Louisa
- Chapter 3: Where To Begin... -
"So all you need to do is press that button and...voila...Major Mass Spec is working his magic." Abby's voice floated out of the lab.
"Major Mass Spec?" Louisa asked. "Do you name all your equipment?" Abby laughed.
"Yup," Gibbs, hanging in the hallway listening, imagined Abby leaning forward and whispering conspiratorially, "He's my favorite though." Louisa laughed, the sound was so like her mothers it pain Gibbs.
"So you fell into Gibbs lap? What was it like?" He heard Abby ask. "I have always imagined that he had really hard thighs, like a football player..." Gibbs shook his head as he walked through the door. Abby jumped off her chair and Louisa span around.
"Louisa, we're getting coffee." He announced. Louisa glanced at Abby who grinned.
"His bark is worse than his bite." She gave the girl a light push towards Gibbs and smiled at him over her head. Gibbs nodded once at Abby.
"So Major Mass Spec, this is certainly an interesting turn of events, isn't it?"
---
"Gibbs? What is going on?" Louisa's worried voice broke through his thoughts and he looked down at the girl. She had her mother's eyes, no doubt about it, and he didn't know why he hadn't realized she was Jen's daughter the minute she had fallen into his lap. It wasn't just her eyes, it was her whole face, she looked so like Jen, but different, unique. Her hair was dark brown with minute hints of red when the sun caught it, and Gibbs suddenly wondered what she would look like with the same pixie cut her mother used to have.
He gestured towards a chair and handed Louisa her, surprisingly, black coffee. She sat down and poured a ton of sugar into it. Gibbs wrinkled his nose.
"Louisa..." He began. She looked up at him, her eyes large with realization, and understanding.
"Its ok...I'm not stupid. She is dead isn't she?" Louisa swallowed and Gibbs resisted the urge to pull the girl into a hug.
"Yes." He said quietly. Louisa looked down at her coffee. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she bit her bottom lip, just like Jen, and nodded. She smiled through her swimming eyes.
"Thank you for the coffee, I've taken up too much of your time...I...uh...probably should go." She stood up to leave and Gibbs grabbed her wrist, pulling her back down.
"Sit." He commanded. She obeyed and sat down, furiously brushing the tear that had escaped from her cheek. Another tear escaped and she ignored it, letting it run down her cheek and fall to the table. She picked at her fingernail.
"What do I do now?" She asked, her voice small and helpless. She looked up at Gibbs and this time he didn't resist pulling her into a hug. She stiffened for a second before her small arms wound around his waist and she took a deep breath before pushing away. Gibbs brushed a tear from her face.
"You are so like her." He said. Louisa blinked at him, unsure of what to say at the pain so evident in his voice.
"Will you tell me about her?" She asked, absentmindedly stirring her coffee. Gibbs took a deep breath. He wasn't ready to talk about Jen, but the young girl sitting next to him deserved to know.
"Where to begin..."