Nineteen

Jenny stared blindly into her coffee mug, her eyes dead and her head pounding. She was exhausted, Ava had been up screaming most of the night and when she had finally fallen asleep at 0300 Jake had come into their room with tears in his eyes begging to sleep with them. If it hadn't been for her nap the previous afternoon she doubted she'd even be able to function. She leaned her head down on her forearm and groaned as she thought about the day ahead.

"You okay?"

She jumped and then moaned as two large hands began massaging her tense shoulders, she rolled her head back and forth on her forearm and stretched out her neck.

"That feels amazing…" She muttered, moaning again when he hit a knot.

She heard him chuckle behind her and raised her head a bit when she felt one hand leave her shoulder and heard her coffee mug being lifted from the counter top.

"Don't mess with my coffee." She muttered, "rule twenty-three B, don't mess with an exhausted mothers coffee or you will die."

"Good to know." He replied, taking a gulp before putting the mug back down.

"You have no respect for me." She mumbled, letting her head fall back against her arm.

"I respect you." He reassured her.

She smiled into her arm when he leaned down to kiss the top of her head, she closed her eyes as he continued to rub her shoulders. She was almost asleep when there was a sharp cry from the baby monitor on the counter.

"Oh god…" Jenny muttered.

"I'll go." Gibbs offered, giving her shoulders one last squeeze, "I'm sure the girls will be up soon."

"I'll start breakfast in a minute."

"They can have cereal or toast, no need to make anything fancy."

"I'm up, I've been up for almost forty-two hours, I may as well make breakfast." She stated with a sigh.

"Okay." Gibbs whispered.

Things hadn't been easy since they'd brought their kids home but today was the first day she was actually feeling overwhelmed, she wouldn't trade her kids for the world but she was getting desperate for a bit of a break, or eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.

She heard footsteps above her followed by Gibbs' voice attempting to sooth the screaming baby, she lifted her head and reached out for the baby monitor fully intending to turn it off as the screaming turned to whimpering, she paused though when she heard Gibbs speaking.

"You gotta give Mommy a bit of a break, Bug." He muttered, his voice soothing, "she's tired and she needs some sleep… She's trying her best but ya gotta let her sleep."

She smiled softly before shutting the monitor off, giving Gibbs and their daughter some privacy. She took a large gulp of her coffee before lowering her head back to the counter. She raised her head two minutes later when she heard footsteps, she looked up expecting to see Gibbs and the baby but instead she found Jack watching her out of the corner of his eye as he walked towards the coffeepot.

"Good morning." She greeted, her voice rough.

"Good morning." He replied with a raised eyebrow, "you okay sweetie? I heard the baby up last night."

"I'm fine." Jenny replied with a shrug, "I'm sorry she kept you up."

"Oh it's no problem, I'll be back to a silent house soon enough, a bit of noise is good for the soul."

"My soul is going to be in really good shape." Jenny said with a small laugh.

"Oh yeah." Jack agreed, "listen, Jenny…"

She looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, Jackson Gibbs wasn't one to beat around the bush and she was genuinely curious about what he could possibly be hesitating about.

"About last night… Leroy told me about your daughter, your youngest… I am so sorry."

Jenny wrapped both hands around her mug and looked down at the dark liquid.

"Thank you." She whispered.

"I've never lost a child, I've lost my wife, my granddaughter…two granddaughters." He corrected quietly, "and my daughter-in-law and it hurt, I can't imagine what it's like to lose a child."

"I hope you never have to know." Jenny replied honestly, "it's something no parent should ever have to go through."

"I'm sorry that you and my son have both gone through so much." Jack stated, "I wish I could take some of that pain away… You have kids, you know what it's like to see them hurting."

"Yeah." Jenny replied, pursing her lips and nodding, "it's one of the worst feelings in the world, but we're getting through it."

She bit her lip as she felt her chin quiver, she was over tired, emotional and really overwhelmed. She took a breath, cleared her throat and stood up, she needed to distract herself.

By the time Dani appeared in the kitchen Jenny had bacon and eggs going and another pot of coffee on, Gibbs appeared just behind her with a now calm Ava in his arms.

"If you play even forty minutes of that," Dani said pointing to Ava, "during a sex-ed class you will obliterate teen pregnancy."

"I think we'd obliterate pregnancy completely." Jenny commented, "and that's why we don't play that for forty minutes straight, it's like a trap all new parents need to fall in to."

"And the rest of us get to suffer for it." Dani muttered, "just promise me one thing."

"Sure." Jenny replied, willing to humour the teen.

"No more babies."

"You have my word." Jenny promised, rolling her eyes, "four is the perfect number."

"Do I get a say?" Gibbs asked, settling Ava into her highchair.

"Are you giving birth?" Jenny asked with a raised eyebrow, "then no."

"Fair point." Gibbs conceded, "What about adoption?"

Jenny was almost afraid he was serious but he shot her a small wink and she sighed in relief, she didn't horribly mind being pregnant and she loved their kids but she was turning thirty-nine in a few weeks and four kids was already a handful, she couldn't handle anymore children, adopted or not.

"You're not funny." She stated, glaring at Gibbs.

"I'm always open to more grandchildren." Jack put in.

"And now I know where he gets his sense of humour from." Jenny shot back, "you're both hilarious." She deadpanned, "there's coffee if you want it and bacon in the oven, I'll have your eggs in a minute." She said, turning to Dani.

"Thanks, where's Kelly?" Dani asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Right here." The older redhead muttered as she walked into the kitchen, "you know that would make effective birth control." She added, nodding to the baby.

Jenny burst out laughing as she poured herself another cup of coffee. It was moments like those that made the exhaustion, the heartache and the stress all worth it, it was moments like those that reminded her why she loved being a mother.

ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO! I'm not doing a huge authors note because I want to get on to the next chapter but thank you guys so much for your support! I love to hear from you! I don't own anything :(

~Katie