For: fashiongirl97

From: Left my heart in Paris

Title: Finding the Magic

Rating: K+

I hope you like, Merry Christmas

It was Christmas Eve at the Gibbs house; never in his life had Gibbs seen his house so crammed packed full of people so loud or so festive looking.

He hadn't wanted to have a Christmas party at first, but Jenny had wanted it and as he leant against the wall behind him, seeing the smile on her face, made it all worth it. Well maybe it wasn't good that the party had meant Tony met Stan Burley, both being as bad as each other and probably up to no good as they conspired together in the corner, Gibbs also wondered if Abby was on whatever it was too.

Her gaze caught his over the rim of her tumbler of bourbon, Gibbs watched as she excused herself from the conversation she was having with Ziva and then walked over to her husband, coming to stand next to Gibbs against the beige wall. "You enjoying yourself?" Jenny asked him.

"I can see you're enjoying yourself," Gibbs told her, as if that was all that mattered to him and at that moment it did.

"I am." Jenny nodded to him as she looked around the room, it was lit with twinkly lights at every corner, tinsel wrapped around every piece of furniture and there seemed to be a light dusting of glitter everywhere, but that's what they got for letting Abby decorate Gibbs' house while Jenny kept him distracted.

Studying her face Gibbs saw there was flecks of glitter on Jenny's face. He lifted his hand and brushed her cheek with his thumb lightly, satisfied when Jenny closed her eyes and her breath hitched, slowly. Gibbs leant over to kiss his wife, just as their lips were about to touch they were interrupted by a "Momma".

Jenny quickly spun round and stepped back from Gibbs to find their five year old daughter Hannah, wearing her Christmas angel outfit that Jenny had made her for her school play but she insisted on wearing for tonight.

"Yeah sweetie?" Jenny asked her, running a hand through her red hair which was covered in flecks of glitter as Jenny picked her up and rested her on her hips. It was getting harder now that she was five but she was stubborn and didn't care.

"I'm tired," she told her mother, stifling a yawn and then rubbed her eyes with her fists, the older redhead looked at the clock on the far wall with tinsel wrapped around it. It was getting late, at least late for a five year old.

"You wanna go to bed?" Jenny asked her.

"Then Santa will come?" Hannah asked her mother, her tired green eyes all of a sudden alive for a moment as she thought of the prospect of what tomorrow would bring.

"Yes, but only if you're a good little girl," Jenny told her.

"Daddy read me a story?" Hannah asked looking over her mother's shoulder at Gibbs, her eyes meeting his similar blue.

"Of course." Gibbs could deny Hannah as much as he could Jenny; both had him wrapped around their little fingers and they knew it.

Once Hannah was finally asleep in her bedroom, her parents were sure she'd be knocked out until the morning.

The whole team were sat around the living room, Gibbs sat on one of the sofa's, Jenny snuggled into his side, Tony sat on the floor by the fire alongside Ziva, Abby and Tim sat leaning against the sofa on the floor, while Ducky sat in the arm chair. Stan leant against a wall with a beer in his hand. Everyone was pleasantly buzzed.

"How can Hannah sleep?" Abby asked. "Even when I was twelve I still never slept on Christmas Eve, I mean tomorrows Christmas," she told Jenny and Gibbs.

Jenny and Gibbs shrugged. "For some reason she has patience," Jenny suggested with a sigh. "It also helps that she doesn't believe in Santa?" she added.

The whole team, especially Abby gasped, not believing their ears that the five year old didn't believe in the jolly, fat man that came down the chimney and left them presents. It was like all the Christmas magic was gone for the five year old, it was gone and Hannah was so young.

"Hey don't look at us like that, we have nothing to do with it," Jenny said defending herself and her husband as she leant against him.

"Then where did she get such an idea?" Abby asked, her voice's pitch still a little high in a mixture of anger and surprise.

"When she came home from school the other day and told me that she couldn't believe he could go around the world in one night and deliver presents to everyone and also she didn't think he could know if everyone was naughty or nice," Jenny explained. It having shocked her when Hannah had told her; it was almost like the spirit of Christmas was gone, the magic was gone.

"I think it's time we all went to bed," Gibbs suggested, seeing how dull his wife's green eyes had gotten and how she seemed tense, like she was trying not to fall asleep. "Duck, you know where the spare room is and you guys will be okay down here," he said as he helped Jenny up from the sofa with an offer of his hand.

A chorus of "Yes boss" followed Gibbs as he dragged a tired Jenny up the stairs. On the way they stopped in Hannah's room, they each pressed a kiss to her forehead and made sure her blankets were tucked securely round her before leaving her to sleep until tomorrow morning when they were sure she would wake them and their whole extended family up at the crack of dawn.

Meanwhile downstairs Stan stood in the middle of the living room. "Guys I have an idea to bring back the magic of Christmas, but I need all of your help," he told them with a smile.

"I'm in," everyone said at once, even Ducky.

Gibbs woke in the early hours of the morning. He rolled over in the bed and wrapped an arm around Jenny who was beside him, taking comfort in the warmth she gave him.

He pressed a lazy kiss to her forehead and went to close his eye and was about to fall back into a deep slumber when he heard a crashing sound downstairs. It wasn't loud enough to rouse his wife from his sleep but Gibbs was a marine, so he was always on alert for any threat to his family.

Detangling himself from his wife, Gibbs slipped out of the solace of the warm, soft comfort of their double bed and out into the cold night air and then walked out into the landing.

Slowly he kept down the stairs, being careful to avoid the steps he knew that creaked; he managed to get down the stairs more or less without being detected just as he heard another crash and then a deep voice cursing.

The ex-marine stood outside his living room, looking through the doorway. He was shocked at what he saw: Santa Claus was in his living room putting presents under the Christmas tree. He blinked a couple of times to prove to himself he wasn't going crazy, had he been wrong all this time, was Santa real? He couldn't be, Gibbs shook his head, it was probably just some creep and Gibbs was not having that.

Before giving it a second thought, Gibbs launched himself at the secret Santa and pulled him down at the waist and then rolled him over, and was about to punch him, when something made him stop.

"Daddy, don't kill Santa." He looked over his shoulder and saw Hannah standing in the doorway wearing her Disney princess pyjamas and Abby and Tony stood beside her, Hannah holding both their hands.

Gibbs looked back at the 'Santa' and it was then that he realised it was no other than Stan Burley. "What are you doing?" Gibbs whispered to him.

"Just trying bring back the Christmas magic, boss," Burley mumbled giving him a sheepish smile. Gibbs got off Burley or 'Santa' then stood to the side of the room so Hannah got to meet him and about to ask him, not realising it was a man she considered an uncle wearing a red coat, white wig and fake beard and a fake beer belly.

Gibbs knew it was a little weird, the whole idea of some old man breaking into your house to leave presents under a Christmas tree, but the look on Hannah's face, told him the magic was back, she was happy, his little girl was happy, what more could he ask for.