You can blame all of 107 on Queenie - who knows more about this fic than anyone else who's not actually reading it
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Thanks go to her, Nancy, Beth, and Alisha
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NCIS notes:
Cote de Pablo plays Ziva David [Da-veed], Israeli Mossad officer working for NCIS.
Sean Murray plays Timothy McGee, MIT/John's Hopkins graduate/Special Agent/Computer guru. He is also popular author Thom E Gemcity.
Mark Harmon plays Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the experienced agent who runs the team [which also includes Michael Weatherly playing Anthony DiNozzo].
Jenny Shepard was the director of NCIS before her death.
Don Bellasario is the creator of both JAG/NCIS and still executive producer [I think].
Last time:
Clark
"You know what I want *right now*," she told me, staring into the distance. "But by then... I'll be ready for it. I'll know it's coming and will prepare myself and I'll be fine. It'll hurt more if the kids decide they want to live with you because the only thing I could do about that would be to decide not to love my kids and I can't do that."
"No, you can't." But she could stop loving me?
Where did that thought come from?
Did I want her to?
The answer was... yes. I thought. If she didn't stop being *in* love with me, she was going to get hurt – badly – and I didn't want that for her.
Would Christopher – and this new baby, who would be almost three by then – want to live with me? Would I want them to?
The answer to that was a resounding 'yes', but would I want to take them from their mom?
The answer to that was a resounding 'no'.
So where did that leave me?
I sighed.
I had no idea.
*~*106*~*
May 2005
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
It was my birthday.
Would it be any better than two years ago?
The year before hadn't been *too* bad.
Clark had offered to take me flying but it hadn't happened. He'd done well with my gift though – an assortment of NCIS memorabilia: a 100th episode hat and T-shirt, a Jenny Shepard ID tag and an autographed picture of Cote de Pablo/Ziva.
She was my favorite – because she kicked... butt. She *never* would have gotten stuck with Navance. She would have kick boxed her way out or something. Even if she was pregnant and sick.
I wondered if he'd get me something this year. He'd done good at Christmas; surely he would for my birthday, too, right?
I managed to lumber down the stairs and collapse in the living room.
"Mama!" Christopher ran over and climbed on the couch next to me. He pulled up my shirt. "Hi, baby."
I laughed as the baby shifted in my stomach, the bump moving from one side to the other. "The baby says hi to his big brother."
"Me!" he exclaimed grinning and bouncing next to me.
"Yep. You're going to be a great big brother, aren't you?"
He nodded, then turned. "Gran'pa!"
"Hi, Daddy," I said without turning.
"Happy birthday, Princess."
"Thanks, Daddy."
"Daddy said Mama s'eep," Christopher told me seriously.
"He wanted to wake you up to tell you happy birthday," Clark said, walking into the room and handing me a cup of coffee.
"Thank you. And thank you for not waking me up."
"I figured you could use the sleep."
"You figured right." I closed my eyes and blew lightly on the coffee before taking a sip.
"So what's on the agenda for the day?" Dad asked. "Vicki's making whatever you want for dinner."
"Nope," Clark said. "We're heading up to the cabin tonight and I’m making her favorite dinner."
"I thought you were going tomorrow night," Dad asked him, puzzled.
"We were, but I have to work early the next day so..." Clark frowned. "Didn't I tell you?"
"We're going to the cabin?" I asked.
Clark nodded. "You're cashing in your dinner night."
"What?"
He rolled his eyes. "Remember? I promised you your favorite dinner at the cabin as one of your anniversary presents. But it snowed the weekend we were going to go and then you got sick."
"Right."
It sounded nice actually. If we didn't have to come back until late tomorrow, I could sleep as late as I wanted and if Clark was cooking tonight, it was bound to be good and I wasn't sick anymore so I could actually enjoy it.
"Will there be chocolate cake?" I asked him.
He laughed. "Of course."
"When do we leave?"
He and Daddy both laughed at that.
"After lunch," Clark told me. "Christopher wanted you to himself this morning. He said something about Jack Jack downstairs."
I rolled my eyes. "I bet he did. What if we went to see the horses?" I asked him.
He was still cuddled next to me and seemed to think about that carefully. "'Kay." He climbed down. "Let's go."
I laughed. "I have to eat breakfast first."
He sighed deeply, before settling back in next to me. "'Kay."
I laughed.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Clark headed back into the kitchen.
"Are you taking orders?"
"Whatever you want, birthday girl."
"French toast with powdered sugar, a couple eggs and bacon," I called.
"Did your appetite increase again?" he called back.
"I'm making up for lost time."
Daddy brow furrowed. "Did this happen with Christopher? Did you have a second 'eat everything in sight' phase?"
I thought for a few minutes. "I don't think so, but at this point, I'd call it an anomaly. We'll have to see if it sustains."
I chatted quietly with Daddy and cuddled with Christopher until Clark told me that my breakfast was ready.
I waddled into the kitchen and managed to get up onto one of the stools at the bar. "Thank you."
"My pleasure," he said with a smile. "What do you want for dinner?"
"I thought you had it all planned out." I took a big bite of scrambled eggs.
"I do, but just in case you wanted something different."
I thought for a minute. "Whatever you have planned is fine. There's no aversions I can think of."
"Okay."
I finished my breakfast and then spent the morning with Christopher down in the barn with the horses. We took carrots and apples with us and fed the horses. There was one mare who would be giving birth soon and Christopher was excited about that. We told him he could name the new baby horse.
We had his favorite – hot dogs and macaroni – for lunch and then put him down for his nap. Jessica returned from wherever she'd gone to take over from there.
Clark and I threw a few things in a bag and headed towards the cabin.
I slept nearly the whole way.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I was glad she was feeling better.
Even though we'd been through it before with Christopher, it was harder this time to see her sick. Maybe it was because I knew that I was at least partially the cause of it.
She'd been so miserable, but at least she'd managed to stay out of the ER this time. That was a relief.
Sam had helped me get her a great present, one I knew she would like. It hadn't cost much of anything, but I hoped she'd appreciate the thought rather than the dollar value.
I pulled into the garage and reached over to touch her shoulder gently. "Lois, we're here."
"Huh?" She sat up sleepily. "I slept the whole way, didn't I?" she asked with a big yawn.
"Pretty close," I told her with a grin.
"Sorry." She yawned again.
I laughed. "It's okay. You needed the rest."
She opened her door and got out of the Jeep. Even though she still wasn’t even thirty weeks pregnant, the changes in her body were more than making her uncomfortable.
"So what's on the agenda for the afternoon?" she asked as she headed up the half staircase to the cabin.
"Whatever you want," I told her. "Movie, games, another nap – it's your call."
"Okay. Then what's for dinner and when is it?" She sank on to the couch.
I laughed again. "I'd planned on Creamy, Cheesy Chicken and Pasta with garlic bread and corn on the cob and chocolate cake for dessert."
"Yum."
I deposited our bags in our room – our room. It was coming much easier. I hadn't even thought about staying somewhere else this time.
"So what do you want to do?"
"Treadmill?" she asked. "Bungee jumping?"
I rolled my eyes as I sat in the big chair. "Seriously. Ready to challenge me at Scrabble again?"
"We are not playing Scrabble."
"Poker?"
"No."
I pulled my glasses down and looked at the game and movie cabinet. "Taboo is out. So is Pictionary. Scattergories?"
"I could go for Scattergories."
I went and got it out of the cabinet, handing her a folder and a set of cards and finding a working pen in the box.
Thirty minutes later, I was groaning again as she added up her points – and was more than just a bit smug about it.
"Want to go for double or nothing?" she asked.
"What were we betting?"
"Well, if you lost, you were going to give me a foot rub, and if you won, you were going to get to give me a foot rub." Her look dared me to try to argue with her.
"So if you win – or I win – you get both feet massaged?"
She glared at me. "A foot rub includes both feet."
"So if I lose – or you lose – what do you get this time? A foot rub and..."
"Legs, both of them."
I nodded. "Scattergories again?"
"Did you get any better in the last five minutes, Dr. Suess?"
"You never know."
She shrugged. "It's up to you."
"Your birthday, you pick the game." It didn't really matter – either way she won and she knew it and I knew it and she knew I knew it. "Monopoly?"
I expected a snap answer – either way, but instead she just stared at the still-open cabinet for a minute.
"No," she said quietly. "We don't play Monopoly anymore."
Right. "Sorry," I said quietly. "World domination?" I asked, looking at Risk. She was good at that game.
"Can I turn Latislan into a parking lot?"
I winced. Another letter had come a week earlier and, as usual, had sent her into a fairly foul mood whenever the subject came up – worse moods than when it had been a while. "That's a bit of overkill, don't you think? I'd bet most of the people there want him gone – probably some worse than we do."
"Probably," she admitted grudgingly. "Is there an assassination option?"
I shook my head.
"Then, no. No world domination today."
"Battleship?"
She nodded. "That we can do."
It was a kid's game, but we'd had fun playing it before. It was more fun when we'd played in a group of about six – winner was the last one with ships still afloat and you had to try to remember what everyone else had done – but we allowed pen and paper to help with that.
We played games for a couple more hours – during which time Lois also managed to acquire the rights to a back rub, a chilled room with a fire going even though it was May, a neck rub, feeding her chocolate cake while she reclined on the sofa, and a scalp massage complete with hair washing if we could find a comfortable way for her put her head in the sink – like at a salon and salon sinks were one thing that Sam didn't have at the house.
I had the feeling she was looking forward to collecting.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I was looking forward to collecting what I'd won – and I'd won fair and square, though I thought Clark might protest that a bit. I was pregnant and it was my birthday – I got to make the rules.
He was in the kitchen making dinner while I flipped through a magazine I'd brought.
Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound to our room and then another back to the kitchen.
I didn't even look up.
"There's something there for you," he called a few minutes later.
I looked up to see a beautifully wrapped box. My eyebrows went up. "The trip and dinner aren't my birthday present?"
"No, those are from our anniversary, remember?"
"Well, thanks."
He smiled at me as he leaned on one hip against the counter. "It didn't really cost much but some time and phone calls – and your dad made the biggest one of those for me – but I hope you like it."
I shot him a puzzled look as I tugged on the ribbon. It wouldn't come off.
He laughed as I kept tugging. "Just rip the paper."
I glared at him and then did just that. It was a shirt box from Macy's but I knew it wasn't shirts inside.
I shook the lid off so the bottom landed in my lap.
I gasped. "Are you for real?!"
Inside lay two autographed NCIS scripts. 'Twisted Sister' where Tim McGee's secret identity as Thom E. Gemcity the popular novelist was revealed and 'Cover Story' where his as-yet-unfinished second novel was being used as a script by a killer stalker/fan. Both were autographed by the complete cast, including guest stars.
"Clark, these are awesome! Thank you!"
"I don't remember which is which – but one is Cote de Pablo's and the other is Sean Murray's. They've got all their notes in them and everything."
"Wow. How did you get these?" I started to carefully flip through the first one.
"One of the guys your dad knows went to school with Don Bellasario and he made the first call for me and I went from there."
"Did you get to pick which episodes?"
"I actually talked to Mark Harmon..."
Gibbs? He'd talked to Gibbs?!
"...and he asked what your favorite episodes were or who your favorite character was. I told him Ziva was your favorite character but that you loved the Thom E. Gemcity stuff. He said he'd ask around and see what he could find."
"Well, he did good. These are incredible."
"You're Thom E. Gemcity, aren't you?" he asked me quietly.
I looked up to see that he wasn't really looking at me.
I nodded, figuring he could see me out of the corner of his eye.
"I thought so. I read your last two NaNo projects. They were really good. That's how I figured it out, actually. I'd been looking and had it narrowed down to that one and a couple other really good authors, but then I read where Ziva killed a dictator and..."
"Right."
"There were two really good ones being posted that had Tony and Abby getting together so I wasn't sure until then. They really are very good," he reiterated.
"Thank you." It meant a lot that he thought they were good – I wasn't sure why but it did.
"Dinner's ready," he said, putting plates on the table with a flourish.
Before I could even try to stand up, Clark was there helping me.
"Thank you," I told him as his hand rested on my back, giving gentle support as we headed towards the table.
We ate in relative silence – mainly because I couldn't stop eating long enough to talk.
"Was it like this again last time?" he asked. "I mean, I know what you told your dad this morning but... He doesn’t know the whole story."
I sighed before eating the last bite on my plate. "I don’t remember specifically having a hollow leg last time."
We moved to the couch. "Are you ready to talk names?" he asked, lifting my feet onto his lap and taking my socks off – my shoes had come on off in the car and I hadn't bothered to put them back on when we got to the cabin.
I sighed happily as he started massaging one foot. "Could you do your buzz-buzz thing and find out if this is a boy or a girl?"
He winced slightly. "I'd rather not, just in case I put out some kind of microwaves or something."
I sighed. "Fine. Girl names?"
He hesitated slightly. "Ellen or Lucy?"
Tears filled my eyes faster than I thought they ever had before. I swiped at the ones that streaked down my cheeks. "No," I whispered. "Maybe a middle name, but I don't think I could do a first name."
He nodded. "Okay."
"Are there any family names you'd like?"
He thought for a minute. "Well, my mom – my birth mom, that is – Lara maybe. Granny's name is Jessica. My mom." He shrugged. "My birth mom is the only one that really stands out. I mean, I love all of them, but I don't know that I'd want to use any of them."
"Right. What about boys?"
"Dave," he said quietly.
I shook my head. "No. Middle name, but not first name."
He nodded. "Sam?"
I thought about that for a minute. "Maybe. Your family?"
"We've already used two of my dads. Joel maybe? For Jor-El? Gramps was Silas."
I couldn't help wincing.
He laughed. "That was my thought."
"What about William? For Pop Pop?"
He hands stilled. "No. I don't think I could do that either."
I nodded. It was still too fresh. "I understand. Anybody else?"
"Dad was always pretty close to his grandpa – Nathaniel."
"Dad's dad's name was Nathan," I told him, surprised.
"Do you like that?" he asked me.
I nodded. "I loved Grandpa, but I don’t think it would hurt like the others would."
"Nathaniel David?"
"I like it," I answered as he switched feet. I moaned slightly as he hit just the right spot on the bottom of my foot. "And for a girl?"
"What do you think?"
"Larellen Lucielle?" I cocked my head to one side. "I dunno. What do you think?"
"What would we call her? I know you've always insisted on calling Christopher by his full name and not Chris, but you've never really said why that is."
"Chris was your dad," I told him. "And for some reason, he always struck me as more of a 'Christopher' than a 'Chris'."
"Would we actually call her Larellen?" He seemed a bit skeptical.
"Do you really like that?"
"It's kinda cool," he said thoughtfully. "The combination of their two names. I can't imagine calling her that though."
"Me either. Lara? Laurie? Ellie?"
"Ellie? Would you be okay with that?"
I nodded. "I think so."
"That settles it then. Unless inspiration strikes, Nathaniel David or Larellen Lucielle."
*****
TBC
