A/N: Wishing you all a very Happy New Year. Sorry for the long wait, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thank you for all the reviews and for the alerts. All mistakes are mine and mine alone. As always I make no money from this, I do promise to but them back when I am done playing with them.

It was quiet when he walked up to the doors leading into the lobby of the FBI building in Quantico. But then he wasn't exactly expecting a bee hive of activity on Christmas day.

As he waited in line to get passed security he found himself standing behind a delivery man from a local take out.

The guard looks at him giving him the once over, he can see his weapon from his open coat as well as a badge, but the badge is not one from the Bureau. "What is your name, sir?"

"Gibbs, Special agent Gibbs NCIS. And don't call me sir."

Hearing a soft chuckle coming from the other side of the security partition, that was followed by a voice. "I'll vouch for him Charlie. He can come in."

"If you say so agent Fornell." The security guard says as he waves Gibbs over to enter the metal detectors.

"Why aren't you with Emily?" Gibbs asks,

"She's with Diane, I dropped her of there an hour ago. So why are you here?"

"I came to see a friend." Gibbs tells him bluntly.

"You have a friend in the FBI? I thought you hated all of us."

"No, there are one or two that I like. I came to ask Penelope Garcia if she would like to stop by after work, for late Christmas dinner."

"You really are a softy aren't you?" Fornell says with a grin.

"No, She told me that she was working today. I thought she might like not having to cook."

"You only cook cowboy steak and she is a vegetarian." Hearing this Gibbs glares at Fornell making him laugh.

"I know that, Tony told me, I made Pasta Fagioli and I bought a loaf of hearty wheat bread."

"That soup has meat in it."

"Not this one, Tony gave me the recipe, he tweaked it, so no meat. You do remember that he is Italian and he can cook, in fact he cooks better than you do."

"Speaking of, where is he?"

"He is with his wife, visiting her family."

"Wife? When did that happen? Oh my, you have to tell me how that went over with your team."

"Let's give this to Penelope, then you can buy me a cup of coffee first." Gibbs says showing Fornell the large cup of hot cocoa that he is holding.

With Fornell leading the way Gibbs soon finds himself standing in front of Penelope's open office door. Fornell knocks on the door jam making Penelope look up and her expression became one of confusion, morphing into one of slight fear.

"Is Tony ok? Or, am I in trouble? I'd much rather be in trouble…" Garcia trailed off here eyes switching from Gibbs to Fornell and back again.

Gibbs took in his surroundings. The office, as always, was in a word 'Penelope'. He noticed that she was munching on carrot sticks and had a half eaten peanut butter and jelly, on whole wheat of course, sitting in front of her.

Fornell laughed lightly causing Penelope to relax a fractional amount, because everyone knows Fornell doesn't laugh. Her eyes moved to Gibbs searching his face for some sort of clue, but his expression gave nothing away

"Penelope Garcia, I've come to invite you to my home for a late Christmas dinner. And I'm not taking no for an answer." Garcia took in his words, relaxing back into her chair. She placed her half eaten carrot stick on her desk with the rest of her lunch giving Gibbs an innocent face.

" Gibbs, you understand sir, that threatening a me is dangerous. Whatever will I do?"

At this Gibbs cracked a smile, "Penelope, you realize that I already spoke to DiNozzo and he informed me you were going to try and slip out without seeing me. I caught you. So please join me for Christmas dinner. This way neither of us needs to eat alone."

Garcia eyed him, "No cowboy steak."

Gibbs nodded his head, "No cowboy steak."

Garcia smiled, "I would be honored to join you for a Christmas meal Gibbs. Thank you for the invitation."

Gibbs nodded his head, "I'll see you at 18000hours Penelope, please."

"No worries Gibbs. Tony told me that you might be by sometime and if you didn't come I was to go to your house for dinner. He worries to much."

A soft growl could be hurt coming from Gibbs, he had been played by his SFA, but in this case he really didn't mind. In fact he has come to enjoy the company of one quirky FBI technical analyst.

"I wonder why?" Fornell mumbles as the two men turn to leave.

Gibbs and Fornell settled into not very comfortable chairs in Fornell's office each with a large cup of coffee in hand. "Alright Jethro, spill. I want the details, never thought I'd see the day when Anthony DiNozzo would actually settle down."

Gibbs took a sip of his coffee nodding his head, "She stole his heart, in ways others only dreamed possible. Tony used up all his owed time, it was a use it or lose it. So he was out of the office for five days, and when he came back he was married to his serious girlfriend. Gillian is the perfect match for Tony she is a metro cop with vice. The only one who knew it was going to happen was Garcia. She guessed before he left."

Fornell snorted, "Of course she did. She probably knew before he did. How did your team take the news?"

Gibbs sighed heavily, "Palmer and Ducky were ecstatic, they are happy he's happy."

"I would expect nothing else from Ducky or his mini me."

Hearing that expression Gibbs glares at Fornell. Making him laugh. "You have to admit Jethro, that Palmer is getting to be more like Ducky every day."

"I know, he is going to end up being DiNozzo's Ducky."

"Is that such a bad thing? Think about it, I think they make a good team."

"They already make a good team." Gibbs informs his friend.

"What about Abby and McGee?" Fornell asks.

"Abby was angry to say the least, she ranted about not getting permission, then changed tactics saying that Tony was suppose to end up marring Ziva. That made Tony laugh out loud. He told her straight out that Ziva is his work partner period, that he would never marry her."

"I bet that went over well." Fornell mumbles.

"Ya think? Tim was surprised, and annoyed that Tony didn't have the forethought to tell him that he was serious about Gillian, He thought that they were closer and didn't keep things like that secret. In the end he congratulated Tony and invited him and Gillian out to eat to celebrate. Tony told Tim that Gillian has a friend that would be perfect for him and she is a LEO, too. That made Tim smile and quickly forgive Tony."

"And Ziva?" Fornell asking as he prompts his friend.

"Ziva." Gibbs says then hesitates for a minutes using the time to take a sip of coffee.

"Well Ziva is under the impression that Tony betrayed her and the team. That he is supposed to somehow clear the choice to marry with the team. And now she's been on my ass to punish and reprimand him. When I told her no, she told me that I had also betrayed her. She went off in the bullpen saying that member of a team should not keep secrets from each other. That secrets can cause problems for the team."

"Tell me, did you remind her of her penchant of keeping secrets? If I remember correctly she has done it more than once."

"I glared at her and told her that DiNozzo didn't break any rule or regs of the agency. That what he does with his life is his own business."

"How did that go over." Fornell asks with a chuckle.

"She huffed and went back to her desk, She spent the rest of the day glaring at DiNozzo while she played with paperclips. The funny part was the more she glared the more Tony smiled back at her."

"I would have loved to see that." Fornell murmurs.

"Dinner is at 1800 if you want to come. You're more than welcome to come and eat with us."

"I'll bring some dessert and wine, get out of here Jethro I've got paperwork to do."

MPMPMP

She digs out her personal cell from her bag after she hits speed dial she waits.

"DiNozzo."

"Merry Christmas to you too, James."

"Ah Moneypenny, you're still at work I take it. Did Gibbs stop by?"

"Just like you predicted he would. Dinner is at 1800, six pm for us not in the military. Do I need to bring anything?"

"No. He still thinks like a marine he will have everything ready before he even started to cook. Don't forget the Bourbon, he'll like the gesture."

"I will, give my love to Gillian and thank her for the blouse, scarf and, the teapot."

"You're not going to thank me? I'm hurt." Tony asks dramatically.

"Sure thank you for taking Gillian out to the store and for carrying the bags. Because we both now that she has better taste than you when it comes to woman's clothes."

"That's because my taste in come when I remo . . ."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence."

"Merry Christmas Penelope, I'll see you when we get back. We want to have you over for dinner."

"I'd like that Tony. Gotta go, be safe."

"Bye Penelope."

Penelope glanced up at the clock as she ended the call, it was just after one O'clock and it had been a very slow day on the information highway. There were no teams in the field and her only phone calls were from agents double checking information as they wrote up their reports. She set the call forwarding to her cell and headed out of her office to for a short break..