A/N:

It really is only fair to get all of this out into the open for you guys to (hopefully) enjoy! (Although I apologize for being kind of all over the place story-wise right now, the Muses are being very sporadic and even a little stingy with Their inspiration lately. I'm still working away at Stars and The Ossuary. I just pulled Stars up this morning to see if I could get a chapter of that up by the end of the week. The Ossuary may also see a chapter up in the next week or so also.)

This one will more of a collection of short scenes than a "story" per se, because I want to cover their entire relationship from the beginning to the "end".

As always reviews are love and seem to keep the Muses happy, even when they're pulling me in several directions at once.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Prologue:

.

In 2008, every single person on planet earth had been forced to accept on single, perspective-altering, fact: aliens existed.

What was more, they were hostile.

In the years before the earth was snatched from its orbit by Daleks and returned under bazaar circumstances (to say the least), there had been rumours of aliens. Suspicions. Ideas. Hints.

Roswell.

Area 51.

The pyramids of Mars.

The pyramids in Egypt.

Artefacts allegedly found at the South Pole.

Stonehenge.

Some people even believed that yeti, the Loch Ness monster and bigfoots were really aliens. And no one would discount the fact that London was not a place one wanted to be at Christmas; that city was a magnet for weirdness at the holidays.

No one could discount the "ghosts" that had appeared all over the world the year before the Dalek invasion, either, just before something strange went down in London. Not that many people had access to that information, but those in the intelligence community knew that something had happened, even if the British government was keeping a tight lid on what that something was—just like they had kept a tight lid on other strange and suspicious things that had happened over the years. Decades. Centuries.

But the Brits weren't the only ones with secrets. The US had its fair share as well. Leroy Jethro Gibbs even happened to know a few. But nothing he knew, either through first hand experience or via the proverbial grapevine, could have prepared him for what had happened early September of 2009.

We are… we are coming… we are coming back…

Chapter One:

23 September, 2009

Ten days after the "departure" of the 456 from Earth

.

Alice Carter took a breath and let it out. Even though the bevelled glass of her front door, she recognized the outline of the man standing on her porch. Like most of her neighbours, she was slow in letting her life go back to 'normal'—not that her life had ever really been normal. There had been little puddles of normalcy here and there, but… no, she wouldn't call her life normal, not with parents like hers. Her father… he'd called her twice in the last week, 'just to check in on her'—just to ask when he could come by and see her and Steven. She'd told him the same thing both times. She wasn't ready.

What she didn't tell him—what she didn't know how to say—was that she wasn't sure she would ever be ready, that she wished he would just leave her alone.

Each time she got off the phone with him, she found herself feeling guilty. She loved him. But she hated him too—not for what he'd done or not done, but for what he was. Immortal. Unaging.

A fixed point in time… Ianto Jones' words. Ianto Jones-Harkness she thought bitterly. She hated him too, although not because he was her father's husband. No, she resented the quiet, too-young Welshman for the easy way he accepted all of the things about her father that bothered her the most, for the ease with which he had seemed to accept her existence as a fact—nothing more, nothing less. She was angry at him for the way he'd been able to talk to her without resentment or malice, something she had been unable to help herself but feel towards him. She hated it that he had stood steadfast next to her father during what had to have been the most difficult moments of his life, deciding whether or not it was worth it to sacrifice his own grandson to save the rest of the children of earth… she hated it that she couldn't love him enough to trust him, trust him enough to love him.

He didn't ask for this. He was born just as human as you and I, but something happened to him. It can't ever be undone…

Alice hadn't known it wasn't his fault, her father had never told her, so how could she know? She had asked once if he was really human, when she first discovered that she was pregnant with Steven. He'd promised her that he was. She hadn't believed him. That had been the first time she'd called him in almost ten years.

She remembered how happy he'd been for her when she told him about being pregnant, how utterly elated he was when she agreed to let him take her out to lunch, spoil her a little. He'd been so supportive…

He's still human. He still loves. He still gets hurt. He even still dies, he just doesn't stay that way for long—and that hurts too… he would outlive everybody he knew, everyone he loved, bury them all, just like he'd helped her bury her mother…

Alice took another breath and opened up the front door, forcing a smile at the man standing on the other side. "Did my father send you?" she asked him; despite her best efforts, her tone was chilly. She supposed that even if her father had sent him, he really didn't deserve it. Of all the people she'd met that week, Leroy Jethro Gibbs was probably the one she felt most comfortable with. He was the one that seemed the most normal.

"Nope," he answered her question with an easy, earnest smile.

Alice blinked. She didn't know why she believed him, but she did. "Would you like to come in?" she stepped aside so that he could.

He nodded, wiped his feet off on the mat and came into the entrance hall. "Nice place." He hadn't really looked around.

"Thank you," she said anyway, feeling suddenly a little awkward. After all, if her father hadn't sent Gibbs to talk to her, convince her to let him see Steven…

"Just out of curiosity," the American began, then, "if you dad had sent me, would you still have invited me in?"

"I…I'm not sure," she told him the truth; he just gave over a half-grin.

"Even though he didn't ask me to drop by… "

"Please don't—"

"I'm not," the other assured her. "It's not my place. I was just thinking that after that week, everything we could have lost…"

"I know my father is the dashing hero, Mr Gibbs. He saved the world. It's what he does."

"Ever wonder who he's saving it for?" he gave her a pointed look.

She swallowed hard and found herself unable to fully meet his gaze.

"There's nothing stronger than a father's love for his little girl," he told her in that same sort of quiet tone he'd used when he told her he didn't have children. Again, it made her wonder if he was lying… why…

But again, she didn't press it, offering him a cup of tea, instead. "Or do you prefer coffee?" she asked. Anything to get him off the subject of fathers and daughters.

Gibbs shrugged. "Whatever you're having."

She led the way into the kitchen. "So… if you're not here because of my father…?" she queried over her shoulder, as she set up the coffee pot.

"I wanted to check in on you and Steven, see how you were coping with 'Britain back to normal—for real this time'," he answered her in an earnest tone, although it was obvious the kind of contempt he felt for this week's headlines.

Alice studied him for a moment before speaking again, almost unable to believe that the easiest answer was really the truth. "He went to school today," she said at last. "This is the first time in over a week that I was willing to let him out of my sight. I'm on pins and needles about it."

He nodded, but didn't speak.

"He thinks I'm smothering him," she went on to admit. "He keeps calling me over protective… wondering why I can't just trust his 'uncle' Jack—wondering when I'm going to let him come round…not that… not that he's ever said I'm the reason he doesn't visit, but Steven knows. He just… he knows…" she wrapped her arms around herself, but she still felt cold. "All of his friends were back in school within a couple of days, I… I just couldn't, any more than I can explain to him about… about my father and why I don't trust him." She didn't know why she was telling so much. After all, Jethro Gibbs was a stranger…

But in response to her ramblings, he simply nodded again, stepped a little closer… hesitated, but then placed his hands over her shoulders, warming her. "It must be hard, having a man like Harkness for a father." He sounded sincere.

"You have no idea."

"You're right. I don't."

She smiled, appreciating his honesty.

The coffee was ready.

Alice pulled away, poured two cups. "Milk or sugar?" she asked.

"Just black," he took the cup from her with another one of those smiles. Honest. Open. She doubted that he was really as open and uncomplicated as he came across, but she didn't get the sense that there was any kind duplicity in his nature, either.

"I don't think I ever asked you how you got mixed up in my father's world," Alice said then, gesturing for him to follow her into the lounge where they could sit comfortably.

Gibbs flashed a wry grin and started telling her…