Moonlight shone through the window, illuminating the man's naked torso as he slowly swayed from side to side. His quiet humming, occasionally interspersed with soft 'shhh' sounds, filled the room and, as he turned and made his way to the rocking chair, he quickly snagged a blanket from the dresser, draping it round the small bundle cradled in his arms. He sank into the chair, propping his feet on the stool in front and rubbed one hand over his face in an attempt to wipe away the total exhaustion that swept over him.
Two little hands suddenly appeared from the pale blue blanket lying on his lap and one latched strongly onto the man's thumb. A set of blue eyes locked with a pair of brown, and the skin surrounding the blue ones crinkled as the man's face broke into an adoring smile.
"Hey little man. Not sleepy huh?" The baby smiled in response to his Daddy's question and accompanying raised eyebrow. The man nodded, "Hmmm, I can tell. I'm a Detective you see. I detect things. You can't be hungry yet and you don't need to be changed. Maybe you just need some company? Perhaps a chat? That I can do. Seriously, I can talk. A lot. Just ask Mummy. So how about it baby boy, a little father-son bonding?"
The man ran a hand through his scruffy blonde hair and settled back into the chair. He began to lightly stroke his son's soft head as he whispered "we'll have to keep the noise down though so we don't wake Mummy. Let her get some beauty sleep. Not that she needs it, I mean, you've seen her, right? She's all kinds of beautiful, inside and out. How about I tell you some stuff about her? About her and me? Yeah?"
He shook his head ever so slightly and tilted it to the side as his lips quirked upwards and a somewhat quizzical expression appeared on his face. "Where to start little man, it's a long story." He paused, smiled, took a deep breath and began. "Well, we met at a gym…" He spoke of a beautiful, feisty stranger who had intrigued him from the moment he saw her and the unexpected relief he had felt upon discovering she was in fact a federal agent and not the part time, slightly hinky, girlfriend of a dead marine.
"She pretty much hooked me from the start buddy. Couldn't get her out of my head. Not sure she was so impressed with me though. She even made a snippy comment about me being 'the best they could do' on our first day working together. I forgave her immediately though and should have known I was in trouble from there on in."
He shrugged his shoulders at his son. "Why wouldn't you for fall her eh? Don't get me wrong. She's not perfect. Her driving? Erratic at best. Her cooking? You have that experience to come buster, let me warn you in advance. Her taste in TV shows or music? Not so great. She has a junk food jones she tries to deny and a jealous streak she refuses to acknowledge. Don't get me started on the year she forgot my birthday. And I'm still working on her sense of humour. So no, not perfect. But perfect for me."
Nodding enthusiastically, the man proudly boasted, "She can do amazing things that I know she's going to share with you. If you want to hot wire a plane, she's the girl to show you how or need to pick a lock, then there's no one better." He furrowed his brow as he thought out loud. "Not sure, as a cop, how I feel about my son learning those things but hey, as long as you fight for the side of justice I guess that's ok!"
He carried on, "Did you know she can track a bear? Take down a man twice her size? Lip read? Get hit by a car but get up and keep running? And man, when she starts speaking another language? Wow, that really does it for me." The man coughed a little awkwardly. "Ok…probably not the direction this conversation needs to go in. You don't want to hear those sorts of thoughts about your Mum, right?" He grinned. "So I'll skip over how great she looks in a bikini. And you already know how incredible she smells. She smells like sunshine and gunpowder. Actually, not so much gunpowder at the moment, not since you arrived a couple of months ago. Definitely still sunshine though." He paused and thought for a moment. "More like sunshine and…home. Yes, sunshine and home" he said conclusively.
"She's brave too. Just like wonder woman. She's not 100% fearless like she used to be, she's more careful. You've changed that about her. For the better. She'd never want to leave you. Or me I hope." He winked at the little boy but his face grew more serious as he shared his feelings. "My fear levels increased as my feelings towards her grew. The thought that something could happen to her, that I wouldn't be able to protect her. It killed me. Still does. A long time ago there were some bad guys from Russia who took her from me. I'd never felt fear like it and that's when I knew. I knew I valued her life more than my own. If I could have switched places with her I would have done so in a heartbeat. Instead, I held her hands and stayed with her for the moment of truth. And the relief, the sheer, total and utter relief; that she was safe, of course, but also that our time together wasn't done before it had even started."
The man inhaled shakily and rubbed a finger over the little hand clutching his thumb. "And now I feel more fear than ever. Because I have two people whose lives I value above my own." The bright blue eyes misted over briefly. "I promise that I will always look after you and your Mummy. I will protect you both and keep you from harm. Always."
A wry chuckle reverberated in the man's throat as he attempted to lighten the one sided conversation. "And Mummy is the most loyal person I know. Once she loves you, that's it, you're hers and she'd die for you. So God help any kid who tries to pick on you in the playground. What am I saying? You're her flesh and blood, there's no way you won't be able to defend yourself!"
"Don't you think she has THE most beautiful smile? Sure, it's a bit more of a tired smile than normal but I think it's the happiest smile I've ever seen on anyone. She smiles way more now than when we first met. Laughs more too. It wasn't always that way. She used to be very tightly wound. I made it my personal mission to make her smile and laugh every day."
He began to recall past events, "We spent one Christmas on the USS Van Buren instead of enjoying a hot tub at Lake Tahoe. I wasn't overly bothered though because all that mattered to me was that we were together for Christmas. And there was the time we visited Romania. Not so romantic if I'm truthful. Apart from the fact that I only really went because your Mum was going. Where she goes, I go. That's how we roll, you see. Dubai wasn't much fun either. Super hot. Plus lots of bad guys with guns. I didn't even get to sit with her on the plane journey home.
Continuing to stroke the baby's fingers he reminisced about all the times they had imitated other people. "Mummy and I are going to be so great at playing make believe with you. We have practiced a lot at dressing up and pretending to be other people. She's often Fern, I'm sometimes a janitor. I get a tool belt most times, so hey, it's not all bad. We were Tracey and Jason when we met but my favourite time was as Justin and Melissa. I got to live with Mummy for a while – sleep next to her, make her pancakes for breakfast, plus she kissed me. Yup, she totally did. She said it was just to fool the other people but I never believed that. Not for a second."
He hesitated briefly. "Hmmm, who else have we pretended to be? We've done it so many times. We were Danny Collins and Kiki Banks. That was funny - I said she needed lots of cosmetic surgery. Riiiight. Like I'd have changed anything about her. I got pepper sprayed. That was less funny. And we were briefly Jennifer and Edward in a pole dancing club." He smirked. "I'm going to wait a few years before I tell you more about that kind of dancing! There was the time I pretended she was Ines, a Brazilian model and I was her English manager. I had the most awful accent, a cross between Jack Sparrow and Mary Poppins. Really."
"Mummy play acted as a marine Major once. Wow, she was a major hottie in that costume. Ok, ok, moving on… We were colleagues from the FRA another time. I was Matthew, a neurotic germophobe. Horrible ugly jackets we had to wear for that but I proved I can pull off glasses… And there was the time I had to be a surfer. I know, how great was that? I got to spend the day at the beach, talking to one of the all time surfing greats, plus slap Mummy's bottom. Sorta makes up for all the gigs I had to be a hobo. Hmmm, I don't smell so great during those games! Mummy pretended to be a fortune teller once. Esme I think her name was. I hinted that she looked hot. Then ruined it by saying she was like my sister. Honestly, I was such an idiot."
The man revealed more memories, telling anecdotes about the times he'd spent with his wife, some were short tales; about a box, a motorbike, a walking workstation, a memoir, an emergency kit containing sun cream and a cosy slanket, yoga bunnies, the Viennese waltz and a doppelganger aquarium. Others were longer, of greater significance; staggering from his hospital bed to save her from Vakar, being the only person she trusted to keep her mother safe, risking their partnership to catch Clarence Fisk.
He recollected colleagues, friends and foe who had passed through their adventures. The appearance of certain characters, like Astrid, Peter Clairmont, Jenny Radler and Lance Talbot, had exposed a little more of their true selves and their lives before NCIS. The arrival of some, including Monica, Nicole, Stanley King, Lieutenant Abernathy and Agent Sabatino had highlighted their changing feelings towards each other. He shared stories of Mike Renko, Lauren Hunter and Michael Saleh, brave and missed colleagues, and of ruthless criminals such as Lasik, Sidarov and Janvier. Ray was mentioned as the friend to call him on his feelings for the beautiful brunette. And of course, there was their unique, make shift family. The military man, the geek, the lone wolf, the intelligent pixie and the indomitable matriarch. People who always had their backs. There were so many individuals, he reflected, who had influenced the course of their partnership, no, relationship. He wondered briefly how their journey would have been different, if at all, without them all playing a part. And then his focus returned to his son.
"We had such a lot of fun together. I flirted A LOT with her. Actually we flirted with each other. Your mother has always known exactly how to push my buttons. Despite our differences we became friends. Before I knew it, she was my best friend. She was the person I wanted to spend my time with and no other girl came close. There was no other woman I wanted to visit Vegas with or teach to surf. And I'd certainly never have watched America's Next Top Model for anyone else."
He sighed. "Only her. You know mate, I think it may always have been that way, even back when she insisted she was just one of the guys. Even before I realised she was end game for me. Geeze, I even kept calling her my girl. Now she's OUR girl." He smiled as he corrected the statement. "We'll share her." The man laughed quietly to himself. "No wonder everyone said we had a thing. It must have been so obvious."
"Once I realised she was 'the one'" he used his fingers to emphasise the words, "I went on a charm offensive. When you're older, son, I'll give you some tips on how to charm the ladies." His eyes twinkled at the young child. "Anyway…took a while to make her mine, baby. A whole lot longer than I thought it would. Won her over in the end though. Luckily for you!" The man nodded heartily at the smiling baby and waved his hand up and down his body. "What's that? Yes, you're right of course. Who wouldn't want a piece of this?! Seriously though bud, it was hard work. I pushed, she avoided. I pulled, she resisted. I talked, she stayed silent. We had dreadful communication skills. I was unable to say what I actually meant so in the end I showed her. I kissed her. I know, props to me, right?!"
He exhaled sharply. "Turns out it wasn't the best timing ever. Complicated things for a while. But we got there eventually. Because of her. She rescued me you know. Sure, she'd saved my backside more than once over the years. She was always ready, willing and oh so able to prevent any bad guy hurting me. But the most important time was when she brought me back to life after, well, after some not so nice men insisted on carrying out some unplanned dental work on me. I was drowning in despair and she grabbed my hand and dragged me to shore, never wavered in being there for me, even when I tried to push her away. She insisted on loving me you see, reminded me of who I was, who we were together. She was the only thing that got me through."
The man stopped talking and leant his head back against the chair looking out the window at the slowly rising sun. After several moments he returned his gaze to the little boy on his lap and with total sincerity said quietly, "I wouldn't change a thing son. We are what we are because of it all. And she was worth the wait."
He gently kissed his fingers and pressed them to the baby's nose. "So there you have it, that's the tale of Mummy and me. It's been an adventure so far, crammed with mysteries and bad guys and action and friends and laughter. But essentially, well, it's love story."
The man looked down at his drowsy son and grinned. "Ah, my incessant rambling often sends Mummy to sleep too." He scooped up the baby and pulled him to his chest, rubbing his cheek against the soft baby hair and inhaling his intoxicating baby smell.
Even in his weary state he was reluctant to put the baby in his crib. This baby embodied just how much he had achieved, so much more than he had ever expected to. This baby proved he had overcome his difficult childhood, excelled in his chosen career, conquered demons old and new, fallen in love and persuaded an amazing woman to be his wife. This baby symbolised what his life was now about – love, commitment, responsibility, stability and happiness. This baby was quite simply his past, his present and his future.
"If Mummy and I are a love story, then you, precious baby, are our happily ever after" he whispered to the blue bundle.