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Gibbs pulled back the curtain on the small kitchen window, peeping through to show a small boy laying on his back in the grass. Gibbs let out a bemused laugh and let the curtain fall shut.
"He's still in the back yard," Gibbs informed Shannon, taking a seat at the breakfast table with his cup of coffee.
"What's he doing?" Shannon asked, letting out a chuckle.
"Just laying," Gibbs said, stealing a glance at the window once more. "We should do something fun today. Get him out of the house for a bit."
Shannon nodded in agreement. Two months ago, Tony had stepped into their house. And in that time, he has only left a handful of times for doctor appointments and going to work with Gibbs.
That sat for a moment, just thinking about how they might be able to get him out when Gibbs remember a conversation form a few days ago.
"You know, it is Saturday."
Shannon gave him a questioning glance.
"A Saturday morning. In the middle of May." Gibbs went on, seeing if his wife would catch on.
"Oh, you mean the bike thing?" She asked. "I mean, I guess we could do that. Maybe keep an eye out for clothes and some toys, too. Heaven knows he could use them."
Gibbs laughed, but a solum look fell on his face when the thought of how Tony had lost his clothes and toys.
"You want to get him ready while I run to the bank to pull out some cash?" Shannon asked, standing up and putting her empty coffee mug in the sink.
"Sounds like a plan." Gibbs smiled, gulping down the rest of his caffeine intake for the morning before setting his mug next to Shannon's and calling Tony in.
It didn't take long for Tony to know something was up when he was asked to get his shoes on so early in the morning. Gibbs didn't get many days off, and he normally liked to just stay at home and relax. But, the boy got his shoes on all the same and walked towards the door.
They climbed in the car, Shannon driving them out of the neighborhood and down a road that Tony hadn't been on before. It was fun to just look out the window for a moment as everything passed. They made a few turns into another neighborhood and then the car stopped.
When Tony looked up to ask why, he was surprised to see people crossing the street to get to a large amount of stuff set out on a lawn. Gibbs got out of the car, motioning for Tony to follow.
Shannon took his hand in hers as they walked across the street and towards the stuff, talking as they went. "We were thinking that it's time to start hunting for bikes for you. What do you think?"
Tony looked up at the woman with wide eyes. Before he could even think, words were already leaving his mouth. "Really?"
Shannon looked down with a large grin, squeezing her hand. "Really really."
Tony couldn't help the skip to his step as they closed the distance between them and the stuff, eyes already scanning the piles for anything similar to the picture he saw the other day.
"If you see anything cool, just let us know, okay?" Gibbs said as they reached the lawn.
Tony nodded okay and Shannon let go of his hand. The boy took that as his "now go look" and happily rummaged through a box.
Gibbs was making sure no one got to close to the boy as he dug around, unsure of how Tony would feel with strangers too close to him. But he seemed to just like looking, which Gibbs had to say, he enjoyed, too.
He heard a whistle and looked up to see Shannon pointing at a small bike in the corner of the lawn. He gave her a look to ask the price and condition, not wanting to leave Tony's sight yet.
Shannon sent him a thumbs up then stuck up four fingers. Gibbs nodded, then moved side to side to ask about training wheels. Shannon looked back down at the bike, shifting her weight to one foot as she leaned, then looked back up and nodded.
"You all must have been together for a long time." A friendly woman said from behind Gibbs.
Gibbs turned around, a smile on his face. "Yeah, going on seven years now."
The woman smiled, her long black hair pulled back in a loose bun on the top of her head. She was a little older, but not much more than Gibbs. Only above him by five years at the most. But she had a kind smile and a sweet look to her.
"My name is Gloria," she smiled, holding out her hand.
"Jethro Gibbs," he said, taking her hand. "That is my wife Shannon, and over there is Tony."
"You have a lovely family, Jethro." The woman smiled.
"Mom!" A young boy yelled from the garage, running towards Gloria and stopping right in front of her, jumping on the balls of his feet as he spoke. "Mom, there's a boy going through my box! You said I get the money from my stuff, right?"
The woman laughed and nodded. "Yes, yes. But you have to not scare him off first."
The boy cheered, and ran back to the garage.
"My son, Luca." The woman smiled affectionally. "The bike used to be his."
"Speaking of which, do you mind if we ask why you're selling it?" Gibbs glanced over to Tony to make sure he was still here.
"Ah, yes. Luca says he is too old for a bike that has cartoon characters on it." Gloria chuckled as she walked toward where Shannon was standing. "He wants to use the money form the sale to get a new one."
Gibbs laughed with her, then introduced her to Shannon.
"Nice to meet you," Shannon smiled. "You have a very cute son."
"Thank you," Gloria nodded, then looked toward the bike. "I hear you're interested."
"Yes, for a boy we are fostering." Shannon nodded.
"Fostering?" The woman seemed taken aback.
"Yes, he had a hard start to life and we want to make things as easy as we can right now." She smiled sadly.
"I, too, have fostered." Gloria skilled. "It's is a great thing you do."
Shannon's lowered her head as she said, "Thank you."
"Both of my children were once fosters, but I could not let them go." Gloria's smiled lit up.
"So Luca..." Gibbs asked, pointing towards the garage without any real direction.
"Has been my son legally for three years, but has lived here for almost six." Gloria poked at the stuff around them as she spoke, straightening it out. "My oldest we've had since she was a baby."
"How old is she now?" Shannon inquired.
"Ah, about twenty seven, I believe. She works in a lab for NCIS. Big marine cop thing, I'm not sure." Gloria waved her hand as she spoke to jog her memory.
"Really, what's her name?" Shannon asked. "Jethro works at NCIS as well. They may know each other."
Gloria smiled. "Well, wouldn't that just be the biggest coincidence. Her name is Abigale. Abigale Sciuto."
"Abby?" Gibbs asked, taken aback for a moment. "You're Abby's mom?"
"Oh, do you know her?" Gloria pried with a gleeful smiled. "She's a bit weird to some people, but she's true to herself and I love that about her. Knows who she is."
"Abby is a wonderful person," Gibbs smiled. "We work together a lot. I never thought I'd meet her family like this, however."
"That's wonderful!" The woman laughed. "I've never met any of her coworkers. But you must be Gibbs! 'Boss man,' yes? She speaks highly of you!"
Gibbs sent a look over to Tony to see him pull out an old action figure, moving the arms around a bit with his lips stuck out like he was about to kiss it. Gibbs smiled as he realized the boy was just making sound effects.
"Back to matters at hand, how about you take this bike off my hands and I will pay Luca for it." The woman offered, pulling a tarp off the rest of the bike.
"Oh, no, we couldn't. We will happily pay for it." Shannon's said, helping the older woman pull off the tarp.
"Nonsense. No friend of this family will pay for something I will happily give them!" Gloria insisted. "Now get the boy over here to see how he likes it."
Gibbs thought about arguing, until the realization that this was Abby's mom and where the woman had learned to be stubborn as a bull came from. He let out a sigh and called Tony over.
Tony's head popped up, glancing around like a prairie dog until his eye locked on Gibbs and he started walking.
"Hey bud," Gibbs smiled, reaching out for the boy as he got closer. "Why don't you tell us what you think of this."
Tony's eyes seemed to blow up as he held out the figure form earlier for Gibbs to take. He walked over and held on to the bars with one hand, looking it up and down.
"What do you think, sweetie?" Shannon asked, fingers secretly crossed that he'd like it.
"Big," Tony said, looking it up and down.
The adults laughed, amused for a moment.
"It's not all that big, but it should work for a while if you treat it right and don't grow too fast." Gibbs said with a small poke at Tony's stomach.
Tony smiled, but still looked confused. "I thought it'd be a toy." He admitted.
"Oh, because the picture was so small?" Shannon smiled. "No, sweetie. That was just so it would fit on my screen. Bikes are for you to get on a ride."
Tony nodded his understanding, eyes still wide over the bike.
"Here, hop on and take it for a spin, and then we'll decide." Gibbs said, handing the figure to Shannon for her to hold and picking Tony up to get his legs straddled over the seat.
Tony gripped the end of the handle bars carefully as Gibbs told ahold of the middle and pulled to get the bike out of it's nook.
"Okay, now put your feet on the peddles," Gibbs instructed, moving Tony's right foot where it needed to go so the boy could do the same with his left. "There you go, now push with your feet."
Tony pushed down on his feet, taking quite a bit of effort, but getting the weird machine to move about a foot. He smiled up to Gibbs and Shannon, proud of himself.
Shannon waved her hand to tell him to keep going, and the boy spun back around to do just that.
It was slow and sloppy, and he wouldn't be racing the neighborhood kids anytime soon, but he seemed to be having fun. Gibbs turned to Shannon with a smile, seeing her lips turned up the same way.
"I think we'll take it."
Gloria nodded, "Oh, thank the lord. I was afraid I'd have to drag that back into the shed."
Gibbs and Shannon laughed, watching Tony for a second more before they called him back.
"Have fun?" Gibbs asked with a smile.
Tony nodded his head, large, fast movements that shook his whole body. "Keep?"
"Yeah, bud. It's yours." Gibbs smiled.
Tony hopped off the bike, running to Gibbs and wrapping his arms around the man.
Gibbs let out an, "oof," as he was tackled with a hug, but happily returned it. He waited for Tony to let go, who only did so to do the same to Shannon.
"I think this means we're done, yeah?" Shannon asked.
Tony shook his head, pointing to the figure in Shannon's hand.
"You want this, too?" Shannon asked, holding it out.
Suddenly, Tony felt like he was asking too much. He already got the bike. He didn't need the other toys. So, he reached his hand out and shook his head slowly, taking the figure back to put it in it's box again.
Shannon saw the shift and held the figure for a second so Tony couldn't take it back, kneeling down to be closer to his eye level.
"Hey, that wasn't me getting mad because you wanted something, sweetie." Shannon said softly. "I just wanted to make sure this is all you wanted. You can get a few toys if you want; heaven knows you could use them."
Tony still shook his head no, reaching for the figure again. This time, Shannon let him take it, following him over to the box. Gibbs followed, watching as Tony moved to throw the toy back in the box when Shannon moved into the way.
Tony's brow crinkled in confusion as Shannon pulled out a few more figures, a bag of army men, a few cars, and an RC car with its controller.
"This look fun?" She asked, counting the toys in her head to keep track of price.
Tony shrugged, his non-verbal version of "I guess."
Shannon smiled. "Great, well take all of this too, please."
Gloria nodded, then called out for Luca.
Tony stood flabbergasted. He tried to shake his head to say he didn't need it, but it went ignored as a black-haired boy darted across the lawn.
"Okay, Luca. I'm going to let you do this deal." Gloria said, hands firmly on the boy's shoulders.
"What'cha getting?" The boy asked.
"Everything out of the box here," Shannon said, pointing to the pile. "The box said a dollar each."
Luca nodded. "Yup!"
"So fifteen for everything here, and fifty for the bike." Gibbs asked to confirm.
"Total of sixty-five!" Luca said with a wide grin across his face.
"Please," Gloria said as the boy reached his hand out.
"Please," Luca echoed.
Tony couldn't believe that they just handed over the money like it was nothing. They had just paid for all of this stuff and they didn't want anything from him or any alternate motives. They just wanted to give him something to... to play with?
"Thank you, young man." Shannon smiled as she dug for a five she knew was in her wallet. When everything was paid, Luca thanked them and ran back to the garage.
Gloria reached out her hand, shanking Gibbs's first, and the. Shannon's with two twenties in her grip.
"Really, were happy to pay." Shannon's said, trying to hand the money back.
Gloria shook her hands in front of her, having none of it. "I told you, I'm just happy it'll be out of my shed."
Shannon nodded, not wanting to take the money, but not wanting to offend the woman by trying to give it back. "Thank you, very much."
Gloria nodded. "Always happy to help."
"Tony, let's get this stuff in the car, okay?" Gibbs said, pulling Tony out of his shell-shocked stare. The boy nodded, picking the toys up from the ground and using his shirt to carry it all.
"Agent Gibbs," Gloria called as the family started walking away.
Gibbs turned around to face the woman.
"You take care of my girl."
"Always." Gibbs replied, turning back around with the bike in his arms.
Somehow, they managed to get everything in the car and get it home. Gibbs continued to steal glances into the rear-view mirror at Tony who held tightly to the figure from before.
When they got home, Tony ran up the stairs to his room, toys wrapped in his shirt.
"Do you think he's okay?" Shannon asked as Gibbs pulled the bike out of the back of the car. "He seemed a little out of it on the way home."
"He might have just been overwhelmed." Gibbs suggested. He placed the bike off to the side in the garage for them to try out when Tony felt up to it.
As they walked back into the house, they were nearly tackled as a smaller figure was running out.
"Tony?" Gibbs asked when he had his bearings. "Where're you going?"
Tony's eyes narrowed as if staring at two very stupid people asking very obvious questions.
"Bike," he finally said, pointing out the door.
"You wanna try now?" Shannon asked with a smile, all worry from before gone.
Tony smiled, taking her hand and dragging her back out of the house and into the late afternoon heat.
Which is where they stayed all day, helping Tony ride back and forth on his new bike, training wheels clicking against the asphalt with every movement. But the annoying sound was timed out when Tony smiled up at his foster parents.
His hair was thrown every direction from the wind, and his face was red and patchy. But that smile could have knocked down walls that stood ten feet high. All clean white teeth and joy reaching his eyes.
Shannon's heart was still fluttering from it, even after they had gone to bed. She towards Gibbs, tucking her face into her husband's chest.
"What's got you so restless?" Gibbs asked with amusement, hand reaching up to run through Shannon's long hair.
"Today was just a great day." Shannon smiled up at him. "Best one yet."
Gibbs smiled, leaning in to kiss his wife. "And only up hill from here."
Shannon nodded, closing her eyes as she cuddled closer. She could live the rest of her life happily if it meant hearing Tony talk as much as he had today. And in front of new people, which was a whole different level of awesome. She silently wondered if he was too caught up to notice, but decided to save it for later. Right now, she was just going to enjoy the moment.