SLOU6

Mid-December 2002, Capitol Medical Suites, Dr Prue Berkeley's Office, Washington DC

The following day, after lunch Tim took Kelly back to the clinic for her HSG procedure. They had dropped Gibbs off at the yard for his half day of desk duty, with plans that Tim would get a take-out order from their favourite diner for dinner.

"Hello again." She greeted them warmly with a smile. "Kelly, if you could slip into this gown we can get started."

Tim and the good doctor stepped out of the room while Kelly slipped into the unflattering white paper gown. Kelly had called out that she was ready, and they returned to the procedure room.

They started with some basic images by x-raying Kelly's pelvis and completing an external ultrasound of her reproductive system. She was then requested to empty her bladder so they could begin getting the internal images before the procedure would begin.

Kelly reached out and took her husband's hand, her body winced on reflex as the catheter entered her cervix. Feeling the dye flush through her, she felt warm and flushed. She gripped his hand tight as her body winced at the intrusion she was feeling. "You doing OK, sweetheart?" He asked, as he saw her face twist and contort.

"Slight discomfort, my ass." Kelly muttered low enough for only Tim to hear. But the doctor must have heard her because Prue reached out and reassured her that she was doing well.

"There's a slight, partial blockage in the left fallopian tube, one more feeling of pressure and then I'm going to try and unblock it with the dye. Are you doing, OK?"

Kelly could only nod, but Tim could see that this was slowly moving from uncomfortable and feeling discomfort to pain. Kelly eased Tim's hand onto her upper stomach gently so that she could hold it in pressure to help ease the mild pain she was beginning to feel.

"You're going to feel some pressure build up, and hopefully a release feeling as I go to the left tube now." Kelly gripped Tim's hand tighter and squeezed as she felt the pressure build inside her left side of her lower pelvis. She felt a small pop, barely lasting a millisecond and it was over, leaving a dull mild pain and cramping to remain.

"Looks clear now." Prue told them, as she slowly withdrew the catheter from Kelly's cervix. "Let's do another ultrasound and x-ray, then you can clean yourself up and we can talk about it in my office."

Within fifteen minutes, the X-ray and ultrasound were done, and Tim was helping his wife out of the paper gown, thoughtfully disposing of it in the recycle bin and helping her redress in her leggings, oversized tee and husband's NCIS hoodie, making sure that her waistband of her leggings weren't too tight across her pelvis.

Kelly stopped Tim momentarily from entering the office. She didn't need to verbalise her thoughts and Tim agreed with her, leaning over for a chaste kiss as he led her into the room.

"Tim, Kelly, I won't beat around the bush. See here." Prue bought up the image on the plasma of the left-hand side of the fallopian tube and they watched the video as the partially blocked tube became clear and the contrast could easily move through the narrow tube. " Everything else looked good. I am going to encourage you two to continue to have intercourse, as you would normally for this cycle and the next cycle. But you'll see me again at the end of this cycle. In approximately three weeks' time."

"You mentioned yesterday that some studies have shown an increase in fertility. Is that still possible, with the blockage now cleared?" Tim asked, it had been cool to see them clear the blockage, but Tim was watching Kelly closely, especially as her discomfort seemed to ramp up.

"In some women, not all women, Tim. I'd say, in someone as young, fit and healthy as your wife is, it's entirely possible. Especially if in this cycle she ovulates from the left ovary."

After Prue had ascertained that neither of them had any more questions, the next appointment was made for three weeks' time.

Mid-December 2002, Gibbs Family Home, Alexandria, Virginia.

Tim wasted no time at all in getting Kelly home and resting comfortably on their bed, upstairs. He had suspected that she might be having a bit more pain and discomfort than she was letting on.

Tim knew that Kelly had suffered awfully with cramps and pain at that time of the month. That occasionally, she had felt pain during or immediately after intercourse and no matter what Tim had tried to ease the pain, nothing worked.

Tim had urged Kelly to seek a medical opinion on the issue and she had. She reached out to a doctor when they were at John's Hopkins and the doctor had basically told her that she was imagining it. That the discomfort and pain she felt during or after intercourse was either in her head, or her boyfriend being too rough. Tim had never been rough with her, not enough to hurt her.

At her annual exam, she had mentioned it along with the heavy bleeding and spotting she sometimes experienced. The doctor had told her it was all normal. Which had frustrated them both, but Tim had always been happy to let her set the pace.

"Lay with me," Kelly whispered as Tim re-entered their bedroom with a tray of coffee mugs, some fresh fruit and a sandwich.

"Bought you some food." Tim told her. "How are you feeling?" he asked. She loved that he was still so kind and considerate, especially after all those years together.

Kelly thanked her husband with a kiss, she took the coffee and fruit, leaving the sandwich there. She definitely appreciated his effort.

"Honestly, it actually hurt like hell." Kelly admitted. "The pop when she unblocked the fallopian tube just felt like pressure. Inside my hip, but the rest if me feels like my insides have been torn out. When you were helping me get dressed, I felt like I was going to pass out."

"Still feeling like you're going to pass out?" Tim asked worried, as he went to reach for his cell. Just in case.

"No, but can you just lay with me? Please?" Kelly asked again and Tim stripped down, out of his jeans and sweater, slipping his shoes and socks off, leaving his tee and boxers on and climbed into bed, under the covers next to his wife. She immediately cuddled up beside him, readjusting the heat pack she was using to help alleviate the pain.

The young couple dozed off to sleep and woke to the ringing of Tim's cell phone that Gibbs was ready to be picked up from the navy yard. Somehow, they had slept the whole afternoon away and it was 1800 hours.

October 1991, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California.

Gibbs had taken a half day off work, he was owed so many comp days, HR were coming down hard in him. It was a good day to get out of the office, the day was mild, the sun was shining, and his yard had desperately needed some TLC.

Immediately after he arrived home, he slipped into an old pair of jeans and an old tee and headed to the storage shed where he stored the mower and began preparing the lawn for a good mow.

Kelly was good about helping in the garden for her pocket money and had already weeded the garden over the weekend. She had wanted her pocket money a day early as a group of kids were going to a roller-skating disco and she wanted money to go, too.

Gibbs smiled as he recalled three days ago when the said roller-skating disco was on. Normally, his daughter would be happy wearing her old jeans and a tee or her overalls. This particular time, she was wearing a black and white patterned dress, that in his opinion had been too short with a pair of black leggings underneath. Instead of wearing her usual kicks, she had a pair of shoes he had never seen before, black slip-on shoes that were similar to her old ballet slippers. She had been wearing lip gloss and had taken a bag. She had attempted to wear eye shadow, but he had made her wash it off before leaving the house. Rules were rules and a house rule was no make up until you're thirteen and Kelly wouldn't be thirteen until January.

What had really thrown Gibbs off was, she asked him to drop them off a street away from the skating rink, not wanting to be seen getting a ride from her dad. Usually when he took Kelly and Tim somewhere, one of them always rode up front. This time though, they had both sat in the back.

When he had collected them at the agreed time and at the agreed spot, which Gibbs noted was a couple of streets over from where he had dropped them off. They had both sat together in the back again and when he occasionally looked in the rear-view mirror, the two kids were holding hands now and sharing small, shy smiles with one another.

"Dad" Kelly startled him. Tim was standing beside her. He had just finished the lawns and had been contemplating if it was too early to have a shower and relax. "We need to talk."

"Sure." Gibbs told them and tried to encourage them to sit at the table and chairs in the back yard.

"Inside, someone might hear us. It's private." Kelly all but hissed at her father and took Tim's hand forcefully, practically dragging him into the house, hoping her dad was following them.

"I'll just..." Tim said, letting go of her hand and trying to move into the kitchen to give the father and daughter duo some privacy.

"Don't you dare move." Kelly told Tim, it sounded snappy and rather harsh, but she just needed him. "I draw my strength from you. Right now, I need that." she whispered to her best friend.

Gibbs looked at the pre-teen kids and wondered what was so important to that Kelly needed Tim. Kelly was normally the one who had everything under control. Now she needed Tim.

"Kells, I really would be more comfortable if I waited in the kitchen." a shy Tim reiterated to his best friend.

Gibbs watched as Kelly kissed Tim's cheek. "I'll call you when I need you." Tim barely let Kelly pull away from him, before he was scampering off to the kitchen and not involved in the conversation she was about to start with her father.

"OK baby, what did you want to talk about that's so important?" Gibbs asked. He had been watching them and he was sure it had something to do with Tim.

"Igotmyfirstperiodtoday." Kelly mumbled out softly, so quietly and very unlike her. A tear slipped down her cheek. And another and another. Gibbs moved to the sofa from his favourite recliner and took his daughter into a comforting hug.

He breathed a huge sigh of relief. When the tears subsided, Kelly looked up her father with those beautiful crystal blue eyes of hers, her smile was watery, and her face tear strained. "I got that one." he smiled at her, "No need to repeat it... It's OK. Didn't we talk about this? It's part of nature and it's a natural part of growing up."

"Dad, we talked about it, and I was OK with everything, honestly. I did exactly what I had to. I got a pad out of my book bag from the emergency pack we made and everything as soon as I saw what had happened in the bathroom." Kelly took a deep, cleansing breath. "Everything was going smoothly, then in health class in fourth period, we had a joint class with the whole year level. The teachers talked to us about sex."

Gibbs calmed his nerves, physically, taking deep breathes. Mentally, he was heading for his bottle of bourbon he kept in the basement. Late last month and into this month, he and Kelly'd had a series of long talks about the changes in herself and changes she would be going through. They talked about the issues that she might encounter. But he'd managed to skirt around the issue of sex and the issue of pregnancy. He had honestly believed that she was too young and didn't need to know about it yet. He had even had a discussion with Tim about it, too. Now the school had taken it out of his hands and bought the situation to the front of the kid's minds.

Now he braced himself as it seemed he was going to have to discuss it with both of them again, together. "Tim? Can you come back in here, please?" Gibbs called out, as he shifted on the sofa. "Here, take a seat." Gibbs pat the edge of the ottoman, pulling it closer with his foot, so it was next to Kelly, beside her feet and the three of them were at eye level with one another.

"Kelly told me everything." he stated, looking at his daughter for confirmation that she didn't leave anything out. Tim nodded along with Kelly. 'That had taken care of one problem.' Gibbs thought to himself. 'Tim knew that Kelly had gotten her first period today.'

"She then told me that in health class, the whole year level joined your class, and the topic was sex. What questions do you two have for me? Perhaps something you were too afraid or embarrassed to ask in class." Gibbs finally asked directly, he knew both of them. They were both smarter than average. Tim gifted, even. He knew they were both capable of shyness and neither one of them were comfortable asking questions in a large group, especially in a situation like that. He also knew that Kelly wouldn't have mentioned it, if they didn't have questions. He watched as the kids looked to one another, seemingly having a silent conversation. That had always amused him. That they could talk without words. He and Shannon had been able to do that too. It seemed they had agreed that Kelly would ask the first question.

So, Gibbs braced himself and promised himself a large glass of bourbon after Tim went home and Kelly went to bed, later on tonight.

Mid-December 2002, NCIS, Navy Yard, Washington DC

Gibbs was waiting for Tim in the visitor's lot, a little after 1900, his team was long gone. As soon as he entered the car, he looked his son in law over. He had both seen and heard Tim when he was woken up and he couldn't believe his ears when he had called for his ride an hour ago that he had woken Tim from a sleep. Tim had tried to deny it of course, but there was no mistaking it. He had woken Tim. "You OK, Timmo?" he asked as he gave Tim another once over, noticing that Tim had muffled another yawn. The second he'd done since Gibbs took his seat.

"Yeah, just tired." he lied and both of them knew it. "Want to just grab some carry out from the diner for dinner?" Tim had been going for casual and hadn't quite pulled it off.

"Sure." Gibbs answered. He'd let Tim have this one. Last month, Tim hadn't confirmed or denied his suspicions about what had gone down between the married couple. But he was pretty sure, their decision to visit home for the week wasn't just to take care of him and help out. "Been a long day." Gibbs conceded.

The two men took their seats at the counter, ordering their carry out order and some coffee for while they waited. Gibbs noticed that Kelly's order was her comfort food, mac and cheese with meatballs on the side. That had been her comfort food since she was a little girl, and nothing had changed. Both Shannon and he, and Tim had mastered cooking the perfect Mac and cheese.

Tim was preoccupied on his phone and Gibbs couldn't taper the natural investigative instinct in him, peeking over his shoulder to see what the younger man was up to. He was surprised to see Tim was looking up florists. Finding one that was nearby, he tapped the call button and stepped away from his father-in-law to make his call. Gibbs smiled to himself as he watched Tim on the phone. "He ordered daisies." Elaine told Gibbs as she set down the coffee in front of the men. "Flowers and comfort food, Kelly sick?" she elaborated, and Gibbs gave her a look. He tried to recall this morning if Kelly had been unwell, and he cursed himself; he couldn't remember. He'd been so focused on himself and his own problems.

"If she is, they haven't told me anything." Gibbs grumbled, focusing on his coffee.

"Maybe she's got a bun in the oven." Elaine offered. "When I was pregnant with Angus, I was miserable everyday with sickness." she offered before moving away to serve someone else.

He didn't think that was it. He was pretty sure he had hit the nail in the head last month when he and Tim had spoken in the basement. Or rather he had spoken, and Tim had uncharacteristically decided to become mute. Making a quick stop after the diner at a florist near his home, Tim left Gibbs in the car with the food and ran in. He wasn't back out three minutes later, and he carried a small bouquet of pink and white daisies. Gibbs wisely kept his opinion on the flowers to himself as Tim drove them back to his home.

They made light work of bringing everything inside and he noted that Tim made sure to have the flowers in his hand. "Hey, I'm home." Tim called out to Kelly who had started the fire and moved herself downstairs with the duvet off their bed and camped herself out on the sofa. He watched as Tim kissed Kelly, noticing that tonight, he lingered there a bit longer than usual.

Gibbs turned his back on the couple to slip his shoes off, giving them the illusion of privacy. They were talking in low voices, but Gibbs couldn't make out what they were saying. After stowing his weapon and his credentials, he turned greet his daughter. She was pale and looked tired too. Tim pulled out the comfort food they had ordered, and she had grinned a happy grin at him.

Dinner was consumed in a comfortable silence, as each of them reflected on the day. Kelly's face grimaced as her insides twinged and throbbed, Tim had noticed and offered her his hand wordlessly. Gibbs had been watching too and was almost ready to throttle them both. He could see Kelly was in pain and there wasn't anything he could do to help if he didn't know what was wrong. "Whenever you're ready, Mr and Mrs McGee, to let me in on whatever's really going on, I'll be here and ready to talk. No judgement."

It had been a long time since Tim and Kelly had actively tried to avoid talking to Gibbs about their problems. He honestly thought that they had all moved past this stage of their relationship with him by now. He understood that sometimes married couples didn't want to lay bare their problems. But they couldn't see how much he could see and how he knew his daughter was hurting.

June 1998, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts

"Congratulations Baby!" Kelly ran up to him through the small crowd that had gathered outside the auditorium after the graduation ceremony. When she got to him, she jumped into his arms and kissed him. Somehow, Tim had still managed to keep his cap on and his Valedictory stoll on.

The young couple had been engaged six months and hadn't seen one another since spring break. Kelly had been busy studying away at JH, in Maryland and Tim had been completing his Bachelor of Computer science and master's in computer Forensics at MIT, in Cambridge. A 7–8-hour road trip one way, depending on traffic and tolls. Despite both being military brats, this was the furthest that the loved up, engaged couple had ever been from one another.

"Ah, to be young and in love." Penny's sigh broke through Tim's thoughts as he broke the kiss, he had been sharing with his fiancée' and lowered her to the ground reluctantly. Penny had been speaking to Gibbs, but the man had just smiled at the older woman.

"Definitely in love." Gibbs muttered to the McGee family matriarch. Once again, another significant milestone for Tim McGee and his father was nowhere to be seen or heard from. Penny had muttered something about 'being at sea' earlier in the day.

"Congratulations, Timmo!" Gibbs praised the man he had long thought of as a son, pulling Tim in for a hug. Gibbs couldn't believe that there was a time when Tim was so scared of him, that he could barely speak.

"Thanks Gibbs." Tim gushed pulling apart and looked at his grandmother. Of course, he would never ever call her Grandma or Grandmother to her face.

"Congratulations, my darling boy... I'm so proud of you." she gushed, straightening his cap gown and stoll.

She led the four of them over to the garden, that was in full bloom and demanded to let her take some photos. She snapped away, snapping photos of her grandson by himself, with Kelly, with Gibbs and Kelly and with Gibbs by himself.

Penny was no fool, she knew how important that Jethro Gibbs was to her Timothy. She knew he was there for Tim and helped mould him into the man he was today. And for that, she would be always thankful for him.

Kelly and Jethro Gibbs would be staying with Penny at her apartment in Boston, where Tim had been living for the last three weeks, after giving his apartment up in preparation for the move back to Maryland, to live with Kelly again.

But first, Penny was taking Tim and the Gibbs family to the Back Deck restaurant to celebrate. Tim and Kelly had been invited to join in the graduation festival party that started at 2100 hours that night.

Dinner was a lively affair as Gibbs and Penny reminisced about their favourite Tim memories and Tim and Kelly spent their time glued at the hip and playing footsies under the table.

After dinner, everyone parted ways, each with a key. Penny had a late-night meeting with a fellow professor to discuss the next semester at the Boston University and Gibbs was meeting Doctor Mallard, from NCIS for a silent auction, to raise money for homeless vets.

Kelly and Tim had barely stayed at the party three and a half hours, each enjoying more than few beers each. They had also taken some celebratory shots of vodka and whiskey, enjoyed a couple of glasses of white wine and their fair share of jelly shots. Enough to get a good buzz going. The more they drank, the more amorous they were becoming, and Tim suggested to her in a whisper that they should go back to the apartment for a private party of two.

Finding a cab was surprisingly easy, for a Friday night, early hours Saturday morning. He paid the fare, leaving a generous top for the driver. After all, Kelly had been straddling Tim in the back seat during the drive and Tim had reached up, under her skirt and removed her lacy g string, dropping it in the floor of the cab instead of in his pockets, in his intoxicated state.

Letting themselves into the apartment, in what they thought was stealth mode, was actually an awakening experience for Gibbs and Penny. Both of whom had shared grins at the thought of the hangover that they'd have the following morning. Seeing them both navigate the long hallway to Tim's bedroom, they waved good night to one another and returned to their respective rooms.

As soon as Tim had Kelly inside his bedroom, they resumed their ministrations. Tim kissing Kelly and Kelly fondling him. Within minutes, Tim was already hard, and Kelly was panting in want. She reached back to remove her skirt and Tim stilled her hands. He encouraged her, in husky, desire laden voice to leave her skirt and heels on.

Tim and Kelly had worked themselves into such a frenzied state and they were too eager to reconnect after their months apart at school. In their haste and intoxicated state, both of them had forgotten any kind of protection. Not just that first time, but the two more consecutive times later than night and into the morning. The second and third time of that night being slow and sensual coupling. Not the frenzied, rushed encounter they'd shared earlier. But the thought of contraception had still slipped both their minds, both enjoying the feel of skin on skin.

Early morning arrived and 0700 found Gibbs and Penny sitting at the breakfast nook, enjoying a companionable silence and a coffee. Slowly the party animals emerged from the bedroom at the end of the hall, Kelly in Tim's white shirt and boxers from last night and Tim in his MIT shirt and a fresh pair of shorts. "Morning darlings!" Penny cooed in a high-pitched sing-song voice that made the younger duo wince in pain. "How about some nice runny eggs this morning?" Gibbs struggled to keep a straight face as he watched both of them struggle not to want to hurl.

"Have enough to drink last night?" Gibbs asked, his tone harsh. A lot harsher than usual. Penny and he had been awake for more than hour, both had heard them in the bedroom when they had come home and had decided not to confront the younger couple. After all, Gibbs knew, and Penny suspected that they had been intimate before this occasion.

But Gibbs had wondered what the two of them had been thinking. Getting drunk like that as neither of them were big drinkers. More importantly, he wondered why they would be that loud when they both knew they weren't alone in the apartment. Suspecting it was happening behind closed doors and then knowing, was two different things.

To have a night as such, especially when they both knew that Kelly, Tim and Gibbs had a flight back to DC later that day.

Gibbs was grateful to receive a call out when he wasn't on call, not long after they had touched down at Reagan. The two of them had been sharing awkward, forced smiles and guilty looks all morning, despite their hangovers and it was becoming too much for Gibbs. He needed a reprieve.

Being done with his call out to consult about an interrogation, gone wrong at the Carolina's office, he stopped at the diner for a leisurely coffee before heading home. He hoped that whatever had happened between the couple after breakfast, but before leaving Penny's apartment had been resolved because he wasn't looking forward to their four weeks at his cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains with that much tension between them.

Entering the house in stealth mode, he found Kelly crying on the sofa and Tim in the armchair, both positively distraught. He braced himself mentally, he had never seen any signs of trouble or cracks in their relationship before this morning. "Dad?" Kelly asked, looking up in surprise at seeing him slipping into the house. She had hastily wiped at her eyes furiously and attempted to pretend that she had not been crying. "That was a quick case." Tim had looked up and slipped a cool, calm, collected mask on his look of devastation. Gibbs had recognised the mask; he'd witnessed Tim slip it on quite often, over the years.

"Just a consult, Baby." Gibbs muttered as he toed his boots off and took a seat on the coffee table. "Tim, come and join us on the sofa. We're going to talk about what's going on."

"That's not necessary." Kelly replied to her dad and tried to stop more tears from flowing, but ended up in a big blubbery, inconsolable mess. Tim was hugging Kelly now as he reassured her that everything would be ok.

"Really. Everything is ok." Tim added, but he was looking at Kelly, not at Gibbs. "No matter what happens."

"Nope, we are leaving for a family vacation tomorrow." Gibbs began. "I don't want to be worrying about if I need to drive Tim to civilisation because you two have decided to call it quits."

"Dad!" Kelly exclaimed in shock. "Who said anything about breaking up?" She had been stunned that her father had thought that they were breaking up.

"Well, what am I supposed to think?" Gibbs asked, eyeing the two of them. Sure, he and Shannon'd had fights, they'd cried and begged one another for forgiveness. They'd shared harsh words and slammed doors, but he couldn't imagine trying to sort out a relationship under the scrutinising eye of Shannon's parents. It had been bad enough trying to sort out the biggest fight they had ever had under Jack's watchful eye. "I come in and I see you crying and Tim as if his whole world was coming down around him."

"We messed up, Gibbs. But we will handle it, as a couple." Tim admitted in a small voice. "I love Kelly and no matter what happens, I will continue to love her." He vowed and Gibbs' mind was positively racing.

'Had something happened last night?' Gibbs thought to himself. 'Had one of the kids been unfaithful to the other one? Had they fought? Had someone down something irrevocably grievous?'

"Don't be mad, Dad." Kelly warned him and he tensed up. Whenever a kid says that to an adult, they instantly become mad. He looked closer and had to correct himself. They weren't kids anymore. Sure, Kelly was his kid, but they weren't kids in the actual sense. They were young adults and as such, under normal circumstances where mature enough to own their own mistakes. "We did something very stupid."

"Whatever you did, I'll still love you both. Even if it was criminally stupid." His mind going to that maybe they had broken some kind of law last night.

"We had unprotected sex." Kelly told her dad. Stating it as factual hadn't taken the guilt that they both wore away. Despite Kelly's tears, Tim seemed to be blaming himself more. "Three times, maybe four. I'm not sure."

Inside Gibbs was screaming, he was infuriated at the pair. Idiots. They had both talked about how they were going to make safe choices and then this happened. Less than two years later. He kept his outside demeanour calm, he knew there was no point getting upset, that it would just upset them more. "Ok," He conceded. He had to give himself a mental peptalk. 'You can do this!' he closed his eyes and repeated this mantra five times, before opening them. "Ok.. There's not a lot we can do now. It's done."

The couple in question let out a huge breath, sighing in relief that they hadn't bore the man's infamous temper. "Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do but wait. I will be loving and supportive, no matter what the outcome. Ok?" Both of them nodded, relieved that the burden and fear of Gibbs' anger hadn't been directed at them. "Doesn't mean I am not thoroughly disappointed with you both. Being drunk is not an excuse."

Gibbs wasn't going to let them skirt by without them knowing how disappointed and upset he was though. He couldn't expect them to maintain honest and open lines of communication with him, if he didn't show them the same courtesy. "I won't go on and on about it. After all, you both realise it was a mistake and you're owning up to it, like the mature and responsible adults you are. If, by some chance you both have to face the consequences of your actions. You will have my support no matter what you decide to do. You both know you can always talk to me, right? About anything."