Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Sorry about the slight angsty undertone - I was not in a happy mood when I wrote this and it shows.

In Bleak Midwinter

Gibbs stared in horror at the sight ahead of him.

It was Christmas Eve, and Jenny had confessed that she still needed to buy a few things from the local mall. Seeing as he had little else to do, and she needed some form of a protective detail, he had offered to tag along. Unfortunately, Tony had overheard, and had promptly invited the rest of his team, along with Ducky and Abby.

But that wasn't the reason he was seriously regretting even getting up this morning. It was not the unrelenting queues that seemed to be everywhere. It was not the happy staff trying to entice people into their stores. It was not even the large posters proclaiming that Santa was currently in his grotto.

It had a lot to do with a certain redhead who had waltzed out of the crowd, a young boy on her arm.

Lily had a Santa hat perched on her head, offsetting her jeans and lilac sweater. Red nail varnish was visible on her fingernails, and Gibbs knew instinctively that she had also painted her toenails the same shade.

Jenny and Lily always dressed identically, both consciously and unconsciously. After a while, it just seemed normal. Lily's hat was clashing with her hair, and he knew it would only be a matter of time before Jenny found an identical hat. The sisters couldn't bear to look different.

Jasper was busy grinning at the sight of all his favorite NCIS friends. The boy almost certainly loved Christmas. Gibbs wondered if it was hardwired into the Shepard genes; Jenny loved it too, however much she tried to hide it. But Lily looked…

She looked uncomfortable. There was a fake smile on her face, simply to please her son. Nevertheless, her eyes told a different story. She was upset about something. This was never a good thing; the redhead tended to compensate by doing something rash. Usually something explosive.

He wasn't sure what she could be upset about. It took a lot to knock the CIA agent. She wasn't short of money, as far as he was aware, she wasn't at risk of losing her job – no one would be stupid enough to let her go rogue – and she didn't seem to be in physical pain. Although Jasper was holding her hand a little bit more tightly than normal, which indicated that the boy understood.

Naturally, it was Tony who broke the ice.

"Merry Christmas," he greeted the pair. "Doing a little last minute shopping as well?"

"Been busy this year," Lily defended. "My boss sent me out of the country last month, and I've only just returned. Thought I was going to miss Christmas, actually."

"Wish you had," Gibbs muttered. She clearly heard, judging by the glare she sent in his direction. He withheld his instinctive wince; she would make sure to get him back for the insult. And she would do it in style too.

"We should go to Santa's grotto!" Abby squealed. "Jasper would love it! Unless you've already been, but we could always go again. How long is the queue anyway, because it might be really long and we'd have to wait for ages, but that could be fun, and we could all go and have a picture taken of us, although we really should go before we go shopping, as otherwise we could get stuck in queues –"

"Breathe," McGee told her.

"Right, so, Lily?" Abby checked.

"We haven't been to Santa's grotto yet," Lily admitted. "If Jasper wants to go, we can go."

Jasper grinned. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Timothy McGee stayed calm as he waiting in line for Santa's grotto. He had wanted to go home for Christmas, but his family had decided to go on a cruise, and he knew his stomach would not allow him to enjoy it. He was quite glad to be left behind, in a way. He could spend this holiday with his friends for once.

And it was looking increasingly likely that Lily would be involved in some way. After a brief discussion, Abby had decided to force Gibbs to host Christmas Day itself. The whole team were planning to attend, Jenny would undoubtedly be there, and Lily would go along with anything to harass the boss. Anyway, Gibbs could hardly separate the sisters during this time.

For now, at least, it was possible to tell them apart. Lily was the one wearing the Santa hat, which did not sit very well with his view of her. She existed to cause mayhem and destruction, not celebrate anything. She was more at home blackmailing people and blowing things up than in a mall.

He wondered when she would get bored and do something more normal. As if on cue, Tony nudged him and shuffled a little closer.

"What?" Tim hissed.

"Hundred bucks says Lily spills coffee over Gibbs by the end of today," Tony whispered.

Tim observed Lily and Jenny standing together a little bit ahead. They definitely couldn't hear a word. "Deal," he replied. There was no way Lily would waste her coffee.

"I agree," Ziva added, joining in the quiet conversation. "A hundred bucks says she will have him arrested for some minor infraction and make sure he spends Christmas Day in the cells."

Tim considered this. It was like her, but surely she wouldn't hurt Jenny like that. "A hundred bucks says she'll let a wild animal loose in here."

"Nah," Abby piped up. "That might put her son in danger, and she wouldn't do that. A hundred bucks says she trips Gibbs up down the stairs."

Tim mused. Most of their scenarios involved her going after Gibbs in some way. But it seemed more likely that she would do something big, and that would involve everyone.

"Hundred bucks says she'll set fire to the big Christmas tree outside," came a very familiar voice behind them. They spun around guiltily to find Gibbs standing there. "And you'd better stop betting on her actions."

"Or you'll head slap us, boss?" As usual, it was Tony who was pushing the boundaries.

"Only because I don't want her getting ideas," Gibbs groaned, his eyes never straying from the redheads ahead of them. "And if she knows there's a list, she'll deliberately do everything on it."

Tim nodded, understanding. Gibbs was right; Lily would view it as a challenge. Giving her ideas was not advisable, unless it was a deadly situation and they needed a mind game fast.

He watched as Jasper came running back over to his mother, crashing into her legs. Lily didn't even blink, merely slung an arm around his shoulders and continued talking with Jenny. She didn't look as though she was planning something, but with Lily it was necessary to expect the unexpected.

Ziva David did not understand the fuss. To her, Christmas Day was just another day.

Although clearly young children enjoyed it, judging by Jasper's happiness. They had almost reached the front of the extremely long queue to see Santa Claus, and Tony was still trying to explain to her who he was. She could not understand how a fat man could climb down so many chimneys. Whenever she crawled down one, she found it a tight fit.

The mall was full of screaming children. Some were worse than Abby on a caffeine high, others were throwing temper tantrums because their parents had not bought them what they wanted, yet more were running around and bumping into people. Jasper was one of the few who were well-behaved; he was sticking to his mother's side and staying calm.

They finally reached the front of the queue, and she stared at the fairies surrounding the grotto. Or were they elves? She could never get them the right way round. They had insane grins on their faces, and she wanted to know what drugs they must be on. No one could be that happy, except for Abby.

They moved into the grotto itself, and she watched as Jasper ran up to a fat man dressed in red. Lily hung back slightly, until Gibbs pushed her forward. Something was wrong with Lily, but Ziva could not put her finger on it. She was not comfortable at all.

Jasper sat on the man's lap, while Ziva let her eyes flick around the room. It was small, with presents piled everywhere. Some more fairies were scurrying around, and there was a beautiful Christmas tree in the corner. A mechanical reindeer was lit up in another corner, moving its head up and down.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Jenny stiffen suddenly. But the redhead only sidled over to Gibbs and whispered something in his ear. Lily also seemed to have spotted something, if the way she was slowly reaching for where her weapon should be was any indication. Jasper had not seen anything, and was happily chatting to the man in red. Ziva too could not see what the problem was, but knew she should be prepared.

As Jasper stood up, Lily caught one of his arms and pulled him away. Simultaneously, Jenny and Gibbs pulled out their guns and trained them on the other man.

"Federal agents!" Gibbs announced. "David Williams, you're under arrest for drug dealing and skipping bail."

Ziva was as confused as the rest of the team. What was going on? Lily pulled Jasper out of the room, and they followed, leaving the other two behind.

"Sorry," the redhead whispered. "He made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list a few months ago. Never thought I would run into him here. The Santa outfit was a good disguise though."

Abby sighed as she searched through the shop. She only needed a present for Tony now, and he was proving very difficult to buy for. Normally, she would just pick a movie, any movie, but Tony seemed to have watched everything under the sun. Her next option was a calendar full of scantily clad women, except she knew Timmy had already come up with that idea. And she wanted to get something personal, not something generic.

What kind of music did Tony like? She knew he was fond of jazz, but she didn't know much else. She couldn't really buy him one of her albums; much as he would pretend to love it, he would undoubtedly prefer something else. A new shirt? He had everything tailor made, and she couldn't take his measurements without him getting suspicious. Chocolate seemed too impersonal, as did any form of alcohol.

She glanced around her, and was surprised to see one of the sisters at the other end of the shop. The group had split up about an hour ago, with the agreement to meet up for a late lunch at one of the many cafes. She still had another thirty minutes to find a gift. But Lily – or was it Jenny? – seemed to be lost in her own world.

Abby made her way over, noticing how the redhead was alone. If she wasn't fairly sure that Daddy would not leave Mommy without protection in here, she would have guessed this was Jenny; Jasper was nowhere to be seen. Confused, she tapped the redhead on the shoulder.

The other woman whirled around, clearly surprised. "Oh, it's you," she muttered. "Sorry, not having the best day."

The Goth smiled. "I need to find something for Tony," she commented. "Are you Jenny or Lily?"

"Lily," came the reply. "I think I've got everything."

"So, perhaps you can help me," Abby continued, linking arms and moving away. "What did you get for Tony?"

Lily smirked. "A DVD of Jenny and LJ in bed. He can do what he likes with it, although I did leave a note warning him not to distribute it. Jenny would kill me for that."

"I think she'll kill you anyway," Abby noted. "I was thinking he might like a book, but then I realized I don't know what he'd like, and you might be able to help me with that, and why are you not happy?"

It took Lily a few moments to think. "A book would be nice, although I did see a penknife that might be better suited to him. Why do you think I'm not happy?"

"Cool! Where's this penknife?" Abby squealed. "You don't look happy."

Lily steered her into the crowd outside, aiming for the shop. "I don't like Christmas anymore," she admitted.

"Why not?"

"Because I want my husband to be here. Because Jasper deserves a Christmas with both of his parents, not one who struggles. Because Brian loved Christmas, and we spent our last one talking about how good it would be next year for our son. Take your pick."

"Does Gibbs know?" Abby checked, curious. Lily wasn't normally one for such openness.

"He knows," Lily sighed. "We have an unspoken rule that he doesn't mention Brian and I don't mention Shannon and Kelly. I think he has it worse, losing his daughter at the same time."

"It's a nice rule," Abby grinned. "You should cheer up."

"If you say 'for Jasper's sake', I will be forced to remove your kneecaps," Lily warned.

"I wasn't going to say that," Abby protested. "Christmas is a time of year to let go of your troubles for a day. It's a time for happiness and fun and joy, not to reminisce about things you can't change."

"I wish it were that simple," Lily whispered, as she guided them into the shop she had spoken of.

Tony DiNozzo looked around as he waited outside the café. Everyone was present, except for Lily and Abby. Even Jasper was accounted for, having turned up with the boss and the boss' boss a few minutes ago.

This was very unlike Lily. She had a habit of arriving everywhere on time. Sometimes she pushed it a little, but in her chosen profession, a few minutes late could mean the difference between life and death.

So what could have delayed her? Perhaps she had met a guy, and they were busy making out somewhere. Or she might have seen a criminal, and gone chasing after them. Or she could have disappeared to meet an informant. But then where was Abby? They were assuming that the Goth and the CIA agent had met up somewhere, judging by the fact were both missing. What would they do together?

Tony could smell wonderful warm food from the café, and was desperate to go in. It was Abby and Lily's fault if they missed food; they shouldn't all have to suffer for the girls.

In one of the crowds, he finally spotted the two missing members of their party. Abby was practically dragging Lily along, while the redhead looked happier than she had done when they had all split up. He turned around to inform the boss of their arrival, and winced when he noticed how much they were wrapped up in each other.

There were children about! Children who did not need to see the boss sticking his tongue down the throat of the boss' boss.

They separated just as the other two arrived. Gibbs glared at Lily.

"I almost gave up on you," he growled.

"Sorry," the redhead grinned, clearly not sorry in the slightest. "Checkout lines were worse than rush hour on the 95. If I heard 'Silent Night' one more time, I was going to start taking hostages."

Tony was quietly confident he had heard that line before, but couldn't place it. It was a strange thing to say…

"Are we getting food or not?" Lily inquired, looping an arm around her son. "We could always cook LJ."

"Disgusting," Jasper groaned.

"I agree," Lily smirked. "He'd taste of extra strong coffee, and be really gristly."

Jenny punched her sister's arm. "Be nice," she advised.

"I'm having fun!" Lily protested. "Do you remember last Christmas, when I spiked LJ's shower gel with itching powder? Now that was amusing."

Gibbs made a move towards the errant redhead, while Jenny tried to restrain him. "It took me three days to figure that out," he snarled.

"Only because you ended up in the hospital on Day Three because you were rubbing a certain part of your anatomy raw," she pointed out. "You should have figured it out sooner, being a highly trained federal agent."

"Food?" Tony suggested. Much as he loved hearing stories of Lily and Gibbs, sometimes it was better to end a fight before it began.

Jenny kept her eyes peeled as they walked back towards their cars. Lily had been on her best behavior for once, which usually meant she was planning something. Especially as she also hated Christmas, and would happily do something to liven things up.

Now, Lily was holding Jasper's hand and carefully guiding him to her car. She didn't look as though she was up to something, but she had perfected the art of looking innocent from a very young age. It had come in handy on many occasions.

Like the time back in the second grade when she had somehow managed to get laxatives into the school water supply. Or a few months later when she had followed it up by spiking the staff coffee machine with vodka. Or when she had given every kindergarten child a double espresso, which had turned into a mini riot.

Although she was in the first grade that time…

Reaching her own car, she opened the trunk and started placing her bags inside. They would all be going back to Gibbs' house, and she could wrap her final few presents up there. Lily had managed to worm an invitation out of Abby, who believed that no one should be left alone for Christmas.

Truth be told, Lily needed the company. Christmas was a bad time of year for her, only beaten by the anniversary of her husband's death. If she was alone, she tended to drink a bottle of bourbon by herself until she passed out. With Jasper around, she couldn't really do that, and thus she would need someone to distract her. Perhaps they could slip some sedatives into something? Jasper could simply be told that his mother was tired, and Lily would wake up after Christmas Day.

And it would keep Jethro and her sister apart.

The screams bought her attention back to the present. Automatically, she found herself reaching for her gun for the second time that day. She whirled around to find the problem…

This was Lily. This was completely Lily's fault. No one else would be stupid enough, would dare to do this.

The huge Christmas tree that stood outside the mall was completely engulfed in flames. The lights on it had died, while the decorations fall from the branches, still alight. Most people were running away from it, but a few were standing very close, trying to take pictures on their cell phones.

Across from her, Jenny could hear Tony calling 911. From what she could see, no one was in danger, but she was still compelled to go over and take control of the situation, before anyone else did something stupid.

Lily was going to pay for this later.

Gibbs glanced across his basement, and was pleased to see Lily asleep.

After the fire brigade had secured the scene, everyone had driven back to his house. Jenny had spent the whole journey yelling at her sister, who had been unable to wipe the smirk from her face. The only good thing about the whole incident had been that Lily hadn't actually blown anything up. And given her penchant for bombs, it was quite a relief.

At some point, Jenny had slipped sleeping pills into Lily's bourbon, causing the redhead to crash out. With a great deal of luck, she wouldn't wake up until tomorrow, which would give them a good respite from her usual antics. And he had seen a small supply of sedatives that Jenny had managed to acquire from Ducky. At least they could drug Lily up tomorrow.

He knew exactly why she hated Christmas so much. It had taken him a little while to remember, but he was keeping quiet. Lily usually kept very quiet about her husband, for good reason. The only time she had ever discussed her marriage with him had been after half a bottle of bourbon. Even then, she had been trying to explain why she never wanted to get married ever again, which contrasted with his response of marrying three more times.

Tony appeared at the top of the stairs, waving everyone up. Gibbs knew what this meant: the firework display was ready. Lily wouldn't really miss it, especially as fireworks reminded her of explosions. Giving her ideas was not a wise plan.

He took Jasper's hand as they walked up the stairs. The boy was starting to tire out, even with his natural excitement at Christmas Day being tomorrow. He didn't even seem to mind that his mother was sleeping, although that was more likely due to Lily's strange sleeping habits. If she had been working flat out on a case before picking him up, she was liable to fall asleep at any moment.

They made their way into the back yard, standing a careful distance from Abby's planned firework display. With Lily out of action, they had turned to someone else who liked to blow things up. At least with Abby there was a good chance the house would survive.

Lily did not bother to look up when someone else entered the kitchen.

She had woken up at a ridiculous hour in the morning, and decided to go for a run to burn off some of her frustration. The snow had made things more difficult, especially as she had forced herself to resist the urge to bring a handful of it back inside and wake LJ up with it. She knew Jenny would resort to the sedatives within minutes of finding out.

She wanted to make it through this Christmas. There were other people around her, taking the pressure of entertaining her son for this day from her shoulders. And Jenny would understand if she had to take herself off for an hour or two. With the snow around, she could get up to a lot of mischief.

LJ tapped her shoulder lightly, before attempting to move her out of the way so he could reach the coffee machine. She decided to stand her ground. Surely he could wait a few minutes.

"Move," he ordered, becoming impatient.

"Merry Christmas to you too," she replied, cradling her own drink.

"How many labels did you switch on presents?" he checked, finally succeeding in reaching his goal and looking disappointed that the machine was empty.

She considered. "Five. But I won't tell you which ones."

He glared at her; she smiled.

"Abby was reminding me yesterday that today is the season of goodwill," she pointed out. "So I've put mistletoe over every doorway, and I thought we could put our little feud on hold for the day."

He looked deep into her eyes, trying to work out if she was playing one of her games. She was, although she doubted he would realize it. It would just make his next visit to his basement more amusing.

"It's been snowing," she offered. "Fancy a snowball fight?"

"You'd lose," he warned.

"Care to bet on it? I happen to know you won yesterday's bet." It had involved coaxing it out of Abby, but she had been planning to burn the Christmas tree anyway. LJ knew her well.

He glared at her again. "Snowball fight, one hour," he decided. "One on one."

She grinned. "Deal."

Jenny chuckled as she watched Jasper unwrap his final present. The boy's enthusiasm was infectious.

It helped that five minutes ago she had been under the mistletoe with Jethro. They had only broken apart when Lily had crashed into them, claiming that she hadn't noticed them on her run for coffee. Jenny knew this to be a lie, but was also aware that she could do nothing about it. Not without spoiling Jasper's Christmas.

Nevertheless, Lily was going to be shouted at the moment Jasper fell asleep. Jethro would probably join in as well. Although Lily had actually been fairly well behaved today. She had won the snowball fight without playing dirty, leaving Jethro more annoyed with her than usual. And she always liked to follow up one success with another…

Jasper gave a big yawn, causing Lily to look up from her new book on weapons, a gift from Ziva. "Time for bed," Lily warned.

"I'm not tired," the boy denied.

"If you go to bed, I'll go to bed," she offered.

"Are you really planning to spend another night under my roof?" Gibbs grumbled.

"My car is still at the mall," Lily pointed out. "Until you drive me there to pick it up, I'm stuck here."

"I'll get the keys," Gibbs retorted. "You can leave now."

Jenny felt it was time to intervene. "Enough," she ordered. "Lily, Jasper, go to bed. Jethro, keep away from my sister."

Gibbs rolled his eyes, while Lily scooped up her son and carried him out of the room.

"Hey boss," Tony piped up. "Can we watch a movie?"

Gibbs did not look any happier. Jenny wondered what he considered worse: spending time with Lily, or being forced to watch a Tony movie.

"TV's in the basement," he grumbled.

"Great!" The rest of his team looked equally excited. "We'll take some beer down, and maybe some chips?"

Jenny tuned out Tony's planning as Gibbs left the room, presumably to make sure his basement was fairly clear. She heard the basement door open, him taking a few steps, and then silence.

Confused, she glanced over at the team. What had happened to make him fall silent? She had kept him out of his basement all day, determined to make him enjoy himself with other people for once.

Unless her sister had done something down there…

Finally, she heard him again.

"Lily!" he roared. "Where's my boat?!"

THE END