Chapter Ten

Warning: Time skip in the middle of the chapter, but only by a few hours.

Option two has been decided! That and an idea from Dannichigo has me doing a little extra after the adoption.

Gibbs kept true to his promise and Harry soon found himself sitting in a muggle pram on his way to the park. He'd put up a protest at being in such a degrading object before realizing he was protesting over something that wasn't as bad as nappies and bottles.

Sulking in the pram, he peered around at his surroundings and felt his mood lift. They seemed to be in a nice, quiet muggle area and Harry allowed a small smile as civilians waved at him cheerily. The only thing he didn't like was the stuffy feeling outdoors, but maybe that was just him.

"Ah!" Harry sounded, trying to get his guardian's attention as he pointed to the ducks that squawked about in the pond.

"Want to go see the ducks?" laughed Gibbs. He pulled the pram over to the pond and unbuckled his charge, lifting Harry out of the baby contraption and sitting him on his hip. Harry gazed at the ducks with wide eyes. He supposed he'd seen ducks before, but not all that up close. Dudley always had a habit of scaring them away after all.

"Careful buddy, don't want you falling," Gibbs chided gently as he scooted back. Harry pouted –relatively giving in that, yes, he did pout this time—but otherwise made sure not to lean over too much. He smiled happily as a duck swam close to them. This one had a little white speck on its nose and was quacking pleasantly as it swam on its padded feet.

Harry was aware of a small pain in his mouth after awhile of just sitting in his guardian's arms. He squirmed and patted his small hand on the shoulder to signal he was tired. Luckily, the man got the message and strapped him back in the pram, promising him they'd return eventually. Harry was satisfied at that and allowed Gibbs to take him home.

That night, lying in his crib, Harry suddenly awoke to a shooting pain in his gums. Ouch! What in Merlin's name? Harry rolled over, pushing a fist against his cheek and fighting with the whimpers he let out. Kicking covered feet against the bars, he heard Gibbs enter the room and he said something, but Harry couldn't hear him. Instead, he began to cry in earnest, uncomfortable.

"Poor baby, teething," Gibbs said softly and Harry hiccuped. Damnit, he was teething? This was definitely an unpleasant feeling. Harry glanced up at his caretaker and knew it was going to be a long night…

"What's wrong with the little guy?" Abby asked, distressed, as she noticed the sniffling baby in Tony's arms. That Draco person was working on getting adoption papers for Gibbs currently, and wouldn't have them done for a while, though he had called Gibbs a few minutes ago, leaving his charge with Tony.

"He is starting up teething again," Tony said with a grimace, "apparently, it hasn't been pleasant either –OW!"

"Biting problems, DiNozzo?" snickered Ziva as she witnessed the baby chomp quite hard on Tony's hand holding him. Tony nearly dropped the baby but luckily recovered and lowered 'James' into the playpen immediately. James didn't seem appreciative and began to sob, his small hands rubbing at his gums. James looked at Abby pitifully and she couldn't help but swoop the baby out of the pen, cuddling him to her.

"Careful there Abbs, he's extremely cranky today," warned Tony. "Apparently didn't get a lot of sleep and neither had Gibbs."

Smack.

Ziva looked up, expecting their leader to have walked in at the sound of the head smack and Tony's usual ow. Instead, to her surprise, she saw a giggling baby and a glaring Tony. What the…?

"Already picking up after the boss man," Abby cheered.

"Har. Har," Tony said dryly, "Laugh it up. Like the kid could handle it."

"Kid already knows how to handle you, DiNozzo," said a familiar voice as Jethro entered the bullpen with a smirk. He pried James from Abby and lightly tapped a finger on the baby's nose. James grinned up at him, the pain in his gums not as bad as they were now that he had someone to focus on it seemed

Jethro fished the teething ring he'd purchased out from his pocket and presented the baby with it. James seemed happy to have something to ease the burning in his gums at least, gnawing on it slowly at first and then desperately to alleviate the no doubt pain in his mouth. Jethro wished he had given it to him last night, instead of that cold wash rag. Coming into work this morning with his charge chewing on a rag had really made it look like he wasn't caring for the baby, as Abby scolded him for when she saw him. Ducky would be up later to help examine James in case anything else was wrong besides his teething.

The baby was quite more aware of his surrounding than others his age, he mused. At least he was calming down from this morning's fiasco with the fever. He reminded himself to take the baby's actual temperature in a few. The baby felt like he was retaining a fever again, having had one last night as well.

"It seems that Draco guy will have the papers within three days and I'll be getting another visit from one of the workers from the UK," Jethro told his team as he watched James yawn, chewing the ring tiredly, slowing down as his eyelids drooped. Jethro was happy he was starting to tire out; it meant he could get some sleep after waking last night.

"Abby, hand me that bottle I filled up, will you?" Jethro ordered as he noticed James slowly falling asleep. Abby complied and he was grateful he'd had the thought of filling it up. He uncapped the bottle and positioned the rubber teat to James's mouth, smiling a little when James began to suckle on it. The baby's sucking noise was not an unpleasant sound to them as Jethro continued to talk.

"So what do we do about Clark Johnson? Do we really drop the case?" Tony asked after a second. Jethro looked down at James, who was beginning to altogether stop suckling on the bottle, and back at his agents.

"We continue to figure out James's connection to Johnson when we don't have a case."

Sorry it's a little short. Well I LOVED all the reviews from last chapter and I did my best to respond to every question mentioned, as I usually do. I hope that if more people review like last chapter, I'll get even more interesting questions about the story that'll help me develop it and all. I do write each chapter the very day I post them you know.

Hope you enjoyed this one! Harry is teething, not the funnest thing in the world. Might be a slight time skip again next chapter but not too much. Any ideas what Harry might do to the team during the next three days?