Tis The Season to Gibbs

"I don't know. I kind of think she got that one from her dad," he looked up to see her standing just inside the doorway. Her beautiful green eyes were swollen and red. She smiled weakly as she closed the door. She shrugged off her coat and hung it up before walking to stand by the fire, right in front of him.

"It's cold out there," she said as she rubbed her hands together in front of the flames. "I take it you got Kelsey to bed?" The casual nature of their conversation struck him as odd, but so too did the way she kept her back to him as she spoke. Whatever was to come, it could not be good.

"You know I've never done that. Never actually been able to. Just walk away when she had one of her meltdowns. The fact that I could should have told me something. Hell, I trust you more than I did her own father," the red curls danced about her shoulders as she shook her head. "It's too late, you know."

"I'm sorry. You were right I should not have encouraged her," he whispered.

She turned slowly, more tears glistened in the firelight. "It would not have made any difference. When my daughter gets something in her head, there is no stopping her."

He smiled, "Seems she gets that from her mommy." He fought the urge to hold his arms open. She looked so scared and hurt. He wanted to make it all better, take away all her pain, but he could not. It was not his right.

"I walked and walked. Trying to come up with some explanation."

"Sometimes there aren't any, Deb."

She shook her head, "She believes that your dead daughter is her angel, Jethro. Do you know what the psychologists would do with that? Hell, they would be clamoring for me to lock her up in one of those special schools the Radcliffes were always pushing for."

"But you wouldn't."

"Of course, I wouldn't. But how do I handle this one? Ghosts? Angels? Telling her that we are supposed to just stay here."

He shrugged, "Then lock me up too, Debs."

"What do you mean, Jethro? You can't believe this shit."

"Oh, you would be surprised at what I believe, what I have seen," he considered his words carefully, but then again what did he have left to lose with her. "Remember when I was in the Intensive Care Unit. Remember when my heart stopped."

He took a bit of hope from the nervous way that she nodded her head, the paleness in her cheeks and the way her hands trembled just a bit as she rubbed them in front of the fire.

"I had a dream. I was back here," he nodded towards the backyard. "I saw this young woman, talking to a little girl. I could not see the woman's face and I was so out of it that I did not recognize Kelsey at first as the little girl. I wondered where Shannon and Kelly were and I tried to go find them."

He paused, wondered if he should continue. He studied her blank face before speaking, "Shannon came to me then. She told me that I had to let them go. That it was time. That I needed to get on with my life and they needed to get on with theirs."

She bit her lower lip, worried it beneath her teeth. He wanted so badly to taste it, but realized that it might be a very long time before he had that right again. Perhaps he never would. And that thought scared him more than anything had in a long time.

"Shannon said that they had brought me what I needed now," he looked at her, pleaded with her to understand. "Who is to say they didn't? How do we know that Kelly didn't come to Kelsey in her dreams? Tell her all those things?"

She shook her head, "That's crazy, Jethro. I can't build our future on some child's dream. I can't listen to some ghost."

"Can't? or Won't? Debbie, I know that you are scared and hurting right now. Hell, I'm glad that Michael Thompson got to your husband before I did, because seeing what he's done to you and that little girl, a few bullets were kinder than I would have been. Maybe, the bastard never hit either of you," he smiled wickedly, "Well, not without your permission anyway."

Debbie speared him with a stare for that one, but it melted some of the tension that hung between them. "But the cold way, he abandoned you both was worse than bruises in some ways. You know that. But despite that, your daughter has an amazing gift. Even though her dad never really loved her, she could still love him, still reach out to me. Love me back from the edge, Deb. That's the little girls true gift...love."

He shook his head, "But most of us aren't that forgiving, that trusting. And you were betrayed, Hurt badly by the one man you trusted most. And I know how hard it is for you to trust again. Hell, it would be bad enough for a husband to betray his vows the way he did, but that happens all too often these days. But when a Master breaks his vow to protect and cherish his sub, that is even worse."

"Deb, I know it is going to take some time. Maybe a long time. Before you can trust me. Gift me with your submission," he held her gaze for a long moment. "And your love. But like I told my little girl earlier, I'm not going anywhere, baby. Move back to your house. Hell, move in with the Radcliffes, if you want."

He shrugged as if it did not matter, although it did terribly. His heart splintered with each word,"I'll be stopping by every night to check on my girls. I'll be at the other end of the phone when you need to talk or cry or a bit of help calming Kels down. I'm willing to wait as long as it takes, baby, because the two of you are worth it."

He smiled up at her, "And because, hell, yeah, I believe in ghosts and angels. And I know my Kelly enough to know that this is exactly the kind of thing she would do. And if she says that I'm Kelsey's new daddy, then you can damn well count on me being just that. So tomorrow I'll help you pack and together we'll do what it takes to reassure that little girl that everything will be all right."

She nodded at him and bit her lower lip. She wrung her shaking hands a bit harder, "And what if I don't want to go anywhere, Jethro?"

The whispered words were so low that it took a long moment for them to even register. It took another moment for their meaning to sink into his thick skull. He smiled as she shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Then I'd say you were on the wrong side of the room, sweetheart."

She giggled and nodded. She pumped her shin on the corner of the table as she tried to get to his open arms. He smiled as she flung herself into them. He wrapped her tight in his embrace, almost afraid to believe it was real. The firelight played across her skin as he stared down at her.

He looked over at the painting lying on the table in front of them. He loved it and would always cherish it, not just because it reminded him of the wife and daughter that he had lost but because it was a gift from the one that they had brought him. His Christmas angels. The fire surged in the fireplace as the log popped and flames shot up the chimney. And for a moment, he swore that the young woman in the painting winked at him. He smiled, his girls were always full of surprises.

He drew her closer to his body, but so was he, he thought. "You know you have earned another punishment for staying out so long. And for not taking your cell with you," he lifted her chin and stared into those beautiful green pools into her soul. "I understand you needed time to think. And I'm both surprised and damned happy about your choice. But you don't risk yourself like that, you know that."

She looked down, "Yes, sir." Her lower lip curled out in a pout once more, "So what is it this time? A spanking? Orgasm denial?"

He shook his head as he drew her close. Their heads pressed together he felt her tremble in his arms as he whispered, "Not this time, subbie. Forced orgasms."