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“You remember Annabelle is coming to visit this weekend, Jethro?” Tony asked as they got ready for work.
“I remember, Tony. When is she expected to arrive?”
“I don’t know. She said she’d tell me when she left Peoria.”
“Keep me in the loop. Barring any complications with the interrogations, we should wrap up this case today and unless something comes up that needs our expertise we have the weekend off.”
“Good. I can’t wait for you to meet her.”
Tony gave Gibbs a kiss before they walked out the door of Gibbs’ house. It was a rule that they couldn’t kiss once they left the house for work. At least, not until they were officially off the clock again.
Once they’d started dating, they had found that they needed this rule in order to get into the right headspace. Otherwise, they could end up distracting each other too much. Fortunately, they’d never actually messed up a case, but they’d come close a couple of times before instituting this rule.
That wasn’t to say that no flirting happened while they were at work. They just kept it within reasonable professional limits. Tony couldn’t wait for Gibbs to meet Annabelle.
He didn’t know why, but he felt like they would really hit it off. He really hoped so. He would love for Annabelle to come visit more frequently. He’d missed her.
They hadn’t really seen each other since he left his first job as a police officer in Peoria and moved to Philadelphia. At the time she lived with her mother in Peoria, though he’d heard that she got her own place as they still kept in touch via email and other methods of communication. They probably shouldn’t have become as good of friends as they did due to the 16 year age gap they had, but it hadn’t mattered to them.
Tony had been investigating some in home invasions and was talking to neighbors to find out if they’d heard or seen anything. Her mother, Stephanie Coxcomb, hadn’t been home at the time so had been no help. Tony had been about ready to leave when her child spoke up.
“There was a green car last night, Mister.”
“My name is Tony. What’s yours?”
“Annabelle.”
“Well, Annabelle, what can you tell me about the green car you saw.”
“A bunch of men climbed out of it.”
“Can you tell me about the men?”
Annabelle shook her head. “It was dark. I couldn’t see them well.”
“Ok. What else can you tell me about it?”
“It must have been a clown car because more people came out of it than I thought could fit inside it.”
“It was a small car then?”
Annabelle nodded.
“Do you think you’d recognize it if I showed you some pictures?”
“Yes, Mister Tony.”
Tony smiled at the cute kid who was probably about ten years old. He had figured that it was a one time thing and thanked the kid and her mother for their help after the kid identified a green bmw from the options presented at the police station. It didn’t quite turn out that way.
It wasn’t like the two lived in a high crime area, but despite only being in Peoria for a couple of years Tony struck up a friendship with Annabelle. He’d taken her and her mother out to dinner as a thank you, once they'd wrapped up the case. When he found out that Annabelle had lost her father to law enforcement, he felt like he had to take her under his wing.
He didn’t know the full story. Only that Annabelle really looked up to law enforcement officers because her dad had been one. She was always eager to help out even if she had no idea how to do so.
It was super cute. As she got older and Tony started working at NCIS they talked less and less, but he still kept up with her. He knew she was doing amazingly well at college. This was literally the first time in probably eight years that he’d had a chance to catch up with her.
She’d sent him periodic pictures, but he was still surprised when she showed up on Saturday. “Annabelle? You’ve grown so tall.”
“Isn’t it great? Mom says I’m a giraffe now.”
”I think that’s a bit of a misnomer, you’re still a firefly in my eyes.”
Annabelle grinned, shaking her lovely red hair to show it off.
Gibbs gasped, “Kelly?”
Tony looked between the twenty year old and the picture of Gibbs’ girls that he’d finally managed to convince Gibbs to hang in the living room. At first he couldn’t see the resemblance, but then it clicked.
Annabelle froze in shock. “How do you know that name?” She backed up against the front door and looked at Tony with fear in her eyes. “How do you know this man?”
“Annabelle, this is my partner, Gibbs. I promise he won’t hurt you.”
Gibbs just stared at the young woman who looked exactly like what he imagined Kelly would have looked like at this age. “Kelly was my daughter. She died twelve years ago.”
Kelly’s eyes grew wide. “Dad?”
“Wait. I thought you lost your father to law enforcement.”
“We better call my mom and get her to explain everything.”
Tony nodded and pulled out his cellphone, hitting the number for Stephanie and pressing the button to put it on speaker.
“Hey Tony.”
“Hey Stephanie. We have some questions here that we’re hoping you can answer.”
“I’ll do my best, Tony. What’s up?”
“Were you ever married to Leroy Jethro Gibbs?”
Stephanie gasped. “How do you know that? No one was supposed to be able to link our new identities to our old ones.”
“New identities, Shannon?” Gibbs gasped out in surprise, trying to understand what was going on.
“Gibbs?” Shannon whispered in shock.
“That’s right.”
“Where are you?”
“Our house.”
“Tony, I’m afraid I’m going to have to put a pause on the question until I’m there in person. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The phone call ended.
In the silence that resounded, Tony turned to Gibbs, “I guess you learned your phone manners from her?”
Gibbs laughed, a touch hysterically. He still couldn’t believe that his girls were still alive. “Actually, I think I taught her that.”
Trying to calm things down, since they couldn’t get more answers until Shannon got here, Tony turned to Kelly. “Why don’t we get you settled in your room and then we can figure out what we want for dinner while we wait for your mom to show up. Ok, kiddo?” Tony ruffled her hair.
Annabelle nodded. “Thanks, Tony.”
Tony led the way upstairs to the guest bedroom. “You can put your stuff here for now, ok?”
Annabelle shooed Tony off. “I’ll be fine. Go make sure my dad is ok.”
Tony shot her a quick smile as he left. “You ok, Jethro?”
”Did you know?”
“That she was your Kelly? No.”
“I still can’t believe that Kelly and Shannon are still alive.”
Tony wrapped his arms around the man he loved. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Why did they hide themselves from me?”
“I don’t know, Jethro, but I’m here for you either way.”
Gibbs nodded into Tony’s shoulder. Kelly came down a few minutes later and hugged both of them. “We’ll figure it out, dad.”
Gibbs finally backed off, quickly rubbing the tears out of his eyes. Tony looked at his partner and then at Kelly. “Let’s go figure out what do for supper, Annabelle.”
“You can call me, Kelly, you know? It’s ok. The bad man we were hiding from is gone now. Mother said so.”
“Which name do you prefer?”
Annabelle shook her head. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Well when you figure it out, let me know. Until then I’ll call you Annabelle as that’s how I know you, ok?”
“Ok.” Annabelle grinned. “Now what’s for dinner? I’m hungry.”
“What do you want, Firefly?”
“Can you make your starfalling pasta?”
Tony blinked. He hadn’t heard that description of it in a while. “You know the proper term is farfalle, right?”
“Yep, but I don’t want just any bow-tie pasta. I want it with that special sauce you did that one time when I was younger.”
“You got it, Annabelle. Do you want to help me make it?”
Her eyes grew wide with excitement. “You’re going to teach me how?”
“Yep. You’re old enough to know how now.”
“Let’s do it.” She clapped her hands together.
Tony looked up from rolling out the pasta at a small noise and saw Gibbs watching them from the doorway with a slight smile on his face. Tony tilted his head in acknowledgement and returned to showing Kelly how to roll out the pasta and the trick to cutting it into the bow-tie shapes. Once the dough was rolled out, Tony pulled out a decorative cutter and had Annabelle cut them into pieces that were roughly the same size.
He then showed her how to scrunch the middle sections of the pasta together, so that it formed the bow-tie shape. He then showed her the trick of taking a touch of water and using it to attach the middle sections together. He then stepped back and let her do it on her own, only stepping in to show her a better way to do it when she was struggling with it.
With the pasta made, Tony nodded to Gibbs. “Why don’t you go talk with your father and get to know him again.”
“Meaning the sauce is still a secret from me?” Annabelle winked.
“You got it, kiddo.”
It was only a few minutes until supper would be ready when Tony heard a car door close outside their house. Stephanie must be here. He had to remind himself that her name was really Shannon. He’d known them for so long as Stephanie and Annabelle that he knew he’d have a hard time remembering to call them Shannon and Kelly if that’s what happened.
Tony watched from the kitchen doorway as Gibbs and Annabelle opened the door for Stephanie. Gibbs hugged Stephanie tightly and Tony couldn’t help a pang in his heart as he watched them together. He knew Gibbs loved him, but at the same time Shannon was essentially the one that got away.
“I’m sorry, Leroy.” Shannon murmured. Tony had to strain to hear her.
Tony decided to interrupt before things got out of control and dinner became cold. “Dinner’s ready. Welcome, Stephanie.”
Stephanie moved and hugged Tony too. “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us.”
Tony’s eyes shuttered, “Don’t mention it, please. I was just helping out a couple of friends.”
“As you wish, but you gave us hope when we needed it.”
Tony blushed and looked away. “Let’s just eat.”
Stephanie smirked as she walked over to the table. “I see you made Annabelle’s favorite.”
“Of course, how could I not when she asked for it so nicely?”
Shannon shook her head. “She sure has you wrapped around her finger, doesn’t she?”
Tony shrugged and gestured for Gibbs and Kelly to sit at the table as he brought the garlic bread and salad out to the table before claiming his own seat. He tried to keep dinner light hearted, talking about how he met Shannon and Kelly and how much help Kelly was even at a young age. There was only so long that they could stay away from the heavy topics that they needed to talk about, however.
Tony gestured the others back to the living room, telling them he’d clean up while they talk about things. He wasn’t alone in the kitchen for long before Annabelle joined him. “It’s really mom and dad’s story not mine.”
Tony nodded moving over to dry the dishes and gesturing for Annabelle to start cleaning the remaining dishes as he put things away. She moved to do as asked with no protest and they worked in silence both listening to the steady murmur of voices in the living room and hoping that everything was going to be ok.
Things grew quiet in the living room and Tony exchanged glances with Annabelle. “Do you think that’s a good sign?”
“I hope so, Mommy and Daddy loved each other a lot. She always said so.”
“Well let’s go find out, Firefly,” Tony offered as he hung up the dish towel he’d been using to dry the last dish.
When they entered the living room only Stephanie, or Shannon, was there. “Where’s Gibbs?”
With a significant look, Stephanie informed Tony, “You should go talk to him.” She tilted her head towards the basement.
Tony nodded and left Annabelle with her mother as he moved to check on his partner. He had no idea what had been said between the two of them. He hadn’t even known that they were Gibbs’ wife and child and he still hadn’t heard the full story.
Sure enough Gibbs was downstairs in the basement, but unlike when Tony usually found him down here, Gibbs wasn’t working on his boat. Instead, he was staring off into the distance. Tony didn’t think he even saw the room around him, right now.
Settling down on the steps, Tony waited for Gibbs to process whatever was currently going through his head. Tony almost missed Gibbs’ movement, he’d kind of been drifting in silence waiting for Gibbs to be ready. “You ok, Jethro?”
“No,” Gibbs choked out.
Tony stood up and walked closer. “What happened?”
Gibbs turned to face Tony. “Shannon didn’t tell me she was alive because she found someone else.”
“Oh Jethro.” Tony held out his arms to Gibbs who stepped into them. Tony pulled Gibbs into a deep hug. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He’d known that Stephanie was serious about someone when he first met them.
“I love her, Tony, but I kind of hate her too. How many years did I lose with Kelly because of her selfishness?”
Tony didn’t know what to say. He’d honestly never been in a situation like this before. He wished he could tell Gibbs that it would be ok, but he had no idea if it would be or not. He settled for patting his partner on the back. “At least, you can make up for lost time with Kelly now?” Tony offered, but even to his own ears it sounded weak.
“Yeah.” Gibbs coughed. “Yeah. I should be up there with her.”
“Take your time, Jethro. I’m sure she understands.”
“You’re too good to me,” Gibbs murmured.
“We’re partners, Jethro. You’d do the same for me.”
Gibbs nodded, visibly steeling himself to face Shannon again. “Let’s face the dragon and get to know my daughter and your friend.”
Tony followed Gibbs up the stairs. He couldn’t help thinking that the first meeting with Annabelle hadn’t gone at all as he had expected. In some ways, it had gone better and other ways, much worse.
He knew this meeting had changed Gibbs’ life and he really hoped it was for the best. Tony didn’t want to add more guilt to his partner. Gibbs already carried way too many regrets on his shoulder.
With a sigh, Tony stepped into the living room. Time to face the music and find out what their new normal was going to look like. He knew work would be no problem, but he was pretty sure their personal lives were about to change significantly and Tony could only hope that it would be for the better.