Changes
Sometimes this all seemed so new, even though they had been together for a few years now. The couple had meet for the first time at a high tech internet cafe one day in in late October of 2009. They had gotten to talking, exchanging emails and later texting and calling each other constatly. Neither of them had been looking for a relationship, and neither had really considered the other their type but by the time the blonde woman had given birth to her son, Knox, the following May, the two women, Penelope Garcia and Abigail Scuito, had become a couple and pretty quickly after that, a family.
Now their family had grown. With two adoptions of hearing impaired sibling groups. First they had adopted the twins, Sawyer and Summer, the twins had been placed with them on January 25 2012, just shy of two weeks after their third bithday. The adoption was finalised on the 30 of July the same year. Brother and sister pair, Ryatt and baby Maddox had been placed with them the month before the twins' adoption was finalised, their own adoption was finalised just ten days before Christmas.
Ryatt was a five year old boy, he was be six this coming June, his younger half sister Maddox would be two at the end of April. The pair had the same mother, a young caucasion woman who had been deemed unfit to care for her children. Both children had been born deaf due to a congenital condition. Both children were mixed race, with African American fathers. The twins had been born at 29 weeks to a junkie mother, they to were mixed race, a white mother and a Hispanic father. Both children had lost their hearing due to their early birth. Unlike Ryatt and Maddox, the twins had some hearing in at least one of their ears which was aided by the use of a hearing aide, although all children used American Sign Language as their main means of comunication.
Now with their sixth child on the way, Abby found herself anxiously pacing the brightly lit halls of Captiol Children's Hospital and Medical Care Centre. She had a large black stroller that seated four children. Maddox and Summer were in the back and the two older boys, Ryatt and Sawyer were in the front, given the late hour, it was nearing eleven pm, all four children were asleep. The mother dressed in a black maternity dress, with black and white striped socks and large black booths with many buckles paced as she waited for her support people to arrive. Her partner was getting their youngest son, two and a half year old Knox settled into his room where he would soon be beginning his treatment for his recently diagnosed Leukemia. It still felt so unreal as she walked the halls, not noticing that she was being watched by another woman who was making a phone call out in the family waiting area.
"Abs?" a familiar voice called to get her attention, the mother stopped in her pacing and threw herself into the arms of one of the newly arrived visitors.
"Oh Gibbs, I'm so glad your here" Abby said as she soaked up the comfort her boss's embrace had to offer.
"What's going on Abby?" Gibbs pressed. His forensic scientist and surrogate daughter had called him a little over a half hour ago to say the she need him to come ASAP. She had told him where to meet her but had not explained why.
"Knox was so sick after daycare, Penny and I were keeping an eye on him but he threw up a couple of times and he looked so pale" she began to explain.
"We loaded the kids into the car and headed to our local ER around seven, it took us until about nine to be seen" she kept going with her story.
"By then Knox was hardly even concious, the wanted to check his head to see if maybe he had a brain injury or a concussion, but when they did the scan, they noticed a mass in sinusus" she had tears running down her face now.
"They rushed his blood tests and started orgsnising for him to be transferred here to the Crab Ward" she was shaking her head now, not even believing the words she was saying, even though she had just lived it.
"What's wrong with him Abs?" Gibbs asked, worry starting to creep into his voice as he spoke.
"I drove here in the car with the kids, Penny went with Knox, when we arrived the doctor came to talk to us and said that the results of his blood tests were back" Abby's voice was almost hollow now.
"The doctor from the other hospital had called, his blood showed active Leukemic cells" she finished explaning.
"Leukemic cells, what does that mean?" Gibbs asked, Abby wasn't the one to awnser.
His younger field agent, Timothy McGee had just arrived having been called by Abby. She had given him minimal details but had asked that he pack clothes and other necessities for the other four children as well as picking up the family's Golden Labrador, Mortimer and take him home with him for a few days. Gibbs would take the kids as he had none of his own at home and was able to sign to communicate with them.
"It means he had Leukemia Boss, Knox had cancer" the younger man said, emotion welling up in his eyes and voice as he tried to process the news that the little toddler that he considered to be his nephew had a possibly terminal disease.
They talked for a little while longer, Abby took each of them in to see Knox and Penelope briefly before Gibbs swapped car keys with the the gothicly dressed woman and took her other children to his house to settle them in for the night. He agreed to drop them off at school and daycare respectively the next day. McGee had left at the same time, not wanting to leave Mortimer alone in the car for too much longer and he really needed to get back to his place and relieve his neighbour who had agreed to sit with McGee's seven year old son, Ned, during this emergency. McGee's young son had only just come to live with him after his mother had been arrested and convicted of fraud and money laundering chargers last month. She was now serving a ten year sentence at a minimal security prison in New York state. McGee had been granted full custody of his son, Edmund Thomas McGee until his eighteenth birthday.
…...
The suddenly Daddy thing seemed to be going around the NCIS team because in the last month is had not only happened to McGee, much to everyones suprise, it had also not as suprisingly happened to one Anthony DiNozzo Junior. Well the first time had been a shock to Tony alright but not so much to his coworkers who were familiar with his luck with women, so his having a thriteen year old son wasn't that much of a suprise to him. But when only two weeks after his teenage son Lorenzo Anthony Giancarlo DiNozzo had come into his life, he had been presented with the shock of a second son being placed into his custody. Another mini DiNozz, by another woman.
Giovanni was a good looking kid, at eleven he was taller then some but not an overly tall kid or anything. His hair was short, spiked and blond. Pale green eyes were framed in a symmetrical face. He had inherited his father's smile and handsome features, as well as his sense of humour and love of films. He hadn't known his father until recently, not since his mother, model Bianca Rizzo, had finally over done it with the drugs and alcohol and landed herself in rehab. Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo had now entered the world of single fatherhood. Suddenly a Dad to a wild young teen and an angry eleven year old boy who had been through a lot, had seen a lot during his young life while living with his out of control party girl mother.
He was a kid who hid behind a smile that had kept him safe. Years of watching his mother lose herself with every drink, every new pill that she'd pop. His home was nice on the outside, a home provided by good money, lots of room, fancy gadgets and a swimming pool. But it was the empty bottles, crushed pills, razor blade and straws that littered the floors and tables that told the true story of the life the houses occupants really lived. The house always smelt of stale smoke, fresh vomit, alcohol and sex. It wasn't a life that a kid should have been exposed to, but it had been all that Giovanni Dominic DiNozzo had known until know.
Home was no longer a big and fancy house, but a smaller, two bedroom apartment with nice furniture and state of the art television and surround sound with all the gadgets to go along with it. It was quite, cosy and clean. It was nice and felt like a home should. He knew his Dad was new at all this parenting thing, but he was already doing much better then his mother who had, had eleven years to practice. A federal agent was very much a step up from an addict party girl.
"So what do you think Gio?" Tony asked his son when they sat down for dinner that night. His older son Lorenzo was spending the night with Ducky to give his Dad and his brother a little time to get to know each other on their first night together.
He had only met his younger son a few days ago, after Social Services had contacted him when the boy had been removed from his mother's care. After having met his son, spent some time with him, a DNA test to prove parentage, Tony had been awarded custody of his son and today had finally brought him home today.
"Looks good, it for sure smells better than Mom's" Giovanni said as he looked around the place, he was glad to finally have a safe place to land, something his mother had denied him all these years with her partying ways.
"We'll I'm glad my humble abode agrees with your sense of smell" the Agent said with a goofy smile on his handsome face as he offered his son a slice of peperoni pizza from the box in front of him.
"Well I reckon a dump truck would smell better than her dump, but this place is cool" Giovanni added as he took a bite of the pizza he'd been offered.
A/N: Still just introducing everyone. I promise not all the characters are parents =) there are a few families being added to through adoption in this fic. Next chapter I will introduce you to Derek Morgan's sons, JJ and Will talk about the new additions joining their family, we meet Rossi's godson (son of his late ex-wife Carolyn) And we'll look at what Prentiss is doing now, stateside and with a little family of her own. After the introductions in the next chapter the plot and stuff will start coming through. This story won't focuss as much on cases as the shows obviously do, but I do have two key cases planned so far. Thanks for reading and please review.