Daddy's Girl

Chapter Three

Since we last checked in with Max, she has been living with her dad for nearly six months. Her father has enrolled her into preschool and multiple enrichment programs designed for kids with hearing difficulties. Gibbs was currently debating whether to go through with the cochlear implant surgery her Doctor said might help her be able to hear a bit better. But, he was weighing whether or not 'hearing better' was a necessity after she spent so long with a mother more worried about how others would react to Max, instead of how Max might feel herself. 

The team have still not pinned down exactly who exactly she is. A problem which is getting harder to answer since all their normal means of searching are useless without a full name and date of birth. And Gibbs was surely not going to just tell them that information. They had tried. Strike that, they had begged. But, the thought of simply asking who she was seemed to have been lost on them entirely. They had always wanted information about her to try to figure it out on their own. When all they had to do was ask Gibbs, he was more than happy to tell them who she was to him. He loved her so fiercely that anyone could notice the change in his demeaner in the past months. But, only a select few had been able to piece together exactly why. And, surprising to all involved, it wasn't the highly-trained investigators that had figured it out. Instead, it was the members of the team that spent their every working moment almost completely closed off from external distractions. 

Tony's POV:

This case is going to be the death of me. The murder of an entire navy family had been livestreamed from a stolen federal computer onto YouTube. Making it impossible to trace once the stream was over and making it impossible to get the recording of the stream removed. Any kid could click the wrong button and be scarred for life. My mind went immediately to the young girl from a few months ago. After those first two days, she hadn't been back. And the boss has been acting weird lately. Like, far too nice. Even using the 'p-word' pretty constantly. I have a feeling that little girl has something to do with it. But, in the past week, he has been back to being himself then some. He was in such a sour mood as of late. No matter how much I phish for information, he never bites. The only response I've gotten is when he told us "She's doing fine." when we wouldn't quit asking if she had found her way home safely. I was the only one in the office at the moment. So, I was tasked with combing the video for any clues of where it was filmed. A job that is much better suited for Probie

Almost as if thinking made her appear, the elevator dinged and there the young girl was, Abby being dragged along as she held her hand and ran ith quick feet through the carpeted bull pen.

Gibbs's POV:

I had been in a slightly better mood today. The constant questions about Max had started to die down, leaving me time to actually think. The questions have been the bane of my existence since they started six months ago. The only one who constantly brought her up was DiNozzo. My mood was likely improved further due to the fact that Max had finished emersion camp early today and Abby had offered to pick her up to bring her for the rest of the day, giving me the now-rare pleasure of some quality time with her that didn't involve running her here and there for legal stuff due to the ongoing custody fight I was being subjected to.

As max arrived at my desk, dragging Abby behind her, she was bursting with excitement. She had been working so hard at emersion camp to learn ASL. "Alright show Daddy what Mr. Frantz taught you today" Abby said to Max while signing the same. At the name Daddy, I caught DiNozzo's head shoot towards me. I didn't care. They had had six months to figure it out. And it took Abby literally saying it for them to realize the truth. I'm going to need a much more observant team at this rate. I'm brought out of my own head by Max signing away excitedly. It took me just over five seconds to realize she was signing the words to 'America the beautiful.' I smiled wide as she fumbled slightly though the finish. 'Wow, Baby. That was wonderful.' I sign only. I may be good at sign but I get a little tied up if I try to talk and sign together. I either fumble my words of get my hands in the wrong position. 'Do you need a snack?' I offer. Her eyes light up as she loops around to my side of the desk and tries to open the drawer. "Ah, no. Not there." Abby signs and speaks. "That is where Daddy keeps his..." She stops and waits for Max to fill in the missing word. 'G-U-N.' She finger spells. She obviously hasn't learnt the sign for that so she had to fingerspell it.