New NCIS Fic: Winter Wonderland
Title: Winter Wonderland
Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Everyone in the Emily!Verse
Spoilers: None
Prompt: #61 Winter
Word Count: 2634
Rating: K+
Summary: Best Christmas, ever!
Author's Notes: This is an AU, inspired in part by wiccagirl24’s wonderful Kelly!verse. In this ‘verse Emily Fornell is actually Emily Gibbs. There are several Merry Christmas greetings to my dearest friends in here. (They may not read this, but I wanted to say… I love you, girls!)
"Tony, that you," Abby's voice from the back of the house, probably the kitchen or dining room, greeted him.
"Yeah," Tony moved into the living room and placed the presents in his arms with the already plentiful amount of presents. "I'll be there in a minute."
"No peeking," Emily's voice came from behind him as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
He turned so he could give her a proper hug, "I wouldn't dream of it. Merry Christmas, Em."
"Merry Christmas, Tony," she squeezed him a little tighter and laid her cheek on his chest. "Everybody's here."
"Where'd they all fit?"
Keeping an arm around his waist she led him towards the kitchen, "Uncle Ducky and Ziva are helping with dinner. Great Auntie Victoria's napping upstairs..."
"Make sure she doesn't try to make me move furniture," Tony interrupted with a sigh.
"I'll keep her away from you, don't worry," Emily laughed, before continuing. "Daddy and Papa are in the basement plotting the overthrow of the world, I think. And we're going to help Maddie, Annie and McGee make popcorn garland for the tree."
Moving into the kitchen, Tony had to smile at the sight before him. Ducky was pulling a tray of his famous Swedish oatmeal cinnamon chip cookiesi out of the oven, while Abby pretty much hung off him; they were talking in hushed tones to each other. At the counter, Estacia and Ziva were chopping ingredients for the salad. In the breakfast nook, Maddie and Annie were laughing as McGee was having difficulty mastering the art of stringing popcorn garland. Slipping away from Emily's arm, Tony went first to the two exotically beautiful women and standing between them, kissed their cheeks, "Merry Christmas, Estacia. Hi, Ziva."
"Merry Christmas, Tony," Ziva kissed his cheek. "Just because I do not celebrate it, does not mean I can not wish it."
He gave her a small squeeze, "True."
Turning to look at Estacia, he found his chin grasped gently in her hand, "You've become a stranger to me. My daughter sees you, but I don't. How are we going to fix this?"
"You leave Fornell and run away with me?"
"Plan B," she asked with a look that indicated that wasn't happening.
He gave her his most charming smile, "I'm sorry. I'll try to be better about making it to dinners."
"Good," she kissed his cheek. "I've actually missed you."
He gave her another quick kiss, "Me, too, Stace." Moving away from them, he headed for Abby and Ducky. Patting Ducky's arm, Tony kissed Abby's cheek, "Merry Christmas, guys."
Abby untangled herself from Ducky long enough to hug the younger man, "Merry Christmas, Tony. How were the roads?"
"Getting bad. I love a White Christmas, as long as I don't have to drive in it," he hugged her back.
"Hopefully, it will clear up, or everyone's staying tonight."
"Yeah," sarcasm dripped from his lips, "that would be fun. All eleven of us in this house. We'd be tripping over each other."
She pulled back from the hug, slapping his shoulders, "It would be fun! Gibbs and Tobias could put the air mattresses in the living room."
"That would surprise Santa," Tony laughed, as Abby returned to her position against Ducky's back.
As Tony turned towards the table, McGee held up a hand, "Kiss me and I shoot you."
"Trust me, Probie, I had no intension of getting anywhere near ya." Tony picked Annie, who was still incredibly small for her age, up and slid into her seat next to Maddie.
“Tony,” Annie squealed in indignation as she sat down on his lap.
He kissed the back of her head as she settled against him and went back to working on the garland. His arm wrapped around Maddie’s shoulders and pulled her close, “Hey, you, Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” she smiled up at him before kissing his jaw.
From all the way across the room, Tony could feel Ziva’s eyes boring into him. He turned and looked at her, his arm still around Maddie and Annie still on his lap. She merely raised an eyebrow in question. He smiled and tickled Annie lightly as he started to tease Emily.
<><><><><><>
When they had been shopping for the new furniture Gibbs had fought Abby over getting a sectional. He had wanted the traditional sofa and loveseat, but Abby had fallen in love with the Ponderosa Black leather sectional and, naturally, Gibbs had finally relented. Tonight he was glad he had. The massive piece of furniture was covered with people as they watched the black and white version of Miracle on 34th Street - a tradition after Christmas Eve dinner in the Gibbs’ household.
Abby and Emily were tucked together in the corner. Next to Abby, Ducky sat with Ziva’s head on his shoulder. In the recliner at one end, Mrs. Mallard snored lightly, while on the other end, Tobias, Estacia and Annie were curled together. McGee was sitting alone in the chair-and-a-half that sat nearer the front window. The only two not sitting on furniture were Tony and Maddie. Tony was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch under where Emily and Abby’s legs were curled. Maddie leaned against Tony’s chest, his arms encircling her waist.
Stepping over the tangled, outstretched legs of Tony and Maddie, Gibbs slipped into the small space between Emily and Fornell. Pulling Abby and Emily into his arms, he whispered against Abby’s hair to not disturb everyone, “Snow’s getting worst. I don’t think we’ll make it to the eleven o’clock service.”
“It’s okay, I can miss one year. Especially for a white Christmas,” Abby murmured back against the top of Emily’s head.
Looking up, Tony asked, “How bad is it, boss?”
“Bad enough,” Gibbs answered. “After the movie, we’ll start pulling out the air mattresses. No one drives in this tonight.”
Ziva’s head popped off Ducky’s shoulder, “Surely, it is not as bad as that?”
“Don’t matter, Ziva. I think it is that bad and nobody leaves. I’m not going to spend my Christmas Day identifying one of your mangled remains after you spun out in a white out or on black ice.”
“You could have just said ‘yes,’” her head went back to Ducky’s shoulder, sobered by his words. Ducky patted her knee in consolation.
“Where are we all going to fit,” McGee questioned.
Abby started to answer, but was interrupted by Emily’s frustrated growl, “Ugh! Maddie, can you pause the movie? You people are talking over the best bit.” Natalie Wood’s face froze on the scene, “Okay, now you can discuss sleeping arraignments.”
“Thank you,” Gibbs replied sarcastically, before looking over at McGee. “We’ll manage; Duck will take Em’s room, Mrs. Mallard in the guest room, and Tobias and Estacia in Kelly’s room. We’ve got a few air mattresses, so you guys can bunk down here.”
McGee looked wary, “All of us sleeping down here?”
“If you’re worried, Timmy, you could sleep under the boat. There are some blankets down there,” Abby’s smile was met with a frown from McGee.
“It’ll be fun. Like a sleep over,” Annie’s voice perked up.
Maddie laughed, “Well, we won’t be getting presents from Tony. I’m sure he didn’t finish his shopping, yet.”
“Hey! I finished my shopping weeks ago, like I always do.” When Emily snorted, he laid his head back to look up at her, “Something funny, Brat?”
“No, Rotten. I was just thinking of the time you gave Mom those purple martini glasses with the skulls for stems. The thing that really made them special was the beautiful CVS bag they were wrapped in. Oh, and the fact they still had their 99 cent tags on. Can we say last minute shopper?”ii
“In Tony’s defense, I love my Gothtiniiii glasses,” Abby laughed.
Tony opened his mouth to thank her, but it was McGee’s voice that filled the air, “Mom? Emily calls you mom now?”
“Well, duh. That’s what she is,” Emily gave him an are-you-too-stupid-to-live look. “Right, Mom?”
Abby cast a sad glance at McGee, even as she kissed Emily’s head, “Of course, kiddo. Come on, let’s find out if he really is Santa Clause.”
Maddie took this as her cue to restart the movie.
<><><><><>
Wrapping paper and gift bags were scattered around like a paper tornado had stopped right in the living room. Immediately after breakfast, Gibbs had insisted they eat first, they had exchanged gifts. The flurry of activity of unwrapping and opening and laughing and crying and thanking had lasted for a little over an hour. Now, they were getting to the point of enjoying their gifts.
McGee and Emily were setting up one of the Wii systems that had been given to Emily and Annie - the other system would live at Fornell’s. Tony was attempting to ‘help’ by reading the directions, in Spanish in a bad Chinese accent. This was mostly annoying McGee and Emily, while amusing Annie and Maddie, who were laying on the floor near him using Emily’s pink laptop to upload the various new CDs, mostly Karmina for Maddie and Bob Dylaniv for Fornell and Annie, to several iPods. Ziva, trying to ignore everyone, was curled up near the tree reading the synopsis for the Man from U.N.C.L.E DVD set that Tony had been given by Gibbs and Abby. She had never heard of the show and was intrigued by the similarities between Ducky and the blond spy. She was actually curious enough to accept the invitation to join them when Maddie and Tony had declared a ‘MUNCLE’ marathon at Tony’s that weekend.
On the sectional, Estacia and Fornell were curled at one end, each reading one of the books they had received. Across from them, Ducky was also engrossed in a book of poetry, his hand slowly and unconscientiously massaging one of Abby’s ankles as she had thrown her feet into his lap earlier. Abby was laid out, her feet in Ducky’s lap and her head in Gibb’s. Neither she nor Gibbs were bothering with any of the gifts they received, instead they were engrossed in a private conversations; their hands moved quietly and rapidly as they signed to one another. Occasionally a chuckle would slip past one of their lips or their hands would momentarily tangle together.
“Finished,” Emily announced happily as the game system’s title page appeared on the television screen.
McGee gave the girl a high five, “Good job, Em.”
Abby smiled at the sight of Emily and McGee actually smiling at each other. Neither had ever enjoyed each other’s company much. Emily disliked that McGee had feelings for Abby and McGee disliked the reminder of Abby’s choices that Emily represented. But the miracle of Christmas and technology had given them something to relate over.
“What should we play first,” Emily asked.
McGee shrugged, “Don’t know. Let’s see what there is. Ziva, could you hand us those game cartridges?”
Ziva looked at McGee and followed where his finger was pointing to a box. She rose on her knees and crawled to the box. Another box appeared when she pulled the requested one towards her. Handing that box to McGee, she retrieved the second box as well. It was a gift box and the tag said that it was for Abby. Sitting back on her heels, she held out the box towards Abby, “Abby, there is another gift for you.”
“Really,” Abby asked as she sat up to take the box from Ziva. “Who’s it from?”
Ziva shrugged, “It doesn’t say.”
“Um, it’s from me and Daddy,” Emily spoke quietly.
Abby tilted her head to the side as she looked at the girl, “Don’t you want me to open it, Em?”
“Sure. I just… There are a lot of people here right now.”
“Okay,” Abby put the box on the coffee table. “I’ll open it later, when it’s just you, me, and Daddy.”
Gibbs sat forward and picked up the box to hand it back to her, “No, I think it would be nice for you to open it now.”
Taking the gift back, Abby patted the spot between Ducky and her for Emily to sit. Once Emily was next to her, she began to carefully take off the paper. Normally, Abby ripped at wrapping paper, but she suspected that she would want to save this black paper with white snowflakes for sentimental reasons. Carefully, she lifted the lid of the shirt box and pushed back the tissue paper. There staring up at her was a picture of Emily and her taken just a few days before at Emily’s school party. Estacia had called their names and when they turned towards her, she had snapped this picture. Emily stood in front of Abby with Abby’s arm wrapped around her shoulders; turning their heads towards Estacia had pressed their cheeks together. Their faces were lit by the twinkling lights of a nearby Christmas tree and the gentle light softened their faces while blurring the contrast between Abby’s inky black hair and Emily’s strawberry blond hair. Smiling Abby wrapped an arm around Emily as her fingers traced their images, “It’s beautiful. I love it.”
“What is it, Abs,” Tony asked craning his neck to try and see in the box.
She took the frame out of the box to show off the picture, but nearly dropped it when her fingers faulted as she saw what was underneath it. Letting Gibbs take the picture, she moved her trembling fingers to the papers that had hidden beneath. She turned them and flipped down the end of the legal sized documents to better read them, but she didn’t need to. She knew what they were the moment she saw the legal papers. Tears filled her eyes.
“Daddy said you agreed,” Emily bit her lip.
Abby nodded, “I didn’t think you wanted this, since Daddy never said anything after you guys talked.”
“Em was thrilled with the idea,” Gibbs explained, “but we decided that it would make a good Christmas present.”
“I need a pen.”
“There is one in the box,” Estacia smiled at her friend. Since she had drawn up the adoption papers, she volunteered to wrap them with the photo as a gift and, knowing her friend, she had slipped a pen into the package.
Abby smiled as she dug through the tissue paper for the writing implement. Successfully finding it, she knelt at the coffee table to sign the papers at the multiple indicated places. Crossing her final ‘t’ she looked up at Estacia, “When will these be filed?”
“Monday morning.”
Abby looked back at Emily, who grinned at her before launching herself into Abby’s arms. They were laughing and crying as they hugged and kissed.
“My dear Jethro, perhaps you could explain what is happening,” Ducky asked, gesturing towards Abby and Emily.
Gibbs face was split with a grin, “Abby just signed adoption papers. Legally, Emily is now Abby’s daughter.”
The room erupted in shock and congratulations as most everyone attempted to hug or kiss Abby and Emily.
When things settled down, Abby crawled into Gibbs’ lap, “This is the best Christmas present, ever.” She kissed him deeply.
After a few moments, Fornell cleared his throat, “There are children and innocent federal agents in the room.”
Breaking apart, they both blushed slightly, but remained entwined together.
“You know, I could think of a better Christmas present for next year,” Emily smirked up at them.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow at his daughter, “Oh?”
“A little brother or sister,” she wiggled her own eyebrows.
Abby used her toes to tickle the young woman, “Well, you better talk to Santa about that, cause you won’t be getting that from Mommy and Daddy.”
Emily laughed and launched herself at her parents.
<><><><><><><>
i Merry Christmas, Dre!!
ii Merry Christmas, Peggy!!
iii Merry Christmas, Lisa!!
iv Merry Christmas, Jaime and Grace!!
Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Everyone in the Emily!Verse
Spoilers: None
Prompt: #61 Winter
Word Count: 2634
Rating: K+
Summary: Best Christmas, ever!
Author's Notes: This is an AU, inspired in part by wiccagirl24’s wonderful Kelly!verse. In this ‘verse Emily Fornell is actually Emily Gibbs. There are several Merry Christmas greetings to my dearest friends in here. (They may not read this, but I wanted to say… I love you, girls!)
"Tony, that you," Abby's voice from the back of the house, probably the kitchen or dining room, greeted him.
"Yeah," Tony moved into the living room and placed the presents in his arms with the already plentiful amount of presents. "I'll be there in a minute."
"No peeking," Emily's voice came from behind him as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
He turned so he could give her a proper hug, "I wouldn't dream of it. Merry Christmas, Em."
"Merry Christmas, Tony," she squeezed him a little tighter and laid her cheek on his chest. "Everybody's here."
"Where'd they all fit?"
Keeping an arm around his waist she led him towards the kitchen, "Uncle Ducky and Ziva are helping with dinner. Great Auntie Victoria's napping upstairs..."
"Make sure she doesn't try to make me move furniture," Tony interrupted with a sigh.
"I'll keep her away from you, don't worry," Emily laughed, before continuing. "Daddy and Papa are in the basement plotting the overthrow of the world, I think. And we're going to help Maddie, Annie and McGee make popcorn garland for the tree."
Moving into the kitchen, Tony had to smile at the sight before him. Ducky was pulling a tray of his famous Swedish oatmeal cinnamon chip cookiesi out of the oven, while Abby pretty much hung off him; they were talking in hushed tones to each other. At the counter, Estacia and Ziva were chopping ingredients for the salad. In the breakfast nook, Maddie and Annie were laughing as McGee was having difficulty mastering the art of stringing popcorn garland. Slipping away from Emily's arm, Tony went first to the two exotically beautiful women and standing between them, kissed their cheeks, "Merry Christmas, Estacia. Hi, Ziva."
"Merry Christmas, Tony," Ziva kissed his cheek. "Just because I do not celebrate it, does not mean I can not wish it."
He gave her a small squeeze, "True."
Turning to look at Estacia, he found his chin grasped gently in her hand, "You've become a stranger to me. My daughter sees you, but I don't. How are we going to fix this?"
"You leave Fornell and run away with me?"
"Plan B," she asked with a look that indicated that wasn't happening.
He gave her his most charming smile, "I'm sorry. I'll try to be better about making it to dinners."
"Good," she kissed his cheek. "I've actually missed you."
He gave her another quick kiss, "Me, too, Stace." Moving away from them, he headed for Abby and Ducky. Patting Ducky's arm, Tony kissed Abby's cheek, "Merry Christmas, guys."
Abby untangled herself from Ducky long enough to hug the younger man, "Merry Christmas, Tony. How were the roads?"
"Getting bad. I love a White Christmas, as long as I don't have to drive in it," he hugged her back.
"Hopefully, it will clear up, or everyone's staying tonight."
"Yeah," sarcasm dripped from his lips, "that would be fun. All eleven of us in this house. We'd be tripping over each other."
She pulled back from the hug, slapping his shoulders, "It would be fun! Gibbs and Tobias could put the air mattresses in the living room."
"That would surprise Santa," Tony laughed, as Abby returned to her position against Ducky's back.
As Tony turned towards the table, McGee held up a hand, "Kiss me and I shoot you."
"Trust me, Probie, I had no intension of getting anywhere near ya." Tony picked Annie, who was still incredibly small for her age, up and slid into her seat next to Maddie.
“Tony,” Annie squealed in indignation as she sat down on his lap.
He kissed the back of her head as she settled against him and went back to working on the garland. His arm wrapped around Maddie’s shoulders and pulled her close, “Hey, you, Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” she smiled up at him before kissing his jaw.
From all the way across the room, Tony could feel Ziva’s eyes boring into him. He turned and looked at her, his arm still around Maddie and Annie still on his lap. She merely raised an eyebrow in question. He smiled and tickled Annie lightly as he started to tease Emily.
<><><><><><>
When they had been shopping for the new furniture Gibbs had fought Abby over getting a sectional. He had wanted the traditional sofa and loveseat, but Abby had fallen in love with the Ponderosa Black leather sectional and, naturally, Gibbs had finally relented. Tonight he was glad he had. The massive piece of furniture was covered with people as they watched the black and white version of Miracle on 34th Street - a tradition after Christmas Eve dinner in the Gibbs’ household.
Abby and Emily were tucked together in the corner. Next to Abby, Ducky sat with Ziva’s head on his shoulder. In the recliner at one end, Mrs. Mallard snored lightly, while on the other end, Tobias, Estacia and Annie were curled together. McGee was sitting alone in the chair-and-a-half that sat nearer the front window. The only two not sitting on furniture were Tony and Maddie. Tony was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch under where Emily and Abby’s legs were curled. Maddie leaned against Tony’s chest, his arms encircling her waist.
Stepping over the tangled, outstretched legs of Tony and Maddie, Gibbs slipped into the small space between Emily and Fornell. Pulling Abby and Emily into his arms, he whispered against Abby’s hair to not disturb everyone, “Snow’s getting worst. I don’t think we’ll make it to the eleven o’clock service.”
“It’s okay, I can miss one year. Especially for a white Christmas,” Abby murmured back against the top of Emily’s head.
Looking up, Tony asked, “How bad is it, boss?”
“Bad enough,” Gibbs answered. “After the movie, we’ll start pulling out the air mattresses. No one drives in this tonight.”
Ziva’s head popped off Ducky’s shoulder, “Surely, it is not as bad as that?”
“Don’t matter, Ziva. I think it is that bad and nobody leaves. I’m not going to spend my Christmas Day identifying one of your mangled remains after you spun out in a white out or on black ice.”
“You could have just said ‘yes,’” her head went back to Ducky’s shoulder, sobered by his words. Ducky patted her knee in consolation.
“Where are we all going to fit,” McGee questioned.
Abby started to answer, but was interrupted by Emily’s frustrated growl, “Ugh! Maddie, can you pause the movie? You people are talking over the best bit.” Natalie Wood’s face froze on the scene, “Okay, now you can discuss sleeping arraignments.”
“Thank you,” Gibbs replied sarcastically, before looking over at McGee. “We’ll manage; Duck will take Em’s room, Mrs. Mallard in the guest room, and Tobias and Estacia in Kelly’s room. We’ve got a few air mattresses, so you guys can bunk down here.”
McGee looked wary, “All of us sleeping down here?”
“If you’re worried, Timmy, you could sleep under the boat. There are some blankets down there,” Abby’s smile was met with a frown from McGee.
“It’ll be fun. Like a sleep over,” Annie’s voice perked up.
Maddie laughed, “Well, we won’t be getting presents from Tony. I’m sure he didn’t finish his shopping, yet.”
“Hey! I finished my shopping weeks ago, like I always do.” When Emily snorted, he laid his head back to look up at her, “Something funny, Brat?”
“No, Rotten. I was just thinking of the time you gave Mom those purple martini glasses with the skulls for stems. The thing that really made them special was the beautiful CVS bag they were wrapped in. Oh, and the fact they still had their 99 cent tags on. Can we say last minute shopper?”ii
“In Tony’s defense, I love my Gothtiniiii glasses,” Abby laughed.
Tony opened his mouth to thank her, but it was McGee’s voice that filled the air, “Mom? Emily calls you mom now?”
“Well, duh. That’s what she is,” Emily gave him an are-you-too-stupid-to-live look. “Right, Mom?”
Abby cast a sad glance at McGee, even as she kissed Emily’s head, “Of course, kiddo. Come on, let’s find out if he really is Santa Clause.”
Maddie took this as her cue to restart the movie.
<><><><><>
Wrapping paper and gift bags were scattered around like a paper tornado had stopped right in the living room. Immediately after breakfast, Gibbs had insisted they eat first, they had exchanged gifts. The flurry of activity of unwrapping and opening and laughing and crying and thanking had lasted for a little over an hour. Now, they were getting to the point of enjoying their gifts.
McGee and Emily were setting up one of the Wii systems that had been given to Emily and Annie - the other system would live at Fornell’s. Tony was attempting to ‘help’ by reading the directions, in Spanish in a bad Chinese accent. This was mostly annoying McGee and Emily, while amusing Annie and Maddie, who were laying on the floor near him using Emily’s pink laptop to upload the various new CDs, mostly Karmina for Maddie and Bob Dylaniv for Fornell and Annie, to several iPods. Ziva, trying to ignore everyone, was curled up near the tree reading the synopsis for the Man from U.N.C.L.E DVD set that Tony had been given by Gibbs and Abby. She had never heard of the show and was intrigued by the similarities between Ducky and the blond spy. She was actually curious enough to accept the invitation to join them when Maddie and Tony had declared a ‘MUNCLE’ marathon at Tony’s that weekend.
On the sectional, Estacia and Fornell were curled at one end, each reading one of the books they had received. Across from them, Ducky was also engrossed in a book of poetry, his hand slowly and unconscientiously massaging one of Abby’s ankles as she had thrown her feet into his lap earlier. Abby was laid out, her feet in Ducky’s lap and her head in Gibb’s. Neither she nor Gibbs were bothering with any of the gifts they received, instead they were engrossed in a private conversations; their hands moved quietly and rapidly as they signed to one another. Occasionally a chuckle would slip past one of their lips or their hands would momentarily tangle together.
“Finished,” Emily announced happily as the game system’s title page appeared on the television screen.
McGee gave the girl a high five, “Good job, Em.”
Abby smiled at the sight of Emily and McGee actually smiling at each other. Neither had ever enjoyed each other’s company much. Emily disliked that McGee had feelings for Abby and McGee disliked the reminder of Abby’s choices that Emily represented. But the miracle of Christmas and technology had given them something to relate over.
“What should we play first,” Emily asked.
McGee shrugged, “Don’t know. Let’s see what there is. Ziva, could you hand us those game cartridges?”
Ziva looked at McGee and followed where his finger was pointing to a box. She rose on her knees and crawled to the box. Another box appeared when she pulled the requested one towards her. Handing that box to McGee, she retrieved the second box as well. It was a gift box and the tag said that it was for Abby. Sitting back on her heels, she held out the box towards Abby, “Abby, there is another gift for you.”
“Really,” Abby asked as she sat up to take the box from Ziva. “Who’s it from?”
Ziva shrugged, “It doesn’t say.”
“Um, it’s from me and Daddy,” Emily spoke quietly.
Abby tilted her head to the side as she looked at the girl, “Don’t you want me to open it, Em?”
“Sure. I just… There are a lot of people here right now.”
“Okay,” Abby put the box on the coffee table. “I’ll open it later, when it’s just you, me, and Daddy.”
Gibbs sat forward and picked up the box to hand it back to her, “No, I think it would be nice for you to open it now.”
Taking the gift back, Abby patted the spot between Ducky and her for Emily to sit. Once Emily was next to her, she began to carefully take off the paper. Normally, Abby ripped at wrapping paper, but she suspected that she would want to save this black paper with white snowflakes for sentimental reasons. Carefully, she lifted the lid of the shirt box and pushed back the tissue paper. There staring up at her was a picture of Emily and her taken just a few days before at Emily’s school party. Estacia had called their names and when they turned towards her, she had snapped this picture. Emily stood in front of Abby with Abby’s arm wrapped around her shoulders; turning their heads towards Estacia had pressed their cheeks together. Their faces were lit by the twinkling lights of a nearby Christmas tree and the gentle light softened their faces while blurring the contrast between Abby’s inky black hair and Emily’s strawberry blond hair. Smiling Abby wrapped an arm around Emily as her fingers traced their images, “It’s beautiful. I love it.”
“What is it, Abs,” Tony asked craning his neck to try and see in the box.
She took the frame out of the box to show off the picture, but nearly dropped it when her fingers faulted as she saw what was underneath it. Letting Gibbs take the picture, she moved her trembling fingers to the papers that had hidden beneath. She turned them and flipped down the end of the legal sized documents to better read them, but she didn’t need to. She knew what they were the moment she saw the legal papers. Tears filled her eyes.
“Daddy said you agreed,” Emily bit her lip.
Abby nodded, “I didn’t think you wanted this, since Daddy never said anything after you guys talked.”
“Em was thrilled with the idea,” Gibbs explained, “but we decided that it would make a good Christmas present.”
“I need a pen.”
“There is one in the box,” Estacia smiled at her friend. Since she had drawn up the adoption papers, she volunteered to wrap them with the photo as a gift and, knowing her friend, she had slipped a pen into the package.
Abby smiled as she dug through the tissue paper for the writing implement. Successfully finding it, she knelt at the coffee table to sign the papers at the multiple indicated places. Crossing her final ‘t’ she looked up at Estacia, “When will these be filed?”
“Monday morning.”
Abby looked back at Emily, who grinned at her before launching herself into Abby’s arms. They were laughing and crying as they hugged and kissed.
“My dear Jethro, perhaps you could explain what is happening,” Ducky asked, gesturing towards Abby and Emily.
Gibbs face was split with a grin, “Abby just signed adoption papers. Legally, Emily is now Abby’s daughter.”
The room erupted in shock and congratulations as most everyone attempted to hug or kiss Abby and Emily.
When things settled down, Abby crawled into Gibbs’ lap, “This is the best Christmas present, ever.” She kissed him deeply.
After a few moments, Fornell cleared his throat, “There are children and innocent federal agents in the room.”
Breaking apart, they both blushed slightly, but remained entwined together.
“You know, I could think of a better Christmas present for next year,” Emily smirked up at them.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow at his daughter, “Oh?”
“A little brother or sister,” she wiggled her own eyebrows.
Abby used her toes to tickle the young woman, “Well, you better talk to Santa about that, cause you won’t be getting that from Mommy and Daddy.”
Emily laughed and launched herself at her parents.
<><><><><><><>
i Merry Christmas, Dre!!
ii Merry Christmas, Peggy!!
iii Merry Christmas, Lisa!!
iv Merry Christmas, Jaime and Grace!!