AN: dedicated to -
William James Young
11/23/2009
"Forever in our hearts Poppy"
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Gibbs crouched down and pulled the beanie onto Tony’s head. Standing back up, he looked over the little boy; his eyes smiling. A total opposite to Tony who looked up at his Daddy, clearly not impressed with the latest development. Gibbs laughed at the look he got. Ok, well maybe I got a little carried away. Tony’s not impressed but at least he will be warm - Gibbs thought, looking again to Tony who had pulled the black beanie off his head and thrown it on the floor, his blonde curls sticking up with the static created.
Tony was standing stiffly, unable to move with the layers of clothing Gibbs had placed upon the small body, and to top it all off Gibbs had also managed to get him into a snow suit, a red, overly padded, one piece snow suit. Nope - Tony was definitely not happy - but with the weather being so cold outside Gibbs wasn’t taking any chances; he had slotted into the role of protective father quite well.
This was to be Tony’s first experience with snow, he’d seen it from the window, and when he was transported from house to car to wherever they were going next, as yet he was still to play in it. But today was the day; Gibbs had to clear the driveway and the path to the house and couldn’t leave Tony inside on his own. The heavy snowfalls over the last few days had covered the area and with Jackson Gibbs arriving in 2 hours he needed to make sure the man could park his car somewhere and make it to the house without falling.
Gibbs felt the tension returning to his body at the thought of his dad’s arrival. It had started two nights ago with a phone call and after spending close to 4 hours talking, trying to resolve some of the issues between them and telling him about Isabella and the boy who was now his son, the phone call had ended with Gibbs inviting his father for Christmas. So here he was, tense at the arrival because he had no idea what to expect - 9 years is a long time.
Gibbs sighed and put the beanie back onto Tony’s little head, “Come on Tony, up we go,” Gibbs said scooping the little boy into his arms, “It’s snow time!”
Coaxing the pacifier into Tony’s mouth and placing the snow boots onto little feet, Gibbs opened the front door and stepped onto the porch, chuckling as Tony’s little eyes bulged out of his head as the cold hit him. Grabbing the shovel in one hand with Tony in the other arm he made his way to the driveway, standing Tony on the ground next to him, he started to shovel quickly. Tony looked thoroughly confused at the white cold stuff falling onto his face " his eyes wide with wonderment and wrinkling his nose as a small flake landed on it, his little mittened hands swiping away the offending flakes as they fell softly onto him.
As Gibbs started to move further down the driveway he noticed Tony following him, looking bewildered and taking uncertain steps on the uneven snowy surface, his little boots making a crunching sound as he walked. It was as Gibbs had finished the driveway and was moving onto the sidewalk that Tony fell. Gibbs saw it in slow motion, Tony falling face first into a soft mound of snow. Gibbs let out a chuckle before sobering at Tony’s cries for his “Daa-Dee”, Gibbs knew he was just crying more out of shock than anything else but it still made his heart clench,
“It’s okay buddy, you’re alright, it’s just a little bit of snow.” Gibbs picked up the little boy, brushing the snow off his face and cuddling him soothingly whilst popping the pacifier back into the little mouth, “Hey, no more tears, daddy’s here” Gibbs soothed softly and wiped the baby tears from his boys eyes. Once Tony’s sobs abated Gibbs tried to put him down, but Tony point blank refused to be put down on the evil white stuff, tears once again spilling over the soft lashes, his bottom lip quivering.
“Okay, Tony hold on a second.” Gibbs was struck with an idea. Tony nestled in one arm as Gibbs opened the garage, moving towards the back, he pulled out from behind an old cabinet a pink plastic sled. The sled had been Kelly’s, she loved it, they had spent many afternoons together taking the sled up the hill at the end of the street - Kelly squealing with delight as they flew down to the bottom. Oh the trouble Kelly would get into with that sled; Gibbs remembered fondly the day she took out a mailbox and was lucky she didn’t hurt herself. It was ironic really, that the sled that got his angelic little girl in trouble was now going to keep his cheeky boy out of it. Gibbs sat Tony in the sled, before dragging it behind him and finishing off the work he had to do.
Tony was enjoying his sled ride, chirping and giggling away and he was getting braver with the snow too, picking it up gently in his mittened hands, and, true to form, eating it, making a face at the coldness. Gibbs smiled as Tony got cranky at the snow for being so cold in his mouth, babbling at it in a grumpy tone and waving his hands around. And he laughed out loud when Tony threw a handful of snow at him.
Gibbs gave a playful growl then threw some snow softly back at Tony, who giggled delightedly, his eyes shining brightly; all fear of the snow now gone.
The sight that greeted Jackson (Jack) Gibbs on arrival to his son’s house was a delightful one, and it brought back memories of his granddaughter and the life he once had, one that he missed with all his heart. His son " Leroy " was crouched down in the snow carefully throwing tiny snowballs at the pint sized child standing in front of him; the little boy was laughing and trying to stay upright as another snowball hit him with a soft thud. Jackson chuckled to himself; at some point the little boy had lost a mitten, and had a look of disgust, shock and confusion on his face as he touched the snow with a bare hand. The kid seemed like a happy little fellow, and peels of the boy’s giggles could be heard breaking the silence of the day.
And Leroy, his boy, looked contented and happy, truly happy almost as though his world had finally righted itself after so many years of pain. This was a stark difference to the man he had last seen at Shannon and Kelly’s funeral, that enraged, inconsolable, devastated, guilt ridden man, a man whose entire world had crashed down around him in a blink of an eye, a man who had contemplated eating his gun on more than one occasion when the darkness overcame him.
Yes, Jackson knew all about Leroy and what he became after his family’s tragic fate. Unbeknown to his son, Jackson had kept in contact with Isabella " right up until her marriage - and had been told all about the darkness and despair his son had found, even though Leroy had wanted nothing to do with him after the funeral Jackson had managed to keep tabs on his boy. Jackson had been crushed when he found out the happy family man had turned into a gruff shell of himself, and how he had closed off his heart to the world. Now looking at his son with Isabella’s boy - no, now he was Leroy’s boy - it seemed as though his son had opened his heart and managed to reclaim some of what he lost all those years ago. Jackson hoped that starting now he too would be able to regain what his heart was missing. His son. A grandchild.
---------------FLASHBACK---------------
“Grandpa, Grandpa!” Kelly squealed, as Jackson got out of the car. The little girl raced across the snow covered ground and threw herself full force at the man, her arms squeezing him tightly, “I missed you so much Grandpa.”
Kelly’s cheeks were slightly flushed with the cool air and she was smiling so brightly that the mere sight of it would warm the coldest heart.
“Kelly is that you? I could barely recognize you; you’ve grown so much since I saw you last.”
Kelly laughed, “You’re silly Grandpa, you saw me two weeks ago for my school concert, remember?”
“So I did,” Jackson chuckled, “And you were the loveliest, piano playing Christmas tree I have ever seen.”
“I really was, wasn’t I?”
At 7 years old Kelly wasn’t really a modest child. She was beautiful, funny, and smart and she knew it too.
“Come on Grandpa, I have so many things to show you - Daddy and I made a snowman! Maddie and I made a new run for the sled! And Mommy made cookies, Aunty Bella burnt them so they’re not very good, but you have to pretend to like them so Bella won’t feel too bad!”
Jackson laughed as Kelly grabbed his hand, dragging him towards her first show and tell item, a contented smile on his face. He was finally home again.
---------------END FLASHBACK---------------
Gibbs let out a sigh as his dad stepped out of the car. It was now or never. Picking Tony up from the ground he made his way over to his dad,
“Dad.”
“Leroy.”
Both men paused, slightly uncomfortable and unsure of what to say. Despite the fact they had cleared the air, and agreed to start a fresh in their phone conversation, this first meeting was always going to be difficult.
“Car!” Tony piped up, breaking the silence, excitedly pointing to Jacks red car in the driveway.
“Atta boy Tony, yeah that’s a car,” Gibbs patted the boy on the head before directing his words towards his dad, “Well he is impressed, red cars are his favorite. Dad, meet Tony.”
Jackson took a good look at the boy, his grandson; he really was a cute, good looking kid, which was to be expected considering how lovely Isabella had been.
“My god Leroy, he looks like Isabella. I would recognize those eyes anywhere.”
Jackson reached out to take Tony from Gibbs arms; Tony grabbed onto his daddy’s shirt tightly and buried his head in Gibbs’ neck. Gibbs saw a flash of hurt in the older man’s eyes.
“Don’t worry dad,” He spoke reassuringly, “It will take him a little while to warm up. He’s been teething lately and has been a little clingy, plus he hasn’t had a sleep today so is probably tired.”
Jackson gave a small smile, “It’s alright Leroy, the boy is probably like all babies his age, a little weary of strangers.”
Those words caused mixed emotions in Gibbs - he was happy that Tony now had a constant figure in his life so the boy could tell the difference between ‘strangers’ and those who would look after him - but also filled him with sadness and regret as ‘strangers’ is what his father and he had become over the years. Not wanting to get into a discussion on the topic in the front yard, Gibbs just shrugged his shoulder and rubbed Tony soothingly on the back.
“We should really get inside, Tony and I have been out here for a while now and it’s getting colder, I don’t want him to get a chill. Do you need a hand with your bags?”
“No thanks son, I’ve got them.” Jackson grabbed the suitcase from the car and followed his son inside. Noticing how very few changes to the house had been made since he was last here; the ex-wives Isabella had told him about obviously hadn’t made much of an impression to the home. The only real difference was the large T.V in the lounge room, everything else was pretty much still the same. Same couch, same tables, same kitchen and same rugs, even the presence of toys was the same only this time instead of being neatly stacked " as Shannon always did " they were scattered on the floor, and instead of the dolls and tea sets there were cars and blocks. Everything was the same and yet so completely different.
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After changing Tony and getting Jack settled into the guest room, they all returned to the lounge room. Gibbs sat Tony on the floor amongst his toys and Tony immediately started bashing blocks together and throwing them even further around the room, squealing in delight as he shoved the end of the large wooded block in his mouth, before taking it out and returning to the previous bash and throw game.
Jack laughed as he caught one of Tony’s blocks before it hit the window “I bet he’s a handful.”
“He has his moments, but he’s a good boy; usually pretty happy and content really.”
“How’s his temper? Kelly had a shocking temper at this age, I remember.”
Gibbs’ heart constricted painfully at the mention of Kelly. Even with all the stuff happening with Isabella and Tony, Gibbs had still managed to keep the mentioning of Kelly and Shannon to a minimum. Sure he thought about them a lot, especially when watching Tony, but as for talking about them with someone - well… it was hard, and wasn’t something he wanted to do right now.
Gibbs answered, trying to keep the tone of his voice light, and changing the subject quickly, “He hasn’t really thrown a tantrum yet, but he does have a good set of lungs on him - so when he does it will be a good one. I really should check on dinner - I started the roast a few hours ago so it should almost be done. You want a beer?” Gibbs threw the question over his shoulder as he walked towards the kitchen. Tony toddled behind his daddy, dragging a piece of tinsel he had just ripped off the tree behind him.
Jackson sensed the turn of conversation was intentional, and that his son didn’t want to go bringing up any painful memories so let it go.
“Yeah a beer would be good Leroy thanks.” The beer might help to remove the tension in the room, “It seems you have a little shadow following you,” Jackson chuckled as he watched Tony following his dad around, sticking so close to the man it was a wonder he didn’t trip over the boy, “Does he rip things of the tree often?”
Gibbs laughed as he answered, a sparkle lit up the blue eyes. “The tree has been up for three days and he’s destroyed the parts he can reach twice already, I had to move all the baubles out of his reach - he thinks they’re balls and keeps throwing them.” Gibbs walked back into the lounge room with Tony following and handed the beer over before walking back to the kitchen. Tony lingered near Jackson for a moment before giving a smile and handing over the tinsel babbling something Jackson couldn’t make out, then he took off after his dad again.
After a few minutes of Gibbs being in the kitchen the banging started up. Tony was banging loudly on a plastic container yelling, “Da, Da, Da!” at the top of his voice. Gibbs, who was used to the noise, ignored it. Jackson couldn’t.
“What’s going on here little fella?” Jackson questioned the boy, who was sitting on the floor near his dad’s feet, banging happily away. Tony paused, looking up at Jackson who had crouched down in front of him; Tony gave the man a cheeky smile, before bashing the container again with newfound enthusiasm. “Is he always this noisy Leroy?”
Gibbs smiled and picked Tony up off the floor and took him back over to his toy pile - Tony started pressing buttons on his toy car, making noise once again.
“Trust me dad, it’s when he’s quiet that you need to worry.”
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Gibbs and Jackson had been talking in the kitchen for around 15 minutes when Gibbs noticed something, well a lack of something anyway.
“Dad do you hear anything?”
“No…”
“Exactly,” Gibbs cut him off, quickly going into the lounge room, “Toooonny!” Gibbs called out, “Where are you?” in as close to a singsong voice as a gruff ex-marine could. No noise could be heard.
“Where’d the little fella go?” Jackson said, as he looked around the room.
“Not sure, but I can tell you where he was,“ Gibbs pointing towards the Christmas tree, the gifts had been unceremoniously strewn about and the wrapping paper had been poked and ripped by little fingers. With a sigh Gibbs noticed the sticky handprints on the floor and the half eaten slobbery candy cane poking out from under the couch, “Looks like he got his hands on the candy canes too.” Although I have no idea how he could of reached them Gibbs thought with amusement.
“Well son, your right, looks like tornado Tony had swept through here.” Jackson was surprised that his son seemed so calm - not only about the sticky mess on the floor, but also about the disappearing of the child in question.
Gibbs guessed what his father was thinking and shrugged, “He’s a cheeky boy; this happens a lot, I guess I’m getting used to it.”
Both men looked as the sticky trail stopped next to the couch. Peering behind it they spied Tony sleeping wedged between the couch and the wall, sticky drool covering his face and hands. Jackson smiled happily and picked up the boy from where he was sleeping, cuddling him softly as Gibbs moved the couch back into place and went to get a washcloth to clean Tony up.
Tony stirred and opened his eyes, rubbing them tiredly, spreading the sticky mess even further over his face. Jackson looked down at the sleepy little boy in his arms and watched as Tony looked around for his daddy; not seeing him around, Tony let out a whimper and started to sniffle. Jackson cuddled him closer and patted him softly on the back, pacing the room and calming him down. Jack knew it was working when the little boy stopped sniffling and snuggled into him further.
The warm baby body brought back memories in a rush, nights just like this where he held Kelly and rocked her to sleep on many occasions. He’d loved that little girl with all his heart - he was her Grandpa, they shared a special bond, and now, just maybe, he was getting a second chance at that bond with Tony.
Gibbs returned with a warm, fresh washcloth and gently wiped over Tony’s face and hands, removing all the sticky trace, and also cleaned up the floor. Giving Tony, who was still in Jackson’s arms, a kiss on the head, he asked his dad,
“Would you mind watching him for a bit while I serve dinner out?” Knowing his dad would very much like to watch Tony and was, in a way, waiting for permission to bond with his new grandson. The relationship between his father and himself was still in repair so both were treading very carefully not to cross over any lines.
“Of course Leroy, we’ll play a while. You do what you need to.”
Gibbs made his way to the kitchen and started to serve out the dinner. He watched as his father sat on the floor with Tony in his lap, making car noises and running one of Tony’s trucks over the floor. Tony laughed in amusement and grabbed the older man’s hand, ‘helping’ to drive the truck around. Gibbs watched, a fond look sweeping over his features.
“Okay, Dinner’s up.” Gibbs placed the carved roast pork and vegetables on the table " if there was one good thing that came from his ex-wives, it was that he now knew how to make a mean baked dinner. And a baked dinner was exactly what was called for on a snowy Christmas Eve.
Dinner was eaten, the kitchen was clean, and Tony had been bathed and dressed into his new pajamas - red fleecy bottoms and a red and white fleecy top with a picture of Rudolph the reindeer on the front. Kate had found them in her lunch break and apparently ‘accidently’ bought them, stating that they would make Tony even cuter. Looking at the little boy, Gibbs had to agree.
Tony toddled into the kitchen and tugged on Gibbs’ pants,
“Da-Dee,” Gibbs looked down at his boy as Tony pointed to the empty baby bottle on the sink, “Bo”
“Do you want some milk?” Gibbs asked. Tony nodded, “Put your toys away and then you can have some, okay?” Gibbs took Tony’s small hand in his and started back to the lounge room to clean up his mess.
Tony stopped moving and looked back toward the kitchen at Jackson, letting go of Gibbs’ hand Tony walked over and held out a hand to the older man. Jackson took it, Tony looked very pleased with himself as he walked back to his dad, grabbing his hand also and slowly leading both men to the lounge room.
“It seems you grandson requires your help.” Gibbs said smiling at the older gentleman, Jackson returned the smile his eyes aglow with pride, that was right his grandson.
“Pick up your toys Tony,” Gibbs said, letting go of his little hand and bending down to pick up some of the blocks. Tony copied his dad bending down and picking up one block and car at a time and placing it back into the box (a very slow process), every so often walking over to Jackson, who was now sitting on the sofa, and depositing a toy onto his lap.
At 16 months Tony could understand basic questions and instructions well, and could say around 12 words clearly, but he still relied mostly on nonverbal communication, grunting and pointing mixed in with his gibberish, but he usually managed to get his point across.
Tony stood in the middle of the floor, pointing to the Christmas tree grunting babbling what could have been “ites”. Immediately Gibbs knew what Tony wanted, the same thing the boy wanted every night since the tree went up. Tony loved the lights - he was obsessed with them. Every night after dinner Gibbs had turned them on at the little boy’s insistence, tonight was no different.
“Okay Tony, I’ll turn the lights on now.” Gibbs flicked the switch and the tree lit up with sparkling, twinkling lights. Tony squealed and clapped his hands with joy, his eyes lighting up with glee as he watched the lights dance amongst the decorations and branches. He flopped down on his little bottom and stared at the lights, completely mesmerized. Gibbs finished cleaning up Tony’s toys and sat on the couch near his dad.
“Your boy really likes those lights, Leroy. His eyes lit up just like Bella’s used to. You could always tell what Isabella was feeling; all you had to do was look at her eyes. He’s the same, I think.” Jackson had heard from his son about Tony’s less that stellar first year of life, looking at the boy a pure innocent joy on his face it was hard to tell that it had only been a few months since he had been removed from that nightmare, Leroy had done a wonderful job with the boy and needed to be told. “Son, from what you have told me you’ve done a great job of earning the boy’s love and trust, especially considering what he’s been through. He truly is a happy little fellow now isn’t he? All you have to do is watch and you can tell how much he loves you, and how happy he is.”
“Yeah Dad, he is, thanks” His tone was soft and full of love as he watched his son, “He’s also very tired.” Gibbs had noticed Tony rubbing his eyes more and more as they watched the lights, his little mouth opening wide at the uncontrollable yawns, his eyes getting heavier and blinking slowly, a little but sure sign he was tired " probably over tired since he didn’t have his nap today " Gibbs thought. Tony hadn’t been sleeping well with his teething, often waking up in the night crying - the boy was going to crash.
“I’ll get his bottle ready.” Jackson offered, pushing himself out of the chair slowly.
Gibbs picked Tony up from where he was sitting and cuddled him; Tony’s eyes were still shining brightly from watching the lights. Gibbs bent down behind the tree and pulled out a stocking with a blue bear wearing a Santa hat on it. The name ‘Tony” had been carefully embroidered on the front, a present from Ducky’s mother. Gibbs hung it carefully from the fireplace,
“If you’re a good boy, Santa will bring you a surprise tonight,” Tony looked up at his dad; an innocent butter wouldn’t melt expression on his face. Gibbs laughed, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He gave his boy another squeeze and reached down behind the tree again, this time lifting two stockings up - the names ‘Shannon’ and ‘Kelly’ emblazoned on the front of each one. Gibbs lifted them up to his lips and placed a soft kiss on each before hanging them next to Tony’s. Gibbs whispered, his voice full of emotion. “Merry Christmas Shan, Kells, we miss you.”
Jackson watched from his place in the kitchen, a tear escaping from the corner of his eye, “Merry Christmas.” He echoed silently.
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“T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…”
Rrriip…
“Tony no! Wait a second, let daddy turn the pages okay?” Gibbs gently took Tony’s little hand away from the book and made a mental note to stick the page back in when they had finished. Tony looked up at him, eyes shining, his half finished bottle dangling from his mouth. Jackson chuckled from his position on the couch and Gibbs smiled softly at his boy. He was enjoying the quiet, relaxing time with his son, and his dad, cuddled up on the couch, the warmth of the fire driving away the dark and the chill outside.
Gibbs leaned back into the sofa and Tony leaned back against Gibbs’ chest, pushing the bottle into his dad’s hands. Gibbs held the bottle with one hand, feeding Tony and the book in the other, reading softly. Gibbs was secretly hoping Tony would drift off to sleep. Glancing at his dad on the other chair, Gibbs was surprised to see the gleam of tears in the older mans eyes.
Jackson had so many memories running through his head, and the sight of his son so happy and content made tears of joy spring to his eyes. Many a night had Leroy read stories to his little girl and it was lovely to see his son have the ability to do it once more. Through the course of his visit Jackson had seen none of the overly gruff exterior Isabella had spoken of years ago - however, Jackson believed the softness he saw in his son was a recent development and more than likely a product of Tony’s arrival.
As Gibbs continued to read, the sucking on Tony’s bottle had slowed down, his eyes were drooping, breaths were slowing and evening out, and the grip Tony had on his daddy’s fingers had lessened. Finally, the little boy had fallen asleep.
“I’ll just put Tony to bed, it’s probably better if I keep him in with me tonight. He’s been waking during the night with his teeth coming through.” Gibbs said with a whisper to his dad, who, by the look of it, was almost asleep himself. The guest room was right next to the nursery, and with the ruckus Tony had been causing the last few nights, Gibbs didn’t want to disturb the elderly man.
Putting Tony squarely in the middle of his large bed, Gibbs laid pillows around the edges to hopefully prevent Tony from falling out. Gibbs tucked the little boy in - his angelic face was illuminated softly by the lamp on the dresser, blonde curls catching the light, his little cheeks were slightly pink and his breaths were coming out slow and steady. If he didn’t have a visitor downstairs, Gibbs probably would have gone to sleep there and then in the peacefulness and warmth of the room. Alas, he kissed the boy lightly on the top of his head and whispered the same goodnight he said every night, the same one he had said to Kelly.
“Sleepy boy, close your eyes. Daddy’s right here beside you. Close your eyes, close them tight, may you wake with morning light…. Goodnight Tony, I love you always and forever. I’ll be in soon buddy.” With that Gibbs left the room, heading back down to the lounge room, stopping to grab a bottle of bourbon from the kitchen and two clean glasses. Sitting back down on the couch Gibbs poured two measures of bourbon in each glass and handed one to his dad " They would both need some liquid courage to help the coming conversation flow freely.
After 30 minutes of silence and few more measures of courage, Jackson spoke.
“Is Santa coming to your boy this year?”
“Yeah. If Santa didn’t make a visit I think my team would be pretty disappointed, I’d never hear the end of it. I’m sure they would be more bothered by it that Tony” A small smile graced Gibbs’ face as he spoke.
“From what you mentioned of them the other night on the phone, you’re probably right. I hope you’re not going to give the boy coal, son.”
“Tony would probably enjoy eating it, if I did, but no, I brought presents - I even went out and chose them.”
Jackson chuckled then dared to ask the question,
“Do you remember the year Kelly asked for that swing set?”
---------------FLASHBACK---------------
Kelly asked for a swing set. Sitting on Santa’s lap she had asked the jolly man in the red fur suit for it. So here they were Jackson and Jethro, 11pm on Christmas Eve, outside in the freezing cold snow, which was still falling heavily, trying to workout how to put the thing together in the very little light they had shining from the back deck.
“Hell Dad, watch where you’re moving that pole to, you nearly took off my head.”
“You should watch where you’re bloody going then son,” Jackson quipped back, “Explain to me again why I agreed to help you do this?”
“Because you love Kelly, you’re her granddad, and she asked Santa for this.”
“You could have just stopped with, ‘because I love Kelly’, that’s reason enough for me.”
The two men struggled for another hour and a half trying to put the darn swing set together before it was finally done. They stood back, admiring their work as Jackson slung an arm over his son’s shoulders, “That’s some fine work there son, I think we will have one very happy little girl in the morning.”
Jethro laughed, “We sure will, now let’s go inside before we freeze to death.”
Walking towards the back glass doors, the men noticed that the lights were all off, except for the flickering lights on the Christmas tree. “Shannon must have given up on us and gone to bed.” Jethro said as he went to open the door - it didn’t budge. He jiggled the handle… nothing.
“SHIT… It’s locked, the door must have locked itself when it closed.”
“Now what? Your wife sleeps like a log, there is no way she is going to wake up and let us in.” Jackson groaned.
“We’ll have to go in through the toilet window, it’s the only one likely to be unlocked, I’ll hoist you up and you can climb through and unlatch the door. The window should be plenty big enough; I’ve gotten through there myself a few times.”
“Good, in that case you can go through the window and let me in the normal way, my bones are too old to be going through windows!”
Jethro finally agreed and after a further 30 minutes the door was unlocked and they were warm in the house and on their way to bed.
“Son, you need to make another rule about always carrying lock picks, maybe it could be rule number 23.”
“Nope, number 23 is never mess with a marine’s coffee. Night dad.”
“Night son.”
---------------END FLASHBACK---------------
Both men were laughing at the memory, and each had tears running down their faces.
“You know, Kelly came in at 4am on Christmas morning and woke both Shannon and I up. She wanted to go outside right there and then to play on those darn swings. Shan and I snuggled with her until it was a more acceptable time to get up, it was 6am when we finally gave in. I remember her running into your room and jumping on you bed and yelling ‘Santa has been grandpa’, before she took of down stairs to look out the window. She was so damn excited when she saw those swings; I thought she was going to explode with all her happy energy,” Gibbs chuckled and sniffed slightly wiping his eyes, “God she was happy.”
Shannon and Kelly had been killed the following year and everything had fallen apart. That was the last Christmas they spent together as a family, that was the last Christmas up until now that either man had celebrated, both mourning for a family lost.
Now with Tony mending the hearts of those around him, bringing love back into hollowed lives, inciting forgiveness between a father and son, both men could honestly see the light; both men knew that everything was going to be alright. Starting now.
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