The next week and a half was interesting. The first week seemed to pass by in a slight blur of political drama, caffeine-induced energy, and little sleep. Outside of work, his father and namesake had gone back to Stillwater together early on the afternoon of the fifth and that friendship was well on the mend. And then came Emily and Ziva's respective birthdays. He'd also shipped his mentor a small gift for the man's birthday on the twenty-second.
Unfortunately, work had been anything but calmer since the successful apprehension of Alec Dell at the little campsite that the young man had set up in Greenup. Special Agent Cunningham had, thankfully, already transferred Dell back to D.C to stand trial. that was dealt with, but Jethro and his team had a money laundering case to contend with which kept them more than a little busy. That and his team still had a few of their re-qualifications to get caught up on.
As for the second week, Jethro had taken it off, using his lost time. Something that he was glad that he'd done. It allowed him to spend more time with Paisley, see Kelly, see his wife, as well as get some maintenance work around the house done.
The morning of the twenty-first, he and Shannon woke up sprawled out on their couch where they'd been chatting and watching a movie late the night before. Jethro was the first one of the pair to wake up, so Jethro gently woke the redhead up so she could go to bed if she wanted. It was 0703 on a Wednesday but Shannon had taken the day off, so neither had to go to work.
She rolled on top of him and smiled affectionately. "Happy birthday, Babe."
"Thank you," he replied before pressing his lips to hers. Once they parted, he eyed her with a small smile. "God, you're beautiful."
"Flattery will get you everywhere," she replied cheekily.
Jethro shook his head at her in fond amusement. "So, you wanna go upstairs to bed or just get up and have some chow?"
She gave a contented little hum. "I'm up, so why don't you -" The redhead gestured to his now ringing cellphone. "- answer that and I'll get breakfast started?"
"Good by me," he replied before giving her a peck on the cheek.
While Jethro answered the phone call, Shannon made her way into their kitchen to get some food on the go. Adorably, Emily Fornell had, apparently, insisted on calling him to wish him a happy birthday before school. "Happy Birthday, Uncle Gibbs!"
He smiled warmly. "Thanks, Em. You heading to school soon?"
"Uh-huh," Emily replied. "But my class is going on a field trip today."
"Where's the field trip to?" He inquired.
"Museum of Natural History," the twelve-year-old replied happily.
She'll love that. "Well, that'll be fun."
"Oh, yeah!" the girl replied happily. "I went once before with Mom but don't remember it really. Do you work today?"
"No," he said. "Both Shannon and I have the day off."
He talked with Emily for a little bit and then he got a call from Kelly. He then headed to the kitchen table and sat down with Shannon for some scrapple, sunny-side-up eggs, toast, and hash browns. As well as a fresh cup of hot brew, of course.
His wife eyed him. "It's sweet that Emily called you."
"Em's a good kid," he replied with an affectionate smile.
"She is," Shannon agreed.
"Diane's brought up sending Em to boarding school, though." Tobias wasn't sure what he thought of the idea. "That should be interesting."
After they'd eaten their fill, Jethro opened his birthday present and card from his wife. The pair then headed upstairs to get dressed and ready for the day.
He heard the shower turn off as he moved to throw a load of dirty laundry on. While Shannon was rummaging through her clothes he headed downstairs.
They say on the couch, chatting intermittently while watching some television. All the while, Jethro got a number of phone calls from his father, his daughter, Ducky, Ziva, Abby, King, Maddie, Tobias, and several other people.
He and Shannon watched a few episodes of some TV show that had recently come out and spent the rest of the morning lounging around the house.
They stopped by Elaine's Diner for lunch early that afternoon, Jethro deciding to grab a copy of the Washington Post from the stand as they made their way inside.
"Hey, you two!" Elaine immediately greeted them.
Shannon gave the waitress a warm smile. "Hi, Elaine."
The waitress then turned to Jethro. "The usual, Gibbs?"
He smiled at the waitress. "That'd be great, Elaine."
"And I will take," Shannon said, "the Turkey Reuben with the Russian dressing and an order of fries. With a coffee, please."
Elaine dipped her head slightly, smiling. "I'll be back shortly with your drinks."
"Thank you!" Shannon said, returning the waitress's smile.
As promised, Elaine was back maybe two minutes later with their coffees. Drink in hand, Jethro read the newspaper, between sips of his coffee, chatting with his wife intermittently, who was talking with a woman seated in the booth inform of them.
Suicide bombers strike near U.S. base in secure Kabul district, killing two guards
KABUL — A pair of suicide bombers in Afghan military uniforms penetrated the most heavily guarded district in Kabul early Wednesday, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding five civilians in blasts at a checkpoint near the main U.S. military headquarters and half a dozen other international facilities.
Police officials said the bombers' target was probably Camp Eggers, the large U.S. military compound that occupies several square blocks of the capital's exclusive Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood. But a spokesman for the radical Islamist Taliban movement said the attack was aimed at a CIA compound and that "a large number" of insurgents had participated.
He shook his head as he read the rest of the article, and then flipped through to see if anything else in the paper was worth a read. There wasn't really.
Shannon looked over from her conversation. "Anything interesting?"
He shot her a pointed look. "Nothing new. Same war. Same crime. Same politics."
The redhead caught a glimpse of the article's title. "Lovely."
He gave a little snort. "Yeah, that's one word for it."
Not much later, the waitress showed up with their orders and they both started to dig happily into their plates of food.
After lunch, they headed to D.C's Downtown Holiday Market in Penn Quarter. It was a quaint location with live music and a variety of handcrafted wares. There were several snack-food booths there as well.
The couple had checked out a couple of booths, buying a few items, and had just left a booth with some hot apple cider and churros in hand when Shannon tapped Jethro on the shoulder. "Jethro, look. It's her."
"Who?" he inquired, more interested in his drink than whoever it was that Shannon was pointing out to him.
She quirked a brow. "Rebecca Chase."
Jethro froze mid-sip when he glanced up from his cup and realized that Shannon was absolutely correct. His ex-wife was indisputably standing in front of one of the nearby booths, paying for something that Jethro couldn't quite make out from where he was standing. Her hair was a bit shorter than the last time he'd seen the woman, but that was definitely her. "Yeah, let's head the other way before she spots us."
"Agreed," Shannon replied before they started to make their way out of the area.
But of course, there was no such luck. Only a short moment later there was a voice calling out from behind them. "Hello, Jay."
Jethro took a deep breath and turned around to face the woman. He took his ex-wife's appearance in more fully now that she was directly in front of him. She was wearing a white dress shirt, a pair of plain black pants, and a dark green peacoat. Unlike the last time he'd seen her, her eyes weren't glassy. She wasn't stumbling around. "Rebecca."
"Well, this is a surprise," Shannon said, running her finger around the rim of her cup of hot cider as she said the words. "Fancy running into you here."
Rebecca had obviously decided on playing it calm and polite as well. "Yeah, came with a friend but -" She glanced around. "- they went to grab something from the car and seem to have been sidetracked on the way back."
He gave a noncommittal hum. "That happens."
"No," his ex-wife countered, "it's not like that. Jay, I -"
"What?" he pressed.
Shannon smoothly put her arm around Jethro and smiled up at him. "We really should get going, Babe, if we're gonna make it to coffee with Stacy and Wayne."
"We running that late?" he asked, playing along.
"Yep," better half replied, more than willing to give him an out.
They awkwardly said their goodbyes and then once they were out of earshot, Shannon turned to him. "Does it still bother you?"
"Sometimes." Jethro tilted his head and looked at Shannon, knowing exactly what she was asking. "No man wants to find their partner in bed with another guy." He had seen the signs but had ignored them all. Jethro had to finally admit to himself that Rebecca had indeed been knocking boots with someone else when he came home from a three-month float in the Mediterranean and walked in on her in bed with Gene Isaacson, an attorney who was rather dweeby and reminded him a lot of Jimmy Palmer.
"Yeah." Shannon took a couple of steps forward, putting herself within Jethro's' personal space. Her right hand caressed his cheek.
He took her hand, kissed it, and held their joined hands to his chest. "I love you."
His wife smiled. "I love you too."
Hopefully, the rest of his birthday would be a hell of a lot less awkward. On the bright side, dinner with his team and family later was going to be nice. He was looking forward to getting to spend some time with Kelly and Paisley.
