Chapter Five

She opened her eyes slowly and breathed in the familiar and comforting scent of the man she had been using as a pillow. She felt Gibbs' arms tighten around her and she turned her head to drop a kiss to the centre of his chest. She had fallen asleep curled into his side but somehow during the night she had wound up on top of him, he didn't seem to be complaining and even tightened his arms around her when she tried to move.

"Good morning."

The words were muttered against her hair and she smiled into his chest at the groggy satisfaction in his voice.

"Morning." She replied, her voice quiet but content, "How did you sleep?"

"Good." He replied, "But then again I had a decent workout before bed."

She raised her head at the smugness in his voice, "Just decent?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Pretty fantastic." He corrected, leaning forward to drop a kiss to her lips.

Fantastic didn't seem like a good enough word for the previous night, Jenny thought to herself. Perfect was better, it wasn't awkward like most 'first' times were, they knew each other well enough to know exactly what buttons to push and Gibbs had gone above and beyond to push all of them and even found a few new ways to make her moan. They had been able to laugh when Gibbs had fumbled kicking off his pants and when Jenny had stumbled while trying to pull Gibbs' shirt over his head. There had been serious moments, Gibbs' pause when he'd come across the deeper scars high up on her inner thighs that she was careful to keep hidden by long shirts or always wearing pants and the faded scars on her lower back that were only obvious when you were looking closely. His eyes had asked the question he couldn't bring himself to ask verbally and she had whispered a single word, 'Cairo'. She knew he was dying to ask more but he had refrained, instead placing gentle kisses over each and every one of her scars. She had caught him paying extra attention to the slightly faded stretch marks on her hips and lower abdomen. She had worked hard to regain the body she'd had pre-pregnancy but the stretch marks were still visible in some spots, a reminder that she knew would probably never fade. She had been careful with Dani, at twenty three she had been desperate to maintain her body, had done everything possible to prevent stretch marks and had mostly succeeded. She had been thirty when she had found out she was pregnant again and had every intention of raising her daughter, she simply hadn't cared enough to fight against the stretch marks and they had won out without much fight.

She felt his hand wandering up and down her back, pausing over her tattoos on each swipe before continuing on.

"What about you?"

"I'd say above average." She teased, a glint in her green eyes, "It was perfect." She added seriously, "Thank you."

"I think it's supposed to me sayin' that." He stated his signature half grin gracing his face.

She shrugged and pushed herself up on one hand, "You can thank me after." She said, glancing over at the clock, "We still have half an hour before the alarm goes off."

He raised an eyebrow at her impish grin, "What did you have in mind?"

"Oh I don't know…" She replied, doing her best to look innocent as she inched her way down until she was pulling the covers down with her, "I think I might be able to come up with something."

He threw his head back with a quiet groan as she licked across his abdomen, inches above where he really wanted her. She stopped her movement and waited until he looked down at her, she met his eyes and silently winked at him before lowering her head.

"You're gonna be the death of me." His declaration was followed by a strangled moan as she closed her mouth around him.

N*C*I*S

Jenny laughed as she watched Pride commandeer the kitchen at the NCIS office, Laurel sitting on the counter beside him watching whatever he was doing with what Jenny had no doubt was feigned interest. She poured herself another mug of coffee and filled up the cup beside hers, not adding anything to either before turning around to face the rest of the kitchen.

She pulled her phone out of her back pocket without comment when she saw Ziva sitting in a kitchen chair, Gibbs standing behind her with a comb in his mouth his hands tangled in her hair as he pulled it back into a tidy French braid.

"Didn't know you could braid, Gibbs." Linda commented as she came into the kitchen followed closely by Chris.

"Five girls." Gibbs replied as he confidently finished the braid and wrapped a small elastic around the end, "Ziver didn't believe I could."

Ziva ran her hand over her hair and nodded her approval at the tidy braid, "I have been proven wrong."

Jenny slid her phone back into her pocket with a small but sad smile, another image in her head of a very similar little girl with a very different man standing behind her. The same curly dark brown hair and eyes, had laughed at her as she had caught the scene on her nearby camera, the man behind her smirking.

"You must have nimble fingers to be a doctor." The man had stated, "And you do not have two sisters without learning." He had added.

She knew Gibbs knew a very different Ari then she had, she had known the man who had loved his sisters, the man who had done anything and everything to make her feel welcome when she had first come to Israel, his trained eye recognizing the baby weight she had been unable to lose and the sadness in her eyes.

Jenny carried the mugs over to the table and handed one to Gibbs, turning her cheek to accept the kiss she knew was coming. Although they were in the NCIS building they weren't on the clock for another half hour and she knew that they would both take advantage of that, in subtle ways at least.

"I remember my dad could braid my sisters hair." Tim commented, "He wouldn't do it often but if he had a minute on the night before he got deployed he would, did your dad know how to?" He asked looking at Ziva.

Ziva glanced over at Jenny and shook her head slowly, "He was not that type of father." She stated, "It was my mother who did my hair until I was able to do it myself, I have never much liked my hair played with."

Jenny knew she was telling the truth, there were very few people Ziva trusted to get that close to her, Jenny had been allowed on occasion as well as Ari and now Gibbs but she knew that the list was short and rarely added to.

"It was my sister who enjoyed having her hair done." Ziva added unexpectedly.

"Did you do it for her?" McGee asked, seizing the rare opportunity.

"Occasionally, more often than not it was Jenny who was responsible for Tali, I was still serving in the military when Tali was entering that stage and my father was not overly involved in our upbringing, it was Jenny and… It was mostly Jenny there for her." Ziva replied, shutting down at the thought of her brother.

"Getting her ready for school was the hardest part." Jenny commented with a small laugh, "especially when everyone was home from assignment, it was always a circus when the four of us were around."

"You, Director David, Ziva and Tali?" McGee clarified.

Jenny realized her mistake as soon as McGee opened his mouth and she cleared her throat awkwardly, "Ziva, Tali, Ari and I." She corrected quietly, "Eli wasn't around all that much, like Ziva said I did most of the day to day with Tali. My job was more conducive to it and Eli's Nanny quit a few days after I arrived, I volunteered to watch her on my day off for an hour as a way to gain a few points and fell in love with the little girl I met. He still hired someone to watch her when I wasn't around but I did a lot."

"That was Tali's way." Ziva whispered, "Just a smile and you fell in love, her laughter was contagious… She was the best of us."

"Yeah." Jenny agreed quietly, "But her sister turned out pretty great too." She added, giving Ziva's shoulder a small squeeze, "I like to think I had a hand in that." She added in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Of course." Ziva agreed with a wink.

Despite the wink and playful tone Jenny could see the sadness in the younger woman's eyes and all she wanted to do was reach out for her, offer her any kind of comfort she could. Instead she leaned against the table and rested her hand on the back of Gibbs' neck, she knew Ziva wouldn't appreciate any sort of gesture in that moment and she needed something to occupy her hands to stop herself from doing something that would upset the Israeli woman.

Gibbs' arm snaked around her waist as he pulled her closer to where he was sitting just as Pride's cellphone began to ring on the counter. Judging by the look on Linda's face and the way Laurel's shoulders sagged as she saw the name on the caller ID Jenny seriously doubted they would be enjoying breakfast before work.

She listened as Pride got the information he needed from dispatch and glanced down to see Gibbs looking up at her hopefully.

"Go." She said a small sigh in her voice, "I'll hang out here while Tim runs the security checks on S.C.I.F, Ziva can stay as my security."

"You sure?"

"Yes." She assured him, "Go, behave yourselves."

"I make no promises, Darlin'." Pride replied over his shoulder as he kissed Linda and gave Laurel's shoulder a squeeze.

"I'm not telling you as a friend, I'm telling you as your boss." She said seriously.

"We'll be fine." Gibbs promised, "See you in a bit."

"Be safe." She added quietly enough that only he could hear her.

"I will." He whispered, leaning down to kiss her quickly.

She watched him nod to McGee and squeeze Ziva's shoulder before bolting after Chris and Pride.

"They're still children sometimes." Linda muttered, rolling her eyes as she took over making breakfast.

"Try adding four actual children on top of it." Jenny added with a small laugh.

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay I've been swamped with exam season and getting together my 12 days of Slibbsmas prompts for this year (Keep an eye out for that if you like Slibbs) I love to hear from you guys and all of your fabulous reviews have made a long, gross month way better!

~Katie

P.S Obviously I own nothing :(