Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize I do not own. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

A/N: I finally got my new laptop! So hopefully updates will come a lot quicker now. Thank you all for being patient.

****NCIS****

Sleep seemed to allude Kelly that night. She had spent the better part of it tossing and turning, finally giving up the fight around 4:30 the next morning. Getting out of bed, she snuck downstairs to get herself something to drink. Trying to avoid waking Callen, she walked into the kitchen without turning on any lights.

Hearing Kelly in the kitchen, Callen decided to make a little noise from his place on the couch, not wanting to completely scare her. "Kelly," he said gently, hoping that she wouldn't get too scared, "what are you doing up this early?"

Shrugging lightly, she picked at the label on her bottle of Snapple. She couldn't even say for sure if she had slept at all. The nightmares and flashbacks, were enough to make her not close her eyes. "Couldn't sleep I guess," she finally muttered, "sorry if I woke you."

Getting up from the couch, he walked out to the kitchen where she was. "You know me, I'm not really much for sleeping."

Sitting down in one of the chairs, she pulled her leg up to her chest—resting her chin on her knee. She had a feeling that Callen was going to try and talk to her, they'd had a few conversations about the shooting after he'd shown back up in DC. He'd helped her understand a little better how to deal with the PTSD, the few lingering nightmares and how to answer everyone's redundant questions on how she was.

"I'm fine Callen," she muttered quietly. "I just couldn't sleep. I wasn't even really having the usual nightmares; I just couldn't get my mind to turn off."

"You know that's perfectly normal," he said, going to fix himself some coffee. "Nightmares, even if they aren't as horrible and scary as what you've had in the past, are still nightmares. Don't try and dismiss the severity of the dreams. Talk to your dad, Jenny, me—we all just want to help you get through this."

Nodding her head lightly, she looked up at him with tear filled eyes. She had hoped that once she'd gotten past the first bout of the PTSD, that it would just be over. She really didn't think she had it in her to go through all this again. Yeah, she had the love and support of her dad and Jenny, as well as Callen and Abby; but she felt like none of them could understand her dreams. They hadn't been in the school that day, didn't see the nightmarish hell she'd seen. "Callen, will the nightmares ever go away? Or am I going to feel like this anytime something reminds me of it?"

Fixing his coffee, he sat back down across from her, giving her a reassuring look, he nodded. "There will come a day Kel, I promise. You are going to be just fine, and this nightmare of seventh grade will be behind you.

"Thanks Callen." She said quietly, smiling at him faintly.

****NCIS****

When Jenny woke up later that morning, she wasn't all that surprised that Gibbs was already awake. Getting out of bed, she pulled on one of Gibbs' old NIS hoodies, hoping it'd help ward off the chill in the house. Going downstairs, she found him fixing himself a cup of coffee, and Kelly was curled up in the recliner asleep.

"Morning," she muttered quietly, not wanting to wake Kelly. She knew that she hadn't gotten much sleep, as she'd heard her get up earlier. "When did she go back to sleep?"

"Callen said she fell back to sleep around zero-six," he replied, standing in the entrance way between the kitchen and living room. "Said they talked a little bit about her nightmares and stuff."

Grabbing a bagel and popping it in the toaster, she looked over at him. "Are you going to try and talk to her when she wakes up?"

Shaking his head, he went over and sat at the table. "No, I don't want to force her to talk about it," he grumbled lightly. "I know she's upset that Kevin was involved with it. I want to go down to the Navy Yard and have a word or two with him. Find out what the hell he was thinking, being a part of that prank."

Sighing softly, she fixed her bagel and grabbed her own cup of coffee, before joining him at the table. "Jethro, that's not going to make her feel any better. You know she's got that question in her head—why would her friend slash boyfriend, be a part of something that stupid, that would affect everyone she is close to."

Glancing at her briefly, almost flashing his steely glare at her, he sighed and took a drink of his coffee. "I just want to protect her, make her feel safe again," he said, turning his eyes toward Kelly in the living room. "Even with the late April Fool's joke you guys played on me, she seemed to be going back to her old self then. Now, everything is back to where it was in November again."

Moving out of her seat, Jenny went over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, leaning in to whisper something in his ear. "This time is different Jethro. This time you know how to help her, you can help her learn to not be afraid anymore."

****NCIS****

Later that morning, Kelly woke up to Gibbs sitting on the couch reading the paper and drinking coffee. Not seeing any sign of Jenny or Callen, she figured he'd sent them on to the Navy Yard, while he stayed home with her.

"Morning dad," she mumbled, as she stretched from the ball she was curled up in, in the recliner.

"Morning sweetie," he replied, setting the paper down and looking over at her. "Did you want me to fix you some breakfast?"

Shrugging lightly, she got up and stretched. "How come you didn't wake me up for school?"

Trying to gauge how she was acting, he wasn't sure what to think of her seemingly acting as if everything was okay. He knew that things were confusing for her, hell she hardly said anything after finding out that Kevin was one of the ones to pull the prank. She didn't even talk to Maddie, and he couldn't remember her not ever talking to her on the phone. "I figured you could use the extra day to relax," he replied. "Jenny will be getting off early today, said something about going to Ticketmaster to get you and Maddie tickets to Nsync up in New York for next month."

Cracking the faintest of smiles, she nodded her head, before turning to go upstairs. "I'm gonna go get a shower. Can you fix me some cinnamon pancakes?"

Before he could answer, his phone rang. Nodding his head at Kelly's breakfast request, he grabbed up the phone while watching her head upstairs to get ready for the day. Sighing a bit, he answered the phone, hoping that Callen or Jenny wasn't calling him in for help on a case. "Gibbs," he answered, his mind still on his daughter and her less than excited reaction to him saying that Jenny would be buying tickets for her favorite band.

"Hey Jethro," Melissa Tyler said, after he'd answered. "I was calling to check on Kelly. Maddie was a nervous wreck ever since yesterday, she'd not really experienced Kelly having a flashback. So I promised I'd call and check on her today."

Going out into the kitchen to get breakfast started, Gibbs' first thought was to just tell Melissa that Kelly was okay, so it wouldn't scare Maddie more. However, he knew that by doing that, it'd probably cause more problems than any of them needed at the moment. "Well she's trying to put on that brave front again. Acting like she's okay, when I can clearly see she is not," he started, as he was mixing the pancake batter up. "I told her that Jenny was going to leave work early today, to go get tickets for Nsync for her and Maddie this summer, she barely had any reaction to it."

"Do you think she'd feel up to seeing Maddie this afternoon?" She asked. "I have to get her out of school at noon for a doctor's appointment. We could stop by on the way home from that."

"I honestly don't know," he replied, "She's hardly said a word to me. It may do her some good to see Maddie."

"I can give you a call after Maddie's appointment, see if you think she's up to it then."

"That sounds good Melissa," he replied, hearing the shower turn off. Knowing Kelly would be down in a few minutes, he poured the pancake batter onto the griddle, to hopefully have them done by the time she got downstairs. "I need to get off here. Kelly will be down again for breakfast." Finishing up their conversation, Gibbs hung up and got the pancakes off the griddle and onto a plate. Setting it down at the table, he gave Kelly a smile as she walked into the kitchen. "You want some milk or juice?"

"Juice please," she replied, sitting down at the table. "Who was on the phone?"

"Mrs. Tyler, she was calling to see how you are feeling. Maddie has a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so they may stop by and visit after."

Nodding her head lightly, she poured some syrup onto her pancakes, before cutting them up and taking a bite. "Dad, do you think Kevin is going to go to jail?"

Taking a deep breath, Gibbs tried to control the anger he felt at hearing the hurt in Kelly's voice. "I don't know Kel," he started, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "It all depends on how much he was involved. If he pulled the fire alarm or not."

Biting the inside of cheek, she started pushing her pancakes around on her plate. "I don't want to talk to him ever again. He's not the person I thought he was."

"That's fine sweetie," he replied, having had a pretty good idea that she wouldn't be able to talk to him anyway. "Anything else on your mind?"

"I guess I can let myself be a little more excited that Jenny is getting me and Maddie tickets for Nsync," she replied, looking at him with a faint smile. "You're not gonna go with us to the concert, are you?"

Chuckling to himself and shaking his head, he could see the start of the healing process all over again for her. It had been a long road, her seventh grade year—one that he wished she never had to endure. He could only hope that once the school year was over, and she didn't have to see the part of the building that had been reopened after the first of the year—that she would finally be able to heal completely.