NCIS is not mine.

Merry Christmas to all of you, wherever you may be. This is a little something I came up with whilst my brother was watching Toy Story 3 and whilst I sat here realising how little I have written lately.

-Abby

Le Matin de Noël

Jenny Shepard sat at her desk, steadily tapping her ball point pen on the fake wooden surface as she stared at the case file in front of her. It was Christmas day, outside the sun was slowly rising and inside the oversized tree that dominated the bull pen, that was covered from head to foot with fairy lights, twinkled away to no one in particular. Red and gold tinsel covered the banister of the stairs up to MTAC and the directors office, whilst sticky fake white snowflakes lavishly adorned the floor to ceiling windows.

The bull pen was quiet, in fact only a few people occupied the space. The night shift was gradually drawing to a close, agents were slowly leaving work and returning home just in time to see their children running down the stairs with gleeful smiles covering their faces at the thought of Santa and the presents he had delivered under the tree. The day shift would consist of fewer agents, only skeleton crew. There was a code among them, one that had forever been in play, an unspoken and unwritten agreement. Those who had families were priority for the day off, those with spouses where came next, and those who would just be sitting alone at home with a glass of something strong and a book were generally requested to work.

Jenny had volunteered, after all, the only other person who ever occupied her house with her was Noemi her housekeeper. However even she would be spending the day with her family, the red head had none of that left now though. So why make someone else miss theirs?

Her shift hadn't been due to start for a good few hours, but she knew that Agent Ben Dewer was on the night shift. A man who had two gorgeous young children and would be spending Christmas Day with them, only this year his wife wouldn't be with them since they lost her to pneumonia in the spring. Jenny had told him she would take his shift from midnight before doing her own. Off books. She didn't need the extra money and that wasn't why she was doing it, Jenny managed just fine on her income. So as far as the director was concerned Ben had worked his whole shift.

As a thanks she had arrived at her desk to find a steaming hot cup of coffee, a Starbucks voucher and a slice of homemade Christmas cake waiting for her. That had been more than enough thanks for the red headed agent. Knowing that he would get to see his children opening their presents, knowing that he would get to spend the holiday with his family after a god awful year, that was all she cared about.

Leaning back she ran a hand though her hair and admired her nails. She had treated herself to having them done the night before. Each nail was lacquered in brig red, and the thumb was made to look like Santa's belly. She smirked at the White and black detailing on each of her thumbs which outlines the fur trim on his jacket and belt. That was the only source of festivity that could be seen on the red head. What was the point when there was nobody to make the effort for? No family, no close friends, no lover, no boyfriend...

She reached forward for the second cup of coffee that morning - could she actually call it morning? The sun wasn't even up yet. Sighing she took a sip of the thick sludge she had got from the break room and pulled a sour face as it hit her tastebuds. It was bitter, overly strong, and generally disgusting. In fact she was pretty sure she could see bits of soup in it that came from the machines tomato and minestrone options.

The red head downed the rest of it, pulling an amusing face and trying not to gag, before chucking the cup into the plastic bin beside of her. Opening the draw beside her she went in search of something to eradicate the taste and pulled out an open packet of Rease's Peanut Butter Cups. Only one was left. Her eyes glanced at the clock on her desk, it wasn't even 7am and she was about to eat chocolate. She rolled her eyes and opened the packet, pulling the final one out. "It's Christmas Day!" She reasoned, and bit into the chocolatey, nutty goodness.

She finished her treat and picked up her pen. It wasn't even her case report, it was some other teams, yet had been deemed of high importance. Jenny being Jenny had been dumped with the case notes and told to check it over and sign it off before adding it to the other pile of cases to be signed off by Tom before New Years. The case file was not the only one, in fact there were multiple she had been asked to check.

An hour later the ding of the lift shook her out of her tunnel vision work state. Shaking her head a little she turned to see who it was, smirking when her partner emerged from the confines of the cold metal lift. She turned back to the case file, signed her cursive signature on the dotted line and closed the brown file, professionally stamped with the NCIS logo. She placed it in the left hand corner of her desk and picked up the next in line: the McDonaldson case. From what the red head recalled it had been an open and shut case, a Marine had gone MIA and turned up in DC two days later. He had wanted to be there when his son was born.

She looked at the cover, opened it and began to stare at the contents. The left hand side was all the official documents and correspondences. The right hand side was all the notes and reports made by the agents. Jenny lifted her eyes up as Gibbs walked in front of her desk, he paused momentarily and placed a Starbucks take-out cup onto her desk. Her eyes met his and they shared a ghost of a smile. "Merry Christmas Jen."

"Merry Christmas Gibbs." She replied.

Neither of them knew in that moment that in a years time their whole lives would be completely and utterly different, their relationship would have been turned on it's head. They would be in Paris, living under different names, fighting arms dealers, and drug dealers and some of the worst people on the earth. They would both have been shot, and both at been shot at more times than they cared to remember. Jenny and Gibbs would have finally crossed the line between partners and lovers. Between cover and reality.

That was next year though, this year, well things were a whole lot simpler. This year they were partners, they were coworkers, they were just friends. "We got a case?" He asked, and all of a sudden everything was normal, like it was just any other day.

"Nah." She replied, looking over at him. "They are all waiting to see if they are on the good list."