sick… in the morning

The past week since Gibbs had been unexpectedly forced into living with Jenny and Rory had been interesting to say the least. Rory was enjoying having a father figure live in the house, but Gibbs was struggling to find his space in the family, he never wanted to overstep. It was awkward and difficult to navigate the waters and in the grand scheme of things they weren't really living together. Gibbs had been spending the extra time he had, now that he wasn't juggling two women, at work. Jenny wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to be around, or he just didn't want to make things hard on Rory.

Gibbs had gone with Rory to her camping day and ever since then he had been silently shutting both Jenny and Rory out and it was infuriating, Jenny was trying her best to understand, he was going from a dead marriage into living with her and Rory and fitting into a somewhat fatherly role, but it was nearing 10pm and Jethro wasn't home. Not that it would normally bother her, but he had said to Rory he would help her with some project, and she waited and waited but he never came home.

Her front door opened, and he slammed it, loudly, then he was loud as he dropped his keys in the bowl at the door.

"Be quiet because if you wake Rory I swear to god" she hissed. "Where have you been?" she snapped.

"Work," he answered stiffly

"Well if you're going to work late maybe you should call-" before she could finish eh cut her off.

"Jesus Christ Jen, I just got out of one marriage where I was being bombarded with questions about my wear abouts," he snapped. Jenny took a deep breath.

"If you would've let me finish, I was going to say maybe you should call Rory to let her know you won't be home to work on her project. She waited Jethro, for hours," she said icily, and his demeaner changed. He fell silent.

"I'm sorry Jen I forgot," he said rubbing his hand over his face. They had been working a pretty gruelling case and he had been working himself too hard, but he needed to remember to come home, there was a child relying on him and it was hard.

"Well Jethro you can apologise to her when she wakes up, it was her that was sad," she said icily, heading up the stairs before turning around. "She needs to come first, and maybe this isn't what you're ready for."

"Do you know how hard this is on me?" he asked, "I don't know where I fit in, I don't know what is too much involvement, Jesus Jenny she almost called me dad the other day," he barked. Jenny closed her eyes; Rory was talking about her camp day and had said 'me and da- I mean jet' and ever since he had been weird about it.

"I don't want to fight with you Jethro over this, but you knew about her when we got into this," and with that she walked off to bed, leaving it up to him if he was going to join her, because if he didn't want to be a prominent figure in Rory's life, well maybe he had to go, even if it would break her heart.

Jenny woke with a start and ran to the bathroom to be sick; she had some questionable milk in her coffee earlier and it was obviously coming back to haunt her. She splashed her face with water and brushed her teeth before closing her bathroom door quietly behind her. She crawled into bed and under the covers.

"Jen?" he asked quietly. "You okay?" She tried to answer but her throat was so dry after puking. "You were sick Jen," he said softly.

"I had some questionable milk earlier." she said

"You were sick at work the other day," he reminded her. "In the morning" he said slowly, and she shot up glaring at him.

"I- no I-" she was stumbling over her words, shocked. "I was sick at work because someone had chopped up body parts and attached them to the same barbies Rory has Jethro!" she explained, her voice shaking "I am not pregnant." She growled at him.

"Well wouldn't be the first time you were knocked up and you didn't know Jenny," he spat at her and she felt like she had been suckered punched.

"How dare you," she cried, her eyes welling up with tears.

"I don't want any kids Jenny" he said before realising what he said, trying to back track, she held her hand up to him.

"Oh, you've made that very clear by the way you treated Rory since her slip up at the weekend." She hissed with anger He looked at her, his face unreadable, and was red with anger, he had crossed a lone.

"Don't you dare go and sleep on the couch." She yelled

"Why not, Jen?," he bit back at her as he walked towards the door

"Because I am not your wife," she stopped, and she started to cry "This is not a marital spat, you do not get to walk out on me," she took a deep breath trying to control her crying, she hated when people left her, she hated people walking out, it brought back to many painful memories.

He stood for a moment, nodded and walked around the bed, to his side, and got under the covers, holding them up for her to get in. She buried her face in his chest and relaxed when he wrapped his arms around her, she felt safe. The door cracked open just a little

"momma, there was shouting," the little girl whimpered, and Jenny turned to face Rory.

"I'm sorry baby, momma had a bad dream."

"can I sleep here?" Rory asked, she got upset over shouting. Jenny started to say something when Jethro spoke up,

"Get in beside your mum, she needs a hug," and that was his way of apologising, of saying he would try, because he wowed he was going to. He was going to tell Jenny about Shannon and Kelly, because the only way he could do this was if he was honest. Once Rory was snuggled in with Jenny he flipped the lamp off, and for the first time in years he slept soundly, maybe this little red head would help his heart heal.

AN: this is the second last chapter of this story! Thanks for all the lovely reviews, I have really enjoyed writing this story.