It all started when Gibbs passed by a little kid on the street.
He had to stop because the little boy couldn't have been more than 10 years old.
"Hey. What are you doing out here?" Gibbs asked, squatting down to get a better look at the little boy.
"Working." The boy replied.
His brown hair looked more black due to dirt, his green eyes where dulled by boredom, his skin was tanned, but he was loosing the color. His face said Italian.
"What's your name?" Gibbs asked.
"Anthony DiNozzo."
"What's a little boy like you working in the streets for, Anthony DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned again.
"I'm promoting business for our halfway house." Anthony shrugged.
"Where's your house?"
"Over there." Anthony pointed to a house with peeling paint and broken shutters.
"Alright, come on." Gibbs stood and held out his hand.
"Why?" Anthony asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"I'm gonna take you back home. There's no one out here and it's a busy street. Can't have you getting hit by a car." Gibbs replied.
He was later walking back home with Tony by his side after seeing the disgusting state the home was in.
Given that Tony was the only one here, Gibbs just took him and went to the closest adoption agency to take up his grievances with Tony's Social Worker.
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
Two weeks later, he found a young girl in a lot slipping candy bars into her skirt pockets.
"You know those cost money right?" He'd asked as he stopped her from taking another.
"Yes." The little girl, barely older than Tony, replied.
"Did you intend on paying for them?" Gibbs asked.
"Are you gonna tell?" She asked back, brown eyes wide with fear.
"No." Gibbs replied. "But I'll need to go talk to your parents."
"My parents are dead." The girl spat, pouring all the venom in her tiny body into those words.
Gibbs sighed, knowing immediately that she'd likely be going home with him too. "Well. Who looks after you, I want to talk to them."
True to prediction, Gibbs ended up taking Miss Abigail Sciuto home with him.
Ducky, Gibbs's older half-brother, merely looked at Abby with a kind of humor in his eyes. "Another one Jethro?" He asked. "Is she staying permanently?"
Gibbs only nodded. "Yup."
Ducky's smile told him everything he needed to know.
What was one more addition to his family?
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
It was roughly six weeks later and Gibbs was out grocery shopping while Ducky watched the kids.
The kids. Huh, it was so easy to call them "the kids" now. Hell, it was easier to call them his kids now.
He was just looking through the different types of pasta noodles when a little girl came up to him and tugged on his shirt.
He looked down to see a little girl with brown hair and chestnut colored eyes. This one was just a little younger than Abby. He crouched down. "Hi, sweetheart. What's wrong?" He asked, frowning when he noticed her red tinged eyes and red nose. "Why are you crying?"
"H-Have you seen my Mommy?" She asked, sniffling.
"No, honey, I don't think so. What's she look like?" Gibbs asked, looking around for a woman who was similar to this little girl in front of him.
"She's got yellow hair and blue eyes and she's a little shorter than you are." The little girl replied between sniffs.
"Okay, sweetheart, what's your name?"
"Caitlyn Todd, but everyone calls me Kate." The little girl sniffled, rubbing her red rimmed eyes.
"Okay, Kate, what's your Mom's name?"
"J-Jamie T-Todd."
So Gibbs went running all over the store looking for a woman named Jamie Todd. They never found her, but when Gibbs took her up front, a quick look at security cameras told Gibbs that the woman had abandoned her daughter.
"Kate, sweetheart, I'm gonna call the police. They'll be able to find your mother, alright?" Gibbs asked the little girl.
Kate sniffled and nodded.
Gibbs brought her home with intention to let her stay a few days while the police looked. She ended up staying a week, which turned into two, then a month and Gibbs ended up keeping her.
What was one more kid in his house?
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
Roughly two months after that, Gibbs met a boy who was crying over two bodies in an alley.
He'd followed the crying and found a little boy with pale skin, brown hair, and hazel eyes.
"Hello?" Gibbs called down the alley.
"Wh-who's there?" Called a small voice.
Gibbs knelt down next to the kid, not sparing a glance to the two dead bodies. "What happened?"
"There was a man and he- he had a gun. He pointed it and there was a bang and Mom won't get up." The little boy explained, then he dissolved into tears and Gibbs gently patted his back as he called the police.
The police got there, but it was already too late.
Timothy McGee's parents had already passed.
"Sir, he has no other living relatives." The police officer told Gibbs.
Gibbs turned and watched as Tim talked to the police men and they tried to make him laugh.
Thus far, they where successful.
Gibbs sighed. "I'll take him."
The police officer looked at him in surprise. "Really?"
Gibbs nodded. "Sure, what's one more addition to my family."
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
The next child, Ziva David, was the daughter of an old friend.
Gibbs's younger half-sister, Jenny Shepard, had to bring her because Eli David was apparently being hunted and he didn't want his daughter in the middle of it.
So, Jenny had brought Ziva to Gibbs.
"Jenny! I've already got four kids to take care of!" Gibbs seethed through gritted teeth.
Jenny smiled. "What's one more addition to the family Jethro?"
"You-!" Gibbs stopped, voice fading in his throat and his anger left him in a quick second. He sighed. "Alright, bring her to meet me in an hour. I'm taking the kids to the park, Ducky can watch them while I meet her."
Three hours later, Ziva David was in the car on the way home with Gibbs and his family.
Ducky looked at Gibbs and raised an eyebrow. "Did our sister coerce you into this?" He asked.
"Nope." Gibbs replied. "Eli David did."
NCIS~NCIS~NCIS
The sixth and final child was brought to Gibbs two months after Ziva.
There was a knock on the door one night in the early morning, around two.
The knocks where frantic and rushed and Gibbs blinked awake with a groan.
The knocking came again and Gibbs managed to haul himself up and go down to the door.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He called, he briefly wondered where Ducky was, then remembered that Ducky had gone to visit his mother.
"Alright, alright!" He shouted wrenching open the door.
There stood Ducky, drenched because of the rain pouring behind him in the yard. "Ducky?"
"Jethro, listen. I know you've got a lot on your plate with the kids you've adopted and I don't mean to dump more on you, but... Well, an old friend of mine connected with me over the weekend and she was in trouble. No job, no money and another baby on the way she wouldn't be able to take care of and-" Gibbs sighed and held up a hand.
"Hey! Tell me what's happened."
Ducky sighed. "Well. Let me introduce you to James." He looked down and for the first time, Gibbs noticed the pale skinned boy with curly brown hair and deep, carmel brown eyes blown wide behind thick, wire framed glasses.
Gibbs squatted down and got a better look at the shy boy that was hiding behind Ducky's legs.
"Hi." Gibbs said. "I'm Gibbs. What's your name?" He asked.
"I'm James Palmer, but all my friends call me Jimmy." The little boy replied, he had to be eight years old at least.
"Okay. Is it alright if I call you Jimmy?" Gibbs asked softly.
Jimmy nodded. "Y-Yeah." He replied.
"Can you tell me what's happened to your Mother, Jimmy?"
"Sh-she said that she couldn't keep me any more. That I had to go with Ducky because I could get taken away from both of them completely and she didn't want that." Jimmy replied.
Gibbs nodded. "Alright, c'mere. I'll grab some blankets and get you set up on the couch. You must be pretty tired."
Jimmy nodded.
"Alright. Come on in, kiddo. You too, Ducky." Gibbs opened the door further and let the two in, fetching Ducky a towel when he dripped on the floor.
Gibbs was quick to get some blankets and a few pillows for Jimmy and settled him down on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate.
"Thank you." Jimmy murmured as he accepted the mug and took a cautious sip.
Gibbs nodded and then walked back to the kitchen, close enough to been in eyesight, but far enough away that they wouldn't be over heard.
"What happened, Ducky?" Gibbs asked.
"The poor lad's mother lost her job a few years ago and has been trying to make ends meet ever since. She ended up have to sell herself out so Jimmy could eat. When she found me, she was withering away and pregnant. She could hardly care for herself, much less her nine year old son. I'm his Godfather so she gave him off to me when I checked her into the hospital. I don't have the room for a child right now, but I can't leave him alone. Would you mind taking him until I can find a better place?" Ducky asked.
"Why don't you just move in with me? That way you don't have to spend so much money and both of you are taken care of." Gonna offered.
"Are you sure, Jethro? I'd hate to intrude." Ducky protested.
Gibbs only smiled and nodded.
"What's a few more additions to me?"