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Not that he did it all that often - but putting a beautiful woman up against a half made boat and getting her to come all over him was one of his absolute favorite things to do.
"Oh, no, no, no way. Red light, Cowboy."
Leave it to S.S.A. Jacqueline Sloane to seek out and destroy any chance of fulfilling that Christmas wish.
"You're about to have company," she whispered along his ear, teeth nipping down his earlobe as she whimpered and shoved his shoulders back from crowding her. "And I am not getting caught with my pants down."
"No?" Gibbs asked for clarification, barely withholding his grin.
"Not this time," she answered, poking at his hip to turn him away. Well, half turning him, anyhow. His mouth was still just shy of hers, rubbing along her cheek as he chuckled. "Your turn, maybe."
"Doubt it," he answered, ducking the slap he almost got in retaliation for tugging at her button and zipper at once. He damn near got them both undone, too.
"Get your ass upstairs, Gunny. They'll be here soon."
Yes, ma'am.
***
The excited squeal of a teenage girl in his house was, at once, wonderful and… a little sad, maybe. It sounded bittersweet but was cushioned by the laugh he gave up when the sound turned into an excited "Gibbsy!".
… Gibbsy?? Really??
She shook her head into a surprised laugh, heading toward the front door to face his company, a dish towel in her hands to dry them as she rounded the corner.
She saw the bright blue happiness in his eyes before even taking in anything else, his glance meeting hers over his god-daughter's head. Amira was just tall enough to wrap right around the broadest part of his torso, her arms encircling him as much as they possibly could as she pressed her head to the center of his chest.
'Gibbsy?' Jack mouthed silently, smirking as he rolled his eyes in answer. The smile on his lips was unbreakable though, beyond reproach.
She loved seeing him happy.
***
"He said to me 'I want to marry this woman.' and I didn't believe it. Not at first."
Jack took the words in, mulled them over and considered their gentleness as she turned her glance over Leyla. They were both seated at the dining room table, both leaned over steaming cups of coffee and both of them smirking each time another sound came squealing or crashing or laughing its way in from the living room.
She purposely swallowed before speaking, the sound of the stereo getting turned up louder in the other room, jaunty Christmas carols taking up all the spaces of the house. "I try to forget that I'm Wife Number Five. Usually it's not that hard to ignore. It's been, I think… easier than we expected? Sometimes that scares me."
Leyla smiled in answer but didn't turn her head, curling both her hands around the mug at the table and looking even more beautiful as she shrugged one shoulder up. "He said to me 'She understands.'."
"Which part?"
"Sounded pretty all encompassing to me." The younger of the two finally turned Jack a conspiratorial smile. "He took you to Mexico, showed you a place where he was happy, wanted it to be special to you, too."
Mexico was special to them, something they had managed to keep to themselves awhile - even as everything else had been revealed. Mexico had been their secret, their heat, their password to privacy...
She loved that gritty little bedroom with the criminally thin mattress and mint green ceiling, the grubby window panes and the generic beach painting over the bed.
"Well, he managed," she murmured, feeling her face go flush warm with the memory of him undressing her so softly and slowly. "I'm ready to go back."
"I have no doubt," Leyla agreed on a laugh. "There are many things to miss about that beach, that sun."
"Especially in December." Sloane reached out and squeezed Leyla's wrist briefly, the touch light. "You were the only person he told, you know?"
"He wasn't telling me, Jack," the other woman countered knowingly, lifting her cup into her sternum as she stood and smiled.
Leyla didn't give her the option to ask for more information, her steps sure as she headed for the living room, welcomed by her daughter's laughter. She waited in the still kitchen for a few moments, letting the younger woman's commentary sink in as she rounded her thumb against the lip of her favorite mug. By the time he joined her half the heat had leached out from her coffee.
"Hey," he offered softly, his hand catching her shoulder as he passed by her and toward the kitchen doorway. The touch was so softly familiar, practiced and repeated often enough that she knew where his fingers would fall against her throat just before they brushed away.
"Hey," she responded, just as gently. "We need to go back."
Gibbs just nodded as he took in her quietness, studying her features. "Mexico?"
"Mmmm." She angled toward him slightly as he continued to the fridge, not turning but listening as he tugged it open. She could hear him rustling things around before shutting it. His steps were quick and light as he came back through to the table. "How did you know?"
"You've got that dreamy look on your face." He tucked two cold bottles of water in his left arm before the right reached for her, fingers against her hair. "Wasn't really a huge leap of deductive reasoning. Leyla's always wanting to go back."
"Amira adores you." Jack smiled indulgently and tipped her head farther into his touch. She wasn't at all surprised as he stroked through blonde and then squeezed her shoulder.
"She's four inches taller than she was the last time I saw her."
"You loved her grandfather," she accused as he tugged at her, his empty arm hooking her close as she stood into him. There was likely no getting away from joining them in the living room and she was ready to watch him enjoy the holiday with his family anyhow.
Gibbs snorted, dropping a kiss in her hair as he steered them both toward the living room. "Her grandfather was a cranky old son of a bitch."
"Yeah." Jack felt the smile completely overtake her, laughter in her throat as he kept up that supposedly stoic veneer. "Can't imagine the two of you finding anything in common."
He pinched her hip playfully, drawing a squeak out of her as he brushed his lips on her cheek, "You'll pay for that later."
She was truly looking forward to it, still happily smirking as he pulled apart from her and stepped toward the fire he had built. The smell of burnt sugar met her as she watched him set the waters to the coffee table and then take one of the two pokers that Amira was holding.
Leave it to him to teach the kids to cook up Smores in the fireplace. She laughed through her nose at the realization, heading for the couch and catching the conspiratorial eye roll that Leyla passed her.
"Nothing new, is it?" Jack asked, settling down beside the other woman.
The girl's mother just shook her head, resting farther back on the couch with a sigh, "Not at all."