Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize, I do not own unfortunately. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario. If I did, there would be no summer hiatus. I also do not own Wakefield High School or Randolph Elementary in Arlington Virginia. I just looked up high school names, and those are I am guessing, either right down the street or around the corner from each other.

A/N: I know I posted this chapter already, but I noticed that the end was cut off for some reason. So here's to hoping it all shows up now.

A/N 2: Yes this story is taking place back in 2001. I am not in any way, shape or form attempting to dishonor the memories of those who perished on that fateful day. After this and possibly the next chapter, I will be moving on in time, still 2001ish though. I still remember and will never forget 9-11-2001 though.

"Daddy?" Kayla asked, before everything around her went black.

"Sissy?" Kennedy cried, as she watched her big sister faint after seeing someone she thought was their father standing in the room next to their mom's bed.

"Makayla!" Jocelyn exclaimed, as a couple doctors rushed over to assist.

"Mmm, wha' happened?" Makayla mumbled, as she started regaining consciousness.

"Sweetie, you passed out." Jocelyn replied, once the doctors deemed her okay.

"Oh yeah." She mumbled, as she looked up and saw a man she hadn't seen since she was a little girl. "I thought you were dead?" She asked, as Jocelyn spoke to her again.

"Baby, we'll talk about this at home." She told her, as they had been waiting on the doctor to come in with her release papers when the girls had shown up.

By the time they had made it home, Kennedy had fallen asleep in the backseat, so Kayla got out and managed to carry her inside, before placing her down on the couch.

"Makayla, your father didn't die in Kuwait like we were led to believe." Jocelyn said, as they were sitting around the kitchen table.

"Yeah, I kinda got that part already mom." She said, shaking her head. "Why did they tell us that he died though?"

"Well we still need to find that out." She said, taking her daughters hand in her good one. "The good news is, we can leave WITSEC if we want to. We can go back to being Shannon and Kelly Gibbs."

"I don't know what to think of all this." Makayla…Kelly said honestly. "I mean, for the last ten years, I have thought my dad was dead and on the day that's been so horrible for so many people, cause they found out that their loved ones died because buildings fell on them, or they were in a plane being flown into the ground or into a building, there's really no way for their loved one to come back. I shouldn't be this happy."

"Honey that's perfectly normal." Shannon said, giving her a soft smile.

"I mean, why can something good happen for me, when so many other kids are going to have to go to bed tonight without a parent?" Kelly asked, shaking her head. "Can't you say anything dad?" She questioned smartly, wondering what made him show up all of a sudden.

"I can't believe how grown up you are now. You look just like your mom did when she was seventeen." He said softly, unable to stop staring at his not so little girl.

"Yeah I am." She replied, as she started to get a headache. "How are you going to explain all this to Kennedy? I mean, she doesn't even really understand why we are in the WITSEC program in the first place."

"She'll understand sweetie, I mean, it may be a little confusing for her at first, but I'm sure she'll do fine." Shannon said, trying to adjust the strap on her temporary wrist brace.

"How did you two find each other?" Kelly asked, unable to stop the nagging question. "I mean, do you work at the Pentagon now dad?"

"No, I'm an agent with NCIS. We went down to the Pentagon to help out." Gibbs replied, getting up to get Shannon some of her pain medicine. "I pulled your mom out of the rubble that was her office, and I knew it was her."

"Okay." She replied with a nod, glad to know that her parents really hadn't been working in the same building for years, and never realizing it. "Mom, do you want me to get dinner started? I know Kenny will be hungry when she wakes up. We had an early lunch today, Mrs. Reynolds order us some pizza around 11:30."

"Yeah sweetie, that will be fine." She answered, taking the pills Gibbs gave her, once he brought her a glass of water. "Don't make anything too hard. Just some pasta or macaroni and cheese will be good."

After dinner was over, and the dishes were washed and put away, Gibbs and Shannon had sat down with Kennedy to try and explain to her what all was going on. She was a little confused, especially since she had always been told that the body they had cremated was her daddy's. Getting her settled down for bed, Gibbs was needless to say surprised when Kennedy asked him to tuck her in that night and read her, her bedtime story, of The Secret Garden.

While waiting for Gibbs to come back downstairs, Shannon and Kelly were sitting on the couch talking. "So what are we going to do mom? Are we going back to being Shannon and Kelly, or do we stay in this life now?" Kelly asked, looking at her a little conflicted. "I mean, we have lives here now. I'm a senior, I don't really want to leave all my friends behind, but I don't want to lose daddy again either."

"Well baby, I don't think he would mind to live here, until you finish up your schooling." Shannon answered, knowing Gibbs wouldn't want to cause Kelly any unneeded or unwanted stress by making her transfer.

"This sucks mom." Kelly mumbled, laying her head on her shoulder. "I mean, I'm glad that I got daddy back, but it just makes me mad that we lost ten years with him. Kennedy has no memories of him, so she doesn't really know what she's lost with him, if that makes sense."

"I understand where you're coming from Kells, but it is what it is." She told her bluntly, as she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to calm her down like she did when she was a child. It still amazed her every day seeing so much of Jethro in Kelly, whereas Kennedy had Shannon's demeanor through and through.

"You think Kenns talked dad into doing voices for her story?" Kelly asked, chuckling lightly.

"I don't know how many voices he could do for Secret Garden." Shannon laughed, as she tried to picture her tough old Marine doing character voices.

"She could get him to sound like a woman." She said, shaking her head amusedly.

"Alright sweetie, why don't you try and get some sleep yourself." Shannon suggested, as both of them stood up and headed toward the stairs. "You girls can sleep in tomorrow since schools are closed again. Your dad has to go back down to the Pentagon in the morning to help with search and rescue, but he should be here for dinner. We can discuss then what he thinks about moving in here with us until June."

"Okay, night mom. Love you." Kelly said, hugging her mom tightly, before she ran up the stairs. Seeing Gibbs coming out of Kennedy's room, she walked up to him tentatively and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Night daddy, love you." She whispered, keeping her head on his chest.

"Night Kelly-Bear, love you too." He replied quietly, and if he was perfectly honest with himself, he was quite content on never letting his girls out of his sight again, as he kissed the side of her head. Pulling back from the hug, Kelly walked down to her room and shut her door quietly. Going over to her bed, she turned down the covers and went to grab a clean pair of pajamas out of her dresser. Grabbing Gibbs' old Marine's t-shirt, she grabbed a pair of shorts and headed toward her bathroom door. Deciding to forgo on her shower for the night, she quickly changed her clothes and brushed her teeth, before pulling her hair up in a messy ponytail and going back into her room. Grabbing her TV remote, she quickly turned on her VCR, so she didn't have to see anymore of the haunting images of the planes flying into the Twin Towers or the plane flying straight into the Pentagon, which made her want to be physically ill, as she realized how close she really became to losing her mother. Putting in her copy of Beauty and the Beast, she snuggled into her pillows, before the lull of sleep managed to pull her in.

"Did Kennedy get to sleep okay?" Shannon asked, as she and Gibbs were laying in her bed that night.

"Yeah, she reminds me so much of Kelly when she was a little girl." He replied with a chuckle. "She tried to con me into reading her an extra chapter tonight, cause as she said, 'she's had a very hard and confusing day, so the extra chapter is a way to make up for it'".

"I swear that child is too smart for her own good." She replied, laying her head on his chest. "I mean, she seemed to do a lot of stuff earlier than I ever remember Kelly doing them."

"Well she probably sat and watch Kelly do a lot of things, so she may have picked up from that." He whispered in her ear, wrapping his arms snuggly around her waist.

"What's going to happen between us Gibbs?" She asked bluntly, wanting to have some sort of peace, as she tried to fall asleep, her nerves still completely shot to hell and back from everything that had happened that day.

"We're going to be a family again Shan." He told her honestly. "I am not going to miss out on another second of Kelly's or Kennedy's lives. I have already missed ten years." He said, as he started tearing up, which shocked them both as he was never one to cry. "My little girl is not so much a little girl anymore. She's a young woman now and it hurts. It feels like instead of cherishing what I am going to get to experience with Kennedy, I feel like I will be wondering if Kells did the same thing at the same age, or if they are polar opposites for the most part."

"Well I can tell you that Kennedy is a strong-willed little girl. That much she gets from you. The rest of her is all me, where as Kelly stayed pretty much a mini you." Shannon replied, as she continued listening to his heartbeat. "Kennedy loves to dance as much as Kelly loves playing the piano, although she has kind of stopped right now since it's her senior year, and she's doing Volleyball."

"Come on, we better get some sleep." Gibbs said, holding Shannon close to him. "You've had a rough day, and I need to be back at the Pentagon first thing in the morning."

"Yeah, Kennedy will be up before eight most likely." She mumbled, her pain pills having started to kick in, making her sleepy.

"Love you Shannon." He said, kissing her softly for the first time in over ten years.

"Love you too, Gibbs." She replied, smiling at him sleepily.

Around five the next morning, Gibbs woke up when he felt a little body creeping up between him and Shannon in the bed. "What are you doing up already Kenns?" He asked, looking at his little girl questioningly.

"Hadda bad dream." She mumbled sleepily. "Keep seein' the planes hitting the buildings."

"Okay, well lay right here, daddy's got ya." He said, letting her snuggle up next to him. "I'm not going to let anything get ya."

"Hmmm." She sighed, as her breathing evened out, indicating she had fallen back to sleep.

A couple hours later, Gibbs had gotten up to get ready to head back to the Pentagon. Making sure that Kennedy wasn't near Shannon's injured arm, he got dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen, wanting a cup of coffee before heading out. Stopping in surprise when he saw Kelly sitting out on the back porch holding her own mug. Walking outside, he let his presence be known before he got up behind her, not wanting to startle her.

"Morning daddy." Kelly said, looking up at him. "You getting ready to head over to the Pentagon now?"

"Yeah, I'll be back here probably after dark tonight." He replied, sitting down beside her on the swing. "Whatcha drinkin'?"

"Cocoa." She replied, looking up at him. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd come out and watch the sunrise. My mind has been racing all night, got too much going on right now."

"I know kiddo." He said, hugging her to his side. "Tell ya what, tomorrow we'll just go out and spend the day together, just you and I. We can talk and you can catch me up with the last ten years of everything."

"Yeah, that sounds good." She replied with a smile. "I can't wait."

"Okay, well tell your mom to call me if she needs anything." He said, kissing the top of her head. "Try and stick close to the house today and keep an eye on her. We both know she'll try and do more than her wrist will allow her to do."

"I'll stay here today dad." Kelly laughed, knowing how Shannon hated sitting around being bored.

"Love you Kelly-Belly." He said, smiling at her as he stood up to leave.

"Love you too daddy." She replied, returning his smile.