AN1: This is something that crossed my mind after Kill Ari. Jenny seemed more in place at the funeral than a director who hadn't met the agent would be. So maybe she and Kate had met before. I figure this is somewhere after Kate joined the Secret Service and before Jenny and Gibbs ran off to Europe on undercover ops, though I will readily admit to not doing any research about the characters' ages and possible time line overlaps.

AN2: This is rambling and unbeta'd. It's 3am, please forgive me.

199?

This was turning out to be a long night. Kate Todd hadn't really wanted to go out to some random Georgetown bar, but she wasn't about to pass on a night out with her coworkers. New to the Secret Service, Kate was eager to pick up any useful information – advice, gossip, anything that could further her career. If she was going to make the Presidential detail, she needed every advantage she could get. But after 30 minutes of watching her colleagues get smashed on a Thursday night, she'd had enough. Kate wandered over to the bar for a drink of her own.

"FBI?"

Kate turned her head in the direction of the question and saw a red-head sitting on a bar stool with her legs crossed, sipping a martini. She was wearing business skirt, casual blouse, and knee high boots with classy but obscenely high heels. The woman cocked her head, waiting for a reply.

"No," Kate answered, hesitantly. "Why do you ask?"

"You're carrying."

Kate reached for the small of her back where she had holstered her small personal firearm when she left the office and gave the woman a shocked look.

"And you're wearing a suit." Jenny smirked and held out a hand. "Jenny Shepard, NCIS."

Kate shook Jenny's hand. "Kate Todd, Secret Service."

"You're new." Kate gave Jenny a 'how the hell do you know all of this' look.

"I introduce myself as an NCIS agent and I don't get any comments about being one of the 'cowboys.'" The way Jenny made air quotes around 'cowboys' made Kate smile. "Plus you are obviously uncomfortable in this environment, yet you are subjecting yourself to it. Classic probie career move, always looking to move up the ladder so quickly. And you weren't able to hide that you were carrying. Another probie-ism.

"Don't rush it, by the way. Enjoy your probie-ness while you can. It turns out it can get worse when you're no longer a probie. You're all alone in the office, with no fellow probies to support you. Of course, there's the perk of having your own probie to boss around. I mean teach. Your own probie to teach."

This wasn't Jenny's first martini, Kate assessed, but she wasn't drunk. Kate caught the dig about her gun and fired back defensively, "And you're telling me you can carry without a federal agent being able to tell."

"Am I carrying now?" Jenny challenged.

Kate looked over the blouse tucked into Jenny's skirt. No place for a gun at her shoulder or waste. She glanced over the boots. Too tight around the leg and ankle for a gun, she decided. "No."

"And you would be wrong, Secret Service probie."

"Whe…"

"You'll get used to strapping under a skirt eventually," Jenny answered before Kate could finish the question. "Those boots you decided couldn't fit a gun, however, do fit a knife."

Jenny slid the handle of her blade out from her left boot and laughed at Kate's shocked look. "A consequence of working for my current boss. As is my current alcohol consumption. So, are you as uptight as the rest of the suits over at the Secret Service?"

Kate thought for a moment at the out of the blue question. "I've had my fun, but not with coworkers. I like to walk into the office with my self-respect. I have to say, I've already lost respect for several of those guys tonight."

"I'm not a coworker and I'm feeling a bit reckless. Feel like having some fun for a night?" Jenny looked over at Kate with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

Kate looked more worried. "What is your idea of fun?"

"We could break into my boss's house, drink his bourbon, and burn his boat." Jenny smiled at the thought. "Or bribe the girl at the coffee shop to screw with his coffee in the morning. Or get really stinking drunk, outside of the presence of coworkers, and exchange embarrassing federal agent stories that could potentially damage other people's careers, namely, my boss's, though he seems to have some sort of immunity to damage to his reputation."

"What exactly did your boss do to prompt this?" Kate asked.

"He has really blue eyes," Jenny stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

2003

Kate knew she was in for it when NCIS got involved on Air Force One. And she knew with one look at Gibbs that his were the blue eyes.