Chrysalis

Leroy Jethro Gibbs twisted the nearly bald brass front door knob to his house and stepped inside, closing the door softly behind him.

Resting against its frame, he leaned down to massage his knee with both hands before he braced for another step. His ministrations barely softened the throbbing.

Wincing at the joint's discomfort, he squinted as he took a panoramic view of the living room, dining area, and corner of the kitchen that he could see from the entrance's vantage point.

With a climactic start he felt a stab that this, his place, actually looked homey.

The acknowledgement settled upon him awkwardly, so he pushed away from the doorframe and walked carefully to the kitchen, biting one corner of his lip at the jolting of his knee brought about with each labored step.

Sighing heavily at the exertion he consciously paced himself better, easing some of the painful throbbing from his knee.

Ducky would hit the roof if he suspected Jethro had not followed his instructions to the tee.

Spooning mounds of ground coffee into the coffee pot's filter basket, Gibbs expertly poured the water into the stained glass carafe and then into the coffee pot's reservoir. With a flourish, he stabbed the power button with his forefinger and relaxed against the counter's edge.

His subconscious listened for the reassurance of the first percolated drops hitting the glass bottom on the pot's burner.

The reward came within ninety seconds, and he smirked at the coffee's dependability.

Some things never disappointed, and he nodded at the appliance with genuine affection.

That brought to mind a conversation Tony and Abby had attempted to conduct with him, centered around the ridiculous notion that a replacement coffee pot they had found at a fancy department store would make him so much happier than the one he had trained and relied upon for years. The one which had personally earned their stamp of approval, they assured him, could do countless tricks, including setting itself to perk with a built in alarm clock.

An on and off power switch- that was all he wanted.

Grinning at the memory he checked the perking status and poured himself a cup of the potently strong black coffee, savoring the fact that once again, it presented itself to him aromatic and perfect.

Pushing off from the counter he moved stiffly into the living room, pausing at the mantle to regard several framed photos in a variety of sizes and framing materials. He, of course, had contributed pictures to none of them, other than take a position in the shots, but had allowed Abby to create a display when he grew tired of her begging.

Reaching forward, he brought one closer and grinned at the grouping. He and Ducky, otherwise introduced as Dr. Donald Ducky Mallard, stood against the rails of the staircase leading from the bullpen to the upper floor of the NCIS agency. Abby Scuito, forensics scientist extraordinaire, and Kate Todd, his team profiler, sat together on one wide step, arms slung over each other's shoulders. Up a step behind them, Tony Dinozzo, his senior field agent, and Tim McGee, the probie on his team, each leaned forward, forearms resting on their thighs and genuine smiles on their faces.

Those five people made up the working colleagues with whom he spent the majority of his professional time.

Gibbs blew a speck of dust off of one corner and regarded the medical examiner. Despite Ducky's advanced age, his energy level stayed strong, and his commitment to his profession suggested he had no intention of ever slowing down or retiring. Jethro smirked recalling the heated conversation he and the good doctor had exchanged not an hour earlier, as Dr. Mallard assured him in his angriest Scottish burr that if Jethro did not drive home immediately and rest his knee, he would personally see to a guarantee that the NCIS Director bench Gibbs.

Placing the photo back in its allotted place, Jethro acknowledged that Ducky had won, and to be perfectly honest, Ducky always won because he refused to allow Gibbs to intimidate him.

Next the NCIS team leader selected a print of Tim and Kate taken in a park near NCIS. The two grinned at the camera, showing off cones of cotton candy they had gotten from a kiosk outside the park area.

It was good to see them so relaxed, and despite the fact that Tim had graduated from college and worked at a government agency, his very demeanor always resembled an overgrown kid, and in this scenario, a thrilled one.

The job ripped so much out of all of them that every little bit of happiness had meaning.

A particularly vicious cramp targeted his knee and Jethro shoved the photo to the side and grabbed the mantle for support. He used his free hand to rub roughly at the problem area, but acknowledged he needed to sit.

Extending his leg gently he put his weight on his knee and sucked in a breath. Ducky was right- he should have sat immediately when he got home.

Retrieving his mug of coffee, he grasped it, along with a photo of Abby and Tony from the mantle, and made his way carefully and laboriously to the couch.

Settling heavily against the cushions, he gulped a swallow of coffee and situated it on the side table, then used both hands to prop his leg on the coffee table in front of him. Even a gentle touch hurt.

Fumbling beside him he located the framed photo of Abby and Tony and set it beside the coffee, taking a long look at it before he leaned his head against the back of the sofa and closed his eyes.

He had actually taken that picture, pressed into service by Abby, and he had captured Abby and Tony as he privately loved them best, their expressions delighted and excited all together as they witnessed a Fourth of July fireworks exhibition. Both stood, Abby right in front of Tony, and Tony had pulled her against him with one arm across her chest. Tony's tee shirt was red and white striped for the occasion, and Abby had complemented him with her own blue starred shirt.

Holding the image closer, he confirmed that their animated faces looked innocent and carefree, so far removed from the expressions their professional personas adopted that it did not seem possible that they dealt with death and crime and bad guys on a daily basis.

He had frozen that irreplaceable moment in time in the split second it took to make the decision to accede to Abby's pleas, grab the camera, focus, and snap.

Afterwards the two had expressed incredulous surprise at his tech know how. He decided not to point out that he had photographed crime scene pictures while they learned their multiplication tables.

Tracing the outline of Abby's jaw, Jethro shook his head slowly, acknowledging that life had changed for him once Abby burst into his reality. No, exploded for him because of her probably summed it up better.

Life had nearly destroyed him, and even now, at times, almost defeated him. He had turned to a position at NCIS after the murder of his wife and daughter, once he had made up his mind to spend the rest of his life simply practicing the motions of living.

But within days of his orientation, Dr. Mallard slowly- or maybe slyly, insinuated himself into a companionable relationship, and grudgingly, Gibbs accepted it. Honestly, their tie required little time outside of the agency, and as his trust firmed with the medical examiner, he occasionally used the doctor as a willing and intelligent sounding board.

Before he settled into that union, Abigail Scuito exploded into and onto his existence.

Grinning, Jethro rubbed the bridge of his nose as he thought of the young Goth, effervescent with black pigtails, a big and generous heart, and the knowledge and forensic acumen to earn the respect of every government agency in D. C.

Gibbs pursed his lip, trying to recall a descriptive detail. What was that song Tony and Abby sang around the house over and over, the one about the demolition?

He focused, recalling the two belting out the lyrics one particular evening after supper, both balling their fists to act as microphones, and finally retrieved some of the song's ballistic refrain.

Oh yes, that would do as a descriptor.

Abby catapulted in like a wrecking ball, all right, and had slowly but methodically chipped away at all of his protective barriers, relentless to win him into her circle of loved ones.

And suddenly one day he entered her lab and found himself settled into an established role watching out for her and of regarding her with a protective perspective.

That avenue of response satisfied her, just having him touch base with a quiet question or reassuring kiss on the cheek cemented her security.

First Ducky, then Abby had forced him to begin observing some of the social niceties inside and outside of NCIS.

Nothing though, absolutely nothing- no, not even Ducky or Abby- compared to having Anthony Dinozzo blindside him one cold day in Baltimore, Maryland, as he worked an undercover case.

At that time a young precinct policeman, Tony tackled Jethro at a full run and hurled him to the ground, unaware that the two of them actually worked towards incarcerating the same dirtbag.

Despite his annoyance at his now blown cover, along with a painfully scraped and bruised body, Gibbs admitted to himself that the youngster fascinated him. His unimpeachable sense of moral justice resonated with Gibbs, as did his dedication to his Baltimore squad. Sharp and intelligent, Tony deliberately masked much of himself behind humor or with his natural good looks.

A notorious womanizer, his over six foot physique, animated green eyes, and innate talent in sports kept him busy and popular.

It wasn't until much later that Jethro realized Tony hailed from quite a bit of money, since he did his best to hide the fact. Still, the signs lay in the ways it unknowingly coloured his taste in women, food, and the arts.

Two weeks after the young man barreled him down, Leroy Jethro Gibbs hired him, and he had never regretted his decision.

Unlike Abby's low key demands upon his attention, Tony overtly depended upon his boss's approval for his own personal emotional security. Still, Gibbs had harbored no delusions about the agent's lack of self assurance. He knew from the day Tony sauntered into the door of NCIS that the young man needed him as a culmination of a mentor willing to lead, a boss capable of keeping him in check, and most crucially, as a surrogate father when the occasion warranted.

Gibbs shifted in his seat and studied the picture again.

As much as he recognized that he mattered to Tony, Tony never distinguished that he had enriched Jethro's own life.

The first time NCIS senior field agent Tony Dinozzo made the acquaintance of FBI agent Tobias Fornell had proved traumatic, but to Jethro, that introduction testified more as a statement of Tony's resilience.