"I can't believe you're alive," Shannon said after a long moment. Jethro could easily understand how she felt. The whole situation just felt so surreal. Honestly, it felt like one of those dreams he'd had many times over the years where Shannon was alive and he'd up and be hit with reality like a ton of bricks. He felt like he was just waiting to wake up and realize that all of this was in his head. "After the accident... We were told that you'd died in Kuwait. A bombing."

"I was hit with an IED and ended up being evaced to Frankfurt and then air-vaced to Bethesda," he explained, deciding that it was probably better to get the hows and the whys dealt with as soon as possible so that they could then focus on everything else. "I was in a coma for nineteen days."

She pulled him in for another hug. "It's so good to see you. When Agent Fornell told me you were..." She shook her head. "I didn't believe him at first."

"So that's why Tobias called me," Jethro realized. His friend had apparently called him earlier so that Shannon could hear his voice. Proof of life, so to speak.

Shannon dipped her head slightly. "Yeah."

Jethro pulled back and kissed her on the forehead. "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too," she said, looking up at him with a watery smile.

He gave her a matching smile and turned to face his twenty-six-year-old daughter who was now standing right in front of him.

He held his arms out and Kelly immediately went in for a hug. "Hi, Dad."

That one little word sounded so good to his ears. He'd never expected to hear that title directed at him ever again. "Hi, Kellz."

Father and daughter just stood there, hugging, for a long moment, both needing the contact, and then Kelly suggested that the three of them sit down for lunch and actually have something to eat. "Don't mess with mess, Marine!" Kelly quipped without missing a beat. "Just saying."

Hearing the turn of phrase that he'd said to his daughter so many times when she was younger made him chuckle. "Damn straight, young lady."

Shannon just stood there laughing and shaking her head at the father-daughter pair. "Alright. Come on, you two. Let's grab a bite to eat."

Not needing to be told twice, the three of them ordered some food and started to chat, having a lot to catch up on.

Emotions were running high but the three of them just felt right and he and Shannon immediately fell back into the easy banter that they'd always had. They'd been the best of friends well before ever getting married and that connection seemingly hadn't faltered in the slightest.

Still, Jethro was trying to figure out where they now stood. Shannon wasn't wearing a ring or anything. He had no idea how to broach the topic though so left it alone for the time being, not wanting to ruin the light atmosphere they currently had.

After maybe an hour and a half there in the restaurant, Shannon suggested going back to his house. Kelly immediately jumped in and asked a question that Jethro was really quite surprised hadn't come up earlier. "So, where do you live?"

He glanced between Shannon and Kelly. "Our old house in Arlington."

That definitely caught both his girls' attention.

"Really?" Shannon said, a little stunned. "You never moved?"

Strictly speaking, he had. He'd lived in Moscow with Stephanie, for example. He could never bring himself to sell the house, though, and he didn't want to get into the whole ex-wives thing just yet. He wanted to give them some time to breathe before opening that particular box. "I could never sell it," he said earnestly. "You know, the old place hasn't changed much."

"Well," Kelly said eagerly, "let's get going!"

"Alright," Jethro said, chuckling softly. He then turned to his wife. "Do you remember the way there, Shan?"

She nodded. "I do."

He nodded right back at her. "Okay, I'll meet you girls there then." He gave both his girls a kiss on the forehead and then his gaze flickered between them. Jethro didn't want to let either of them out of his sight right now. The last time that he'd had to leave them... "Drive safe."

"We will," Shannon said, knowing why Jethro felt the need to say that.

Jethro was tense the entire drive home, only relaxing once both Shannon and Kelly were out of Shannon's car and standing in the driveway.

"Wow," Shannon said, glancing around at the exterior of the house, "you really weren't kidding when you said that things hadn't changed much."

"Old place looks pretty good," Kelly said, the young woman clearly thrilled to be back at her childhood home.

"Yeah," he said, "well, it could use a coat of paint."

He was honestly more nervous than he'd like to admit when he went to grab the doorknob and walk into the house with his girls' for the first time in eighteen years. He'd dreamed of this moment many times, but he was admittedly concerned about what Shannon was going to think about him not even having changed much of the furniture and such.

All of a sudden Jethro was really glad that Tobias had tipped Ducky off about getting the house somewhat squared away.

Pulling himself from his musings, he opened the door and walked into the house with Shannon and Kelly following close behind.

Not bothering to take his shoes off, he turned to face his wife and child. "Either of youse gals want a drink or something?" At this point, he didn't even notice or care about his childhood accent slipping through.

"Sure, Dad!" Kelly said. "I'd love a glass of water."

With a curt nod, Jethro headed to the kitchen to grab his daughter a drink. They then chatted briefly before he gave the girls a small little tour of the house; not that much of anything had changed.

He'd seen the look in Shannon's eyes though when she saw the folded bedding on the couch and a couple of other signs that made it rather obvious how much Jethro had struggled with everything and just how little Jethro did actually take care of himself. Shannon didn't say anything though, understanding easily as she'd gone through her own grief and pain because of the entire mess that had gone down.

Given the fact that it was reasonably nice outside, the family then gravitated to the backyard, hanging out and chatting on the patio, wanting to just spend some time together as a family and figure out how exactly they fit together now.

Kelly was currently sharing a rather funny story of hers from when she was hanging out with some of her friends from UPenn's School of Veterinary Medicine where she was currently a senior. Thankfully, Philadelphia wasn't all that far. He wasn't sure how he was going to handle the distance as it was.

The rest of the afternoon was rather calm, and eventually, the Ericksons, who were the only neighbours that Jethro actually liked, noticed that he had company and ended up coming over once they realized just who was there.

They lived two doors down. The son, Evan, was a year younger than Kelly and had been good friends with her, while Stacy had been a friend of Shannon's. Wayne was a fellow Marine as well, which was actually how the two families had really ended up connecting in the first place.

The family hadn't stayed long, not wanting to intrude, but they had wanted to make sure that they were aware that if any of them needed anything, they were more than happy to lend a hand.

He liked the Erickson family well enough, but Jethro was actually a bit relieved when the Ericksons went back home. He wasn't ready to share Shannon or Kelly just yet.

Kelly would have to leave on Sunday night for Philly as she had school, but the young woman had already told him that she wanted to come to D.C on weekends. She did get him to promise to hook up proper cable and wifi for her, though.

He hadn't had a conversation with Shannon yet but a comment from Kelly had let him know that Shannon was in fact single. So between that and comments from Shannon herself, the flirting, Jethro had a pretty good idea of what way Shannon wanted their relationship to go.

Shannon had given him a hard time though when she realized that he hadn't been in contact with his father until just a few months ago, but he'd expected that. His father's suspicions had been right. Shannon had been the one sending the Christmas cards.

That was a whole other set of conversations they were going to have to have in the very near future, letting both his father and Shannon's parents know exactly what had gone down, that Shannon and Kelly had survived. And he was going to have to fill his team in as well.

They sat around chatting for a while and then Kelly insisted that she was going to make dinner for them that evening and headed to the kitchen.

While his daughter was doing that, with some assistance from Shannon, Jethro headed upstairs to get both of the beds upstairs ready for that night.

He needed to change the bedding in Kelly's old room and actually put bedding on his and Shannon's old bed. There were also a few things that really needed to be dusted and the windows in both of the bedrooms needed to be opened to air them out.

Jethro had managed to get it all more or less done when his wife came upstairs to see what exactly he was up to. "You okay, Jethro?" she inquired.

He gave her a warm smile. "Yeah, Shan, I'm fine. Just making the beds."

She nodded, sitting down on the bed and making a gesture for Jethro to take his own seat beside her so that they could talk. "Did you ever remarry?"

He sighed, not sure how Shannon was going to take this. "Yeah. You?"

"Two times," his wife admitted. "I kept on trying to find what you and I had together again, and they were nice enough, but none of them were you."

"Only two?" Jethro replied with a cheeky grin, feeling much more comfortable now that they were both clearly on the same page. "It took me three."

She chuckled. "Well, you were always the more stubborn of the two of us."

He smirked. "True."

Shannon adopted a more serious look. "Did you have any other-?"

"Kids?" he asked, although it was more of a statement. "No." Which was no small part of why he and Diane broke up. Jethro just couldn't do it.

Shannon nodded, clearly a bit relieved by his answer.

Just then they heard some noise coming from downstairs, Jethro immediately feeling concerned. He understood why Shannon seemed so unconcerned when he heard his daughter call out, "I'm okay!" while giggling, causing him and Shannon to burst out in a fit of laughter themselves.

"Come on," Shannon said, still giggling. "Let's go see what our daughter has gotten up to now." She eyed him. "For the record, she has your cooking skills."

Jethro rolled his eyes. "I've gotten better, thank you very much."

Shannon raised an eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes again. "Thanks, Shan."

"You're welcome," she replied cheekily.

God, he loved that woman. She was really something.