“She just had to talk me into this, didn’t she?” Tony muttered as he shoved a box out of the way. He was kneeling on the floor up in Gibbs’ former master bedroom, vainly trying to find one of his old work uniforms that he knew was hiding somewhere in one of his many spare boxes. “Can’t say no to Abby, can you DiNozzo? Even when it makes you look like an ass! Dressing up as Dangle…. Thank god you’ve got the legs for it.”

With a sigh, he reached for the next box, quickly blowing the dust off the top as he tried to not sneeze. “Must be one of Jethro’s…. Let’s see what we’ve got. Various holidays…. This looks promising.” With a quick flick of his wrist, he flicked his knife open and sliced the tape off, pulling the flaps of the box open.

“Oh my god,” Tony whispered as he saw the contents - out of everything he could have found, he never would have expected this.

At the very top of the box, there was a princess costume; he reverently lifted it out to find several more costumes tucked inside its folds. Directly underneath was an orange McDonald’s Boo Bucket, and he smiled at the sight of the pumpkin printed on the front. As he rummaged through the box, he found several old pieces of candy, and a stack of papers - after flipping through them, he realized that they were various pictures of Kelly in costume that had been sent to Gibbs while he’d been deployed. Setting them aside, he dug deeper into the box, and pulled out a small box - upon opening it, he found a stack of recipes written in what he knew to be Shannon’s handwriting. At the very bottom of the box, he found a video tape sitting underneath it with the title of Kelly’s First Halloween.

His old uniform forgotten, Tony grabbed several things and headed downstairs, depositing the items on the dining room table. A cursory glance of one of the recipes gave him an idea, and he pocketed the recipe card as he grabbed his keys and headed off to the store, armed with a plan.

 ~*~*~*~*~*

“What the hell?” Gibbs cursed as he tripped over the pumpkins that were now decorating front stairs. Tony had placed several pumpkins there, one of which was apparently vomiting from drinking too much, judging by the crushed up beer cans and empty bottle of Jack Daniels that were scattered around. Two other pumpkins were on the stairs above the vomiting pumpkin, looking down on the first pumpkin with sheepish expressions on their faces. Irritated, he reached for the door, only to find it locked. Fumbling for his keys, Gibbs cursed as he unlocked the door - this was the last thing he needed today, and both he and Tony had an unspoken agreement about not celebrating Halloween.

Upon opening the door, the smell of baking pumpkin pie hit him, quickly followed by the sound of a videotape he hadn’t heard in over 20 years.

“Give me the bucket, Kelly,” he heard Shannon say on the tv. “I’m going to empty it out now!”

“No, Mommy! It’s my candy!”

Following the sound of the video and Tony’s laughter into the living room, Gibbs swallowed hard and paused at the sight. Tony was putting pictures in to various Halloween type frames, an old Boo Bucket filled with candy in front of him as he watched the video tape.

“Kelly, give it here.”

“But mommy!”

“I’m going to empty the bucket, and then you can go get more candy, and then I’ll empty it out again! See, that’s why I’ve got the pillowcase.” On the videotape, Kelly stopped pouting then handed over the bucket; the camera became unfocused for a second as Shannon transferred the candy to the pillowcase before handing Kelly back her pail.

“Can we go get more candy now, Mommy?” Kelly asked as she looked up at the video camera, eyes filled with hope.

As Tony chuckled and put a filled picture frame to the side, Gibbs cleared his throat, causing the other man to jump as he turned around and saw Gibbs standing next to the door.

“Enjoying the show?” Gibbs asked, trying to hide the emotion in his voice at the sight of his little girl dressed up as a pumpkin.

Tony looked away sheepishly and rubbed at the back of his own neck. “Was looking for my Peoria uni…. Found a box of stuff, and decided to pull some stuff out.”

“I can see that. Baking?”

Tony laughed nervously. “Yeah, I found a couple of Shannon’s recipes, and was kinda in the mood, so I picked up some pumpkins.”

Gibbs snorted, then laughed. “I noticed that. Almost stepped in a pile of pumpkin puke.”

“Hey, you’ve never seen the pictures of those that go around on the internet every year around this time? They’re great! Always wanted to do one, and since the recipe called for fresh pumpkin… I figured, why not?” Tony shrugged, and went back to fiddling with the pictures, finally handing one up to Gibbs.

“This was the last year we went,” Gibbs said sadly as he looked at the picture of Kelly dressed up as Ariel. “Never really wanted to celebrate it again after that.”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Tony replied gently. “This one’s my favorite.” He then handed over a picture of Gibbs and Shannon, dressed as an Indian and cowboy respectively. “You do feathers well, Jethro.”

Gibbs laughed, then reached forward to grab a picture that hadn’t been framed yet. In it, Shannon was dressed in Gibbs’ BDU’s, the camouflage pants nearly hanging off of her slim frame while the cap was set at a decidedly jaunty angle on top of her head. “This one’s mine. Same year as Kelly being a mermaid.”

“She looks good,” Tony replied as the oven buzzer sounded. “Be right back,” he added as he went to the kitchen, giving Gibbs a moment to himself before he returned carrying two bottles of beer. Handing one to Gibbs, he sat back down.

Chuckling, Gibbs put the picture back down and twisted the cap off his beer. “Yeah, she surprised me in that on my birthday, too.”

Tony laughed. “I figured it was something like that. There had to be some reason you wouldn’t let me play dress-up in them.”

“What do you want me to say, Tony?” Gibbs said angrily. “Sorry, babe, don’t want you to surprise me in my fatigues because my first wife did it, and I can’t stand to see anyone else wear them?”

“Well, yeah. That’d have worked,” Tony replied softly, causing Gibbs to look up in surprise.

“What?”

“Yeah, you think I’d argue with a reason like that? I’m not that dumb, Jethro. You keep trying to keep them hidden and safe, and I’m not going to judge you for that. You need to realize, though, that they’re family - I’m never going to ask you to forget them, or keep them hidden away.” Standing, Tony picked up several of the picture frames, then went and arranged them on the fireplace mantel while Gibbs remained on the couch, shocked by what he’d heard.

“Why?” Gibbs asked softly.

Turning around, Tony shook his head sadly. “One day, you’ll stop asking me that question.” He then headed back towards the kitchen with slumped shoulders.

Gibbs sat quietly on the couch, looking through the various pictures as he let Tony’s words sink in. Choking back the emotions that the other mans’ words had evoked in him, he stood up and walked back into the kitchen himself. Tony stood by the sink, laying pumpkin seeds out onto a baking sheet as a pie cooled next to him on the counter.

“I’m sorry,” Gibbs said quietly as he stood behind Tony and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Not used to having someone who doesn’t mind.”

“You need to stop doubting me, Jethro,” Tony replied. “I’m not an ex wife.” He then paused to gather his thoughts, and continued. “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.”

“Must be bad if you’re quoting the Jeanne era,” Gibbs murmured.

“Yeah, well, my boyfriend tends to be a pain in the ass and so I have to resort to drastic measures to beat things into his head sometimes,” Tony replied glibly. “Luckily for him, I love him anyway - of course, the fact that I can’t find a better steak anywhere in DC doesn‘t hurt.”

Gibbs chuckled, then pressed a kiss to Tony’s temple. “Best steak in DC, huh?”

“Yep. I have some marinating in the fridge, though, so I think we’d better make sure.”

“I think I can manage that,” Gibbs replied. “Why the pie?”

“Are you kidding me? Didn’t you see my masterpiece on the front porch?” Tony exclaimed, pulling away from Gibbs. “You said you nearly stepped in the puke…. You didn’t mess it up, did you? You’ll be sleeping on the couch if you did, buddy.” He emphasized his point by poking Gibbs in the chest before crossing his arms, causing the other man to laugh as he took a step back.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Don’t make me check, Jethro.”

“I didn’t!” Gibbs exclaimed. “Christ, you and your pumpkins! What the hell, Tony? You got some secret squash fetish I need to know about?”

“Oh, fuck this. You’re not getting any pie now!” Tony shot back. “See, a guy tries to do something nice…”

“Something nice? There’s a pumpkin puking all over the damn porch, DiNozzo! Not to mention the beer cans littered halfway down the lawn!”

Tony grimaced. “Shit, I knew I should’ve weighed those down.”

“Ya think?” Gibbs retorted. “Looks like there was a frat party on the front porch.”

“Jethro?”

“What?“

“How do you think I made the damn pie?” Tony followed his comment up by picking up the recipe and whacking Gibbs in the forehead with it. “Go start the fire.”

“Let me see that, would you?”

“What, the recipe? I found it in the box,” Tony replied.

“Just let me see the damn thing, would you?” Gibbs exclaimed.

Handing the recipe over, Tony waited for an explanation as Gibbs examined the recipe, then put his glasses on and looked it over once again. Peering over his glasses, Gibbs looked at Tony, then bent down and sniffed the pie.

“You put nutmeg in this, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s not listed in the recipe,” Gibbs commented as he pulled his glasses off and placed the card on the countertop.

“No, it’s not. Added some spice to it, I prefer it that way,” Tony stated. “Why, something wrong with that?”

Gibbs shook his head. “No, just…. That was Shannon’s secret. She would get requests for the recipe, and started leaving the nutmeg out of it so no one could copy it exactly. Won a contest on base with it one year.” He shook his head, smiling at the memory as he looked back up at a now smiling Tony. “Her pies were the best part about fall.”

Tony grinned. “Hopefully I did all right, then.” Sliding the baking sheet of pumpkin seeds into the oven, he washed his hands quickly and then grabbed a towel to dry off with.

“I’m sure you did,” Gibbs replied. “You mentioned steaks?”

“In the fridge.”

“I’ll go get the fire started then,” Gibbs said as he gave Tony a quick peck on the cheek, then turned around. A quick crack was followed by a stinging sensation in his back, and he spun around to find a mischievous grin on Tony’s face and the towel still in his hands. Snatching the towel away from him, Gibbs threw it towards the laundry room, glaring at Tony before stalking towards the living room to light the fire.

The sight of the paused videotape caused him to hesitate for a moment, and he waited only a moment before hitting play. The laughter of his long lost wife and child filled the room - for the first time in over twenty years, it acted as a balm for his soul rather than reminding him of what he’d lost. He’d missed this, missed having someone to come home to and remind him to not be such a grumpy bastard - he’d tried it three times after Shannon, and it was only after he had given up hope of ever having that happiness again that he once again found it. Poking at the logs in the fireplace, he lit them on fire, and straightened up - the sight of the pictures on the mantel making him smile.

“You alright?” Tony asked as he brought the steaks into the living room, obviously curious as to why Gibbs would be in a good mood after being snapped in the back with a towel.

“I’m good,” Gibbs replied with a chuckle as Tony put the steaks down on the coffee table.

“What’s so funny?”

“Just thinking about the past. Hey, aren’t you supposed to be at Abby’s party tonight?”

Tony shook his head. “Called her and told her something came up, that I couldn’t find my uni. She was disappointed, but I explained things, and she got over it pretty quickly.”

“Ah.” Gibbs nodded, then sat down on the couch before taking a sip of his beer and smiling up at Tony.

“Why are you in such a good mood?” Tony asked warily as he snuggled into Gibbs. “Normally I’d have to be worried about you getting me back for the towel, but you’re mellow right now, Jethro. It’s freaking me out.”

Gibbs chuckled, then dropped a kiss onto the top of Tony‘s head.

“Just thinking about how this is my favorite time of year. That’s all.”