Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.
Summary: What happens after Jenny sees the Chimera hit by a rocket? She thinks that Team Gibbs is still on board the vessel.
****NCIS****
Jenny was sitting in her office, having no energy or strength to try and leave the building. She had been in MTAC for most of the day and had seen the rocket hit the Chimera-and her heart had dropped to her stomach. She had just watched four of her agents and medical examiner die, all because the damn Navy didn't want anyone knowing about their research ship.
Now she sat trying to fill out the paperwork for the case; the words becoming blurry to her. Taking her glasses off, she tossed them down in front of her and had just started to close her eyes when her office door flew open.
"Jethro!" she exclaimed, shock and relief filling her as she saw the one man she loved-the same man she had been convinced died right in front of her eyes, standing in her doorway.
"Director," he replied coolly, as he stepped further into the office, letting the door shut swiftly behind him. He had no sooner stepped away from the door and was headed toward the liquor cabinet, when Jenny was around her desk and attacked him in an Abby-like hug.
"Thank God you're all right," she said, before leaning in and kissing him deeply. She poured all of her emotions and feelings into it, almost afraid of letting him go-afraid that he would disappear into thin air. Breaking the kiss, but keeping their contact close she asked, "How did you guys get off the ship? I watched it explode."
"We were on the Russians' boat when the rocket hit," he replied, threading his fingers through her hair. He loved that she was letting it grow long again. These little stolen moments they had with each other weren't nearly enough in his opinion. The last few weeks both of them had been weighed down with work, her more so than him. It seemed as though everyone was turning in their case files, and it left very little time for them to see each other outside of the office.
"Did you go down and see Abby yet?" she asked, as he poured them both some bourbon. She let him lead her over to the couch. "She was devastated when I told her that we believed you had all died."
"McGee called her when we got back here," he replied, as she curled up beside him on the couch. "She seemed to come out of nowhere and attacked us. I'm surprised she didn't call you."
"I turned my phone off," she said, laying her head against his chest, listening to the steady sounds of his heartbeat. "I didn't want to talk to anyone for a while."
"How about we go back to your place, and we can both sleep tonight," he suggested, knowing that he could use the sleep and Jenny most definitely could.
"We can go to yours," she said quietly, lifting her head up off his chest. "I know you probably want to work on your boat, plus listening to you sand it relaxes me."
"All right, let's go," he said, standing up and holding his hand out for her to take.
Once she had let her security detail know what she was doing, and that Agent Gibbs would be taking her home, they gathered up their things and headed out to his truck.
****NCIS****
Jenny lay curled up in an old recliner that Gibbs had in his basement as she watched him work on his boat. True to her point, the rhythmic sounds of him sanding the wood had lulled her to sleep. The past thirty-six hours had caught up with her. As soon as she had seen Gibbs walk into her office, relatively okay and unharmed, it allowed her to finally relax. They had been secretly "dating," if you want to call it that, since May; back before she had been in Paris for a conference and had to leave him in charge of the agency. They never really went anywhere except her townhouse or his place. Of course, being the director of a federal agency and getting caught out on a date with one of your agents wasn't something she had high hopes of achieving. That said, she had no problem keeping their newfound relationship quiet again. If she remembered correctly, they both enjoyed trying to keep the relationship under cover, so to speak, the first time around.
When Gibbs looked up to ask Jenny a question, he couldn't help but chuckle lightly, when he saw her curled up asleep in the chair. Going over, he bent down and lifted her into his arms and carried her up to his bedroom. They had changed clothes before they had went to the basement, so he just laid her in the bed and got in beside her. Once he had, she immediately curled up against his side, almost in a desperate way to make sure that he was really there beside her.
"Jethro," Jenny mumbled, her silky alto voice laden with sleep. "You think you can avoid situations like that now?"
"About as much as you can, Jen," he replied, running his fingers through her hair, hoping to get her to go back to sleep.
Nodding her head lightly to show she heard him, she wrapped herself tighter around his body. "You know, the anguish was worse this time than it was a couple years ago when you got blown up on the Cape Fear," she said, messing with their interlocked fingers before continuing softly. "Not that I wasn't a wreck then when I got the news, but it was like this time we had the eyes in the sky, so I saw that rocket hit the Chimera. It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest and someone sucker punched me."
"We're okay now though, that's what you need to remember," he replied, leaning down and kissing her softly.
"I know," she replied, looking up into his eyes. "Then Commander Skinner, or as Abby called him when I told her about him, Commander Slimer, he kept trying to hit on me. Thought I basically slept my way to the top of the agency."
"Want me to go shoot him for you?" he asked jokingly.
"I wish you could," she mumbled, the scent of sawdust and bourbon that was distinctly Jethro was lulling her back to sleep. "Someone, somewhere would probably frown upon that though."
"I love you, Jen," he whispered, as he leaned in and kissed her softly. "I will protect you till my dying day, never doubt that."
"I love you too, Jethro," she answered, smiling at him tiredly.