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Days in the Lives of Jethro Gibbs and Family

Chapter 29  A traveling we will go

How can one dismiss a request to participate in a weeklong seminar at the Prefecture in Paris?  One of my favorite cities in the world and it occurs the same week that the twins have spring break.  Springtime in Paris who can you turn that down?  So I don’t.  I even arrange childcare services during the day that provide daily excursions for the children to the museums and other child friendly activities.   The travel group consists of the twins Richard and Nicole, Richard’s friend Justin Sterns, Nicole’s friend Ashley Bancroft, my friend Lydia Neumann’s granddaughter Nancy Cavanaugh and me.  This time I ask and receive permission to take Kayla Vance with me.  She will assist Nancy in caring for the children.  All required travel documents, permissions and reservations are made and in order.  We will leave the weekend before the seminar begins and leave the weekend that it ends.

In an effort to alleviate the twin’s anxiety about leaving Jethro we plan for daily Skype sessions.  At some point during the trip we do plan to meet with DiNozzo and Tali. Of course we will have to Skype that meeting no matter what time it is in the States.  Regular Skype sessions for the Sterns and Bancrofts will also occur.  Don’t want any crying parents or crying children.

We arrive in Paris and have time to relax before heading out for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.  All of the children behave well and we have no problems.  The meet up with the DiNozzos occurs and everyone is happy to see each other.  The Skype sessions go off without a hitch and everyone is satisfied.

The weeklong seminar goes very well and my presentation was so good that I received an invitation to present at a summer conference at Interpol’s London office and while there Scotland Yard wants my time too. To say that it was a ‘big hit’ is not far from the truth.

With the trip over and school back in session everything returns to normal.  Kayla Vance was so appreciative of the trip that she has volunteered to babysit whenever we need her.  That is nice of her. It helps us out too because Nancy’s time is busy taken up with college classes and working and so she’s not as readily available as she once was.  It never hurts to have options.

So here we are at another lazy Saturday.  The twins are at swim class with my mother and I’m cleaning the house.  Jethro’s had a really busy week so last night I suggested that he sleep in this morning.  I try not to make too much noise while I’m cleaning so I don’t use the vacuum cleaner.  I give the place a good cleaning nonetheless.  Just as I finish with the living room I get a call from my mother telling me that the twins want to stay the night with her and my dad.  Seems they have some function to attend that is very child friendly and the twins want to hang out with their grandparents.  I tell her that it sounds alright but I will call her back after I talk with Jethro.  She says okay and then I hear Jethro coming down the stairs.  I ask my mother to hold on while I talk with Jethro.  I tell Jethro about the twins’ request and he agrees that it is okay for them to stay.  I tell my mother and she hangs up the phone.

Jethro goes into the kitchen to get some lunch because it’s already 12:30 p.m.  While he’s eating lunch I go upstairs and finish my cleaning.  Once done I take a shower and put on a tee shirt and sweat pants.  When I return downstairs Jethro’s sitting on the sofa reading a book.  I take this time to get my book and join him on the sofa. We both read for a while and then he puts down his book and glasses and puts his head in my lap.  That happens often when we sit together on the sofa and have some quiet time.  

He turns on his side facing out towards the dining room and I put down my book on the sofa and just look at him.  Evidently he’s still tired and I don’t want to disturb him. Given enough time he will fall asleep right there on the sofa with his head on my lap and I will sit there while he sleeps.  I rub his shoulder and down his arm and then he grabs my hand and kisses it.  He hugs it to his chest and just leaves it there. We sit like that for some time and he does fall asleep and so do I.  Two hours later we both stir.

“That was nice. I feel so relaxed now.  Do you want to go out to eat or do you want to stay in?”

“As nice as it would be to dress up and go out I really would rather that we together cook something, eat and just be lazy for the night Jethro.  If that’s all right with you.”

“That sounds good to me too.”

And so we do just that.  We cook up a simple meal, eat, watch an old black and white on the TV and settle in for the night.  The two of us don’t need a lot of hoopla to have a good time.  Just being together works for us.

Another quiet night in the Gibbs household.