The Orchid Thief

by madame.alexandra

An AU of the crossover persuasion. A heartbreaking crime is perpetrated on Leroy Jethro Gibbs' daughter, leaving her with a broken childhood. SVU Detective Jennifer Shepard, fractured in her own right, vows to piece Kelly's life back. JIBBS, uniquely.

11. The Eleventh

A/N: Watching the 'A Christmas Story' marathon on TBS is, indeed, a tradition at my house. What a delightful movie.

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Christmas Morning 1993 (December 25th). Home of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Kelly Gibbs, and Elizabeth Gibbs. 7:02 a.m.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs enjoyed a good two minutes of peaceful, post-seven o'clock sleep on Christmas morning before a full thirty-seven pounds of three-year-old attacked his back.

"DADDY! WAKE-UP!"

In keeping with tradition of all prematurely awoken fathers, he snored loudly and pretended to still be asleep, wincing as Elizabeth dug her petite knees into his back and crawled all over him, ignorant of his body's protests.

He heard an excited giggle, even with his face shoved under a pillow, and Elizabeth attempted to tickle him awake, her small hands poking insistently at his ribcage.

"Daddy, SANTA CAME!" shrieked Lizzy, shaking him. "Kelly says we has to wait until you get up, so I come to wake you!" she rambled, losing the grammatical prowess Kelly tried so hard to instill in her.

Jethro continued snoring mechanically. He smiled to himself. This was definitely his favorite part of Christmas. Yeah, even better than watching them open their presents. He listened to an annoyed sigh, signaling the arrival of Kelly. He could practically see her hands on her hips.

"Lizzy, I said wait for Daddy to wake up!" she admonished, rolling her eyes at her baby sister. Jeez, as if Daddy wasn't tired enough. He had been working a lot lately, and spending every free moment with them, and he kept worrying about Kelly even when she ordered him to stop. Lizzy didn't have to go wake him up.

"He did! He's woke up!"

"Yeah, because you jumped on him," Kelly retorted, prancing into the room further and leaning on the bed. She peered into Jethro's face and he opened one eye, smirking. She giggled.

"Kelly's bossy," Elizabeth informed no one in particular.

Jethro reached up behind him and snatched Elizabeth, making her scream in surprise. He growled playfully at her and started tickling her back, until her cheeks turned pink from laughing and she was feebly kicking at his chest.

"Don't listen to your sister, Liz, she used to creep in here and throw ice at us until we got up," he informed the youngest, earning a gasp of horror from Kelly.

"DID NOT!"

"Yeah, you did too, munchkin," growled Jethro with a smirk, noting the mortified look on polite little Kelly's face. And it used to piss Shannon off, too, water all in the sheets—not that they could stay mad at their daughter on Christmas.

The information pleased Elizabeth more than it should have.

"Ha-ha, Kelly!" she gloated, squirming away from Jethro. Kelly caught her as she attempted to kill herself rolling off the bed, and Jethro rubbed his eyes, sitting up. Immediately, Elizabeth flopped out of Kelly's grip, stood, grabbed Jethro's elbow, and stomped her foot.

"Come. ON. DADDY!" she ordered, sticking out her bottom lip pleadingly. He snorted and waved his hand, nodded.

"Go, go, pick out your first present, I'll be there in a sec," he relented. Elizabeth clapped her hands and scampered off. Kelly smiled at Jethro and followed her, throwing an offhanded 'good morning, Daddy' over her shoulder.

Jethro got up and threw the sheets up, half-making the bed. He went into the bathroom and threw water on his face, shrugging sleep off and blinking to clear his sluggish head. He left on his t-shirt and old drawstring sleep pants and moseyed into the living room.

Kelly had turned the tree on, and was sitting nearly next to it by the fireplace with a present in her lap. It looked like Elizabeth had taken a swan dive into her stack and scattered them everywhere, but at this moment, she was smiling a mile wide smile, perched on the new red tricycle 'Santa' had promised.

"Look what I got! Look, Daddy!" she called happily, ringing the small bell. Jethro grinned and collapsed on the couch, running his hand back through his short hair as he looked at them both. Their Christmas haul might be lacking in what he and Shannon together would have been able to provide—or compared to what Joanne had shamelessly showered on them—but when he'd retired from the USMC before serving twenty years in order to raise them, he'd forfeited his pension and NCIS was the only income. Thankfully, the US did provide health care, due to his injury in Kuwait, as well as a monetary stipend monthly that he valued—for the kids' sake rather than his—more than the purple heart it came with.

They looked happy, though, and that was enough for him.

Elizabeth had jumped off the bike and darted for another present, all but ripping the paper off with her teeth. Kelly giggled and watched her, her eyes bright.

"Open yours, Kel," Jethro coaxed, tired of her selflessness. He wished she'd just enjoy herself for once, instead of trying to make sure everyone else was okay first. Didn't she deserve that?

Kelly smiled at him and started opening hers carefully, tossing the paper into a neat pile. Jethro was rather proud of the wrapping job, considering Abby and Mike had been recruited to help wrap in a secret summit last night after the girls had gone to bed.

Things had calmed down after the dénouement of Logan Grey's trial and death, but had not reverted to peaceful "normalcy". Kelly hadn't handled school well, even though she'd insisted on going right back. She claimed the teachers treated her like she was "glass" and wanted her to talk to counselors, and she said Maddie was the only one who acted "normal". He didn't know what to do about it. She'd come home early, crying, and wouldn't talk to him Thursday, and Friday he'd ended up just picking her up early from a Christmas party when she'd called him.

She had started a fight with him a few days ago, something so uncharacteristic of her that had resulted in her shouting at him to 'shut-up'. He was at a loss on how to handle discipline in this situation, because he didn't want to be insensitive, but he wasn't going to tolerate disrespect like that.

It was difficult. Lizzy was starting to pick up more alertly on things that had gone wrong, and asked Kelly occasional questions that made Kelly cry or get very quiet for a while, even if she was still kind to her sister. The day after Joanne had taken Kelly on her shopping trip (and returned her with dresses, ballet shoes, and all kinds of girly treasures that overwhelmed him), Kelly had asked if it was okay to go to lunch with Jenny.

He had let her, and Kelly had seemed in a much better mood the next few days. She spend a few days of her vacation at work with him, playing in Abby's lab, because he had worked almost nonstop lately, even if it bothered him.

There was a lot of stress.

Seeing them carefree, opening their presents, relieved a lot of it, particularly when Kelly, discovering the My Little Pony lunch box he'd gotten her, squealed in excitement just like a kid her age should.

Mike Franks—that cat, not his boss—leapt gracefully onto Jethro's lap and Jethro glared at the feline, warning it to go away. It purred at him menacingly and reluctantly he scratched its ears. It was the only way to get Mike Franks to leave him alone.

Content with the gesture, Mike Franks settled next to Jethro on his stomach, watching his owner with yellow eyes and flicking his tail creepily.

"OW!" Kelly protested suddenly, touching her head and glaring at her sister. Elizabeth ducked behind the Christmas tree and smirked, the culprit of having just thrown a new green soccer ball at her sister.

"Lizzy, do you really want that taken away before you even get to use it?" asked Jethro sternly, giving her a narrow look.

"I told her 'heads up'!" protested Elizabeth, rolling her eyes in a small imitation of Kelly. Jethro smiled in a small way and pointed at Kelly.

"Apologize."

"Sorry, KK."

"It's okay," Kelly said sweetly, picking up the ball and holding it out in a friendly way. Lizzy reached out to take it and Kelly threw it at her gently.

"What goes around comes around!"

"Kelly," admonished Jethro exasperatedly.

"What? She liked it," Kelly retorted, shrugging. Elizabeth was giggling madly, hugging the green soccer ball.

"You two behave, or we're going to gramma's," he threatened.

Proper behavior immediately graced the living room and he snorted. He briefly imagined being punched in the shoulder by Shannon for that comment. Kelly gasped. She looked up at Jethro, her eyes shining, and beamed, holding up a boxed set of Angelina Ballerina books.

"Daddy, you found it!" she complimented, admiring the box set, complete with a stuffed doll of the picture books' heroine. She had mentioned having all the books in a set but could never find one. Shannon had read them to her since she was very little.

He shrugged.

"Wasn't that hard," he answered airily, and Kelly leapt up, running over to him and placing a kiss on his cheek. He guessed it was a good thing Lizzy wasn't paying attention to ask why Kelly wasn't thanking Santa. He hugged Kelly briefly and gently pushed her back to her presents.

"Kelly, Mermaid," Elizabeth said happily, presenting a VHS of the Little Mermaid to her sister with a bright smile. Kelly grabbed Elizabeth and pulled her into her lap, and Jethro watched contentedly as the continued to open presents, this time together.

The stockings had been the most un-brilliant plan ever; he had asked Tony, Mike, and Abby for ideas on stuffers, and all of them had contributed candy. He could see any semblance of peace in his home unraveling as Elizabeth dumped her candy on the floor and began squealing.

"Hey! No candy until after breakfast!" he ordered suddenly, intercepting Elizabeth's sneaky attempt to eat Twizzlers after she'd unceremoniously ripped open the package.

"Tell breakfast to hurry up!" Elizabeth retorted smartly, giving him a playful look.

Jethro sat forward, absently scratching Mike Franks' ears again, and rested his elbows on his knees, surveying the paper-strewn living room. They each had two or three more gifts to open, but Kelly would draw it out and Lizzy simply probably hadn't noticed there were more.

"What do you want for breakfast?"

"Pasketti," Lizzy informed him seriously.

"Chocolate chip pancakes," corrected Kelly, smiling eagerly at the idea of her request.

"YUM!" Elizabeth agreed, nodding. He laughed and stood up, starting towards the kitchen.

"Maybe we'll have pasketti for dinner, troublemaker," he said to Lizzy.

"Pasketti!" cried Elizabeth gladly. He heard a thump, and decided not to ask what it was until someone started crying. No one did, and he went about making breakfast expertly. They had plenty of time to enjoy a damn good Christmas morning before he tried to get an over-excited Elizabeth to sit quietly through church.

He was busy mixing chocolate chips into pancake batter when he heard whispering, which made him slightly suspicious. He started to back up to where he could see what they were doing, when Elizabeth scampered into the kitchen, wrapped herself around his leg, and looked up at him with a shy smile.

"Daddy," she whispered secretively, "c'mere, c'mon."

She beckoned her hand, inching away and smiling. She giggled, still waving him back towards the living room earnestly.

"What, hon?" he asked, reaching to set the cooking stuff he was using down and following her. She whirled around, giggling louder, and darted around the corner.

"Issa secret!" she hissed covertly.

Jethro traipsed after her cautiously. He made it halfway around the corner into the living room when Kelly snatched his hand and dragged him impulsively over to the couch, pushing him down to sit. Mike Franks, who was contented batting around a stuffed mouse that Kelly insisted be given to him for Christmas, looked at Jethro eerily.

"I thought you wanted pancakes," he stated.

"Lizzy can wait," Kelly said, dashing down the hall to her room. Jethro peered at Lizzy pointedly, narrowing his eyes.

"What's going on, Liz?"

Elizabeth scrambled up onto the couch next to him and knelt, shaking her head sternly and pressing her fingers to her lips.

"Kelly says don't tell you," she informed him. She shifted onto her butt and leaned on him, grinning up at him mischievously. He gave her a withering glare that she knew meant no harm but she still dutifully covered her little blue eyes.

"Did you miss me?" Kelly asked gallantly, waltzing back into the room. "Lizzy, get up, you're helping me," she ordered, placing one hand on her hip as she set a paper bag down at her feet.

Elizabeth bounced off the couch and took her faithful place next to her sister, taking her hand and swinging it happily. She eagerly peered into the bag and jumped up excitedly as Kelly reached in with the hand that had been on her hip and pulled out first and envelope and a tissue-wrapped object.

"Girls…" he growled menacingly.

Kelly insistently poked Elizabeth.

Elizabeth sprung forward and presented the two items to Jethro, leaning over his knee.

"Merry Christmas Daddy!" She placed the stuff in his lap and held out the card eagerly, shaking his knee some. "Daddy, look at the card, Kelly let me make it all by myself and I only made some of the letters squirmy, she held my hand when I writed!"

He heard Kelly mutter 'wrote' under her breath and smiled, taking the offered card gently and opening it carefully. He pulled out the childish, colourful folded card and smirked at the image of a Christmas tree drawn next to words that wished him a merry Christmas and were, indeed, not that squirmy. He looked at Elizabeth's earnest, cute drawings with a half-smile and reached out to ruffle her hair fondly, causing her to bury her head in his knee bashfully.

He opened the card, read the 'we love you, Daddy' and their signed names, and held the card as he stared at it for a minute. Gently, Elizabeth reached up and pushed the other thing at him, nudging it with her small hands and giving him an eager look.

"Open," she ordered, and she left no room for argument. He glanced at Kelly, who still guarded her paper bag, and tugged off the neat tissue paper on the rectangular object he held. He flipped over the picture frame when it was free. He wasn't prepared for what he saw, and his brow creased.

"Where did you find this?" he asked after a minute, staring at the picture of himself and Shannon not long before they were married. He looked like he'd just gotten back from base in his Marine early days. His uniform was unbuttoned and wrinkled, his backpack was on the lawn by his feet, his cover was…on Shannon's head.

He remembered that day. He'd gotten home from a month and a half at Parris Island. He'd surprised her at home and she'd snatched the cap off his head and jumped on his back, hugging him tightly. In the picture, she was biting his ear playfully, and her nose was wrinkled.

Jethro! Jethro, you better be glad I'm still yours. That good lookin' pilot's still after me!

What's his name again?

Nobody. –kiss- Can't remember, LJ, was too busy thinkin' bout how tight you'd hold me if you thought I might run off. –kiss-

Missed you, Shan.

Not as much as I missed you, stupid. I'm a woman, we have more feelings.

Jethro looked up at Kelly rather than Elizabeth for an answer, shaking the memories. He resisted the urge to wince when he met Kelly's eyes and remembered they were, almost to the flecks in her irises, Shannon's eyes.

He'd never seen this picture.

"Oh, Gramma Jo found it," Kelly answered softly. "She said she took it before she yelled at Mommy to stop making a fool of herself," Kelly laughed and busied herself with the bag at her feet. "I thought you would like it. Mr. Franks always teases you for having so many pictures of me 'n' Lizzy, so we got you one of you and Mom."

She crouched to pull something out of the bag, and Jethro was still reeling from the flashback the picture had assaulted him with.

"Like it, Daddy?" Elizabeth asked, peeking at him from his knee. He looked at her and nodded, cupping her chin sincerely.

"I love it, sweetheart."

Elizabeth perked up and scrambled up next to him again. He rested the frame on his thigh and put his arm around her. She laughed. Kelly placed something much heavier on his knees and put her hand on it matter-of-factly.

"When we sent you those chips you like when you were in Panama, Mommy said you get someone you love two things: one for your heart, one for your hands. That's for your heart," Kelly said, tapping the picture. She patted the heavy metal she'd placed on his knee and pulled a blanket of Lizzy's off of it. "This is for your hands."

He blinked at the toolbox sitting on his lap.

"You two are in big trouble," he growled suddenly, his voice hoarse. He wasn't supposed to get gifts from his daughters, they were supposed to enjoy a completely selfish, exciting Christmas and he was supposed to love watching that.

"No!" Lizzy whimpered.

"He's kidding, sissy, he's mad we got him presents."

"Everybody loves presents!" Lizzy informed Jethro.

Jethro pointed at Kelly menacingly. This was all her idea and he knew it. Adorable little instigator of kindness. She smiled at him and punched his knee gently, drawing a laugh from her sister.

"Daddy, your tools are a zillion years old," she giggled. "You deserve it."

"You weren't suppose—"

"I wanted to," Kelly interrupted softly. "Because you're worried about me, and trying to help, and I yelled at you and was rude."

"Kelly," he said slowly, shaking his head. "Kelly, I'm just glad you're safe."

Kelly smiled, her cheeks flushing.

"Can you just open the tools and like them please, darling?" Kelly asked, narrowing her eyes at him and affecting a perfect imitation of a Shannon-esque irritated tone. He couldn't help but laugh, even if he sort of felt like crying.

He unbuckled the box and opened it, focusing on the new tools. It was a testament to his obsession that he wanted to throw Lizzy off his lap and dash down to the boat to start working on her with these babies.

"Hey. You. Come here," he ordered, setting the box aside after a moment and beckoning to Kelly. She crept forward and he snatched her into a hug at the same time he snatched up Lizzy, squishing their heads together gently. "Thank you," he mumbled sincerely, letting them go.

He touched first Kelly's, and then Elizabeth's head as if blessing them and gave them both a good, hard look.

"You two are the most important things in the world to me, okay? Don't you forget it. It's rule number three."

"Rule number three is never date a lumberjack," Kelly informed him with a laugh.

"No. New rules. Never date a lumberjack is now number one, and it has an amendment: The Gibbs girls never date anyone, because boys are gross. Trust me," both of them giggled at the serious look on his face.

"Two?" Elizabeth asked, cocking her head.

"Two is I love you more than the boat. No matter what Gramma says. Now, who wants the leftover chocolate chips-?"

Two little girls immediately straightened, smiles gracing their faces. It had been such a good morning for Kelly; he couldn't have asked for better and it was barely past eight. He stood up, swinging Lizzy up into his arms and giving Kelly a permissive nod to lead the way.

"You know rule eight, kiddo?" he asked Elizabeth, lifting his brow. He grinned as he heard Kelly shout it; Lizzy was too young to remember, but Kelly knew it by heart, it had been her favorite to hear shouted across the house whenever Jethro broke it.

"DO NOT TOUCH MY EARS, JETHRO!"

She screamed it from the kitchen in Shannon's irritated voice, and Jethro kissed Lizzy's forehead as she burst into giggles and grabbed his ear. Their Christmas content made up the entire list of what it took to make him happy. And with Kelly acting herself and hanging on to some of the happiest moments of her life, it didn't even hurt so much to miss Shannon.

---

Christmas Morning/Noon (December 25th). 1993. Home of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Kelly Gibbs, and Elizabeth Gibbs. 11:56 a.m.

Jethro glared at Elizabeth as she leapt out of the car, freed from her car seat by an overly excited Kelly, and landed in a wet carpet of snow, dirtying up her Sunday dress without a second thought.

"Hey," he growled, picking her up swiftly to protect her from the cold (and that nice dress from the dirty snow). She smiled sweetly at him and he narrowed his eyes, shaking his head as she pulled the door shut firmly. "What am I gonna do with you, you tomboy?"

"I want out of the dress, Daddy," she informed him.

"Geez," he muttered, fumbling with his house key as Kelly scampered up to the porch and tapped her foot impatiently. "I know you don't like 'em, baby, but Granpa got you this one, not Gramma Jo. No need to ruin it."

Elizabeth responded by lifting her foot and tugging off her one of her Mary Janes, giving Jethro a pained look. He laughed under his breath and grunted in mild protest when Kelly snatched the keys from him, unlocked the door, and darted in.

"Can I call her now, Daddy? If it keeps snowing, the roads will get too bad," Kelly said, peeking out of the kitchen with a cordless phone in her hands. Jethro kicked the front door shut, nodding and letting Lizzy down. She immediately dashed into her room, losing the other Mary Jane halfway there.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Kel," he said to Kelly, giving the path Lizzy had taken a suspicious look.

They had behaved remarkably well in church. Elizabeth had even submitted to kisses and cheek-pinching without resorting to putting on her angry puppy dog act and growling at the old women who admired her. Jethro had never been one for church; that had been Shannon's thing, but when she'd died he had picked up out of respect for her: she wanted her daughters exposed to religion.

He knew Kelly had been itching to get out of the stuffy service and call Jenny, and he hadn't forgotten his promise to let her invite the detective over, he just wondered how Jenny could react to such.

He had always been concerned when it became clear how much Kelly liked Jenny—how attached she was—because he doubted the depth of her care for Kelly, considering it was part of the job to make victims feel safe and provide some comfort to them. There was sincerity in Jenny though, and real kindness that you just didn't find in many people in anymore. He thought it proved strongly that he could trust the redhead not to disappoint Kelly when she'd taken Kelly to lunch without a second thought.

"Eeee-liiiiiiiz-a-beeeethhhh," Jethro called eerily, wandering down the hall to her nursery slowly. He heard laugher and paused outside the door, peeking in.

"DADDY!" she cried, squealing and holding her hands up. "I'm gettin' dressed, DON'T LOOK!" she hissed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Okay, okay," he muttered, leaning against the wall outside his room. He crossed his arms and whistled game show tunes. Elizabeth giggled in amusement, taking her own sweet time. He doubted she knew how to get the buttons undone on her dress.

Kelly pranced into the hall and stopped when she witnessed Jethro's antics.

"Daddy, what are you doing?"

"Waiting for thing number two to put clothes on," he responded seriously. Kelly smiled. She held up the cordless.

"Jenny says she can come over. I told her you didn't mind; she was worried about that. Is it okay if I call Maddie and see what she got for Christmas?"

"Yeah," he answered. "Don't be on the phone for longer than ten minutes."

"Um, ten minutes from when I dial or when Maddie say hello?"

"Kelly," he warned half-heartedly, and she grinned, darting into her own bedroom and leaving the door cracked. He smirked and shook his head. He had a feeling that, when she was a teenager, he was going to have to write specific laws detailing every single thing or else Kelly would just walk through a loophole.

She was a kid who refused to lie or disobey, but loopholes were her best friends.

"'Kay, you can look now," Elizabeth announced, jumping out of her room. She placed her hands on her hips, holding in her fingers a brand new colouring book as well as an unopened box of coloured pencils and grinned at him toothily.

He was impressed. She was fully dressed, and the only thing on backwards was her sweatshirt, but he didn't blame her. It took him about eighteen months to learn how to dress Kelly without Shannon rolling her eyes and snatching the baby away.

"Nice," he complimented.

She smirked proudly and then thrust the box of coloured pencils towards him, jumping excitedly again and snatching his free hand with her now empty one. She pulled insistently towards the living area.

"Colour," she announced matter-of-factly. "Daddy, we're gonna colour."

"Uh-oh," he muttered, allowing himself to be unceremoniously yanked toward the table, where Lizzy climbed up into a chair, knelt, and flipped open her new colouring book. She pointed to the blank paper pages and patted the seat she was sitting in. "I'm bad at this, remember?"

Elizabeth shook her head wildly; the soft curls Kelly had twirled into her brunette hair bouncing wildly.

"Nuh-uh, Kelly thinks you're bad, not me, I like your colours," she informed him, batting her eyelashes. He snorted. Charming. "Kelly's the one who says you suck."

Jethro gave her a sharp look, wrapping his arm around her waist and effortlessly lifting her so he could sit down and give her the advantage of sitting on his lap. He caught her eye though, and lifted his eyebrow.

"Elizabeth, that's rude. Don't say it."

"How come Kelly gets to?"

"Because life is not fair."

Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at him and then turned her attention raptly to the colouring book, tapping his hand and pointing to the box of pencils, indicating he should open them. She busied herself flipping through the book until she found a page she wanted. Jethro coaxed the pencils onto the table, careful not to let them go rolling off.

"You colour this one," Elizabeth said sweetly, tapping the picture on the left. "I'll colour this one. Hand me blue?"

Jethro obliged and looked forlornly down at the pony he was supposed to colour. He wasn't sure if he should start with the rainbow it was prancing on or the butterflies making a halo around its head. It occurred to him he wouldn't have this choice inflicted if he had bought her a Spiderman colouring book instead, considering Lizzy coloured on…everything.

He picked up dark green, the manliest colour he could find, and attempted to start colouring the pony's fluffy tail, but Elizabeth poked his hand and gasped in outrage.

"Ponies are orange and yellow and pink!" she insisted, flicking the green pencil away from him. "Colour his tail pink!"

"What if it's a boy pony?"

"Boys can wear pink!"

"Nuh-uh," Jethro responded immaturely.

"Yeah-HUH!" Elizabeth growled back.

"Since when do you give the orders around here, punk?" Jethro asked seriously, going for the pink pencil obediently and giving it a distasteful look before he meekly began to colour the pony at his daughter's request.

He was surprised at how long (meaning beyond five minutes) the activity held Lizzy's attention. He kept his arm loosely around her middle so she wouldn't fall off of his lap, and occasionally stopped colouring aimlessly long enough to watch her. She sang quietly to herself, tilting her head back and forth. He smiled and kissed the top of her head, setting a pencil down and shifting a little.

"Kelly, are you still on the phone?"

He was met by silence, and a few seconds later, Kelly came out of her room. Phoneless.

"No," she answered, certainly and with a smile. He gave her a suspicious look, wondering if she actually thought he didn't know she'd just quickly hung up. Kelly came over and looked at what they were doing, smiled, and pranced into the kitchen. Jethro peeked in to watch her pour herself a glass of apple juice and noted she was still in her Sunday best. She had no problem looking frilly all the time.

"Maddie have a good Christmas?" he asked mildly.

Kelly set her glass down and nodded.

"Maddie got a new G.I. Joe so now we can have another wedding and Barbie won't have to marry someone with a chewed up foot. And she got some make-up kind of like her mom's—oh, and she said her Dad got a cigar, even though he doesn't smoke, and a white stick in the same box, and Maddie's mom said she gets a baby sibling in July."

"Daphne's having another baby?" Jethro asked curiously, glancing over at Kelly. She nodded, taking a sip of her juice.

"Maddie says it's for real this time," Kelly said. Jethro nodded. Maddie's mother had been expecting when Jeff was called to service in Mogadishu, Somalia earlier this year, and she'd suffered a miscarriage when news of how badly the mission had gone reached the States. It was more than lucky that Jeff had come home safe. "That means Maddie's parents had sex," Kelly said matter-of-factly.

"Kelly. Marie. Gibbs. You better not have said that to Maddie," Jethro warned, giving her a look. He had no idea what Maddie understood and what she didn't in that department.

"I didn't," Kelly defended. "You said not to talk about it with other kids because it's their parents' job to tell them."

Jethro looked at her for a minute. He nodded affirmatively.

"Can we get a baby?" Elizabeth asked suddenly. "A boy one?"

"Ummmm," Jethro pretended to decide. "No."

Elizabeth bared her teeth at him playfully and glared. He glared right back. Kelly giggled, propping one of her legs up in her chair and smiling over her knee at them. Jethro picked up a coloured pencil, smiling, and returned to half-heartedly adding yellow to the butterfly halo in his picture.

"Here, kitty," Kelly cooed, reached down and picking up Mike Franks. She cuddled him in her arms and smiled, burying her nose in the soft fur of the growing kitten.

Jethro thoroughly enjoyed the peace. Kelly was content, he was fairly sure he'd provided them with a good Christmas, and he knew for a fact Elizabeth was thrilled just by listening to her sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star repeatedly under her breath.

It was the first really good Christmas in a while. The last good one had been the year Lizzy was born; he'd been home from an assignment in Columbia just in time for her very first Christmas; it had also been the first time he'd seen her. Two months later he was in Kuwait, and then the next Christmas had been the first without Shannon. The second, Joanne had been fighting him for custody. Now this one, marred as it might be by what had happened to Kelly, was more promising than any other.

They all heard the door open, and Jethro looked up warily. He glanced at Kelly, and she just looked back at him uncertainly.

"Um, I don't think Jenny would just walk in…" she began hesitantly. A squeal sounded and a blurry mass of green, black, and red, dashed into the room, jingling profusely. Jethro narrowed his eyes and glared as the human Mike Franks and sidekick, DiNozzo, followed it.

"She wouldn't," he growled.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS GIBBSES!" shrieked Abby, attacking Kelly with a massive hug. Jethro tensed, aware Kelly did not like being grabbed up or unexpectedly touched, but his daughter just giggled and threw her arms around Abby in response.

"I like your outfit!" she complimented, as Abs drew back and flaunted her goth-ified Santa's elves getup.

"ABBY!" screamed Elizabeth excitedly. Jethro winced, turning his hear away. He barely had time to steady her as she attempted to kill herself jumping off his lap at Abby, and he managed to hand her off so she wasn't just jumping with no end support.

"Nice pony, Gibbs," Tony remarked with a snigger, earning a head slap from Mike as he tried to peek sneakily over Jethro's shoulder.

"You're supposed to provide Christmas cheer," growled Mike, as far from 'cheerful' as he could get. Kelly giggled. She jumped out of her chair and skipped over to Mike, still cuddling the cat.

"Remember when I told you about the kitten Daddy bought me?" she asked proudly, lifting her eyebrows. Jethro snorted. Mike crossed his arms and nodded, looking down at the cat suspiciously. Kelly beamed at him.

"Guess what I named him?"

"Frederick," answered Mike, completely seriously. Elizabeth put a hand over her face in exasperation and giggled, shaking her head.

"No," Kelly said, rolling her eyes. "His name is Mike Franks!"

DiNozzo burst into ruthless cackles of laughter.

"Aww," squealed Abby, smiling at Kelly appreciatively. They shared a secretive smile while Mike turned and glared at Jethro, narrowing his eyes.

"You let her name a cat after me?" he growled.

"It's her cat," he snorted, smirking.

"You have no authority, Probie," snapped Mike, but he looked pleased in his bear-like way. He reached down and patted Kelly's kitten gently on its head. It hissed at him. Oddly, Mike looked even more pleased by this turn of events.

"Look at that, its jus' like me!"

"Tony," Elizabeth said loudly, cocking her head at him. He had wandered into the kitchen and was poking around sneakily. Upon hearing his name called, he jumped and looked into the room guiltily.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Did you come over to eat?" she asked sweetly.

"Er."

"DiNozzo goes everywhere to eat," Abby informed the three-year-old brightly, hugging her lovingly and wrinkling her nose up. Elizabeth giggled at the joke as Tony slunk back into the room. Kelly released Mike Franks to the floor and rolled her eyes.

"You can have some of the cookies I made," she offered, darting past him and beckoning towards the kitchen.

"You're my favorite, little Susie-Homemaker," he quipped, following Kelly, pleased.

Jethro abandoned Elizabeth's colouring materials and leaned back in his chair, watching Abby tickle his youngest daughter for a moment before looking impassively at Mike.

"Don't you guys have anything better to do?" he growled.

Mike glared at him. Abby shook her head brightly.

"Oh!" she cried suddenly, her eyes widening. "We brought presents!"

Jethro frowned. He really was starting to get concerned that Kelly and Elizabeth were racking up way too many people to spoil them.

"TONY!" shouted Abby.

Tony answered through a mouthful of food. They heard Kelly's laugher.

"Get the presents! And put your hat on!" Abby turned to Elizabeth and stuck her tongue out playfully. "We're making Tony wear a Santa hat, since the real Santa can't be here," she said.

"You believe in Saaaaanta, Abby?" asked Elizabeth brightly.

"Who doesn't believe in Santa?" gasped Abby, her green eyes wide and expressive. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and pointed accusingly at Kelly as she pranced out of the kitchen.

"Hey," Jethro said quietly. He shook his head. "Leave her alone about that stuff," he warned, and Abby nodded, and distracted. Mike looked at Jethro questioningly and Jethro stood, making sure Lizzy's stuff stayed on the table. "She quit believing in all that after Shannon died," he muttered, explaining.

"Ah," Mike grunted, turning to look at Kelly. She came into the room where everyone was, sans Tony, and placed a tin container of cookies on the table.

"Everyone can have some," she announced. "I made them all by myself, except Daddy got them out of the oven."

Tony marched back in with the goods a few moments later and Elizabeth gasped, her blue eyes going wide with excitement.

"LOOK! More presents! Look, Daddy!"

"I see, honey."

Mike chuckled and pointed over to the tree; Tony marched obediently in that direction and set down his bag, putting his hands on his hips and posing in a silly way. Elizabeth squirmed in Abby's arms and the Goth released her, scampering over to the tree as excitedly as the three-year-old herself.

"Kelly, come on," Abby called, beckoning happily. Kelly looked at Jethro briefly and dashed over to them, kneeling next to Abby with a smile. Jethro stood up, moseying over to the back of the couch with Mike to watch.

"These are from Mike," announced Abby. "He picked them out all by himself, and don't let him tell you otherwise," she added slyly. Jethro saw why it was necessary for her to clarify that so wickedly when she distributed large, fluffy, multicoloured teddy bears to the girls. Lizzy's was almost as big as her.

"Aww, it's so soft!" Kelly said, rubbing her nose into the bear's fur. Elizabeth peeked at her sister and then at Mike. She giggled, and Kelly nodded, and Jethro glanced at Mike with a smirk. Both girls jumped up and bounded on to the couch, attacking Mike with thankful hugs.

Mike immediately grumbled scarily under his breath. He glared threateningly at Abby when she snuck a camera out of her skirt pocket and started snapping pictures. Elizabeth laughed and returned to the presents as quick as a flash, sitting her bear up next to her, but Kelly straightened and kissed Mike on the cheek.

"Thank you, Mr. Franks," she said nicely.

"You're welcome, kiss-up," he said gruffly. Jethro gave him a look. Mike referred to Kelly as a sweet-talker half the time because he had a hard time believing anyone had a polite kid. Kelly grinned, and Mike tapped her cheek gently. "It's for being brave."

Kelly just nodded, and returned to the others slowly, standing up next to the kneeling Abby and smiling when Abby slipped her arm around her waist.

"Okay, so, um, mine or Tony's next?" she asked, looking seriously at the kids.

"How has she been?" asked Mike in a low voice, his eyes straight ahead. Jethro rested his palms on the back of the couch, leaning on it, and shrugged, his face expressionless. He hesitated, watching her for a minute, and then nodded.

"Better," he answered gruffly. "Okay."

"You know, uh, Probie…she asked me'n'Abs to come see her dance…we had to work, an' I keep thinkin' if I'd just sucked it up and gone, I coulda watched her and no one woulda hurt your baby girl."

"Ahhh, Mike," hissed Jethro, shaking his head slowly. He looked over at his boss, the man who he knew had always carried the guilt of not being able to keep Shannon safe, and who had without being asked left the vital information on a certain man's whereabouts laying on his desk for Jethro to accidentally see.

"It isn't your fault," he muttered. Hearing Mike try and take the blame was completely ridiculous, but something on some hidden level told him taking the blame himself was misplaced too. It was no one's fault but the man Kelly dubbed 'Rat King'.

Mike frowned. He looked away, and then glared at Jethro.

"It ain't yours either," he growled.

Jethro gave him a small smile out of the corner of his mouth.

Elizabeth suddenly let out something between a shriek and a giggle and a loud crash followed, drawing Jethro's immediately panicked attention. Somehow the table had been turned on end. Tony looked as if he was trying to hide behind a tree, and even Abby looked guilty.

"Ooops," Elizabeth muttered brightly, scrambling up. She peeked over the mess and smiled when she noticed her father wasn't yelling at her. She jumped up and held up a hula hoop.

"Spinning hoop!" she cried triumphantly, and dropped it over her head. Jethro now saw how the table had been upset, and he envisioned a whole new realm of ways for Elizabeth to do bodily harm to herself.

He glared at his mischievous colleagues.

"Who gave her that?"

Abby and Kelly immediately pointed at Tony. No heroes among idiots, apparently—excluding Kelly, of course; Jethro had never even thought of thinking Kelly was an idiot. DiNozzo, on the other hand—

"You're dead," Jethro growled, and was forced to abandon his plan to slaughter the young agent by the ring of the doorbell. The others were too preoccupied with Elizabeth's hysterical giggling to notice; Jethro retreated into the hall and to the door with a last menacing glare at Tony.

The last thing Lizzy needed was a hula hoop. She already managed to injure herself using toothpaste and socks. And he didn't even remember how that fiasco had ended up in a scratched forehead, he just remembered Kelly trying to explain it through fits of giggles.

He was still grumbling over it when he opened the door, caught off guard for a brief moment to see Jenny until he remembered Kelly—and thus he—was expecting her.

She smiled at him, her face a little red from the wintry cold, wrapped up in a nice coat, gloves, and a scarf.

"Hello, Jethro," she greeted pleasantly.

He nodded in welcome and stepped back, letting her in quietly. He could still hear the laughter and teasing coming from down the hall, and was hardly thinking of what the gesture meant when he gently took the collar of her coat and helped her out of it, hanging her things up.

"I'm not interrupting a party, am I?" she asked.

"Nah, I told Kelly she could call," Jethro answered. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Those idiots weren't invited," he added. Jenny gave a smile laugh, pushing red hair out of her eyes absently and crossing her arms over a pale green turtle neck sweater. He noticed she was out of the sling. "Injury better?" he asked.

She glanced down at the shoulder he gestured at and nodded, shrugging to prove it. She smiled wryly.

"They're still making me re-qualify my firearms examination," she said, slightly annoyed.

"Eh," he snorted, rolling his eyes. Jenny looked over his shoulder, as if waiting for intuitive Kelly to realize she had arrived.

"She still going to ballet?" she asked. Jethro nodded.

"She's doin' good, Jen," he said gently, answering her unspoken question. Jenny smiled, pleased. She looked at him silently for a moment and then flicked her eyes at the direction of the living area. Jethro turned and beckoned his hand, leading her in.

"Kelly," he called gruffly, gesturing his head at Jenny as they walked in. Kelly looked up from the couch; a VHS Tony had given her in her lap, and brightened immediately when she saw Jenny.

"Merry Christmas, Jenny," she greeted warmly, jumping off the couch and coming around to meet her. With that, she instantly drew everyone else's attention. Lizzy added a gasp of excitement, no doubt her one thousandth of the day, to the mix.

Jenny laughed.

"Merry Christmas, Kelly," she answered, returning the girl's friendly hug. Kelly smiled up at her, stepping back, and made room as Lizzy came scampering over, hugging Jenny's leg tightly and wrinkling her nose.

"Santa brought a trike!" she announced. Jenny smiled and ran her hand back through the little kid's hair, returning a nod to Tony's one of greeting and sharing a smirk with Mike Franks. She had barely laid eyes on the other woman in the room when she jumped to her feet and smiled brightly.

"We haven't met," she announced. "Well, not in person—we talked on the phone." She came over to Jenny and clasped her hands. "Hi. I'm Abby. Abby Sciuto," she said, and she reached out and hugged Jenny.

Jenny tensed up, widening her eyes, and relaxed when she realized Abby Sciuto meant no harm. She had never met the woman, no, but she had spoken to her and heard plenty enough about her to know that Abby was trustworthy and she was good.

"I really like you!" Abby announced as she released Jenny. "I know that's weird because we've never met, and I was mad at you at first because you wouldn't let me take care of the forensics and the case, but then I understood because you just wanted the best for Kelly and so did I and Gibbs really likes you too, so I had to like you and it's so nice to meet you and—"

"Abs. Jesus Christ," interrupted Mike, rolling his eyes.

Jenny laughed a little uncertainly.

"It's good to meet you too, Abby," she said, managing to get a word in. "I've heard a lot about you."

Abby beamed. It seemed she trusted that everything Jenny had heard was good. Jenny could tell right off the bat that she was a good, caring person, and she liked her. Mike peered at Jenny moodily through the others and gave her a menacing look.

"Got some nerve, missy, showin' your face to me after turnin' down my job offer," he growled.

Jenny smirked.

She noticed Jethro give Mike a sharp, querying look out of the corner of her eye and ignored it, refusing to quail under Frank's steely gaze. She just gave him a wry smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Admit it, Franks. You like it even more that I spurned your offer," she quipped, and Franks cracked a small smile. Kelly rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, nudging Jenny in the side. Jenny looked down at her and Kelly gave her a half smile.

"Would you like something to eat or drink?" she asked politely.

"No thanks, Kelly," Jenny answered.

"Then come see what Dad—um, Santa brought me for Christmas—oh, and I want to give you something, Jen, come here—" Kelly almost unconsciously shortened Jenny's name and ducked past her, avoiding a playful swipe from Mike Franks.

Jenny bowed out, meeting Jethro's icy blue eyes for a moment before she turned to follow Kelly, winking at Elizabeth as the youngest girl put her hands on her hips, cocked her head, and looked demandingly up at the adults.

"How come Kelly keeps thinkin' Daddy is Santa?" Jenny heard the three-year-old ask, and she laughed under her breath as she wished them all look squirming out of that one.

She followed Kelly into her room, the same room they'd talked in before the trial had started. It was neater now; the bed was all made up, everything was in place, and Jenny smiled softly as she noticed a certain cardboard box on the floor by Kelly's dresser, and some certain possessions stacked on said dresser. She was glad Kelly seemed to be using what Jenny had giving her.

"Daddy got me the whole collection of Angelina Ballerina books," Kelly said, showing them to Jenny proudly. Jenny smiled at the beautifully bound set and ran her finger gently over the clean, soft new ballet shoes on top. "Gramma Jo got me those. They're from France," Kelly sounded awed, and Jenny laughed softly.

"So you're glad you went back to ballet," Jenny remarked.

Kelly nodded slowly.

"Yeah," she said. She nodded again. "It was…weird, at first, because a lot of the kids knew something happened, but not what and they asked. Maddie hadn't told them though, because she saw how TJ and the kids at school acted and she feels really bad. Mr. DiCovaggio just acted like nothing happened, and it's like normal," Kelly smiled. "It's nice. It's kind of the only place that feels super normal."

"You don't go to school with the kids from ballet?"

Kelly shook her head.

"Huh-uh, most of them go to private schools in Alexandria. La Pirouette is really prestigious, and it's expensive. I had to stop Piano lessons to keep going after," Kelly shrugged a little. "After Mom died. "

"Ah," Jenny said softly, smiling gently.

She sat down in Kelly's armchair, picking up the books and ballet shoes, perching as she looked around Kelly's room. She looked at Kelly.

"Kelly," she asked wrinkling her nose. "Are things at school not getting better or something?" she questioned bluntly, concerned by Kelly's reference to how the other kids acted. She knew Kelly had left school early her second to last day and not gone all day the last day either, and a few days after that is when they'd had lunch, and Kelly had been reticent about school.

Kelly looked down and shrugged. She leaned on the arm and propped her cheek on her palm, frowning at Jenny and taking a deep breath.

"It just isn't the same," she said softly. "Some of the girls ask things, too, and they boys think it's a scary joke…one of them yelled at Maddie that he was going to rape her, and I didn't want to cry, but I did, and that's why I left early," she explained softly. "The teachers treat me weirdly, too. They act all sickly-sweet and hushed, like I'm sick—does that make sense?"

Jenny nodded her head, leaning back in the chair. She chewed on her lip thoughtfully and looked at Kelly for a minute.

"What would you think about switching schools?" she asked mildly. Kelly looked interested, tilting her head a little. She shrugged.

"I think I would miss Maddie a lot. I don't think I would be upset about everyone else though…It would kind of feel like a new start," she mused.

"It might," Jenny said, non-committal. She couldn't imagine how hard it must be for Kelly to be in a situation which pitted a bunch of naïve, blunderingly curious kids against a horror to mature for their understanding. She had never had to face that. Her experience with rape had been more of the dark secret type. "Anything on your mind, honey?" she asked with a friendly shrug.

Kelly smiled.

"Not really," she answered. "I just wanted to have you over. I didn't know the boys and Abby were coming over; I was going to ask you to watch the movie you gave me, Dirty Dancing, because Daddy said to watch it with you—and he was going to bundle up Liz and help her with the trike, but then they crashed the party—"

Jenny laughed at the tone Kelly used: friendly, good-natured, and sarcastic at the same time.

"We could make Mike watch it with us," she suggested wickedly. "He'd love it, don't you think?"

"I think it might make him cry," Kelly said with a giggle. "He likes all those yucky blood movies where guys in masks kill people."

Jenny made a face.

"Those movies are dumb," she announced to Kelly seriously. "Hey, have you seen The Maltese Falcon? If you like Casablanca—"

"Tony and I watched it when I had chicken pox last year!" Kelly interrupted happily. "I think Sam Spade is cute," she announced, with a shy look.

"Hey, when you're eight years old, boys have cooties," Jenny said with a laugh.

Kelly turned up her nose snootily.

"I don't believe that, I've read Jane Eyre," she announced primly.

"Kelly Gibbs, you are my hero," Jenny complimented, inclining her head gallantly. Kelly blushed and shook her head, dropping her palm from her chin and pushing back from the chair a little. She pushed back a lock of wavy hair and smiled at Jenny.

"I'm not a hero, I'm a kid," she said. "Heroes save people, like Daddy, and Superman, and you," she smiled. "You're a girl though, so I guess that makes you my heroine instead of hero."

Jenny bit the inside of her lip and blinked at Kelly, not really trusting herself to speak for a minute. Kelly smiled warmly and nodded again, as if confirming it. She twirled away from the arm chair and over to her dresser drawer.

"I'm going to give you what I made now," she announced, filling the silence. Jenny swallowed and straightened up, her hand splayed over the Angelina Ballerina books gently. She tilted her head curiously, brow going up a little, as she watched Kelly move things carefully in a drawer.

"Jenny, Daddy gave me back the barrette that you found, that the Rat King ripped out—the butterfly one my Mom gave me? I found it in the basement, and at first I hated it and I cried, but he made me feel better, and I think he was really mad that someone ruined the one of the last things I had of Mom," Kelly frowned, breaking off as she stepped back, holding something. "It made me really mad, too, I think. Mommy got me those barrettes in Jamaica when she and Daddy went, and I really loved them…" Kelly trailed off again.

She walked back over to Jenny, holding a small box in her hand. It had her name drawn on it, and Kelly handed her a coloured Christmas card. Jenny smiled, reaching out to touch Kelly's hand as she took it.

"I wanted to get you some orchids, but they wouldn't last long," she said with a frown, watching as Jenny glanced down to open the box. She pushed tissue paper aside and smiled when she saw two packets of orchid seeds. She looked up at Kelly.

"Good idea," she said. "I'd definitely prefer the orchids on my front porch over those weird begonias my housekeeper plants," she teased. Kelly smiled, her eyes brightening when she saw Jenny genuinely liked her gift.

Jenny lifted up the packets and Kelly leaned over the arm again, grabbing her hand.

"Daddy gave me all of your stuff, and I really liked all of it," she said softly. "Except when I looked through the Emerson book, your bracelet fell out," Jenny felt her mouth go dry as Kelly spoke, hardly having any doubt about what she meant.

Kelly delicately reached into the box and pulled out the broken, hand-crafted orchid bracelet Jenny's father had bought her when he was stationed in Korea when she was very young. It was still broken, as broken as she remembered seeing it lying next to her fingers when Rick Moore had been on top of her—

-she closed her eyes son reflex, taking a deep breath. She opened them after a moment and reached out to touch the charms. Kelly had gotten rid of the one that was chipped and the one that was shattered in half, but the ones still on the fragile chain were left and the single, clear, iridescent largest one had been carefully hooked back on. It was almost wearable again.

"I thought if your Daddy gave it to you before he died, you shouldn't have to hate it. Like it isn't fair for me to have to hate my barrettes or be scared at ballet. I know you might not ever want to wear it, because I don't want to wear my barrettes, but my Mommy gave them to me and they're mine," Kelly stopped suddenly, as Jenny pressed her hand over Kelly's smaller one, her eyes son the charm bracelet she had once loved so much.

"It was in the Emerson book?" she asked hoarsely. "I," she broke off, swallowing hard. "I thought he took it. I thought that son of a bitch took it before the trial, when I couldn't find it, I thought he stole it," she murmured.

Kelly didn't flinch at the curse word; she knew Jenny hadn't realized she spoke so harshly. Kelly's lips puckered though, and she reached out gently, lowering her voice.

"I really didn't want to make you sad, Jenny," she said sincerely. "Daddy told me you wouldn't…I want you to have your dad's bracelet—"

"No," Jenny interrupted thickly. "No, Kelly, I'm not…I'm glad you found it," she whispered, taking it gently and holding it in her hand. She turned stinging eyes on the precocious girl, still processing the mature things she'd said, about her barrette. "It's just been a long time since I've seen it."

Kelly nodded, taking Jenny's hand. Jenny squeezed Kelly's hand firmly and closed her fingers over the bracelet, feeling the cool metal on her fingertips almost surreally. So many mixed feelings hit her to have that bracelet back.

She wasn't sure how Kelly would react to her crying, but she was doing it before she realized it, and she pulled her hand out of Kelly's to cover her eyes briefly, turning her face away.

"It's okay, Jenny."

"I'm sorry," Jenny muttered. Every time she thought of the broken bracelet, she wished to God it had never been broken. If it hadn't, maybe that meant she'd never have been through what she had.

"Don't apologize," Kelly said softly. "Jenny, I don't want you to cry. It's Christmas," she said, leaning closer and touching her forehead to Jenny's. Jenny reached out and touched Kelly's hair warmly. She smiled, biting her lip shakily.

"Yeah," she said hoarsely. "God, Kelly. I wish it had never happened. To you, to—" she shook her head, swallowing, and stroking the kid's hair. Kelly nodded solemnly, pressing her lips together. She had a lost look in her blue eyes for a minute. Jenny felt this wasn't fair to Kelly; the way she was crying. She violently wiped her tears away.

"Me too," Kelly said softly, suddenly. "It makes me sadder when I wish it away," she said hesitantly. "Because I know I can't?"

Jenny nodded slowly. She leaned over and kissed Kelly's forehead, clutching her bracelet again. She leaned back and straightened, leaning forward on her knees and tilting her head towards Kelly with her hair falling over her shoulders and her elbows on her knees.

"I appreciate this, Kel," she said in a quiet voice. "It means…it means a lot."

Kelly beamed, the smile breaking through everything.

"Hey, Kelly, you plannin' on reappearing soon? Tony's stupidity is starting to infect…" Jethro trailed off, mildly curious, as he leaned in the doorway, catching sight of the scene: Kelly, leaning over the armchair, and Jenny leaning forward in it, looking at Kelly with her face completely shielded by red hair.

He looked at Kelly, gauging her mood, and scaled back his volume a little.

"Lizzy wants you two to play Candyland with her, Abby gave it to her and she's goin' on about girls only," he said slowly.

Kelly smiled at him.

"At least Abby didn't get Lizzy something loud," she remarked, pushing off the armchair. "I want to play, Maddie's dad always makes us play with him and he's silly about it," she remarked, amused.

While Kelly was talking, Jenny folded her hands, clutching the bracelet between fingers, and tossed her hair back absently, looking over at Jethro slowly. He noticed the fading distress in her eyes and evident on her face and his eyes narrowed sharply, looking between the both of them.

"Would you like to play, Jenny, or do you want to hang out with the adults? Well, except Abby—she'll play with us," Kelly said.

Jenny looked at Jethro for a moment longer and then raised her eyebrow, giving Kelly a look.

"What, hang out with those old men? I don't think so. I haven't been to the Candy Cane forest in forever, anyway," she said seriously, getting up. Kelly smirked and walked ahead of her towards the door, wrinkling her nose when Jethro ruffled her hair. She stuck her tongue out and he pushed her playfully and gently toward the living room.

Jenny gave him a hard look as she approached the exit to Kelly's room. He glanced stonily down at the bracelet in her hand and reached out, touching her shoulder gently.

"I warned her about that…bracelet," he muttered.

Jenny looked at him a moment, and then lifted her fist, looking at the bracelet passively.

"Kelly understands a lot more than most kids I come across in my job," she said quietly. She looked up at him. "I strive to help girls like her, kids…I need to help them," she took a deep breath and smiled peacefully. "I never thought one of them would help me," she remarked.

Jethro looked caught off guard, and then smiled slowly. He squeezed her shoulder and slipped his hand off of her, and she thought for a moment they were both remembering that night they spent together. He cleared his throat after a moment and she snorted; she must have been spot on, because that's when it got awkward.

She just gave him a wry smile and slipped past. Jethro turned, leaning against the wall and tilting his head back, his arms folded.

"Jenny, Jenny sit by me—and Abby, sit here—" Lizzy immediately began giving orders.

He listened. Tony or Mike popped a beer open and sat down to watch. Kelly laughed at something.

"Hey, where's the candy?" Jenny asked loudly.

"I hope you're being sarcastic, silly," Kelly whipped back at Jenny snarkily.

Jethro grinned to himself.

It was Christmas, and it felt like a good one. He didn't know what had happened between Kelly and Jenny—he was beginning to think that might happen often—but he knew that he had something to be thankful for in what that woman was to his daughter.

---

Christmas Evening (Decembber 25th) 1993. Home of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Kelly Gibbs, and Elizabeth Gibbs. 9:20 p.m.

Jethro, Jenny discovered, was like her in that he didn't seem to accept the nuances of electricity. It was late into the evening and dark in the house but the kitchen light and the glow of the television. His daughters were settling down for a Christmas tradition, so Kelly had told Jenny, of watching A Christmas Story. Abby and Lizzy were snuggled up, one half asleep, the other completely out of it, on the couch.

Jethro came out of the kitchen with hot chocolate for Kelly and she grinned at him happily when she came away from fixing the television to the appropriate channel. Tony DiNozzo had left; gone lonely Christmas skirt-chasing. Franks stood next to Jenny, and she was busy looking forward with a small smirk, waiting for him to stop glaring at the side of her face and speak.

"I've got an eye on you, missy," he growled, right on cue.

Jenny bit the inside of her lip to hide back a bigger smile and turned her head towards him slowly after a moment, lifting an eyebrow slightly.

"I'm almost afraid to ask why, Franks," she responded mildly, giving him a look. "Almost."

"'Cuz I can't figure you out," was his gritty response. He looked at her hard, his crinkly eyes scrunching up as if he were trying to read what was written on the inside of her skull. She weathered the look with grace.

"Oooh, a loaded comment," she mused. "I get the feeling I'm supposed to ask 'why' again."

"You ain't supposed to be asking questions," he growled, looking at her intently. "You need to listen up," he lowered his voice, throwing a glance at Kelly and Jethro as they smiled and he settled Kelly in, checking on Elizabeth and Abby carefully. He looked back at Jenny.

"That man was destroyed by his wife's murder, and that little girl handled it better than any I've ever seen, and she was only six," he informed her stoically. "I care a lot about Kelly, and I don't wanna see her lose anyone else, not after this, so forgive me if I ignore Probie's distaste in the way I question your intentions. I ain't used to seein' women in your position, and I sure as hell ain't used to women with no ulterior motive. I can see you're helpin' Kel, and I see she likes you and maybe I'm crazy, but I think you'n'Probie got a little closer than he's lettin' on," Franks gave her a critical eye at this point and glanced back at Jethro before continuing. "You gotta make a commitment now, missy. Either you walk away, or Kelly's got you on her side for the long run, and I want your word you'll never do a damn thing to make that little kid unhappy."

Jenny looked at Mike Franks intently, cataloguing every word he said with admiration and respect. She almost regretted turning down this man's job offer. God knew it would be an interesting place to work, and he, DiNozzo, and Jethro would make interesting colleagues. She couldn't have done it though.

What he said made sense. She didn't blame him for a second for saying it. Many in her profession—their profession—never involved themselves further than necessary in any of the cases. Her involvement and her initiative to care would seem off the wall to quite a few.

She shrugged after a moment, not breaking eye contact.

"You have my word."

She turned her head and looked back at the television, cracking a small smile as she watched a comical scene play out in the classic Christmas movie.

"That's it?" growled Franks unexpectedly. "No cockamamie bullshit about feminism and sexism and 'how-dare-I-assume-you're-trying-to-hook-a-man'?" he questioned, almost furiously.

Jenny looked back at him mildly and laughed quietly.

"Feminism is a shield insecure women throw up to deflect criticism and rejection," she told him bluntly. "I know what my intentions are, I do my job well, and I know who I am. I don't need some arrogant 'ism' paving my way anywhere."

Franks remained silent, staring at her dumbly.

He pointed at her sharply.

"I like you," he told her in a gruff voice, and she grinned, shaking her head. The statement was a far cry from the reaction he'd thrown at her when they first met, in sort of the same situation, and yet Jenny liked Franks very much. She understood him.

He cleared his throat, glared at her pointedly, and shut his trap as Jethro approached.

"You want coffee?" he offered to Jenny in a low voice.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should still be hanging around this late on Christmas. He looked at her genuinely though, and Kelly was still wide awake, so she smiled gratefully and nodded, accepting.

"Mike?"

"Nah, I'm getting' outta here, Probie," Mike growled in response. He fished keys out of his pocket and gave the dark area of the living room a squinty look. "Lemme say goodbye to them first, then I've got a few cases to finalize," he muttered, heading over to the couch.

Jethro rolled his eyes, gave Jenny a look, and slipped past her back into the kitchen. She heard the coffee start to brew and took a deep, relaxed breath. It was weirder than weird to be somewhere other than her study or locked in her bathroom on Christmas. Surprisingly, she rarely spent Christmas day at work, but it was usually a cold, repressive day for her; she spent a lot of the time attempting not to think rather than sorting her thoughts.

She smiled in small amusement as Mike attempted to say goodbye to Lizzie and instead was hugged by a half-awake Abby. Abby, it seemed, was big on the hugging. She wondered how Munch would feel when he called her to check up on her and got to answer at the office or at home. He might just call out the secret service to find her, afraid she was on some street corner peddling sex again.

She hoped to God he knew her better than that by now.

"You take care of yourself, girl," Franks barked at her as he passed, giving her a firm nod. Jenny smiled and gave him a small salute in response, watching the back of Kelly's head. The girl was snuggled up away from Abby and her sister, cupping her hot chocolate in two hands, attention rapt on the screen. Jenny noted that she didn't cuddle up with the others, wondering if it were always like that or if it was a consequence of recent events.

It was a few minutes later that Jenny heard Franks leave, and a few minutes still until Jethro appeared silently next to her with a mug of hot chocolate. Then they were leaning against the bar, watching the girls, just as quiet.

"Kelly said this was a tradition?"

"Yeah, every year since she was a baby. The movie comes on over and over on this one channel," he answered gruffly.

Jenny nodded. She blew lightly on her coffee, tested the temperature with her tongue, and then took a sip, closing her eyes. She really had to figure out how the coffee he made was always so superior to other coffee. Was it him, or the beans he used?

"Has Kelly wanted to talk to you about school?" Jenny ventured, turning towards Jethro a little and cradling her mug in her hands. She tilted her head and looked at him curiously. He sighed, almost a groan, and his brow wrinkled slightly.

"She's have a hard time," he said in a low voice, and Jenny had trouble discerning if it were a question or a reluctant resignation. He was intuitive about Kelly; Jenny was aware of that. She opted to go with the latter.

"Teachers," she probed mildly.

"Yeah, that's the biggest problem, I think," he growled through gritted teeth, and she knew it bugged the hell out of him to deal with the fact that the people who should help Kelly along were making her the most uncomfortable.

Jenny chewed the inside of her lip thoughtfully, choosing her words.

"I asked her if she thought switching schools would help," she said mildly, shifting her weight to focus more on Jethro. "She seemed interested in the idea. She said she'd miss Maddie but," Jenny trailed off, trying to gauge his reaction.

He narrowed his eyes somewhat.

"She's in one of the only schools Shannon thought was good enough," he muttered uncertainly. "I wouldn't know where to send her."

"Public," remarked Jenny promptly. She lifted her eyebrow. He snorted, taking a drink of his coffee and glancing at her. He narrowed his eyes at her this time.

"Pubic," he repeated, agreeing with her. He looked at her, waiting, and Jenny smiled a little, aware he was going to make her do all the work.

"The only public school that was good enough," she remarked gently. "DC has hundreds of private schools. Jethro, Kelly is smart. She's so smart. There's a school," Jenny paused, making sure she had his attention. "There's a school in Georgetown, near where I live. Washington International School. The primary grade campus is in Georgetown, at least. It's damn good."

Jethro looked at her skeptically. He looked over at Kelly, his eyes hard and deep in thought, and he watched her laugh before he shook his head slowly, looking back at Jenny with a wry smile. He swallowed.

"Ah, Jen," he grumbled. "I couldn't afford to send her to some fancy school like that," he said bluntly, shrugging his shoulders. He wished he could; he wished he could do that for Kelly because he'd been told so many times she was too far ahead of the kids in her class, but he'd never wanted her to skip ahead just for age reasons.

"That's where the smartness comes in," Jenny said cleverly. She smirked. "Kelly could get a scholarship, Jethro. Look," she turned her look more earnest, "applications are usually due in January. I'm friends with one of the counselors for the younger kids there, she's a good woman, I can talk to her about Kelly's options. It couldn't hurt to look into it," Jenny shrugged like he had and looked back at Kelly, lifting her coffee cup to her lips. "Give her a fresh start maybe, a real one, among teachers who will challenge her intelligence."

Jethro looked torn. He looked skeptical and unsure. He glared at her in a benign way.

"You really think it's a good idea to rip her away from a familiar school, now? Disrupt her life again?" He shook his head bitterly. Muttered under his breath. Jenny caught him growling about first losing her mother, now this…

She smiled softly at the back of Kelly's head, admiring everything she saw Kelly go through, thinking of her potential. She wanted to badly to see Kelly utilize everything she had, and turn everything that had ever worked against her into something she conquered.

"Don't look at it as disrupting her life. Her life's already been disrupted. Nah, Jethro, it's more like giving her a clean slate and telling her if she wants to, she can change the world."

Jethro remained silent.

"Who the hell talks like that?" he asked her after a minute, sounding seriously concerned about her.

Jenny laughed, louder than she meant to. Kelly turned around and looked at them a moment, then went back to her movie, smiling. Jenny giggled softly and looked at Jethro. He grinned at her cautiously, giving her a look like she was crazy.

"You sound like a damn self-help book," he growled at her.

She inclined her head and lifted a brow.

"When you've spent as much time around a psychiatrist as I have, it happens," she quipped wryly, leaning back and taking another sip. He shook his head, snorting derisively. She wasn't offended. She knew good and well she sounded like Dr. Huang half the time.

Jenny smiled into her mug of coffee. Jethro cleared his throat and shifted suddenly. She was surprised when he turned towards her and lowered his voice, closer than before.

"You think Kelly needs to see a shrink?" he asked bluntly, keeping his tone very quiet. He clearly didn't want to freak his daughter out. Kelly giggled again, raptly watching her movie. Abby muttered something loudly, completely asleep now.

Jenny met Jethro's eyes, considering him for a moment.

"Yes," she answered finally. She saw the adverse reaction in his eyes and held up a hand to placate, keeping him silent. "I know it seems like Kelly is okay—as okay as she can be. But she might get worse; it might hit her hard when she's older. Professionally, I would recommend she see one," Jenny paused, and then went on firmly. "Personally, from the standpoint of having been in therapy myself…she needs it Jethro. And it's not because she's crazy, it's because she's going to hurt, and I know that some days therapy was the only thing that kept the barrel of my gun out of my mouth."

She felt her honesty was brutal, but it was needed. Just because Kelly was coping well didn't mean on a psychological level she was healing right, and Jenny didn't want to risk anything manifesting itself later in her life and ruining her chances.

Jethro looked at her darkly, stepping back some and looking at Kelly. Jenny let him brood quietly for a moment and then spoke up, chewing her lip again thoughtfully.

"She liked George—Dr. Huang. George is responsible for getting me to stop waking up screaming. I could talk to him about seeing her. She could come up to the station once a week, see him, see me," Jenny suggested.

Jethro looked more receptive to that idea.

"She'd like that," he murmured under his breath some. It would make it easier on him, not having to figure out when Kelly could next see Jenny, what worked, what was appropriate and not awkward. As nice as this conversation was, Jethro still felt the subtle uncertainly and awkwardness that came with sleeping with someone without meaning to, technically. He knew it more by social conditioning than experience.

They fell silent after that, for a brief moment. They watched the movie. Jethro locked his eyes on Kelly, his head full of her and what was best for her. He spared a brief glance to check on Liz and Abby, but neither of them worried him.

He took a drink of his coffee, cleared his throat, and brushed past Jenny, touching her arm gently. She looked up at him, her brow furrowed, and he jerked his head stiffly towards the kitchen.

She followed him, watching him set his coffee cup down by the sink. He leaned forward on it; she cocked her hip against a counter, her arm wrapped protectively around her waist, the other resting on the counter with her mug in her hand. He turned around after a moment.

"That night," he growled, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Before Kelly's trial, that night we," he faltered. "I wasn't using you," he ground out finally, letting his hand fall from his neck. He braced both palms behind him on the counter. "I don't know what I was doing," he grumbled after a moment.

He looked up at her momentarily.

Jenny met his gaze and then looked down at her mug, her eyes on the dark, aromatic liquid in her mug. She tapped a filed nail against the ceramic and looked back up at him, her eyes intent. She tilted her head and shook her hair back.

She shrugged. Her classic move, it seemed.

"I know that," she said softly. And she did. She had good instincts. That was something that had come from fending for herself for so many years. She knew innately that Jethro would have in no way deliberately hurt her. "I could have kicked you out, Jethro. Could have said no," she remarked mildly. She plucked up her mug. "I didn't," she added bluntly.

He stared at her. He had such blue, beautiful eyes. She had to blink; images of that night flashed across her vision and she didn't want to dwell on it. That was a tangle in this web that was unnecessary; avoidable, and now, couldn't be unknotted.

She smiled faintly after a minute.

"In another world—" she started.

"Yeah," he interrupted.

"In a different situation," she muttered, blinking her eyes in quick succession. She smiled widely and shook her head slowly, blowing out air between her lips. It was somehow a relief to know that he got that feeling too; that it wasn't just luck that had thrown Kelly into Jenny's jurisdiction, it was some sort of 'fate' if you wanted to believe in that. The world knew placing Kelly in Jenny's care would benefit her.

"You have got to stop feeling guilty, Jethro," she growled quietly.

He scoffed at her, shook his head, his eyes hardened a little.

"Guilty?" he grunted nonchalantly.

She nodded slowly. She set her mug back down.

"Guilty," she repeated softly. "About your wife. About me, Kelly, everything. Not a damn thing that happened is your cross to bear."

He looked at her impassively. His knuckles were white on the oven behind him and he looked up, his jaw tight, his shoulders tense, a muscle in his temple twitching. He rubbed a hand over his mouth suddenly and looked through, narrowing his eyes at Kelly. Jenny sensed he was barely holding it together.

She slowly pushed away from the counter.

He suddenly slammed his fist back down on the counter, causing a loud thud, and a clinking as something shook slightly. Jenny bit her lip and flinched, startled. He tore his eyes away from Kelly towards her.

"I swore I'd never let anything hurt her," he said hoarsely. "I don't ever want her to suffer another minute," he broke off, his blue eyes intense. "She's going to be okay. Jen," his voice was almost warning her, begging her. "She's going to be okay," he rasped.

Jenny relaxed slightly. Jethro just hadn't had a chance. He didn't have a moment to take it in and grieve about it. He probably didn't let himself anyway. Jenny approached him and reached out and squeezed his bicep, stoically ignoring the shimmer in his eyes that indicated violently suppressed tears.

"She's going to be okay, Jethro," Jenny said sincerely. It helped so much that she believed it.

He reached out and hugged her, and she wasn't quite sure if she initiated the gesture or not. She hugged him back, soothing and comforting more than anything else. Her hand rested gently on his neck and she looked over his shoulder at the clock on the oven, her mouth touching his ear slightly.

"She'll make it Jethro," she promised quietly.

Her bracelet, old and new at the same time, the charms cool, brushed against the nape of his neck as she shifted her hand. His shoulders shook as he took a deep breath; she felt him draw it in through her hair.

"Daddy," Kelly said softly, walking slowly into the kitchen. She held her empty hot chocolate, and looked at Jenny in worry when the redhead stepped back from hugging Jethro demurely. Kelly came forward a little more, setting her mug up next to Jenny's on the counter.

"Daddy, are you okay?" she asked in a small voice.

He swallowed quickly.

"Yeah," he answered gruffly.

She looked a hell of a lot like she didn't believe him in the least. He reached up and rubbed his hand over his eyes absentmindedly, as if the gesture meant nothing. Jenny pushed her hair back, smiling at Kelly warmly as the kid looked to her for comfort.

"I don't want you to miss our favorite part," she said, brightening a little. She was on the sleepy side, it seemed, but her eyes lit up a little. "It's after the commercial," she added, yawning a little. She inched up to Jenny, wrapping her arms around herself in her winter pajamas, and shivered a little. "Are you staying the night?" she asked innocently.

Jenny laughed under her breath at the irony. Jethro snorted.

"No, Kelly," she answered easily. "Overstaying my welcome," she quipped wryly. "Nah, I've got a warm bed at home that I love too much to neglect."

Kelly gave Jenny a grumpy look.

"You can't overstay your welcome," she mumbled seriously. "I always want you to feel welcome."

"Thanks," Jenny said softly.

Kelly cocked her head and leaned away from Jenny.

"Come on, stay for the rest of the movie. It's hilarious. I know you missed the first half, but it's funny," she reached up and took Jethro's arm, tilting her head. "It's almost back, Daddy, Ralphie is going to try on his bunny PJs," she said with a smile.

Jethro tilted his head welcomingly towards the living room and Jenny held up her hands in mock defeat, following the father and daughter to the couch. Jethro sat down as the commercials faded back into movie and Kelly climbed up next to him, leaving a space next to her for Jenny to sit comfortably between herself and the pile that was Abby and Elizabeth.

Jenny took the seat, playfully kissed the side of Kelly's head, and Kelly giggled, wrinkling her nose and snatching up the remote. She snuggled under Jethro's arm and turned the volume up just a little, resting her head against his chest and burrowing down to watch the movie in uninterrupted peace.

Jethro smiled and leaned back, one arm over the back of the couch. Jenny watched Kelly for a minute, and then looked over to the television with a smirk, having seen the movie before. She glanced over to witness the cuteness of Abby and Lizzy's sleep, but Elizabeth was blinking at her groggily in the dim light, awakened by the louder TV.

She whined softly and sat up, looking at Jenny.

"Pillow," she announced in sleepy speech, and reached out for Jenny. Jenny raised her eyebrows and took Elizabeth's hand gently, forgetting to hesitate before she lifted the three-year-old into her lap. Elizabeth wriggled her nose, dropped her head against Jenny's shoulder, and feel instantly back to sleepy, a fistful of red hair in her small hand.

Kelly giggled.

"You know, it comes on again after this," she remarked in a whisper, nodding towards the television. "You can stay and see the half you missed, Jenny," she offered, turning her eyes back to the TV.

Jenny looked at Jethro with a smirk, and then focused on the movie, marveling somewhat at the unorthodox weirdness of these events. It felt strangely good, comfortable in an awkward way, to spend Christmas like this. It meant more to her than anything that Kelly was so resilient and so receptive to her.

And with Lizzy curled up on her shoulder fast asleep, she figured she was sticking around, for the meantime.

---

Two part epilogue to end it up next.