WELCOME BACK! I'm so completely excited to bring you more of this story and series. I can't thank you enough for your continues requests to give you more of this crazy family that I created. I want to warn you that this is a WIP. My writing time is often limited and there are going to be gaps in posting, possibly significant. I currently have 6 complete chapters and will be posting one a week in the beginning, however that gap is likely to widen as I catch up. Right now I have about 25 chapters total plotted out. Writing this continuation is much more difficult because I have caught up to canon events and want to try to weave as many of them in as possible. I will probably have to play with the implied canon timeline a little to do this but since we are never really given a true timeline I think I can do this convincingly. Hope you enjoy! I'll completely understand if you choose to wait and read until the story is complete. This is cross-posted from Ao3 in case you prefer that site.

"It's a few more weeks, tops." Tony nuzzled into the soft hair of Jethro's chest and tongued a slightly peaked nipple, loving the immediate response the small movement elicited. Much to his delight, certain parts of Jethro's body had retained their extra sensitivity long after Isabella was finished with them.

Jethro grunted, half in pleasure at Tony's touch, half in annoyance. "You know I don't like anything the FBI decides to stick their noses into."

"I know." Tony sighed and gave up his attentions for a moment. This was a familiar discussion and one that he knew Jethro wouldn't let rest until they'd had it one more time. "But we've practically wrapped up their case and handed it to them on a silver platter. Not even the Feebs could screw this up."

"Don't be so damn sure." He ran his fingers through Tony's shorter than normal hair, memorizing the feel of it against his fingertips. No doubt DiNozzo would grow it out as soon as the opportunity arose.

Tony's team had been working an undercover assignment for the last several months. Portions of weapons shipments had been going missing from supply depots at more than one naval base. The missing shipments were well masked to look like glitches in the ordering and inventory forms but someone had caught on to the pattern and discretely alerted NCIS. DiNozzo and his team had tracked a few of the weapons and were currently targeting a Sergeant in procurement with Atlantic Ordnance Command in Yorktown whose family past included ties to organized crime, as well as several of his underlings who were living slightly more lavish lifestyles than their E-3 salaries could account for. DiNozzo had been placed in the base's procurement office as a young petty officer transferring in from San Diego to be closer to family in DC.

Tony had jumped into the role with both feet as he typically did with undercover assignments, even spending 2 weeks in an accelerated basic program at the Naval Recruit Command Training Center in Illinois as preparation. When he came out he could walk like a sailor, talk like a sailor, and more importantly, press and fold his clothes like a sailor, something that was essential to maintaining his cover every day. Jethro wasn't above admitting that he liked the new regulation cut that came with the assignment as well as the fact that Tony's ass looked damn good in uniform.

After a few weeks in place making friends over nights out and inroads around the coffee pot at the office, something DiNozzo's frat boy past made him uniquely suited for, Tony's MO had been to let it slip that he was struggling with heavy gambling debt and looking to make some quick cash. It hadn't taken long for him to be approached with the very offer he was looking for. It would have been nice if the assignment ended there, with the arrest of the officer and his cohorts, but the FBI had had to stick their nose in as usual and use the NCIS op to do their own dirty work on cracking the organized crime syndicate.

Despite the usual reassurances, Gibbs didn't like anything that kept Tony undercover for longer than absolutely necessary, and he definitely didn't like an assignment that forced him to live on base housing nearly 200 miles away to keep up appearances. They'd hardly seen each other in the last few months, only managing to sneak in a few nights together under Tony's cover of visiting his family in DC. The visits were all-too-short for all of them and Bella cried and cried each time he left, asking for her "Daddy To-ey" until it nearly broke Jethro's heart. They'd snagged a few passing moments together at NCIS when Tony had to be brought in to get Morrow and the rest of his team up to speed in person but it was nowhere near enough for either of them and the thought of the case dragging out further and further was frustrating as hell. This was their first night together in over 3 weeks. Most of the time they survived on phone sex and Tony's near nightly calls to sing Bella to sleep. For the first time in his life he understood what it must have been like for Shannon and Kelly when he was shipped out.

"Just watch your own back." Jethro said seriously. "Don't get too involved in Fornell's bullshit. I don't put it past the FBI to let NCIS get caught in the crossfire if they blow things on their end."

"You got it, Boss." The words may have been flip but Tony knew that Jethro understood how seriously he took the warning. As an agent, Tony still valued advice from Gibbs above all others and knew he would be a fool to disregard it.

They were both silent for a moment. Tony's recent prolonged absences had only reinforced the decision they had made to become a family before Bella's birth. Jethro was unable to imagine his life without the younger man in it and there wasn't a part of him that even wanted to begin to try.

"Missed you." Jethro broke the silence, fingers drifting down Tony's cheek to linger at his lips.

"As much as the first time I left you?" He kissed the pad of Jethro's thumb.

"Mmm…maybe more."

"You know, when I came home from South America that first time there were candles." Tony cocked an eyebrow and grinned up at him wickedly before resuming his worship of Jethro's body that had been so rudely interrupted by their discussion a moment ago.

Jethro laughed. "Yeah, and I was as big as a house."

"You were sexy as hell. Still are." Tony shifted lower and pressed open-mouthed kisses to the flat of Jethro's belly, carefully avoiding his straining erection for the moment.

"Told you I loved you that night." Jethro realized that his heart felt lighter after more than two years with Tony than it had even then, that the words he'd spoken to him for the first time that night had taken on meaning far beyond anything in his experience. "Must have been the hormones," he teased.

Tony pushed up on his hands and knees and licked a slow stripe up Jethro's cock, holding the older man's eyes the entire time. "Tell me you still love me," he whispered thickly.

"Later," Jethro sat up, forcing Tony back. "Right now I think I'd rather show you." He took his mouth in a long, deep kiss much more powerful that words. "Now roll over."

"Stay," Jethro's hand clasped Tony's hip as he watched him across the pillow. Bella was currently snuggled in between them, favorite stuffed toy clasped in her tiny fist. When they'd heard her begin to rouse in the next room, Tony had gone in and taken over diaper duty without being asked and brought the still sleepy little girl to their bed where she'd promptly curled into his chest and drifted off again.

"You know I would if I could." Tony stroked Bella's fine little ringlets, pressed his cheek to her head, and inhaled the sweet smell of her. He hated being away from her even for one more day and every time he returned home he could swear she'd grown more beautiful when he wasn't looking. "Gotta report in by 1400 and it's a long drive. Time for breakfast though, and I can drop Bella at daycare."

Gibbs nodded. He'd been on the other end of this conversation too many times and he knew the guilt Tony already piled on himself for his absence, how difficult it was. He'd be damned if he was going to lay his own pain on top of that. "Never thought I would miss someone again. Guess I'm not used to it."

"Me either. You know I'm doing everything I can…"

"I know," Jethro interrupted. "I'll keep an eye on Fornell and his team. Maybe put a little pressure on Morrow to get this done."

"I can handle this, Gibbs," Tony said firmly. "I know you mean well but what does it look like if I have my baby daddy talking to my boss for me?"

Jethro grunted his understanding and frustration. Most of the time they managed to keep work and private life separate but only just barely. Tony was still making a name for himself as an agent-and a good one at that-and he was right. It wasn't his place to interfere. He didn't have to like it though. "You know we really ought to have a better term than that after almost three years." He still hated that particular moniker.

"Well, 'partner' gets confusing, 'boyfriend' makes it sound too casual. 'Lover' I like," Tony purred, fingers tracing the cut of Jethro's jaw. "But honestly, they don't make a word for what you are to me," he said softly, and his words took in both Jethro and Isabella who had begun to stir and stretch between them.

"Daddy, you make 'nana cakes?" Her sleepy blue eyes blinked up at him.

"I've been waiting all week to make you banana pancakes, Gracie." Tony kept the use of his special pet name for his daughter reserved for times when they were alone as a family.

Instantly awake, she squealed and embraced him, and then scooted down the bed, not even waiting for them before toddling out the bedroom door.

"Guess quiet time is over," Tony smiled, scooting closer to Jethro and kissing him gently.

"Everything," Jethro whispered against his mouth as they broke apart.

"What?"

"You're my everything, Tony. Don't forget that when you're out there proving yourself, okay?" Jethro said seriously. There was something desperate hovering beneath the surface of it.

"Not in a million years. I promise." Tony sealed it with a kiss, only pulling away when the sound of small crashes from Bella's attached bedroom indicated impending disaster.

NCIS director Tom Morrow listened to broken radio feed inside MTAC. The screen in front of him showed a satellite image of a warehouse in Baltimore. He'd just watched three black SUV's pull up and unload. He could feel the sweat trickling down the small of his back but knew his expression gave away none of the anxiety he felt over this culmination of a months-long operation. Morrow silently cursed the FBI for pushing them to the point they found themselves at now.

"Is DiNozzo in place?" Morrow spoke into his headset.

"In place and cool as a cucumber," Balboa's voice came back clearly. This was his team and his op, but with the joint involvement of another agency, coordination was crucial.

Morrow relaxed just slightly. All he knew was that he was going to be damn glad when this was over. After months of making inroads, DiNozzo had finally been invited to the big boys table. A big drop was taking place and he'd been entrusted to accompany their target, Sergeant Paul Guidetti, for the first time.

"Agent Sacks, is the FBI's team in place?" Morrow watched the upper corner of the screen where a headset-adorned Sacks was jointly monitoring the op.

"We're in place, Director. Just waiting on the go word from your agent. I sincerely hope he knows what's at stake here." Sacks' voice conveyed his doubts.

"He'll get it done. Just give him time. If he tries to rush it, they're bound to suspect something. DiNozzo's good, he'll read the scene and the players and determine the best time to move." Morrow could sense Sacks straining at the bit and it made him nervous as hell. The last thing any of them needed tonight was an FBI agent with an itchy trigger finger.

Sacks nodded on the screen, clearly dissatisfied as they both settled in to listen to the audio feed.

Fifteen minutes later they seemed no closer to anything substantial, at least in their audio evidence, and Morrow could see Sacks leaning further and further forward in his chair, knuckles clenched.

"Okay, this isn't happening. Two more minutes and my team is going in to make the bust," Sacks' frustration was clear.

Morrow stood." Stand down, Agent Sacks. If your team goes in now all you've got is circumstantial evidence and a possible firefight. Wait for the transaction and DiNozzo's signal that he's clear." He covered the microphone on his headset. "Get me Agent Fornell. Someone needs to talk this guy off the ledge before he blows the entire operation," he said to one of the communication techs.

DiNozzo was essentially operating in the blind. Due to the risk of discovery he wasn't wearing an earpiece and had no way to receive communication from the outside. He'd been wired with a microphone carefully concealed beneath a false flap of skin on his stomach but it only let them hear what was going on in the warehouse, nothing more.

"Alpha team, take your positions to enter the warehouse, wait on my signal," Sacks ordered.

"God damn it, I said stand down," Morrow boomed, striding toward the screen.

"I'm sorry, Director, I have my own orders for this operation and if your agent can't make this happen, we're not going to let these guys walk away. We're go in 60 seconds."

The FBI agents confirmed their positions and readiness.

"I have Agent Fornell for you, sir." The tech handed Morrow the phone.

"Fornell, you better call off your dogs right this second. Agent Sacks is about to blow this entire operation and endanger the life of my agent," Morrow barked, the need to maintain a cool and calm demeanor all but forgotten.

"This operation was taken out of my hands, Director, but I'll make a call." At least Fornell had the decency to sound frustrated.

"Make it. Now."

"Go." Sacks ordered.

Morrow heard Sack's voice through the headset and scrambled to get the NCIS team in place. Balboa's team was only there for recon and communications but Morrow would be damned if he wasn't going to at least put them in the fight. "Beta team, FBI is a go. Get Agent DiNozzo out of there in one piece and provide backup, NOW!"

A cacophony of shouts and breaking timber assaulted Morrow's ears as the agents took out guards and raided the warehouse. The sharp reports of gunfire followed and Morrow felt the bitter burn of bile rise up in his throat.

A few moments later there was silence.

"Report!" Morrow ordered.

"Scene is secure, sir. Suspects are either dead or in custody. Wait a moment…"Sir, we have an agent down. We need immediate medical backup."

"Who?" Morrow's heart was in his stomach. The techs were already dispatching medical backup to the scene.

"It's DiNozzo, Sir. Took one in the gut. He's breathing but he's loosing blood."

Morrow didn't need to see DiNozzo to know it was serious. The tremor in Balboa's voice told him everything he needed to know.

"Agent Sacks, your AD and I will be having a very short discussion about this as soon as we get my agents taken care of." He gave the signal to cut the feed from the FBI.

"Get Agent Gibbs on the phone. Get him now." Calling family to tell them that their loved one had been injured or shot on duty was his least favorite responsibility. The thought of one day having to make this particular phone call had caused him more than one sleepless night over the last two years.

"You better not die on me, DiNozzo," he muttered to himself, fist tight around the phone's receiver as it began to ring.

Jethro had always known this was a possibility. That one day, one of them could be sitting in the very spot he was in now, smell of hospital disinfectant stinging his nose, bitter taste of adrenaline and fear seeping across his tongue.

Waiting.

The waiting was the very worst. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was aware of the presence of the other people in the room, of Ducky's calm and reassuring silence, of Abby's fingers wrapped tightly around his own. The only thing that mattered to him right now, however, was the weight of Bella in his arms, the reassuring warmth of her small body curled in his lap, tucked beneath his ribs, nestled into the very spot where she had begun her life nearly three years ago.

He'd debated on bringing her to the hospital with him, but when he'd gotten the call about Tony, Bella had sensed his alarm immediately, had clung to him, refusing to allow him to leave her at the house with Abby. Perhaps his toddling daughter understood better than he did that her presence was the only thing that could hold him together.

"Agent Gibbs?"

Jethro raised his head and forced tired eyes to focus. He nodded to the man who had just emerged from behind the closed surgical area doors and was still dressed in scrubs and cap. Gingerly passing the sleeping Isabella to Abby, he stood and moved stiffly forward, aware of the sudden silence of held breath and the weight of several pairs of eyes on him.

The surgeon's face was calm and gave away nothing, but his eyes seemed warm and sympathetic. "I'm Dr. Emerson, the head of trauma." He held Gibbs' eyes rather than extending his hand.

"Tell me." Jethro said steadily, forcing the words from his throat.

"Agent DiNozzo is still in surgery but his bleeding is under control and he's stable at this time. Our team is still working to repair some of the damage the bullet did in his abdomen and it will likely be several more hours until he's ready to go to recovery, but barring any unforeseen complications I feel confident that he'll make it through this." His voice was even and self-assured, reflecting his statement.

Jethro felt the air drain from his lungs and the world start turning beneath his feet again.

"If you don't mind, Agent Gibbs, I'd like to speak with you privately regarding some of the details of the procedure. I've asked one of my colleagues to join us."

Gibbs could tell there was something Emerson was holding back but he sensed that he was being truthful about Tony's condition. He nodded his assent and allowed himself to be led through a set of double doors and into a small conference room where another scrub-clothed physician awaited.

"This is Dr. Oliver. She's our head of Andrology and I've asked her to consult on Agent DiNozzo's case." He gestured to the woman already seated at the small table in the room who immediately rose and extended her hand.

Dr. Oliver was tall, thin, and Jethro would have described her as more handsome than pretty. She wore little makeup and round glasses which didn't do much to distract from her rather prominent nose. Her deep brown eyes were warm, however, and something about her made Jethro feel more at ease. "Agent Gibbs," she acknowledged.

"Seems like we're all going to get to know each other a bit better today. Call me Jethro." He pulled out a chair, still feeling a little tremble in his knees from the fading rush of adrenaline.

Emerson wasted no time once they were all seated. "Dr. Oliver is here because of some unique circumstances which arose during Agent DiNozzo's surgery. There's no easy way to broach this topic, Jethro, but were you aware that Agent DiNozzo was pregnant?" he asked gently.

The words hit Gibbs in the gut and he stared at the pair of surgeons in confusion. "Pregnant? There has to be a mistake. Tony made it clear from the time we met that he wasn't capable of conceiving or carrying children. We never talked specifics but he said that he'd been tested at the usual age. He seemed pretty certain."

"Well, absolutes are often a difficult thing, especially with male fertility," Dr. Oliver took over. "I've reviewed Agent DiNozzo's history as well as his current charts. He was definitely pregnant, about 3 weeks along, so still very early, and honestly, I'd say with his reproductive anatomy, conception was certainly a million to one shot. I can't definitively say whether he would have been able to carry the child to term but I think it unlikely."

Jethro's head was spinning. Something finally clicked in his head. "You said he was pregnant?"

Oliver nodded. "I'm sorry, but with the trauma to Agent DiNozzo's abdomen and the subsequent blood loss, the fetus spontaneously aborted. There was nothing that could have been done."

He looked to Emerson. "So you brought in the head of a department to tell me we just lost a baby we shouldn't have been able to have in the first place?" There was the barest tinge of grief at the thought but it was outweighed by his sheer incredulity that even the remotest possibility had existed for this.

"Not exactly." Dr. Oliver acknowledged him directly, ignoring the slight. "In reviewing Agent DiNozzo's charts, the reasons for his infertility are quite clear. Essentially, the canal which would normally allow fertilization and subsequent birth is almost completely closed off. As I said, the odds were incredibly against him ever conceiving naturally," She explained patiently.

"We seem to do pretty good at that part," Jethro shook his head, thinking back to the shock of finding out that he was pregnant with Bella.

"The good news is that defects of this kind are quite common and also very easily remedied, in fact, the correction techniques are so minimally invasive that we usually perform them as an outpatient procedure."

Something warm and hopeful pushed out the dread in Jethro's heart. "You're saying he can get pregnant?"

"I don't want to be overly optimistic in this case. Unfortunately, Agent Dinozzo has some other problems impeding conception. One of his ovaries is underdeveloped and the other has quite a bit of scar tissue. His reproductive organs also aren't positioned ideally for carrying which makes miscarriage more likely, particularly in men."

"I'm confused, why are we even going through all of this if you can't fix what's wrong?" It seemed almost cruel to get his hopes up and then dash them repeatedly. Jethro simply kept reminding himself that Emerson said Tony would be okay. Anything beyond that was icing.

"I believe that by removing some of the scar tissue using a laser procedure and re-suspending Agent DiNozzo's womb in a more ideal configuration I can increase his chances of conception and carrying a child to term exponentially."

"So you do a thing with a laser and make his canal or whatever bigger, move some stuff around and he could have a baby if he wants? If we want?" He pinned Oliver in place with his eyes, demanding a straight answer.

She nodded. "There are never any guarantees, Jethro, but this will give him the same odds as anyone else out there."

"And the reason that we're discussing this is that we'll need your consent to go ahead with the procedures. The procedures are all minimally invasive and by themselves, carry few risks of serious complications. Because we've already made a surgical incision to the area Dr. Oliver needs, she can do her work in conjunction with the other repairs we're doing due to the GSW. I'm sorry, Jethro, but she'll also need to perform a D and C procedure due to the terminated pregnancy. It's why I asked to her to consult in the first place." Emerson took over the conversation with an even and sympathetic tone.

Through the pounding pulse of disbelief if his head, Jethro brought up the clear memory of Tony's voice during his own pregnancy, 'I'd do this for you if there was any way I could.' He remembered the pain and regret in those words and knew that his decision was clear.

"And there's no additional risk to him?" Jethro wanted to be absolutely certain of this one point.

"No more than he already faces from his injuries. It won't add to his recovery time either, though he's still looking at a long road there," Emerson reassured him.

He dreaded the thought of having to convey the news of the loss of their child to Tony but this, this was something so unlooked for, so incredible. This was a gift beyond anything either of them had ever hoped for and there was no way he would deny it to him. "Tell me what I have to sign and I'll sign it," Gibbs said firmly.

Thank you for reading!