A/N: I'm baacck! Got a 2 week reprieve before university starts again! To my newest followers/favourites, thank you & welcome aboard! To my reviewers thank you so much! They keep me inspired to write! Especially during my stressful exam times :)

I know this isn't the longest chapter, but you guys have gone without a chapter for a while, and i wanted to get something up.

"Why don't you go get some air darling?" Shannon suggested, Martha had caught her up on the meeting they'd had with the Barnes's and she was proud of how well her girl had handled it.

"Yea, think I might" Kelly nodded

"Want some company?" Harry offered

"No thanks" Kelly declined, she just wanted some private time.

Gibbs watched as his girl headed out, Harry also left to go back to the room he was using with the SWAT teams to work on his report. "Should someone not go with her?" he wasn't sure if it was a good idea her going alone.

"No Jethro, I'm sure she could use some alone time" Shannon answered "and I heard you earlier, so I doubt she'll get out of here" she saw him giving her a questioning look "you called the head of security & made your request quite forcefully that they not allow anyone by the names of Gibbs off the yard without you"

"Just wanted to make sure no-one went anywhere" Gibbs replied, part of it was his overprotective need to keep his family close, but he also still had his girl's little adventure on his mind & wanted to make sure she didn't do it again.

"And where would any of us go?" Shannon asked

"Nowhere babe, it's just me being overprotective" Gibbs answered, not wanting to get into Kelly's escape right now.

"Not buying it" Shannon remarked "what aren't you saying?" she could see he was clearly not saying something.

"Doesn't matter right now…" Gibbs tried to say but got interrupted

"No, tell me, the amount of things we have to talk about later is the size of the Grand Canyon, I don't what to add to it. Why did you call them? Because it was more than you just being overprotective" Shannon said interrupting him.

Gibbs sighed "I know we've got a lot to talk about Shan, but we're about to go in & see Kelly's bosses and I don't want you distracted. I assure you its nothing that can't wait until tonight, can we talk about it then?" he asked "please babe, you don't need to hear it now" he knew that if they spoke about it now it she would be rather distracted.

Shannon let out a breath "ok, but I want to hear about it tonight please"

"Of course babe, we'll discuss it tonight" Gibbs assured as he stroked her arm "ready for this?" he asked as he brought their foreheads together.

"No" Shannon answered honestly "but since when did that stop us from doing anything?" she whispered

Gibbs gave her a small smile "never Shan, we can do it together, we'll get through it all together, never leaving your side again babe, promise you" he finished off giving her a kiss.

"Never" Shannon echoed him as she returned it, she'd never leave her man again.

Gibbs waited a moment, just enjoying being with his wife right in this minute & boy was he looking forward to the years ahead! Moment over he knew they had to go "let's go Shan"

Gibbs headed for the meeting room the Barnes were in, according to Ted & Martha, they seemed very taken by what they'd heard & wanted to make sure Kelly was ok. He gave a quick knock to give them a warning they were about to enter before opening the door & heading in. The pair were sitting down at table & were just as Ted described them "Mr & Mrs Barnes?"

Michael rose & saw his wife did like "Yes, Michael and this is my wife Viviane, Mr & Mrs Gibbs I take it?" he presumed these were Kelly's parents. He took a step forward to shake the man's hand but he took the guy in & he definitely looked like he'd gone 10 rounds with someone, he had cuts & bruises aplenty and his arm was in a sling.

"Jethro, this is my wife Shannon" Gibbs said as he shook the man's hand.

After introducing herself to the pair Viviane sat back down "I don't even know what to say" she confessed.

Shannon thought that was an understatement "Don't think there are words for it" she remarked.

"I'm unsure if Kelly mentioned this but she shouldn't feel pressured to start working with us until this is all sorted out & she is ready. She can take as much time as she needs, you'll obviously have a lot of catching up to do, she can start when she's ready" Michael remarked.

"Thank you, that's very considerate" Gibbs remarked, the fact that they didn't want Kelly at work until she was ready and dealt with everything, that was something he was extremely grateful for and a little surprised about.

Viviane wasn't too sure where to go with it but knew one question she could ask "how is Phoenix?"

"He's fine thank you, glad to be a family again, as are we" Shannon answered.

Michael nodded, he wasn't sure how to handle this next part & thought he might as well just come out & say it "We realise that everything has literally just happened & you may not have not have much of a chance to get anything organised, but we'd like to offer our services in prosecuting the remaining men & against the man's estate" he already knew there would be 2 issues, one the cases against the remaining men and second, the case against MacDonald's estate in restitution for the grief he caused the family.

Gibbs eyes widened, they'd barely started the reports and interrogations of the remaining men and "Haven't even gotten to the lawyer stage yet" he remarked

"Well then consider it settled, we would like to offer our personal services and that of our firm to the case. And do no think about costs, that we can worry that out at a later stage" Michael remarked, him & his wife had already agreed that they were going to arrange for most of it be done pro-bono, the rest would come from the restitution money for MacDonald's estate.

"We want to offer for the majority, if not all of it to be done Pro-bono" Viviane added, wanting to ally their fears about costs, they had a fairly tight budget about pro-bono work for the firm for the rest of the financial year, but she'd make it work.

Shannon flashed a look towards her husband, she was very shocked at this "pardon me, but apart from only just employing our daughter, you don't know us. Why are you offering such a thing?" she knew it was a horrible story, but still, they barely knew them.

"Apart from the fact that we are horrified by what has happened; I've seen the character of your daughter. When we recruit a college graduate, we delve into their college transcripts, records, achievements, everything. We look to see what kind of programs they choose, what achievements they go for as these are good evidence as to the kind of area the candidate wants to go into. It also shows us what the person is like & how they may handle certain eventualities. I actually had the chance to view footage from her Moch Trial, and it is one of the best ways to see…" Viviane would have continued but got interrupted

Shannon got horrified instantly "please, don't hold that against her, she was…" that Moch Trial had not been a good experience for her to watch.

"I'm not apposed to what Kelly did, she was fighting for her client" Viviane remarked finishing the sentence "I can understand your concern though, she did it quite, well, quite passionately but that's what we look for in family law. We want passionate advocates, we want staff that will go to the line & push the line for their client. And it's that kind of passion, character that I saw in your daughter. The interview with her just confirmed what we saw on paper, and more so given the situation we thought she was in."

Shannon took a relieved breath, thanking the stars they were ok with her performance, though she struggled to understand how they thought it was ok?! It was not a pleasant sight!

"She was passionate about entering a firm that dealt with family law, but also held her nerve when pressed about time commitments as she wouldn't budge on not being there for her brother. I respected that too, and that kind of character you can't materialise out of thin air, that kind of character you develop from having parents of character, which would be the pair of you, the respect & character you passed on was tremendous. And now knowing everything, my estimation of Kelly has just risen ten fold" Viviane remarked.

While Gibbs was beaming at how good they thought his daughter was & how much she cared for her brother, he didn't consider it was himself that passed on the respect & character to her. He had admit curiosity about this 'Mock Trial' thing, clearly Shannon had been put off by it, but Viviane hadn't, he wondered if he could get a copy of it?

"We ask a number of behavioural questions to our interviewees, and one is 'if you could be anywhere & hear one sentence from a loved one what would it be,' like most, it took Kelly a few moments of thinking to come up with the answer" Viviane remarked as she looked at Gibbs

Gibbs saw her looking at him & wondered what Kelly answer was, probably something Shannon said he was betting.

"She answered that she wanted to go back to a beach in California where she had her last holiday with her parents, where one evening her father said to her that he was proud of her as he tucked her into bed. When I asked her why, she said it was because she always wanted to make her father proud in everything she did." Viviane finished, thinking this was something he probably needed to hear.

Gibbs swallowed the lump in his throat, he remembered that holiday sure, but he didn't remember that comment, but guess his daughter did "thank you" he said quietly.

Viviane gave him a small smile in understanding.

Shannon smiled, she knew how much her daughter remembered her dad, and how much she always wanted to make him proud in what she did growing up. She squeezed his hand that was locked with hers to agree with what had been said.

Viviane decided it was time to get back to what she wanted convey "it is because of how we see Kelly, and what has happened that we want to help. And if I can be selfish, we'd like to help get it sorted so that you can all start your lives and Kelly can start her employment, we see great talent in her & want to start harnessing it"

Shannon couldn't help but smile at that & said the only thing she could think of "thank you"

A/N: Seems like the Barnes's think highly of Kelly, and I would say that having the resources of the Barnes's firm will be highly beneficial!

Kelly's grabbing some air, but what will Gibbs & Shannon learn when she bumps into a old friend?

You know I love hearing your thoughts! So please review away! More up soon!