Title: A New Christmas

Author: April

Fandom: NCIS (Jibbs)

Date: November 11 2008

Feedback: PLEASE!

Rating: G

Disclaimer: All usual apply. All I own is Lily. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, of course, belongs to Dr. Seuss.

Summary: Jenny & Jethro spend their first family Christmas together.

Dedications: For Alyson

Jenny Shepherd couldn't help but smile as she came in the house again, opening the door as Jethro carried Lily in his arms, shielding her from the cold December night. She looked like a sleeping princess, her red hair almost matching the velvet material of the dress she'd gotten for Christmas Eve service.

"I'll lay her down," Jethro Gibbs said, smiling at his partner, cradling their daughter gently in his arms, carrying her upstairs to change her into her gown for bed.

"Santa…" Lily mumbled, as close as she got to waking up before being laid on her bed.

Gibbs smiled, turning on the lights on the mini Christmas tree that was decorated with Disney characters, lighting up her purple room like a nightlight. "Soon, baby. Tomorrow." He promised, kissing her forehead. "Tonight we sleep so he can come."

His heart felt as warm as the house as he watched his little girl smile and fall back to sleep. She'd had a busy couple of days, watching the President lighting the Christmas tree, Christmas shopping with her mom and aunt, making Christmas cookies and decorations, the NCIS Christmas party the day before, and Christmas Eve service tonight. She hadn't been cranky or fussy, just a little restless during the service before falling asleep on his lap. He watched her fall back to sleep and, once he was sure she was staying asleep, he walked downstairs.

He stood in the kitchen for a little while, breathing in. Aside from the make-shift attempt at Christmas in Paris, he hadn't had a real Christmas since the last one he'd spent with Shannon and Kelly. He wasn't sure if Jenny had ever had one. Maybe it was why it was so important for Lily to have traditions, a family Christmas, so much so that she'd had three: the team party, one with her parents, aunt, and DiNozzo, and now the one with just her and her parents. The house looked like a winter wonderland, an old-fashioned Christmas tree, holly, mistletoe, red candles in the window, a crèche, apples, ribbons, and the wonderful smell of cinnamon in the air. He dropped to his knees, building a fire in the fireplace, adding more warmth and a sense of ambiance in the room.

Jenny watched him as he settled down on the couch, knowing instinctively how lucky she was. Her mother had died when she was very young and her father, although he'd loved her and spoiled her just as dreadfully as Gibbs spoiled Lily, had worked almost constantly. The closest thing to a real Christmas she'd ever had was that time she'd spent with Gibbs and Ducky in Paris. As director of NCIS, she'd gone out to a restaurant for Christmas dinner, attended events by congressmen and even the president, had a decorator to fix her tree, but she'd been alone. Now she was working cooking Christmas dinner, had an old-fashioned Christmas tree with antique ornaments, popcorn garland, and paper chains that Lily had made. She had new plans as well, doing her own Christmas shopping instead of sending Cynthia out, attending Christmas service, an intimate holiday party with the people who meant the most, and a family to celebrate Christmas day with. She'd waited so long to have Jethro back in her life, waited forever to be a mother, and neither privilege she took lightly, not anymore. She put a plate of Christmas cookies and a glass of milk out, knowing she and Jethro would consume both later, although Lily was much too young to understand yet. She wanted to create memories though and was incorporating American traditions with French and Irish, just as she had incorporated Christmas with Hanukkah for the team party.

She smelled the wood from the fire, mixing nicely with the cinnamon fragrance that hung in the air, and readied the tray, entering the living room, settling down on the couch with Jethro after he popped the movie in the VCR. Instead of the spiked eggnog she might have once consumed, they drank hot coffee and ate some of the yule log cake, wrapping up in each other's arms, watching an old favorite, It's a Wonderful Life.

Near the end, he turned to look at her, seeing she was deep in thought. "What?"

"I can't imagine my life without you." She realized it was the truth. It would have been possible to live without him, her heart would keep beating, her lungs would keep breathing, but she couldn't picture what she, or any of them, would do without him.

He nodded, kissing into her hair. "I was thinking the same thing." She had left him twice, once in Paris, once in May. Although he'd lived without her both times, it was as if his life had stopped. Nothing was the same when she was gone. "Jen…I know we promised we wouldn't get gifts this year…"

She paused, her heart in her chest. She had put the 'no gifts' rule in effect not because of money, but because they were beyond purchasing something meaningless from Macy's or another department store just because it was something they were expected to do. If they did give each other something, she wanted it to come from the heart.

He pulled out a necklace from his pocket, nervous. She let out a small gasp, seeing the pendant with five stones hanging down in a slightly curved line. There was a Topaz, Lily's birthstone, an Opal, her own birthstone, a Sapphire for him, along with an emerald and a diamond.

He read her mind. "The emerald is for May." She nodded, smiling as she remembered when they met, an unseasonably hot May day when the stench from her first autopsy had caused him to throw up all over him, before they'd become partners, before anything. "And…" He closed his eyes, nervous, not sure how she would respond, before opening his eyes again, having a peace about what he was about to say. "I don't want to get married. Everyone says marriage is supposed to be a partnership…the only woman I've really ever felt I was partnered with was you. The diamond's from my mom's wedding ring. I knew you wouldn't wear the ring, but I was hoping…"

She leaned forward, putting her finger to his lips before removing it, and kissing him gently. She knew he was a man of few words so every word he was saying now made it that much special. She had known him so well for so long that she knew every word he wasn't saying as well. "It's beautiful." It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry she'd ever owned, as well as the most valuable, at least in her eyes.

He helped her put it on, fastening it over the dress she was still wearing from the services, careful of her hair she was letting grow, almost to the length it had been in Paris. He started to say something before she got up, looking for something she'd hidden away. She brought out a Marine-issued knife, old but cleaned up, repaired, and engraved with two names. "Rule number nine. Never go anywhere without a knife."

He ran his thumb over the names: Lillian Elizabeth and Jennifer Leah, just first and middle, no last. One family.

"It was my dad's. I think he would want you to have it." She knew in her heart that Jasper would have gotten along famously with Gibbs and, each time she watched Jethro with Lily, she wished that her father could have met the two most influential people in her life.

He knew how important her father had been to her, how much she missed him. He also knew that most of the things she'd kept from her father had been destroyed in the fire at her home, so parting with the knife had an extra special significance. He cupped her cheek, kissing her, at first gently, but soon forcing themselves to part. He put the fire out, turned the tv off, and, taking her hand, walked upstairs with her. Their bedroom was decorated for Christmas as well. He stopped in the doorway, under the mistletoe, kissing her as he lifted her, carrying her to the bed, the bells she had left on the bed ringing as they fell to the floor.

*****

Jenny and Jethro were woken at five in the morning by Lily who ran into their room. "Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa! Santa!" She repeated over and over again, clapping her hands.

Gibbs studied Jenny, trying to hide a smile. "Do you think Santa's been here?"

She feigned innocence, but couldn't hide a twinkle in her eyes. "I don't know. We'll have to go see." She studied the little girl. "Slippers on and then we'll go downstairs." The little girl ran back into her bedroom as Jenny reached for her own slippers and tied a robe around sleep pants and Jethro's NIS sweatshirt.

Five minutes later, Jenny was holding her daughter at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the tree. What they'd planned on skipping for themselves showed up in the presents for their daughter, plus having extra ones from her godparents and Ducky that she hadn't opened all of yet. Gibbs joined them, having slipped on another one of his more recent sweatshirts and an old pair of blue jeans, starting the fire again. "What do you two ladies want for breakfast?" He asked, not trying to hide his smile this time as he watched Lily's smile.

"Cookies!" The little girl popped up with a mischievous grin.

"Uh…no," Jenny stated, the voice of reason as always, knowing that if Gibbs had his way, Lily would probably eat whatever she wanted any time she wanted. He gave in too easily to her, but she couldn't say much as she was guilty of the same thing much of the time. "What about waffles?"

"Choc-chip, Daddy. Choc-chip." Gibbs could no more have refused his daughter chocolate chips than he could have flown. He kissed his daughter's forehead and Jenny's lips before walking into the kitchen.

"What if we wait to open the presents until Daddy comes back?" Jenny tried, not knowing if the girl would go for it or not. Luckily, something else caught her eye. Unluckily, it was the same book Jenny had read at least once a day every day for a month.

"Mommy, read. Read, Mommy, read." Lily brought the book to her mother, snuggling into her lap, opening the book.

I'm going to kill DiNozzo, Jenny thought to herself. It was he who had first brought the girl's attention to the book and movies. He could have chosen The Polar Express or Mickey's Christmas Carol, but her daughter had fallen in love with Jim Carrey's portrayal of The Grinch and everything related to it.

"Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot…But the Grinch, who lived just North of Who-ville did NOT! The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small. But, whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, he stood there on Christmas Eve, hating the Whos. Staring down from his cave with a sour, Grinchy frown at the warm lighted windows below in their town. For he knew every Who down in Who-ville beneath was busy now, hanging a mistletoe wreath…"

Gibbs heard the familiar sounds of his daughter's current favorite book as he began the coffee and the waffles, wanting to fix breakfast so that Jenny could have a break. The woman he'd never seen cook a full meal by herself before in the decade he'd known her refused to let anyone else help cook the Christmas dinner they'd have mid-afternoon. Things had completely changed from the year before, for him, for her, and for Lily. He finally had what he'd wanted for years, what he'd married so many times for, what he'd been missing…a real family. Although to the outsider, every day would seem so ordinary, it was just the opposite. Christmas was no longer just a day to him and, while he would never forget Shannon or Kelly, the pain that had been there nearly two decades was gone. He felt like a different person and he knew what had been his saving graces.

"Breakfast is ready," he finally called, watching Lily help carry her plate and silverware to the table, then her sippy cup with her juice, Jenny helping him move the rest over. They sat down together, as a family, in a circle, and began to eat. Both Jenny and Gibbs knew that Christmas, at their house, wasn't about the presents piled under the tree, the necklace Jenny still wore, or the knife in Gibbs' pocket, but about family.

Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small, was singing! Without any presents at all! He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same! And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, 'til his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!" And what happened then…? Well…in Who-ville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day! And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight, he whizzed with his load through the bright morning light and brought back the toys! And the food for the feast! And he…HE HIMSELF…The Grinch carved the roast beast!