Before anybody knew it a full month had passed since Tony and Ziva returned and Gibbs received his foster children. On Gibbs' part the children were doing well overall. Due to her circumstances Alyssa had been placed in Lily's preschool class instead of a kindergarten room. Logan was still pretty stand offish but Gibbs had caught him watching him work on the boat a few times. The baby had officially been dubbed Jackson Charles Gibbs, he was doing well but he was the least impacted by the tragedy. The two older children met with a psychologist twice a week and Alyssa was in a playgroup for foster children every Saturday. They had a group for older children but Logan was so far uninterested. Meanwhile the DiNozzo's were dealing with their own changes. Marley was officially a young woman, Tony and Ziva were already dreading the coming months and years. Lily was now out of the toddler stage of life. It was a hard reality for Tony and Ziva but they were grateful to see her growing up so well. AJ was about as good as AJ could be. Given his circumstances that was the best Tony and Ziva could ask for.

It was bright and early on a Monday morning, Jethro had just gotten Jackson changed and up for the day. He was now focusing on getting Logan and Alyssa ready for school. His main challenges were getting Alyssa to wear an outfit that was appropriate for school. Her Cinderella dress was cute but he doubted the school would approve of a cheap, see through dress on a five year old. He made showed her a light blue dress that resembled Cinderella's original dress but no she wanted the sparkle. He finally convinced her that she could transform into Cinderella as soon as she got home by reminding her that Cinderella wore the plain dress to work in and school was her work. His next challenge was getting Logan out of bed. The boy was barely twelve and he was already giving Jethro hell. After screaming and begging for five minutes. He did what Jack used to do to him. He filled a cup with ice-cubes and strategically placed one on the boy's face every thirty seconds until he finally drug himself out of bed. Jack used to throw ice-cubes directly at him but he doubted that would go over well at the next inspection. Luckily Logan was able to dress himself and getting the boy to eat was as easy as having food in the house. Once the older children were fed and dressed. Jethro poured himself a bowl of cereal to eat once Logan was on the bus and Alyssa was watching cartoons until carpool arrived. He double checked his calendar to make sure it wasn't his day and then went about his routine. He heard a thumping noise on the stairs and looked up to see Logan sporting his helmet and pads, thankfully just pushing the skateboard down the stairs.

"Logan you know the rules! The board stays in the shed with the bikes!" Jethro called.

"It was raining. Did you want me to get wet?" Logan asked.

"In that case it should have stayed on the porch." Jethro reminded.

"Look it didn't hurt anything." Logan scoffed.

"I know but I still don't want it upstairs. I heard about your collarbone." Jethro explained.

"That won't happen again. Besides those stairs were wooden." Logan reminded.

"I don't care. I don't want to go to the hospital." Gibbs argued.

"Whatever anyway I am riding to school today." Logan replied.

"It's six miles." Jethro reminded.

"I used to skate twice that before I came here." Logan reminded.

"Yes on Saturdays. Sorry man but you already have two tardies." Jethro reminded.

"Those weren't my fault!" Logan argued.

"Really it wasn't your fault you were flirting with high school girls and missed the bell?" Jethro asked.

"They asked about my scar!" Logan snapped.

"Trust me kid put off the whole romance thing as long as you can. I mean love is great but your just going to get your heartbroken, many times." Jethro explained.

"I know it never lasts but dang they had real boobs." Logan replied.

"Priorities" Jethro laughed.

"Right?" Logan questioned.

:Yeah right. Anyway you need to catch the bus. I'll tell you what, I have a meeting with Alyssa's teacher at ten. I will drop your board off and you can ride home." Jethro bargained.

"Fine" Logan agreed.

"That's my boy now get going." Jethro ordered.

"I'm not your boy." Logan murmured.

While Jethro was dealing with Logan and Alyssa. Tony was getting himself ready for work. Marley was already dressed and out the door. She was excited to sign up for some sort of camp over spring break. All Tony knew was that it was free accept for the camp store and a ten dollar donation for gas, at the request of the church loaning out there van for the week. Ziva was getting AJ ready for the day and Tony had managed to get Lily dressed fairly easily. He was lucky that she had gotten a new outfit over the weekend and was bursting to show it off. Once the girls were dressed and Marley was out the door. He left Lily in front of the TV and headed over to check on AJ before heading out the door. Upon stepping into his son's room he found the bed stripped and heard the shower running in the attached bathroom.

"Everything OK?" Tony asked.

"Not really" Ziva replied.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked.

"AJ is sick. He had explosive diarrhea all over his bed, his breathing is labored, and he is running a hundred and two degree fever. Dr. Collins said that he would see him right away but I need to shower him first." Ziva explained.

"Is there anything that I can do?" Tony asked.

"Take Lily to school and change AJ's bed. I will call you as soon as they know something but I am hoping it's just the bug we all had last week." Ziva explained.

It was hard for Tony to focus on work that morning. It was always worrisome when AJ got sick. It wasn't like when Lily and Marley got sick. AJ was so vulnerable and even the slightest condition had to be addressed by a physician. As a result he was repeatedly in and out of the hospital. He had been doing so well the past few months but Tony knew that it had to break eventually and it appeared that today was that day. Sure enough his phone began to ring at exactly nine thirty in the morning. It was Ziva calling, she never called him at work. He knew before he even picked up that it was going to be bad news.

"How is he?"

"Dr. Collins sent us to the hospital. They are going to admit us."

"What's wrong?"

"He's been throwing up and and having episodes of diarrhea all morning and Dr. Collins wants a chest x-ray. I really hope it's not pneumonia again."

"Same here"

"He hasn't had a big seizure yet but he's had activity. Given his condition they are expecting a big one. That is part of why they are going ahead and admitting us."

"Do you need me to come to the hospital?"

"No this is just a precautionary thing. I will call you right away if anything changes."

"Alright well give AJ my love and let me know if you need anything."

"Just get Lily from school at noon and keep your phone on you in case Marley's school calls."

"Always and I will send Jimmy if I am in the field and both schools has his number if anything comes up."

"Perfect and don't worry too much over AJ. He probably just has our bug."

"I hope so."

A/N: How will AJ cope? Also when will Gibbs recognize that Logan is just a preteen version of Tony? New chapter will be up soon. Thanks for reading and please review.