Gibbs & Shannon had returned to Abby's lab, she had the footage ready to go & had already done her magic on the footage to get some decent images of the men's faces.

"Abby can we see the footage, on mute" Gibbs asked.

"Ahh, sure Gibbs" Abby said, Shannon looked at him with a puzzled look.

"You've heard it already, you don't need to listen to it again" Gibbs said gently, but the truth was, he didn't want to hear it himself. Shannon sighed "Ok" She knew that look, he was obviously still upset with going off at Kelly.

Abby rolled the footage, Gibbs was holding Shannon around the waist as she watched it, as it went on Shannon's facial expressions changed from worry to surprise and back, she then saw the part she knew her husband was dreading to watch, Burley's camera was speeding towards to Kelly, she was letting off shots like there was no tomorrow.

"She is a good shot" Shannon said with a bit of surprise looking around to Gibbs, he just stared at her with sadness, as she turned back to the monitor, he put his down into her not wanting to watch what came next. Shannon just stared at the screen, Kelly had certainly changed her posture in an instant, she looked like she had that day all those years ago, and the fact that she was a grown woman made it even harder to see.

Abby saw this was about to become touchy, so she stopped the footage & left the room to give them some privacy.

The image had affected Shannon as much as it did her husband, but his head was still buried in her neck, she lifted her arm to caress his head as she turned to face him, but he didn't lift his head. "Darling, you did what you had to do to get her out of there, you did what you had to do to keep her safe, just like last time"

"I know that, but maybe if I didn't yell she wouldn't have run, what if me yelling at her made her run, what if she got scared of me again and didn't want to come back to us, what if we never see her again?" Gibbs said with tears coming down his cheek, he didn't care he was showing emotions in front of her, they shared everything.

Shannon could see he was struggling, but didn't he realise that she was as well? "Leroy Jethro Gibbs stop, I know your struggling with everything, you don't think I am? You don't think I am struggling with the fact that I had to make my daughter leave & tell her 13 year old brother that I had died just to get them a better life when we could have all been a family all these years? Well I am! It was the hardest thing I've had to do in my life, apart from having to get over you…... I'm not saying this to make you feel worse, but I need you to know that you aren't the only one struggling, we all are."

They both sunk to the floor facing each other.

"I'm sure Nix is struggling with having been lied to & having to meet you knowing you knew nothing about him, which I am sorry for. As for Kelly, I would say she is struggling immensely, she's had to deal more than anyone should go through in a lifetime! She took your death hard Jethro, very hard & then I forced her to tell her brother that I had died & leave me. She then found out that you had been alive all these years & had to bring herself to come find you, you don't think that would have been hard for her? I'm sure there was a small part of her that felt you should have come to find us, even though Rooney told her he'd faked our deaths, she thought you'd always be there for her" Shannon finished with tears coming down her cheek.

"I know we're all struggling Shan, and its killing me to know that, I just want us whole again & I thought you had both died, if I had even the slightest hint that you were alive I would of ripped the earth apart!" Gibbs said with tears in his eyes, they had all been through so much & he was struggling to keep it together, he hadn't even been able to keep his family together for a day.

"I know that, like I said before I would have done the same thing Jethro, but you know your daughter well enough to know how she felt about you. She had to keep it together to tell you everything & get me, she's had to deal with a lot over the last few days."

"I know she's had to deal with a lot, but she should of known that I would take care of her from now on, and not have run, I would have worked it out what ever it is. I just can't help feeling we might not see her again" Gibbs said through his tears, he knew his daughter had been through more than anyone should, and he wanted to protect her from the world, but how could he if he couldn't even find her?

"Jethro, neither of us know why she ran, I am just as concerned with it as you are. You will just have to ask her when you find her, because you will find her and then we can then put all this mess behind us & be a family. So suck it up marine" Gibbs smiled as he nodded to her, she was now in her husbands embrace & they just sat there.

They had been sitting there quietly for a few minutes, the tears had dried up for now, when Gibbs decided to ask his wife a question.

"Shan, about Nix?" Gibbs said with a hint of a smirk.

"Jethro, I found out the week before you left, I knew you were stressed enough about leaving, especially after Kelly's little excursion and the after effects of it but we did make a deal after Panama did we not?" Shannon replied, she had regretted not telling him every day since she thought she lost him.

"Yea, but after 8 years Shan?"

"I didn't want you to stress any more than you were already doing, it was dangerous over there was it not?"

Gibbs just nodded as he pulled her back into his arms.

AU: Can Gibbs keep it together long enough to reunite his family?