*Chapter 18*

Back at NCIS Headquarters, the team sits at their desks writing their field reports while Gibbs is speaking with the Director. The bullpen is amazingly quiet for some reason as they all contemplate what happened not too long ago. They took down Apocalypse, yet, it's not a time of celebration for them.

Gibbs enters into the bullpen and isn't surprised by the quietness; though he rather likes it. He sits down at his desk and sips his coffee.

After and hour of silence, Samantha stands up. She approaches Gibbs' desk and places her report down. Gibbs looks up at her at the sight of a resignation letter on top of the report. The letter of resignation doesn't surprise him at all after seeing the fear in her eyes when she was helplessly dangling. It was a look he's all too familiar with.

"After that experience, I…" Samantha begins to say.

"There's no need for an explanation." Gibbs said as he stands up. "I understand."

"Well, it was nice working with you, Agent Gibbs."

"Good luck, Samantha."

They shake hands.

Samantha approaches Tony's desk.

"I guess this is goodbye." Samantha said. "It was a pleasure working with you, Tony."

"Yeah, it was." Tony said.

They shake hands.

Samantha approaches Ziva's desk.

"Ziva…"

"Where will you go next?" Ziva wondered.

"I think I'm going to go back to the FBI and study criminals." Samantha replied. "It would be safer than field work." She chuckled.

"I wish you the best."

"Thanks."

They shake hands.

Samantha gathers her belongs. Then she walks to the elevator. Tony waits anxiously for the elevator door to open. Once the door opens, Samantha steps into the elevator and the door closes behind her.

"Ding dong! The witch is gone…" Tony begins to sing as he jumps up from his chair in excitement. "Which old witch? The wicked witch! Ding dong! The wicked witch is gone." Ziva looks at him like he's crazy and Gibbs just shakes his head. "What?" He asked. "Come on, let me be happy. That lady was sexually harassing me."

"I highly doubt…" Ziva begins to say.

"She was." Gibbs stated as he knew.

"Ugh, of course you knew." Tony said. "I should've known you were messing with me the other day."

"I know you love my daughter, DiNozzo."

"So you do trust me. That means I can call you Dad now, right?"

"No."

"How about Pops?"

"Only if you'd like to share a cell with Apocalypse." Gibbs responded. Tony and Ziva look toward him from an answer. "Fornell contacted me. Apocalypse is recovering from surgery."

"I said it before and I'll say it again, Apocalypse is a terminator version of Halloween's Michael Myers." Tony stated. "I can't believe he's not dead after being hit by a barrage of bullets."

"Hopefully he does not escape this time." Ziva commented.

Jamie steps off the elevator with Chioke after picking him up from Arthur's apartment. At the sight of Tony, Chioke is overjoyed and runs to him.

"There's my big boy." Tony lifts his son into his lap. "Did you have fun with Arthur?"

'We see…' Chioke begins to sign with his hands but has no idea how to sign the word dinosaurs. He looks across to Gibbs for help who knows they went to the museum of natural history.

"Dinosaurs." Gibbs said as he signs the word for both of them. Chioke looks back to Tony.

'We see dinosaurs.' Chioke signed. 'They big and…'

Tony smiles as his son explains what they saw and did yesterday at the museum. He's glad the kids had fun. And he's glad Chioke had fun staying at Arthur's place last night.

'You always do things for me. My turn to do for you." Chioke signed with his hands. 'I want take you to see dinosaurs. We get in free. Only have to pay for lunch. I pay. I have money.' He continued. 'I really want show you dinosaurs. Take both of you. We go as family.'

"I'd love to go." Tony chuckled slightly. He can't help but smile at Chioke's excitement and kindness of spending his allowance to share the experience with them.

"It's a date." Jamie said with a smile.

'We go on weekend?'

"Saturday." Tony responded. "We'll make a day of it."

Around 10pm at night, Julianna is in the bathroom getting ready for bed. She walks into her bedroom after brushing her teeth. Gibbs enters into the room seconds later as Julianna is climbing into bed.

"Did you brush your teeth?" Gibbs asked.

"Yup." Julianna said cheerfully. She grabs Benny the Horse from the pillow. As she lies down, Gibbs is pulls the covers over her. "I notice Benny the Horse has odd stitching around his neck. Why doesn't it match all the other stitching?"

*Flashback to when Gibbs' sister was four-years-old*

Kelly exits from her bedroom with her favorite toy in her arms. Upon reaching the stairs, her oldest brother Jared stops her.

"Aww, look at the little baby and her stupid horse." Jared grabs the stuffed animal and yanks it from his sister's hands.

"Give Benny back!" Kelly yelled.

Jared holds the stuffed animal as high as he can. He laughs as Kelly jumps up and down trying to reach her toy.

"Leroy!" Kelly cried for her brother.

In hearing his sister call for him, Leroy Jethro opens his door. As the door begins to open, Jared kicks it. The door slams into Jethro. He falls to the floor inside his room with a gash on the side of his face.

"Now that was funny." Jared laughed.

Kelly hits Jared in retaliation for hurting Jethro.

"You little bitch." Jared shoves Kelly into the wall as hard as he can. She hits the wall, falls down and starts crying. "Oh, boo-hoo-hoo." He said sarcastically. "Such a baby."

"Give me Benny." Kelly cried as she looks up at her mean brother.

"You want the stupid horse. Here you go…" Jared rips the head off the stuffed animal and tosses both pieces down in front of her. "There's your stupid Benny."

With Jared walking away, Kelly reaches for her broken stuffed animal. The tears consume her eyes at the sight of her favorite toy in two pieces. Kelly leaves the toy and runs to her room crying. As Kelly's door closes, Jethro finally looks out from his room. Blood slowly drips from the wound on the side of his head. He looks down at Kelly's favorite toy. Sadness quickly sweeps over him.

That night, while everyone is sleeping, Jethro creeps downstairs. In his hand are the two pieces to Benny the Horse. He enters into the back room, turns the light on and closes the door.

Jethro places the two pieces to Benny on the little table to the side. He approaches the small book shelf and scans the titles. In finding the book he needs, he takes it out. Jethro sits down at the small table, opens the book and starts reading.

Eventually, Jethro reaches for his mother's sewing kit. With the book open for instructional purposes, he tries his best to sew Benny's head back onto his body.

After a couple mishaps and an hour gone by, the work is complete. Jethro puts everything away, opens the door, turns the light off and walks upstairs.

He enters into Kelly's room and gently places Benny under his sister's arm.

"Good night, Kelly." Jethro said softly. He leans down and gives his baby sister a kiss on the forehead. Then he leaves the room.

*End flashback*

"That's why the stitching is different." Gibbs said as the story was finished. "I would've done anything for her."

"Your brother was so mean." Julianna said. "But it was sweet what you did for her." There's a brief pause. "I'm sorry she's gone."

"Yeah… So am I." Gibbs said. "It's time for bed."

Julianna lies down and Gibbs tucks her in. After giving her a kiss on the forehead, he walks to the door and turns the light off.

"Jethro…"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Julianna."

Julianna shuts her eyes while holding Benny the Horse in her arms. Gibbs smiles as he looks at her. Then he walks away and turns the hallway light off so she can get to sleep.

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Author's Note: There's one more chapter left. It shouldn't take me long to complete it since half of it is already written.