The members of NCIS Headquarters in Washington DC had just lost a very special member of their organization. Agent Caitlyn Todd had been killed by Ari Haswari on Gibbs' watch and he was having a hard time digesting it. Sure, he stayed strong while around the office and his team, he would never let them know how close he was to cracking, but it had been nearly 4 months and they had a job to do.
The way Gibbs dealt with his grief was normally to go home and work on his boat with a glass of bourbon and just not think about anything other than his craft. But on this night, he needed more and had taken a beautiful red haired Navy Captain to dinner. They had served together in Desert Storm and she was there for Gibbs after Shannon and Kelly were killed and been dating off and on ever since. But with their schedules, her deployments, and his various marriages, it wasn't easy to spend a whole lot of time together. Tonight, he needed her, so he had called her and she agreed to take the drive up from Norfolk.
Gibbs made sure everything was settled at the office and excused his team for the weekend, hoping they wouldn't be called back in. He left the Navy Yard, stopped at the package store, and then headed home to shower, tidy up the house a bit, and get dressed for dinner.
He arrived at Fiola Mare, an upscale restaurant they both liked and smirked ear to ear when he walked in and saw her. He quickly met her with a kiss and the waiter took them to their table. Being the gentleman, Gibbs pulled out Debby's chair and waited until she sat before he took his seat.
Dinner had gone well, and after, he walked her to her car before going to his. She pulled out and followed him back to his house, neither of them noticing the third car following them from a distance.
At the house, they had sat and talked a bit longer, she, with her shoes off and cuddled into him. It didn't take too long before he leaned in to kiss her which escalated things quite quickly. Within minutes, he was carrying her to the bedroom with his shirt and her dress already on the floor.
He placed her on the bed and began climbing over her as her hands were working on undoing his belt and pants. He kicked off his pants and his lips were moving over her neck and down to her chest, his hands making quick action to remove her bra.
The two had slowly gratified each other for quite some time, sharing pleasure's, too busy to hear anyone enter the house. Just as they both reached their climax, he fell to the bed next to her, fully exhausted. Both sweating profusely and winded, they laid entangled until they caught their breath.
Moments later, Gibbs sensed something so he jumped up and told Debby to stay where she was. He got up and found his boxer shorts on the floor near the door and as he leaned down, he was banged on the back of the neck knocking him out cold.
Debby jumped towards the intruder and he opened fire with a spray of bullets, putting two of the shots directly into Debby's chest. The intruder ran out the door just as a neighbor was passing by hearing the shots, and called 911, being sure to mention that he knew Gibbs worked for NCIS.
Director Jennifer Shepard was the first on scene with Special Agent Tony DiNozzo on her heels, so they pulled their weapons and entered the house tactically in case there was another intruder.
They saw the clothes on the floor in the living room and they shrugged their shoulders to each other, then cleared the basement and lower level of the house so they started towards the stairs. Things were not looking good and they both took a moment to catch their breaths before starting up the stairs.
Masad Officer Ziva David, and Agent Tim McGee arrived only moments behind Metro PD, and seeing the extra car, they put PD in charge of securing the property and vehicles before they entered the house and caught up to Jenny & Tony.
They all creeped up the stairs and split up two by two to check the two bedrooms and bathroom. When Jenny and Tony opened the door to Gibbs' bedroom they found him lying on the floor naked, unconscious, and a woman on his bed who appeared dead.
Tony yelled to the other two and ran to check the woman as Jenny had already run to Gibbs. She checked his pulse and was relieved to discover he was still alive so she looked to Tony who gave her a quick shake of his head telling her the woman had no pulse.
Ziva and McGee ran into the room after clearing the second bedroom and were in shock at what they saw. Jenny was on her knees next to Gibbs trying to get him to wake up while McGee grabbed something to put pressure on Gibbs' bullet wounds to the leg and right shoulder. Ziva left the room and called in to get the ambulance to expedite.
Gibbs finally began to wake up but was in a lot of pain and a little confused. Jenny handed him his boxers and helped him slip them on while she and McGee helped him into the chair next to the bed. "Ziva, run down and get some ice!" Jenny yelled while she held her hand on Gibbs' neck.
When the spider webs in Gibbs' head started to clear, he looked over to the bed and saw Debby's dead body and looked back to the floor, closing his eyes for a moment to collect himself. He was flooded with emotions of love, pain, loss, and total embarrassment.
When Ziva walked in, she asked what happened. The rest of the team were almost scared for her safety, but Ziva was too new to know how angry Gibbs could get when his personal life was involved. He just put his hands to his face, elbows resting on his knees and shook his head. "I have no FUCKING idea!" He yelled as he tried to jump up but was a bit dazed, so Jenny grabbed him again and helped him sit back down.
Jenny stood up, "Ok. Someone call Ducky for the body…." Gibbs spoke up, "Debby… call her Debby, not the body!" They could tell he was upset so she took a breath, "Sorry Jethro. Someone call Ducky, so he can take Debby. Someone help me get Jethro downstairs so we don't have the EMT's contaminate our scene here. The rest of you, get to processing, and I mean everything! Let's find out who did this!"
Tony took Gibbs' right side while Jenny took his left and they started out of the room. "McGee, grab him a pair of shorts from the bottom drawer!" McGee did what he was told but they all wondered how Jenny knew what drawer Gibbs kept his shorts in.
McGee helped him get the shorts on before they took him out to the ambulance where the EMT's began their work. He hated being bothered so much with the blood pressure, temperature, and wound cleaning, so Jenny stayed with him to insist he cooperate. He didn't want to go to the hospital while Debby's killer was on the loose and his team was going through his house, but again Jenny told him he needed to stand down and get checked out.
When Ducky and Jimmy arrived, the ambulance had already left. When they entered the house, they couldn't believe their site but went to work upstairs to help try to recreate what happened to Debby. The rest of the team was uncomfortable searching through their leaders personal things and especially with knowing what they were doing when it happened.
At the hospital, the doctor cleaned and sutured the wounds. Unfortunately the wound on the should required that he have surgery to close it up and they sent him in for a cat scan. When everything came back normal and he was finally awake, Gibbs wanted to check out and there was nothing Jenny was going to say or do to keep him there, so they asked for a scrub top for him and the doctor said that because of the right shoulder, he did have to wear a sling to immobilize the arm and the leg was wrapped up in a bandage. He would have to stay off it at least 10 days and bandages needed to be changed at least twice a day. He thanked the doctor and they got Jenny's driver to pick them up at the hospital.
By the time they got back to Gibbs' house, Ducky and Jimmy were gone with the body and Ziva, McGee and Tony were just finishing up their investigation but they wouldn't allow him into the house in case they missed something and needed to go back. They certainly didn't want anything being disturbed.
Tony and McGee saw the car pull up and went out to assist Gibbs from the vehicle which only pissed off the older man. "What did you find?" he asked his team as they helped him to sit on the front step. Jenny had Tony take a written statement so Tony started asking him questions about what transpired. Gibbs shook his head, "I am NOT going to talk about this right now! I want to know what the hell you guys found. I have no doubt you went through every inch of my house, you must have found something!"
They all looked to each other knowing how uncomfortable the situation was so McGee spoke up to try to break the ice. "Well… we recovered all the bullets. Looks like the shooter was leaving the bedroom as he opened fire. We were able to lift some prints from the doorways, door knobs, and stairwell but we won't know whose prints they are until we get everything to Abby. Ducky said, uh…" he looked at Gibbs. "Sorry boss. We didn't find any id on your friend." He looked to the ground, then to the others and back to Gibbs.
Gibbs took a breath, closed his eyes, and answered, "Debby." He dipped his head knowing he was going to have to tell them everything eventually. "Navy Captain Deborah Paxton. She lives on base down in Norfolk, DOB is 4/23/64." McGee wrote it all down and continued the sitrep he had begun earlier.
Gibbs thought for a moment, "Alright... we went to Fiola Mare for dinner, he possibly followed us home from there. McGee and Ziva, you two go check all the camera's from that area. He looked up at all the houses in the neighborhood. Tony, you visit all the houses in the area to check for cameras and see if they saw anything, this bastard has to have been hanging around a while."
The team all took off their ways while Jenny said she would run into the house and put a bag of clothes together, then she wanted to take him to her house, but he wanted to go to NCIS. He felt at NCIS, even in Jenny's Office, he could be more helpful. When they got to there, Jenny helped him hobble into the building and up to her office.
Gibbs sat on the couch and she tossed his bag next to him. "You are staying with me the next few days, we don't know yet if this was a hit specifically for…" she forgot the woman's name. "Debby" he filled in. Jenny nodded, "Sorry, Debby. We don't know if it was specific for her or both of you, or you and she was hit by mistake."
He sat with his elbows on his knees and his face hidden in his hands before he looked up, "No, this had to be a hit on Deb. The shooter had the chance to take me out, I didn't even see him coming and he chose to knock me out and not kill me. I think the shot to my leg was just ricochet."
Jenny sat down in her chair knowing she had to do what he didn't want anyone to do. "Alright Jethro, walk me through this. What the hell happened? Who is this woman? How long have you known her? What was she involved in? Why would there be a hit on her?"
Gibbs rolled his eyes. The last person he wanted to talk to about his latest romantic interest, is a past girlfriend. But he knew it was Jenny or a lower ranking member of his team and he knew she was doing what a director was supposed to do.
He sat back on the couch, cleared his throat and began telling her what he knew starting with when he and Debby met. He could see Jenny's mind travelling to the dates which was obvious that he had already known Debby before he and Jenny were together.
Gibbs shook his head, "hey… stop! She was deployed the entire time you and I were together. She and I never really officially dated."
Jenny nodded, "Ah, so she's just been a warm body on a cold night?" He rolled his eyes and got upset, "Knock it off! It's nothing like that! More like friends with benefits", he responded as he stretched his neck and starred her right in the eye, knowing that always made Jenny uneasy.
"Alright, alright, so how well do you know this friend? And I mean professionally of course. Like what does she do for the Navy?" He shrugged, "We don't really get into the nitty gritty of our work but I know she is working in the Office of Navy Intelligence. She has been deployed all over the world, she is a Captain now. I rarely even know where she goes when deployed, but I know she can be deployed 6 months to a couple years at a time depending. I would have no idea what kinds of cases she was involved in."
Jenny was writing all of this down in her report and asked how long she had been with him before it happened. He chuckled and shook his head placing it back on the couch. Staring at the ceiling, he filled her in on how he had called her earlier to see if she was around. They had agreed to meet and he made the plans to meet at 8:00. They had dinner and at about 10:00, they went back to his house, half hour drive and hung out on the couch for about 45 minutes. He paused, because neither of them wanted to talk about what happened next but it had to be said.
He stretched his neck again and continued, "We uh, started making out and took it to the bedroom. When we were… done", he blushed and shrugged not able to make eye contact with Jenny, "Deb said she heard something downstairs. Just as I was getting up to grab my skivvies, I was clocked on the back of the neck and was out cold until you woke me up."
She didn't want to hear it and the memories of Jethro naked in her bed all those years ago made her heart pitter patter. He had been one of the most generous lovers she had ever been with. She shook off the thoughts and got back on track. "Did you hear any of the gunshots?" He was trying to think back but shook his head. "No."
"Alright, you stay here and rest on the couch and I will go down and get a sitrep from your team." Gibbs shook his head, "no way, I am going down…." she stood in front of him looking down. "Jethro! You either stay right here on the couch, or I will find a secure place for you to rest. Either way, you can not be an agent in this case!"
He sat back down knowing she was right, and would back down for now, but there was no way she was keeping him in the dark. Besides, he knew his leg wouldn't let him walk around alone.
When Jenny left and he calmed down, the exhaustion began to take over, so he got comfortable on the couch and fell asleep. He woke up about 2 hours later and when he opened his eyes, he saw Abby sitting on the floor next to the couch watching him. He took a few breaths to wake up and then sat up, "Abby, what are you doing up here?"
She jumped onto the couch next to him and took him into an embrace, so he accepted her. "Gibbs, I am so happy you're ok. I am SO sorry about your girlfriend." He could tell she was sincere so he thanked her and tried to pull away, but she kept her arms tightly around him so he continued to hold her. He couldn't lie, the feeling of a loving hug felt really good right now. "Thank you Ab's."
Abby finally broke away but leaned her head on his good shoulder making him reach his arm around her shoulder to pull her in tighter. "Do you have any information on any of the evidence they pulled from my house?" She smiled, "that's another reason I am up here. I wanted you to be the first to know. I ran all the prints they pulled, and we got mostly yours and a couple of Debby's. Nothing came up with any unknown prints. Also, any fibers they pulled were all yours. When I ran the DNA on the sheets and clothes, there was a second pair of woman's pantie's that came back with someone else's DNA, but it was a solid hit on whose DNA it was and that they were there for a few months. Don't you ever pick up your room?"
"Abby!", Gibbs blushed and his mind started to wander, wondering who they could have belonged to, but he didn't want to get any deeper into the conversation. Abby assured him that she would not say anything about who they belonged to as they were clearly not part of the case unless he had two women their that night and one left. He told her a definite, "NO!"
"Sorry Gibbs. I just needed to corroborate your story about only you and Debby being in the room. There was plenty of DNA left behind to prove that." He rolled his eyes and shook his head as his face turned a new shade of red. "What about the bullets?" he asked.
Just then, Jenny walked in and Abby sat up as if she was caught in the principal's office. "Director! I was up here waiting for you to fill you in on the case." Jenny smiled, she knew there was nothing going on between Gibbs and Abby, it was a harmless father/daughter type relationship, even if she believed Abby had a bit more of a crush on Gibbs then he ever acknowledged. It did warm her heart a little to know Abby was one person that could make Gibbs smile, and they were such opposite personalities. "You're fine Abby, don't worry."
Jenny followed up with the question of the bullets and Abby responded by telling them that the bullets were from a Glock 17. There was a total of 10 bullets shot and it was clear the intruder never entered the bedroom except to hit Gibbs over the head. The bullets were all shot from the same gun, so most likely there was only one intruder. There were prints lifted from the bullets but there was no hit in the computer as of yet though she promised to keep trying.
Abby started to get up and Gibbs placed a quick kiss on her cheek. "Thank you Ab's." She looked him in the eye and smirked, "no problem. I better get back to work. We'll find him Gibbs." He smiled back, "I have no doubt."
When she was gone, Jenny shut the door and went back to sit at her desk. She looked up to Gibb's with a smirk, "so, what did she say about everything else? Anything show up with prints or DNA?"
Gibb's looked to the floor, "nope, nothing showed up that shouldn't have been there. I am hoping someone finds something on camera or Abby can get something off one of the bullets."
Jenny could tell he was looking much more haggard than she'd seen him since he was shot many years ago. She got up to walk to her window and shut the blinds. "You look exhausted, why don't you lay back down and try to get some sleep." He shook his head in disappointment, "Jen, I just want to go home."
"No way Jethro, you can't go home to the house. Besides, when you do leave this building, I am going to attach another agent to be your security." He was getting annoyed, "Jen! Come on."
She stood over him with her arms crossed. "I am not willing to budge on that Jethro. One, we don't know yet if this was a botched hit on you or if they were specifically after Debby and until we know they weren't after you, you are going to have security and two, you are injured so you can't react as fast as you normally would, AND your shooting arm is busted." He wasn't happy about it but had to admit she was right. "Besides, I was going to offer that you come home with me, but if you are not comfortable with that, I can send you to a safe house with Tony or McGee."
He rubbed his face and stretched his neck, "fine." She moved to grab a throw blanket from her bottom file cabinet drawer and tossed it to him. "Fine what? You want to go with me or want me to get a safe house set up?" Gibbs smiled at the way it was sounding in his head, "I will go home with you for the night."
Finally she walked over, shut off the overhead lights and switched on the lamp on her desk before sitting down. Gibbs finally gave in and laid back on the couch to get comfortable and covered over with the blanket.
Jenny started working on some files she had while he fell asleep. She kept watching him and remembered that the only time he looked truly peaceful was when he was sleeping. About an hour later, he woke up violently which made her jump up to run over to him and sat down as he sat up. "You ok Jethro." He was mad that he had a nightmare while she was right there. It always got worse during stressful situations and with this, he would expect them.
"I'm fine." She was looking him in the face and could tell he was sweating. She put her hand on his knee, "you sure? I can have Ducky come up here." He scrubbed his hands into his face, "no, I am fine. Really."
He stood up while holding onto the back of a chair with his left hand. "I gotta hit the head" and he looked around for something to help him hobble. Jenny stood up and took his arm, "let's go. Here, lean on me", and he put his left arm around her shoulder as she wrapped her right arm around the back of his waist to help him along.
Gibbs paused for a moment and grinned when they got in the bathroom, "you gonna get it out and hold it for me too?" She laughed and smacked him on the chest with her free arm, "Jethro!" He was laughing as they started moving towards the toilet, "WHAT?!" She blushed and shook her head, "Well Jethro, it's not like I haven't handled it before!" All he could do is shake his head and chuckle as he steadied himself so she could let go and turn her back.