Chapter 24

Tim spent the rest of that week and into the next working to finish the basement. He and his dad drew up plans, consulting an architect. Then Tim sent the plan to the property owners who not only approved but asked that a half bath be added. They also offered to share costs with him. He'd originally planned to leave the room open but the addition of a bathroom meant walls and he decided that those walls should be extended to include storage. Lots of storage. That went into the plan. With the approval, the next step was permits and the homeowners sent back signed copies of the forms. While they waited for the permits, Dad taught his son the fundamentals of framing new walls and attaching them to concrete. With the permits in place, Tim's first steps after their return from Fenwick Island were painting the concrete walls and getting the framing started. They were lucky that when the house was built, someone added an outside door to the basement, poured and leveled a concrete floor. Now, no excavation was needed, there was no concrete to be poured and the exterior walls had already been waterproofed by the homeowners.

By the time Dad got home from work on Wednesday, enough framing had been done for him to inspect. He looked at every board, every nail, and angle, and then with a smile, said, "Well done, Elf Lord!"

Tim beamed at him, he loved learning new things and succeeding at what his father taught him was a great feeling.

Working side by side, father and son completed another wall that evening. By Friday night, the framing for the bathroom and storage room was done and over the weekend, they set the framing for the rest of the room. Next came the electrical and that was all on Tim. He planned to expand the wiring from the one light fixture to a fully functional space. He'd included that in his proposal to the property owners, sending a copy of his electrician's license. Although he'd had it for years, he'd never seen the need to mention it to anyone at work. When his dad looked at the full proposal they were sending, he was surprised to see Tim's name as the licensed electrician. He'd known his son could do some wiring, he hadn't realized he could do it all - and legally. Sometimes he thought he would burst with pride in his child. When he said that to Tim, he got a shy, happy smile.

As Tim finished the electrical, the McGees' friends Freddy and Jose arrived to do the plumbing, installing a full bathroom. Tim and the homeowners originally thought a half bath would be sufficient but decided that if another bedroom or even a rental unit was built down there, the full bath would already be in place.

Although it was work, Tim enjoyed having his friends there. Along with Barry, they'd been tent mates of Geordie's for all but the last year of Tim's residence at the camp. By then they'd finished their apprenticeships and were earning enough for a studio apartment. Eventually they started their own business and were always happy to help an old friend. It didn't hurt that for the duration of the renovation, Tim's house sported a sign advertising their business.

Next came the part Tim and Dad dreaded: installing the drywall. While Dad was at work, Tim researched several dozen sites and watched 5 YouTube videos. They had the drywall, the tape, the drywall screws and the mud. Finally they each took a deep breath and got started. They did the ceiling first and when that turned out all right, they tackled the rest of the room, first installing insulation. Tobias kicked in a few hours of help as did one of their neighbors, Tony and Bob; between them all, it got it done. Wanting the kids to be able to ride bikes and skate meant leaving the concrete floors intact, but they did set aside a corner of the room for a more comfortable play area, installing cork flooring and cubbies for the kids' toys. They even built a little picket fence around it to keep bikes and skaters away. They primed and painted all the drywall in bright fun colors before tackling the trim and framework for the doors to the bathroom and storage room. Once they completed the rest of the finishing work for all three rooms, they were done. Nothing fancy but it provided a much needed play space for the children.

While they'd been working on the room, the kids were in daycare but Tim also spent a lot of time with them. With the basement work in progress, Grandpa Mac's planned visit was postponed until it was done. In the meantime, the three Gibbses took at least one day a week to visit Grandpa and his beach. Sometimes they went on a weekend so Ellie could go with them and those were Tim's favorite visits. In between, they explored the many child friendly attractions in the DC Metro area. The water park was great during the week. While it was difficult with only one adult, Unca Rob loved going with them on his days off. With another adult along, they could handle three kids and Victoria came along a few times. When she could, Aunty Breena joined them. With Ellie's help, the kids had pony rides and loved them. They were too young for riding lessons but Tim filed the idea away for later. They wouldn't always be toddlers!

Tim saw a great little kid obstacle course video on Facebook, set up with pool noodles and had one set up on their own patch of grass within a day. He switched it around, found new things to do with it and the kids loved it; it helped their coordination, kept them active and happy.

Ty's third birthday was coming up in early September, the same day as Poppy's. With Ellie's help and a lot of input from Breena, Tim started planning the dual birthdays. The second, their actual birthday, was on a Wednesday this year so their parties would be held over the weekend and Tim asked Tony to work with Vance to have the team off rotation. This was Tyler's first birthday as a Gibbs and Jethro's first with his son and grandchildren, he wanted to make sure all their family was present without any worries about cases. Mac scheduled his visit for that week; Rob would drive up to get him, he'd stay over the party weekend and then Tim and the kids would drive him home.

Mac's visit and the parties that weekend were a smashing success. Tim arranged a visit to NCIS for him and the children went to daycare that day, Tim planned to bring them into the office at Christmas time to see the big tree. Otherwise, it was just office furniture and orange walls to them.

Mac loved seeing where his grandson and son-in-law worked. It was also fun seeing the rest of the NCIS group in what Tony referred to as their 'native habitat'. They'd just wrapped up a case so Dad showed him some of the steps they'd gone through. He was thrilled to meet his family's co-workers and friends, not to mention Director Vance. He hadn't yet met Abby but had heard wonderful things about her, her work and her 'magical' lab. She in turn was excited to meet Tim's grandfather and show him her lab. She'd made a lot of personal progress over the summer and even joined Tim and the kids for a trip to the petting zoo one afternoon. After some deep soul searching, she accepted Tim's relationship with Ellie, apologizing to both for her previous intransigence.

Although there were a few things around DC Mac wanted to see or do, he was most interested in spending time with his family and that worked out well. He loved getting reacquainted with the home his daughter, granddaughter and Jethro had lived in; spent hours looking at pictures, especially enjoying the shots with his co-grandfather Jackson Gibbs in them. He could see by the more recent ones, before Jack's death, that Tim had been right in describing Jack's relationship with Tim, Tony, Abby, Ducky, Jimmy, Tobias and a dark haired woman named Ziva.

His son-in-law took Wednesday, his and Ty's birthday, off and the family drove to Point Lookout for the day celebrating with dinner out so no one had to cook and everyone got what they wanted. They did have cake and ice cream once they got home; Tim was proud of the cake he'd made and the writing he'd managed: "Happy Birthday to Jethro and Tyler! 1st birthday as Poppy and Grandson!"

The parties over the weekend were a lot of fun. After talking to Breena and the daycare folks, Tim and Ty made invitations for 8 of his friends. The party was from 2-4 on Saturday, after naps and it was clear there was only cake and ice cream being served. They'd decided on a 'beach' theme; Tim attached a note to the invitation that the kids could come in their bathing suits or dress up as a fish, dolphin, mermaid or merboy or even a sailor and there would be water. Rather than use the wading pool, they'd have sprinklers on and the kids could run through them. He and Mac then filled the wading pool with sand so the kids could build sand castles.

Buckets with a few toy sea creatures and shovels for all the invitees constituted their 'goody bags', beach umbrellas and towels completed the look. Except Tim thought about barefoot toddlers, a hot day and the concrete that made up the patio. He didn't want to make any permanent changes and that gave him an inexpensive idea. First, he bought carpet squares from the bargain bin at the local home center, all of them a sandy color. Strategically placing them on the concrete patio, they became walking paths to and from the lawn. Adding a few large seashells and a tub of plastic sea creatures helped set the theme. Very low tech but a lot of fun!

Following advice he found online, Tim hired an entertainer who would entertain the kids for about a half an hour, then they'd have cake and ice cream, followed by playtime. Tim's only stipulation to the entertainer was no clowns. He'd never liked clowns. The entertainer laughed when he said that, saying people either loved or hated them but he liked to tie his costume into the theme of the party anyway.

Tim ordered the cake from a bakery Breena recommended, in the shape of a beach with seashells, a pair of flip-flops next to a beach towel, while the ocean would be blue waves, a smiling dolphin watching the shore through the waves. Ty's favorite ice cream was a Ben and Jerry's flavor and Tim didn't relish the idea of buying 5 containers of it so he bought a half gallon of vanilla and a little blue food coloring. The kids loved it.

He'd been a little worried about slip and falls on the wet lawn but there were no mishaps. The parents loved the kids being 'washed off' after their cake and ice cream not to mention the 'sand' stepping-stones. Some of them, Tim included, joined the kids in the sprinklers. The sandbox swimming pool was a big hit as well as the beach buckets and shovels.

Victoria was there with Jimmy, Granducky, Grandpa Mac, Poppy, Unca Rob and of course Ellie. Breena opted for time to herself while the others would be at Gibbs' party on Sunday. Tim hadn't been sure if he needed to do anything with the parents but they were an amiable bunch and had a good time swapping daycare stories. Besides Jimmy, there were two other dads and Tim was relieved it wasn't all moms.

It was funny, until the first parent and child arrived he hadn't thought about the daycare being aboard the Navy Yard. So yes, he knew several of the parents from work, which meant that they swapped work stories although there were no cases mentioned. As always, Tim was supremely happy to have Ellie there with him.

Sunday was just as much fun although in a grown up way. They moved the party to Gibbs' backyard and set up a volleyball net, croquet wickets and a ping-pong table. They borrowed the Palmers' wading pool as the other one was still pretending to be a beach and set it up in the backyard so the kids could have fun and stay cool.

Fornell had offered to do the grilling, much to Tim and Tony's relief. Today they were eating steak with baked potatoes and a salad that Dad could pick at or ignore. The boys moved Tim's (Sue and Deeny's) large patio table, benches and chairs down the back alley to Gibbs' yard so there was room for everyone to sit at the table. Of course, there were balloons and Abby made a Happy Birthday banner that was tied to the trees.

They had a great afternoon playing volleyball and croquet for those who didn't want to jump around, Breena, Granducky, Dad and Grandpa. Ping-pong proved to be a big draw. Tony and Rob paired up to play Tim and Ellie who beat them and then they played Abby and Bob and won that game too. The kids were in the pool so long Granducky got them out, saying they were getting pruney. They also played croquet, with some help.

Tim was amused at how competitive Brynie was, she'd get her mallet and ball lined up and stand there concentrating, her little tongue posed between her lips. He'd observed this before and thought she was probably going to be the more athletic of his children. He was just thrilled to see any athletic ability! Granducky and Grandpa Mac spoke jokingly about teaching the kids to play golf and Tim smiled, that would be great for the four of them.

Finally, sitting down to dinner, Tim and his father smiled at each other as Ty and Brynie held out their hands to say grace. This time the nod was to Grandpa Mac who'd been forewarned. As he spoke, the others bowed their heads.

Tim looked at his dad and the warm look he got back said it all. Words were not enough to express how thankful they were for the surprises they'd been handed: each other, the children and their family.

The End

Here's a bit from the next story, 'Ripples':

Gibbs flew upstairs, meeting Vance as he exited MTAC. "Tim's got trouble, he's being followed. We got Metro in place and they'll stay at the house until we can get a detail over there."

Vance nodded to his Lead agent, "Any idea who or why?"

"Don't know what he's working on; he said it's pretty hot."