Author's note:

Officially the last of the survivors.

Comprises three or four rather short chapters - so it will not be a long read.

She'd kept an eye on him all day.

Silently.

Mostly from afar, but not always.

If the team had realized that she'd come down into the bullpen when she wanted to talk to him, as opposed to calling him up into her office, they'd pretended not to notice.

There was certainly a unsure aura to the team dynamic though. And saying that they were walking on eggshells around him was in no way an exaggeration. They hadn't caught any new cases, and she was pretty sure he was grateful to be desk-bound for the day.

She looked at him on her way into MTAC in the later afternoon, and saw him grimace and reach under the desk; his eyes closing for a fraction of a second. He looked up unexpectedly and caught her looking at him. Jen felt her eyes soften instinctively as their eyes met, and from the look in his she knew he knew she knew. He nodded fractionally – an admission all its own – and then turned back to his computer.

By the time Jen came out of her long briefing with SecNav, the bullpen was empty save for Gibbs – who was still poring over paperwork.

"On a scale from one to ten?" she asked gently when she stopped by his desk on her way home.

He raised his eyes from his paperwork.

"A four. Six. Point five," he modified as she gave him a disbelieving look.

"Which means it's probably an eight. Come on, Jethro, I'll walk you to your car," she said. Wanting to gauge for herself whether he was going to be able to drive home.

"I'll be fine" he mumbled.

Jen suppressed a yawn. "What are you planning to do? Stay here all night?"

"Done it before."

"Well you're not doing it tonight," she said, in a tone that told him she meant business. "Come on. There's nobody left to watch you hobble out of here."

She chose not to offer him any support as they walked together because she knew he'd hate that. As they travelled down to the garage she watched him lean against the railing, and observed as he favoured his right leg on the walk to the cars. Pretty sure that that six point five he'd been on about was more likely to be a eight point five. Maybe even a nine."

"Get in," she said, as her driver saw her coming and opened up the car door for her. "It's not a request, Jethro."