DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NCIS OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS!

DEAD DOESN'T MEAN FOREVER

Ch 6

Gibbs held tightly to his newly reunited family. He pulled them down to lay close with him. As he laid there he fell into yet a deeper sleep and he felt his hold loosen and his girl pulling away. Desperately he tried to hang on, but they were soon gone. AGAIN!

"No," he cried out turning onto his side and folding into himself attempting to hold the last memories of their touch and keep his shattered heart from being torn out from inside. He continued to see images of them, but they were too far away to hear or touch.

He watched the images of Kelly growing older as Shannon and Gibbs watched her with pride along the way. She was a pretty little girl who became a pretty, albeit awkward young teen, who matured into a really beautiful young adult.

Tears fell down his cheeks at all the memories he was denied. He began to sob feeling the injustice of it all. He could feel the last of his hope seeping away. Just as he drifted into an even deeper sleep, he caught the scent of his one true love.

"Shh Gibbs. It's only a dream," she soothed him, her fingers softly running through his hair as she pulled herself closer behind him. She put her arm around his waist and pressed herself against him.

He covered her arm with his own. 'Could it all have been just a dream, no a nightmare? Was she really here? Had she always been here? Did I never lose them both?' Gibbs thoughts were troubled.

He heard her hum and felt her breath caress his neck. He turned to hold her. His eyes still closed not willing to lose this moment. Their pressed together her head resting below his chin. He placed his cheek upon her head.

"I love you, Shannon," he breathed.

"I love you, too, Gibbs," she raised her head to look at him. She smiled at him as she lifted her hand to rest it on his cheek feeling the morning stubble there. "You need to shave Marine," she teased.

Gibbs eyes opened abruptly as he tensed holding her even tighter. Shannon had never said things like that before in his dreams. When he looked to where he expected to see nothing, her green eyes sparkled at him, he lips playing at the smile on them.

"What's the matter? You expecting someone else to be here in your arms?" She asked at his dumbfounded expression.

Words were strangers to him as he could only shake his head. He studied this vision of beauty. The bright red hair had faded some, small wrinkles accented her eyes and her body was a bit softer in places than he remembered them being.

Maybe the past 20 years had been a dream. Was he the one that had been so busy with life he didn't realize he had everything he ever wanted at home?

She pushed up onto her elbow to look down into his wondering blue eyes. Shannon lowered her head to brush her lips against his. "Why are you so quiet this morning?" she asked him softly.

"You're really here?" he looked at her intensely putting his hands on her face.

"Yes, I've always been with you," she closed her eyes as his calloused hands gently stroked her cheek and as his fingers traced her jaw line down her neck to her shoulders where they gently pulled her close again, so he could kiss her passionately.

She couldn't help the lilt of laughter that rose putting a stop to the kiss. At his bemused look she said, "You really missed me this time."

'This time? What could she mean by that?'

Answering his unspoken queries, Shannon explained, "It's been a long time since we've held each other, but every dream you've ever had brought me close to you."

"Are you here to stay? You've never felt so real," he looked around them and saw he was in the chamber in the lab. A triumphant smile grew on his lips, "It did work!"

"What worked?" now she was the confused one.

"You're back. You're really here with me again," he held her tightly.

Shannon wasn't sure what he was referring to, but she looked around not sure where they were or how she had gotten there. Still she'd found herself in stranger places when he dreamed of her.

As the couple laid in bed each coming to terms with their own reality, Sven led the scientists back to the lab. The sight in the chamber stopped them cold. At first none could breathe, but as the proof of their experiment played in front of their eyes they looked at each other smiling.

In truth they knew it would go no further then this lab. No one would believe them anyway, but they had done the impossible. There in the chamber was the reconstituted living human form of Shannon Gibbs, not as she was when she left this world, but as she would appear today had she never been gone from it.

Lars looked to Sven, "If she is here, then where is…?

Sven held up his hand to stop him, and then he pointed to the corner of the chamber cast in shadows. Sitting there staring at her parents a strawberry blonde blue eyed young woman sat. She looked a bit puzzled. Who could blame her? Certainly she had no idea what was happening.

Sven knocked on the window disturbing the couple's conversation. Gibbs looked at him sitting up to leave the bed, but hesitant to release his hold on Shannon. She followed with him to the chamber's door.

As he opened the door, Gibbs was thanking them all. "What you have done for me, I can never repay," he told them.

Sven patted his shoulder, smiled at Shannon, and then directed their attention toward their daughter.

"Kelly?" Gibbs breathed. "Is that really my little girl?" he asked. Shannon's look was one of disbelief as well. Though Gibbs had explained what had brought them here in the simplest of terms, she was now only seeing proof that somehow she and Kelly had lost 20 years of being with him.

She had flashes of memories she didn't remember experiencing, but none of Kelly growing older. How was it possible?

They walked to the huddled form struggling to adjust from one reality to another. She was with her mom in a bright and cheerful place. They were with her daddy as he welcomed them into his arms like he had done so many times. Suddenly it seemed years of memories were thrust upon her, but they weren't really her own.

Hearing and sensing them approach she looked up with more confusion. They looked like her parents as she saw them in her mind only moments before, but older. Her daddy's hair was cute with the same Marine style cut he'd always worn, but it was silver now instead of the darker hair she knew. Even her mom's hair appeared lighter as if it has been bleached. Both had face worn through time that couldn't have passed.

"Mommy?" she called reaching out to her. "What's happened?" She looked to her father who put out his arms to embrace her. Never being able to deny him a hug she fell into his arms. She smelled the familiar scent he'd always carried, but she hadn't been able to experience that before in his dreams.

"It's not a dream this time Kels," Shannon told her. "He found a way to bring us home." Shannon put her hand on her daughter's back as she hung tighter to her father and cried. She'd grown taller so her head lay on his shoulder not on his stomach as it usually did.

"What had happened?" she wondered. She looked into her father's eyes and smiled. "Tell me daddy."