Eleven

Jenny shut the door behind Abby and McGee and leaned against it with a relieved sigh, dinner had been a chaotic and slightly tense affair that she was happy to see finally come to an end. Jack had wisely kept his mouth shut around Jenny and Gibbs but had chatted away happily with the rest of the team and Joann, Mac and the kids. She could tell that Joann hadn't been fond of the chaos but Mac had embraced it wholeheartedly, Joann had also been cold towards Abby and she hadn't exactly been warm with the kids. She had never been outright mean but she hadn't been warm and loving either.

It had made Jenny's blood boil but she had kept it together for Kelly's sake and for the sake of the other kids. Jake hadn't really noticed that anything was off and had shied away from Joann and Mac for the most part, too excited to spend time with Emily and Jethro the dog anyway. Dani had picked up on it a little bit more but had remained silent most of the meal, the team had handled the awkwardness well and had made it a bit easier on everyone else.

Despite the support that the team had given she was grateful that everyone was gone, Ava and Jake were both in bed and Dani had disappeared upstairs ten minutes earlier. Kelly was in the kitchen having a cup of tea with Jack and Gibbs had gone upstairs to put Ava to bed and had never returned. She debated between going upstairs and going to the kitchen before finally deciding on the kitchen, she would give Gibbs the space he obviously needed.

She wandered into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of tea before sitting at the table with Jack and Kelly.

"Is it alright if I join you?" She asked.

"Yup." Kelly replied with a wide smile, "is everyone gone now?"

"Yes." Jenny replied with a contented sigh, "do you have any homework tonight?"

"Yeah, I'm going to head up as soon as I finish this." Kelly replied, taking the last sip of her tea.

Jenny watched Kelly bring her cup to the sink and rinse it out before turning back to them, she gave both Jenny and Jack as kiss on the cheek before saying goodnight, thanking Jenny for letting Joann and Mac stay for the tenth time that night.

"You're welcome." Jenny replied, squeezing Kelly's hand, "now go and get your homework done and try to get to bed at a decent time."

She went back to siping her tea in silence once Kelly had left the room. Jack was studying her but she stubbornly refused to look at him. She could hear Kelly moving around in her room above them and she focused on that rather than on Jack. She heard him sigh and push back his chair, she still didn't look at him as he emptied his cup and tidied everything up.

"I think I'll go to bed." He stated, "for what it's worth, I really am sorry." He added when she didn't respond.

"It's not me you need to apologize too." Jenny replied with a sigh, "I'm not happy about it but you didn't even think about how much that would hurt your son."

"I made a mistake." Jack said quietly, "parents make mistakes, you'll learn that."

Jenny turned to face him with a glare, he had taken it too far with that comment and she was about to lose her temper.

"I am well aware parents make mistakes Mr. Gibbs, I watched my own parents screw up countless times and I am in no way a perfect mother, I've been screwing up as a mother since before my children were born." She said firmly, "I am not perfect and I understand that parents make mistakes but what you did was blatantly disrespectful to both your son and myself."

"I don't think that's fair." Jack argued.

"I learned very early on that life isn't fair, Jack." Jenny retorted, "now I'm going to go to bed because I am exhausted, I strongly suggest you don't bring any of this up with your son until he's had time to get some sleep."

Jack nodded solemnly and sighed, Jenny could tell he was accepting defeat at least for the time being and was grateful for it.

"Goodnight, Jenny." He said, pausing in the doorway.

"Goodnight, Jack." She replied, her voice slightly softer.

A part of her did feel bad for Jack, he was trying to do something nice for Joann and Mac but she also felt terrible for Gibbs. She finished tidying up the kitchen and made sure the kids' lunches were all packed and ready to go. She made her way upstairs and paused outside of Dani's door for a minute, she could see light streaming from under the door so she reached out and knocked quietly.

"Come in."

She opened the door and stepped into the room, she had barely stepped foot in Dani's room since the teen had moved in but nothing had really changed. The bed wasn't made as neatly as Jenny would have done it but it was done and the rest of the room was tidy.

"I just wanted to check in, tonight was a little crazy." She said.

"I'm fine." Dani replied, "just trying to get this homework done."

Jenny pursed her lips but nodded, she had always known things with Dani wouldn't be easy. She had just hoped for sentences with a few more words.

"Alright… Well I'll let you get back to it, goodnight."

"Night." Dani replied.

Jenny couldn't help the wide smile on her face when Dani turned around and offered her a small smile as she said goodnight, she mentally chastised herself, she probably looked creepy with a huge grin on her face. She left Dani's room and made her way down the hall, she made sure both Ava and Jake were sound asleep and poked her head in to say goodnight to Kelly before finally going into her room. Gibbs was sitting on the bed, a book open in his lap but his eyes were fixated on the wall and his hands were clenched in his lap.

"Missing your boat?" She asked gently.

He grunted an answer and rubbed his hand roughly over his face, she could tell that he was exhausted and irritated, not her favourite combination on him but nothing she hadn't handled before.

"Everyone is in bed." She informed him.

She grabbed her PJ's off of her dresser and wandered into the bathroom, she didn't bother shutting the door all the way as she quickly changed and began her nightly routine.

"Want me to go downstairs?" Gibbs asked.

At some point he had left the bed and was now leaning against the doorframe watching her wash her face. She gave him a pointed look but didn't respond to, what was in her mind, a completely unnecessary question. She finished washing her face and quickly brushed her teeth before heading back into the bedroom, brushing past him on her way through.

"My dad in bed?"

"Yes… I may have told him off a bit." She admitted guiltily.

"Good." Gibbs replied with a shrug, "someone needed too."

She tidied up a few things around her room before pulling the blankets back on her side of the bed, she rearranged her pillows and crawled under the covers before sighing in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Gibbs asked, climbing into bed beside her.

She couldn't even pinpoint what her problem was at that moment, she was just frustrated with the situation, over tired and feeling tightly wound.

"I don't even know." She replied with an exhausted sigh.

She rolled onto her back and ran her both of her hands through her hair, no doubt making a mess of it.

"I'm just frustrated with everything." She added quietly, "it's like everything is tense and I just can't relax."

Gibbs rolled onto his side and ran his hand back and forth over her stomach, careful to keep it in an appropriate place and not let it stray.

"Anything I can do?" He asked.

Jenny opened one eye and raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not entirely sure what you're offering Special Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs smirked but let his hand still on her stomach, he hadn't been making a move of any sort but it was good to hear her sense of humour was still in tact.

"Not that." He said with a small chuckle, "Although…." He added jokingly, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

He felt her tense under him for a split second until she realized he was joking and burst out laughing. She placed his hand on top of hers and gripped it as she chuckled, it was nice to hear him joking, it didn't happen often enough in her opinion and it was always a nice change of pace. She doubled over when his hand brushed a ticklish spot on her hip.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and did it again, she curled onto her side and tucked her knees to her chest, laughing as she did so. She could hear Gibbs laughing through the sound of her own laughter as she struggled to get away from him.

"Okay!" She gasped, "I'm calling uncle!"

Gibbs laughed and rested his head on her shoulder, his nose in the crook of her neck. He had rolled over and was leaning half over her, he lowered himself and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Didn't know you were ticklish." He stated breathlessly, lifting his head from her shoulder.

"I didn't know you could laugh like that." She retorted smartly.

In the ten years she had known him she had never heard him laugh that hard, it still amazed and terrified her how much she didn't know about the man she lived with, the father of her children. Their relationship had always been fire and ice, almost volatile with its passion and for a long time it had simply been about the sex and releasing tension. She had realized at some point that she had fallen for him but the love she had felt for him then was nothing compared to what she had felt in the past few weeks. She was seeing a whole new side of him, seeing him with his team, with their kids she was realizing how much she loved seeing him not just as her best friend and partner but as a father. Their relationship had evolved into something completely new to her and as much as it terrified her she found herself oddly hopeful. Their relationship had gone from volatile and unpredictable to oddly peaceful in its domesticity.

She looked over at him and smiled softly at the peaceful smile on his face, he was laying on his side with his head propped on his hand and his free arm wrapped around his waist.

"What?" He asked quietly.

"What do you mean, what?"

"You've got a look on your face."

Jenny felt herself blush, and looked down afraid she had given her thoughts away. She looked up in surprise when he brushed his hand across her cheek.

"Jen…"

She looked up and him and bit her bottom lip, she couldn't even begin to put into words what she was feeling. The look on his face was more vulnerable and open than she had ever seen it and that made her want to try to tell him what she was feeling rather than shutting it down.

"I just…"

She didn't know how to finish the sentence so she leaned up and brushed her lips across his cheek.

"Thank you." She whispered in his ear.

Gibbs pulled back and studied her, he had no idea what had come over her but the look on her face was one he had never seen before. He reached out and gently brushed his thumb across his cheek, he didn't know what she was thanking him for but he understood that it was important to her. He felt something shift in the air between them, all of a sudden something was different, he couldn't place what it was but something had changed.

She felt it too.

Well guys I got back on a roll here so I decided to update this first instead of The Night Before Christmas tonight simply because this was done and I was super duper happy with it for once… I

am in the process of actually putting together the video described in TNBC (to the best of my ability because most of the lines said and pictures mentioned were headcanon and not actually featured on the show) if that is something you guys are interested in seeing… Also I have created an IG account, same name as here and my Tumblr if anyone is into that kind of thing, I'll be posting updates regarding stories and stuff there so maybe check it out! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I love to hear from you guys just please remember I don't own anything!

~Katie