The New Agent

Chapter 9

Kaylee was in her bathroom finishing up her make-up when she heard the doorbell. She glanced in her mirror and ran her hand over her shirt then went to open the door. She smiled when she saw Tony standing at the door with a single red rose in his hand. He smiled and stepped closer, handing her the flower. She took it and said, "Why thank you." Tony led her out to his car and opened the door for her with a flourish. Kaylee giggled and felt her face grow warm as she sat down. As Tony climbed into the car, he took her hand and said, "You look great." He pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the road.

    After Tony put the car in park, he jogged around the car and opened Kaylee's door for her. She smiled and followed him inside. He led her to the elevator and hit the top floor button. The doors opened and Tony took her hand and they walked down to his apartment. He opened the door and Kaylee gasped.

    "Tony, this place is huge! And beautiful!" Tony closed the door and gave her the short tour. He showed her the kitchen and his room, and then they went back out into the living room. Kaylee noticed his fish and went over to the bowl. She bent over and said, "Hi, fish." She waved at them and looked over at Tony, asking, "What are their names?" Tony came over and said, "Kate, Ellie and Ziva. They are named after the agents that worked with me before. Kate was killed and Ziva and Ellie left." Kaylee slid her arms around Tony's waist from behind him and rested her head on his shoulder. She looked at the fish and said, "That's sweet." Tony turned in her arms, put his arms around her, and said, "We should probably get started on dinner." Kaylee smiled and said, "Yeah we should, what are we making?" They let go of each other and went into the kitchen and Tony said, "Just spaghetti and garlic bread." Kaylee nodded and they started cooking.

    Tim was at his desk, asleep, when Abby came up to the squad room. She tapped Tim on the shoulder and he woke up with a start. He looked at her and noticed the shocked look on her face.

"Is something wrong, Abbs?" Abby just grabbed his hand and dragged him down to her lab. She showed him the computer and said, "That is Maddie's DNA, and I was running it to see if it maybe brought up her father, but it brought up Gibbs as the grandparent. I am running Kaylee's now." Tim leaned closer to the screen to look at the results, when it dinged. Abby brought up the result and they looked at it then at each other in shock. The screen said that Gibbs was Kaylee's father!

    Down in his basement, Gibbs was working on his latest project, another boat. He was sanding the skeleton when Maddie hopped up on the stool next to him. She watched him for a minute then asked, "What'cha doin'?" Gibbs smiled and said, "I'm sanding it, making it smooth. You want to help?" Maddie nodded and Gibbs handed her the sander. He put his hand over hers and placed the sander against the wood and began to show her how to move it.

    "You go with the grain, up and down." Maddie smiled at him and Gibbs remembered doing this with his daughter, Kelly, years ago. Before he left.....before he wasn't there to save them.....He shook his head, dispelling the memories and focused on Maddie. She giggled as she sanded the wood, but soon tired of it. She climbed down and was about to turn to go upstairs when she tripped on a stray piece of wood. She fell and bumped the board holding a cup of water for Gibbs to use and the cup tipped over. The water spilled over onto Maddie's arm as she was standing up she gasped. Gibbs saw that the water had hit a small scrape that she had got from his hard cement floor. He knelt down and helped her up, and then turned and grabbed a clean rag to put on her scrape. He turned back to Maddie and saw her lying on the floor. He was about to help her up again when he noticed that she had a tail like a mermaid.

Maddie laid her head on her arms and groaned, then whispered, "Crap." She spread one hand out behind her and closed in into a fist. Steam rose from her and when it cleared, she was standing again, same as she was before. Gibbs blinked a few times and Maddie sat on a stool next to him, her hands covering her face. She looked at Gibbs and noticed the small smile on his face, and started telling him all about her mom.

Kaylee was in Tony's bathroom, on the floor, as a mermaid. She had waited as long as she could then casually said she had to use the restroom after she had dropped the pan of water for the pasta and spilled it all over herself. She spread her hand and when she was dry she stood and cooled the air around her so that the steam disappeared. She opened the door and went out into the kitchen. Tony was pouring the noodles into the pot and she grabbed her leather jacket that she had tossed on a chair before they began cooking.

    "Good thing this didn't get wet. Glad I just got my arms; guess a tank top was a good call. What do you want me to do?" Tony smiled as he glanced over and said, "For now, I just need to wait for the pasta to get almost done. We can pick out a movie for later though." Tony led Kaylee over to his extensive movie collection and she looked over them. After a few seconds she reached out and grabbed one from the second shelf and showed it to Tony.

"How about this?" Tony nodded and said, "Skyfall, sure. I love James Bond."

"Me too, I love all of his gadgets and stuff, and of course the fact that he totally kicks butt!" Tony laughed and set the movie over by his TV. The two returned to the kitchen to finish diner, laughing and sharing movie quotes.

Tim and Abby sat in the lab, trying to figure out what to do.

"Maybe we should tell the director, or Gibbs," Tim suggested. Abby jumped up from her chair and said, "No, McGee, if we tell anyone, we should tell Kaylee. We don't know if her mom told Gibbs." McGee nodded and pulled his phone from his pocket and looked through his contacts.

"Kaylee put her address in here once, I wonder if...Yep, she put her number in too." He pressed the call button and waited. The phone went to voice mail and he said, "Kaylee, it's Tim, please call, me and Abby have some news." He looked at Abby and said, "What else can we do? She's not picking up, she said she had something come up tonight." Abby looked at him and said, "Wait, Tony said the same thing, you don't think they are on a date do you?" McGee shrugged and said, "Only one way to find out." He dialed Tony's number and waited. He put the phone down and said, "No answer, they might be together. Maybe Kaylee will get my message, if not; we'll have to tell her tomorrow." Abby nodded and they sat back down. Abby took a drink of her caf-pow and set her head in her hand.

Tony set his phone down and put his arm around Kaylee. He hit the play button on his remote and the movie resumed. Kaylee's shoes were sitting next to the couch, since she had curled up next to him. She glanced up and asked, "Who called?" Tony frowned and said, "McInteruption, didn't he call you too?" Kaylee nodded, but didn't say anything else. Tony relaxed as she rested her head on his shoulder and smiled. He realized that he felt different about Kaylee than he had about a woman in a long time. He didn't want just physical love, he wanted an actual relationship. He smiled as she put her arm around his waist and he kissed the top of her head.

Gibbs had watched Maddie demonstrate all she could do with water, after a lengthy story that he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't actually seen it. She had been asleep for a while when his cell phone rang and he answered, saying, "Hey Kaylee." Kaylee sounded like she'd had a good time when she said, "Hey, I'm on my way, thanks for watching Maddie." Gibbs smiled and said, "No problem, I enjoyed it. She told me about you, she had no choice." Kaylee didn't say anything for a moment then Gibbs heard her sigh. She said, "She probably told you everything, so I'm just gonna ask that you don't tell anyone. Tim and Abby already know, but I don't really want the whole agency knowing." Gibbs was about to reassure her when she said, "Oh, I just passed your house, talk in a minute." She hung up and a moment later, headlights flashed in his driveway. Gibbs let Kaylee in and said, "You don't have to worry, I won't tell, but this goes against rule four." Kaylee looked confused and Gibbs said, "Best way to keep a secret, keep it to yourself. Second best, tell one other person if you must. There is no third best." Kaylee blushed and said, "I didn't mean for them to find out, it was unavoidable." Gibbs nodded and said, "Maddie is upstairs, she fell asleep." Kaylee nodded and went up to wake her daughter. She came back down a few minutes later, carrying Maddie. She whispered, "See you tomorrow," and left. Gibbs sat on the couch and almost instantly fell asleep.