Lamaze was bullshit, Kate decided about four hours in, but drugs were good.
She was finally able to relax after the epidural, and was less inclined to say foul things to Gibbs, who was being incredibly kind and patient with her. Of course, he’d been in the presence of childbirth at least once before - he’d told her he was present for Kelly’s birth - so he kind of knew what to expect. She squeezed his hand gently and smiled at him. "I’m glad you’re here," she said softly.
"Where else would I be?" he asked reasonably. "I didn’t sit through all those Lamaze classes with you just to watch football with DiNozzo in the waiting room."
She laughed. "Good point."
They fell silent when the doctor came to check on her, pronouncing her "almost ready" and promising to be back in half an hour. She rolled her eyes when Dr. Wheeler left. "Wouldn’t she be surprised if I popped now instead of waiting for her to come back like a good little patient?"
"Wouldn’t we both be surprised," Gibbs replied, stroking Kate’s hair back from her face, "considering I’ve never delivered a baby before and I’d probably drop him in shock."
She smiled up at him. "You won’t drop him."
"I might." He affected a worried expression, aping what had been affectionately named McGee’s Uncle Anxiety. "What if I hold him wrong? Or what if… what if I accidentally hurt him?"
She whacked his arm. "Stop being so mean to McGee. Don’t you know he’s terrified of you and what you’d do if he hurt your son?"
Gibbs’s free hand slid down and rested on Kate’s stomach, feeling the ripples of contractions that the drugs were masking from her. "Kate," he whispered, "are you absolutely sure?"
She laid her own free hand on his cheek. "I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life," she said softly. "If anything were to happen to me, I can’t think of anyone who would be a better father to my son. And even if nothing happens to me and I live to be a hundred and three, I still can’t think of anyone I’d rather entrust him to." She tugged him down for a gentle kiss. "You’ve been there for me through every step of this, and I want this. I also know that you want it."
He raised an eyebrow at her, though the tug of a smile in the corners of his mouth belied his teasing. "And how exactly are you so sure I want this?"
She smiled gently. "Because I was awake last night when you were talking to him, and I heard what you said."
She never thought she’d see the day Jethro Gibbs blushed bright red, but there it was. She’d awakened in the middle of the night to find him snuggled against her abdomen, his fingers stroking the taut flesh gently, speaking to the baby in hushed tones. He had made a number of promises to the baby - promising to keep him safe, to keep his mother safe, to make sure that he grew up healthy and happy - that she intended to be sure he kept. He mumbled something, embarrassed, and looked away.
She started to say something but gasped when she felt a new contraction hit, one that was stronger and somehow more serious than all the ones that had come before. "Uh-oh."
He turned back to her, eyes wide and worried. "What?"
She gripped his hand hard. "You might want to get the doctor back in here."
Dr. Wheeler chose that moment to make her re-entry. She glanced at the monitors and at Kate’s face and smiled. "Aha. Finally decided to get down to business, have you?"
Kate snarled something unintelligible and bore down against the inexorable pressure in her nether regions. Gibbs gripped her hand hard.
Thirty grueling minutes later - minutes that felt like hours - the tense atmosphere in the birthing room was split by the sound of a very healthy set of lungs screaming its fury to the world. After a quick clean-up, cursory examination and check of his Apgar signs, the little boy was wrapped in a blanket and laid in his mother’s arms. Kate, sweaty and exhausted, looked up at Gibbs and smiled. "Here he is," she said softly
Gibbs didn’t know if she was speaking to him or to the baby, but he reached out and ran a gentle finger down the angry, scrunched-up face. "He’s beautiful, Kate." He paused, then added, "I think he’s got your nose."
Her smile got even wider. "Let’s hope he didn’t get your coffee addiction."
He made a face at her. "Very funny."
Some time later, once mother and baby were installed in a room and had both been cleaned up and made presentable, the team crowded into the room to be introduced to "their" nephew. Kate smiled proudly as they carefully passed the baby from hand to hand, everyone taking a few minutes to hold him and introduce themselves softly. Once he arrived back around to Gibbs, who was sitting on the side of the bed, Abby asked, "So what’s his name?"
Kate smiled. "Logan," she said. "Logan James."
"Logan James Todd," Tony tested the name out. "I like it. Very manly."
Kate gave Gibbs a slightly quizzical look. He, looking happily resigned, simply nodded. Kate turned back to Tony. "You’re only mostly right," she corrected him. "It’s actually Logan James Gibbs."
The momentary silence in the room was so thick it could have been carved with a butter knife, until Abby squealed in delight. "When are you getting married?"
"Hopefully sometime before the next one comes along," Gibbs said blithely, his face a picture of innocence.
Kate whacked his arm. "Very funny."
"I thought so."
Logan chose that moment to begin whimpering and rooting at the chest he was cradled against. Gibbs immediately held him out to his mother. "Think he wants you."
"Well, of course he does," Kate replied tartly, taking him and pulling the sheet up over him and up to her shoulder before unbuttoning the front of her shirt under the cotton and guiding the tiny head to the curve of her breast. "It’s not like anyone else in this room is equipped for the job."
Several days later, Kate and Abby were sitting on the sofa in Gibbs’s living room, watching Logan sleep in his bassinet and listening to the comforting sound of tools on wood echoing up from the basement. "So Gibbs is gonna play daddy?" Abby asked over a cup of hot tea. "Hinky."
Kate smiled softly. "He’s doing a great job so far," she said softly. "He’s great with Logan, and Logan already adores him."
"Oh, that’s not what I meant," Abby hastened to clarify. "I always figured Gibbs would be a great dad. He’s always so good with kids whenever we have a case that deals with them. It’s just hinky that it turned out this way, is all I mean."
"Yeah," Kate said softly. "I never thought I’d say this, but I really feel like I ought to thank Ari. If he hadn’t given me Logan, I might have never gotten Gibbs. I’d still be out there, lonely, doing that very unsatisfying serial-monogamy thing that the priests always warned us about."
Abby giggled. "Just between you and me," she said in a low and secretive voice, "I think you and Gibbs were just a matter of time. And also just between you and me, I’m glad you didn’t name him Leroy."
Kate laughed. "He said he’d strangle me if I even considered it."
Abby raised an eyebrow, leaning over to whisper in Kate’s ear. "So have you moved into his room yet?"
Kate grinned, whispering back. "The night I came home from the hospital."
Abby’s eyebrows went up. "Really? I thought you had to wait awhile after birth to, you know."
Kate laughed again. "You do. The doctor says three to six weeks, or whenever I don’t exhibit any of the laundry list of symptoms she told me to watch out for."
Abby counted on her fingers. "So we should expect the next one in…"
"Oh, ha-ha." Kate made a face. "I’d like to get this one at least weaned, if not potty trained, first."
"I’ll have you know I’ve been successfully potty trained for a very long time now," Gibbs’s voice spoke from the doorway. He was leaned against the doorjamb, smiling at them.
Kate made a face at him. "Abby’s repopulating my womb already."
He raised an eyebrow. "Thought that was going to be my job."
Kate put her face in her hands. "Oh, forget it."
Abby laughed, pulling her friend into a hug. "I gotta get out of here. Got a date."
"Have fun," Kate waved as Abby showed herself out, and Gibbs came to sit next to her on the sofa, smelling of sawdust and clean sweat and his soap. She snuggled up to him, her eyes attached to the tiny sleeping form before her. "I never imagined this," she said softly.
"Neither did I," he admitted quietly, wrapping his arms around her. "Not even in my wildest dreams."
"How did I get so lucky?" Kate asked rhetorically.
He laid a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "I think that’s a question I’m supposed to be asking." He put a finger under her chin, raising her face to his. "You’ve given me something to care about again," he said softly. "You’ve given me a son. He may not be biologically mine, but I swear that I’ll love him like he was. You’ve given me something to worry about, and something to look forward to. You’ve given me a life again, Kate. And I don’t know if I can ever thank you for that."
Her eyes filled with tears. "You don’t have to thank me," Kate told him. "Just love us."
"I do, Kate," he said softly into the shell of her ear. "Believe me. I do."
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