My Bell Chapter 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
It had been two weeks since the decision to keep Michelle had been made; Gibbs still had no idea what to do with her. It was fine when he wasn’t on a case, he’d just come home early; but the second week he’d gotten a case and had been forced to take up a neighbor on her offer to look after Michelle. It had gone horribly, and Gibbs knew that the next time he caught a case he’d be screwed again.
Michelle confused him and Gibbs didn’t know why. When it came to children he knew what to do, and he prided himself on being able to comfort even the most frightened child. But for some reason that talent, gift, instinct, whatever it was wasn’t working around Michelle. It only made Gibbs more on edge that for some reason DiNozzo had been able to do more for her in a single evening or two than he’d been able to do in all the weeks since the accident. It’d stung a bit that she was comfortable around Tony, but every time she’d noticed him paying attention to her she’d tense up in an almost instinctive way. It made for more stress than Gibbs was used to, even with work going better than normal.
As normal when he was stressed he’d been working on the boat, and he’d long lost track of the time. He paused momentarily and looked at his watch; it had been over two hours since he’d seen Michelle at the top of the stairs. He felt a pang of guilt and decided to find her and give it another try…again. So he jogged up the stairs and began looking around.
She wasn’t in the living room, the kitchen, or in his room. He stood contemplatively in the living room, wondering where on earth she could be. A slow burn of dread began building in the pit of his stomach as he looked at the stairs; she wouldn’t be in the guest room. It was almost completely barren of anything interesting for an 8 year old, Gibbs hadn’t gotten around to making most of his house child friendly and there was only one room that she’d find interesting enough to keep her attention. And it was the one room he didn’t want anyone in. Gibbs tried to stay calm as he jogged up the stairs, but even before he opened the door to the front room he was livid.
Michelle had broken the only rule he’d given her.
~~``~~
It was a Saturday afternoon, and Tony was bored. He didn’t want to go partying, and it was too early in the day for that kind of fun anyway. He’d decided to at least try to stay focused on a movie, and was attempting to figure out what to watch when his cell rang. He didn’t really think twice about answering it, “DiNozzo.”
“Antony, my dear boy it’s nice that you at least answered even if no one else will.”
“Ducky?” Tony blinked, the older man never called him unless… “Ducky, is everything ok?”
“Well you see my dear boy; the thing is I can’t get Jethro to answer any of his phones. Which is most unusual, he’s always terribly good at being available when I need him. And I really would go check on him myself but see I can’t leave my mother and…”
Tony shook his head, “I’ll go check on him, and he might just actually be doing something with Michelle instead of ignoring her for once.” He put down the DVD he’d been looking at, and stood up to get his shoes.
“Michelle? Oh his niece, but why on earth do you think he’d be with her?”
That caused Tony to pause, “Um…I dunno Duck just a hunch. Have you called anyone else?”
Ducky sighed loudly into the phone, “As I said earlier my dear boy, no one except you would answer me. I called Abby, Ziva, Timothy…”
Tony couldn’t help but smile as he teased the other man, “Nice to know I was your last resort Duck-man.”
Tony heard Ducky snort, “Hardly, if you hadn’t answered I’d have been forced to call young Mr. Palmer. And that…”
Tony laughed as his friend trailed off, “That’d have been interesting. Look, I’ll call you and let you know what’s going on okay?”
“Thank you Antony, you’re a good boy.”
Tony didn’t bother responding he just hung up and jogged down the stairs after locking his apartment. He didn’t live close to Gibbs, but he had a feeling that Ducky knew he wouldn’t mind going over there. If anyone could have guessed how Tony was (wasn’t) feeling, it was Ducky. The man had a sixth sense about his coworkers that Tony had learned to hate/love.
As he drove he mused about why Gibbs wasn’t answering, Gibbs always answered. But as he drove up, everything seemed normal, Gibbs’ car was out front and the lights were on. However when he walked into the living room it was too quiet. Tony bit his lip, and looked at the stairs. The probability of Michelle being upstairs was likely; he also knew that Tony was sure that he’d find Gibbs in the basement.
Tony made a split decision, his gut told him to go upstairs; and if he’d learned anything from Gibbs it was to follow his gut. He was met with a strange sight; Tony had stayed at Gibbs house more than once. He knew the layout of his house fairly well, there was a room situated next to the guest room and across from the stairs that Tony had always assumed was Gibbs’ study. He’d never gone in there, respecting his boss’ privacy.
However, now that door was half open. And what Tony saw was definitely not a study; he blinked before moving towards the room and pushing the door completely open. The first thing that crossed his mind was that Michelle hated the color pink, she’d informed him of this with an adorably disgusted face the second time she’d met him and he’d offered her sheet of pink construction paper to draw on. Tony had attempted in vain to ignore the shocked look he’d received from Ziva and McGee, he would never admit to having construction paper in his desk for his own use, but still he’d easily assuaged Michelle by pulling out one of his last blue sheets. He’d been out of his and suprisingly her favorite color, green. (He also refused to admit he had a Spiderman coloring book in his drawer, not that it was anyone’s business. He’d let her use that as time passed too.) Regardless, the girl has a passionate hate for the color that was too often foisted on her gender at her age. So why on earth did Gibbs have a room that wasn’t any color but pink.
Pink drapes, pink walls, pink furniture, and a pink bedspread; Tony thought he even spotted a pink rug on the opposite side of the small bed. There was no way this room was for Michelle, and on a second inspection Tony had a second reason to support that theory. The room was dusty, and it had the smell of disuse that often permeated rooms that weren’t used; this room pre-dated Michelle’s presence in Gibbs’ life. Tony knew Gibbs had secrets, and he respected/loved the man too much to go prying into something that obviously wasn’t his business but this room begged for an explanation. He shook his head, and attempted almost in vain to suppress his curiosity. It was made easier by the small hand on his wrist. “Uncle Gibbs doesn’t want anyone in there Tony.”
Tony turned to look down at Michelle, she looked pale and it was obvious she’d been crying. He didn’t want to upset her further so he allowed her to pull him out of the room and firmly shut the door. “Michelle…what happened hun?”
She shook her head and fled from him into the guest room; he followed her and sat on the bed patiently waiting for the explanation he knew would come. She finally glanced at him, “I…didn’t mean to break the rule. I was just so bored. And…even though it’s pink that room was so interesting, you know? So…so even though I only meant to just peek in I ended up going in. And I just…Uncle Gibbs wasn’t happy at all. He didn’t even yell at me…he just…” Tony nodded as he watched her face crumple; he knew the feeling well. The utter disappointment that was obvious that Gibbs could exude when he wanted to.
Tony sighed and rubbed her back. Michelle couldn’t seem to catch a break, and Tony desperately wanted to help her. She always looked so lonely when he saw her, in her nondescript starched shirts and khakis she looked like a miniature adult instead of the feisty little girl Tony’d grown fond of. Tony sighed, and decided that he’d have to have another talk with Gibbs, Tony stood slowly. “I’m going to go find your uncle and see what’s up ok? Maybe I can convince him to come see a movie with us.” His smile proved to be contagious and Tony was relieved to see her face light up again. So he left her there and made his way to the basement, where he knew he’d find his boss.
Chapter 4