The ensuing weeks after Kelly and Michael's wedding were not any less hectic than the ones leading up to it. For Easter, they headed down to Stillwater and went full swing into the usual holiday craziness. In addition to that, in between work, the newlywed couple had a lot of paperwork that they needed to get in order and Kelly, for several reasons, had to quickly get her military dependent I.D card. And then there were the new living arrangements that had to be sorted out.

As it stood, there was a whole lot more room in the Arlington house than there was in the Georgetown apartment, so Maddie started looking for another roommate and Kelly and moved back home with Michael, which meant Jethro and Shannon spent an entire afternoon helping with the move. He was glad to have his daughter back home for the interim though, as Jethro knew that once Michael was back from deployment that the couple would be getting their own place - most likely on base.

Michael deploying right after the wedding did put them in an interesting situation, but they'd all made it work. Michael's deployment to Afghanistan four days prior had been hard on Kelly, understandably, but his daughter was tough.

Tobias and his team had also managed to set a successful trap for the ever-irksome Paloma Reynosa which meant that mess was, to all appearances, finally behind them. Hopefully, permanently, but Jethro couldn't quite bring himself to believe that either. That family was nothing if not resourceful and cunning. Not to mention stubborn.

Long story short, it had been a stressful month-and-a-half for everyone. On the bright side, though, things were finally starting to settle down. And just in time for Shannon's fifty-sixth birthday.

So, waking up early that Sunday morning, Jethro snuck out of bed and, Shannon still fast asleep headed to a nearby shop to buy some flowers. He was pleased to note that his wife was still fast asleep when he got home and started on breakfast.

He'd just got all the ingredients he needed out and on the counter when he heard Kelly run down the hall, clearly not doing well. Concerned, given the fact that his daughter had woken up the same way the day before, Jethro headed upstairs.

"It's okay," he soothed, gently pulling his daughter's hair back into a ponytail as the young woman retched over the toilet. After securing a hair elastic from the counter, he began rubbing her back, something that had always made her feel better.

She sat down on the bathroom floor and sighed, while Jethro flushed the toilet. "Oh God," she groaned. The redhead then ran her hand over her face. "Can you get me some water, please, Dad?"

"Yeah." Jethro quickly went to grab a cup from downstairs, filling it up with some cold water, and quickly taking it back up to his daughter. "Just spit it into the toilet," Jethro said, passing the cup to Kelly.

After she swished it around in her mouth and spit it out, Kelly rested her head against him and closed her eyes. After a moment, the nausea that she was feeling visibly passed. "I don't know what's worse…. a tequila hangover or this."

'What's this?" he asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bathtub.

Kelly picked up something and handed it to him. It was a pregnancy test. One clearly positive pregnancy test. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that exactly. He then noticed several more of these tests off to the side. Three more pregnancy tests. All of them, positive. How did I miss that when I came in?

"You're pregnant," he said quietly. Jethro wasn't sure how he felt exactly about her getting pregnant so soon, but then again, he and Shannon had been in a similar boat. His wife had already been four weeks pregnant when they married. Not that they'd known that yet, but still…

"Apparently so," she agreed nervously, finally rising to her feet.

"Do you want this?" he asked, not sure exactly how his daughter felt.

Kelly nodded. "Yeah. I mean, we weren't planning on having kids so soon, but…"

He dipped his head slightly and then pulled Kelly in for a hug. "Then congratulations." Jethro eyed her. "Your mom and I'll support you every step of the way." The redhead nodded and he kissed her on the cheek. "You've got this, Kid."

Kelly smiled up at him. "Thanks, Dad." The young woman shot him an inquisitive look. "You making Mom breakfast?"

"Yep!" he confirmed, giving his daughter a warm smile.

"Wanna hand?" the redhead asked.

He nodded, quite pleased by the offer. Jethro then helped Kelly clean up the bathroom before the pair made their way downstairs.

"Wash up and crack some eggs," he said as they entered the kitchen.

Grinning widely, his daughter headed over to the sink to wash her hands. "Woke up to an e-mail from Mike this morning."

"That's great," he said. He gave Kelly a more serious look. "Don't keep score."

"I'm not," the twenty-eight-year-old assured him. "Still good to hear from him."

He smiled, nodding. "I know, Kel. Believe me, I know."

Father and daughter finished cooking breakfast and then Kelly kindly offered to wash the dirty dishes for Jethro while he went upstairs to wake his wife.

Walking into the bedroom, he placed the plate of food down on his wife's bedside table and woke her. Once the redhead stirred, Jethro gave Shannon a kiss, handing her the flower bouquet that he'd bought her. "Happy birthday, Shan."

Shannon smelled the colourful bouquet of flowers she'd just received and then smiled contentedly up at him. "They're beautiful."

Jethro smiled back at her. "And I got you this too." He passed Shannon her birthday present from him as well as a card. The card read: 'For My Wife, Happy Birthday. I'm so glad we get to adventure through life together. You make the journey so much fun. Thanks for being an amazing partner. My life is better because of you.'

She put the gift and card off to the side and turned to him. "Thank you, Babe."

He gave her a peck on the cheek. "You're very welcome."

"You're spoiling me," she said, teasingly. "Guilty conscience, Gunny?"

He hummed cheekily at that. He knew full well that his wife was just teasing him. The combat veteran wasn't exactly the most romantic guy out there, by any stretch of the imagination. Jethro did try though when it came to special occasions. "Nah."

She chuckled softly. "Why don't I believe you?"

He handed the plate of food to Shannon. "Well," he said without missing a beat, "while you're thinking about it, why don't you pound down some of that chow?"

"Spoken like a true Marine," his wife quipped in amusement before shovelling a forkful of the scrambled eggs into her mouth.

He shook his head in amusement. God, that woman was something else.