The weekend flew by, and it was only marginally easier for Jethro to watch his daughter pull out of the driveway and head back to Philadelphia.

"She'll be fine," his wife tried to reassure him. "It's not that far to Philly and Kelly told you that she'd call once she got there."

He gave his wife a small smile. "I know, Shan."

Monday morning, he and Shannon got up, had breakfast, and then the pair sat on the couch and watched a show together, spending the morning around the house relaxing. Jethro had been supposed to go back to work that morning originally, but on Sunday afternoon he'd called and talked to the director and asked for one more day off before he had go in.

Jethro admittedly found Wipeout, the series that his wife was currently bing watching and she tried to and was succeeding in sucking him into, way more entertaining than he thought he was going to. Moreover, Shannon's boisterous laugh was so contagious that he couldn't help but chuckle right alongside her.

Just after twelve o'clock in the afternoon, the pair headed to Elaine's Diner for lunch and then decided that they'd take advantage of the day's decent weather and head to the Yards Park for a while.

He and Shannon walked around, chatting about anything and everything that came to mind, while they walked the pedestrian bridge and boardwalk, stopping by Ice Cream Jubilee for a treat towards the end of their little visit.

Eventually, his wife checked the time and gave him a look. "We should probably head back to the house soon if we're going to be ready when your team gets there."

Jethro gave his wife a small sideways smile before he pulled her in for a one-arm hug. "Care Bear," he said softly, using an old nickname that their daughter was in large part to blame for, "you don't have to worry about impressing them." Leaning in, he gave her a kiss on the forehead. "It'll be fine, Shan, I promise."

"Maybe," Shannon said, smiling up at him, "but that's not going to stop me." She then gave him a pointed look. "I want to make a good impression. It's... They're this huge part of your life, Jethro, and -"

"I know," he said. Figuring that it was probably much better for him to just let his wife go through the motions, he conceded. "Come on, let's get going. That way you'll have plenty of time to do your thing."

"Perfect," she said happily, pulling him in for a kiss.

Making their way back to his truck, they hopped in and drove to the grocery store to grab a few things for that evening before heading home.

Shannon more or less booted him out of the kitchen, so while she was prepping things Jethro did some chores around the house, making sure the house was squared away. He wasn't at all concerned, but Shannon was, and it was something for him to do.

His team knew that he had something to share with them, hence the get-together, but none of them had any idea what exactly that news pertained to. Ducky, not remotely surprisingly, hadn't hesitated to try and ask Jethro a million questions when Jethro had called him and issued the dinner invitation. The man had easily figured out, however, that it had something to do with Tobias' earlier tipoff. Still, he wasn't about to explain things over the phone and Jethro'd told his friend as much.

Eventually, cars started pulling up and Jethro went outside to head off his team as they arrived before they just waltzed inside. He wanted to only have to explain things once, and it was still nice enough out for them to be able to chat outside while they waited for everyone to get there.

It didn't take long before they were all there and then he couldn't hold off the questions any longer. The theories ranged from him retiring to asking if he was sick and whatever else they could come up with.

"Okay," he said, trying to figure out how best to handle this, "come inside and I'll explain everything in there."

They all looked at him slightly quizzically but did as they'd been asked, following him into the house no questions asked.

They all immediately looked stunned as they walked in and realized how different the place looked; now their curiosity was definitely piqued. Shannon was apparently hiding off to the side in the kitchen, so they couldn't see her at the moment.

Palmer couldn't stop looking around. "I, uh, like what you did with the place."

"As do I," Ducky said. "But, why do I have a feeling that this is not all your doing?" He made a vague gesture to the room they were in as he spoke.

"You didn't get married again," DiNozzo quipped, "did you, Boss?"

He couldn't help the glint in his eyes at that. His Senior Field Agent was joking, but the man's guess was a lot closer to the truth than he thought.

"No way!" DiNozzo exclaimed the second that he saw the look on Jethro's face. "You're actually in a relationship!"

Vance eyed him. "Seriously?"

Jethro nodded with a grin, enjoying messing with them a little too much.

"Wait!" Abby chimed in. "Who? Since when?"

"Do we know them?" McGee asked.

"Well, obviously!" Ziva immediately piped up. "He would not be making such a big deal of it, if we did not, would he?"

"True," Palmer agreed. "She's got you there, Elf Lord."

"So, who is she, El Magnifico?" Abby inquired.

"Maybe we should let the man speak?" Ducky suggested, amused by all of the team's enthusiasm if the glint in his eye was any indication.

Jethro calmly put his hand up to stop all of the rapid-fire questions and well, he really couldn't argue Ziva's point. "Shan, come on out."

Just then his wife came out and waved to everybody. "Hi, everyone."

DiNozzo spoke under his breath to both Ziva and McGee. "Red hair."

Jethro just shook his head in fond exasperation before he gestured to each of the members of his team. "This is Ducky Mallard, Leon Vance, Ziva David, Abby Scuito, Tim McGee, Tony DiNozzo, and Jimmy Palmer."

"Nice to meet you all," his wife said, proceeding to then shake all of their hands as he introduced them. "I'm Shannon."

"Shannon as in-?" Ziva asked with slight hesitation.

"Yep," his wife confirmed. "Shannon Marie Gibbs née Fielding."

"How?" Ducky inquired, completely stunned. "What happened?"

"Paper FUBAR with the USMS," he explained. "Her and Kelly were taken into WITSEC, and things went sideways from there. Fornell recently ran into Shannon, recognized her from a photo of us he'd seen, and, well, I was told they died and the girls were told that I'd died in Desert Storm in that IED attack that put me in a coma."

Palmer clearly had no idea what to say. "Wow."

"Agreed," Vance said. "That's quite some story, you two. I don't think that I'd believe it if you -" He gestured to Shannon. "-weren't standing right there in front of me."

"Yes," Ziva said in agreement, "it's pretty unbelievable."

"Agreed," Shannon said.

"Try showing up to a restaurant at Fornell's insistence and finding out that way," he said with a little snort. "The man had to stop me from making a scene."

"Well," Vance said, "it's lovely to meet you."

"It really is," Ducky agreed. "And a lot of things all of a sudden make a lot of sense. I'd wondered what in the blazes was going on with Fornell."

DiNozzo gave a curt nod. "I third that. Great to finally meet you, Shannon."

"And I fourth it," Abby said, giving Shannon a warm smile. She then looked back at Jethro. "So, where's the Giblet?"

He chuckled and Shannon just looked at him questioningly. "She means Kelly, Shan." His gaze flickered back to Abby. "Kelly's fine. Left last night for Philly. She has school right now so she's staying in the dorms there during the week."

"She's currently a senior at UPenn's School of Veterinary Medicine," Shannon chimed in. "So, how do you feel about Prime Rib Roast?"

"A woman after my own heart," Ducky said with a smile.

He rolled his eyes. "Careful, Duck. This one's mine."

Shannon chuckled at his comment. "Come on, let's go eat."

Yes, tonight was going to be very interesting indeed.