Seventeen year old Kelly Ann Gibbs slowly descended the stairs of her home. Today was her high school graduation. After twelve long years fifteen if you counted pre school. It had not been an easy road for her but somehow she had done it. To say she had had a rough start was an understatement. She had been born two months early. Because her mom was killed in a car accident on the way home from a party. She had been out of the NICU less than a month when she fell ill with meningitis. On the day of her father's high school graduation. As a result of the illness she had lost her hearing and was now profoundly deaf. Her dad was amazing though. He had kept working at the Stillwater Hardware Store and taking college courses online. He graduated with a degree in criminology just after her fourth birthday and they had moved to Washington DC that summer. So that her dad could attend FLETc to learn to become an NCIS agent. He had since made Lead Agent and been given his very own team five years earlier. He had three agents on his team Toby Horowitz Senior Field Agent and Wyatt McGuire and Kristine Daniels. Kelly couldn't be prouder of her dad for doing all he did. While raising her on his own until she was seven years old and he married her step-mother Laura. Him and Laura had met when she was still recovering from meningitis and Laura was preparing to have tumors removed from her ears. She had been deaf ever since, just like Kelly. Except the doctors had been able to preserve a tiny bit of Laura's hearing. She also had maintained the ability to speak. Where as Kelly could only sign and read lips. Kelly turned into the kitchen and saw her two half-sisters Nora and Lydia sitting at the table eating their dinner.

"Hi Kelly congratulations." Nora who was nine signed.

"Yeah Kelly it is awesome." Lydia who was six added.

"Aw thanks guys." Kelly replied.

"It's not problem. I can't wait until I get done with school... forever." Nora signed back.

"What are you talking about?! School is awesome." Lydia argued in sign language.

Kelly started to ask her sisters if they knew where her dad and Laura were but they had already started a heated argument in sign. The two younger Gibbs daughters tended to argue in sign a lot. Typically the result of something Kelly had said. Of course when they did fight out loud. Was when Kelly didn't mind being deaf. From what she could see and what her dad and Laura told her. They got pretty intense. Not like they beat each other or anything like that. They did yell a lot and sometimes there were slaps and thrown toys. Arguments like that made Kelly glad she bad gone eleven years without siblings. By the time Nora arrived she was almost a teenager and so there was no real competition but Nora and Lydia were only three years, one month, two weeks, five days, seventeen hours, twenty-seven minutes, and fourteen seconds apart. Math had always been Kelly's best subject and she had figured out the exact age differences between herself and her sisters one day in ninth grade. Well Math hadn't always been her best subject. In fact there was a time when she was barely maintain a C average. Which amazed her honors teachers considering she had made A/B honor roll every term since fourth grade. She had only started to appreciate school. When she was in the third grade and was severely injured in a car accident in third grade. When a psycho drug dealer her dad put away, broke out of prison and tried to kill her and Laura. Kelly had broken both her legs and suffered a severe concussion as well as several other internal injuries. She had been out of school for a full semester and in the hospital for a quarter. During that time she learned to really appreciate school and her new step-mom. Kelly adored Laura now but she was hard to get used to at first. It had been her and her dad for so long. Then suddenly there was a new woman in her dad's life. After the accident though when Laura was homeschooling her and reeling from guilt about the accident. Which admittedly Kelly had taken advantage of at first. She felt bad about that now but Laura was easy to fool unlike Jethro. It wasn't until the day she heard Laura crying that she changed her ways. Seeing her step-mother so distraught from not only the guilt but also the fact that she couldn't get through to the girl she loved more than anything. From that moment on Kelly was an eager student and a much more appreciative step-daughter. Kelly descended the basement stairs and found her dad exactly where she thought sitting on his work bench working on his latest project. A crib for the newest addition. A boy who was going to be named Jackson Sam Gibbs for her grandfather who had died the year before and a friend of her dad's who had been killed in the same accident as her mom. Jethro's hearing was exactly the opposite of Kelly's I was nearly perfect. Kelly was relieved that her sisters had inherited that trait and hadn't become ill like her and her mom.

"Hello Kelly I am proud of you." Jethro signed.

"Thank you dad I couldn't do it without you." Kelly replied.

"I wish that your grandpa Jack was alive to see this." Jethro replied.

"Me too I feel so bad for poor Liv. Her dad died before she even graduated." Kelly signed.

"She has me. Speaking of which. Where is she?" Jethro signed.

"Upstairs." Kelly replied.

"Actually I am right here." Liv called.

"Excellent" Jethro replied.

"Hi Livvie." Kelly signed. Even though she couldn't hear Liv or see her because she was facing away from her. She knew it was her cousin by the way her perfume smelled. Though Jethro would argue that she and Liv had had a psychic connection since birth.

"Hi Kelly you look great." Liv signed.

"You look awesome too I am so proud of us." Kelly replied.

"You are the one we should all be proud of." Liv argued.

"Hey you overcame a lot too." Kelly replied.

"I know I miss my dad and Darla. I am so glad I wasn't in the car." Liv signed. Jack and Darla had died in a car crash eleven months earlier. With Tony still recovering from being shot in the line of duty, Abby working some secret government job, and Tim overseas. It was up to Jethro to raise Olivia.

"Me too. I cannot imagine you not being here." Kelly replied.

"Thank you again for taking me in." Liv replied.

"It was no problem." Jethro assured.

"Yeah I loved you like a sister before." Kelly added.

"Well come on Kels it is time to close this chapter of our lives." Liv signed.

"Welcome to reality." Kelly signed back.

FIN

A/N: I hope I gave this story a fitting ending. Thank you so much to everybody who read this piece. Especially those who reviewed, followed, and favorited.