He heard a noise. What was that noise?

He opened his eyes. No he wasn't dreaming it he heard it again. Like someone was trying to open something. Open something, he thought again. Then he knew it. Shit! Opening something, the baby dan! Gibbs was out of bed before he knew it.

Tony was trying to open the baby dan. Why wouldn't it open, he thought. "Come on, I want to go downstairs." Tony pulls at the fence again. Hmm, maybe if I climb over it I can, he thought.

Tony was halfway on his climbing when he heard a noice.

"STOP RIGHT THERE TONY!" Gibbs yells. His heart stopped for a minute. He quickly picked Tony up in arms and gives him a swat on his backside and put him down on the ground again. He kneels in the front of Tony.

"What the hell were you thinking! The fence is there for a reason. And tell you something, it's not there so you could climb over it. And and... you have grown?"

"How, when how is that possible?" Gibbs was confused he was angry and worried first but now that he had taken a good look at Tony he noticed that he was not 4 years old anymore. More like a six year old.

"I uhmm.. I umm.. well .. I don't know which question I should answer first." Tony finally said. He looks with big eyes at Gibbs. First he was shocked, Gibbs swatted him, but now also realizing he was older and bigger.

Gibbs sighs and took a deep big breath to calm down. Tony probably didn't know why or how he was bigger. And by the looks of it Tony also just realized.

So he decides to start with the first question that had him worried.

"Why did you decide to climb over the fence when you noticed you couldn't open it?"

'Well I wanted to go downstairs. But the fence was stuck and everybody was still asleep." Tony tried to tell Gibbs.

"It's not stuck it has a child lock on it"

"Why? How else was I supposed to go downstairs?"

"So you don't fall down the stairs like the first time you woke up as a child remember. You could injured yourself or worse." Gibbs said angry.

"And climbing over it is not a solution! Next time you get me or Abby or ducky. You understand?"

"But I'm big enough now. I will ..."

"Tony it's not up for a debate. I ask you a question. Do you understand?"

Tony sighs. "Fine. I understand. Can I go downstairs now?"

"Yeah WE can go downstairs now. Give me your hand." God he needs coffee.

Downstairs Tony was watching tv and Gibbs reading the newspaper while drinking his coffee. Waiting for the rest to wake up.

"Good morning Jethro. Oh my Anthony you have grown overnight haven't you?" Ducky said as he walks into the living room.

"Morning Ducky and he sure has. He already decided that he was big enough to climb over the fence upstairs" Gibbs said smirking.

"He did what! Anthony that was very dangerous. What were you thinking?"

Tony looked away desperately. Gibbs saw this and lay a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Ducky. Tony and I already talked about it. And he will not do it again. Isn't that right Tony?"

"No boss, I won't do it again" Tony said quietly.

"Good to hear that my dear boy" Ducky said and gives him a pat on the shoulder before he went to the kitchen to get some tea.

"OMG ...OMG YOU BOTH AGE!" They heard Abby scream from upstairs. Soon followed by footsteps making their way downstairs.

"Gibbs Ducky look at them look!" Abby said. She held a hand from each child in her hand.

Kate was now 11 years old and Tim 8 years old.

Ducky and Gibbs stared at them for a moment.

"Why are you so calm, don't you see it! They ... OH MY GOD TONY you also have aged."

"We have noticed Abby." Gibbs said calmly. "But there is nothing we can do, and maybe this is what needs to be done."

"You can be right Jethro" Ducky said.

"So we will be our age eventually. We will just grown?" Kate asked curiously.

"Don't know Kate, not till we have some information." Gibbs said.

"Why don't we eat breakfast then we can think about what to do next" Ducky said and they agreed.

When they finished breakfast Abby thought of something. "The test I was running will be ready in a hour. Maybe we know more by then. Maybe we can do another blood test. Now that you have grown maybe something has changed" she said excited.

"That are a lot of maybes Abby" Tim said.

"NO NO I will not give anymore blood! NO Just no." Tony said shaking.

"But maybe.." Abby begins but Gibbs held his hand up for her to stop.

"Don't worry Tony just relax we think of something else" Gibbs said as he ruffles his hair.

"Promise?"

"Yes I promise Tony" Gibbs said smiling.

Ducky observed the conversation. And he couldn't help himself to analyzed the kids. It explains so much how they were behaving and how you saw that behavior coming back when they were an adult.

Kate was used to have siblings. She was comfortable to be with Tony and Tim. They were her 'younger brothers'. In the office they were always teasing each other and now it was no different for Kate. She would tease them but also protect them. You already saw that when she thought Tony was hurting when he had a flashback or nightmare. She was worried and wanted to help. But when he was fine they would tease each other like siblings were doing.

Tim used to be the oldest in his family. He only had a younger sister. Now he was the middle sibling. And Tim could not always adjust that he had an older sister now. They didn't always see eye to eye but eventually they worked it out. They first thought Tony was older than Tim. So Tim had some trouble accepting that Tony's behavior was sometimes more childish. But he quickly became the big brother now that he saw him as his little brother.

The toys Tim choose to play were more technical than the others. He loves computer games and was good at it too. That didn't change when he was grown up.

And there was Tony. Always joking as a grown up but did everything to protect an innocent. He was smart too. Thinking out of the box. That sometimes leads to dangerous behavior. Well looks like that started at the age of six when he thought about this morning. They needed to watch out.

When he thought about the adult Tony he noticed that he had masks. No one always knew what was going on or what he was feeling. But now knowing about his childhood it explains a lot. He wanted to be the energetic happy young boy that he was but he was also very insecure. The abuse had left it's marks. And the adult Tony covers that by his masks. If they were growing up again maybe they could teach Tony how to cope with his feelings and feel secure.

"What do you think Ducky?" Gibbs asked.

Gibbs brought him out of his thoughts. "Sorry Jethro what did you say"

Gibbs gave Ducky a thoughtful look. "Abby is going to here lab. While we are waiting maybe we could take the kids to the park."

"Oh that would be a wonderful idea. We could do with some fresh air." Ducky said.

"Okay guys I will be going. I let you know when I know something. Have fun." With that said Abby left.

———————————————————————

"Okay guys before you run off listen to me first. I want you to stay in our eyesight all the time. If you need to go to the bathroom you come to one of us first. And don't talk to strangers, don't come even near them you hear me. We will be sitting at this table if you need us." Gibbs said.

"Jeez Gibbs you don't have to be in all papa bear mode. I'm old enough to know this you know." Kate said rolling her eyes. The attitude of a teenager was definitely there already" Gibbs thought.

Tony Tim and Ducky all sniggered at what Kate was saying. Ducky told the boys they should go to the playground to play. Kate and Jethro needed a little talk. The boys nodded and ran to the monkey bars and slide.

"Yeah well young lady at this moment you are the kid and I'm the parent so you have to listen to me. And if you don't like it. You can always sit and stay here at the picnic table." Gibbs said sternly.

"I was just saying Gibbs, didn't mean anything by it. And you love to be a daddy." Kate said smiling and runs off to the playground.

Gibbs smiled. "She has you wrapped around your finger Jethro" Ducky said laughing.

"That she does" he said smiling.

"But she is right about one thing. You like to be a daddy."

"Yeah I know."

"What were you thinking about this morning? You seems miles way?" Gibbs asked changing the conversation. He loved to be a dad. He loved that they were so young. But would they still know when they were older. Or would something terrible happen to them. Was this just temporary. What if they were sick or maybe die because of ... no he didn't want to think about that. So he changed the conversation to ease his mind.

"You notice huh. I was just analyzing their behavior. Now that they are kids but also when they were adults. It explains a lot if you think about it."

"Yeah I know. It also has me worried" Gibbs said as he looked at them. Kate was on the swings, Tim on the slide and Tony in the monkey bars.

"What do you mean by worried?"

"Well if I know the adult Kate, then this was just the beginning of here attitude. Don't get me wrong she is a good agent and a loving person but when she wants something or think she is right than let just say she can be very determined. I think soon we can expect some temper tantrums from her."

"Ah I think you are right about that. I think you need to have a conversation with her about the boundaries and rules. Maybe it will help a bit."

"Yeah you're right Duck. Thought about that myself. And not only with her."

"Tim loves computers. At work he is good with them too. But you can already see he withdraw more in the background to play one of those games. It becomes his life. This morning he rather stay home than to play outside. You didn't see or hear but he and I had already a talk about that upstairs when you were waiting for us downstairs."

"Ah that was taking you so long. Good thing you did Jethro. It could easily become an obsession for him."

"That's why I had that talk. He needs to interact with the rest of the 'family'. And he has two siblings now." Gibbs said. Smiling at the last sentence.

"He is not used to be the middle sibling. But he's doing better now. He knows he is the middle and is not arguing with Kate as much as he used to do. And he is doing a good job with Tony'."

"I noticed"

"And what has you worried about Anthony?" Ducky asked.

"Well the masks he has as an adult explains a lot now. He is already changing personalities so quick that I sometimes have troubling understanding or how I need to react. But I also noticed, now that he is bigger, he thinks he can do more. And thinking and doing are two words you have to watch out for when you talk about Anthony DiNozzo. This morning is already an example. Danger doesn't mean anything if your house, family were the danger itself.

So you see Ducky I already did some analyzing myself."

"I see you did Jethro. And the dangerous activities was something I also was worried about. Anthony can... " Ducky begins to says but Gibbs interrupts him

"Ah crap, this is what I was talking about" Gibbs said and runs off to the monkey bars. Tony wanted to make a somersault on the top of the monkey bars.

"TONY DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. COME DOWN!" Gibbs yells.

"Hey Gibbs I was going to make a somersault."

"I know! Do you know how dangerous that is? You can break your neck! Come down now or you have something else coming."

"I will .. I will.. come down.' Once Tony was down, he stands in the front of Gibbs. Gibbs pulled him in a tight hug. "God Tony don't you ever do that to me again. You know how scared I was when I saw you?"

" I'm...I'm sorry Gibbs. What are you gonna do with me." Tony stutters. He didn't know what Gibbs meant by ' you have something else coming'.

Gibbs looked at Tony. Of course how could he be so stupid to say something like that. "I meant Tony that I would punish you. I would have swatted your butt like I did this morning. I would never hurt you.

But you came down when I ask you to. And I'm proud of you about that. But what you did was still dangerous. We had a little conversation about doing dangerous stuff this morning, hadn't we"

Tony nodded.

"Well this is already the second time you did something dangerous in less than a day. So I want you to stay with me or Ducky so we can keep an eye on you."

"But..."

"Not up for debate." Gibbs took Tony's hand and together they walked to the picnic table.

Kate and Tim were there also. When they heard Gibbs and saw what Tony was doing they knew this was not good. So they decided to go to the picnic table and have something to drink and eat.

When Gibbs and Tony sat down they decided they also wanted something to eat and drink.

So together they ate their sandwiches and drink their limonade.