A Marine Turned Assassin {NCIS}

Chapter 26: The New Guitar

Azalea

The salivating smell of the roast hit us as we walked into the kitchen, along with the wall of heat, a great relief due to the sub-zero temperatures that were currently covering DC, everyone, minus Dad, Jen and Ducky had gone outside to make snowmen- plural- which turned into a snowman, a giant 10 foot snow pinnacle.

There was a picture of Tali, Tim, Tony, Abbs, Bishop, LJ and I surrounding this giant snowman.

We had wanted to make an 8 foot one to accompany it, but the light flurry had turned into a torrential snowy downpour and it was best that we brought Tali inside. I nodded along to the sounds of Ducky's vinyl, spurting out Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo, as pparently the Welcome To The Black Parade vinyl wasn't classed as 'christmassy' enough.

"Smells good, Jen and Dad." I complimented, peering over their shoulders as I stripped out of my hat, scarf and gloves. I glanced at Dad "nice apron, Dad." I commented with a smirk, his apron had the torso and legs of a woman in a bikini, and had been a product of an inside joke between Abbs and Jen.

Dad narrowed his eyes at me, causing me to look all innocent, before heading into the main room, where most of the festivities were taking place, I dropped onto the sofa next to Abbs, who was in a really enthusiastic rendition of the sleighing incident the other day between Tony and I.

It was last week, the day after I was released from Quiet Lake, in Miami snow was virtually impossible so when I headed into DC and saw the blanket of covering every surface I got really excited- far to excited for an adult to ever be about snow- and wanted to immediately go sledding after seeing everyone.

The only problem was that we had no sleighs.

Dad and Jen took the kids out to get some, but us adults got too impatient and improvised, after all that's what Gibbs trained them to do as agents, so Abby had a wooden crate top from Dad's basement, Tony had a dustbin lid and I had a baking tray, McGee totally refused due to how crazy it was.

All three of us had a race down the hill around the corner from Dad's, we were nearing the bottom when the jagged edge of the broken handle of Tony's dustbin lid caught a patch of shallow snow and sent him hurtling at me, we collided, and then collided again, but with a tree this time. Tony suffered a sprained finger and a bit of bruising, I had a bloody nose and yellowing bruise on my cheekbone, at least I wasn't the one with the sprained finger, that would've really messed up my playing skills.

"Foods done!" Dad yelled from the kitchen. Tony was up before anyone, he probably would have inhaled the first serving before we'd even plated ours, we all moved into the kitchen, grabbing a plate and waiting in line. I watched as Tony carefully lifted Tali up so she could properly see what she could eat, and even convincing her to eat some of the honey-roast parsnips, it was evident how far Tony had come being a father, he really filled that stable role that Tali needed. I glanced behind at Dad, and by the look on his face he was thinking the same thing.

He'll never have the same proud thoughts about you.

There was always that voice that was trying to pull me back, and sometimes it did.

There were days when getting out of bed was a struggle that I gave into, eating was just a revolting idea and living, well, living wasn't worth it. Those days still haunt me, every time seeming like an uphill battle, but then there's the good days, even if its something small, and finally, they're starting to outweigh the bad.

I shook my head. I am not going to let this ruin Christmas.

"You okay?" Dad asked, gently grabbing my wrist as I walked past.