Being Part of the NCIS Family

Six

DiNozzo POV
A few weeks later, SecNav showed up with Purple Hearts, one for each of Liv's brothers. Liv was beaming as she helped SecNav pin them to the men's hospital clothes. There had been a whole argument about that, and Liv had won, saying that it'd be hard to get real clothes on without hurting themselves. They had been done arguing for all of thirty seconds when SecNav walked in.

"Thank you for your service to the Navy of the United States of America." SecNav was saying. "Your heroism will not be forgotten." she finished. She saluted smartly, and Liv's brothers, Liv, and Gibbs saluted back. SecNav nodded at us and left. Liv smiled at her brothers.

"I'm in a room full of heroes." she said. Her brothers grinned wryly.

"Yeah, well, I wish we were still being heroes." one said. Monty, I think. They all looked pretty similar, and they all looked very Irish. Liv shook her head at him.

"Monty," she started. Yes! I was right! "I wish I was still out there, too. I almost wound up with a prosthetic, and I still wish I were back in Israel, fighting. But I've had opportunities that I never would've had. Hell, I've got double the family I ever would've had." I smiled.

"Speaking of which, Leon asked me to tell you that we're short on NCIS agents and that he'd like you boys to be a team. You'd probably work with us or we'd send you out to pick people up to free up more of our time for investigating. What do you boys say?" Gibbs asked. Liv's brothers looked at each other and seemed to come to a decision. The oldest one, Derek, spoke.

"We accept." Gibbs grinned.

"You start as soon as you're well enough. If you walk through that elevator and seem unfit to work, I am sending you right back home until you're actually well enough. Understand?" Liv's brothers nodded.

"Yes sir!" one of them said mockingly. Gibbs turned his icy eyes on him.

"Don't call me sir." he said, then smirked at the look on the guy's face. Liv shook her head.

"Boss, don't scare 'em away!" she said, laughing. Gibbs grinned at her.

"Who, me? I thought I was the least scary person on this Earth!" he said, chuckling.

"Oh, so docile." Liv said, sarcastically. Those two were like father and daughter sometimes. Other times, though, they could be polar opposites. In the mornings, though, they were mirror images of each other, storming in with their coffees and grumpy looks. "Oi, DiNozzo! Earth to Tony." Liv said.

"Sorry. I was thinking about how similar you and Boss are." Liv grinned.

"We were talking about something far more important." I looked at her expectantly. "We were figuring out the logistics of working with my brothers." I nodded.

"I think we should do like a joint-team kind of a thing. Gibbs is still their boss and we're all one team, but we don't always do stuff all together. They can be in the empty spots behind us."

"Well, those walls are removable, so we were going to pull those out and make a big circle. Put a couple monitors in, basically a giant version of our current setup." Gibbs explained.

"Cool!" I said. "We should set it up tomorrow."

"Vance called and said he's got some people doing it right now. We'll perfect it once Liv and her boys are fit to serve." I nodded. "I think that right now we need to get going, though. Liv can stay, but we ought to give them some sibling time." I nodded again. Liv got up and gave us all big hugs.

"Thank you so much." she said once she'd gone down the line with hugs. We all smiled.

"Of course, tateleh." Ziva said. I smiled. Ziva only called people that if she really was close to them.

Liv POV
As the team filed out, I turned to my brothers. Out of nowhere, Monty spoke.

"Remember all of our football games in the backyard?" I grinned.

"Remember how at first, you'd fight over which team was stuck with me?" I asked, laughing. Josh laughed.

"Yeah," Josh started. "You were five. By the time you were six, we argued over which team could have you."

"I've always known how to use size to my advantage." I said, grinning. My brothers nodded. "I also remember you two" I said, pointing to Andrew and Aaron, "would switch around and complain that your team hadn't gotten me last time." Aaron laughed.

"Yeah, Derek caught on after a couple games, though."

"Didn't stop you from trying." I said, laughing. We carried on like that until a nurse came in and told us it was time to settle down.

"Do we get goodnight kisses, Doogie?" asked Andrew, smiling. I shook my head and heaved myself out of my chair and went down the line with kisses. When I was done, I sank back into my chair and fell asleep fast.

"WAKE UP, MIDGET!" was the next thing I heard. It was Tony. I groaned and stood up. He had thought he was being smart by going on my left side so I couldn't lash out while I was still in the chair, but I punched his shoulder once I had stood up. While he was rubbing his shoulder and complaining at me, I went up to him, slipped my leg behind his legs, and pulled towards me. Just before he hit the ground, I caught him and lowered him the rest of the way. I could hear my brothers laughing and I grinned.

Just then the rest of the team walked in, led by a grinning Ziva.

"And that," Gibbs began, "is why we sent Tony in first." I laughed. "You up for duty? We've got a case." Gibbs added.

"Hell yes." I said. "I've been gone for way too long. I still keep my gun and badge on me at all times, for God's sake. I'm ready to to back." My smile faded. "But are you boys okay here?"

"I don't like the idea of you out in the field, but I hate you being miserable." said Aaron.

"Go." said Derek.

"It's settled then." I said, turning to Gibbs.

"Not quite." another voice added. I sighed. It was my doctor. "Sit in the chair, I'll have a look at your shoulder." she said. I shook my head at Gibbs as I sat in the chair. He just grinned. My doctor pulled everything off my shoulder so she could get a feel for how much had healed and what was still working on it. She poked around a bit and told me that as long as I was careful, she'd let me go back to work. I grinned. "Stay here while I go get replacement bandages." she told me.

As she left, I heard chuckling.

"So I'm the one who has a hospital problem, huh?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes. You refuse to be in a hospital even when you clearly need it. I, however, am fine." I said. Just then, my doctor came sashaying back in, whistling. She was holding some heavy bandages and I sighed internally. It was going to be tricky to hold my gun with both hands for another few weeks. My brothers were laughing their heads off at this point, because they could tell how discontented I was. I made a face at them, which only made them laugh harder.

My doctor finished up on my shoulder and I made my rounds, giving each of my brothers a kiss, and then I was off to work once more.

Thank God.