Working with Gibbs (a NCIS story)

Chapter 41: hard day at the office

-a few days later, way too early in the morning-
Two children screams are what comes through on the baby monitor, startling Gibbs and Grace awake.  They both get up and take off into the next room and see the twins fighting...well, if you want to call little air punches toward each other fighting, that is. 
"This is the third night in a row..." Grace mumbled as she picked up AJ.  Gibbs picked up Kenzie and they both walked around the room with both of them, trying to get them both to calm down. 
"Were they like this while I was gone?" Gibbs asked, and she glared at him.
"Don't even go there...it was worse." Right then, AJ smacked her.  "Ow! Okay, no more going to work with dad..." she said to the young boy.  She heard Gibbs snicker next to her.  "Really? You going to go there?" She asked. 
"He's too much like his dad" he replied, looking at the little girl in his arms, and the way she was looking at him made Grace laugh.
"And it seems to me that daddy's little girl isn't too happy with him right now" she countered, looking at her daughter with motherly pride as the two had the first of what was going to be many stare downs. 
"C'mon, Kenzie, don't be like that" it was clear that while she looked like her mother, Kenzie had a lot of Gibbs' personality.  She was more soft-spoken than her brother, not really one to talk much.  AJ on the other hand was a lot like his name sake - he loved to talk, and talk he did...granted at this point, it was mainly just mumbling. 
Grace and Gibbs continued walking with the twins, and eventually, they settled down enough and went back to sleep.  They put the toddlers in their cribs and went back into their room to hopefully get a little bit more sleep.
-a few hours later, HQ-
Unfortunately, sleep did not come easily in the Gibbs household, and when they went into work, they both had already had 2 cups of coffee...each. 
"Rough night?" Tony asked, and got a glare from both of them.
"Twins plus terrible twos equal tantrums at 2am" Grace replied.  However, as tired as they were, they could both sense the tense atmosphere around Tony and Mack.  They were barely talking, and when they did, it quickly led to shouting. As the day went on and they had to go to a crime scene, it got so bad that a very agitated Gibbs sends them both back to the office.  Grace of course chastised him for that, but she understood - she was going to do it soon herself if he didn't.  Once they all were back together at HQ, Gibbs called an impromptu meeting.
"Alright, what's going on? You all know better than to bring your personal lives into the workplace, but clearly that isn't working."
"He's being too overprotective of me!" Mack started.
"She's not taking it seriously that she needs to be careful!" Tony protested.
"Okay, enough" Grace finally said, done with everyone and everything.  "Listen...it's been a horribly long day.  Mack, you know that you and Tony love each other...that means you have to talk to each other without it turning into a shouting match.  And Tony, you need to give her a little bit of breathing room, don't be suffocating." She then noticed that McGee was being very quiet over at his desk.  "Tim? You alright?" She asked, going over to him.
"Yeah...I'm fine..."
"Don't lie to us, Tim, we can tell.  What's going on?"
"It's my dad...I just got a call from my sister...he passed away in his sleep..."
"Oh, McGee..." Grace said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Thing is, we weren't even that close.  I'm not sure why I'm upset about it"
"Because he's your father, Tim.  No matter how close or far apart you are, you're still family" Gibbs replied.  "Go home, be with your sister.  We'll take care of things here"
"No, I want to keep busy..."
"Tim" he looked up at Grace.  "Go home.  Please." He finally nodded and got up, slowly walking out of the building.