Disclaimer; We don't own NCIS or anything... Cause if we did, Jen would still be alive ;)
Author comments; Co-write between HeadslapDiva(writing as Jethro) and I(writing as Jen). After a bit of character reading(otherwise known as reading between the lines and looking at the subtext of some things that are said), we decided to write out how the fight between him and Jen causing her to leave might have occurred, but rather than leaving him in Paris, we decided to write it a little more like this...
Gibbs paced the length of the sitting room in the apartment he shared with Jen. It was six in the evening, and Jen had gone out to find something for dinner, so he figured it was a perfect time to call Stephanie and clear the air between them. Apparently, she had decided that their relationship was not over before he left, and she had been calling him frantically over the past few days. He hoped that noon wasn't too early for her. She did enjoy the finer things in life a little too much. "No, I told you when I was packing to leave. We are through, Stephanie Flynn. Did you not hear me when I said that? Oh, I forgot. You had too much wine that night. God, you're such a drunk. I don't even know why we got together in the first place." He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He had been raised to be respectful to women, and that had not changed at all. But Stephanie Bronwynn Flynn was making him reconsider his upbringing, if only for her exception. "What do you mean? Did I mean it when I told you that I loved you?" He rubbed his temples and stopped pacing for just a moment. "I never said that about you. No, I never did." He was getting frustrated with this whole thing. She was obviously drunk, and before noon, even! What, had she been up late partying with her friends again and decided to keep the party going? "I've had enough of you. We're done. Yes, I mean it. No, I am not doing this just to spite you." He did know that she hadn't exactly been faithful during their relationship. "It's not cheating if I'm not with you. You, on the other hand, seem happy to sleep your way through the ranks of Metro PD's finest just to get out of a parking ticket when we were together." He hit the call end button and sighed, hoping that stunned her enough to show that he was serious. He wanted nothing to do with her anymore.
Jen paused outside the door when she heard him arguing with someone, surely on the phone. She set the bag down on the floor, pulling her hair over her shoulder and leaning slightly toward the door to listen more. She only heard bits and pieces, and they were making her unhappy. She heard him shout and it sounded like the conversation was over so she unlocked the door and walked inside with dinner. She didn't say a word to him, but instead set the bags down on the table and stared at him. "Enjoy. I'm not hungry. I'm going for a walk. A long one." She said cool-y. She walked to their station and picked up her gun and her badge, holstering the gun and putting the badge in her pocket. She pulled on her long brown jacket that he'd bought her and turned. "Don't. Follow me." She growled, making her way toward the door.
He stared when she came in, wondering what had happened. Instead of letting her go, which would probably be the best thing to do in this situation, given that she was as well-trained as he was in hand to hand combat, he blocked the door so she couldn't leave. She had to have heard his fight with his hopefully finally ex-girlfriend. There was no other reason for her to act like this. "I don't know how much of that you heard, Jen, but it wasn't what you think it was." He hoped she would understand. Seeing the look in her eyes hurt him and made his heart ache. He had caused all this pain she felt. "At least give me a chance to explain it to you before you storm out."
Her breath was slightly heavy as she narrowed her eyes. "I don't want to hear a stupid explanation. This is how it always happens," she threw her voice for effect, "ooh, it's not what it looks like I can explain," She paused, narrowing her eyes and letting her voice fall to a normal tone and level. "I don't want to hear it Jethro. You lied to me. Right to my face. I asked if there was another woman- because we're under cover and we're doing this for our jobs- but I fell in love with you when I shouldn't have. I asked you, Jethro, if there was another woman- and you. Said. No." She took a deep breath, refusing to let tears even show. "Fuck you and your explanation. Let me out."
"That's because there isn't. I ended things with her before I left. Or I at least tried to end things. I thought it was over but she couldn't take the hint." He saw her eyes glisten slightly with tears, and felt his own eyes start to burn. "I was telling her that I was serious, that we were over. She was too drunk to remember that I told her. She was the one who kept calling my phone until I turned it off. She thought that I was just joking- that I would have called her the second I landed in Paris. I didn't." He could feel the pain of losing Jen, and it hurt, badly. He hoped that he would be able to fix this before he lost her for good. "Do you think I would really lead you on like that? I was raised better than that. I want you in my life, not her."
"I said I didn't want to hear it, Jethro! Get out of my way!" She tensed so her voice wouldn't break while she spoke to him. "How could I know if you would really lead me on like that if you lied to my damn face?" She shouted, "Maybe you should have thought of that before, and told me there was someone recent. Now I just feel like some kind of rebound. You don't love me you just love the idea of me, get the hell out of my way." She moved forward and tried to shove him out of her way.
"You aren't a rebound," he growled, kissing her deeply. "Does that feel like a rebound kiss to you?" Perhaps his habit of finding women who looked like his first wife were just perpetual rebounds, his way of coping with losing his family. "God, Jenny, you are the first person who has made me feel alive in almost ten years. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Suddenly, the pain of losing Jenny deepened when he remembered that he had told her about that. He knew he had betrayed her trust, and he needed to earn it back somehow. "I don't say that to everyone. You have to believe me." He hoped that she would believe him. He knew his tell for lying - his ears would get red. He hoped she would have noticed that when he lied to Decker about not sleeping with Jen.
She pushed him off, "Stop, just stop!" She shouted, wiping furiously at a few tears that escaped her eyes. She sniffled, shoving him away from her again and looking away when he spoke to her. She stifled a sob when he continued talking and swallowed hard to try and make it go unnoticed. "It might if you hadn't lied to me. How do I know you're not lying to me right now?" Clearly, her better judgement was clouded by her emotions but she didn't care. He lied to her. "Fucking figures the first man I let in would do something like this." She murmured to herself, sighing deeply and fighting herself desperately not to cry. "Please. Let me go Jethro. I need air. Or I'm going to hit you."
He wiped away her tears and frowned. He knew that this was a lost cause. He wasn't going to be able to win her back. "I thought that we had something more, Jen." He gently kissed her once more and let her go. "I'll still be here when you calm down." But he knew that he would most likely be sleeping on the couch. He watched her go and sighed, the ache becoming unbearable. She had been everything to him, and that one fucking call to Stephanie to straighten her out about the status of their 'relationship' ruined it. Resigned to his fate, he grabbed some spare blankets and pillows and started to make up the couch for himself.
She stormed out, not letting herself cry until she was far enough away he had no chance of hearing or seeing. She sat on the fountain outside for what felt like hours but she knew couldn't have really been so long. She finally settled herself at least a little and pulled herself together. Surely she was overreacting. She took a deep breath. "Come on, Jen. Pull yourself together. It's only two more days, and then you can go and never look back. Two days." She sighed, getting up and wiping her eyes carefully as not to ruin her makeup anymore than it was. She pushed herself up and made her way back to their room slowly, pushing the door open slowly and taking a breath before finally bringing herself to get into the room. She looked over at the couch where he'd seemingly nested and didn't say a word. She simply slipped off her jacket and hung it up, putting her gun and badge down. She looked over at him for a moment, but decided it was too painful and looked away from him again, sitting down heavily in the chair and staring at the monitor.
He looked over when someone entered their apartment. "Jen?" he asked, standing when she entered. But she ignored him and settled at the monitors. "I'm sorry. I should have told you about what happened." He retreated to her room and started packing his bag. His part of the mission was almost over. He had learned enough about their mark now to pull off the assassination. He dressed in all black, and called him up, asking for a meet. If he could just take care of this, he knew that he could go back to the States and possibly try to salvage what he could with Stephanie. Someone like him probably deserved someone like her, anyway. "I'm going out," he said, donning black gloves before taking his throwaway firearm and silencer.
She tensed, trying to ignore the painful ache in her chest. It was growing impossible now. She looked up when he stood behind her, dressed in black and preparing the leave. She wiped at the few tears staining her cheeks. "You shouldn't go out." She said quietly, her voice very quiet. She swallowed again, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat that was only matching the ache in her chest. "You're upset. It's going to screw with your judgement." She couldn't bring herself to look at him anymore… Not without the urge to cry. She just wished she hadn't heard anything, and she could just pretend to be oblivious. She started to cry again.
"I just want this mission done so I can head home," he said coolly. When he turned and saw her crying and he felt the ache in his chest grow. He knelt before her, removing his gloves to wipe away her tears. "Don't cry, Jen. I wish things could have been different. I wish you would believe me." But there was nothing left for him, except to finish his part of the mission. "I already called him. We're meeting behind the cathedral." He kissed her forehead. "I am coming back alive. Don't worry." He needed to finish this, and if she was willing to come back to him after thinking it over a little more, then he would.
She shuddered, crying a little more when he told her to stop. She reached up and grabbed his hand, breathing through her tears. "Promise me." She said quietly, looking up at him with bright green eyes only made bright by her tears. "Promise me you'll come back alive. Promise." She demanded, pushing herself to stand up. She'd been here the whole time; she knew how dangerous these people were. "And if you're not going to promise me that... At least let me go too." No matter how upset she may be with him, and how much her chest ached right now- she couldn't just stop loving him. "At least that way if something happens, I can be there to fix it."
"I promised him I'd be there alone." His heart ached when she started to cry again and he kissed her softly. "I will be back here. Franks always said I was like a cat, got nine lives and sneaky as hell." He tried to smile at his lame little joke. "Jenny, I promise I am coming back here alive. He won't even know what hit him." The hit man would be hit, and that was all there was to it. "Remember, the Corps trained me to be an assassin. I can take him out without even wrinkling my shirt." Now that he was in mission mode, there really was no deterring him.
She hung her head, nodding a little. "Fine... I'll hold you to that... Don't make me regret it." She stood and looked up at him, knowing it was probably less than intimidating. She reached up, slapping him once. "That was for lying to my face." She then moved her arms around his neck and pressed close, nuzzling his neck. She pulled away and little, leaning up to kiss him deeply. "I can't promise I'm not going to follow you."
"I'm sorry about lying to you, Jen." He felt stinging warmth where she had slapped him, but that quickly faded when she nuzzled his neck. "I know. I don't want you to follow, but I won't stop you if you do. Just promise if you do follow that you'll keep back unless it looks like it's going bad." He kissed her deeply. "I have no plans on dying when you're in my life. I love you." And with that, he left, praying that she wouldn't follow him.
She watched him leave and pulled herself together, walking across the room and getting dressed. She dressed in her cover, finally feeling satisfied enough to leave. She packed her weapon and made her way out, quickly making her way to where she knew they would be. She heard talking when she rounded the building and paused, hearing a small struggle and then the shot. "Good timing." She murmured to herself, making her way around the corner to make sure it was really their mark that had been shot. When she saw Jethro standing over him, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of her and she relaxed a little. "Glad you kept your promise." She said quietly, leaning on the wall.
He nodded, slightly breathless from the struggle. He went over to her and held her close. "I told you not to come," he said, smirking softly. "We should get out of here, before the cops see." He took her hand and led her through the shadows, taking a moment to chuck his gun into the Seine. "It was simple, made it look like a typical KGB hit." Right down to the bullet and gun used. "Now he won't be offering to teach terrorists his skills and sell himself to the highest bidder."
She pressed close to him. "I wasn't about to let my partner go alone. What if something had happened?" She asked, not noticing when they passed a woman that she'd been speaking this. She nuzzled his shoulder and continued walking with him, squeezing his hand gently and looking up at him. "If I give you one chance, can you promise to never lie to me again?" She asked quietly, knowing her words were useless. She knew she would continue giving him 'one chance' until she died. He was someone she'd never be able to stay away from.
"I can promise that." He kissed her deeply and caressed her cheek, making her look him in the eyes to show her how serious he was about this. "God, how did I get so lucky? You're forgiving me, when you probably shouldn't." He kissed her again, pulling her close and smiling softly. "I can't promise that we won't fight again, but I can promise that I will do everything to keep from hurting you again." He hoped that was an acceptable promise. "I love you so much, Jen." Something about them felt right in a way he couldn't quite explain, but he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
She moved her arms around his neck, nuzzling him softly. "If she calls you again," She said quietly, standing properly to walk next to him again. "I want to be there went you tell her to go away. Because if she doesn't listen to you, I'll make her listen to me." She said quietly, leaning forward to kiss him softly. She retreated to his side; taking his hand and nuzzling his shoulder while they walked back toward they're hotel. She glanced over her shoulder, feeling watched.
He felt a strange feeling in his gut and turned. "Someone's following us," he whispered softly. "Stay close to me. I'll keep you safe, Jen." He cursed the fact that he had thrown his weapon in the river. He would feel so much better knowing she had her gun with her. "And I would appreciate that very, very much." He smiled and nuzzled her cheek. "It would show her that I don't want her anymore. I have you, and that's all I need."
Author comment; Maybe we'll write more if you review ;)