A/N: I know I haven't posted anything recently, but I've moved house and block has hit me over the head. However, I seem to be over the worst of it for now so hopefully there should be more soon.
Minor spoilers for NCIS S08E03.
Sister Act
Leroy Jethro Gibbs suppressed a groan as he walked into his house. The stench of curry filled the air, not exactly the welcome he had been hoping for.
He would have assumed it was Fornell, save for two slight problems. One, someone had turned the heat off, leaving the whole place freezing cold. Tobias wasn't that cruel. And two, he knew it wouldn't take long for the small fact he now graced the front page of NCIS' new recruiting brochure to get around.
Her impossibly high heels greeted him first, feet crossed at the ankle as she lounged on the armchair in his living room. He allowed his gaze to travel from her black pumps, up her legs and straight to a folder that covered her face. Not that he needed to see her face to know who he was dealing with.
Rumor had it she was in Paris. Apparently someone was wrong. Anyway, rumors tended to surround her, most of which were wide of the mark. He was fairly confident she invented a large proportion of them herself.
He glared at the folder, wishing he could scare her into co-operating. As though she could somehow see through the paper, she lowered the file and grinned dangerously at him.
"Guess what someone pushed under my door this morning?" She couldn't have sounded more cheerful if Diane and Stephanie had walked in together, announced they were lovers and wanted him to father their child.
He pushed that particular nightmare out of his head and focused on his current one. She had been tipped off; he hadn't expected her to find out for a few more days. It wasn't much of a surprise that she had informants working in the Navy Yard – she'd had them before and she almost certainly had them in other agencies.
He sniffed the air, choosing not to answer her rhetorical question until he was ready. "What's that?"
The change of topic didn't faze her. "Lamb curry. From the Punjab Express."
He gave her a look that promised her impending demise if she had bugged his house. Again.
"What?" she protested. "Chicken's boring, cows are sacred to Hindus and I wasn't shelling out the extra buck for prawns."
Debating the wisdom of asking about the cow comment, Gibbs decided he really did not want to know. A boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend, or simply a random piece of trivia. Coupled with her habit of lying at the drop of a hat, there were better questions he could ask. Like –
"Curry?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "I got a twofer coupon in the mail. Who else eats with me?"
Gibbs wondered if the place was advertising solely to federal agents. Perhaps it was time to permit her to bug the place after all.
"I didn't poison it," she offered. "I stole a few bottles of bourbon, but I have not tampered with your food. Not today."
"Mild or spicy?" If she was offering and seemed in a good mood, it was insane to pass up food. And it was an opportunity to try to establish some kind of rapport with her that didn't involve him in pain.
"Spicy," she smirked. "Extra toilet paper's in your bathroom."
He didn't know what disturbed him most: that she'd thought this through or that the outcome pleased her.
"So," she began, five minutes later as he handed her a plate with her share of the takeout. "A little bird told me you made it onto the front page of a recruitment brochure. Guess you won't be going undercover any time soon."
He glared at her, hoping for once she would take the hint.
No such luck.
"I think they altered the photo a little," she continued, pulling the brochure from her case file and examining it carefully. "You have more lines around your eyes. And more white in your hair. And you've put on a few pounds recently."
She grinned up at him. He didn't give her the pleasure of reacting – she was only trying to wind him up. Instead, he continued to chew his food in silence, very aware that spicy did not even begin to describe the curry. But he would not back down in front of her.
"I don't know why NCIS needs a fancy brochure," she mused. "No one knows what it stands for. We're in the middle of a recession. You don't have a very exciting job. Now the CIA is a good career choice…"
He thought of his baseball bat, leaning against his back door, and wondered if she would ever stop trying to piss him off.
She finished her monologue as she finished her food, burping loudly before grinning again.
"What's for dessert, LJ?"
The next evening, after mountains of paperwork and a food fight between Tony and Ziva, he pulled up outside his house and sighed. Now he had the chance to relax and unwind, possibly in his basement.
Yet again, Leroy Jethro Gibbs suppressed a groan as he walked into his house. The smell of curry filled the air, not exactly the welcome he had been hoping for.
At least the heating was still on. One good sign amongst all the warnings telling him to run screaming from the place and never return. Or buy a set of secure locks and protect his house.
Her impossibly high heels greeted him first, feet crossed at the ankle as she lounged on the armchair in his living room. He allowed his gaze to travel from her black pumps, up her legs and straight to a folder that covered her face. Not that he needed to see her face to know who he was dealing with.
"Hey," he greeted her, suddenly grateful he had company. "Thought you were in Paris."
Jenny lowered the folder from her face and smiled at him. "I've been stashed in an apartment for a fortnight," she answered, rising up and kissing his cheek. "Thought I'd make a temporary run for it."
They both knew how risky it was for her to be in DC. They knew she was still in danger and only by playing dead did she have a chance. But she had argued time and time again that she would rather be dead than cut off from everyone, and he knew it had to be her decision.
He kissed her, wishing they could freeze time and stay together forever. With luck, she could stay out of trouble for the next year until he retired, and then they planned on sailing off into the sunset together.
She was still trying to persuade him to take a third passenger.
They broke apart reluctantly, aware they would have the rest of the night to show each other just how much they had missed being together. He sniffed the air, suspecting the answer to his question but having to ask anyway. "What's that?"
"Lamb curry. From the Punjab Express."
If it had been anyone else, he would have thrown the food in the garbage and been hunting for another takeout menu already.
Jenny must have picked up on the expression on his face. "I got a twofer coupon in the mail. Thought we could try something new for a change."
Then again, he should have guessed. The sisters were too alike for their own good.
"Mild or spicy?" he asked, moving through to the kitchen and hunting for plates. She was right behind him, ready to help.
"Didn't think you'd want spicy," she pointed out.
They talked while they ate; Gibbs caught her up with all the latest scuttlebutt at her old agency, including the rumor about an IRS investigation into Vance's finances. Neither of them bothered to speculate on who had most likely tipped them off. She told him about safe houses and how she felt about being back in DC again.
"So," she began as they put the now clean dishes away. "The NCIS recruitment brochure."
"Lily show you?"
"Oh yes," she smirked, leaving out that her irrepressible younger sister had jumped onto her bed at three in the morning and screamed in her ear until she had been awake enough to understand what was being shoved under her nose. Some things were better off staying between sisters.
"Her apartment safe?" Her safety was always his number one concern these days.
"Enough weapons to take over a small country and enough explosives to leave a rather large crater where her apartment complex currently is," she reassured him.
He was not yet convinced and it must have shown on his face.
"She also bought a massive dog, named him Stitch and trained him to attack anyone who isn't her or myself, and found an ex-SEAL who owes her his life to protect me."
He nodded, satisfied for the moment. Kissing the top of her head, he drew her over to the couch and they settled on it, curling up together.
"This brochure…" Apparently neither of the Shepard sisters could leave the topic alone for very long. Jenny shook her head. "I don't know why they didn't pick Tony for the cover."
She smiled and he returned it, unable to think of anyone else he would rather be discussing this with.