Title: Just My Dad
Author: CJ aka WritinginCT
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: Kelly Gibbs/ Jimmy Palmer
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU
Categories: Romance, Fluff, Humor
Feedback: Love it? Hate it?
Disclaimer: I don’t own the recognizable characters I’m just inspired by them. Hopefully they’ve had fun playing in my sandbox.
Notes: Little AU fic brought on by a MEME on LJ that carried over to the NFA â€" in this AU Gibbs' wife Shannon did die but his daughter Kelly lived. I have a detailed theory about Kelly and Jimmy's ages meshing up â€" email me if you are truly interested.
Summary: Seventeen-year old Kelly Gibbs gets asked to the prom by boy she really likes, what happens when she brings him home to meet her father?
Status: WIP

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“Dad?�

Gibbs heard the nervousness in his daughter's voice and wondered if it had anything to do with why she had been flitting around the house like a drunken butterfly before dinner. He washed the last dish, rinsed it, and put it in the strainer. He wiped his hands and turned towards her, leaning his hip against the sink. "What's up, Doc?" he asked playfully as he watched her dry the last of the dishes.

Sometimes, like now, she looked so much like her mother that it almost hurt. Almost seventeen now, and a junior in high school, she had somehow turned into a woman when he wasn't watching and he wondered every now and again were his grungy, pigtailed princess went.

Kelly wiped the plate, and kept wiping it even though it was dry, trying to put together the right words. Finally she went with the facts. Her father loved getting “just the facts�. And most of the time if he had just the facts, he would let her do what she wanted within reason. She prayed this would be one of those times. “I got asked to the senior prom by a really nice guy.�

She turned to face her father, chewing on her bottom lip, half expecting him to immediately say that she couldn't go.

Gibbs just blinked, he knew that this was big deal to a teenage girl. And in all fairness, the few boys that she had gone out with had all been good kids. Kelly was a smart, responsible girl. Top of her class scholastically, captain of the softball team, and secretary of the science club, she wasn't one to do anything stupid. She was popular and had many friends both male and female and just tried to live life to its fullest. She was so like her mother. And himself, he realized.

“So does this nice guy have a name?�

She beamed at him, and Gibbs knew he was done for, “His name is Jimmy. Jimmy Palmer.�

He just had to chuckle, “Don't make me interrogate you. Just give me...�

“The Facts. Okay. He's a senior, obviously. He's in the science club with me. He gets straight A's, well, except for gym class but you can't really hold that against him, Dad, not everybody is a Marine-in-training.�

Gibbs snorted at that but let her continue, “He's really funny and smart. He's going to Georgetown in the fall for pre-med. He wants to be a doctor. He's a really, really nice guy, Dad, and a perfect gentleman.�

He saw a dreamy look on her face that worried him a little. He remembered seeing that same look on Shannon's face directed at him back when they were in high school. In the years since she had been killed he had wished for her guidance in dealing with their daughter on more than one occasion, today was another.

“So when do I get to meet this Jimmy Palmer?� he teased with a raised eyebrow.

Kelly's eyes grew huge. Not just because he hadn't said no, but because she didn't know about Jimmy meeting her dad. Her dad was, well, intimidating. And protective, and she would swear that he enjoyed scaring the pants off of the few boys she had actually dated in the past.

She really didn't want him to scare Jimmy off. She liked him a lot, and they had so much in common. They had been friends in the science club since last year. He was funny in a dorky kind of way, but he always made her laugh. He had surprised her by offering to keep the stats for her softball team and they studied in the library together often. She kept hoping he would ask her out sometime, but he never did. Some of her friends teased her about him, wondering what she saw in him when practically every jock in school was hounding her to go out with them. But she didn't want a jock for a boyfriend just to say she was dating a jock. She wanted a boyfriend that was nice, and that would understand if she said she had to study, someone that would hold her hand and just listen if she were upset about something, someone that would say silly things just to make her smile. Someone that would treat her like she remembered her dad treating her mom.

And she just knew that person was Jimmy. When he had finally worked up the nerve to ask her to the prom as they were walking down the hall to the library she almost couldn't believe it. He had stammered through it, and gotten side tracked a time or two, but eventually he just got frustrated with himself and spit it out, “Kelly, what I'm trying to say is, will you go to the prom with me?�

She was so excited that she couldn't even reply she just beamed that Gibbs' smile at him and shook her head yes.

Jimmy pushed his glasses up, not caring that they sat crooked on his face and asked with his own wide smile, “Really?�

“Really.� Then a thought flickered in her mind and she groaned. Her father.

“What?� Jimmy asked concerned.

“I really do want to go to the prom with you, but I have to run it by my dad first.�

“Oh. Okay. Makes sense I guess.�

She grimaced, “He's going to want to meet you, you know.�

Jimmy paled, he had heard rumors about Kelly's former Marine father, and his voice squeaked, “No problem. I'd, um, love, to meet your father.�

“Are you sure?� she asked in a little voice.

Seeing how crestfallen Kelly had gotten, Jimmy found a little courage, he really liked Kelly, and if it meant dealing with her dad, then so be it. He put his happy face back on and said, "Positive." And was rewarded by the return of Kelly's smile.

And as Kelly stood there staring at her father she prayed that he would be nice to Jimmy. “I could invite him over on Saturday, we've got to finish up our science club project plan anyway and you could meet him.�

Gibbs could see that she was nervous, more than she had been with anyone else that she had ever brought home, and decided to play good cop this time. “Sounds good. I'll even buy the pizza.�

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tbc...

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Abby was working at her bench, manipulating images and trying to find evidence hidden to the naked eye. The music in the lab was its normal obnoxious decibel level and Gibbs flinched when he strode into the lab, coffee and Caf-pow in hand. But he had to smile at the sight of Abby be-bopping to the music as her fingers flew on her keyboard. She had been a little down in the dumps since Stan left and it was nice to see her back to her old self.

Without turning around she said, “Good morning, Gibbs.�

“Hey, Abs. You got anything for me?�

“DNA won't be done for two hours. I just can't speed that up, sorry. And I just started working on the stills from the damaged security tape footage. It's a mess but I should be able to salvage something. It's just going to take me a little while.�

He turned to go, “Let me know as soon as you have something.� He paused at the door and walked back to her bench. “Can I ask you something?�

Abby bit back a snicker, it had to be a Kelly question. He always started Kelly questions that way. He was a man who could stare down the barrel of a suspect's gun without a flicker of fear, yet his little red-headed seventeen year old daughter could tie him in knots and almost send him in a panic with the most innocent of things. He wanted to be the perfect parent, actually he wanted to be the perfect parents, and make up for Kelly not having a mother. But the gruff and tough Marine just wasn't equipped for some of the more feminine issues of raising a daughter by himself. And he came to Abby often for advice.

“Sure.� She said with grin as she sipped her Caf-pow.

He tugged his earlobe absently, “This whole senior prom thing. It's a big deal right? What do I need to know?

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Kelly wanted to die, simply die. Her pizza was sitting on the plate in front of her getting cold, but she just couldn't eat. Her father and Jimmy were sitting opposite each other at the dining room table and her father was interrogating poor Jimmy.

In reality, Gibbs was just trying to get a response out of the young man that was more than a “yes, sir� or “no, sir�. He was a pleasant enough looking kid, a little skinny, but then again, so was he at Jimmy's age.

Jimmy had paled at first when Jethro had opened the door and he saw the father that all the boys at school feared more than anyone. But once he was in the living room and saw Kelly, Jethro saw the enormous genuine smile take up residence on Jimmy's face and her presence seemed to give Jimmy a little courage, emphasis on a little. Gibbs just couldn't get him to string together an entire sentence. How was he supposed to get to know the boy if he wouldn't talk?

He took a sip of soda and tried again, “So Kelly tells me you wanna be doctor. Any specific kind of doctor?�

Jimmy pushed his glasses up nervously, not knowing exactly how to tell Gibbs that he wanted to be a medical examiner without making himself sound like a creepy, morbid freak. He took a breath and tried, “Actually sir, I, ah, I've sort of been thinking about, um, pathology and forensic science. I'd like to help solve crimes and stuff.�

Gibbs tried not to let his surprise show on his face, but Jimmy's choice of careers surprised him a little, and pleased him too. “Good choice.�

Jimmy was shocked, “Really?�

“Well, yeah, Jimmy. I can't tell you how many times our M.E. has made a case for us. It's important work.�

Jimmy was still confused, he knew Kelly's dad was a Marine, but he didn't know what he did for a living, it had just never come up in conversation and now he was curious. Was he a cop? “Um, Mr. Gibbs, what is it that you do?�

Before he could answer, Kelly finally piped up, “He works for NCIS. He's a Federal Agent.�

The smile spread across Jimmy's face, “Really? That is so cool.�

That finally managed to break the ice, and Gibbs found himself liking Jimmy, he certainly had some, well, odd, personality traits, but overall he seemed to be a kid with a sensible head on his shoulders and a good nature. And later on, when the two of them were sitting and working on their science club project together, Gibbs had come up from the basement for a beer and he paused in the doorway, watching the two of them bent close. There had been a lot of giggling filtering down stairs, and now he could see it first hand, the two of them just laughing good-naturedly as they worked. He felt a stab of grief that Shannon wasn't there to share it, to see what an amazing young woman their daughter had turned out to be, and to see that she had good taste in boyfriends. Because as he stood there watching them unaware, he knew that young Mr. Palmer was going to become a permanent fixture in their lives.

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tbc...