The next month was more than a little hectic, Jethro's team catching cases involving everything from high-priced call girls to polygraph specialist's night job taking a dangerous turn to a serial killer taking out drug dealers. Jethro was honestly a little stressed out when the Reynosa cartel's name came up, but in the end, decided to keep his head down unless approached by the cartel.
When they weren't working, Jethro was juggling time with his family, doing some work around the house, and helping Ziva study for her citizenship exam and hunt for a new apartment. The young woman had been over for dinner more than once as well, which had been really nice.
He'd invited Abby over for dinner once as well, but she'd been asked by Vance to take a little trip to Mexico, accompanied by McGee. Jethro was a bit concerned about the timing of her going, but she had, thankfully, returned home fine.
As for work, Attorney Allison Hart had kept taking pro-bono cases of his as well lately which quickly put Jethro's guard back up. They'd reached an understanding before but he couldn't shake the feeling she wanted something. Still, Jethro was a bit surprised when he was approached by Allison and the woman admitted to just what it was that her obnoxious client Colonel Bell was after.
She'd ended up finding out about Jethro's having killed Pedro Hernández in her search and basically decided to confront him about the situation.
"Do you really believe in right and wrong?" Allison asked after a long moment. "And enforcing the law? Putting the bad guys behind bars? Protecting and serving? Why, of all things... are you a cop? We're both sworn representatives of the law." She leaned in across the table. "And we're both supposed to uphold the code."
He eyed her. "I've got my own code."
"No," she said, "that doesn't work." Allison then pointed to the file that she'd somehow managed to get off of his fellow NCIS Special Agent Lara Macy. "This is the bullet that should end you. Do you think I want that?" Allison sighed. "Meeting Shannon earlier, I get why you did why you did."
"What do you want, Allison?" he retorted, admittedly feeling rather relieved that the woman didn't want to turn him in. "A thank you? An apology?"
"Why the hell not?" she demanded.
He eyed her. "Because I've got a... rule against it."
"Well," she countered, "it's a stupid rule."
"Maybe it is," he agreed. Regardless, it wasn't about to change and he wasn't about to apologize for doing what he'd felt he had to do. Of course, his feelings regarding his killing the man had changed since realizing his girls were still alive, but at the end of the day, Jethro truly believed that Hernández would've continued taking more lives than the drug dealer already had. The man was a murderer.
"I wanted to know who you were," Allison said a bit softer. "Who you are. As a person. Speaking as an officer of the law... I think we could beat it." The attorney pushed the case file Agent Macy had buried towards him. Jethro nodded, taking the file. "But, I'll tell Colonel Bell I came up empty."
He gave Allison an appreciative look.
That conversation was Thursday night and come that Saturday night, the tension that he'd been feeling as of late was gone. If Colonel Bell had gotten the information out of Allison, the man wouldn't sit on it. Knowing that, Jethro was able to relax some.
Waking up quite early on Sunday morning, Jethro didn't want to get out of bed. The bed was so comfortable and his wife just looked so peaceful there fast asleep. With that thought, Jethro simply rolled over, snuggling into her.
The pair finally got up around 830 that morning, Shannon throwing on some coffee for him once Kelly texted to say that she would be there in an hour.
Shannon talked with her father and then quickly started on a big breakfast for the both of them: bacon, eggs, as well as some toast. While she was doing that, he called up his own father back in Stillwater to wish him a happy Father's Day.
Hanging up, he realized that there was a card from Ziva on the coffee table. A little stunned but touched, he opened it. 'You've been like a father to me and I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for the love and wisdom you've given me, and to let you know how much I appreciate your guidance and support. Thanks for all that you do. I am so grateful that I have you as a mentor in life.'
He quickly dialled Ziva's number, the young woman instantly picking up. "Ziver."
He could hear the emotion in her voice. "Happy Father's Day, Gibbs."
"Thank you," he said sincerely. "What are you up to this morning?"
"Just got home from a run," she informed him. "My usual route. Yourself?"
"Slept in some," he said. "Kelly'll be over in a bit. She mentioned somethin' about you two goin' to see a movie Tuesday?"
"Yeah," the young Israeli confirmed happily. "We're going to see Salt. It just came out and is supposed to be quite good."
He and Ziva chatted until Shannon called him for breakfast. Hang up. he then joined his wife at the kitchen table.
He and Shannon had just finished cleaning up from breakfast and pouring themselves some fresh coffee when the youngest Gibbs finally walked through the front door.
Kelly walked in, hugged them both, and stole a sip of his coffee before finally taking a seat across from him and wishing him a happy Father's Day.
First things first, he opened and read the white and blue card. 'You know what they say: Real heroes don't wear capes, they make bad puns. Thank you for being a real hero, Dad. With your elbow grease and combat boots, you never failed to put us first. To teach the value of hard work. Loyalty. Honour. You may have switched out those combat boots for dress shoes, but that has never changed. Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world!'
Putting the card down, he opened the small gift from his daughter. He couldn't help but instantly smile at what was inside. It was a personalized, photo engraved, brown tri-fold leather wallet to replace his currently worn-out one. Jethro glanced up at his daughter, crinkling his nose in contentment. "Thank you, Princess."
Kelly gave him a peck on the cheek. "You're very welcome."
They chatted for a bit, slowly making their way outside to the backyard where the three of them continued prattling on and playing with Bailey, burning off some of her energy.
Shannon then made them cheeseburgers, caesar salad, and fries for lunch while both Jethro and Kelly continued chatting, Kelly spraying Jethro with the hose while she was doing her mother a favour and watering the plants.
"Hey!" he cried out with a chuckle.
His daughter smirked. "Sorry, accident."
"Uh-huh, Cheeky Brat." He rolled his eyes, grinning mischievously as he walked up and started messing with the hose in his daughter's hands, the pair quickly ending up quite damp, a little water fight breaking out in the backyard.
Shannon was watching out of the kitchen window, just shaking her head at them both in amusement as the two continued messing around.
Thankfully, it was rather warm out so it didn't take long to dry, but Jethro didn't really care either way. He just loved getting to spend quality time with his daughter. He had been robbed of so much where Kelly was involved that he cherished all these tiny little moments more than he could put in words.
The three of them ate lunch outside, deciding to continue taking advantage of the nice weather, Bailey laying off to the side at that point, chewing on a bone.
Eventually, the weather started to change and they got some wind, the family heading inside to play some board games.
After a rather animated yet entertaining game of Clue, the three of them decided to do a bit of baking, something that they hadn't done much of together in the last year.
"Kellz, why don't you grab us the bag of flour from the back of the pantry while Mom grabs the chocolate chips, sugar, and baking soda?" he suggested while taking the eggs and butter they needed out of the fridge. The salt, vanilla extract, and funfetti sprinkles were already on the counter.
"Okay, Dad!" Kelly immediately chirped.
"White or Milk Chocolate chips, Babe?" his wife called from the pantry. She had bought both types and had apparently decided to leave the choice up to Jethro.
He shared a conspiratorial look with his daughter, the pair replying "Both!" at the same time, eliciting a massive grin and shake of the head from Shannon.
They set all the bowls up, all the ingredients on the counter ready for mixing.
While Jethro was lining several baking trays with parchment paper his wife preheated the oven to 350 degrees and his daughter started to put the butter, brown sugar, and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl so that they could beat it
When it came time to add the flour, things definitely got messy, but it was all in good fun and easy enough to clean up that nobody was too concerned about it.
All in all, the cookies took about a half-hour to make including prep time and then they let them sit and cool down before even attempting to take them off of the three trays.
"These look great," Shannon said.
"They do," he agreed, turning to their daughter. "The sprinkles were a nice touch."
Kelly grinned, putting her hand up in the air for a high-five. "Yeah, they were."
Father and daughter high-fived before helping themselves to a cookie.
Today was definitely shaping out to be a good day.