Jethro Gibbs was startled awake. He lay in the gloom wondering what had woken him up. He heard a noise on the stairs and went to investigate and saw a teenage boy standing there with a guilty look on his face.

Gibbs rubbed at his eyes in bewilderment, trying to work out what was happening. Why was Tony standing there gazing at him?

"Tony?"

"Gibbs?" came the reply.

The room momentarily swayed for Gibbs and then, fully awake at last, the world righted itself and Gibbs remembered that Tony had left him and gone with his grandfather to create a new life and a new happiness without Gibbs. A wave of sadness hit him as he remembered the pain of the separation.

"Gibbs!" came again but in a deeper voice and from a different direction.

Gibbs turned to look.

"Shannon's asleep," came the first voice again.

Gibbs shook his head in bewilderment. How could Shannon be asleep?

"And this one should be," said the deeper voice.

"But I wanted to …" said the first voice.

The last vestiges of sleep and confusion bled away, and Gibbs opened his arms for a hug,

"I made Dad bring me," said the boy walking up to Gibbs, "He said we should wait until tomorrow."

"And so we should! I'm sorry, Gibbs. Meant to be here earlier."

"No problem, Tony," said Gibbs, "Any time's a good time to see Jem. And you, of course."

"Of course," grinned Tony. "It's good to see you, Gibbs. Guess I couldn't wait to see you either."

"How long has it been?"

"Must be getting on for 13 years … Jem will be 12 at Christmas and this is the first time you've met him."

"And whose fault is that?" groused Gibbs, "All that living in out of the way places!"

Tony laughed, "Guilty as charged. But we'll be right on your doorstep now. You'll soon be fed up with us."

"We'll see," said Gibbs. "Hey, Jem, you want a snack?" There was no reply and Gibbs saw that the boy had crashed out on the couch and was sound asleep. Gibbs smiled and went over to the boy and laid a blanket over him tenderly, "Jeremy Jethro DiNozzo," he said softly. He turned to Tony and gripped him firmly by the upper arms, "Good to see you, Tony."

"So you said. Though you looked a bit spooked for a while. Began to think you'd changed your mind about wanting to see us!"

"Didn't know where I was for a minute," confessed Gibbs, "Fell asleep waiting for you. Woke up suddenly and then I saw Jem on the stairs. Took me back to when I first saw you … and I thought it was you … you remember, creeping into the house to get that duffel bag of yours. Took me a while to remember that it's been 25 years since I met you … and that this was today and it was your son, not you I was seeing. He looks a lot like you, you know."

"I know. Everybody tells me that. He's going to be taller than me though. I was still a bit of a shrimp for my age when I first met you."

Gibbs frowned, he could still get mad at the thought of Tony's life before he had met him. "How is your father?" he asked.

Tony shrugged, "Much the same. Charming, always full of plans – which never quite come off."

"You don't seem to mind," commented Gibbs.

"I guess I just think of him as an irresponsible kid brother," he admitted, "And it's easier to love him like that. Once I didn't have to have him as a father figure, things got easier."

"Hmm," said Gibbs crossly.

"Time to let it go, Gibbs," said Tony easily, "And I reckon I had a better life because of him going missing that summer. If he'd arranged something for me after Camp closed, I'd never have met Shannon and Kelly … and you. And Granddad wouldn't have come back into my life like some avenging angel. It all worked out for the best."

"I guess," said Gibbs. "And you're here for a while?" he asked, still not quite daring to believe that Tony was so close again.

"Three year posting," said Tony cheerfully, "At least!"

Gibbs sighed contentedly.

XXXXXX

Gibbs had followed Lord Paddington's advice and recommitted himself to the Marine Corps. He had been stationed at Quantico meaning that he could return to his house in DC. Gibbs had mourned Shannon and Kelly for a long time but remaining with the Corps had given him a familiar structure and discipline which had helped him keep going. He had missed Tony, but they had written to each other regularly.

Lord Paddington encouraged Tony to travel to the US for summer vacations: he usually spent a week with his father (if he remembered the engagement), another week or so with the newly found DiNozzo uncles and their children and then the remaining weeks with Gibbs. Gibbs continued the woodworking lessons and coached him in baseball, trying not to lament that his swing had been affected by playing too much cricket.

As Tony grew older, the visits became shorter. The demands of cricket loomed large in Tony's life and drew him to stay in England and there was a summer when he had broken his leg playing rugby in the winter and was unable to travel for months. Although they did not see each other as much, their connection remained strong and Gibbs followed his progress through university and his entry into the Diplomatic Service and he travelled to Ireland when Tony married Elizabeth Colquhoun.

Gibbs was honoured when their first child was named for him and Jeremy Paddington and was even more touched when their daughter was named Shannon Elizabeth: Tony joked that he had chosen to marry an Irish woman because she would not mind a child being named Shannon. Gibbs had smiled dutifully when Tony had relayed the joke to him, but he knew the serious purpose behind the name.

Tony's career in the British Diplomatic Service had seen him and his family posted all over the world with the result that he had not met up with Gibbs since before Jem had been born. Now, however, he had a posting in Washington DC, and they could reconnect properly.

"How's Jerry?" asked Gibbs as they sat over coffee.

Tony grinned, "You do know he hates being called that, don't you?"

Gibbs shrugged: he and Lord Paddington had developed a close friendship which they disguised under a constant stream of bickering, "Tell him to stop calling me Leroy and I might not call him Jerry," he said placidly.

Tony nodded; he knew that Gibbs and his grandfather got on well and were united in their care for him. "Granddad's fine. Still goes to the House of Lords most weeks. Guess it's hard to let go of being in charge. And talking of leopards not changing their spots, how's life out of the Marine Corps going?"

Gibbs had finally left the Corps two years before and had struggled to adjust to begin with, "OK," he said.

"Just OK?"

"Oh, all right, it's fine. I'm at the local Community College most days."

"Ah, catching up on your education, eh?" teased Tony, "Well, they say it's never too late."

"Idiot! I teach woodworking to a few classes."

"And you like it?"

"I guess I like teaching … although it took some getting used to that I couldn't shout at them like I could my recruits!"

Tony smiled at the picture but thought that Gibbs was actually more patient than he let on: he liked to present a gruff face to the world but, for some people at least, was pretty marshmallowy inside. "You still building a boat in your basement?"

Gibbs nodded.

"That's one of the reasons Jem insisted on coming tonight even though our flight was delayed, and we arrived so much later than we told you we would. He still doesn't believe me. Shannon wanted to come too but she fell asleep in the cab from the airport, so Libby took her to the hotel. You'll see her tomorrow."

Gibbs smiled at the thought; he had seen lots of photographs of Shannon who had inherited her mother's red hair and her father's grey-green eyes.

"Jerry says you might get an ambassador's post next time."

"Got to do the three years here first. Then I'll have a home posting for a year or so … probably have to learn Japanese or another Far Eastern language. And if I do get an ambassadorship, it'll probably be for a very small country … a dot somewhere in the Pacific!"

"You've done well," said Gibbs. "Proud of you."

"Couldn't have done it without you," said Tony a little flippantly.

"Don't remember helping all that much," said Gibbs, "It was mostly Shannon. Seems to me that all I did was nag you to take a shower and then run you off."

"Hey, I have to nag Jem all the time! And I was pretty skittish back then. And what I remember is that you talked to me, you saw me as a real person and that was a new experience for me back then. And I reckon that the times you lost your temper with me … well, I provoked you and you were going through a bad time. I think you get a pass."

"I could have done better," said Gibbs stubbornly.

"We could have all done better," said Tony firmly, "And I never told you, did I? The day all that stuff happened on the beach, I was on my way back to your place. I got fed up of hiding around all the golf courses and scavenging for food. And I'd stopped being mad with you – well, not as mad anyway and I thought you'd find a way out of what was happening to me. You felt safe."

"I figure you spent a lot of your childhood being anxious," said Gibbs.

Tony looked across to where Jem still slept on the couch, "When I had kids, I swore I never wanted to have them being scared of me or doubting that I love them."

"He looks happy enough," said Gibbs drily, "So I think you're OK there. But you know …"

"Enough, Gibbs," said Tony, "Let's agree that we were good for one another and leave it at that. It was a long time ago, let's not pick away at it. Something good came out of the chaos and that's good enough for me!"

"That what they teach you at Diplomat School?"

"I guess but I think it's what I learned at Life School!"

"Fair enough."

"Although, thinking about the good old days, did you ever run in that NIS agent again … what was his name – Banks?"

"Franks. Mike Franks."

"That's it. Did you?"

"He wanted to recruit me, you know. Although you nearly put him off the whole idea!"

"Me? How?"

"By hiding that file, do you remember?"

"What? When?"

"You took your sweater off and put it over the file."

"Did I?"

"It had the name of Franks' main suspect in. he thought I'd go off and try to get revenge. When I didn't, he thought he'd misjudged me and nearly changed his mind. You really don't remember?"

"Vaguely," said Tony. "Guess I saved you from something horrible! Imagine what it would be like to live with having killed someone like that – would have gone against everything you stood for in the Marine Corps. How would you have coped with knowing you'd done something like that?"

Gibbs nodded, he had often had the same thought. He suspected that going after Hernandez would have changed, twisted him forever. He also sometimes wondered what would have happened if Tony had sneaked in and out without being caught that first time and they'd never met. He shook himself, "Well, like you said, it's all in the past. No point re-hashing it. And Mike Franks retired to Mexico: seems he got fed up with how the high-ups did things. Never heard from him again."

Tony drained his cup and stood to go. "We're moving into the house the day after tomorrow. I love my kids, but I don't want them running around while we're moving: you still up for having them for the day?"

Gibbs shrugged noncommittally but the glow in his eyes suggested he couldn't wait.

"Great," said Tony, "You know that's the reason I angled for this posting: built-in baby sitter!"

"Yeah, whatever," said Gibbs with a roll of the eyes at the joke.

When the cab came, Tony roused a sleepy Jem and walked him to the door where Jem turned and, looking much like Tony years ago, said,

"I love you, Gibbs."

"Love you too, Jem," and you too, Tony, he added silently.

"See you tomorrow, Gibbs," promised Tony.

Gibbs' heart lifted at the thought, "Semper Fi," he said.

"What's Semper Fi?" Gibbs heard Jem ask his father as they walked away.

AN: should probably have given a fluff alert at the beginning! Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in the story … the NCIS characters are back in their canon boxes but it was fun to shake the box a little.