AN: Apologies to those who were upset at certain descriptions in the last chapter. I will do better next time. In other news I apologize if my posts are a bit slower, between school and some personal stuff, I'm a bit stressed at the moment.

Chapter Three

Jethro wasn't entirely sure when he fell asleep, it was quite some time after they'd put their new children to bed, and after his third brief panic attack about parenthood. So when the marine slowly opened his eyes only to find himself being not only stared at, but clearly judged within an inch of his life by a toddler with very, very green eyes, he was startled enough that he yelped and rolled right off the bed.

A sharp giggle filled the room, and Jethro was certain, that despite how sore his hip was now from connecting with the thin carpet of their condo, that it was still the most beautiful sound in the entire world. He popped up, just enough for his blue eyes to stare up at her over the side, "Think that's funny huh?" he questioned.

Her head nodded with abandonment as she giggled more and playfully flung a pillow at his head. He chuckled as he pretended to fall over again, getting yet another giggle. Grinning, he sat up and crossed his arms on the bed looking up at her. "Hi," he replied.

"Are you my new daddy?" She asked.

He smiled as he stood and sat back on the bed, against the headboard, he was fairly pleased when she climbed into his lap, leaning her side against him. He comfortably wrapped both his arms around her and hugged her, gentle of her injuries. "I'd like to be, my name is Jethro Gibbs, and my wife, who you may have met by now is Shannon. You and Tony are going to stay with us for awhile, and if you decide you like us, then we would like to adopt you," he explained.

She threw her arms around his neck suddenly and hugged him tight, "I like hugs, do you like hugs, Mr. Gibbs?"

He pulled her flush against his chest, and wrapped both his arms around her, giving her the tightest hug he could without causing her pain, "I love hugs, Abby."

"Then I wanna stay forever!" she cheered, before planting a big kiss on his cheek.

He chuckled at the sheer simplicity of the small child, he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek as well and grinned, "Well I'm glad. Why don't we go see where your brother and Shannon are?"

"Breakfast!"

He smirked as he stood and pulled on a sweatshirt to ease the chill of the morning, he lifted her into his arms, resting her against his chest again and together they headed downstairs into the kitchen. As promised Shannon and Tony were both active in the kitchen, Tony stood on a chair and was cracking eggs into a pan, while Shannon prepped the toast and bacon. Occasionally Tony's little hands would drop one of the shells, and he'd pause to see if he'd get yelled at. Shannon smiled and stepped over behind him, showing him how to use the egg shell to get the small pieces out.

"Wow something smells amazing in here, it must be Tony's cooking!" he joked as he kissed his wife and dropped a kiss to the top of the boy's head. Tony beamed as he looked up at his new foster father. "Looks like you're doing great champ," he sat Abby down in a high chair they'd been given by his father. It had been Jethro's when he was a little boy. "Abby do you want some juice, or milk?"

"Milk," she cheered.

"How you feeling today, Tony?"

"Ms. Shannon is teaching me cooking," his chest puffed with pride as he told Jethro about his morning.

They didn't mention the previous night, Jethro knew at some point they'd have to, but for now it appeared the two children were more than a little ready to adjust to their new home. As they sat down to breakfast, it was Tony who asked first, "Do we gotta do chores?"

Jethro looked at the boy, considering his words carefully, ultimately he would prefer the child speak proper English, but at the moment, only a day in he was willing to let the improper wording go just for the sake of comfort. "You'll have a couple, for example Shannon may have you clear or set the table once in awhile, and she'll probably fold your laundry but have you put it away. Then obviously we'd like you to clean up after yourselves when it comes to toys. Does that seem fair?"

Tony's eyes went wide at the idea that his opinion suddenly mattered, "Yeah, what happens if I forget or don't finish?"

Shannon glanced at her husband, "Well if we ask you to do something, we expect you to do it, out of respect, for example if I ask you to clean up something you've spilled, I expect you to do so because it's your home too and partly your responsibility to keep it nice, does that make sense?" Once she got a nod she continued, "So if you flat out ignore a request like that, we'll probably either have you do a few extra tasks as punishment, or we'll take toys or TV away."

"No hitting?"

Jethro reached out and grabbed the boy's hand, "We will never, ever, hit you as punishment. The only exception we may ever make is if you were to put you or others in harms way and you may get a spanking, but Shannon and I would discuss first before punishment. No one ever has the right to touch you without your permission, Tony. Neither one of you, understood?" he looked over at Abby who was half listening and nodded.

"So, Shannon and I were thinking, if you guys were up to it, maybe we'd go shopping, get you some more clothes that fit you, stock our pantries with food you guys like, and help you decide how to decorate your room? What do you two think?"

"Hippos!" cheered Abby taking a nibble of her bacon, causing the other three to chuckle.

o0o

Sometime around four in the evening, Jethro began to realize that children were endless energy sources, as they stepped into their house, Tony was babbling a million miles a minute about the colors they'd chosen for the room, one wall would be bright green and there would be black accents around the room, thanks to Abby's…unique tastes at such a young age.

Abby had conked out twice between the clothes shopping and food shopping, and was currently drooling on Shannon's shoulder while Jethro and Tony man handled all the bags into the house. "I'm going to go put her down for a bit," Shannon explained, carrying the tot up the stairs.

Jethro plopped down on the couch, amused as his foster son did the exact same thing, the two of them both kicking up their feet onto the coffee table. He smirked as the boy flopped against his side with ease. "You wore me out, big man," Jethro muttered as he rubbed his hand over Tony's chest.

"Miss Shannon said you're a marine…I thought they didn't run outta energy sir."

Jethro chuckled as he patted the boy, "I'll tell you a secret about growing up…your energy magically disappears the older you get."

"Growing up sounds lame."

He smirked and leaned his head back against the couch, "Mr. Gibbs…can I stay wif you forever."

"I'd love that, kiddo. I'd really love that," he closed his eyes and sighed, feeling the boy beside him grow a little more limp.

That was how Shannon found the boys, fast asleep on the couch, little Tony sinking further and further into his new beloved foster dad. She grinned, and found their Polaroid, she took a quick picture, setting it on the TV stand, before picking up their groceries and putting them away.

o0o

Shannon and Jethro kept Tony out of school for the remainder of the week while they worked on getting him transferred to a school closer by. Shannon, a teacher herself, spent her days teaching Tony the basics, and helping Abby as well occasionally. Jethro was in the midst of his year at home, meaning in another 8 months he'd be sent back out on deployment. So his hours were thankfully regular, but he was constantly training and prepping for the next deployment. His deployment would then be roughly six months in length, followed by another year in the country. He was currently being trained as a sniper.

By Monday of the following week, Tony was being dropped off at the on base elementary school at Quantico. Shannon had cut herself back to strictly substituting, but had put that on hold for until they felt Abby was ready for daycare. There was an on base Child development center, she would start taking Abby to next week to visit, for part of the day, but they wanted to work her up to being comfortable being left on her own.

At this point she was cleaning up the house a bit, having let things go while they'd let the kids settle in, when she heard a voice cry from upstairs. "MOMMY!" it startled her at first, because Abby nor Tony had called her yet that. She supposed on some level it was an instinct for someone so young as Abby to call whoever her caretaker was, mommy and daddy. She hurried up the stairs to find Abby sitting on the floor crying, hands outstretched for someone to give her a hug.

Shannon smiled as she knelt down and let the toddler climb into her arms, "What's wrong, Princess?" She pressed a kiss to the girl's temple, "Did you have a nightmare?" the toddler had been napping. A small head nodded against her neck. Shannon sat down in the rocking chair, holding the girl close, and ran her hand over her hair; the nightmares were still coming just about every other night for one or both of the children. Tony tried to hide his fear, while Abby embraced it and sought out comfort. She imagined that Tony, being a little older was struggling to attach himself to Jethro and her.

"I have to go pick your big brother up from school, would you like to come?" It was a silly question, there was no question she'd come, Shannon couldn't leave her home alone, but this way Abby felt included.

"Yay! I miss Tony," she whined.

Shannon gave the girl a sad frown; she hadn't really thought about that, these two had spent a lot of time together lately. It made sense that the only constants in their lives were each other and that they might miss one another. "Oh, Abby, I'm sorry baby. He's at school, it's perfectly normal, we should've explained that better, come on, lets get your shoes on and we'll go check in on him a bit early, okay?"

A few minutes later the two were walking together towards the school, Abby had become rather adamant in the last week about walking everywhere. She adored being picked up and hugged, but the more she saw her big brother doing things on his own, she wanted to copy. So she gripped two of Shannon's fingers tight as they headed to the school.

The elementary school wasn't far, only about a ten minute walk from their house, and Abby managed almost all of it without tripping over anything. There were some students already on the playground, having been released a few minutes early for play. Not seeing her little boy, she looked down at Abby, "Would you like to play on the playground for a bit while we wait?"

"Kay!" the girl cheered before toddling off in the direction of the sand box. Chuckling to herself, she realized she and Jethro would have their handful with Abby. At barely two she was far more independent than she was prepared for and considering her language skills she was fairly well spoken and dangerously opinionated. Yes, she'd be a spit-fire later.

Moving to a bench near the sand box, she saw Abby sitting next to another little toddler, his mother was clearly sitting nearby, talking to another mom, because she'd glance over at him every once in awhile. The boy was maybe a year or so older than Abby. He was quiet and focused on his task at hand, which appeared to be building a castle, with only a few blocks.

"I'm Abby!" Abby introduced as she plopped down in the box across from him.

The boy glanced up, he had blue green eyes and a sweet face, "I'm Timmy," he replied, "Do you want to help me build?"

"Sure!" For the next ten minutes they worked together to build a mighty sandcastle. Suddenly there was a flurry of movement and Tony came up, and jumped atop the castle.

"TONY!" squealed Abby in a fit of anger.

"No!" Timmy shouted, his eyes watering in anger and frustration.

"You're a baby! Only babies cry!" Tony shouted pointing at Timmy.

Abby stood up, nearly a head under her big brother and pushed him, as hard as she could. She caught him just off balance and he fell out of the sandbox and on his back, smacking his head on the ground. Everyone froze for a moment as they realized what had happened before Tony opened his mouth and started crying out like he'd be maimed.

"Tony! Abby, what on earth!?" Shannon have been talking to the teacher about his first day, not seeing what the boy was doing.

"Timmy," Tim's mother hurried over, picking up her four year old, "I'm so sorry-" she began to apologize Shannon, before Abby spoke up.

"How comes! It was Tony's fault!" Abby snapped, stomping her foot.

"He destroyed my castle," whispered Timmy as he curled up in his mother's arms.

Shannon looked down at the crying boy, "Tony, that's mean, stand up, so I can make sure you're all right. Abigail, you don't push, that's also mean," she told the toddler."

"Looks like you have your hands full with those two," the woman offered as she brushed her son off, he was trying to push her hands away. "I'm Stacy McGee by the way."

"Shannon Gibbs, I really am sorry for his behavior, he's testing his boundaries, it would seem. I hope Timmy is okay?"

"I'm fine," Timmy replied, before he grinned at Abby, who grabbed him in a hug, startling him slightly.

"Do you live on base?" Shannon asked.

Stacy shook her head, "No, actually my husband is in a meeting right now, so I brought Timmy here to play. We should probably get going, but it was nice meeting you, even you Tony."

"Thanks!" the little boy replied, his eyes lighting up, despite having been soaked with tears only a moment earlier.

Shannon waved as Stacy and Timmy walked the opposite way, before she put her hands on her hips and looked at her two, "Well, this has been a rather interesting day. You know Tony, Abby missed you all day, and the first thing you did was ruin something she did."

Tony looked down at the ground, scuffing his shoe slightly, "I'm sorry, Abs."

Abby eyed him for another moment, before reply with a huge hug to him as well, "It's okay!"

"All right you two, lets head home, make some dinner for daddy Jethro," she scooped Abby up in her arms, and took Tony's outstretched hand. He didn't hold onto it long though, soon he was handing his backpack off to her and running zig zag in front of her the entire way home. "Tony, why don't you and you and Abby go play out back, there's a tire swing from the previous owners."

"Okay!"

"Don't push too high!" she shouted as the two ran out the back of the house. She was halfway through making spaghetti when the front door opened. As if on cue the back door opened and the two children ran inside.

"DADDY!" Abby shrieked with excitement, hurling herself into his less than prepared arms.

Gibbs had to drop his bag to the ground quickly to catch the toddler, but he swept her up, pressing a kiss to her cheek before blowing raspberries against her cheek. Putting her back down so she could hurry to the kitchen, he looked over at Tony who was waiting by the living room entryway, "Hey kiddo, how was school?"

"Good, I can count all the way to twenty," he explained. Jethro took a seat in his chair, taking a deep breath and sighing. He was mildly surprised when Tony started climbing into his lap.

"You all right, bud?"

Tony was quiet for a moment, playing with Jethro's dog tags, reading them and flipping them over in his hands, "Are you going to keep up?"

Jethro ran his hand through Tony's hair, his hand stopping when he felt a small bump on the back of the head, "What's this from?"

"Abby pushed me."

Jethro nodded, "Lets come back to that. In response to your first question, yes, we're planning on it, unless you don't like it here. Do you like it here?" Tony nodded vigorously, before Jethro caught his chin, tilting it up so he could meet the hazel eyes, "What's wrong kiddo?"

"I had ta make all new friends, an' I don't like it very much, an' I'd like to stay here," he paused for a long moment before he mumbled something far less coherent.

Jethro's brows furrowed in confusion, "Run that one by me again?"

"I want you to be my daddy."

Jethro didn't hesitate he wrapped both arms around him and held on tight, "Then I'll be your daddy. You're here for as long as you want to be kiddo. If that's forever, then it's forever. Because I'd like you to be my son."

"So I can call you daddy?"

"If you want to."

Two skinny arms were thrown around his neck as the air was practically hugged from his throat, he smiled and hugged him back. "I want to, daddy."

Jethro felt his heart swell at that and took an extra moment to hug the boy a little tighter, before he let go, and let his boy readjust himself on his lap. "So, Abby pushed you, huh?"

"Yep, wham and suddenly I was on my butt."

Jethro chuckled, "Uh, huh, and did you do something to premeditate this attack?"

"Huh?"

"What did you do to her to upset our mellow little Abby."

Tony made an 'oh' face before he grinned in guilt, his cheeks reddening, "I stomped all over her and her boyfriend's sandcastle."

"Well then, sounds to me like you kinda had it coming," chuckled Jethro. "It's not very nice to break and ruin other people's stuff. How would you have felt if she'd done that to you?"

"Not very good."

"Did you apologize?"

"Yes, sir."

"Don't call me sir, as long as you apologized and she apologized for lashing out, no harm no foul. Just think about how your actions might make you feel before you do it to others, okay?"

"Okay daddy."

"Jethro, you're home," Shannon smiled, kissing her husband on the lips.

"Ew," Abby giggled as she watched them.

"Oh, you think that's gross," Jethro grinned and grabbed the little girl and kissed her face until she squealed in delight.

He held his two kids close and sighed in contentment as they settled and Shannon laughed at them, returning to the kitchen to finish dinner, "I heard you pushed your big brother?" He wanted to address her actions as well since she hadn't been anymore right in her actions.

"He started it," she replied, looking down at her hands as she picked at his uniform.

He gripped her chin with a firm hand, gentle enough tough that he wouldn't hurt her. "I understand that, but that doesn't mean you act out in response. The only time you ever push someone or hit someone is they are physically trying to hurt you. Understood?"

"Okay," she replied. "Can you apologize to Tony?"

She looked at her big brother earnestly, who seemed surprised by that request, "I'm sorry, Tony," she threw her arms around his neck. He chuckled and held his sister tight.

"It's okay," he replied.

"Good, Tony, take your sister and get ready for dinner, he helped the two slide off his lap and smirked as they hurried up the stairs. Jethro moved into the kitchen from behind his wife, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck.

She grinned, "You keep doing that and you're going to have to explain to your children why daddy's tickling mommy on the table."

Laughing, he whirled her around and caught her lips, "Tony wants me to be his daddy."

Shannon studied her husband's beaming features, despite the distinct differences between the man and boy; she could see the beginnings of father and son habits. She was already beginning to notice when Tony imitated Jethro in some ways, he typically tried to sit the same way Jethro did, he would try to make his hair like Jethro's. She figured they may need to get him a hair cut to match at some point if he really wanted it.

"He adores you already," she offered, "You know, I've been thinking, his birthday is coming up in July; any chance you might be able to get some vacation? We could take them to Disney? Or maybe even up to the cabin, see how they like camping?"

He grinned, "We can probably manage that, when's his birthday, July right?"

"July 10th," she confirmed.

"I'll check tomorrow. My next deployment should be sometime around November or December."

"You won't be home for Christmas?" She felt her heart sink, this would be their first Christmas.

He sighed and let his head drop, "Shannon, you knew this was a possibility, it's a year off and then six month deployments."

"I know, I'm sorry," she rested a hand against his chest, looking at his dog tags; "This is just the first Christmas, that's all. We'll be fine," she reassured him.

He pulled her hand from his chest and pressed a kiss to the back of it, "I love you."

"I love you too."

"What about us!?" Abby said as she hurried over to her new parents. Shannon laughed and pulled her up into her arms, smiling as Tony hugged her legs.

"Well of course you two. How could we not love these adorable cheeks," she grinned kissing Abby's pale cheeks. "Lets eat, dinner's ready." Jethro watched his wife put Abby in her high chair, and help Tony up in his chair and he felt an unfamiliar ache in the pit of his belly. The idea of leaving his wife and now their children was more daunting than usual, but he'd signed up to be a Marine, and he'd understood what that meant, every bit of it. He'd thought Shannon understood too.

TBC