Chapter 1: Hell on heels
A/N: The title of every chapter is based on a song. This one is 'Hell on heels' by the Pistol Annies. This is my first multi chapter Jibbs story so I hope you'll enjoy it.
"Dad, come on. We are going to be late." It was 7:15 in the morning and once again Kelly Gibbs found herself at the bottom of the stairs shouting for her father who was - as always - late. She loved her Dad more than anything else, but sometimes she wished he would bring some of the independence and confidence he showed at work home with him. It would definitely make her life a whole lot easier.
It had nearly been a month since the anniversary of her mothers death and her father was finally coming around again. Every year on the 28th of February he fell into this hole nobody could rescue him from. Kelly desperately wishes he would just come to terms with what happened. She knows he is hanging on for her, but sometimes she gets the impression that he is barley living and after the truck-load of women he dragged along the way, Kelly gave up hope that he would find the right women to make him live again.
"Dad, you have a meeting with Uncle Tom in 15 minutes and you have to drop me off at school first. So if you'd like to see your daughter with a college degree one day I suggest you better come down here, dressed, washed and shaved." After another minute she finally heard footsteps on the stairs and let out a satisfied sigh. "Jesus Kelly, calm down. Since when are you so eager to get to school anyway?" His daughter gave him her best Gibbs glare that was - by the way - pretty impressive and rolled her eyes. "Since I decided on becoming the US Ambassador to the European countries." Gibbs stopped mid-movement and stared at his daughter. "You what?" Kelly rolled her eyes again. "Can we please continue this conversation in the car. Preferable while it's moving towards school?" Without waiting for an answer she walked out the front door and to the passenger seat of the old red truck. Gibbs just shook his head. His little girl developed quite an attitude during the last year that was for sure. The marriage with Diane might just have been a little to much for the 15 year old teenager. He shook his head and grabbed the car keys as well as his gun and bandage.
10 minutes later the truck stopped in front of Kennedy-High School. "So tell me again, why do you want to be a politician?" Kelly rolled her eyes yet again and gave her dad a pitiful look. It probably wasn't easy for the one men on the planet who hated politicians most to find out that his only daughter wants to be exactly that. The only thing worse would be if she decided to become a lawyer. He definitely wouldn't get over that. "Listen dad, I know you hate politics, politicians and everything that has something to do with that, but I think I would be good at it. I really want to make a difference one day and I am good at negotiation. Just try to come to terms with it okay. This is nothing I decided over night. I thought it through and I already looked into colleges." Gibbs eyes just widened in disbelief. "Colleges. You aren't even sixteen." His daughter sighed, opened the door and got out of the car. "I am not gonna stay fifteen forever dad." With that said she slammed the car door shut and walked over to a group of girls waiting in front of the school.
The ding of the elevator alarmed William Decker and Stan Burly that their boss had finally arrived. After retreating to their desks as fast as possible, they tried to look as busy as could be. After all it wasn't a good idea to gave their temporary boss a reason to slap them into next weekend when they didn't know about his mood just yet. According to the frown on his face as he rounded the corner of the bullpen and his empty hands, he hadn't had a good morning and no morning coffee either. That was definitely a very scary combination.
But to the delight of his agents he just dropped his bag behind his table, turned around again and jogged up the stairs to the directors office. Barely 5 minutes later the ding of the elevator announced yet another arrival but the person who stepped out of the elevator looked nothing like Gibbs. The women was tall, leggy and a redhead. A dangerous combination if you asked Stand Burley. She wore dark-washed skinny jeans and a white blouse with a black leather jacket. On her feet was a pair of impossible high high heels and her red locks tumbled down her back in a high ponytail. If her red lipstick and the way she held herself was anything to go by this women was as confident as can be. She purposefully walked over to the stairs and as well as Gibbs went straight into the directors office. Burley just laughed. This was going to be an interesting morning.
Tom Morrow didn't even blink as his office door flew open and banged against the wall. After 5 years he was just as used to Gibbs way of entering his office as to his wife's moods and habits. "Agent Gibbs, take a seat." He didn't even care to look up from the papers he was currently reading. After he finished reading, he signed the file with practiced ease, put his pen down, folded his hands on top of the desk and finally looked up. "I found you a partner." Gibbs opened his mouth, stared at his boss, and closed it again. He swallowed and then tried again. "You what?" Smiling slightly Tom repeated his statement while talking very slowly as he would to a child. "I found you a partner. You know Burley and Decker were just your temporary team. They'll be gone by the end of July and then you'll need a partner who has your back. So I found you someone you can train and work with." Gibbs just raised an eyebrow. "You did?" His boss knitted his brows together in response. "That's what I just said. Are you deaf?" His voice was stern but his lips showed a hint of a smile which was enough to let Gibbs know that he wasn't half as serious as he let on.
After a few minutes of silence Gibbs realized that Morrow wasn't going to give up information anytime soon and was forced to ask the necessary facts. "Sooo… that agent, is he good?" Morrow smirked again and this time Gibbs was sure he was in a lot of trouble. "She is certainly a handful." Gibbs eyes widened again. "She?" But before Morrow had the chance to find an answer to that question his intercom buzzed. "What is it Jessica?" "Agent Shepard is here, sir. You want me to send her in?", his ever faithful assistant responded. Tom Morrow nodded and then realized his assistant couldn't see him. A little embarrassed he pushed the button on his intercom again to reply. "Yes, thank you Jessica." Seconds later the office door was opened a little less forcefully than the last time but still with enough strength to make an impression. In came sin on heels.
The women who was standing in the doorway had absolutely nothing in common with a NCIS field-agent. She was relatively tall, had legs which went on for a mile and wore the tightest fitting jeans Gibbs has seen in his entire life. On her feet was a pair of impossible high heels and her lips had a bright red color smeared across them. All of that was hinky, like Kelly would say, but what really threw him off were her flaming red locks. Gibbs shock his head, Morrow couldn't be serious about this, it had to be a sick joke.
He was openly staring and it pissed her off. Jenny Shepard might not have been with NCIS for long, but she knew what she was capable off. She had spent the most part of her probation time in the Los Angeles field office and really hadn't expected to be transferred to Washington. But she was confident enough to know that it was because she was a great agent and she had no intention to start all over again. If her new boss/soon to be partner didn't respect her, than she would force him too. So instead of calling him out on his blunt starring, she put on her best poker face and smiled. "Agent Shepard, nice to meet you." She stretched her hand out for him to shake and when he took it she made sure to squeeze extra hard and to not lose eye contact. She felt the urge to smile at his attempt to stare her down and stared right back with the corner of her lips quirking slightly upwards.
Saying she instantly unnerved him was an understatement. After he got over the first shock that was her looks, he quickly noticed that she wasn't anything like the women he usually dealt with and that made him feel something he hadn't felt in quite a while: Uncertainty. She didn't even seem bothered by his patented Gibbs-glare so this just added to the weird feeling in his stomach. She seemed sassy and disturbingly perfect. He would be damed if he let this slip.
But that was easier thought then done. After Morrow gave them the usual speech about good partnership and equality at the workplace he dismissed them and Jenny Shepard became officially the problem of one Leroy Jethro Gibbs but every attempt he made at getting her to lose her balance failed. She even hit it off with Decker and Burley who - normally - were even more chauvinistic than he was. She just batted her eyelashes at them and the idiots completely fell for it. But Gibbs couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to her. That she was more dangerous than she let on. And what pissed him off most - to top all the other things above - was that he couldn't read her. His skills to look inside peoples heads and discover their wishes, beliefs and hopes completely failed when it came to her. So that evening on his way home Gibbs decided he couldn't size her up and therefore he just didn't like her.
After another round of silence Kelly Gibbs just couldn't stand it anymore. She let her fork fall loudly onto her plate and looked her dad square in the eye. "Okay Dad, come on. What happened today. You haven't been this grumpy since Stan contaminate that crime scene 6 weeks ago." But Gibbs just shock his head and grumbled something unintelligible. "What was that Dad? I didn't quite catch it", said Kelly loudly which earned her a groan from her father. He knew exactly he didn't stand a chance against his teenage daughter, after all he raised her and she was practically a mini-Gibbs. "Morrow assigned me a new partner today", he grumbled. Momentarily Kelly got more interested and sat up a little straighter. "Wow, really? That would be your first partner since Uncle Mike left. How is he?" Gibbs groaned again, this time a lot more dramatically. "She is the devil." "She?" Kelly started to bounce up and down on her chair, but was ultimately sobered by her Dad's hostility. "You are not gonna meet her Kelly. She would be a worse influence than Diane." And with that he got up and left for the basement stairs. Kelly sighed. Her fathers reaction could only mean one thing: His new partner was a redhead and they were in for one hell of a ride.