Chapter 11

At the evening Kelly and Gibbs were getting themselves ready for the dinner at Hollis house. Kelly would surely take the opportunity to discretely squeeze out some details about the relationship her dad and Hollis used have and why it all didn't work out in the end. She just knew right now what her father had told, that he and Hollis had both agreed it didn't work out between them or was that just a lie by dad because he still didn't want to admit the truth to himself yet.

While Kelly was still busy with choosing an appropriate outfit for tonight, Gibbs was already finished and was sitting on the couch in the living room and thought a lot about what that time together with Hollis today could mean for his future? Would she take him back, if he would admit that he still loved her with all his heart? Jethro didn't know that for sure right now because so much time had passed, since he had decided to end the relationship with Hollis. Maybe the two would only be friends in the future, because Hollis had let a new man in her life that even had replaced him in her heart.

Gibbs smiled for a moment, because Kelly had that one thing in common with her mother Shannon: In her case it also took a lot of time for her to get herself ready, when she and Gibbs had been going out during the time the two were happy in love. Gibbs wished so much at this moment, that Shannon could see what great young woman her daughter had now become and right now a little bit of grief because of that came right into his train of thought. Quickly he then put these thoughts away because Shannon had surely wanted him to be strong for Kelly and he would make that nothing was ever going to happen to her. Finally Kelly then came down the flight of stairs, smiled brightly at her dad and said: "Ok Dad I'm ready to go. That's sure going to be a very nice evening at Hollis house and I'm really excited for the meal she's going to cook." Then the two got in Gibbs old Dodge car and made their way to Hollis house. On the drive to Hollis house, Gibbs thought a lot about the fact how surely awkward the atmosphere would be between him and Hollis after all this time that they hadn't seen each other. But he quickly then put this aside for now and decided to just concentrate on driving for now.

Meanwhile back at Hollis Man's house, she was putting the final touches on table decorations and putting dishes and silverware directly next to them. She was really looking forward to spend the evening with Gibbs and his daughter and it was nice to have Gibbs around again after they hadn't seen each other for such a long time. Did she maybe still love him? Or were her feelings messing around with her? She had tried her very best to move on with her life after Jethro had decided to end the relationship but that had proved to be more difficult than she thought. Hollis had even started a little affair with a friend from her good old times at College but after a short time she had realized that they just were too different to get the relationship to work out between them. She thought she really loved John but soon realized that no man could ever replace Jethro Gibbs in her heart and maybe now was good time to give their relationship a second try. Finally she was completely finished with the final preparations and hoped that all on this evening would go smooth, especially the meal she had prepared for tonight. A little bit later the three finally had set down at the table in Hollis Living room and were already talking and laughing a lot, Hollis was really surprised at first to see Gibbs smile so much the whole time but she was certainly happy for him.

"Hollis that's really the best turkey I've ever ate." Kelly said and then took another sip of her Coca Cola. "I totally agree with that, this turkey is really delicious and thank you again for inviting us tonight."

"I'm glad you both like my turkey so much and I hope you're going to invite me to Christmas now in return." Hollis said, brightly smiled at Gibbs and waited for his reaction. For a time that almost seemed like an eternity to Kelly, she poked in the side to finally get a reaction out of her dad. Finally Gibbs said:" Of course, I'm going to invite you to Christmas, me and Kelly would love to welcome you in our house." He smiled brightly at her and then the three silently continued eating. Meanwhile Tony sat at a bar and flirted with some girls. He was kind of tired because the hard work on the case for almost the whole evening had really exhausted him, even if that wasn't new to him because working with Gibbs always meant to have a lot of overtime. Kelly and Gibbs finally said goodbye to Hollis and the two said how much they had enjoyed the evening and Hollis said before Gibbs and his daughter finally turned around to go back to their car: "It was very nice to have you two here and I'm really looking forward to see you on Christmas." Then Gibbs turned round but only walked a few meters before he turned around, walked up to Hollis and kissed her. She was a little surprised by that at first but then she finally let herself get totally caught up in this moment and kissed him back with all her heart. Then before he finally went to join his daughter Gibbs said: "I love you."

"I love you too Jethro." Hollis replied without hesitating and now she was really certain that she still had romantically feelings for the silver haired NCIS Special Agent.

The Next day Gibbs came into the office in very good mood, he handed his whole team in the bullpen a coffee and all of them were happy but also very surprised about that gesture from their boss. Tony even thought, if Gibbs was Gibbs anymore when he was being all nice the whole time. Meanwhile Kelly and Hollis were sitting together in Gibbs house, because Gibbs had asked her again to come by and look after his daughter while he was at work. They chatted about a lot of things and Hollis even admitted after a while that she considered her and Gibbs to be together again and that she was really happy about it.

The team made a lot of progress in the case and now had lowered the field of suspects down to a minimum: Sam Richards, a man that used to be together with the victim and never really got over the fact, that she dumped him because she realized that they were too different. The second one was: Her CO Donald Matterson.

Later this day in the evening, Gibbs spontaneously invited Ziva, Mc Gee, Tony and Abby to his house for a Thanksgiving dinner. When they all sat at the table, Kelly chatted a little bit with Tony, who she was sitting right next to: "You look very pretty Kelly."

"Thanks Tony, you look cool too." Kelly said and brightly grinned at him. When Gibbs caught Dinozzo staring a little too obvious where he shouldn't be, he gave him a little soft slap on his head and as Tony rubbed the back of his head a little bit and said: "Sorry Boss." That made Kelly and Gibbs laugh and all the others joined in.

AN: thanks to- hslacer for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription and reviewing the story, thanks to- Kelly Gibbs NCIS for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription and for reviewing this story, for adding it to her/his favorite stories list and for reviewing this story, thanks to- fart fart for reviewing this story. I hope you like this chapter, please read and review.