AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was inspired to write this after the episode "Ex-File." I know the timeline and some of the characters might be a bit off. I did the best I could. There were a lot of gaps to fill in to make the story work. The scene where Hollis, Jenny and Stephanie all confront Gibbs is priceless, and I decided to elaborate on it. I orginally intended for this to be a one-shot but I am tempted to add more chapters. Reviews welcome!
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Everything belongs to CBS, Paramount and Don Bellisario!
"Over here!" The now familiar voice shouted.
Stephanie Flynn turned around and pivoted on her heels. She eyed the oversize booth in the restaurant. It was full, and as she moved towards the women she counted heads quickly. Stephanie made seven. Stephanie had expected all red-heads but there were a few surprises. It had been so nice of Director Sheppard to extend the invitation.
"Nice to see everyone again...I think." Stephanie said cautiously as she squeezed into the booth.
"It is nice." Jenny Sheppard piped up.
"Hello Director." Stephanie said politely.
"Please, call me Jenny...we're off the clock now." Jenny Sheppard explained as she looked at Stephanie.
"Umm...hi Diane." Stephanie mumbled.
"Hey Steph...glad you could make it." Diane Fornell said with a small smile.
"Steph...how's life?" Ginger asked as she eyed the wife who had come after her.
"I've had better days." Stephanie said with a sigh as she picked up the drink menu.
"You won't be needing that." Faith Coleman said simply as she snatched the menu from Stephanie's hands.
"Who the hell are you?" Stephanie asked, confused by the presence of the JAG officer.
"I was almost mistake number four." Faith said simply as she eyed Stephanie.
"Same here." Hollis Mann said as she eyed Stephanie.
"I'm sorry to hear that...really I am." Stephanie said as she lowered her gaze. Hollis had seemed so nice, a good fit for Jethro. Now Stephanie wondered what had transpired between the two.
"Ladies here we are..." The waiter said as he sat a tray down on the table.
There were two bottles of bourbon and several glasses filled with ice.
"Thank you." Jenny said politely as she eyed the waiter. He was so young, and so cute...and for Jenny it had been so long.
"Well ladies...time's a wasting." Jenny added as she reached for the bourbon.
"I know most of you...but not all." Stephanie said as she sipped her bourbon.
"I'm Mercedes." The only woman at the table who hadn't said a word spoke up as she extended a hand in the cramped space and introduced herself.
"What a lovely name." Stephanie said politely.
"So...can I assume that the silver convertible in the parking lot is yours?" Stephanie asked as she re-filled her glass.
"It is...what can I say it's like a natural attraction." Mercedes joked.
"Speaking of attraction....tonight's dirty dish..." Jenny said loudly.
"Oh...I thought we were done with that..." Faith Coleman groaned.
"We're never done with dirty dish." Jenny corrected.
"So who thought this one up?" Ginger asked.
"I did." Hollis Mann admitted quickly. Her glass of bourbon was empty and she had every intention of getting painfully intoxicated, the memory of the break-up with Jethro was still too fresh in her mind.
"So....ladies...worst ever..." Jenny said quickly.
"Basement." Diane replied.
"Unfinished boat." Ginger added.
"Subway station in Moscow." Stephanie said simply.
"Farmers market in Madrid." Jenny said with a glimmer of sadness in her eyes.
"Couch." Hollis supplemented.
"My desk." Faith said as she eyed Jenny cautiously hoping she wouldn't get in trouble.
"Back of the convertible." Mercedes finished the conversation.
"Diane...I'm surprised...I always found the basement rather nice." Ginger said with a small smile.
"Eww!" Diane squealed.
"You're such a priss." Jenny said sourly as she looked at the first ex-wife.
"Whatever. I know how to get what I want." Diane said tersley as she flipped her long red hair.
"Like antique pocket watches?" Stephanie said dryly as she raised an eyebrow at Diane.
"I earned that for putting up with him." Diane said as she sipped the bourbon.
"So...has anybody else stolen anything? I can't be the only one?" Mercedes asked with a small smile.
"Pocket watch." Diane said with a smile.
"Antique dueling pistols." Ginger replied
"Hand tools." Jenny said lamely. She couldn't think of anything better to steal, and she made it a point to take something from the basement everytime she was there.
"Diving watch, and of course Marine." Faith said with a smile.
"Marine?" Several voices asked in unison.
"The dog." Faith said simply.
"He let you get a dog?!" Ginger asked in outrage.
"He told me he was allergic." Mercedes added.
"He is a..." Stephanie trailed off.
"BASTARD" Six voices finished the sentiment for her.
"Well...I wouldn't go that far." Stephanie said with a smile as she remembered the discussion they had outside Jethro's house just the other night.
"Oh don't tell me..." Faith said in disgust.
"No...listen to this, he must be getting soft in his old age. He passed up the perfect opportunity to embarass me." Stephanie explained.
A collective and eerie silence fell over the table.
"Really...I know what you're all thinking. I'm serious." Stephanie added as she eyed Hollis.
"Wow." Ginger said with a sigh.
"I need some food." Stephanie said as she eyed Jenny Sheppard who appeared to be the ring-leader of this organization.
"We don't need menus either." Jenny said as two waiters appeared with trays full of food.
Stephanie looked down at the plate in front of her.
"Let's just go to hell with the joke." She said as the tabe erupted into laughter.
Sitting in front of every woman was a large steak cooked medium-well along with a serving of french fries. That and the bourbon made for Jethro's favorite meal.
"Nobody's strong enough to shake Leroy Jethro Gibbs...it's a curse." Jenny said as she cut into her steak and took a large and very unladylike bite.
"What happened with you two anyhow?" Mercedes asked, still a bit shaky on the details.
"I sent him a Dear John..." Jenny said as she gulped her bourbon.
"So there was something between you two." Stephanie said with wide eyes.
"Yes. But I can assure you that it was long before you entered the scene. Scouts honor." Jenny said as she looked at Stephanie.
It was clear that out of the group Stephanie was the most fragile. Hollis' wounds were still fresh, but she masked the pain a lot better. There was something peculiar about Stephanie. Something in her that couldn't make peace with the past. Jenny had seen it the first time she had watched Stephanie with Jethro. She was guarded to say the least, and she still seemed awestruck over Jethro's presence.
"If you'll forgive my lie...I didn't dare say a word at the office." Jenny said honestly.
"Okay girls...I have one." Mercedes said as she popped a french fry into her mouth.
"Most annoying habbit." Mercedes said after she had swallowed her food.
"Seat up...always...." Diane said with a groan.
"Ditto." Ginger, Faith and Hollis replied.
"He never left the seat up when we were undercover." Jenny thought to herself victoriously. He was probably worried she would shoot him.
"Yeah...and his ridiculous argument to go along with it." Faith huffed as she cut into her steak.
"Well...why don't the girls have to put it back up when they're done? Or better yet...sorry I hang out with guys all day." Ginger pretended to say it in a gruff low voice, doing her best to imitate her ex husband.
"Chivalry. That gets old quick when you're trying real hard to prove yourself in the field." Jenny muttered.
"Oh I loved his chivalrous side!" Mercedes gushed.
"It's great when you're not working." Jenny reminded the group.
"Don't forget your pocket translator!" Stephanie said mocking the way Jethro would yell to her everytime she left their apartment in Moscow.
"Yeah...that would get old." Mercedes said in a low voice.
"It always drove me nuts when he'd try to change my oil or windshield wiper fluid...for God's sake I own the dealership...I can get that stuff taken care of anytime." Mercedes added her least favorite trait to the list.
"How did you know it was the beginning of the end?" Hollis Mann asked it so quietly the group could barely hear her.
"I woke up one day and realized nothing would change...ever and I was done trying to accomplish the impossilbe task of making him happy." Faith replied.
"Well he found me in bed with someone." Ginger said sheepishly.
"When he ran out of the house with blood gushing down his face and scalp and went to Ducky for help." Diane said with a wry smile.
"When I got stood up...for a case... the sixth time in a row." Mercedes heaved a sigh as she said it.
"Waking up in London...alone." Jenny said wistfully. She regretted the dear Jethro letter she had left in the safehouse in Paris. It had been of her own accord and free will, but now she had nobody to blame but herself.
"Realizing I could never be Shannon." Hollis said with a sigh.
Six sets of eyes stared at Stephanie, she was the only one who hadn't answered.
Stephanie was still hoping they'd forget about her. She hadn't forgotten the agony, the desperation, the paralyzing fear of a life without Jethro. She could lie. She knew she should tell the truth though.
"Umm...it's complicated." Stephanie said as she bit her lower lip, hoping the brief explanation would suffice.
"Isn't it always?" Faith muttered, unsatisified with the answer.
"What I mean to say is that it's still hard to talk about." Stephanine supplemented.
"Of course it is." Hollis said knowingly.
"Well I guess the beginning of the end was probably the day that I realized I couldn't...." Stephanie trailed off, she really didn't want to finish her sentence.
"Couldn't what?" Diane asked out of exasperation. This Stephanie chick was way too clingy for Diane's taste.
"It all started one night...we were at a bar in Moscow....and we let the vodka do most of the talking...we were getting over a big fight and Jethro had explained, insisted really that once upon a time he had been a different person...a better person. Gentler, kinder, more apt to listen, more willing to make time for a family. We had been married for eight months at that point...and our marriage was already strained. Having a baby was supposed to change everything, but I guess it just wasn't my destiny...or something like that." Stephanie added the last part quietly as she choked on a sob.
Across the booth Jenny was sorry that they had pushed her. She should have forced Diane to back off. It wouldn't have been the first time Jenny had told Diane to shut up. Now it all made sense. Stephanie was lost in what might have been.
"I've got a great one." Stephanie said trying to save face. She already knew Jenny and Hollis saw her as weak. She was trying to avoid the sympathetic looks.
"Shoot." Ginger said as she refilled Stephanie's glass for her.
"How many times have you slapped him or called him a bastard?" Stephanie raised her eyebrow as she reached for her full glass of bourbon and took a hearty gulp.
"Too many to count." Several voices replied in unison.
"Golf clubs work better than hands." Diane said with a smirk.
"Ever shoot him?" Jenny asked with a small laugh.
It had been dark, they had been in Pasitano and as she struggled to get Jethro back to their safehouse Jenny had realized that the shot Jethro had taken in the hip had been friendly fire. She had almost blown his leg to shreds in a dark alleyway. Thank God Ducky had been waiting for them when they returned. As Ducky rushed around helping Jethro it had taken Jenny almost ten minutes to realize she had been wounded. She had only been grazed, but the wound from her shoulder slowly seeped blood through the front of her white evening gown and it was Jethro who noticed it as Ducky busily removed the bullet from his hip.
"Jen...." Jethro had croaked in a low voice as he lay prone on the kitchen table while Ducky probed around Jethro's pelvis for the round. Jethro shakily pointed at Jenny's dress. Her designer gown had gone from pure white to a macabre shade of pink.
"What about you?" Ginger inquired as she poked Jenny in the side and interrupted her daydreaming.
"Can you repeat the question please?" Jenny asked slightly dazed.
"Best gift...." Ginger said repeating the question she had asked.
"A coat." Jenny said wistfully still sad she had left the gift on an airplane years ago.
Everbody else had some type of jewelry. Jenny smiled inside again. She was the only one who had gotten a gift with any real meaning.
"All right ladies...everybody has a safe ride home?" Jenny asked cautiously as she signed the receipt.
Six faces nodded at Jenny.
"Great....Stephanie, so glad you could join us. Good luck in Philadelphia. If you're around here again we meet at the same place the second Thursday of every month at eight." Jenny instructed as the women began filing out of the booth.
"Well ladies...thanks for having me. It was good to finally clear up some things." Stephanie said as she reached for her purse.
As Jenny stood the bourbon hit her senses all at once. She put on her game face and strode to her waiting towncar without the slightest hint of intoxication.
"How the hell does she do it?" Diane muttered as she watched Jenny walk away.
"Do what?" Hollis wondered aloud.
"Drink more than all of us put together and walk out of here like that...and in those heels!" Diane exclaimed.
"Best I could figure she drinks a bottle on her own." Hollis mused as she stood next to Diane.
"It's always been like that." Faith added knowingly.
Jenny got into her waiting towncar and instructed her driver before putting up the partition. She drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes, resting her head against the soft leather of the headrest. Maybe it was the bourbon, maybe it was the nostalgia. Maybe it was the five inch stilletos and the dangerously short pencil skirt. Above all Jenny knew it was now or never. The towncar stopped suddenly and Jenny got out.
Jethro Gibbs knew that sound anywhere. It struck fear in his heart. She was here to yell at him again, he knew it. The Director of NCIS was making her way down the basement stairs in a short skirt and very high heels. It was Jenny's signature look...not that Jethro minded at all.
"Here to yell?" Jethro asked as Jenny stood at the bottom of the basement stairs.
Jenny shook her head no.
"Then I'm getting scolded." Jethro said knowingly as he picked up a fresh piece of sandpaper.
Jenny didn't say a word. Instead she moved closer, voiding the empty space between their two bodies. She got as close to Jethro as she dared. She was just drunk enough. Bourbon seemed to be the liquid courage she needed.
Jenny rested her hands on Jethro's shoulders and looked into his blue eyes.
"Jethro...I need you." Jenny said it so softly it was almost a whisper.