Here's the latest chapter in Daddy's Sweetest Gift. This is probably one of the harder chapters I've ever written, considering I kill Gibbs' family for the most part. This is also when Gibbs meets Baby Kate for the very first time. I owe a HUGE thank you to xofreethelightox and to surferdude8225 for reading this while it was still a draft and for catching my comma mistakes. Thanks guys! (xofreethelightox is reading them as draft stages while I'm writing them on paper in school and she totally love baby Kate… I wonder why…)

Anyways the usual disclaimer applies. Not mine. Kate, Raja, and Nana Erica and Nurse Nancy are mine. And Colonel McSweeney is kinda mine… but he's kinda more xofreethelightox's… Anyways, REVIEWS please. Even if it's just "This rocks!" or "Keep it up!" I want to hear from you! And I love anonymous reviews, seeing as I do a lot of anonymous reviews myself when I'm too lazy to log in. (PS this story was 10 pages long on Word without an author's note. With one, it's eleven pages. Sorry about the length…)

In this chapter, Kate is a month and a half old, and has every NIS Agent she's been in contact with wrapped around her teeny tiny doll like little finger.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

Kuwait, April 1991

Gunnery Sergeant Leroy Jethro Gibbs hated sand. It got into everything; in his mouth, his uniform, his gun, goggles, and into some rather uncomfortable areas. Gibbs stood off to the side of his unit's camp, staring off in the direction of Washington DC, imagining himself with pregnant wife and his eight year old daughter. He had already missed so much of Kelly's childhood, and after this tour of duty Gibbs was determined to switch to the reserves or to retire early and join NIS. He wasn't going to miss out on his new child's life. Shannon didn't want to know the sex of the new baby; she wanted it to be a surprise. Shannon had picked the names Andrew Jethro, for a boy, and Caitlin Erica, for a girl. AJ would be named after his father Jethro, and his deceased uncle Andrew, Shannon's older brother who never made it home from 'Nam. Caitlin would be named after her Nana Erica, Jethro's mother. Before he and his family had gone to Camp Pendleton he had jokingly asked Shannon what she would do is she had a set of identical twins. Shannon had just smiled slyly and said 'I'll think of something.'

"Hey Gunny!" Gibbs turned to his right to see Callen coming his way. Callen had just turned nineteen, and was fresh out of boot camp on his first tour of duty. He too was a sniper, and a good kid.

"Callen." Gibbs said. "What's up?"

Callen shrugged and readjusted his sunglasses. "I just got this feeling something wrong is happening somewhere."

Gibbs nodded. His gut was telling him that Shannon, Kelly, and the new baby were in danger. That's why he was facing DC. "Me too, Callen."

"So how far along is your wife, Gunny?" Callen asked conversationally. It was no secret that Gibbs' wife was expecting and he was going stir crazy thinking he'd miss the delivery.

"Shannon's about seven months along." Gibbs said proudly pulling a picture out of his pocket to show Callen.

Callen smiled the smiling young family in the photograph. "You have a beautiful family, Sir."

"Cut the 'Sir' crap." Gibbs told Callen as he took the picture back. "You got any family Callen?"

"Nope. Just me." Callen said. "My mom dumped me into social services when I was a baby and I got shuffled around from foster home to foster home my whole life. I joined the Marines to find a family I guess."

"Sorry to hear that Callen." Gibbs said. "But you've got at least two hundred new brothers in our unit alone."

Both men snorted and Callen shrugged. "I'm used to it. The only thing that burns me though is not knowing what the 'G' stands for."

"What do you want it to stand for?"

Callen thought about it for a minute or two. "I don't know. I don't feel like a George or Greg." He pretended to think about it some more. "Gerald maybe?"

Gibbs laughed and shook his head. "No. You're definitely not a Gerald."

"I know." Callen said sitting down next to Gibbs. The two men sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes until both men felt their guts turn sour. Gibbs even shuddered a bit.

Ten minutes late Lance Corporal Johnson approached the duo.

"Gunny Gibbs! Colonel McSweeney wants to see you, Sir!"

Gibbs got up and headed for the Colonel's temporary office; a tent with no flaps, a folding table, a stool and a rock to hold down his paperwork.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?" Gibbs asked standing at attention in the Colonel's tent.

"At ease Marine." McSweeney said without looking up from the current file he was reading. After a minute the Colonel put the file under the fist sized rock and sighed. "Jethro," he said, searching for the appropriate words. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."

Jethro felt his face fall. "Sir? Did something happen to Shannon and the baby?" Gibbs asked worriedly.

McSweeney sighed and stood up. "There's no easy way to say this Jethro."

"Peter, what happened?" Gibbs demanded.

"There was," Pete took a deep breath to steady himself. This was the kind of news he absolutely loathed informing his men of. "An accident. NIS isn't giving specifics over the phone, but… I'm sorry Jethro." Peter said. "Shannon and Kelly were killed upon impact."

Gibbs felt his knees weaken; he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears. He felt the adrenalin rush through his body, making him go numb. Jethro kept hearing "Kelly… Shannon… accident… killed…sorry Jethro…NIS…no specifics…" over and over again in his mind.

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" The gut and heart wrenching cry was heard throughout the compound. Gibbs fell to his knees as personal began to gather. "No, no, no, no, no. NO!" He cried again and again. "Not Shannon! Not my baby Kelly! Not out new baby too! Why? Oh God why?!?! WHY!!??"

Callen pushed his way to the front of the spectators and saw Gibbs on the ground. "What happened?" Callen demanded to know from Johnson.

"The Colonel just told him that his family's dead." Johnson whispered. "Scuttlebutt is that it was a Mexican Cartel hit and the Gibbses were under NIS protection when it happened."

"Damn." Callen said shaking his head. "Poor Gibbs."

"MAIL CALL!" Heads whipped around and PFC Singh shoved his way forward. "Got a letter for Gunny Gibbs!"

The men parted like the Red Sea for Moses and let Singh through. Callen grabbed the aforementioned letter from the PFC as he walked by.

"Hey!" Singh protested. "That's the Gunny's mail!"

"Yeah well he just had his heart ripped out of his chest." Callen explained. "This from his recently deceased wife, Raja?"

Raja nodded catching on quickly. "Yeah. It got forwarded from another unit. Turns out there's a Sergeant Major Jethro Gibbs out of Quantico."

"Fascinating." Callen said sarcastically as he looked at the somewhat opened envelope. "The Sarge Major open it?"

Raj nodded. "Yeah he did. He thought it was a letter from his daughter Jenna… HEY!"

Callen had ripped open the envelope ignoring Raja's cry. "Then this isn't a federal offence then is it, Raj?" Callen scanned the letter, and the first paragraph jumped out at him like a co-ed during a wet tee shirt contest during Spring Break.

Dearest Jethro,

Congratulations Daddy! It's a girl! Caitlin Erica Gibbs was born this morning almost a month and a half early at 7:45 am. She weighed 6 lbs. and 7 ounces. I'm told that's big for a premature baby at this stage. Nurse Nancy says that if I had gone to term that little Caitlin would have been 'a bruiser'.

Callen scanned the rest of the letter and did some quick math. The baby was still in the hospital for observation. That meant the baby had survived the accident. Little Caitlin was alive and was going to need her Daddy very shortly. When Callen looked up from the letter McSweeney and Gibbs had vanished. "Where'd they go, Raj?"

"Snake Bite's tent." The mail officer said pointing to the Medic's tent.

"Thanks." Callen said running, despite the 115 degree heat, to the medic's tent. Callen nearly ripped the door off in his haste to get inside. Captain Johnny Pierce, affectionately known as Snake Bite, was giving Gibbs a sedative as Callen came barreling in. "I got some news for Gibbs, Colonel."

"Good or bad?" McSweeney asked in hushed tones.

"Exceptionately great news, Sir." Callen replied showing McSweeney the letter. "Read it, Pete."

"She survived?" McSweeney asked Callen.

"Yes, Sir. Little Caitlin was born a month and a half early, and is currently spending the month in Prenatal ICU."

"Snake Bite!" McSweeney called out. "Call in a chopper! PFC Callen and Gunny Gibbs are shipping out to Germany tonight."

"Yes, Sir!" Captain Pierce said as he headed for a radio.

"Sir?" Callen asked. "Why am I going too?"

"Because son, you found out first, you get to tell him when he wakes up." McSweeney said. "And those are orders, Marine."

"Sir! Yes Sir!" Callen replied saluting. "Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

McSweeney rolled his eyes. "When have you ever needed to ask my permission, G?"

"Since I thought I saw your boss walk by just now, Petey." Callen bit back.

"Oh. Good reason. Shoot G." McSweeney said leading Callen back to his office.

"What happens if Gibbs wants me to go Stateside with him?" Callen asked.

McSweeney raised an eyebrow at him. "Whaddya think, kid? Go with him! He's a superior to you. You follow his orders. Got that through your think skull yet?" McSweeney asked jokingly.

"What about getting written up AWOL?"

"I'll take care of it, don't worry." McSweeney told Callen. "Now go pack up your gear and Gibbs's gear. I doubt either one of you will be back in Kuwait now that the heavy fighting is over."

Callen nodded. "Yes, sir."

"It's a damn shame." Peter said before entering his office. "It had to happen to such a nice family."

Callen nodded, silently agreeing with his CO. 'Gibbs is going to catatonic for quite some time' Callen thought as he headed for the tent he and the Gunny shared with six other snipers and spotters.

Germany, Two Days Later

Beep. Beep. Beep. Jethro blinked, forcing his eyes open. The world was just a little too fuzzy for his liking. His mouth felt like one of the wool sweaters Great Aunt Agnes used to send him as a kid had taken up residence in his mouth, and his head felt like it was made out of lead. When Jethro's vision finally cleared up he realized he was in the hospital.

Gibbs slowly turned his head to the left and saw Callen was asleep, or pretending to be asleep, in the bed next to him. "Callen!" Gibbs said sharply causing the younger man to frantically sit up.

"Sir! Yes Sir!" Callen cried up and he flung himself up into a sitting position almost hitting himself in the head with the cast on his right arm.

Gibbs laughed at the younger man's antics.

"Very funny, Gibbs." Callen mumbled lying back down. "GIBBS! You're awake!" As the fact that Gibbs was awake registered with Callen, Gibbs noticed the superficial lacerations that peppered the young man's face.

"What happened to us?" Gibbs inquired.

"Our chopper got caught in a random burst of heavy artillery and we made a 'rough' landing." Callen used air quotes when he said 'rough'. "Your left knee's gonna be screwed up for a bit, and so is your right foot."

"Great." Gibbs said. "Just what I needed. No family and two screwed up legs."

"Au contraire, my friend." Callen said whipping Shannon's letter out from seemingly nowhere. "Your wife delivered a month and a half early."

Callen handed Gibbs the letter and let him read it for himself. "Raja said that it got sent to the wrong Jethro Gibbs."

"Who got it then?" Gibbs asked as he let the sight of his wife's handwriting comfort him.

"Some Sarge Major stationed out of Quantico." Callen replied. "Pete called the hospital at Camp Pendleton and Caitlin is perfectly healthy and ready for her Daddy to come pick her up."

"Why can't my dad or Shannon's parents take her home?" Gibbs inquired.

"I guess the Doc is under orders from NIS not to release Caitlin to anybody other than you. And the four armed NIS agents outside her room at all times seem to back him up." Callen explained. "And they have a standing kill order if any unauthorized personal try to leave the nursery with Caitlin."

Gibbs smiled. Caitlin Erica. His baby girl and new reason to live. "Kate." Gibbs said. "Shannon wanted to call her Kate for short."

"Kate." Callen said settling back into his bed. "I like it."

"So how do you know Pete so well?" Gibbs asked Callen as he fought off sleep.

Callen smiled. "He was my last foster dad. He introduced me to the Corps and boy were we both surprised to be in the same unit after I got out of basic."

Gibbs nodded as he fell asleep, meaning to tell Callen how he had met Peter, but didn't get the chance to.

Camp Pendleton, One Week Later

Jethro Gibbs wheeled himself down the hallway and towards the elevator bay. Once he got onto an elevator he pushed the button for the maternity ward and waited to see his daughter. Two off duty nurses were in the car with Gibbs. One of them noticed the borrowed scrubs Gibbs was wearing and his hospital ID Bracelet.

"Trying to escape Gunny?" she asked trying to flirt with him.

"Nope." Gibbs said abruptly. "Going to see my new daughter." Gibbs said as the door opened and he wheeled himself out towards Nancy at the reception desk. "Afternoon Nance."

"Hey, Jethro." Nancy said looking up from her gossip rag. "Mike Franks is waiting with Kate."

"Thanks." Gibbs said as he rolled through the doors. Gibbs smiled when he saw Agent Franks cooing at the infant. The normally gruff man was a surprisingly sweet man around Kate. She seemed to posses the power to turn grown men into babbling idiots.

"Hey, Probie!" Franks greeted his newest agent.

"Mike." Gibbs said as a nurse handed him Kate for the first time. "Hey Princess." He whispered.

Kate's eyes fluttered opened and enthralled her father with their depth and the intensity her young stare seemed to posses.

"Oh, Katie-kins," Gibbs whispered as he kissed her forehead, "You're gonna be a heart breaker."

Kate gurgled in response and snuggled into her father's warmth and fell asleep. Safe, for now, in the arms of her protector.