Jenny sat in the diner and watched out of the window, waiting for the arrival of Svetlana's hit men. Her heart pounded beneath her rib cage and her mouth felt dry with fear, although she hid it well. She always knew that this moment would come one day, the moment when she had to confront the mistake she'd made almost ten years before.
Moments later the arrival of an SUV marked the start of serious bloodshed that would erupt several seconds later; bloodshed that would change the team's lives forever.
Back in DC Abby, Penny and McGee sat in the bullpen waiting for news from Gibbs, Tony or Ziva. Abby paced frantically and rambled non-stop about all the things that could have happened to her friends that could be stopping them from calling. She only stopped briefly when Ducky arrived.
'Am I interrupting something?' He asked inquisitively.
'Just Abby's nervous breakdown.' McGee replied, receiving a glare from his young Gothic friend.
'Relax Abs; surely nothing bad could have happened to them, otherwise we'd have heard about it by now.' Penny replied as she sat on the edge of McGee's desk, her feet resting against her chair.
Almost as soon as she said it Ducky's phone began to ring. Abby got all excited and almost grabbed the phone from his hands as he showed her the name on display.
'It's for me.' He said to her as he pulled it away from her grasp and towards his ear. 'Jethro?' He said in his form of greeting, but was met by silence on the other end. 'I know I typically dominate our conversations Jethro, but giving that you called me…' He said before he was cut off by Gibbs.
'Jenny's dead. Yesterday.' Was all Gibbs managed to say, the pain evident in his voice. Ducky was also stunned.
'But how?' He replied, keeping his tone low so that the others didn't hear.
'She was murdered. Fire fight.' Gibbs replied irritably.
'Tony and Ziva?' Ducky asked, hoping there were no more casualties, unsure if they could cope with loosing anyone else.
'Not involved.' He said, only managing to say short sentences at a time.
'What can I do?' Ducky said with determination.
'Four bodies are on their way to DC.' Gibbs said.
'Is one of them…?' Ducky began to say, but was unable to finish his sentence.
'No. SecNav and Assistant Director Vance have ordered the autopsy to be carried out here in LA by another ME. Something about personal conflict.' Gibbs explained, as Ducky heard a car door slam in the background.
'Tell McGee, tell Abby, I'm going to need them. I also need you to tell Penny, but Duck…break it to her gently, and tell her that there's a small aircraft already on standby to fly her out when she's ready.' Gibbs explained.
'Jethro…'
'Yeah Duck, I know…' Gibbs replied before Ducky could offer him words of comfort and sympathy.
Abby, Penny and McGee watched the ME as he ended his conversation. They already knew something was wrong by his posture and body language, but when they saw the look on his face, they instantly knew that it meant that they'd lost a team member. They all braced themselves as McGee asked the question that none of them wanted to know the answer to.
'Who?' He asked simply.
Penny looked at Ducky in anticipation, her hands clasped together in front of her face like in prayer.
'Please don't be Jenny…Please don't be Jenny…please don't be Jenny…' She whispered repeatedly in hope, but was devastated by Ducky's next words.
'Oh Penny, I am so sorry.' He said to her, the pain and sympathy evident in his voice and by his expression.
Penny was stunned by his words, and was unable to say anything. Luckily for her she was standing in between Abby and McGee as she felt her knees buckle from under her. They both grabbed her by the elbow and guided her back down onto the desk and kept hold of her for a few moments. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, stammering as she tried to speak.
'H…h…how Ducky?' She said, her face going ghostly white.
Ducky paused before speaking, unsure what to say to her. Finally he realised to tell her the truth, knowing her well enough to know not to try and shelter her from it as she wouldn't thank him for it later.
'She's been murdered. I'm not sure of the exact details, but Jethro said that there was a fire fight.' He explained, and Penny nodded a couple of times before rushing off in the direction of the ladies bathroom.
She made it to the sinks just in time as she emptied the contents of her stomach, her distress being released all at once. Abby, Ducky and McGee all followed her in, with Ducky pointing out to a reluctant McGee that now was not the time to adhere to the trivialities of the signage on the door.
They walked in to find that Penny had been violently sick, crying and was in great distress. Abby went to her immediately and held her close, trying to fight against her own tears and support her friend. Ducky soothingly rubbed circles on her back, and McGee passed her some tissue, for which she was truly grateful.
'I d…don't understand…' She sobbed before taking a breath. '…where were Tony and Ziva? Th…they were supposed to protect her.' She struggled to say through her sobs, barely making herself heard coherently.
'I don't know my dear. But what I do know is that Jethro has arranged for a helicopter to transport you to the location whenever you are ready. Hopefully he'll have some answers for you then.' Ducky explained as Penny's sobs quietened.
She slowly nodded her head and they all made their way back out into the squad room, where she grabbed her things, said goodbye to Abby and McGee and was escorted out by Ducky. He took her to the aircraft that was waiting for her as Gibbs had instructed.
Penny felt numb for the entire flight, unable to find the words to speak. Normally she was bubbly and chatty, but today she felt as if her world had just crumbled beneath her, and her voice had gone along with it. She was in such a daze that she didn't notice how long the flight took, or that they'd landed in LA. The first thing she noticed was Gibbs standing in front of her on the tarmac of a private runway.
As she got out she lunged instinctively into Gibbs's arms, no longer able to shed any more tears, but desperately seeking his comfort.
'Come on.' Gibbs said as he led her to his car.
Penny remained silent for the entirety of the journey out to the diner. She looked at the shabby exterior of the run down, abandoned building, and couldn't believe that her mom had died there. She saw Tony and Ziva outside, lifting boxes and detailing evidence from inside. In that moment all she felt was anger and resentment for two people whom she considered to be her friends. She couldn't understand how or believe they'd let this happen.
'I said to wait.' She heard Gibbs say to them, but she wasn't really paying attention.
'And I said not to.' Leon Vance said as he appeared in the doorway, snapping off his bloodied latex gloves. 'This is my investigation.' He added.
Vance glanced in Penny's direction and then looked questionably at Gibbs.
'Leon, Jenny was her mother; she has a right to be here, to understand what happened and hopefully to be able to grieve and move on.' Gibbs said to him quietly, so that he was the only one who could hear.
'I'm sorry Jethro.' Leon said as he brushed passed him, closely followed by Penny.
As she entered the guts of the diner, Penny tried to contain the gasp that was desperately trying to escape her lips. She looked around the dark, dingy space with disgust, and then saw the blood stains on the floor, along with the evidence markers and the jars on the counter. She hugged herself as she tried to push back the tears that were stinging her eyes.
'D…do you know what happened?' She asked, her voice croaky from lack of speech, her throat dry and scratchy.
'The first two shooters came through the front door, the other two came from over there.' Leon said as he pointed to the two entry points. 'She stood here, she got off the first shots; shooter number one never even fired his weapon. Now she took heavy fire after that; one in the shoulder, one in the arm. Then she started moving this way, and the other two went in through the side door, the second shooter went down there. She dropped to her knee, she fired three more times. Which leaves the fourth shooter. We know how that ended.' Leon explained as he talked and walked them both through the crime scene, and the last moments of Jenny's life.
Penny listened to what was said as she looked round, her eyes falling finally on the tag simply labelled "Shepard". When she saw it she felt her heart skip a beat. She was hoping that she would wake up at any minute and discover that it's all been a horrific nightmare; that she'd go through to her mom's room and find her sat in front of her dressing table, brushing her hair and doing her make-up. Instead she found herself still living the nightmare, and was still fighting to make sense of what was going on.
'Um…will you just…' She began to say quietly as she excused herself from the room, no longer able to control the bile rising into her throat.
Gibbs watched her as she left, toying with the idea of going after her or leaving her alone for a few moments. He decided to go with the latter option, choosing to speak to his agents to establish why they had failed to protect their protection detail; but before he could leave Leon had just one more thing to say to him.
'She put up a hell of a fight.' He said simply in an attempt to offer words of comfort.
Gibbs couldn't look at the man in front of him, but quietly said the words that plagued him.
'Yeah well not good enough.' He said before exiting the dark diner, into the bright sunlight of the Mojave Desert.
He collard Ziva and Tony who were knelt over a setting plaster cast. Ziva approached him first, Tony somewhat more reluctantly.
'What you got?' He asked without looking at her.
'I am sorry Gibbs, we are sorry.' She said with the guilt evident on her face and in her voice.
'What you got?' He repeated, slightly more forcefully than before, only this time it was Tony who answered.
'Not a lot. Tyre tracks are from a second vehicle…we're working on it.' He said, feeling down heartened by what little evidence they did have.
Gibbs just stared at the young agent in front of him, wondering how he could have allowed this to happen. Tony felt consumed by guilt and regret, and answered Gibbs unspoken question.
'We should have tailed her; Ziva…Ziva wanted to tail her.' He said.
'Yeah why didn't you?' Gibbs asked.
'We were given an order.' Ziva explained, trying to justify their actions to herself rather than to Gibbs.
'Uh huh and you followed it.' He replied.
'And now Jenny's dead.' Ziva said, her tone conveying a lot of her feelings.
Unbeknown to them Penny had been hovering in the background listening to their conversation. She walked angrily over to them, no longer able to control her anger or her feelings towards them.
'WHY DID YOU NOT FOLLOW HER TONY?' She shouted, causing all three of them to jump slightly.
'Penny I…' Tony began to reply before she cut him off again.
'I TRUSTED YOU TO PROTECT HER, AND YOU DIDN'T DO IT! I HOPE THE WOMAN YOU WENT CHASING THIS TIME WAS WORTH IT!' She said before walking off back towards Gibbs's car, slamming the door as she got in.
Tony felt even smaller and even guiltier than before, which he didn't think was possible.
'Think I should go talk to her boss?' He asked as he looked at Gibbs for some sense of direction and guidance.
'No Tony, I think she needs to be on her own for a while, and you two need to concentrate on finding her mom's killers.' Gibbs said tonelessly, giving Tony a look of disappointment that offered the younger man no comfort.
He walked back to his vehicle once Vance had spoken to them again, and he found Penny sat in the front seat crying ferociously, almost to the point where she was going to make herself ill. He opened the driver's side door and got in, rocking the car as he did so. He knew that nothing he could say or do was going to make any difference to how Penny felt, and he was consumed by his own sense of guilt in that moment. The only comfort he could give her was to wrap his arms round her, and pull her into a tight embrace.
Penny cried continuously into his shoulder, her sobs muffled as she buried her face into his jacket. Gibbs felt tears springing to his own eyes, finding Penny's grief overwhelming and infectious. He wasn't sure if he was mourning his own loss, or hers.
After a few minutes her sobs became quieter as her energy drained, and she slowly lifted her head from his chest to look at him. Her eyes were red and swollen, her cheeks tearstained. As Gibbs looked into her eyes he could see nothing but distress staring back at him.
'I want…to…see her Gibbs.' She said in between shaky breaths.
Gibbs sat still for a few moments as she watched him intently, before he slowly shook his head.
'No way Penny. I know she's your mom, but I want you to remember her the way she was, the way she was the last time you saw her alive. I want you to remember the last conversation you had with her, and not to have those last moments tainted by her death.' He said quietly but firmly.
She looked at him with understanding but was still determined to get her own way in one description or another.
'Can Ducky at least do her autopsy?' She asked calmly.
'The Secretary of the Navy has ordered that an ME within California do it. He doesn't want her case to be compromised in any way, which is why he doesn't want him to do it.' He explained softly, ensuring that she understood.
She would still have preferred it to be Ducky, knowing that he at least would treat her as a human being, and not like a lump of meat on an autopsy table. She at least needed to make sure that the ME who did her autopsy would treat her with the same courtesy and dignity she would have received from Ducky, and that she deserved.
'The ME, is he nice? Do you know him?' She asked.
'I've asked Ducky the same thing, and he has assured me that this guy is good, and will treat her with the respect she deserves.' He replied as he started up the engine.
Penny fell silent and laid back in her chair, a mixture of satisfaction and grief plaguing her emotions. The reality of the situation was really beginning to take its toll on her, the stress, grief and anguish playing with her emotions and racking her body with exhaustion. She fell silent for the rest of the journey away from that terrible place, but one question was still burning in the back of her mind; what was Jenny doing there?
