Thanks to Hostaqueen and Liebekatze!

Chapter 37

Tim drove home with a silent Dad. As they pulled into the driveway, he took a deep breath, "I know it'll be worth it in the long run, I just hate losing more time."

"But we're home and you've retired from the field. And this is a choice, taking care of yourself so you'll feel better. It's a good thing you waited so long; the procedure is more advanced now than we thought. Only hours in the hospital and a faster, easier recovery and maybe best of all, less pain. So you can still be chasing your grandbabies twenty years from now."

Dad snorted, "They'd better be great-grandbabies in twenty years, Timothy! Although those grandbabies could be your brothers', might be a bit late for Sarah. How many more children are you two planning?"

"Two more, Dad."

"Great! Of course you could also adopt."

"Yes we could and we might. We'll see. No baby for a few months. "

His father gave him a look and Tim chuckled, "Practice, lots of practice, makes perfect, right?"

Father joined son for a swim; they were still lazing in the pool when Ellie and the kids arrived home. "All right, I need to get going. Hi daughter, hello kiddos!"

"Why are you leaving?"

"Because I'm here all the time and you need time to be a family on your own."

"Jethro, you are a part of our family! Enjoy the pool. Just be ready for the kid-sized dolphins!"

Laughing, he agreed, pushing his lounger over to one side and hanging on while the 'dolphins' jumped in, doing their version of a dolphin's 'squee'. Ellie joined them and they raced around the pool until Tim told them it was time for dinner. He brought big thick warm towels for each of them and they wrapped up in them after their showers. Tim was just wondering where his grandfather was when Mac came in the front door. "Hello! Sorry I'm so late!"

"That's okay; I was beginning to wonder. I thought Rob and Geo had to work."

"They do but Geo's shift doesn't start till 8, I mean 2000."

"He could have come for dinner."

"I told him that but he said he had things to do before work. Seems the Major has been procrastinating a bit."

"Procrastinating, huh. What's her name, do you know?"

"Now Timothy, why would you - all right, it's Lindsay."

"And?"

"They met at a bank at Quantico; they went out for coffee and they're going to dinner and a movie Friday night."

"Hair and eye color?"

"No idea, son, why?"

"Huh, I guess nobody's told you the rules."

"What rules?"

Ellie answered that, "The sibling rules; there are five of them. Three of them are cautions about Sarah and the other two basically say that any sibling who discovers another sibling is dating someone must dig for any details."

"But I'm not a sibling!"

Tim pursed his lips, "Changing that rule to any family member."

"But I didn't know the rules!"

Tim chuckled, "Grandpa, don't worry! They're more guidelines than rules. Except the ones about Sarah."

"And those are?"

"There's one about her temper and two about the kinds of guys she dates. There is always trouble. Always!"

"And the rules say?"

Ellie smiled, "I've got this one. Find the guy's full name and birthdate. The information is given to Tim and now that is amended to 'or Ellie' as soon as possible. We'll do a background check. The second one is do not ever approach Sarah directly with the results of the check. Best method is e-mail or text."

"Oh my!"

Tim nodded, "Yep, that's my baby sister. I did my best, but she's attracted to these men that - they're just bad. I did like one guy, a sailor but he dumped her for her roommate and ended up getting killed."

Mac's eyes were big as saucers. "You children certainly lead unusual lives!"

Tim thought about reminding his grandfather how unusually his life had started out but decided against it. Not every conversation needed to circle back to that.

After the kids were in bed, Dad updated Ellie and Mac about meeting the orthopedic surgeon and the plan for his surgery and recuperation.

Mac looked at him, "If I can be of any help at all, I'll stay up here this year."

"Thanks Mac, but no, not past Christmas anyway! We like knowing someone is warm and enjoying the winter months."

Ellie asked, "Will you have to go to a rehab facility or will you come home?"

He smiled, that sounded so good. "Apparently no one wants to pay for those anymore. I'm home the same day as the surgery and then physical therapy starts."

Ellie looked at Tim, "And home means here."

He smiled at her. "If that's all right with you."

"It's more than all right, I insist." She smirked, "Don't forget Bishop means overseer!"

They laughed at that and Tim explained what the doctor asked about the house. Mac frowned, "Will you be all right home by yourself, Jethro?"

"I'm sure I will be. And one of the neighbors may be available during the day; Vickie Walsh, you know, Reg's wife, is a stay at home mom, although Reg says she's crazy busy."

"I can work from home for the first few days."

"And I can take a couple of days off."

"No Eleanor, please don't! You save those days for your honeymoon."

"All right; if we're off rotation or have paperwork days, then I'll work from here."

That settled for now, Mac and Jethro set off down the sidewalk. As they walked, Jethro thought about Tony. When he moved into Gibbs' house last year, he'd leased his apartment short-term, with a condition that the lessee would be given 30 days' notice to vacate. That had worked out well with the Gibbses' post-WITSEC stay; the tenant moved out the weekend the Gibbses were in Tahlequah and Tony moved home the weekend before the Gibbses' return from New Mexico.

Now Jethro wished DiNozzo could have stayed for a few more weeks; then he would have been there after the knee surgery. Except he would be at work and who knows how many nights he wouldn't make it home because of a case. And the new girlfriend might not be too crazy about the arrangement either. He was looking forward to meeting Agent Barnes; he had a good feeling about her. For one thing, Tony had never voluntarily told him about any of his relationships, not since the first go-around with Wendy all those years ago. For another, Maggie Barnes was a Marine, in Gibbs' book that was always a positive!

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The rest of the week flew by. With the wedding and the arrival of the Bishop family quickly approaching, the family got busy cleaning. Barbara, Jerry, and Ellie's brother George, his wife Eileen and kids would stay with Gibbs. Brother John, wife Jazzy, and their kids had been invited to stay with college friends. The friends lived in Arlington, which was close. Other relatives of Ellie's would stay at a nearby hotel. When Tim heard the Ortizes were looking at the same hotel, he negotiated a family wedding discount for their guests.

Jerry and Barbara arrived Sunday morning; Ellie and Tim picked them up at the airport while Poppy and Grandpa watched the kids. As traffic on the way home was light, Tim drove along a route where they could see some of the National Mall and other sights. Ellie pointed out buildings and famous sites, telling them what they were. At the Bishops' request, they drove into the Navy Yard to see NCIS. The Marines at the gate greeted them, "Agent Gibbs, Agent Bishop, good morning. And who are your visitors?"

They were cleared and parked outside to walk in the front of the building. The security guard looked surprised to see them. He was new and didn't know Tim but did know Agent Bishop. He was embarrassed when he saw Tim's id. "Sorry Agent Gibbs, I didn't recognize you."

"That's all right, Officer Ferris, I've been off the Yard for several months, we haven't met before."

Neither agent had their firearms with them although their knives were scanned. Ellie's parents were surprised that they both had lethal looking knives on them.

Ellie told them, "DiNozzo kept most of Gibbs' rules and Rule 9 is always carry a knife."

"Why?"

"Because knives don't run out of ammunition."

"Oh. But off duty?"

Tim answered that one, "Law enforcement, even off duty, may respond to a crime in progress or a suspicious situation. At an airport, not a great idea unless they're expecting us. But knives are mostly invisible."

"But you'd have to be up close."

Ellie responded, "Not necessarily; we're trained to throw."

"Oh my heavens Eleanor, I had no idea!"

She smiled, "That was on purpose Mom."

"Have you ever had to use your knife, I mean in a real situation?"

Ellie shook her head but Tim remained silent.

"Tim?"

"Yes, I have. Twice when we were on the street and a couple of times with NCIS. One time when we were outnumbered, before Ellie joined us. We disabled several of the bad guys with our knives and that meant we evened the odds and won the firefight."

Jerry wanted to ask what he meant by 'disabling' the bad guys but one look at Tim told him the answer. Wow, he hadn't thought about his seemingly laidback son-in-law having these kinds of experiences. Although all things considered, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. That his daughter was trained in such weaponry was unbelievable. He decided not to think about it, his wife was probably freaked enough for both of them!

They enjoyed their tour of NCIS, seeing the bullpen and the Most Wanted wall as well as the Wall of Fame. They peeked in the door at Abby's lab and politely declined a look into the Autopsy suite. Then they headed out to see Tim's office.

Back in the car, they drove to Gibbs' home, finding Poppy and Mac in the backyard playing with the kids. Ty and Brynie ran to their new grandparents as soon as they saw them and after hugs and kisses, Brynie tugged Grandpa Mac over. "This is our Grandpa Mac. He's Daddy's grandpa and ours too." They were still confused by the concept of Great-Grandparents.

Jethro showed Jerry and Barbara to their room, the master bedroom. "Help yourselves to anything."

"Where are you sleeping?"

"There's a den downstairs that I use as a bedroom, with a full bathroom; it's closer to the coffeemaker."

They chuckled at that and he showed them the rooms where George, Eileen, and their kids would stay, although they wouldn't arrive until midweek. "This is the kids' room. It was originally my daughter Kelly's room, Tim's sister; we fixed it up for Ty and Brynie when he brought them home."

"Oh, they stayed here with you?"

"Yes, Tim was between apartments and staying with me for a few days when we got the case with the kids' mothers. He'd been here a little over a week; he found the house down the street shortly after we brought them here."

"And that was before the discovery that you are father and son?"

Jethro smiled, "Yeah. I run - ran a tight ship but always left the front door unlocked for my team. Any time they had problems, troubles, I hoped they'd come to me for help. DiNozzo, you'll meet him later today, spent many nights on my couch. He lives in an older building, loves the location but that place always has something going on with it. Boiler going out, problems with the power, termites, you name it. So he's stayed here, Ziva did a few times; Abby has a couple of times although she tends to seek help from her nun friends. Let's see, Palmer's been here but he's never stayed over. And finally Tim."

"Ziva was Ellie's predecessor, the one from Israel?"

"Yes, she was our Mossad liaison for several years, then resigned from that agency, became an American citizen and an NCIS agent. She went back to Israel after her father was killed a couple of years ago. Never came back." He smiled, "Her loss, our gain. That's how we found Ellie."

"Can't wait to meet the others, we've heard so much about them."

"They're good people; we've become family over the years."

After they settled in, the group walked down to Ellie and Tim's house where Ty and Brynie proudly showed them their rooms, pointing to the master bedroom, "That's Mommy and Daddy's room."

Next came the basement playroom and finally the beloved backyard with their Big Wheels and pool. Barbara approved of the portable fence surrounding the pool and the pool cover. Both Bishops liked the raised garden beds with the pumpkins and autumn squashes holding court. Ellie showed them the apple tree that had moved with them from Albuquerque. Jerry looked at the two men quizzically, "And you brought it home with you. Any reason why?"

Tim smiled a little sheepishly. "The first few days there we had to stay in a company owned suite and the only outdoors we were permitted was a rooftop garden. When we moved into the house, the backyard was bare. Dad loves apple crisp so one of the first things we bought was this apple tree. We had apples from it right before we left. To me it was a symbol of our time there. It was fine, we were together and we grew but we were very happy to pick up our roots and move home. We just hope the tree will make the adjustment, we won't know until spring."

Jerry asked how they'd transported it and the before and after care. When Tim told him, he smiled saying it should be fine.

With Ellie's brothers arriving mid-week, the party where both families would meet was morphing into dinner Wednesday night, depending on the team's caseload. Tonight would be a scaled down version of that.

Because it was Sunday with work on Monday, the DC family started arriving around 3 PM. Sarah, Rob, and Geo arrived at 1:30, wanting to help and spend extra time with Mom and Dad Bishop before the rest of the gang arrived. The Palmers arrived post naptime; the day was again warm enough for a swim and although Victoria couldn't yet do handstands, she knew the basics of swimming, a how to float and to hold her breath under water. Baby Teddy liked the water well enough but he stayed safely in Mom or Dad's arms.

Tony and his date Maggie Barnes arrived shortly after the Palmers. He hoped to spend extra time with his surrogate dad and especially wanted Jethro and Maggie to get to know each other. After that, people drifted in, Ellie's maid of honor Jenna, Ducky, Abby, Tobias, Emily, Bob Chalmers, the Vances, Evan and Mindy Fuller.

The Bishops were amused at the range of personalities amongst the clan, from shy brother Rob to boisterous Abby with the others ranging somewhere in between. They knew who Ducky was but had only heard Tobias' name mentioned a few times and were surprised to find him a full-fledged member of the family. His daughter called Jethro 'Uncle Gibbs' (they'd also heard little Victoria call him Uncle Jethro) and once she spotted the Vance teens, made a beeline for them.

They knew that Lara Morgan had been a huge help taking care of Ty and Brynie when they first came home with Tim but hadn't realized she was part of the Vance family. A surprise was Ty introducing her to them as "Aunt Lara". She loved that and her grin spread to Leon, Kayla, and Jared. That was about the time several of them spotted a wedding ring on Lara's finger and a new one on Leon's. The couple grinned, "Yes, we finally made it legal."

Everyone had a beverage of some sort and glasses were raised in their honor with an impromptu toast from Ducky.

Because the pool and fence covered the entire lawn and the rest of the backyard was either garden or concrete, they'd set up a ping-pong table and a croquet field for play. The croquet hoops and the center posts had little weighted stands meant to hold them in place if there wasn't lawn or dirt available. Several people took advantage of the pool, enjoying a dip and playing with the children. With no storms forecast in the next 10 days, the relative humidity was low, much to everyone's relief.