Late Night Sins
Author: CK
Rating: P12
Contents: Even the most reasonable woman has to sin from time to time...
Disclaimer: Nothing mine and I'm afraid it also will never be... even if I manage to become an Executive Producer for one of those US shows, it will be too late for NCIS... and to bring Jenny back!! +grr+
Author's Note: Inspired by Dr. House and the Premiere episode of season three, with Wilson and House and the guitar ;)
Ah, if you place value on logic, you better not read this story +smiles+
Step by step, the feminine figure tapped through the bedroom's door, descended the stairs, slightly cursing when the boards creaked, and finally approached the kitchen. Slowly she neared the fridge, glancing around shortly before she opened it, already excitedly grinning, lifted one hand to grab her favorite...
Huh?
There had to be... it couldn't be that... no... please not...
Desperately, she searched through the fridge's contents, until she finally noticed a small piece of paper, lying under the butter dish.
"Your chocolate pudding with vanilla sauce has a pass." it read in letters that had obviously been cut out of newspapers. Her jaw dropped open; she was sure she felt it actually resting on her toes.
Someone had kidnapped her late night sin??
She was dreaming. There was no other explanation. All this was totally impossible. Kidnapped food. No, definitely, she was dreaming.
Well, at least she hoped she was. Otherwise...
Frustrated, Jenny Shepard returned to her bed, and fell into a fitful slumber.
--
She got up late the next morning, and just everything went wrong. Entering the bathroom, the woolen mat glided away when she set a foot onto it, what made her land on her backside. For some reason, the warm water didn't want to be her guest during her shower, and she shrieked very unladylike when the first ice cold drops met her skin. In addition, her shampoo flagon had only some debris left for her.
Her nylon tights, of course, simply had to have a run. And the blouse she had chosen for the day had lost a button.
Grumbling, Jenny went downstairs to take her stuff that was still scattered over her desk after another nightshift that had left her too tired to clean up the mess. Quickly, she put everything together on one pile and stuffed it into her briefcase that was actually the briefcase of her father; she used it from time to time when she had too many papers to carry them in her hands.
Unfortunately, but not to be expected different on this day, Noemi had a day off, what meant no fresh coffee was made. She had to remember to ask Melvin, her driver, to stop by a coffee shop. And she made a mental note to just ignore his complaining, telling her something about security risks.
Ready to leave the house, she remembered her late night experience and made a quick side-trip to her kitchen with the intention to again check the fridge. Maybe she had been just too sleepy to see what she had been looking for.
Before she could open the fridge's door, something on the ground caught her attention.
That wouldn't be...
He wouldn't be...
Carefully she touched the strange flakes on the ground, only to be assured that these flakes were sawdust.
Sawdust.
A voice in her head told her that this was far too easy; and that he would never be so careless to leave such obvious marks. At least not if he hadn't done it on purpose.
Well, that definitely wasn't a single player game...
--
"Good Morning!" Jenny Shepard greeted the agents of Gibbs' team. They were sitting at their desks, already busy, although their boss was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless she didn't made any attempt to ask for him, but acknowledged the team's responses to her words, then made her way to her office.
"Good Morning, Director," Cynthia said when Jen walked into the outer office, then got up and followed her boss into the Director's office, to inform her about the today's appointments. Meetings, conferences, every day the same, but she liked politics, she was good at them, and that was why she had accepted this job.
That, and because it gave her some opportunities that where very useful sometimes.
"... and Agent Gibbs is waiting for you in the MTAC," Cynthia finished, making Jen look up from sorting her papers.
"I'll be there in a few minutes. But I want to talk to his team first."
"Yes, Director," her loyal assistant answered, leaving the room. As soon as she was at her desk, she called the agents the Director wished to see.
A short while after that, a knock on the door was followed by DiNozzo, McGee and David entering the office.
"Director. You wanted to talk to us?" DiNozzo began, with his always charming trademark grin on.
"Yes. I have a case for you. It is imperative that no one will get to know anything of that; not even Agent Gibbs. Have I made myself clear?" After the three of them had nodded, she continued talking, telling them what they had to do.
Ten minutes later, she left her office together with the team, watching them going back to their desks and grabbing their stuff; then she entered the MTAC.
"You wanted to talk to me?" she asked Jethro Gibbs, who was sitting there, a coffee in one hand, and a case file in his lap, and sat down in the chair next to his.
"Good Morning to you, too, Jen; hope you have slept well?" he purred, and she eyed him suspiciously.
"Yes, I did; and judging from your mood I guess you, too, had a good night," she answered, but then she groaned. "Okay, Jethro, let's skip the Smalltalk; just tell what do you want, because I have some work to do."
"Can a man not have a few minutes to ask his old partner if she had slept well - and offer her a coffee, because he's sure she hadn't have one this morning?" he responded, his voice low and sweet.
She quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching; then she leaned over, her face millimeters away from his, their lips almost touching, and grabbed his coffee with the words "Only if the man doesn't forget that his old partner is his boss now."
She was gone faster than he even had the chance to realize.
After a few seconds of confusion, he got up grinning, and left the MTAC, to return to his team. Only to stop dead in tracks when he saw that his team's part of the bullpen was deserted. Immediately, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Tony DiNozzo's number.
"The person you are calling is not available at present. Please call again later," he heard a familiar female voice saying. Not even a mailbox was answering his call. Something was really wrong. He tried Ziva David's and Tim McGee's phones as well, but got the same result.
"What the...," he murmured, walking back upstairs and right into Jen's office.
"Jethro! Long time, no see!" Shepard knew all to well why he was here and it gave her a hard time not to burst out laughing when she saw his facial expression that was a mixture of anger, confusion and helplessness.
"Where are they? I don't know it, so you have to know, because they won't leave during their working hours without my or your knowledge!"
"Calm down, Jethro. They have a special assignment you don't need to know of. I want you to go down to Abby; I've asked her to sort some evidences and I'm sure she could need your help. Your team will be back in less than one hour," Jenny explained, unimpressed by him obviously growing more serious with every of her words. But to her surprise, he turned and left; hopefully for Abby's lab, she thought.
--
"Abbs!" Gibbs barked when he entered the laboratory in the basement of the NCIS headquarters building, "Track down DiNozzo's, McGee's and Ziva's cell phones, now!"
"Caf!Pow?" she asked with puppy eyes, then added a "Please?" when she saw how furious Gibbs was.
A fizzed "Abby..." was all she got, so she turned quickly to her computer. Gibbs paced up and down her lab, when a few moments later, she let out an "uh-oh".
"What? Don't 'uh-oh' me, Abbs!"
"I can't locate them... seems like they've shut off their phones."
"But there was no mailbox answering!"
"Maybe they have shut off these, too?"
"How can you shut off a mailbox?!" When he saw Abby's compassionate look, he only added "Never mind. Don't want to know." and left the laboratory.
TBC