"Sempera!“ Bellowing loud enough to rattle windows didn’t do Gibbs any good, his daughter couldn’t hear him, but the former marine couldn’t help himself. The market place of Hallstatt was the last location he had imagined her to be. The girl in question stood with her back to him and was busy showing small paper cards to a plump woman. His daughter might not have been able to hear him, but his hand grabbing the back of her shirt and pulling her away was something she wasn’t able to miss. Sam yelped, her cards scattered, and she tried to escape. One of her hands flew up to grab and claw the arm that had captured her. It was a defensive move her dads had taught her. Too bad Gibbs knew the counter for it. He caught her hand, whirled her around. She took a look at his enraged face and stopped struggling.
Yep, this slip of a girl had inherited her biological father’s talent for getting into trouble all right. It was a miracle that Gibb’s hair hadn’t turned completely white yet. And she was as unrepentant as her dad too, if he was interpreting the pouting lips and raised chin correctly.
The woman his little girl had been conversing with was eying them anxiously, clearly not sure what this was all about. She seemed to be debating whether she should ignore the scene or call for help and the police. It wouldn’t do them any good to attract more attention.
“I’m her father. She hasn’t bothered you?” He said and hoped that she understood English.
“Oh. Ist die Kleine in Schwierigkeiten?”
Gibbs had no idea what she had said, but since she made no attempt to call for help he thought it best to wave, ignore her and relocate to a better and more private place than the middle of the market. He would call a cab as soon as he had finished reading Sam the riot act for her stunt. There, beside the Apothecary was a convenient park bench under a tree.
'What the hell were you doing here? I thought you wanted to read your new book back at the hotel. "Lazy afternoon, just chilling", those were your words!’ Gibbs scolded. For once he only used signs. They didn’t need to call more attention to themselves.
Sam snorted. For her the answer was obvious, ‘I was trying to help you, of course. The faster the case is solved, the faster we will be able to enjoy the rest of our vacation.’
Gibb was speechless. The many ways this could have gone wrong! The last thing they needed was for the perp to take any notice and interest in his little princess. If this was her way of paying them back for ruining her much anticipated family holiday she was succeeding.
‘YOU COULD GET KILLED! KIDNAPPED! THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THAT COULD GO WRONG!’ It felt far less satisfying to shout in sign language than aloud.
His first instinct was to bundle her up, drive her to the nearest airport and send her back to DC post haste. But with the luck they'd had thus far, she would probably manage to stumble over the murderer at the airport and get kidnapped, no matter how many Marines he put with her as bodyguards. It would be better to keep an eye on her. Well, the bodyguards might not be a bad idea though. The commander of the German base still owed him a favor.
Why did young people always seem to ignore their own mortality and believe that nothing could happen to them? As a Gunny he had done his best to instill some common sense into young soldiers, by force and a boot up their asses if necessary. Countless dumb young marines not knowing they'd get dead and how the fuck did he end up with a girl just as stupid? How could she be both so smart and still so dumb, and why lord why?
Some of his thought must have shown on his face because Sam tried to reassure him. ‘Don’t be such a grouch, Daddy. It is midday, there are hundreds of people around. I am not stupid enough to go into a dark side street with a stranger.’ She turned around and stared at her cards which were laying haphazardly in the gutter. The flowers in the big pots decorating the street had been watered rather enthusiastically and the overflowing fluid was now turning the poor cards into a wet mess. ‘Damn. I had some really clever questions on them. Now I will have to prepare new ones.’
Gibbs stared at her incredulously and forgot to restrict himself to just signing. “Are you nuts? Absolutely not. What you will do is go back to our suite and wait for Tony and me to come back. And I’ll pull you out of the sailing courses you wanted to take.” That would serve as a punishment and would keep her far, far away from violent criminals. And the bodyguards idea was sounding better and better every minute.
His growls had cowed countless young Marines, Agents and …well, everyone else but it didn’t seem to impress his daughter at all.
‘I don’t care! You are a far superior sailing instructor than some stupid local anyway. And you can sign and talk to me properly. They don’t even sign the same way here as they do at home! Yesterday the crew of my boat laughed because I used the wrong sign!’ Sam exclaimed.
They had signed her up for the lessons so she would interact with other kids her own age. Well, the part about him being better at teaching her how to handle a boat might be true, but it didn’t solve his current dilemma: What to do with his stubborn daughter. Reasoning with a teenager was, in most cases, like trying to steer a boat during a big storm. You never knew in which direction it would buck. ‘Sam, you wanna know what you can do to help us solve the case faster?’
She nodded earnestly.
"Make it so we don't have to worry about your safety." He searched her face but there wasn't an inkling of understanding to be found, she was back to glaring at him mutinously. Sam had reacted violently to the news that another family vacation had been spoiled by circumstances out of their control and apparently still refused to see reason.
‘I can do more! People like talking to me, far more than talking to an old grump like you. And I wasn’t in any danger.’
Gibbs sighed and ignored the grump comment. ‘Look around, people are sheep, no good insulation against an attack at all. None of them tried to really defend you when I dragged you away, did they? And they don't know that I’m your father.’
That finally made her stop and think but her introspective mood didn't last for long. ‘So, you already knew that Grant visited this city years ago in the company of another man? And that they seemed to be close? The man over there, he is a baker, told me all about it.’ Sam gestured in the direction of a skinny older man who was one of the few persons who was still paying attention to the foreign pair.
They had known that Grant had been here before, it was in his file, but the information about his companion was news. Every investigative instinct screamed at Gibbs to interview the baker but it would have to wait till he had escorted Sam back to their hotel in person, forget about putting her in a cab. ‘I want you to stay safe. Please Sam.’ He would lock her into her room and post one big badass marine in front of it and another one under her window, no matter how much she protested. Tony would support this decision, Gibbs had no doubt about it.
He waved at a passing cab.
Sam was near tears but she followed him to the car. ‘You are courting danger too. It’s not fair.’
Gibbs handed a piece of paper with the address of their hotel to the driver. Then he sat back and hugged his daughter close and kissed her on her sun-warmed hair. ‘We talked about it, Tony and I are highly trained agents. You are a teenager.’
Her shoulders slumped defeatedly. ‘You are not immortal either.’
The cabbie accelerated and Gibbs closed his eyes. He wasn't looking forward to the long uncomfortable conversation that he'd have to have with Tony as a result of their daughter's unauthorized investigation.
.-#-.
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