Gibbs stood between his pissed off boss and his pissed off pregnant wife. "Killing each other isn't going to do anything. We need to calm down, Jen and I are supposed to be leaving in thirty minutes, we will leave now and come to this tomorrow with fresh eyes. Grab your bag Jen."

Jenn grabbed her bag and followed her husband to the elevator. Gibbs reached out and pulled her close to himself. "You okay Baby? I need you to calm down so that little Abby doesn't cook too much."

Jen leaned into her husband and sighed. "Can we pick up Tim and you can drop us off at home."

"Kate and Tony's concert is tonight." Gibbs said shocked, pulling slightly away from his wife.

"I know, but they will be fine if one of us goes and I'm tired. It's been a long day." Jen said, not wanting to fight with her husband.

"Okay, then why I don't drop you off and keep Timmy with me. I don't want Kate and Tony to see us at the school and think that we are both staying." Gibbs said, trying to understand this new side of his wife. He knew Abby's pregnancy had been hard on her, but something was a little off.

"Tim has been really clingy lately. It would be good for us to have some Mommy Timmy time; we won't get it much when Abby is here."

Gibbs nodded and opened the car door for his wife. It didn't take long for his thoughts to be consumed by the case. He pulled up in front of the preschool their children attended and stilled his wife's hand on her seatbelt. "Rest. I will grab him and be back."

It was a quick walk back to the one-year old classroom and watched his son toddle around the room. His Sandy brown hair bobbed around the room as he ran from one spot to another before stopping and observing. His son turned when something caught his eye and spotted his Dad in the window. Instantly Tim started crying and Gibbs entered the room. "Hey buddy," he whispered into his son's hair "I'm not leaving." He grabbed his son's jacket and walked to the car praying that his older two children didn't see him. He should have known after the day he had at work that luck was not on his side.

"Daddy!" Caitlin Gibbs Screamed. He turned to see his daughter break away from her teacher, who must have been bringing the kids in from outside.

Gibbs crouched down and swept up the four-year-old. "Hey Katie-Bug."

"Are you going to get a good seat Daddy?" Kate asked excitedly.

"I will do that when I get back Katie-Bug." He assured. "Front row."

"Where are you going with Timmy?" She asked, suddenly suspicious, a recent side of his daughter that Gibbs had noticed a lot recently.

"Mommy is very tired; baby Abby is making her tired and sick and she wants to go home and cuddle with Timmy and sleep." Gibbs tried to explain to his little girl, his only little girl for 2 more months.

"Then I want to go home with Mommy and Timmy, and I will take care of them. I will change Timmy and make it so Mommy can sleep." Tears formed in the little girls' eyes.

Gibbs could feel the judgement from the teacher who was hovering over them right now. "Kate, I've been looking forward to seeing you and T-Man in this Christmas concert forever now. I would be so sad to not see you up on that stage. Tony will need his sister there too, so he can be brave."

Kate started to cry. "Please let me go home with Mommy!" The little girl pleaded into his jacket, "I will be good. I'm sorry that I slammed my door on accident this morning, but I promise it was an accident Daddy! Mommy was mad, but I didn't do it on not accident…"

Gibbs fought hard to not correct his daughter's speech. "Katie-bug, I know it's hard, but we all need you to be brave. Your brother needs you and Mommy needs you and I need you to stay here and be brave."

Kate's teacher crouched down close to them, "I will take her Mr. Gibbs. Katie, let's go brush your hair up and put on that very pretty dress that Daddy dropped off this morning."

Gibbs watched something in Kate's eyes change. She nodded abruptly, a trait she had got from him. "Okay, I will be brave Daddy. For you and Mommy."

He kissed her nose and stood. "I will see you soon, bug."

"Yes, Daddy," Kate said sadly, being led off by her teacher.

"What took so long?" Jen asked waspishly as he buckled Tim into his car seat.

Gibbs ignored the tone, as he had for the last five months. "Kate saw me and started crying."

Jen sighed, "That girl's dramatics are going to drive us all into the grave."

Jethro bit his tongue. "Did you and Katie get into it about a door this morning?" He turned in his seat to look at his wife but saw her body stiffen in defense and turned to turn the car on.

"She slammed the door Jethro, when has that ever been allowed in our house?" Jen asked sharply.

"It isn't Jen. I'm not accusing you. It was just something she brought up, and it was my day to make breakfast, so I was downstairs." He gripped the wheel tighter and prayed for even tones for Tim's sake. "Was she angry about something? I noticed that you two didn't seem to be getting along at the table or on the car ride. Tony was going a mile a minute and we walked into an active case. I'm sorry I forgot to check in."

"Of course she was angry, I spanked her." Jenn said.

"You spanked her?" Gibbs asked incredulously.

"She slammed the door Jethro and Tim was still asleep!" Jen snapped.

Gibbs pulled up into the driveway in front of their house. He quickly jumped out and gathered a humming Tim and his jacket from the back of his SUV. Gibbs set his son down in the living room, hung his jacket up by the door and turned to his wife. "I'm going to take the kids out to dinner. I will text you what they choose in case you and Tim want to join. Text me what you want to eat, if you don't want to." He turned to walk out the door.

"So, what, now you aren't talking to me?" Jen snapped. "Never leave angry, don't we try and live by that?"

He turned on his heel. "I have to get to our children's concert Jen; they will be looking for me."

"As far as I can remember we both spank our children, and it has NEVER been an issue." Jen said.

Gibbs frown deepened. "Someone in this house has been need a spanking and I'm not sure it was Kate, Jen. I have to go right now. I want to talk about this tonight, and I hope that you will be ready to speak too."

He pulled into the parking lot fairly early and walked into the preschool auditorium. He took a seat in the front row and pulled out his phone thankful that Mike and Jen had taught him how to use the video and picture part when Tony was born. He watched as his children shined on stage for the next half hour and then waited patiently for them to run down to him.

Both kids were more reserved than usual Gibbs leaned down to be on eye level with his two kids. "You guys did amazing! Tony, that solo part on the twelve days of Christmas was awesome, and Katy, we have to think about getting you a drum set with the way you played up there."

Kate's eyes lit up for a second and then dimmed. "Drums are too loud, Daddy."

Gibbs frowned at his kids' aloofness. "Where do you two want to go to dinner? Anywhere you want!"

Tony looked over at his little sister shrugged. "Katie said Mommy and Timmy are home. I think we should just go home."

"Mommy and Tim are fine guys. I promise. Chuck E. Cheese? McDonalds?" Jethro tried.

"Please Daddy, I want to see Mommy." Katie started to cry again.

Tony took a protective step in front of his little sister, "Let's just go home Daddy."

Gibbs didn't get it, what had happened to his two happy, extroverted children. "Do you want to stay here and get cupcakes and talk to your friends?"

"I wanna go home Daddy!" Katie started sobbing. "I wanna see Mommy!"

In a snap decision Gibbs looked at the two youngsters, "Mommy and Timmy are going to meet us there."

Kate's tears calmed down a little and she looked into his eyes searching for truth, "Really?"

"Yes! I just need to know where to tell them to meet us." Gibbs promised.

Kate turned to look at Tony. The five-year-old still looked guarded though. "I think that we should go home and eat pizza, maybe watch a movie."

"Quietly." Kate added. "Let's go home Daddy. I'm tired too."

Gibbs looked down at his phone as he got a text. *Send me pictures. I have Tim and I ready to go meet you wherever you are going. Love you*

Gibbs looked at his two kids, "That's Mommy, are you sure you don't wanna go to Chuck E. Cheese?"

"Maybe this weekend we can go with Grandpa and give you and Mommy quiet time." Tony suggested.

Gibbs sighed, "Alright, we will figure the weekend out tomorrow. Lets go tell Mommy how tonight went."

"With pizza, right Daddy?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. I'm gonna text Mommy and ask her to order it now, do you want cheese bread or bread sticks?"

"Both!" Both kids exclaimed.

"Daddy, can I get a cupcake for dessert?" Kate asked.

"Yes. Tony you grab one too, while I call Mommy."

"Can I grab one for Timmy too?" Kate asked.

"Yes, remember he doesn't…"

"Like chocolate," Both kids finished before wandering off to the treats table.

"Hey Jen." He said when she answerd.

"Are they bickering over where to eat? Tell them that we can do one tonight, and one tomorrow night, Friday night is our normal go out night anyway." Jen said, bouncing Tim in her arms.

"They don't want to go out, they want to order pizza and quietly watch a movie." Jethro said.

"Our kids, Caitlin and Anthony Gibbs don't want to go out for dinner and want to do something quietly?" Jen asked incredulously.

"I think we have a problem on our hands Jen." Gibbs said softly watching his kids carefully try and pick a cupcake for Tim.

"What do you mean?" Jen asked concern creeping into her tone as she put her youngest son down.

"Order the pizza and when we get home put on your Agent hat when looking at the kids." Jethro told her.

"Okay, I'll make sure to get all the favorites." Jen said.

Jethro could hear the tears in her shaky voice, "Jen, it's okay. We will figure this out."

"I know honey, just bring my babies home to me." She said.

Jethro hung up and walked over to his oldest two. "What's the hold up?"

"We can't decide which one for Timmy." Kate said honestly.

Tony pointed to the most plain looking cupcake. "That one doesn't have colored frosting, but it has strawberry filling so that's just as messy. I don't want Mommy to get upset at us because Timmy makes a mess."

"I'll worry about Mommy, which one do you think Tim will love most?" Both Kate and Tony reached for a cupcake that had a space frosting. "Good choice! Let me carry the cupcakes to the car."

Kate handed hers over, "Thanks Daddy, we got one for you and Mommy too."

"Thanks Katie-Bug that was very kind of you and T-Man." Jethro said walking out to his SUV. He put the plate of cupcakes in the front seat and then turned to help Kate into her car seat. He walked around and made sure that Tony was buckled in properly before getting in himself. The whole ride home he tried to get the two kids engaged in conversation, but they both just stared out of their windows.

Jethro helped them out of the car, grabbed the cupcakes and walked to the front door, where Jen was waiting. "Hey guys, how was it? I'm sorry I didn't make it, I was so tired."

"Are you okay Mommy?" Tony asked.

Both Jen and Jethro noted that neither child hugged their mother. "Do you want me to take Timmy so you can sleep?" Kate offered.

"No, Tim and I took a nap and I feel much better now." Jen told them. "The pizza is here, do you want to pick a movie for us to watch?"

"It will be past bedtime when it ends." Tony said nervously.

"You need your sleep." Kate added.

"It's okay to be crazy and stay up past bedtime sometimes." Jethro offered.

"I'm tired too." Kate added.

"Yeah, lets eat and get ready for bed." Tony added.

"Okay, so maybe just a TV show," Jethro tried, "For Tim?"

"For Tim." Both kids nodded.

Jen looked over the kids heads to Jethro and shrugged. She handed her two older children paper plates and set the boxes up buffet style.

"Where's the salad Mommy?" Tony asked.

"I thought maybe we could do without Salad tonight." Jen said.

The little boy nodded his sandy brown head. He put a piece of cheese pizza and a breadstick on his plate. "Do you want more than that, T-Man?" Jethro asked, as he put similar food on a plate for Tim.

"No Sir. I don't wanna be greedy."

Jen's mind snapped to a conversation a couple weeks ago where she had called Tony greedy for putting too much food on his plate. "Tony, if you are hungry, grab more food lovely." His mother encouraged.

"I'm not very hungry Mommy." Tony assured her. Jen tried to think back to how much her son had been eating lately.

Kate had grabbed two pieces of sausage pizza and was pulling cheese bread out of the box when her plate toppled on the floor. Her eyes instantly shot to her mother and filled with tears. "I'm sorry Mommy! I will clean it up right now!"

Jethro kneeled on the floor, "It's okay Kate-bug, I can clean it up. What is going on?"

Kate burst into tears, "Don't spank me, I'll clean it Daddy."

Jen was by his side in a second, she reached out for her daughter, but Kate pulled away. Jethro was starting to panic with how hard Kate was sobbing. "I'm sorry Daddy!"

"Hey, why all the tears?" He asked scooping up his little girl. Kate got more and more upset and Gibbs carried her up to her room and rocked her in the rocking chair until she fell asleep. Jen sat helpless on their daughters' bed. Jethro put the little girl to bed, still in her concert dress. He went down the stairs and didn't see either boy, and only one plate of eaten food, Tim's he was sure. When he walked back upstairs, he saw Jen leaning in Tony's doorway. Walking up behind her, he saw both boys fast asleep in Tony's bed. Tony's arms were very protectively wrapped around his brother.

"What the hell has happened Jethro?" Jen asked.

"I don't know, but we will figure it out. I promise."