Sweet Sixteens

Over the next few hours things became quite a bit interesting like they always did around the time of Hannah, Leah and JD’s birthdays. The girls had wanted Jen and Jethro to be at their party; so Ziva, Tony, Nick and I had to decide what to do. I didn’t want to tell them to cut their vacation short since it wasn’t fair to them. Jen and Jethro had only just gotten to Positano which meant that they still had Serbia left. Due to all of the factors we decided to have two parties for the girls this time. One with their friends from school and then a dinner out with their NCIS family; just as I had gone out with the gang fourteen years ago.
I felt so beyond disconnected as I sat up in my sister’s office, disconnected from the others. It was a nice change of pace; but unlike my sister who loved being Director more than being a field agent, I absolutely loved being a field agent. Just as I sat back in my sister’s very comfortable office chair to relax, Cynthia had buzzed me from her desk to say there was a Senator on line one wanting to talk to the Director. Since I was acting director, I obviously had to take this pointless phone call and deal with yet another petulant Senator.
“Director Shepard.” I said.
“Hello; Director Shepard, its Senator Ryans. I just called to see if you had looked over the GAO notes from the last meeting.”
I obviously had no clue what the hell Senator Ryans was talking about and he clearly didn’t realize that I wasn’t my sister.
“Ah Senator, who do you think you are talking to?” I asked.
“NCIS Director Jennifer Shepard, of course.” the Senator replied.
“Sorry; but no, my name is Jaylyn Shepard. I am filling in for my sister while she and Agent Gibbs are on vacation. I have no idea what you are talking about as far as notes go.”
“Well then, have your sister call me when she gets back from her vacation.” Senator Ryans said as he abruptly got off the phone.
“And that is why I prefer being an agent.” I said to myself.
I was counting down the days until Jen and Jethro returned; I more than wanted a bit of normalcy in my life again. Especially with my eldest daughter turning sixteen soon. I knew that wasn’t going to happened until Jen and Jethro returned; even then it wasn’t going to be normal or remotely close to normal until the girls had their family dinner with all of us.
But as I adjusted the chain around my neck and pulled the one thing that kept connected me to the rest of the team out from underneath my shirt, things became a little better. About three years ago; on the anniversary of when Leon broke up Jethro’s team, Jethro had gotten all nine of us engraved dog tags. On the dog tags Jethro had each one engraved with Jethro’s A+ Team followed by our name. Just knowing that the others including Jenny, Ducky and Palmer were wearing their dog tags made everything better.
Everyday all nine of us wore our dog tags at Jethro’s request. The guys had decided to just let the chains of their respective dog tags sat on remain visible. Jenny, Ziva, Kate, Abby and I had no shame in letting our respective dog tags be visible when we wore them. Within the twenty-six years Jenny had known Jethro he had been so many things to her. He had been her lover, protector and confidant as well as the one person she knew that she would spend the rest of her life with whether there was a ring on her hand or not.
For me Jethro was like the brother I never had. Jethro was obviously Kate, Abby and Ziva’s protector along with being their father figure. All five of us were quite attached to Jethro, which gave us the add bonus of everyone within NCIS knowing that they would be in a world of trouble if we weren’t happy. No one messed with Jethro’s girls. During my last phone call with Jenny there had been a slight hint from her that they were bringing back gifts for all of the kids.
Throughout the day Jen had been texting me when she and Jethro weren’t entwined in each other. I had told her about the girls’ party later that night, how Ziva and I scrambled at the last minute to invite everyone we thought the girls wanted at their party. Jen had loved the ideas we came up with, but at the same time she hated being away from her nieces when they had an important birthday coming up. Ziva and I decided at the start of the work day that the girls’ party was going to a surprise party for them, so we only told them that all of us would celebrate their sweet sixteen birthdays when Jen and Jethro returned. Nick and Tony were bringing the girls to the banquet hall we had gotten for their surprise party that night.
Later that night all of the girls friends, Ziva and myself waited in a darken banquet hall as we saw the headlights of the car that had our respective husbands and the girls in it pull up. Within minutes Hannah, Leah and JD walked in with Nick and Tony; the lights came on as the girls stood completely stunned. Once the shock wore off Hannah, Leah and JD made their way to their respective boyfriends. Both Tony and Nick couldn’t believe what they saw.
It was clear that Tony was worried that his daughters were dating boys that were just like he was before his transformation from womanizer to gentleman. I could tell that Nick was just as worried as Tony. Ziva on the other had a look on her face that told me that she had no idea that her twin sixteen year old daughters had boyfriends.
“I guess you didn’t know.” I said.
“You guessed right, Jay.” Ziva answered.
Tony and Nick promptly came to us after the girls had kissed their respective boyfriends.
“They are dating.” Tony said.
“When did this happen?” Nick asked.
“Most likely a few months ago.” I said.
“This isn’t good; they shouldn’t be that intimate with those boys at this age.” Tony said.
Ziva and I laughed at Tony.
“What’s so funny?” Tony asked.
“It’s nothing.” Ziva said covering for us since we both saw the irony of Tony’s statement knowing what he was like before he married Ziva.
“Don’t worry the girls have a head on their shoulders and they won’t do anything they don’t want to do. Have faith in them, they are intelligent young women.” I said.
Before long the worried looks had dissipated from Tony, Ziva and Nick’s faces. But just like me they were still a bit concerned. Apparently that was normal for parents who had teenage daughters dating.