By the end of July, things started to happen quickly. Gibbs found out he was going to be deployed one more time as he left in the middle of a deployment, they pushed through Gibbs officially adopting Tony so if something happened he would receive his benefits and then decisions had to be made. Jackson came to town a week before Gibbs had to leave and Tony knew they were in discussions with NIS and Arthur though all Gibbs would tell them was he wanted Tony and Jane to stay at the house while he was deployed. The closer it got to Gibbs leaving the quieter Kelly got and the more stuff she packed

"Dad, we want to talk to you." Gibbs looks at Tony and Jane.

"It sounds serious, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine but it's important and it's about Kelly." Gibbs put down the papers he was sorting through.

"What about Kelly? She's almost ready to move to Dad's house. She's not happy about it but ... things are going on. Has she said anything to you?"

"No, she won't talk to us. To put it simply we don't want her to go with Grandpa. Weekend visits or when she doesn't want to go with us are one thing but you told me you fought with the Fielding's to keep her here because her school and friends were here. They're still here and now so are Maddie, Jane, Nellie, and me. I know we're young but we have a nanny so we have child care taken care of and I have income to support her. She's ..."

"Okay," They look at him.

"Okay?"

"If you really want Kelly to stay here with you then okay. Kelly doesn't want to move to Stillwater for those reasons and one major one she'd miss you guys too much. She knows you'll be busy on the weekend so she wouldn't get to see you that often but at least here she can see you during the week."

"What does Grandpa think about that?"

"I think you both are responsible and Kelly will keep her promise to help you. We didn't want you to feel you had to keep her if you didn't think you could take care of everything and Kelly. Kelly doesn't want to talk to you guys because she thinks you don't want her here even though we said it was our decision."

"We want her here and we'll respect your decision but Jane and I felt that we had to ask first at least. I have Aunt Camille and Uncle Arthur nearby if we need help and Grandpa isn't that far away, I can take her there or something it it doesn't work out." Gibbs nods,

"If you are serious about this then we can do that. Dad and I have discussed this from different angles because you're right Kelly wants to be here but I didn't want to ask you to take on more responsibility when Dad's also there. You also just made the football team and that's another thing." Jane nods,

"I'm going to come home after school so the nanny doesn't stay late and Aunt Camile's going to keep Nellie Friday nights for the game and dance. Then after football season, I'm going out for basketball and Tony will stay with the girls. We discussed it because we wanted to see how many hours we needed the nanny per week and there's nothing I want to do in the fall. Tony will have morning practices so I can stay with the girls until I have to get to school." They hear Kelly come downstairs.

"Kel, can you come in here?" Kelly joins them and Tony can tell she is crying. "Are you okay Kel?"

"I don't want to go to Grandpa's house. I love him but this is my home and I don't want to leave you and Nellie. Daddy says you have a lot going on but Grandpa says to talk to you. I don't want to seem like a baby but ..." Tony hugs Kelly and she starts crying again.

"Jane and I came to talk to Dad because we want you to stay here with us. We thought Dad wanted what was best but then we realized we might not see you often in Stillwater and we would miss you a lot." Kelly looks at Gibbs.

"I told them if they wanted you to stay here then it was okay with me and Grandpa. Arthur and Camille said they would help and they have a nanny too." Kelly hugs Gibbs as the phone rings and Tony answers it.

"Hey Kid, is Jethro busy?"

"We're just talking right now. Did you need him?" Gibbs was still technically an NIS agent until the day before his deployment and then he was going to take a leave but Tony hoped there wasn't a new case to take Gibbs away. Jane and Kelly go back upstairs as Jackson comes down.

"Hey Mike, what's going on?"

"I wanted to make sure you were awake and hoe. I know it's getting later but I need to come by."

"What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Yes, there's just something you need to see. It's closure to an old case I don't want to explain over the phone. This you have to see in person."

"What case? Why do I need to see it? It's 9 already and the kids are ready for bed."

"I won't stay long but it's mostly for you and Kelly." Tony and Jackson look at Gibbs when he hangs up.

"What's going on? Mike doesn't want you to work on a case does he?"

"I don't ... he said it was something about a case but he has something for me and Kelly." Gibbs rubs his face and Jackson nods.

"Maybe he found out what happened to Shannon. Are you going to tell Kelly?"

"I don't know but I would think he would tell me if it was that. Maybe it depends on what he tells me." Gibbs looks at Tony. "The woman in the car with Kelly wasn't Shannon. Because of the injuries and Mike hadn't spent much time with her he didn't know for sure. They did find out it wasn't her but he didn't know exactly what happened to Shannon."

"That's good." They look at him. "The woman didn't look like Shannon's pictures and like Mike I thought it was from the accident. I just thought it was a horrible memory for Kelly if she saw the condition the woman was in." They discuss Kelly staying with Tony and Jane until Mike gets there.

"Hey Mike, come in. We were just talking about ..." Gibbs froze seeing Shannon standing on the porch. "Shannon," Tony and Jackson exchanged looks before going to see what was going on and found Gibbs and Shannon hugging each other.

"I'm just going to go upstairs and leave you ... them alone."

"You should send Kelly down in a few minutes." Upstairs Jane was braiding Kelly's hair

"Who was at the door?"

"Mike, he had something for dad."

"Are you okay Tony, you look funny," Tony smiles checking on Nellie who was fast asleep.

"I'm fine," Gibbs calls upstairs.

"Tony can you see if Kelly's awake and ask her to come down." Kelly looks at Tony before going downstairs.

"What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Kelly's mom is alive. I don't know what happened but Mike brought her home right now. That's why he came over." Tony sits on the bed with Jane. "There's a lot for them to talk about and not much time to do it in ."

"If she wants us to move out we'll take Aunt Camille up on her offer and get visitation rights to Kelly." Tony laughs,

"She might want them to Nellie." Jackson came up soon.

"Shannon would like to meet you both. She saw you Tony and we told her some of what's going on but she would like to meet you." To Jane, that was easy because she wondered how they would officially meet since things had to be confusing to Shannon as well. They go downstairs where Kelly is sitting with Shannon and they both had been crying.

"Tony, Jane this is my wife and Kelly's mom Shannon. Shannon this is our son Tony and his wife Jane. Their daughter Nellie is asleep upstairs."

"It's nice to meet you Shannon. Kelly's told me a lot about you. I'm glad to see you weren't in the accident."

"Thank you Agent Franks and Jethro said I have you to thank for saving Kelly. The agents in the car were taking her to the airport and the woman Agent Torres was supposed to fly her to Stillwater to be safe. I was told there was an accident and there were no survivors. I wasn't told Kelly survived or that Jethro would be home until tonight. One of the agents protecting me had a heart attack so the other agent reached out as to who would replace him and things came together after that."

"I'm glad you're home, Kelly and Dad need you." Gibbs nods,

"It's late and I know Kelly and Shannon are tired. I told Shannon you both have the master bedroom and we have the bigger guestroom now."

"Yeah ..."

"It's okay, with a baby you need it. We did when Kelly was a baby They need a ton of stuff and Kelly only started using her own room when she started kindergarten and saw other kids had their own rooms." Gibbs, Shannon, and Kelly went upstairs while Tony and Jane stayed downstairs to talk.

"What do you ...?" Tony shrugs,

"I think maybe it's too much information for one night. She thought Kelly was dead, who knows if she's even thought of me since all of this started. She came home to Dad being deployed, Kelly is alive, her son here, and a granddaughter. I don't know if she'll even want to know Nellie as her granddaughter or have us here."

"If she doesn't we'll stay with Aunt Camille and Uncle Arthur until we find a place for ourselves. You know they would love us to stay here and Nonie and Poppy plan on coming down at least once a month."

"They're coming down Friday with Yaya and Papa before Dad leaves and so are your parents."

"Mom knows things will get harder to travel with everyone for a weekend so they'll see us before school starts. She also wants to get some stuff frozen for us so we don't starve."

"So does Nonie not like we don't cook." Jane laughs and they keep talking until they fall asleep on the couch. The next morning when Tony wakes up he hears someone in the kitchen and finds Shannon and Nellie awake. Shannon was cooking and Nellie was eating eggs. "Good morning Shannon, good morning princess. Did Grandma make you some eggs?" Shannon smiles,

"I hope you don't mind. I got up early like I usually do and heard her awake when I was coming downstairs. I saw you and Jane weren't in the room so I got her, changed her, and brought her down. I saw her list of food on the fridge so ..."

"Of course, I don't mind. We usually leave the door open because she wakes up when Dad wakes up and he brings her down. The list of foods is for the nanny we hired who is going to start helping out one or two mornings a week until school starts."

"A nanny?"

"Yeah, Jane and I go to school full time and I'm going to play football too. I don't want to put her in daycare at least until she can talk in case something happens and I want her to have more attention than they can give her."

"We can talk about that later." Tony was curious but went upstairs to wash up and found Kelly looking upset.

"Are you okay Kel? Where's dad?"

"He's taking a shower. Are Jane and Nellie downstairs?" Tony knew she thought she dreamed about Shannon.

"Jane's asleep on the couch and your mom's cooking while Nellie eats some eggs." Kelly ran downstairs and Tony went to shower. Jane joined him when he was getting dressed.

"Nellie seems happy with Shannon downstairs."

"I know Shannon was feeding her eggs when I got up. She found Nellie's food list and figured it was okay to feed her." Jane smiles,

"Kelly's happy to have her home too." Jane washed up and changed. "Your dad can't stop smiling either."

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen Dad so happy. I mean it's a good thing and I'm happy for them." When they went downstairs Shannon had breakfast ready and after breakfast, Jackson took Kelly and Nellie to the zoo for a couple of hours so they could talk.

"So we know you two stayed up talking last night and my main question right now is if you can live with Shannon here. I mean you two and Nellie will live here but do you have a problem with Shannon living here as well." Tony looks at Gibbs.

"This is her house, why would we have a problem with it. It's not up to us if she lives here really, we were wondering if she wanted us to move out. We could go live with Aunt Camille and Uncle Arthur but where would you go Shannon."

"If you didn't want me here I would go live with Jackson in Stillwater and come visit Kelly as often as I could. Jethro said everything is in your name to take care of the bills and make sure Kelly's needs are met and I can't even work right now. Kelly wants to stay with you and I would like to stay with her but I also know when Jethro and I got married my mom tried to interfere and that didn't go well."

"This is your home and I think it would be good for Kelly if you were here. She freaked out this morning when she woke up and didn't see you. We don't mind you living here if you don't mind us living here. We love my Aunt and Uncle but ..."" Gibbs smiles,

"Shannon isn't like her mother thank God." They laugh. "Seriously though she can help with Nellie when you need it, she's a great mom." Jane nods,

"We know."

"How do you know? We just met."

"Grandpa and Dad said Kelly's a great kid thanks to you. If you made her who she is then you have to be a great mom. We can sort things out though during the rest of the summer before school starts in the meantime." Tony hears his phone ring upstairs so he does to answer it.

"I was telling Shannon that your family and Tony's family were coming by the end of the week to see me off and make sure you guys were set." Jane nods,

"I think you'll like Ma and she'll be happy Tony and I weren't the only ones in charge here. If the boys didn't have school and such in Boston she would move here to take care of us."

"I look forward to meeting her." Jane and Gibbs could tell she was weary but were distracted when Tony came storming down. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

"That was the nanny agency. Isobel quit and they won't send over any other candidates because they are more comfortable taking care of children our age than taking orders from us. When Isobel found out Dad's being deployed she realized we were the ones hiring her and she would have to follow our orders. They thought Dad was just leaving the day-to-day things to us not that we were actually in charge."

"Well ... there's always Aunt Camille. She's offered though ..."

"What about me?" They look at Shannon. "I've never been a nanny but I did raise Kelly. I would like to do something to help around the house and I think a nanny and I would just get in each other's way. I was going to talk to you about that but Jethro and Jackson said you already hired someone."

"If you really want to take care of her that would be great. Isobel was too stiff and formal but the least trouble out of those we interviewed. We'll pay you of course, and Dad and I worked out how to split the household costs while he was gone so the money will be yours for whatever you want."

"How ... that sounds good."

"The pay is $850."

"That's $200 a week ... it should work if the other costs are covered."

"That's $850 a week, not a month." Shannon stares at Tony.

"To watch one baby? Who did you hire Mary Poppins? I don't even think she would ... that's way too much per week."

"It was up to 10 hours a day 5 days a week. I have football practice and Jane was going to be home during those times so we didn't overuse the nanny. Friday nights Aunt Camille was going to keep the girls so I could play in the games and Jane could go to them."

"I can do that and charge you less ."

"Let us know how much you want to be paid and that's what we'll do. I think Aunt Camille might want to keep Nellie on Friday nights anyway." After more discussion, they decided to join Jackson and the girls at the zoo. Tony also called Camille and invited them over for dinner only saying they had some news and Gibbs was going to grill. Tony wasn't sure what his family would think of Shannon and she was worried too but more what they would think of her staying there and taking care of Nellie instead of a professional nanny but they assured her it was Tony and Jane's decision and she would be fine.