a/n: no plot, just family fun!
Alexandria, Virginia
August, 2024
Jennifer Shepard awoke abruptly that Saturday morning, in the manner in which she usually startled awake the moment she heard the baby crying. It took her all of five seconds to take note of the distinct lack of crying baby, and another five seconds for a sense of eerie quiet to wash over her.
She blinked, and rolled over warily, reaching her arm out tentatively for her husband. Her hand hit his knee, and she frowned, looking up. She almost jumped out of her skin –
- Gibbs was staring straight at her, an uncharacteristically gleeful look on his face, and she had the sudden feeling it was the subconscious sense of being watched that had yanked her out of an impressively deep, relaxing sleep.
She started to open her mouth, but he held a finger to his lips seriously, then cupped his ear pointedly, and then pointed to the digital clock on the bedside table behind her. She turned to look at it –
- and widened her eyes and looked back at him sharply, her lips parting in disbelief.
It was ten a.m.
Ten a.m.
She hadn't slept past seven thirty on a Saturday since before Anna was born, and that was seven years ago.
She pushed herself up a little.
"How long have you been staring at me?" she asked under her breath.
"Thirty minutes."
She shoved her foot at him under the covers.
"Creep," she hissed. She glanced at their closed bedroom door. "Are they dead?" she asked dryly.
He shook his head.
"I snuck out and checked," he answered, his voice gruff and low. "Jack's playing in his crib. Kitty's in there, entertaining him by playin' with the dogs. Anna's being mom."
"They didn't hear you walk around?"
"Got out clean," he answered, hunkering back down.
Jenny gave him a gleeful look.
"What strange Nirvana is this?" she whispered dramatically. "What alternate planet have we encountered?" she teased.
"Don't jinx it," he mumbled, reaching out for her.
She wriggled over willingly and snuggled up against his chest, tilting her head up to brush her lips against his jaw. She breathed him in – he'd come in so late last night from NCIS, she barely remembered rolling over and kissing him before falling back to sleep. He pushed his hand through her hair and groaned quietly, pulling her closer.
"Mmm," she murmured, afraid any moment the magic of an uninterrupted, quiet morning might be broken. "How shall we spend this enchanted time?"
"Go lock the door," he suggested huskily, his lips touching hers.
She kissed him back, and nodded, but made no move to get up. She kissed him back harder, and harder, until she had to pull away to gasp for breath, and she rested her forehead against his.
"I can't even remember the last time we – "
"Me neither," he answered dryly.
Her brow furrowed.
"Hmm," she mused. "Anniversary?" she tried.
That had been about a month ago.
"Not that long," he grunted, appalled.
He shook his head.
"After that gala thing, for your boss," he corrected.
"My boss," she quoted, laughing. "The president. It was his grandson's birthday."
She caught his eye, and shook her head.
"Doesn't count," she teased softly. "We didn't finish."
He kissed her again.
"What happened?" he asked against her lips.
Jenny thought for a moment, wracking her brains.
"Ah," she remembered. "We were letting Jack cry it out, but Katharyn didn't like it, so she stood outside the door and screamed at us to fix him."
Gibbs snorted.
"Brat," he said affectionately.
"Mmhm," Jenny murmured, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.
The girls had gotten used to Jack sleeping through the night, so when he occasionally had a fussy one, they – Katharyn particularly – tended to consider it a weapons grade personal offense.
Gibbs shifted closer, pressing her down into the sheets. She slipped her arms around his neck, feeling for his skin under his t-shirt, almost feeling like a teenager again – they rarely got time alone anymore, other than a few tired moments in the morning, or some half-asleep conversation before bed at night. She knew life would calm down some more when the girls were back in school and when Jackson was a little older, but it was exhausting at the moment – and had been since he was born.
She slid her hand up the back of his neck, closing her eyes. He clutched her lower back, fingertips pressing hard into her skin, kneading a soft massage against her spine. She was about to let him pull her under him when the door burst open.
He stopped kissing her and dropped his head to her shoulder, lying there for a moment like a very disappointed, immoveable rock. She patted his shoulder sympathetically and sat up, her calmest, most maternal smile on her face. She yawned.
"I didn't hear a knock, Anna," she said chastised gently.
The little girl tossed her hair and nodded.
"Knock, knock," she said obediently. "Okay, I forgot a little," she said, she hopped forward and put her hands on the bed. "It's almost lunch; I'm starving," she said seriously.
Gibbs put his hand out.
"Hi, Starving, I'm Dad."
"Daddy, stop it," Anna said seriously.
"Anna, you stop it."
"STOP IT."
"Anna," Jenny laughed. "Ignore him," she advised, winking. Gibbs let his hand fall, and gave his oldest a serious look.
"You get me ten more minutes alone with Mommy, and I'll make blueberry pancakes," Gibbs promised. "Powdered sugar and bacon included."
Anna's eyes lit up.
"Jack is so happy this morning, I can keep him quiet," she promised. She frowned. "I'll put a leash on Katty."
Before they could say anything, Anna was out the door – and she'd slammed it, to boot.
Jenny hesitated.
Gibbs looked at her dubiously.
"Should we go stop her from putting the leash on her sister?" Jenny asked.
"You think she can catch Kate and get it on?" Gibbs countered.
Jenny considered that.
"Let's see how that goes," she decided.
"When do we intervene?" he asked logically.
"The minute Katharyn lets out that pitiful, shrieky 'Daaaaadddddyyyyyyyyyy' wail she does."
He nodded. Katharyn had some impressive pipes on her – not necessarily in the Grammy-award winning way, but in the Hitchcock Scream Queen way.
Both of them listened for a moment, and then Gibbs leaned closer for another kiss. She put a hand on his chest, and arched an eyebrow.
"You know she's not going to give us ten minutes, and besides – "
"I can do ten."
"If you want to sleep on the couch for a week, you can do me in ten," she retorted.
He gave her a long-suffering look, and put his arm around her, settling for another cuddle.
"Later?" he asked. "When could we - ?"
"No, we've got to go to Dad's later – Noemi's birthday."
"Can we leave the kids there?"
Jenny laughed.
"Without warning?"
Gibbs smiled wickedly.
"Yeah, go park the car somewhere, then when he calls pretend we had no idea they were gone."
"He'd never give them back."
Gibbs blinked. Jenny gave him a critical look. They both shook their heads.
"Nah," he said.
"I kinda like them," Jenny agreed.
She leaned over to at least resume one steamier kiss when the door burst open dramatically, again, and Katharyn tumbled in like a glorified gymnast, popping up theatrically at the edge of the bed.
Jenny sighed.
"Mommy, can we have breakfast?" she asked, batting her lashes. She glared at him. "Anna tried to murder me."
Gibbs snorted. Then he hastily composed himself.
"Did she actually murder you?" he asked.
"No," Katharyn admitted. "But cloooose."
"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."
"Whatsa grenade?"
Jenny cleared her throat loudly.
"Give Mommy one minute," Gibbs said, switching gears, and answering for Jenny. "Just one more, Kitty, then I'm making pancakes for you guys."
Katharyn, to their surprise, let out a wail and threw herself to the floor as if she'd just been shot.
Gibbs arched an unconcerned eyebrow.
"I DON'T LIKE PANCAKES," she wailed. "I WANT WAFFLES."
"Kate, waffles are just pancakes with dimples," Gibbs pointed out.
Jenny turned onto her back lazily and rolled her eyes.
"Don't respond to that behavior," she said quietly. "Katharyn," she said calmly, raising her voice a little, "go back and play with Anna until it is time for us to ruin your childhood by feeding you pancakes."
Katharyn rolled out of the room as if she were on fire, leaving the door wide open, and a sense of broken magic in the air – broken adult quiet time, that is, but still a familiar sort of chaos that both Jenny and Gibbs had come to know and love.
Gibbs started laughing.
"I love that one," he said fondly.
"Just that one?"
He gave her a look. She smiled, and pursed her lips – Katharyn's dramatics were getting progressively more absurd as she got older, and Jenny dryly hoped they translated into some serious talent in high school theater rather than some Rebel Without a Cause aesthetic.
"Let's put her in karate or gymnastics, for that energy," she suggested.
"Let's put her on TV," Gibbs suggested wickedly.
Jenny smirked, and leaned over to kiss him again – this time, Anna came back in. She put one hand on her hip, and threw a nerf ball right at her father with the other.
"Hey," she said authoritatively. "Your baby is crying."
That was it, the moment was truly broken – the jig was up, and Saturday had started.
"Okay," Jenny sighed, throwing off her covers and getting up. "Okay, okay – Daddy, pancake duty. Anna – "
"Can I help wit the baby?"
"Yes," Jenny said, ruffling her hair and sparing a moment to kiss her good morning. "Katharyn?" Jenny called. "Will touching pancakes poison you, or do you want to stir the batter for Daddy?"
The little blonde came bursting out of her brother's room, a large German Shepherd trotting happily at her heels, trying to catch a long ribbon she'd been teasing him with. She jumped eagerly at Gibbs as he emerged.
"I want some blueberries," she squealed. "Can I sneak some, please? Please?"
Gibbs gave her an amused look – how secretive of her, to shout it out like that. But all the same, he nodded, and put a finger solemnly to his lips. Then, he swept her up and hugged her good morning, tickling her ribs affectionately.
Anna followed Jenny into Jack's room as Gibbs whisked Katharyn away downstairs.
"He didn't cry this morning, he just woke up," Anna said swiftly. "And then me and Katty came in and were his mommies, but he started crying a minute ago. I guess you're better. I can't feed him."
Jenny laughed. She reached into the crib and picked up the baby, holding him against her shoulder – he was getting big, and she'd been weaning him lately. She'd breast fed him longer than the other two, maybe because she was secretly feeling a little sad she'd never get to do it again.
"Can I carry him?"
"You're still not quite big enough to carry him around," Jenny said.
"Can I when I'm sixteeeeeen?" Anna asked – she was obsessed with being sixteen lately, mostly because Kayla Vance was getting closer to that age, and never stopped talking about it.
"Sure," Jenny agreed – Jackson would be way past carrying then, but Jenny figured there would be other babies for Anna to hold as the years went on, if she kept her interest in it.
"Breakfast?" she asked the baby.
He clutched her hair and rested his head on her affectionately, calming his crying, and Jenny smiled.
"Breakfast?" she asked Anna.
Anna nodded, and skipped out of the room, leading the way down the stairs.
Jenny took a deep breath and started after her, filing away the quiet moments this morning in a happy place for later, when she was stressed, or overwhelmed, and needed to remember how luck she was to have what she had – and she set foot on the hardwood floor of the living room, and started a typical Saturday – a rare three hours late.
August, 2024
i hadn't written some ACD in quite a while, so this was fun and not stressful/angsty!
-alexandra
#264