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Past, Present and Future another NCIS story

Chapter 15      To The Future

One year later and here we are Margie and I and the twins.  We made it through the night feedings and the ‘won’t go to sleep’ nights and all the other crazy things that happen during the first year.  But you know what, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.  

Richard and Nicole are the sweetest children.  They’re walking now and trying to talk with us. Their first words were ‘dada’ which irked Margie to no end.  She fussed about how she carried them and did all of the hard work and the first word they say is ‘dada’.  But she was smiling when she said that so I know that she was not mad or anything.  Of course when they said it my chest inflated and I had the silliest grin on my face.  

Richard is an adventurer.  He gets into everything.  He doesn’t hurt himself he just likes to see how things work.  I’ve introduced both children to my workshop.  I sit them on my lap while I plane a piece of wood.  Margie insisted that I put masks on them but that loses the charm of the whole thing so instead she had a filtration system installed that pulls the dust out of the room and flushes it outside.  It actually works so that was a happy compromise. Richard likes to build things. He takes his blocks and makes all kinds of different configurations with them.  He’s my buddy.

Nicole is the thinker.  She will sit and watch and then try to do what she saw you do.  Margie’s not one for a lot of makeup but one day she did use some and Nicole saw her apply it.  Margie went to the bathroom to get something and returned to find Nicole with lipstick all over her mouth.  Margie learned her lesson not to leave things about in reach for inquiring hands.  After a quick clean up and a stern talking to Nicole learned not to touch.

The children love music and love to dance.  Margie still dances around the kitchen and she and I still dance around the living room.  One night a few weeks ago Margie and I were dancing to one of our favorite songs while the twins were playing on the floor in the dining room.  I dipped Margie and then looked up and saw Richard dancing with Nicole.  It was so cute.  

Both children are learning different languages.  Margie has started them on French, Spanish and Italian and I have started them on Russian.  Although Margie knows Russian also she wanted me to be a part of instructing the children too.   The children love it when we read to them.  They point to the pictures and we talk about the picture and read the stories and I really enjoy reading to them.  Margie and I work together as a team.  She said that she’s preparing me too because when it comes time for potty training we will both be instructors for that major undertaking.

The twins now sleep in their own rooms and that gives them their own space and when they want quiet time they can sit in their rooms and play with their toys and not worry about the other one disturbing them.  We still use the baby monitors though so that we can make sure that they’re fine in their rooms alone.   

Margie’s parents take the twins for a weekend every other month. They say that they want to spend some alone time with the children and they have such fun.  The twins usually return from the weekend on Sunday evening and try to tell us everything that they did.  Of course we don’t understand that baby ‘talk’ but we nod our heads and say ‘ok’ as if we do. 

----------------------------------   

I took the position of Assistant Director and enjoy it tremendously.  I didn’t realize that I had such a knack for administrative duties.  I always thought that I would find it boring but to the contrary it is quite thought provoking.  It has allowed me to hone skills that had lain dormant for years but now have burst forth and are on full display.  Leon and I work well together even more so than either of us expected.  We worked together for many years but with him the supervisor and me the underling but we still had respect for each other in those positions but now he relies on me and continues to value my opinion.  He supports me and that helps a great deal.  This job does call for me to meet with other ‘higher ups’ so I have had to tone down a bit but no so much that it changes who I am.  You can look at is as maturing into the position. Working as Assistant Director allows me the time that I need to share with my family.  Sometimes I miss being in the thick of things but having time with Margie and Richard and Nicole is what I treasure most.  

Five years ago who would have believed that I, Leroy Jethro Gibbs would be married with one-year-old twins.  I certainly would not have believed it but here I am.

Margie tried to retire when the twins were six months old.  She had finished breastfeeding and decided that she wanted to stay home with them.  She didn’t want to put them in daycare.  She said that she didn’t want to miss any moments with them.  She left the twins at home with her mother and went into the office to meet with her superiors. They met for several hours and at the end of the meeting, Margie still worked for the CIA.  They convinced her to stay.  The assured her that they would work with her to allow her to work from home and videoconference and telecommute whenever she needed to and they would only require that she come to the office at least 2 days a week. They would set up whatever she needed in her home office to make this possible.  She asked them why would they do that and they told her that the knowledge and the skills that she brought to the agency were without parallel and they would do whatever they had to do to retain her expertise.  She told them that she could always consult with them.  But they countered with the argument that she could also consult with other intelligence entities and they didn’t want that to occur.  Margie felt very honored that they valued her that much.  She agreed to stay and work from home and work from the office on those allotted days.  Everyone left that meeting satisfied.  You should have seen Margie when she recounted the highlights of the meeting to me shortly after I arrived at home that day.  She was not prideful but she was actually humbled that they thought so highly of her that they would go to those lengths to keep her working there.  That’s my Margie.  She really doesn’t realize how magnificent she is but I do and others do to.

So here we are my family, Margie, Richard and Nicole at home and my team at work along with Tobias and yes Lydia.  She too is a part of the family.  She is Margie’s best friend and she has become a friend to me too.  We’re having a birthday party for the twins on Saturday, which is two days from now. Everything is ready in the backyard.  Everyone has his or her assignment.  The Palmers and the McGees will bring their children and we will have a great time.

Margie and I have had together a PAST, we are in our PRESENT and we look ahead to our FUTURE and everything looks great.

The End

A/N:  Thnx for taking the time out of your busy day to read my story.  To those of you who left reviews thnx for your encouragement along this journey.  Hope that you enjoyed the ride.