WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
AN: Sorry about the delay, work has been crazy busy. I like this chapter, I think…Ack! I hate it when this happens! Anywho. Those of you who wanted to see Maddie…Well, you get your wish! :D I had actually planned on her being in this chapter, though for a day or two it was possible this chapter was going to be pushed back to being chapter 6 instead, but I decided to go with my original plan. Ok, done with rambling… Here it is! NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS Chapter 5: Angels Friday nearly three weeks later… Jenny slowly made her way up the walkway of the Gibbs residence. She had not originally intended to be here. She was so cold inside. Felt so heartsick, and actually physically ill. Two weeks ago they had caught a case of kidnapped Marine Sergeant's daughter. Seven year old Melissa Delman had been kidnapped while at school that day; at 1800 they found her body in a nearby park. She had been raped and brutally mutilated; she had bled to death. They quickly came to find that she was one of the newest victims of a serial killer; they had ended up working with the local L.E.O.s, something she knew Jethro was not too fond of doing, but this time he barely seemed to even notice, so focused on the case was he. They caught the guy, but not before another little girl was kidnapped and murdered. She stopped at the bottom of the porch steps, looking up at the door. Did she really have the strength to go in there right now? Before she left work that day Jethro had asked her if she was coming over that evening. She had been silent for a moment before answering slowly that she was planning on staying home…alone. He had looked her in the eyes and simply said, "Come." So here she was, still not sure she could make it up the steps and through the door. She took a deep breath and placed her foot on the first step, then the next, and the next…finally she was standing in front of the door. A Christmas wreath of evergreens, holly berries and red ribbon hung on it; she remembered hanging it the day before they caught the case with Kelly and Jethro; it was the same day they picked out and put up the Christmas trees for both her house and theirs. They had been intending to decorate the one at their house the next day and the one at hers the following. But the case had put a halt on that. She did not know how long she had been standing out there but finally she dragged her hand up to the doorknob. Several breaths later she turned it. After swallowing hard she pushed it open. Warmth, light and laughter welcomed her in. Several youthful laughs were coming from the living room; a moment later Kelly had made her way to the entranceway. When she saw Jenny she gave an excited squeal and ran over to her. "Jenny!" The redhead found herself catching an armful of excited, bouncy, brunette curls, and green and red fleece pajamas. For the first time in far too long a smile creased her face. "Hey, Kelly." Kelly moved back out of the hug, but was already taking Jenny's hand. "Come on! We were waiting for you to start the decorating!" She nearly dragged the older woman into the living room. Sitting on the floor at the coffee table, in front of the crackling fire were two other teens, who both were watching their entrance. One was a pretty girl of 13 with long blond curls and bright blue eyes. The other was a boy around the same age with straight brown hair and rather mischievous brown eyes. "Jenny you remember Maddie," Kelly said, motioning to the blond girl. Jenny could not help the amused smile that spread across her face. "How could I not?" It was unseasonably warm for Halloween day. As Jenny had driven up the street to the Gibbs residence she had seen the children running around with water guns, water balloons, buckets of water, hoses, anything the children could get their hands on that could hold water and having basically a neighborhood-wide water war. She walked up the walkway, still watching the kids and smiling at their antics. Suddenly she was soaked. She looked down at her outfit, in surprise. "Oh, my gosh!" She looked up to see a young blond girl holding a water gun almost as big as she was and looking relatively horrified, but still with some lurking amusement in her eyes. There was the sound uncontrollable laughter; Jenny looked to her left to see Kelly nearly falling over laughing. She raised her eyebrow at her lover's daughter. "Kelly," she greeted the girl wryly. Kelly choked back her laughter and managed to straighten up more or less, her face twitching. "Jenny," she managed relatively seriously, before she started to laugh again. Jenny rolled her eyes as she turned back to the blond girl in front of her who was fighting laughter herself. "I'm sorry about that," she managed sincerely, but the amusement still blatantly obvious on her face and in her voice. Jenny sighed, though feeling amused herself. "It's alright…" she turned her gaze to Kelly questioningly. "Maddie," Kelly supplied helpfully; she moved to stand next to the other girl. "This is my best friend, Maddie Tyler." She turned to Maddie. "Maddie this is Jenny." "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Shepard," the blond said politely. "Just Jenny is fine, Maddie, and it's nice to meet you too. Kelly and Jethro have told me a lot about you…" Maddie just grinned. "It's nice to see you again, Jenny." "Same, Maddie." She turned her attention to the young boy who she did not know. "This is our best friend Thomas Sable. Tommy, this is, Jenny Shepard." Kelly gestured with her hands as she made introductions. He nodded politely. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Shepard." "Jenny," she automatically corrected. "You as well, Thomas." He actually blushed. "Uh, only my grandmother calls me 'Thomas'; everyone else calls me Tom…'cept for these two crazies of course." He gestured to Kelly and Maddie. "Hey," Maddie said, "just trying to keep the continuity…Maddie, Kelly, Tommy…" She shrugged, a Puckish gleam in her eyes. He just rolled his eyes, though it was obvious he really did treasure their obvious acceptance of him. "You know you love us," Kelly told him before turning to Jenny. "Dad's letting them sleep over so we can stay up and decorate and make Christmas cookies and watch Christmas movies." Jenny's eyebrows shot up briefly at the thought of Jethro letting a boy sleep over with two young girls, one who was his daughter and one she knew he considered an unofficial daughter. "Hey." They all turned toward the kitchen entrance. Jethro was standing there; he nodded his head in the direction of the downstairs bathroom. "Dinner's ready. Better wash up." "Yes, Daddy!" "Ok, Gibbs!" "Yes, Gunny!" The three youths bolted in the direction of the bathroom. Jethro stretched out a hand to Jenny; she moved over to him, taking it and allowing him to pull her into his embrace. She closed her eyes, burying her face in his chest; he rested his cheek on the top of her head. She breathed in his scent allowing this to deepen the peace that had begun to slowly creep into her soul. Mock fighting drifted from the bathroom along with laughter. They drew apart, but he retained possession of her hand as he led her into the kitchen. "So you're letting a boy sleep over with your daughter and her best friend?" she was able to let humor bleed into her tone. He shrugged as he took her coat and draped it on the back of her chair. "Tom's not interested in them." She raised an eyebrow. "Tom's gay," he elaborated bluntly. Both of her eyebrows shot up. "It's sort of the secret that everyone knows, at least among his family and friends," he explained. "He hasn't said it, but everyone knows." "How do Kelly and Maddie feel about it?" she asked. "They've been friends since the girls were eight and he was nine and they banded together as Marine kids." He stopped thoughtfully. "He's their brother and they're his sisters." "And his parents?" she continued more cautiously. "Gettin' used to the idea gradually." She nodded. The three hungry teens bounded into the kitchen, taking their places around the table. NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS "Dad, I can't reach," Kelly turned to her father, holding up a strand of cranberries she was attempting to drape on the tree. "Can you finish hanging this on the higher branches?" Jethro placed the box of decorations he had just brought into the living room on the floor. Jenny watched as he carefully took the strand from Kelly's hands and continued the work she had begun. Jenny loved watching him with Kelly, any child really, he was great with kids, but with Kelly it was all more. He was so gentle with her all the time, and not because of her arm but simply because she was his little girl; the most precious part of his life. "Daddy, don't pull it so tight; you need to let it drape more, it looks better," Kelly told him chidingly. Jethro rolled his eyes and pretended to grumble. Something that Jenny had quickly learned was that Jethro seemed to have the inability to say "no" to Kelly as long as the request was reasonable. Jenny giggled behind her hand from her seat on the couch, which had him turning and leveling his patent "Gibbs look", to which she returned her own "look." Though she could tell he was just teasing and there was a look of relief in his eyes; this was the first time she had laughed in a long time. "That's perfect, Dad!" Kelly grinned, nodding her head approvingly. "Glad to know you approve," he said teasingly. Maddie snickered as she hung a red ball; then reached into the box. She stilled momentarily before pulling out a smaller slim box, she looked at Jenny anxiously before turning to her best friend. "Hey, Kelly." The brunette turned; Maddie bit her lip before extending the box to her. "It's your mom's angels." There was silence for several moments before Kelly took the box and opened it. Inside were twelve glass angels, so delicate and each unique. Kelly looked up at Jenny. "These have been in my mom's family for a long time; 12 angels for the Twelve Days of Christmas," she explained. She came to sit next to the older woman on the couch, and began pointing out each angel for each day. Jenny could feel the tension that Kelly was attempting to ease; she was not entirely sure how she should react or deal with this situation. She took a deep breath and just listened to Kelly's narrative. When she finished Kelly looked up at her. "Do you want to put one up?" There was a shocked silence before Jenny finally nodded. "Which one?" "Well," she picked up the fourth angel, "Four Calling Birds is my favorite, Maddie's is Nine Ladies Dancing, Tom likes Eleven Pipers Piping, Ducky hangs the Three French Hens, Dad always puts up A Partridge in a Pear Tree…and Mom's was Seven Swans A-Swimming; I hang it." Jenny bit her lip. "Well…" she began. "I always did like the line about the Twelve Drummers Drumming." Kelly grinned brilliantly handing the older woman the last angel before handing out the others and taking the fourth and seventh ones. They all hung "their" angel on the tree before the teens went back for the other five – leaving the third for Ducky to hang on Sunday when he came for dinner – and hung them as well. The cheerful, light mood from earlier returned quickly. Jenny had not been able to look at Jethro during the whole instance with the angels but several minutes later when the atmosphere had relaxed once more she glanced over at him; he was smirking at a story Maddie was telling about a prank the trio had pulled at school. He felt her gaze; his eyes turned and locked on hers. She felt like her heart had stopped for the moments that they held each others gaze; then his lips quirked slightly and she smiled in return. They both turned when a couple experimental notes drifted in the air. Tom was testing out his fingering on his flute; after a few more testing notes he settled himself more into his seat on the couch. A haunting beautiful version of Silent Night wove around the gathering. Kelly's sweet alto sang the melody while Maddie's soft soprano harmonized. Jenny was so absorbed in the music that she had not realized that Jethro had moved until he was sitting down beside her, his arm about her shoulders; she started slightly before settling into his embrace. NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS Maddie and Kelly never made it to Kelly's room and Tom never made it to the guest room. Maddie and Kelly were sleeping on the couch, each one's head resting on one end; Tom had ended up passed out on the love seat, one of his feet hanging over the side. Jenny spread out blankets over each of the children; lifting Tom's foot back onto the couch. Jethro had brought all of the plates and glasses into the kitchen; she turned to join him but he was standing in the doorway, watching her. As he had done earlier he reached out a hand and as she had done before she accepted his embrace; burrowing into the security of it. "Thank you," she said softly. She lifted her head and looked up at him. "For tonight and every night." He leaned down and kissed her; not their usual wildly passionate ones or quick pecks in greeting or passing, but gently, leisurely and with deep, underlying emotion. She closed her eyes, nearly drowning in the sensation but at the same time allowing the wonder of the evening to finally truly ease her soul. He pulled away just enough to press a kiss to her forehead and murmur, "Merry Christmas, Jen." NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS Tom is someone who has very much dragged his heels on being known and seems to be really forming as I write (like I had no clue he played the flute until I was typing that part.) He is my own creation so please ask permission before borrowing him. The angel decorations, I don't know if there is such a thing; I have never seen anything like it, but I didn't mean to steal anything if there is. Anywho, what do you think? I don't know that I am entirely satisfied but I hope that it is good none the less!
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