Sunday morning, Jethro woke up on the couch. He was confused for a brief moment until everything came flooding back. My girls are alive. They're alive.

He and Shannon had spent hours seated on the couch talking about everything under the sun after Kelly had gone upstairs to get some sleep. Time had apparently gotten away from them, the pair dosing off mid-conversation.

He opted not to sit up, not wanting to wake Shannon just yet. Eventually, she stirred though, smiling up at him.

He gave his wife a small smile. "Looks like morning happened again."

She gave a happy little hum as she sat up. "What's the plan today?"

"I'm thinking breakfast and then dealing with our parents," he said, knowing that they really needed to let his father, Mac, and Joann know what had gone on. They couldn't put that conversation off. They deserved to know and sooner rather than later.

"Yeah," Shannon agreed. "We should probably do that." She gave him a questioning look. "Are you able to get a few days off?"

"I'll take the week," he said. Once he explained the situation to Leon Vance, the man would have no issue giving him a few days off. Jethro and the director didn't have the easiest relationship, but it had definitely improved some, and Jethro knew that he had more than a little comp time coming to him.

"Great," she said with a pleased grin. "You up for a trip to Philly on Monday or Tuesday to grab a few things?"

"Of course," he said, immediately agreeing.

Getting up off of the couch, Shannon made pancakes while he and Kelly chatted about what all she wanted done to her room.

He wanted Kelly to have a room she liked when she visited on the weekend, and with Shannon and him giving things another go, he knew he'd likely be bringing the girls' things down from Philly; more Shannon's than Kelly's as Kelly would be keeping a lot of her belongings in her dorm.

Kelly had just over a month more of school and then, depending on how things went she might move back to the D.C area full time.

As for Shannon, she had talked to her boss the evening before, given the emergency time off, and put in for a leave of absence.

His wife then got the ball rolling on figuring out just what she needed to do to transfer her teaching licence to Virginia or D.C which would allow her to stay with him at the house as they figured everything out.

Breakfast had been delicious, Shannon having always been a much better cook than Jethro ever was. He'd gotten somewhat better of the years, but most of the time he couldn't be bothered to cook, going to Elaine's Diner.

After breakfast, Jethro then called in a favour and got McGee to get him the contact information for Joann Fielding, asking his agent to keep it to himself for now, as he hadn't been in contact with the Fieldings since the funeral.

While McGee was working on that, Kelly grabbed her things and the three of them hopped into Shannon's car and started to drive down to Stillwater, his and Shannon's hometown. This wasn't a conversation you had over the phone if you could help it, and Stillwater wasn't all that far away, hence the four-hour drive. They'd drop Kelly off at the university dorm on his and Shannon's way back to Arlington.

Kelly had decided to pick the music, and Jethro'd quickly found out that Kelly had a rather, well, eclectic taste in music. The girl listened to everything from Yo-Yo Ma to Metallica, half of which Jethro had never even heard of, although she had a particular fondness for country music, not unlike himself.

Finally pulling up in front of the General Store, Jethro hopped out of the car. He turned around and turned to face his girls. "How did you want to do this? Did you want me to go in first and explain or did you want to come in right away?"

Kelly shrugged and glanced at Shannon for reassurance, which Jethro didn't remotely blame her for. She was handling everything surprisingly well, but still, having your life upended did take a toll. "Mom?"

"Maybe you go in first, Jethro?" his wife suggested after a moment. "We should probably try to avoid giving your old man a heart attack."

He chuckled. "Don't underestimate the stubborn man, but I see your point."

Jethro gave them what he hoped was a reassuring smile before closing the car door behind him and heading into his father's store to have what was likely going to be a very awkward conversation.

Opening up the door to the store, he immediately spotted his father standing at the cash register, finishing up a sale. He waited a moment for the transaction to be finished and the customer to leave before he approached.

His father smiled warmly at him. "Hi, Leroy."

He gave his father a small smile. "Hi, Dad."

"So," his father said, "to what do I owe the visit? You said on the phone that you needed to talk? Is something wrong?"

"Uh," he said, trying to figure out how to say this, "well, I'll get straight to the point, I guess. Kelly and Shannon are alive. Apparently -"

His father immediately cut him off, looking back at him with an expression that Jethro couldn't quite read. "Son, the girls died years ago. I know -"

"Dad," Jethro said, cutting his father off, "they were put in Witness Protection. They survived the crash and the paperwork got bungled."

Well, he hasn't decided to send me to a mental health facility yet. Jethro knew full well how insane he sounded. The only reason he'd believed Tobias was because, one, it was Tobias, and two, it was Tobias. He trusted Tobias, and Tobias had no reason to lie, had no emotional connection to what happened. Even then, a small part of him had had some doubt until he'd actually laid eyes on the girls.

"Leroy," his father said gently, looking at Jethro with what was very clearly pity, "the girls passed away. I miss them too, but the girls are gone."

Jethro heaved a sigh. "Dad, I swear I haven't lost my mind. The girls survived. They never came out of WITSEC 'cause they'd been told that I'd died during an explosion." He gestured towards the door. "If you don't believe me, they're in the car."

His father gave him a doubtful look mixed with a hell of a lot of pity. The older man clearly still didn't believe Jethro.

Sighing again, he headed towards the door to go get the girls.

"LEROY!" his father called out. "Where are you runnin' off to?"

"Like I said," he stated, not slowing his pace whatsoever, "I'm going to get them. They're right out there in the car."

Not waiting for his father's reply, he walked out and headed back to the car.

Kelly immediately opened her door. "Grandpa didn't believe you?" Jethro's father had always been Grandpa and Shannon's, Pop-pop.

He rolled his eyes and glanced between both women, Shannon having now opened her door as well. "No, Kid, your grandfather thinks I'm nuts."

"Alright," Shannon said, getting out of the car. "Come on, Kelly Baby. Let's go save your father from getting himself committed."

Kelly snickered. "Coming, Mom."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever am I going to do with you two?"

Shannon just grinned as she watched Kelly take him by the hand and start walking towards the front doors of the store.

He did wish he had a photo of his father's face though when he glanced between both girls, completely and utterly stunned. "I... what? How?"

He shook his head in amusement. "Now who's hallucinating?"

His father glared at him and then went and pulled both Shannon and Kelly in for a hug. "You know what, I don't even care. I'm just so glad you're both okay."

Kelly pulled back from the hug. "It's good to see you too, Grandpa."

"What she said," Shannon added with a small chuckle and a vague gesture towards their daughter. "It's been much too long, Jack."

His father dipped his head slightly, still smiling. "That it has, Shannon, that it has."

Well, that was one conversation down and several more to go. He was definitely letting Shannon take the lead with her parents though, whenever they were able to have that conversation. Still, it could've gone worse.

They stayed in Stillwater for a couple of hours, but eventually, they really did need to leave if they were going to get Kelly to her dorm by a reasonable hour.

He glanced up at the clock on the wall and then at his father. "We should probably get going if we wanna get Kelly to Philly on time." Not to mention the rest of the drive back to Arlington, but that part of it wasn't a big deal.

"Well," his father said, standing up and pulling both of the girls into a hug again, "don't be a stranger." The man then glanced between all three of them. "Any of you."

"We won't," Kelly said.

"No, we won't." His wife then shot him a rather pointed a look. "Will we, Tiger?"

Jethro immediately gave a little eye roll. "We'll come back and visit again soon, Dad, once things are a little more settled."

His father smiled. "I can't wait." The man then pulled Jethro into a hug. "See you soon, Son, and drive safe."

Jethro nodded. "Take care, Dad."

It wasn't that far to Philadelphia, but having to drive away from his daughter and back to the house in Arlington was a hell of a lot harder than Jethro had expected. He could not believe it was going to be a week before he'd see his daughter again.