A/N: Hi Everyone,

I've been updating a lot this week and that is due to the amount of work that I do have (which is basically nothing…I work in Canadian Boating Safety and well you can imagine that's not really busy due to it being winter and well anyone who's seen a Canadian winter knows what I'm talking about, even if there isn't snow on the ground it's still freezing cold), so please do not get use to having an update a day. I update as soon as I finish a chapter, so if I'm not busy I will finish and update within a day, if I am extremely busy, it'll take a couple of days…anyways…I'm rambling again.

Enjoy!


Chapter Twenty-Eight: Happy Birthday, Nicole Bridgette Daniels


It had been three months, since G and Nikki's kiss in the rain and everything was going perfectly. G and Nikki had moved in together and were now reaping the rewards of living in sin. Every once in the while, they would fight, and G would spend the night on the couch or Nikki would go and stay at Hetty's or Kensi's, but it was never anything more. They loved each other deeply and they would go out every Friday, if they weren't in the middle of an undercover operation.

Right now, it was November 27th and G was sitting in the kitchen, trying to make Nikki breakfast. It was her 27th birthday and her first birthday with him. He wanted to make it special. He knew that Hetty was going to take her out for dinner, after work and Nell and Kensi were flying the Washington team out and they were going to throw her this huge surprise party on the weekend at her favourite bar on the Sunset Strip, but he wanted to do something just from him. Nikki was fast asleep in bed right now and he wanted to surprise her, with her favourite breakfast and a dozen white roses. He had laid a trail of red rose petals from their bedroom to the kitchen and had set a romantic place setting for the two of them to eat their breakfast, alone.

Hetty knew that the two of them weren't coming in until noon. G had asked her, if they could come in late, unless anything that was a matter of national security. Hetty had kindly agreed and let them have the morning off, much to Sam's annoyance.

G also had other plans. Today was the day that he wanted to propose to Nikki. He had gone out with Sam and Deeks last Thursday, when Kensi, Nell and Nikki had yoga and bought the ring for her. It was a small 14kt diamond with a simple gold band. On the inside of the ring, he had April 3rd/11 engraved on the inside. It was the first day that they had met and everything they had gone through started. It was a special date and he wanted her to know, that he remembered the exact day that they had met, because it had changed his life forever.


Nikki rolled over in bed and looked at the clock. It was 8:30 am. Grams had surprisingly given her and G the morning off. She was so glad that she got to sleep in on the morning of her birthday compared to the years previous, having to go to work, because her boss was such a hard ass. Not that she didn't love Gibbs, he was like a second father to her, but he didn't care much for birthdays…or sleeping in.

She arched her back to let it crack and then rolled over to face G, but she didn't find him. Usually he waited for her to wake up and then they would get up and go have breakfast together, but this morning, she found rumpled cold sheets instead. She groaned at the thought of getting out of bed, but threw the covers off of her anyway and got up. She pulled her silk robe on and rubbed her eyes. On the ground she saw a trail of red rose petals leading out of the bedroom, down the hall and down the stairs. She smiled to herself. She knew that G wanted to make her birthday special, that much had been clear for the past two weeks.

Nikki had been walking into rooms that were full of conversation, but as soon as she entered the room, all conversation seemed to cease. She knew that the team and G were up to something, but she wasn't going to go and figure out what it was. It'll be a nice surprise and a nice get away from everything that happened. Nikki slowly followed the rose petals into the kitchen, where she saw G standing by the stove, trying to make her pancakes. She smiled at him and then walked up to him, wrapping her arms around him.

"Good morning," she whispered, kissing his back.

"Happy birthday," he whispered back. She smiled against him.

"Thank you," she whispered. He brought his arm around her and kissed her deeply, before turning back to the pancake before it burned. Handing her a cup of coffee, he ushered her off to the kitchen table, where a fruit salad was waiting for her. She smiled at him, before popping a strawberry into her mouth. He smiled at her, as he flipped the pancake that he had in the frying pan.

"What brought this on," she said.

"I can't do something for my favourite girl's birthday," G said, taking the pancake out of the pan and onto the plate with the other three he made and placed them in front of her.

"You have another girlfriend, I don't know about," Nikki joked, pouring the maple syrup onto her pancakes. G laughed, while he poured some of the batter into the hot pan.

"You know I only love you," G said, as he spread the batter around the pan. Nikki smiled at him, as she took a bite out the pancake.


The rest of their morning was quiet, as they ate the pancakes, that G made them. Every once in a while G or Nikki would feed the other a bite of their pancake or a grape from their fruit salads. G moved his chair to sit beside Nikki's, as their quiet breakfast slowly came to an end.

Nikki started to sip at the second cup of coffee that G handed her, when he quickly got up and put the dishes in the sink.

"Wait here, okay," G said, before he quickly ran up the stairs and into their room. Nikki's brow furrowed. She was completely confused. G was acting a little weird this morning. She knew it was her birthday, but this was a little more than 'out of the ordinary, wanting to do something special' kind of way. This was like he was almost nervous.

"Why is he acting so nervous," Nikki asked herself, out loud. She continued to sip at the coffee, that was sitting in front of her, when G returned from upstairs. In his hands, was a small black box with a red bow on top of it. She looked at him and smiled, when he set the box in front of her. She looked at him in surprise.

"What's this," she asked. G smiled and pointed at it.

"Open it," was all he said. She looked at him in confusion and then looked down at the box. She slowly pulled the ribbon open and flipped the top of the box open. Inside of it sat a small folded piece of paper. She didn't bother to look at G, this time. Instead she reached inside the box, and opened the note.

Nikki, will you marry me?

Nikki's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped open. Tears formed in her eyes, scaring G. He was so afraid that she was going to say no. He didn't know if he was going to be able to live without her. Nikki closed her eyes and a small smile swept across her face, as she turned to him, banishing all of his fears away.

"Yes,' she whispered just loud enough for him to hear, before she launched herself into his arms. He smiled, as he kissed her forehead. He smiled, as he pulled the ring out of his pocket. She looked down at his hands and her smile widened when she saw the ring. G slid the ring on her finger and quickly stood, sweeping her into his arms, lifting her as he spun her around.

"I love you, G," Nikki whispered, as he continued to spin her around.

"I love you too, Nikki."


"Do you think he went through with it," asked Kensi as she flipped through the files on her desk.

"I don't think he did," Deeks said, taking a sip of his coffee. Sam looked at him, obviously Deeks didn't understand how much G wanted to marry Nikki, otherwise he wouldn't have said that.

"He loves her, I'm pretty sure he asked her. The other question is, did Nikki say yes or not," Kensi said, as she looked up from her files, to take the cup of coffee that Nate was handing to her. Nate took a seat at Nikki's desk.

"If G's behaviour yesterday was any indication…I think he'll be proposing today," Nate explained. The team looked at him and then over to the doors, that had swung open to see that Nikki and G walking in. G had his arm around Nikki's waist as they walked in.

Nikki leaned over to give G a kiss, before they separated, so she could go and talk to Grams.

"I love you," she whispered. G smiled again.

"I love you too," he replied, before giving her another kiss. He walked into the bull pen throwing his bag onto his desk, keeping his back to the rest of the team. Nikki and he had agreed that they wouldn't start telling anyone until after she had told Hetty. He still couldn't believe that Nikki had said yes, but he was glad they did.

"So, G, did you do it," Sam asked, walking over to him. G just shrugged, but a small smile was on his face. He was finding it hard not to tell them. He wished he could have gone to tell Hetty with Nikki, but Nikki wanted to tell her about the engagement on her own.

"What do you mean, you don't know…did you propose or not," Sam asked again.

"Well…"


Nikki knocked on the door, before she entered her grandmother's office. She could hear that Hetty was on the phone and if it was a bad time, she would come back later. She was about to turn and leave when…

"You can come in Nicole," Hetty called. Nikki smiled to herself, before walking in to Hetty's office. Hetty indicated for her to take a seat in the chair in front of her. Nikki smiled before taking a seat, folding her hands in her lap, she made sure her left hand was on top, so that Hetty would see it.

Hetty quickly made the two of them a cup of tea, and then promptly sat back down in her seat.

"Happy Birthday, dear," Hetty said before taking a sip of her tea. Nikki smiled as she put her cup down, making sure that the ring glinted in the light and much to her satisfaction, Hetty quickly looked at her hand and then looked at her smiling face and then back to her hand. A smile spread across her face.

"G proposed," Hetty said. Nikki nodded, her eyes were filling with tears again, she was so happy. Hetty clapped her hands and quickly got up from her chair and walked around it, to where Nikki sat. She gave her darling granddaughter a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

"Congratulations, darling," Hetty whispered. Nikki smiled and quickly returned the hug and gave Hetty a kiss on the cheek.

"I wanted you to be the first to know," Nikki whispered. Hetty smiled, a small tear fell down her cheek.

"Your mother and father would have loved him Nicole," Hetty said. Nikki's eyes filled with tears once more, this time out of sadness. It had been the tenth anniversary of her mother's death a couple months ago and she couldn't believe that she hadn't seen her mother's smiling face for ten years and she missed it now more than ever. Hetty gave her another hug and passed her the Kleenex box. Nikki took a couple thankfully and wiped her eyes. Today was supposed to be a happy occasion and she wasn't going to let this get her down.

"Now, why don't we have Mr. Beale call the Washington team and Director Vance and the BAU team, so you and G can tell everyone together," Hetty said, a smile on her face. Nikki nodded, before exiting Hetty's office, with her.


Nikki waved at the team, before walking up to OPS behind Hetty. G's brow furrowed, before his phone began to buzz in his pocket.

'We're going to call Washington and the BAU, so we can tell everyone together, I'm sure Eric will call you in a few minutes…'

G smiled. Of course, it would be better to tell everyone at once, rather than let all the teams know at different times, and then they would find out about it and then they'd get angry if they were told second or third, so it made sense this way.

"I wonder, where those two are going," Kensi asked, as she watched grandmother and granddaughter walk up the stairs to the OPS centre. Sam shrugged and went back to flipping through the notes that he had on his desk. G went back to reading a few of his e-mails, when a loud shrill whistle came from the stairway.

"Hetty wants all of you, up in OPS right away," Eric called. Everyone quickly ran up the stairs, except for G who was walking extremely slowly. He knew what this was all about and he would take his time getting there. It'll just leave the rest of the group in suspense for just a little while longer.


In Washington, Gibbs team was sitting around waiting for a case to drop into their laps when they were called into the Communication centre.

"Hey Gibbs, it's for you from LA," said one of the people that worked in there. Gibbs quickly got up from his desk and quickly started walking up the stairs, skipping two at a time. The only reason he was getting a call from LA was because something had happened to Nikki.

"It's for the entire team," said the guy. Gibbs looked confused, but even more scared at the same time. Something big must have happened to Nikki for the entire team to be needed on this call. He waved for the rest of the group to follow him. Tony quickly ran to catch up to him, just as worried as he was.


"HOTCH," Penelope called, as she ran into the conference room. Aaron stood quickly wondering could possibly be wrong for Penelope to be screaming for him. Penelope was smiling at them. It was obvious nothing was on, when she turned on the bug monitor and sitting there in OPS was Nikki, G and the rest of the LA team were sitting there, smiling and waving at them.


Gibbs walked into the communication room, to see the LA and BAU teams and Director Vance waiting for them. On the screen they could see that most of them seemed to be looking at the screen with the same confusion that was evident on their face and only Nikki, G and Hetty seemed to have huge smiles on their faces.

At the smile on Hetty's face, Gibbs knew exactly what Nikki and G would be telling the rest of the team. He had received a phone call from G, that gave him the exact piece of the puzzle that made this phone call make sense.


Gibbs was sitting in his basement working on his new boat when his phone began to ring. His put down the sand paper and walked over to where he had put his phone. He looked at the Caller Id and saw that it was an LA number.

"Hello?"

"Gibbs," said a male voice on the other end. Gibbs furrowed his brow and then thought about it for a moment. He knew that voice.

"G," Gibbs said, "how are you?"

"I'm good, but I'm kind of nervous."

"Why would you be nervous," Gibbs asked, as he went back to sanding hi boat, the best he could.

"I need to ask you something," G said, after he took a very deep breath, "I didn't want to do this over the phone, but I planned to do this for Nikki's birthday, and I know you and the rest of the team aren't coming until the weekend after, so I guess I'll just have to settle for doing it this way." G was rambling and Gibbs knew that it must be big.

"Just go ahead and ask it," Gibbs huffed.

"Can I have Nikki's hand in marriage, I already asked Hetty, but-" Gibbs dropped the phone. He never imagined hearing that question. He never thought he would after Shannon and Kelly died in 1992. He quickly picked up the phone, when he heard G calling his name.

"Sorry, I just-" G cut Gibbs off.

"I already asked Hetty, and she said yes, but I know that Nikki looks at you like a father figure, so I just wanted to get your permission, before I went and asked her to marry me," G rambled on again. Gibbs smiled to himself.

"G," Gibbs said, trying to stop him from rambling.

"Yeah," G said, taking a breath, after he finished his rambling.

"Ask her."


"Alright G, do you want to tell them or should I," Nikki whispered in his ear. G smiled down at her.

"We'll tell them together."

"Okay," Nikki said turning to everyone, "You all might want to take a seat for this little piece of news.


A/N: Here we are, stay tuned for Nikki and G telling the teams….

xo