Jethro disliked those days where his work kept him at the work well into the night. He loved his job – always had. Knowing how it felt to be the surviving family member of a victim, made him appreciate how important his job was. They made a difference; even when it was hard to see it. When it was a particularly tough case and you felt like you were starring into a glassy lake. When it felt like the answers that you were looking for were there at the bottom, and in between you and them was a reflection.

Even when he had to deal with the antics of IG investigators and the pesky politics, he had always liked the structure and the sense of purpose that the job gave him as well as leading his team. For years, working straight through until 2300 was typical and the job had been his life. He had wanted to be at work. But nowadays, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with his family; he'd missed too much already.

Even so, the criminals of the DMV never slept and his hours were still unpredictable at the very best of times. Such as the previous day. Thursday had been quite a long day, Jethro finally getting home well after his wife had gone to bed. His team had worked frantically to bring the arrogant man formerly known as MC in. Thanks to Ajay Khan's information they were able to track the man's I.P address to a rental home in Norfolk, Virginia, but things were never quite that simple.

Speaking with the landlord, the team quickly identified MC - the man currently renting the property - as thirty-two-year-old Roger Lancaster from Roanoke, Virginia. Working alongside a green field agent from the Norfolk Field Office, they managed to locate the man on his way out of the city, taking him into custody that Friday afternoon. He had managed to evade them, however, for a decent length of time.

Jethro glanced down at his watch; 1645.

Refusing to miss his father-in-law's birthday dinner for something that could wait until Monday, Jethro moved to address all three of his field agents who were all busy typing away on their work computers. "Go home. The rest can wait until Monday."

"Don't have to tell me twice," DiNozzo quipped. "Drinks, Probie-sans?"

McGee shook his head slightly at the term used to reference them.

Ziva shot the Italian-American man a look. "Tony, keep it up and I can start calling you honeybuns and tell everyone where that nickname came from."

DiNozzo shot his girlfriend a cheeky look. "Remember what revenge is like, Lisa."

Ziva smirked. "And what is it like?"

Jethro chuckled softly, well aware of where this conversation was headed. "Go, go." He made a vague gesture with his hand, shooing them away. "Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you guys at Abby's on Sunday."

DiNozzo grinned. "See you on Sunday, Jefe."

McGee dipped his head slightly. "Have a good night, Boss."

As his team wrapped up and left for the night, Jethro signed off on the last two reports on his desk before rising and rushing out of the building to run home to change for the birthday dinner at IHOP of all places. Plus, he needed to let Bailey out as the doh had been cooped up since Shannon left for work that morning.

Driving to the restaurant with Shannon, Jethro opted to have a conversation with his wife that he knew needed to happen at some point but that also hadn't exactly been a real priority. "Do you remember the college fund I set up for Kelly?"

When Kelly was little, he'd started a college fund for her. When she 'died', Jethro never closed the account. In fact, he had kept adding to it. In memory of his daughter. Since then, Jethro had helped quite a few agents' families; kids all going to college in Kelly's honour. Jared and Kayla Vance had, in fact, been recipients of the Jethro Gibbs College Scholarship Fund as the Vance patriarch had dubbed it. He'd made a $10,000 donation to the Vances just a couple of weeks prior to getting the call from Tobias that Saturday morning in 2009 that brought his girls back into his life. Another man who'd become a member of the Leroy Jethro Gibbs College Scholarship Club a mere year before that.

She looked slightly confused but nodded. "Yeah. What about it?"

"Well," he replied without taking his eyes off the road, "I never closed it."

"What?" she said, a little stunned. "So it's just been sitting there?"

"Yep," Jethro confirmed. "At first, it was just too hard. It felt like it would make things even more real somehow. Eventually, I just decided to put it to good use."

Shannon gave him a small smile. "What did you do?"

"I used some of the money to help out several agents' families," Jethro explained quite matter-of-factly. "It currently has $97,655 in it."

His wife blinked. "Wow, that's a fair amount."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Thoughts?"

"Well," she said, "I think we should keep some of it for the grandkids."

He nodded his head. "Oh, I agree. After that though?"

His wife was quiet for a long moment. "Well, we could always keep doing what you've been doing." Shannon tilted her head slightly, smiling up at him. "Or we could always make a donation to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. They do so much good for Marine Corps families."

"Oorah!" he quipped with a small smile. Jethro couldn't help but think of the discussion he'd had with Ducky when he received a copy of his friend's fully-executed will after he had been asked to be the executor of his friend's estate shortly before the bombing at NCIS. The man had said much the same thing as his wife.

The redhead chuckled softly. "So, what do you wanna do?"

A pensive little hum left his lips as he considered both options. "I'm all for donating to the MCSF, but why not do both? Give Kelly some for the grandkids, put some aside for my team, and then donate the rest of it?" He was well aware that McGee had recently started seeing this Delilah woman. That just left Abby as the only member of his NCIS family, save Ducky, who wasn't in a serious relationship. He wanted to put some of the money aside for them as they all started to settle down.

"$40,000 to Kelly?" Shannon suggested. "Put $30,000 aside for your agents?" He gave a small nod of agreement. "That'd leave us with $27,655 to go towards the MCSF. And if your team ends up not using their share, we can always donate it later on."

Jethro nodded, pleased. "That sounds like a pretty good plan to me." They would help the MCSF and be able to make sure their grandkids and his team were covered. Jethro already knew he and Shannon were covered. They owned their home and the fact that he'd stuck it out in the Corps until August of '92 meant that he'd left with twenty years of service under his belt and collected a pension.

"Then it's settled," she stated contentedly. "By the way, I finished reading the first half of Deep Six." His wife raised an eyebrow as she continued to address him. "I think you and I need to have a little chat about some things later."

He hummed, not all that surprised. When she'd started reading the book, he knew she was going to take exception to a couple of things. Thom E. Gemcity had focused quite a bit on L.J Tibbs and made it blatantly obvious just how much Jethro had turned in on himself after losing his girls. And then there were the accounts of Jethro getting blown up on the Bakir Kamir in 2006, when he'd been drugged with BZ gas eight-and-a-half months later, among other things. "It was rough."

His wife shot him a sad smile. "I know, Babe."

Jethro loved how easily she could read him. She'd been able to ever since day one, but after fourteen years (consecutively, as far as he was concerned it was more like 31) of marriage she'd only gotten better at it.

Thankfully, the road conditions weren't too bad and not much later the pair was finally pulling into the parking lot at their destination.

Hopping out of his old pickup, he and Shannon made their way inside, quickly spotting Mac, Joann, Kelly and Paisley at one of the corner tables. Strangely enough, Mac and Joann had decided to try and make a second go of things.

Walking up to where everyone was seated, Shannon placed Mac's gift on the table and then pulled her father in for a hug and kiss. "Happy birthday, Dad."

Mac smiled at Shannon affectionately. "Thanks, Pumpkin."

"Happy birthday," he chimed in.

His father-in-law dipped his head slightly, still smiling. "Thank you, Jethro."

Exchanging greetings with the others, he and Shannon both finally took a seat down in the two vacant chairs that were to their daughter's left.

Shannon's gaze flickered between Kelly and her parents. "So, how were your days?"

"Good," Kelly replied. "Work's been going well. And I have no idea how I landed such a great babysitter, but Jessie's been so awesome with Paisley. Woke up to an email from Mike this morning too, which was nice."

Shannon gave their daughter a soft smile. She knew all too well what it was like to be at home while the person you were in love with was serving overseas. Knew just how much those little moments of contact meant. "That's great, Kel."

"It is," he agreed, glad to know that his son-in-law was alright. "Remember what I told you during his last deployment about keeping score, though." That would tear apart a Military relationship quicker than almost anything.

His daughter gave him a reassuring look. "I know, Dad."

Jethro nodded before turning to his father-in-law. "And what about you, Mac? What did you get up to this morning?"

His father-in-law smiled. "Joann and I grabbed some coffee with a couple of buddies from the seniors' centre." The eighty-year-old had been attending events out of Vida Senior Centre for quite a few years and had made some good friends through it.

"Sounds nice," Jethro said earnestly as he gently took Paisley from Kelly. The little girl immediately proceeded to bury her face in the crook of his neck, causing him to grin from ear to ear as he started to snuggle with his granddaughter.

Mac chuckled softly. "The little girl's got you wrapped around her finger."

"Shamelessly," he replied. "And you weren't any better with Kellz."

Joann eyed both him and Mac playfully. "Grandfathers are just antique little boys."

He rolled his eyes. "And what does that make grandmothers?"

"The wise ones," his mother-in-law quipped.

"Uh-huh," Kelly said in amusement. "More like the ones who get the grandkids hopped up on sugar every chance they get."

"Now that's a definition I can get on board with!" Mac agreed, amused.

He gave a little snort, shifting Paisley slightly. "Me too."

Shannon smirked. "Zero guilt about feeding Paisley the cheesecake and tiramisu."

His daughter chuckled. "Oh, we know, Mom. We know."

"One of the perks of being a grandparent," Joann stated in jest.

"I'm with Mom on this one," Shannon quipped.

The birthday boy rolled his eyes. "Of course, you are, Pumpkin."

Before anyone could reply to that, their waitress showed up to take their orders. Food ordered, they all started happily prattling on once again, discussing when Mac should open his gifts. Much to Jethro's relief, Joann was being pleasant the entire dinner, the entire family being able to just relax and enjoy celebrating with Mac.

Smiling, he turned his attention back to his father-in-law. Mac was currently sharing a funny story about his grandparents at one of his high-school football games. He wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Then again… Who hasn't had an argument or two with their mother-in-law?