Realism

"Stop grabbing the chocolate chips, Tony! I told you I'm making gingerbread cats and I need those chips for their eyes." Abby's voice reflected her outrage. She leaned protectively over the kitchen counter, cookie cutter in hand.

Jack attempted in vain to keep his attention on the novel he wanted to read in the living room while the sounds of Abby and Tony battling in the kitchen rose to a fever pitch.

He stopped trying, finally, and set the book down on the coffee table. Interlocking his hands at the back of his head, he surveyed the snow and ice outside the living room window instead.

"No, Baby Girl, you know good and well that I had them first," Tony argued just as loudly. "You didn't even think about cooking anything until you saw I wanted to eat them."

With that, he reached his hand into the bag and brought it up filled with several of the tasty chocolate morsels, which he crammed into his mouth with a dramatic flourish.

"Give them here!" Abby demanded, snatching the bag out of Tony's hand, her pigtails swinging with the angry movement.

Still in possessions of the goodies, he yanked back equally as hard, and in their struggle, the plastic bag broke, and the chocolate chips rocketed violently throughout the kitchen, showering over the counter and floor.

Before they could take in the loss of the chips, they recognized the noise from Gibbs stomping up the stairs from the basement. Evidently, he had heard the altercation.

Tony narrowed his eyes and hissed, "Are you happy now?"

Her response was to stick out her tongue.

Jethro took in the furious expressions of both Tony and Abby, and then the chocolate chips covering the counters and floors as he stood in the kitchen's doorway.

Trying to not raise his voice, he pinched the bridge of his nose and ground out, "Abby, what do you think you are doing in here?"

She instantly replied with both a hurt expression and a voice raised in irritation. "Why did you have to only call me out? It's not even my fault! What about Tony? He's the one who…."

Gibbs cut off her tirade by snapping, "You haven't given me a chance to finish speaking, Young Lady, but you had better take care of that attitude quickly, or I promise you that I will take care of it for you."

Tony, interpreting his boss's anger level, wisely didn't offer any remarks or observations.

Abby fidgeted, and glanced in Tony's direction. He shook his head in a signal for her to stop and not say any more.

She nodded at Gibbs.

Jethro continued, and his voice rose as he pointed to them and to the candy covering the kitchen. "Both of you get this kitchen completely clean in ten minutes or you are going to find yourselves to be some unhappy campers. Both of you- not one of you, take care of this without any more fighting. I will not tell you again, and you will absolutely regret it if I have to come back in here."

Then, expecting their immediate obedience, he grabbed a cup, filled it with steaming coffee from the exhausted coffee pot, and made his way towards the living room. Stopping suddenly, he turned around to add in a no nonsense tone, "Abby, remember that if you don't take care of your attitude very quickly I will take care of it for you."

She nodded and responded softly, "Ok, I heard you," realizing that he meant business. Looking sideways at him, she waited to see if that satisfied him.

It evidently did. He started into the living room once again, rubbing his tense shoulders as he walked. Abby rarely found herself the target of his displeasure, and her behavior usually put Tony's to shame. Her conduct surprised him.

Jackson eyed him over his glasses and pointed to the recliner. "Sit down and start drinking that coffee. They'll get the kitchen clean, Son."

Automatically, he started to refuse out of habit. He caught himself, though, and Jethro did as his father said and nodded, "I know, Dad, but I had really hoped they could spend the morning not fighting." He took a long sip of coffee and grinned at Jack.

Jack smiled sympathetically, taking his glasses off and setting them on a side table. "Son, we're housebound here. We have been locked in for three days in the middle of a major blizzard. Everyone is feeling the strain, most especially Tony and Abby. They are both energetic, with get up and go personalities, and they are suffering from the confinement. Try to be patient with them, Son."

His father made sense, and he knew it.

Gibbs admitted, "All told, they have been pretty cooperative- until today, I guess."

He took another sip of his steaming coffee and smiled at his parent. "I am glad that you made it down here before the storm hit. It worries me, Dad, when I don't think you're being careful. You should have headed down here when the forecasts predicted the blizzard last week."

Jackson Gibbs still resided in Stillwater, Pennsylvania, where he operated a general store. That had been Jethro's home, too, until he joined the Marines.

"There's nothing to worry about, Son. I'm here," Jack responded, and pointed towards the kitchen, then stood up and stretched.

"I'll be back in a quick minute, Leroy." He made his way to the kitchen where Tony and Abby had already cleaned up the chocolate morsels. Together at the counter, they were bent over a cookie sheet, heads touching.

"What are you two doing?" He peeped over their shoulders and put an arm around each. Tony had a paring knife and was cutting off little pieces of a candy bar, which Abby then took to use as eyes for her cat cookies.

"Sorry about the fussing earlier. Baby Girl and I had both planned freaking weekends, not being confined to the house. We blew up at each other when we're really just disappointed about the weather cramping our fun. Anyway, how does this look?" Tony asked, pointing at the kitty cat treats.

"Wonderful, like at a bakery, and I think the candy bar makes better eyes than the chips," Jack answered.

"We kind of destroyed the chocolate morsels, but Tony remembered where a candy bar was." Abby smiled.

"Now, that's what I call teamwork," Jack smiled, then squeezed each on the shoulder. He moved to the area of the kitchen set up as the home office. Rummaging through the drawers, he came up with three legal paper pads and several pens in his grasp, then made his way back into the living room where his son sat quietly.

Gibbs eyed the stationery with interest as he moved to sit on the large, overstuffed sofa. Abby and Tony had spent weeks hounding him about the condition of the old one, until he finally got tired of hearing them and conceded one Saturday. They bought the new sofa that day, and Gibbs actually liked it, though he would not share that with Tony and Abby. Besides its roomy design, it housed a sofa bed, as well.

"What's on your mind, Dad?"

Jack smiled and his eyes twinkled, but he didn't answer, as he set the paper and pens on the coffee table. When Jack didn't respond, Gibbs started working on his crossword again, certain his dad would reveal his intentions eventually.

Jackson reached down and once again retrieved the novel he was reading, then settled comfortably in the plush armchair.

The men sat in companionable silence.