Title: A Christmas Miracle

Author: newyork24-7

For: tayababy

Rating: K+

The white flurries of snow in the air stood out in direct comparison to the inky blackness of the night sky. Jennifer Sheppard smiled as she glanced out of the window, taking in the picturesque sight it created and gave a contented sigh.

A snort of amusement came from the man next to her. "It won't be that when you wreck your shoes walking through it."

"Don't be so pessimistic, Jethro," she scolded him half-heartedly. "It's Christmas Eve, you're supposed to smile."

"If they'd bothered to grit your Goddamned street then I might have considered it," he mumbled, glaring out of the windscreen.

Her smile didn't so much as falter. "Is this because you know that after all the stunts you've pulled this year you'll be getting coal in your stocking?"

She felt a glimmer of triumph as his lips twitched; he glanced over at her. "Not really bothered about the coal, as long as I get to see you in your stockings."

"I don't know if you'll like them, they have a festive theme to them," she teased, thinking of the red and white stripped garter and red bow. "So unless you start feeling a little more festive…"

"I have a feeling that that might put me in the festive mood," he replied, his grin more pronounced now.

"I thought it might." She crossed her legs over, letting her skirt rid up on her thigh. "Eyes on the road now, Jethro."

He rolled his eyes as he swung into the driveway, grateful that he'd taken the truck today as the car would never had made it over the snow. Killing the engine, he jumped out of the car and darted round to the passenger side just as Jenny's door opened. She raised her eyebrow in disbelief. "Are you hoping to get in my good books by saving my shoes?"

"Would that work?" he asked, helping her down from the truck.

"Up until the point you put your back out," she laughed.

Wrapping his arm around her, he placed a kiss to her red curls as they walked slowly into the house together.

The woman watched as the couple stumbled over the icy driveway to make their way into the house, laughing as they went. She wiped at her stinging eyes and waited for a few more moments before making her move. She carefully and methodically unclipped the car seat from its place and tucked the blanket tighter around its cargo, protecting it from the cold night air. Moving slowly down the driveway that the couple had walked down only minutes before, she placed the seat on the ground, staring at the baby inside for a couple seconds, her stomach flipping back and forth as she swallowed convulsively to try and stop the bile rising up into her throat.

Clamouring to her feet, she pushed a thick strand of dark hair out of her eyes and hammered her fist off the door, before running back to the sanctuary of her car.

Pulling her mouth away from Gibbs and looking in the direction of the door, Jenny gasped out, "Did you hear that?"

He tilted her chin back and brushed his lips against the corner of her mouth. "Ignore it."

She smiled as his hand travelled up her leg, fingers tracing the bare skin above her stockings. "It might be important," she protested as she reluctantly pulled away from his hold and walked quickly in the direction of the door.

Letting out an irate sigh, Gibbs leaned against the wall. "If it isn't, I'm going to shoot whoever's responsible."

"Jethro! You need to come out here"

At the bewildered tone in Jenny's voice, Gibbs frowned and moved quickly towards the door, deftly picking his SIG up off the side table as he went. He saw her standing at the open front door, but couldn't see anyone on the other side. His frown deepened. "What is it, Jen?"

She pointed downwards. "Tell me you can see that as well."

He glanced at the doorstep and his eyes widened as he took in the infant sleeping soundly in the car seat, wrapped snugly in a white blanket and dressed in a thick white snowsuit. He watched in disbelief as Jenny bent down and unclipped the baby, holding it close to her she pressed her hand against its cheek. "They're warm," she told him. "They can't have been here long."

Walking past her, Gibbs stepped out onto the front step and stared out into the street. "I don't see anyone," he told her. "Whoever left him or her here is probably long gone by now." He looked behind him and saw that Jenny was shivering. "Come on, it's not good for any of us to stand out in this." Scooping the abandoned car seat up off the snow he placed his hand in the small of her back and ushered her -baby still in arms- out of the cold.

The woman watched from the rear view mirror of the car, hunched down in her seat as the man stared down the street. She inhaled deeply as she saw the woman pick up Michael, and she felt her stomach lurch as she fought the urge to run in and grab him back. This was for the best, she wiped at her stinging eyes, she couldn't cope, there were some days where she couldn't even bare to look at him.

She watched as they headed inside and the door shut behind them, after a moment's pause she started her car and drove away.

The sound of the door closing shut echoed heavily in the silence. "I'll call the police," Jethro informed her shortly.

Her hand touched his shoulder, halting him. "No, don't," she told him quietly.

He turned to look at her, his face a mask of incredulity. "Jenny we have to, we can't just keep this to ourselves."

"I know that," she sighed impatiently. "What I was going to say is I think we should keep this quiet and get your team to look into it."

Gibbs stared at her in bewilderment. "You always want to do things by the book! Why not this time?"

Jenny looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms. "Whoever left this little one here, obviously looked after them, they probably waited until we got back to leave them here, they must have been desperate, Jethro. If we involve the police then she'll never get her baby back, never get the help she needs. Technically we wouldn't be in the wrong by not calling the police as the case is still being investigated-"

"Off the record," he interrupted.

"Jethro…" she stared at him pleadingly.

He let out an annoyed sigh, his eyes resting on the snuffling bundle in Jenny's arms and finally gave a curt nod. "Fine," he snapped. "But if we haven't found her by tomorrow evening we call in social services."

Waiting until Jenny had mumbled her agreement, Gibbs turned and left the room to call his team. When he returned he found Jenny had taken the heavy snowsuit off the baby and was rocking them gently. She looked up when he walked into the room. "He's a boy," she informed him softly as he wrapped a tiny hand around her finger. "No doubt he'll be a heartbreaker when he's older."

Gibbs frown deepened, he'd never seen Jenny in a maternal light, never really seen her around children, and this was beginning to worry him. She seemed to be deeply involved already, whereas he wanted her to keep her distance to avoid any hurt when they had to hand the baby over. "I called my team, asked them to come over but didn't say why."

Jenny nodded, her gaze still fixed on the little boy's blue eyes. She had never really spent any time around babies and so they'd always slightly terrified her, but now she was in charge of caring for one, for some reason she wasn't so scared. Tearing her eyes away from him, she asked, "Do you want to hold him, Jethro?" He stared at her and leaned forward almost hesitantly before finally giving a curt nod. She fixed her dazzling smile on him as she handed him over. "He's so tiny," she marvelled.

He nodded once again, his fingers brushing over the fair downy hair on the infants head and the lecture he'd been about to give Jenny about not getting too attached went flying out the window. He smiled softly. "Well he needs his mom."

"Guess we'll just need to find her then," Jenny smiled as she pressed a kiss to Gibbs cheek.

His team had been shocked to say the least when they discovered just what they had been summoned for, but nonetheless they rose to the challenge, beginning by going round the neighbours to find out if anyone had seen anything suspicious.

Gibbs decided to stay behind as by the time the team had arrived the little boy who had been dropped into their lives had decided to make his presence felt and had begun wailing at the top of his lungs. A quick check of the car seat hadn't revealed anything useful and so Gibbs had quickly visited the store to buy diapers, formula and bottles. He now sat watching as Jenny fed him, the baby's contented suckling and the crackling of the fire the only sound in the room.

"Do you think we should give him a name?" Jenny asked, her soft voice breaking through the silence. "After all we can't keep calling him it."

"I suppose not. What did you have in mind?"

She glanced up at him, her lips twitching in amusement as she suggested, "Noel?"

His face screwed up in distaste. "Jen, no. Just no."

"It is festive," she laughed.

"Don't care, that's cruel even if it is only for a few hours."

"Well they normally call the baby after the person who found them, and no offence but neither Leroy or Jethro is much better than Noel."

Gibbs merely snorted at that.

She peered down at the baby's face and sighed. "I just don't know what name he looks like. How do people do this?"

"They normally have nine months to think about it," he reminded her.

Jenny looked over at him again, regarding him carefully she asked hesitantly, "How did you come up with Kelly's name?"

He stalled at that, Shannon and Kelly weren't normally an area they discussed. After a moment he replied, "Shannon decided, she'd liked the name for years and since I didn't have any strong feelings about it I let her have it, told her I'd pick the next one."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"Jenny I don't mind you asking about them, to be honest I'm tired of pretending that they never existed."

She eyed him carefully, they'd never spoken about this subject before and part of her wasn't sure if she really wanted to open this can of worms, while the other part knew that they'd skirted around this long enough. "And you never wanted children with any of your other wives?"

"Didn't feel right. What about you?" He nodded towards the baby. "Looks like you've got a knack."

Jenny shrugged. "I didn't think I wanted children, I thought I wanted the high-flying career instead, now…now I think about it I'm not so sure I made the right decision."

"Not too late to do something about that," Gibbs told her quietly, only to have any reply she might have made cut off by the baby detaching his mouth from the bottle and wailing at the top of his lungs.

Grumbling under his breath about the cold, Tony rapped his closed fist off yet another door. He fixed his best charming smile in his face when the door was opened by a scowling woman in her sixties, her hair in curlers. "Whatever you're selling, I don't want it. In fact you should be ashamed of yourself, bothering innocent people on Christmas Eve."

Tony manoeuvred his foot into the doorway as the woman attempted to shut the door on him. He fished his badge out of his pocket and showed her it. "There appears to be a slight misunderstanding. I'm Agent Dinozzo from NCIS, I'm investigating an incident that took place on this street earlier on this evening. We're currently making enquires to find out of anyone saw anything unusual."

The woman took in a hiss of breath from between clenched teeth. "There was a car parked here for most of the evening, with what looked like a woman just sitting in it."

"How long did it sit there for?"

She shrugged. "A couple of hours."

"Did you see it leave?"

Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not nosy, I didn't sit and watch it for hours on end. I just assumed she was visiting a relative for Christmas and was waiting for them to get home."

"Did you get the make and model of the car?"

"It was blue."

Tony fought the urge to roll his eyes. "But you didn't recognise the make?"

"It was too dark!" she snapped back at him. She let out a small huff. "I did get the licence plate, took a note of it just in case."

"Great," Tony smiled. "Can I have it?"

"I suppose so," she sighed tiredly.

"Did you find anything?" Gibbs asked as his band of Agents traipsed through the door.

It was Ziva who replied, after shooting the team a nervous look. "One of Jenny's neighbours noted the licence plate of a car that sat here most of this evening, we traced it and the car's registered to a Stacey Campbell, Agent Harrison Campbell's wife. We checked and she gave birth to a little boy named Michael Harrison Campbell just ten days ago."

Letting out a sad sigh, Jenny exchanged a look with Gibbs. Agent Campbell had been killed in the line of duty only four months ago, leaving his pregnant wife understandably devastated. It had been Jethro who had investigated the case and caught the man responsible, whilst Jenny had delivered her condolences personally, feeling that it was only right under the circumstances. "Is there any sign of her?" she asked hopefully.

"We checked her house, nothing, Ma'am," McGee replied.

Gibbs let his hand rest on Jenny's shoulder. "I think I might know where she is," he told them quietly.

As they pulled into church's car park, Gibbs placed his hand over Jenny's to stop her from exiting the car. She looked at him in confusion. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure if bringing Michael is the best idea."

"I disagree, I think that seeing him might help her realise just what she's giving up."

"Or it could tip her over the edge."

"She abandoned her baby, Jethro, I'd say she's past the edge."

"Yeah," he sighed in agreement. "You're probably right."

Jenny frowned up at the imposing building in front of them. "Why here?"

"They got married here, Harry was talking about how they were planning on having the baby christened here before he died."

"What if she isn't here? She's lost so much already she doesn't deserve to lose her son as well."

Gibbs squeezed her hand comfortingly. "We'll find her," he reassured her quietly.

He waited patiently while Jenny lifted Michael's car seat and they walked into the church together. They exchanged a relieved look when they saw the dark haired woman sitting in the front pew and moved forward quietly. It was Gibbs who sat down next to her, saying quietly, "Stacey."

Her head jerked up, her eyes flying from Gibbs to Jenny and finally landing on Michael after which she let out a choked sob. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I just couldn't do it, he looks so much like him and he cries all through the night, I want him to have the best, he deserves it, and I can't give him that."

"And you thought we could?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes." She wiped at her red teary eyes. "Harry admired you, both of you, and you were so good to me when he died. I just thought…" she trailed off and shook her head. "I don't even know what I thought anymore. I wish I hadn't left Mikey but I just can't do it." She shook her head again. "I really can't."

Unclipping Michael from his car seat, Jenny slowly and carefully passed him over to a hesitant Stacey. As soon as the little boy was in her arms she hugged him to her tightly, patting her shoulder, Jenny told her, "I think you can do this, we can find you help. Do you have any family?"

"No, Harry's parents asked me to move in with them after he died, but they live in Seattle and at the time I just didn't want to move. Now I'm all alone."

"We could phone them," she offered. "I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help out. Until then we can help, you're not alone in this."

"Why would you do this for me?" Stacey asked bewildered. "I've done such a terrible thing."

Meeting Gibbs gaze, Jenny replied, "We've all done things we live to regret."

Three Days Later.

Picking up the stray pacifier, Jenny let out a low sad sigh. Stacey and Michael had left for Seattle with Mrs Campbell that morning, and already the house seemed far too quiet. She realised now that she'd actually enjoyed having a baby in the house, it had sent her biological clock ticking.

She smiled as she felt Jethro's arms wrap around her waist, he kissed her cheek. "Not exactly the Christmas we had planned," he remarked.

"No it wasn't," she agreed. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Do you think she'll be ok?"

He thought for a moment before replying, "Yeah, I think with time she'll be fine. It won't be easy but she has Mikey and she was already starting to bond with him."

"I'll actually miss him," Jenny stated wryly.

Gibbs gave a mumble of agreement, pushing her hair away from her neck and placing a kiss there. "Earlier, when you said you regretted not having kids, did you mean it?"

"Yes, but I understand if you don't want another child, I'm not going to force you into it. I love you, baby or not."

"Jen," he sighed. "When I said it didn't feel right, I didn't explain that I meant that it was the fact that I didn't want to have children with a woman I knew I didn't really love. You don't fall into that category, if I was going to have another child with someone, I'd want it to be with you."

Jenny turned in his arms and gave him a shy smile. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she asked.

"I'm saying that I think that we should give this a go."

"Ever the romantic," Jenny teased as she ran her hand down his chest, beginning to unbutton the buttons of his shirt. "But you know what they say," she told him, kissing the underside of his jaw.

"What's that?"

"Practice makes perfect."

Christmas Eve 2 Years Later

"Pretty," Lily stated as she made yet another grab for Christmas tree lights. Gibbs swept her away from it with ease, causing the fifteen month old to pout and struggling against his grip.

"Come on," he told her. "Let's go and find your Mom."

Lily gave a squeal of delight at the thought, clapping her chubby hands together as they headed into the kitchen together. "Mommy!" she cried out happily they entered the kitchen.

Jenny looked up from the sheets of paper she was staring at and smiled, holding her arms out and settling the little girl on her knee, stroking her auburn curls. "Are you looking forward to Santa tomorrow, darling?"

"Rudolph, want Rudolph!"

"Santa needs him to help deliver all the presents, but you can leave him carrots to eat."

Lily nodded solemnly as she curled further into her Mom's arms, pushing her thumb into her mouth as the excitement of the day began to take its toll.

Smiling at his dozing daughter, Gibbs asked, "What do you have there?"

"A letter and some pictures from Stacey. They're doing well and Michael's gotten so big." She passed him over a picture of a sandy haired toddler.

Gibbs smiled. "They grow up fast."

"I know," Jenny remarked as she ran her finger down Lily's cheek. "Better put her to bed."

"I'll come with you."

Jenny smiled as Jethro lifted Lily off her knee. Ever since Lily had been born, he'd doted on her and she knew how excited he was about tomorrow because this was the first Christmas that Lily was aware of what was going on around her.

She watched them disappear out of the room together and neatly piled the letter and photos together. Her eyes lingered on Michael's smiling face for a moment longer, before she got to her feet and followed after her own family.