked Maggie in a tub? He'd run every stop sign and red light between their houses.
"Okay then, I'll pick you up at 7 in the morning."
"Tomorrow morning? Do we have plans?" Maggie wondered.
"We do. And since I'm not coming over tonight, you'd better be ready right when I get there."
"Where are we going?"
"Dress warm. Seven sharp." Gibbs told her and ended the call. If he'd of stayed on a moment longer, he would have ran up the stairs to get his keys.
"Where are you taking me at 7 in the morning that I need to be dressed this warm for?" Maggie asked when she got into Gibbs' truck.
Gibbs was standing at her front door at exactly 7 in the morning dressed in jeans, work boots, a Carhart jacket with a blue hoody underneath. In each hand was a take-out cup of coffee. He leaned in to greet her, gave her a kiss and handed her one of the coffees. He gave what she was wearing the once over to make sure she'd be warm enough, reached behind her and pulled the front door shut.
"Man of few words this morning huh?" she followed him down the stairs. Gibbs simply looked over his shoulder and smiled at her.
"Do I even get a hint?" Maggie asked Gibbs as he backed down the driveway.
"Going fishing."
"Okay, fishing on a January Sunday morning." Maggie took a sip of her coffee, nice and hot and black, just how she liked it. "Okay, I can see that."
Gibbs hadn't been sure if his idea would work. Not all women liked to fish, never mind on a cold January morning, but his gut told him to go for it.
"Fish much?" He asked.
"Haven't been in a few years. My parents had a place up in New Hampshire and my dad would take me to a pond to fish."
"Well I hope you're good with live bait." Gibbs nodded down to one of the coolers at Maggie's feet. "One is lunch, one is bait."
"Better not get them confused." She smiled.
It took them two hours to get out to the pond. They fished until all the bait was gone and for their efforts they took home 3 good sized fish to have for dinner. Maggie caught one and Gibbs caught two. If they didn't meet a certain size, Maggie and Gibbs agreed to release the fish back into the water.
By 6pm, the fish had been cleaned and gutted by Gibbs and Maggie was cooking them. While Gibbs took Freckles out for a walk, Maggie wondered what was going to happen next. With the fish in the oven, dishes on the kitchen island, cold beer in the fridge, Maggie ran up to her bedroom to make it more presentable just in case it needed to be seen by someone other than herself. After a quick trip to the bathroom to drag a brush through her hair and make sure she still didn't smell fishy, Maggie went back downstairs.
"Good Girl." Maggie heard Gibbs in the kitchen with Freckles. He was squatting down next to the dog that was lying on her back while Gibbs scratched her tummy.
"Such an easy mark." Maggie teased Gibbs as he stood back up. "Now that she knows you'll scratch her belly, she'll never leave you alone."
Gibbs took a sip of his beer and pulled Maggie into him. He leaned down and kissed her.
"Jealous? Maybe you need your tummy rubbed?"
Maggie's tummy wasn't what suddenly felt in need of rubbing. She'd been sitting and standing and next to Gibbs all day. She'd look up from bating the hook with a worm and he'd be staring at her. The intensity of his stare gave her butterflies, goose bumps and a near orgasm one time. All he'd have to do is brush up against her or touch her with his hand and she'd shiver. Never mind the time he pinned her against the tree and kissed her until she thought her knees would give out.
"Maybe." She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him back. "But right now I have fish to get out of the oven."
Gibbs didn't let her move away, his hand held her tight against his body, his hand moved down from her waist to her backside and back up. His eyes held hers in his gaze as he bent down to kiss her again. He captured her top lip first and then her bottom, sucking on it gently. Maggie had to grab on to his sweatshirt and grip it tight to keep her knees from giving out as he ran his tongue across her lips looking for entrance. Maggie gave it to him and was rewarded with the taste of beer on his tongue. A soft moan escaped from her throat as Gibbs kissed Maggie thoroughly. When he ended the kiss and lifted his head he looked down at Maggie. Her eyes were still closed and she was trying to catch her breath.
"Fish is going to burn." He reminded her.
Maggie blinked her eyes and moved away from Gibbs. She grabbed oven mitts from the counter and bent over to take the fish out of the oven. How the hell was she going to think of food after that kiss?
Freckles sat on the floor looking up at the two humans sitting at the kitchen island. She wondered what was wrong with these people. Freckles' human would take a bite and then push the food around her plate. The other human, the one who gave amazing belly rubs was close to shoveling the food in his mouth. And my human says I'm a greedy eater. Freckles watched the two of them and finally got up and walked over to her bed, walked in circles around it three or four times before curling up and falling asleep on it.
"Not going to finish that?" Gibbs pointed at the un-eaten fish on Maggie's plate. Before she could answer, Gibbs reached his fork over and stole the last piece of Maggie's fish.
"No, I guess I'm done." She shook her head and smiled at him.
She took her plate to the sink, rinsed it off and put it in the dishwasher. Gibbs grabbed his plate, did the same and handed it to Maggie to put in the dishwasher. He grabbed two more beers from the fridge and followed her into the living room.
"You were quiet during dinner." He said as they sat down on the couch.
"Well that kiss you gave me before we ate, remember that?"
Gibbs gave her his lopsided smirk. "Yeah."
"It kind of kissed the conversation right out of me."
Gibbs took her beer and placed it with his on the floor; he pulled her on to his lap and brought his mouth to her ear. "Let's see what I can do with this kiss."