"Can we go now?" Lexie asked impatiently, her hands on her hips.

Jenny turned and stifled a laugh at the expression on her daughter's face. "I'm just putting another load of washing on, we'll go in a minute."

"I've already waited ages!"

"Well then, another couple of minutes won't hurt you."

"They might."

Throwing an exasperated look over her shoulder, Jenny replied, "Well to pass the time why don't you make sure you have everything ready."

"The flask with the soup in it is already in my bag, and my bag is sitting on the stairs, I just need to pick it up," Lexie told her primly.

Not for the first time that day, Jenny gave a low groan and wished that she'd been the one on call this weekend instead of Jethro. Lexie had been unbearable since she'd gotten up, having been promised that today would be the day she got to go and visit Tony. She'd stomped about the house determined to have everything ready and was obviously extremely irritated by the fact that they wouldn't be leaving exactly at the time she was promised.

Straightening up, Jenny grabbed the coat and bag she'd left draped across the kitchen counter. Shrugging her jacket on, she held out her hand to Lexie. "Come on," she smiled gently. "Let's go."

"Finally!" Lexie huffed, taking her Mom's hand as they left the house together.

"Tony!" Lexie flung herself into his arms the very second that his front door was opening, causing him to stumble backwards into his flat as he attempted to regain his balance.

"Hey Lex," he gasped out. Kneeling down to her level as he wasn't quite strong enough to lift her yet.

"I've missed you," she told him, her smile almost splitting her face.

"I've missed you too," he told her solemnly.

"And I brought you soup." She held out the flask proudly.

"Thanks," Tony replied as he took it. He looked up at Jenny and asked almost cautiously, "Did you make this?" He'd heard horror stories about Jenny's cooking, and he felt weak enough as it was.

Jenny smiled. "No, Naomi did, so you're safe to eat it."

"I didn't mean that," Tony lied. " I was just...curious."

"Uh huh, I know full well that Jethro doesn't keep his opinion to himself about my cooking, and I can assure you that it isn't as bad as he makes it out to be."

"Course not."

Raising her eyebrow, Jenny shook her head knowing that she was wasting her time in trying to convince him. Lexie looked between the two adults and shifted her feet in growing boredom. "Can I go and put the soup in a bowl so that Tony can eat it and get better?"

"Bowl's are in the kitchen," Tony informed her.

Jenny got to her feet. "Actually I'll do that, Lex. It's far too hot for you to play with."

Lexie frowned. "I wasn't going to play with it, I was just going to put it into the bowl."

Jenny kissed her forehead as she knelt down and prised the flask from her daughter's determined grip. "Well better safe than sorry. Go and talk to Tony."

She walked back through a few seconds later to find Lexie quizzing Tony over what had been wrong with him. "Were you really sick? Because you don't look you were that ill."

"That's because I'm better now," Tony replied with a smile.

"Lex sweetheart, I think that you should stop asking him all these questions, after all he can't talk and eat at the same time."

Lexie looked thoughtful before she nodded. "That makes sense. I brought my pens so I'm going to draw you a picture," she told him.

"I look forward to seeing it," Tony assured her. "You can sit up at the counter if you want."

Jenny smiled as she watched her daughter sing contentedlyto herself as she swung herself up onto one of the chairs. her head tilted slightly as she suddenly realised that the apartment was immaculate. "Did the plague lead to a personality transplant?"

"Huh?" Tony asked, frowing up at her.

She waved her hand. "This place is far too clean, I've seen your desk."

He laughed. "Yeah, this was Kate's handiwork."

Jenny's smile widened as she dropped down into the seat next to him. "She been dropping by a lot," she asked curiously.

Tony smirked. "You're really obvious."

"Sometimes that's the best approach, So?"

He shrugged. "She's just been concerned."

"That she was," Jenny agreed. "But is it just friendly concern?"

"I don't know." He glanced over at her incredulous expression. "I really don't," he laughed. "With Kate, everything is completely different to the way it's ever been with anyone else. We work together and we're friends, I don't want to lose that."

"Who says you have to?"

"She deserves a commitment and I'm not that guy."

"But you could be."

Tony shook his head. "I just don't think I'm ready for that."

"You do know that you don't have to propose on the first date, right?"

Tony nudged his elbow into her side. "Yeah, I know. How did you know that you wanted to take the chance with Gibbs?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well when you went from being partners to...um...more."

Jenny looked over her shoulder to check that Lexie was still enthralled in her drawing - she was - and turned back to Tony and shrugged. "Things just boiled over, there's only so long that you can deny the way you feel."

"And you never doubted it?"

"Of course I did," Jenny admitted. "It scared the hell out of me, the man had two failed marriages behind him at that point." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and let out a shaky breath. "Truth be told, and you can never tell anyone this."

She waited for his reply, and he nodded, his face awash with curiosity.

"It scared me so much that I left, told myself that it was distracting me from my job and so I ran." She smiled almost sadly. "And then I spent the next four years regretting it. I was lucky, I got a second chance."

"So you're saying I should just go for it?"

"Not exactly, I'm telling you that if you feel strongly enough then maybe you should take the risk, you don't want to spend forever wondering what if."

Tony opened his mouth as though he was about to reply, when Lexie launched herself over the back of the sofa and onto his knee. "Drew you this," she told him happily.

Looking at the colourful scribbles, Tony smiled. "It's amazing, I think I'm going to have to pin it on my fridge."

She hugged him. "Can I pick where about it goes?"

"Course you can."

"Daddy, I saw Tony today," Lexie told him as he swung her up into his arms.

"And did you have fun?" Gibbs asked as he hugged her tightly.

"Uh huh, I drew him a picture of daisies and sunflowers and Roxie."

"I'm sure he loved it."

"He did, he put it on his fridge," she informed him proudly. She wriggled in his grip, her signal that she wanted down.

Gibbs placed her carefully on the floor and watched as she raced into the living room with Roxie trailing happily after her. He smiled and leaning forward kissed Jenny's cheek. "How was it? Is Tony feeling better?"

"He's getting there," she assured him. "And it was interesting."

His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by interesting?"

"Kate's been round a couple of times, making sure everything stays in order and that he doesn't eat too much crap."

"I don't think I like the sound of that."

Wrapping her arms around his waist, she kissed the corners of his mouth. "You need to let them figure this out for themselves."

"They work together-"

"So did we, and look at us now."

"Took a lot to get us here."

"We are two very different people to Kate and Tony, they don't have our baggage."

"I don't want to watch them make eyes at each other across their desks."

Laughing, Jenny trailed her hands up to his shoulders. "Jethro, you really need to loosen up. You might want to but you can't control your team like puppets."

"I never said that I-"

She kissed him into silence. "Enough," she told him as she broke away from the kiss. "If they decide to date then you will stay out of it."

"This coming from the woman who's pushing them together?"

Jenny shot him a glare. "I mean it," she told him. "You need to let them decide for themselves, and now I've said my piece I will stay out of it as well, deal?"

"Do I get a choice?"

"Nope," she smiled.