Everyday before the alarm went off, Gibbs would awaken and go for a run. Tony's alarm went off at 5:30 AM, half an hour after Jethro had already gotten up, and he would get up and get Jenny fed and ready for school. She was depressed all week since this weekend was going to be the first visitation. Miss Parks was going to pick her up at 11:30 AM and then bring her back about two hours later. What the court didn't know was that Gibbs didn't trust them, so he was giving Jenny a cell phone for the day to trace them. Not to mention Ziva had volunteered to go and watch from a distance, to stake out the meeting.
Jenny was doing great at her new school. She was becoming a very popular little girl. She had a bunch of new friends and even wanted a few of them to sleep over at their house. Tony and Gibbs didn't have a problem with that once they got to talk to the other kids' parents, but it couldn't be this weekend. With the visit the men wanted Jenny to come home and just be with family since they didn't know what she would be like. Jenny wasn't happy, but she said okay in the end. She didn't know about one of the team following her. Originally it was to have been McGee who would be following her, but then it was decided that Ziva would do it since she was much better at that sort of thing, having had more experience. She could be in the room with them and no one would even notice her.
Saturday morning came around. Tony picked out a very nice, cute dress for her to wear. Jenny was dragging her feet the whole time, both figuratively and literally. She just didn't what to move and get ready, and the men couldn't blame her at all. But there was nothing to be done; this visit had been ordered by the court.
"Jenny, come on," Gibbs said from the living room, yelling up the stairs to her.
He got no reply.
"Jenny!"
Still nothing.
"Jennifer get down here RIGHT NOW!" Gibbs barked, his tone gruff but not in a mean, yelling kind of way.
After a moment he saw her walking down the stairs with her head hung low.
"That's much better."
Jenny stopped a few steps from the bottom of the stairs. Gibbs was still at the bottom. He put his hand under her chin and lifted it, making her look at him, right in those piercing ice blue eyes of his.
"Honey, I don't want you to go anymore then you want to go, but the judge said you had to go."
Tony was in the kitchen, not in the best of moods either.
"Why do I have to go? I'm happy with you and Tony. I don't even know this person!"
"I know, honey, but he says that he's your dad."
"I have you and Tony. I don't need anyone else."
Gibbs got a little choked up when he heard that.
"I know, but he is your biological dad, meaning he and your mom made you."
"But mom never told me about him."
"Honey, all I can say is go, be polite and nice. In the end the court will see that you're in the best place for you."
Jenny hung her head again and walked past him, into the kitchen. It was about 11:00 AM. She hadn't eaten yet. Miss Parks said they would be going to a restaurant or fast food place for the meeting, being that it was January and a park was out of the question. When she got into the kitchen, she sat in a chair. Gibbs walked in with Tony's cell phone. Tony had already put it on silent mode so no one would know if it should happen to ring.
"Here, honey, if you need anything, you know the house number. Right?"
"Yes, Jethro."
"Then you call us and we will be right there, okay?"
"Okay, Jethro." Jenny seemed a little better knowing she would have the means to call them if she needed them.
They heard the front door open and people walking in. They had started to lock their doors, but if they were home they never locked the door, except at night.
"Hey there, half pint, cheer up. When you get back we can all go out and eat wherever you want."
"Really, Abby?"
"Yes, even if Tony and Gibbs don't come, I'll take you anyplace you want."
"Chuck E Cheese?"
"Yup, if that's where you want to go, then so be it." Abby put her laptop on the kitchen table and hugged her.
"That sounds like a lot of fun. Can we come, too?" Tony asked.
Jenny looked at Tony and giggled. "Of course you can come. You're adults, you can do whatever you want."
"Oh, Peanut, I wish that was the truth." Tony reached out and took her in his arms, hugging her.
Tim was in the living room, setting up his laptop as well. The doorbell rang, and the whole house got very quiet. They knew who it should be. Tony let go of Jenny and walked to the front door.
"Hello, Miss Parks, and how are you today?"
The lady could see the pain and hurt in this man's face. "I'm okay. I'm sorry about this, Tony."
"Hey, it's Jenny I'm worried about."
"I know."
"Please, come in," he said, holding the door open for the social worker.
"Thank you."
She walked in and Tony shut the door. Jenny was almost being pushed out of the kitchen by Gibbs and Abby. Ziva was in town so she would not take as long to get to the location once they used the GPS in the cell phone.
"You ready, honey?"
"No, I don't want to go."
Jenny tried to turn and run, but Abby was quicker. Gibbs was ahead of her and couldn't catch her. Abby bent down to her level.
"No, half-pint, just go and say hi. You will not have to do this much longer. The court will see that Tony and Gibbs are the only people worthy of taking care of you."
"Abby, I don't even know this man. Can't you come with me?"
Abby wanted to, but she knew none of them were even supposed to know the location of the meeting. But they didn't trust anyone with their little girl and would track her with the GPS in Tony's phone and have Ziva watch them the whole time.
"Sorry, half-pint, but none of us can come. But you can bet each and every one of us would rather be there with you than spend the day with each other." Abby winked at the little girl and stood back up.
"Come on, honey, we need to go and meet this man," Miss Parks said.
She had seen the file that Gibbs had found on him and had discussed it, but they couldn't use any of the info just yet since it had all been gotten without a warrant, even though some of it was easy enough to get, like the information about the restraining order.
They left and were driving to the local Burger King. They got there, and the man was in there already, waiting on them. Tim had gotten the location with the GPS in Tony's phone, and they'd called Ziva. She would be there in ten minutes.
When they came in the man walked up to Miss Parks
"Hello, Jenny, my name is Mark Manning. I'm your father," the man said, holding out his hand.
Miss Parks had walked away and gotten in line, watching the two people interact the whole time.
"No, you're not," Jenny said, refusing to take his hand.
"Well, okay," the man said, not knowing what to say next. "How about we get in line and get something to eat?" He was uncomfortable with meeting this little girl, but he knew he would not let two fags raise the child who really should be his. Plus she was very pretty.
Jenny went up and got in line with Miss Parks. Mark went up with them and paid for all the food. They took their trays over to a table. Miss Parks went to a different table.
"Honey, you have to go over there and eat with Mr. Manning."
"But I want to eat with you."
"I know, honey, but you only have an hour and a half to visit with him."
Jenny didn't see Ziva slip in and sit in a corner, eating a salad, watching the whole thing unfold. Jenny went and sat with Mark Manning, the man Tony referred to as ‘the sperm donor.'
"So, do you like school?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered, not going into any detail.
"What's your favorite subject?"
"Science."
"They tell me you like to read."
She shrugged, picking at her food but not eating it.
"What kind of books?"
"Just books." Jenny was saying everything with a sting to it.
The man could tell she didn't want to be there. He really didn't care, he just wanted to take this little girl away from Tony and Gibbs.
"Do you have any friends?"
"Yes."
"What kind of things do you like to play with?"
She shrugged again. "Stuff."
"Jenny, I'm trying to be nice here. I think you should try the same thing," he sad in exasperation.
"You're not my father, you can't tell me what to do." Jenny said almost yelling as she said that.
ZiIva perked, up making sure she didn't have to hurt anyone.
"That's not a nice thing to say. No matter what you say, I AM your father, and you'll be living with me soon," he snapped, almost yelling back.
Miss Parks walked over. "Is everything okay here?"
"Yes," he said, teeth just this side of clenched.
"No," Jenny said, "I want to go home."
Miss Parks looked at her watch. They still had forty-five more minutes left. "Honey, I'm sorry, but we still have forty-five minutes."
"I have to go to the bathroom." Jenny got up and walked to the bathroom.
After about ten minutes Ziva walked in and made sure the little girl was okay. She found Jenny crying in a stall. The door to the restroom opened and Ziva ducked into the empty stall without being seen by Jenny or the woman just entering.
"Jenny, are you okay?" Miss Parks asked.
"Yes."
"You've been in here an awfully long time. Are you sure everything is okay?"
"That man is mean and scares me," Jenny said with a sniff as she opened the door.
"I know you want to go home and be with Tony and Jethro, and I want you to be with them, honey, but right now we have to listen to what the judge thinks."
"The judge is stupid."
"No, honey, she isn't. She's just trying to give you the best, and she thought this is what needs to be happening. She has to see how you are with your biological father before making a final decision. It's only fair, honey."
"It's not fair, and she is mean."
"Okay, honey, let's go back out there. It's not much longer, okay?"
"I have to, don't I?"
"Yes, honey."
Miss Parks put out her hand. Jenny took it and walked back out of the bathroom and into the lobby.
"Now, what happened to you?" Mark Manning almost snapped at her.
"I had to go to the bathroom."
"Not for that long."
Miss Parks frowned at him as she walked away from them.
"You are nothing but a spoiled little brat, you know that?"
"And you're mean."
"You will not be with them much longer, so get used to seeing me."
With those words he got up and walked out, not saying good-bye or anything to her. Miss Parks walked back to get Jenny and they left. Ziva followed them home, pulling in about ten minutes after Jenny was dropped off at home. Miss Parks didn't stay around much after dropping her off.
"So, Peanut, how was it?" Tony asked, sitting in the living room.
All the laptops they'd used to track the GPS in his phone had been put away.
"He was a mean man."
"We know, honey, but you don't have to see him again for another whole month, and we hope by then we can have custody of you."
"He was mean and called me a spoiled brat."
"Oh, honey."
Gibbs, listening to this wanted to kill the man. Fire was in his eyes when he shot a look at Ziva as if to say why did she let it happen. Ziva, not one to back down, took Gibbs into the kitchen and told him what she overheard in the bathroom and what she saw in the dining room. Gibbs was not a happy camper, but Ziva had known she couldn't have shown herself.
They all went to Chuck E Cheese. Tim and Tony found a game to play, Ziva playing with them. She was the person who would sub when Jenny came and dragged one or the other off to play a game with her. Gibbs again was a skee ball champ and won her and Abby the biggest stuffed animals in the place.
After they got home Jenny called her best friend and invited her to stay the night the next weekend. Jenny put Tony on the phone, and her friend Becka's mom got on the phone and they talked. The two parents talked about a sleepover. In the end Becka would be coming home with Jenny and would be picked up sometime late on Saturday. Tony invited them for dinner, and she accepted. She informed him that she thought it was nice to see two men raise a little girl, and told them her husband would not be coming to dinner.
Chapter End Notes:
Warnings: thank you for reading and providing feedback. i'm writing
as i go along and would like to take a moment now to warn readers
that there will be major life altering changes coming. while not
wanting to spoil the story for hte readers, i just wanted to let you
know now and i will warn on all future parts as well. This might not
be for a while but given a heads up. I will also warn you that the
story will have a lot of Cliffhangers comeing up
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank G for writng such great SMut
she is the smut queen. She is also great wiht me boucning Ideas off
of and just do not listen to her my Muse is not pure evil. I would
also like to thank my new adviser. BC she so rocks on picking out
stuff and now almost writing the next part i was working on )poor
Gibbs) she so fucking rocks. now wiht out
any more enjoy the reading
as i go along and would like to take a moment now to warn readers
that there will be major life altering changes coming. while not
wanting to spoil the story for hte readers, i just wanted to let you
know now and i will warn on all future parts as well. This might not
be for a while but given a heads up. I will also warn you that the
story will have a lot of Cliffhangers comeing up
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank G for writng such great SMut
she is the smut queen. She is also great wiht me boucning Ideas off
of and just do not listen to her my Muse is not pure evil. I would
also like to thank my new adviser. BC she so rocks on picking out
stuff and now almost writing the next part i was working on )poor
Gibbs) she so fucking rocks. now wiht out
any more enjoy the reading