A/N: Happy birthday Meagan! I owe you a huge debt for not only returning my muse from wherever it had been hiding for five months, but also kicking it into overdrive. Sorry I didn't tell you I was writing anything… =P

High School Reunion

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was petrified.

This was not a normal occurrence. Very few things could scare an ex-marine sniper and current bad-ass federal agent so badly that he wanted to find a rock and curl up under it. He had various weapons about his person, knew how to kill a man with his bare hands, could run faster than most suspects and was fully prepared to break a few legs.

On the other hand, his lover and her sadistic sister had bribed and blackmailed him into attending their high school reunion.

Jenny had been to Victoria's Secret earlier in the week, allowed him to peer in the bag and then told him he could only see her in the scrap of lace if he escorted her today. Lily had naturally gone straight for blackmail in the form of a photograph of him cooing over Emily's new kitten. His reputation would never survive if she emailed it around the Navy Yard.

He wasn't sure if either of them were aware that they had both planned to force him along, but he wouldn't be surprised. What he was sure of was they wanted him for different purposes: Jenny for moral support and so she would not have to bring her entire protection detail, and Lily to torture him and amuse herself.

He had never attended a high school reunion and he didn't want to start now. Especially not when the sisters could easily pass for each other and would probably spend the whole night swapping over; while he could tell them apart, most people couldn't. And definitely not when one sister had an evil streak a mile wide and had done since she was a child.

Nevertheless, he was looking forward to one thing. The possibility of hearing a few tales about Lily that she would perhaps prefer suppressed. There had to be something he could blackmail her with and someone here would most likely have that something on her.

Jenny pulled into a space and got out of the car. From the backseat, he heard Lily giggle before she left too. Thank heavens for small mercies – Jenny had decided she wanted him in the front with her. Unfortunately this had meant Lily had kicked the back of his seat the whole journey.

McKinnon High School.

Jennifer Shepard had never thought she would voluntarily walk back into the place, but time had dulled the memories. It was the little things that had been coming back to her in recent weeks. The way she had ended up here, entirely Lily's fault. Their father had planned on a private fee-paying school, but Lily had pulled one too many stunts at her old school and no amount of money would persuade anyone to admit her. In fact, their father had had a major issue trying to locate any local school for her. In the end, he had persuaded a friend of his who ran McKinnon to take Lily. Jenny had come along for the ride as she didn't want to leave her sister alone.

It had been an interesting four years. Their father had insisted on a private tutor at home and straight A's at school. Jenny had been the angel and studied hard, kept her nose clean. Lily had caused several riots, but learnt the art of hiding her hand so she couldn't be blamed. And somehow, probably due to Jenny coaching her when they should have been asleep, she had scraped A's as well.

But it had been the first time the two of them had separated. Jenny had been determined to study and end up in a good college. Lily had been more interested in the wrong crowd and causing mayhem. Two different sets of friends.

And yet they had remained close. They took the same classes, though they didn't always sit together, discussed essays and boys in equal measure, and spent an inordinate amount of time together. Jenny's mere presence at the school had prevented Lily from skipping out or doing something so stupid it would have only ended in expulsion; Lily loved her sister too much to put her in a tight spot.

And Lily had managed to corrupt Jenny in smaller ways, despite her goody-two-shoes image.

"Names?" Some bubbly cheerleader beamed at them as she sat in front of a table covered in name badges.

Jenny stomped on her sister's foot before she could start causing trouble. There would be time enough for that later.

"Shepard," she answered politely.

"Urgh, look, they've written Jennifer on yours," Lily complained as they were walking away (but still in earshot).

"They've written your full name on yours," Gibbs shot back, happy to get in an early blow.

"I thought about that," she scowled, pulling a black marker pen from nowhere. "Let me edit yours."

Jenny willingly handed it over and watched as her sister carefully blocked out her entire name, before writing Jenny in big, bold letters. "Thanks," she told her, genuinely pleased Lily had thought of something that, while it seemed so small, would have bugged her the whole night.

Lily smiled back. "Glad I could be of service."

Leroy Jethro Gibbs soon learnt why Lily had come prepared. Within five minutes, he had spotted Lily on the other side of the hall with her own name tag now looking identical to Jenny's. He made a mental note to ignore the tags and focus on faces, before heading back to the bar and getting another bourbon. He was going to need help to get through the night.

It was going surprisingly well, ignoring Lily's minor mischief. Jenny may have banned Lily from using any explosive device in the world, but the CIA agent had more than a few tricks up her sleeve. Hopefully they were all relatively safe. And unlikely to seriously injure anyone. He didn't feel like spending the rest of the night in a hospital.

DiNozzo had better come through for him or he would put his boot so far up his –

"Hey."

Gibbs turned to greet the newcomer. Obviously a bodybuilder. Six foot five as well – Gibbs was glad he wasn't a suspect or he would most likely need help wrestling him to the floor.

"Bob," the man introduced himself as.

"Gibbs," he replied.

Jennifer Shepard could not remember the last time she was surrounded by so much estrogen.

No, wait, she could, but it involved a girl's night out with Ziva and Abby, coupled with much talk about how useless men were and various ways to kill people.

These women wanted to talk about their families and their husbands (and ex-husbands). They wanted to talk about what their children were up to, and how difficult life was juggling everyone in the family. They wanted to show photos of their babies and discuss baking tips.

They made their lives sound so difficult and when they overcame a problem, it was a heroic struggle against good and evil. Their version of a problem was a cake that wouldn't rise or a child with an A minus. Jenny wondered if she could drag them to NCIS for a day to show them real problems.

"So, Jenny," one of the women began. Jenny vaguely recalled her: Amanda. Head of the 'in' crowd, ex-cheerleader, and now a mother of two boys. And a puppy.

Jenny attempted a smile and tried to imagine she was in a room with a bunch of slimy senators whom she needed to charm. It failed. She'd take the senators any day.

"Who is that handsome man you came in with? Is he single?"

"We're married," she lied, determined to keep this crowd of harpies from flirting with him. She'd promised him a protection detail, not a reason to slaughter anyone.

Everyone seemed to be happy with this and wanted the gory details of the relationship, but Jenny steered them away. On the other side of the room, Lily was very probably lying through her teeth about Jethro and she was not going to make matters worse.

"What are you doing with your life?"

She pounced on the question as she would a life preserver. A safe topic. "I'm a federal agent."

"Have you ever shot anyone?"

"I bet it causes havoc on your nails."

"Do you have to wear flats?"

"It's just sitting behind a desk all day eating doughnuts."

Perhaps not a safe topic then, but it was the only answer she could give. To say she was Director was to risk her security and end up with a lot of unwanted questions. And Lily couldn't admit to being CIA in a room full of gossips, so they had had to prepare an answer for them both.

"You have to meet my children," another woman (Tracey?) told her. "They are so polite. Daniel wants to be a doctor and he's excelling at his very expensive school. He's only in fourth grade – time goes so fast! And then Angela loves pink and wants to be a princess, but she's only in Kindergarten so there's plenty of time for her. And Patrick is top of his class, and his teachers say he's the best artist they've ever seen!"

"You must try this lemon cake," someone else (Bella?) insisted, shoving the plate under her nose. "It's my specialty; everyone knows me for it. Is everyone enjoying it?"

Jenny wanted to shoot something.

Amy tapped her arm lightly. "That guy," she pointed, over at Gibbs at the bar with an unknown man. "I thought you said five minutes ago that he was your gay best friend?"

Jenny couldn't decide whether to burst out laughing or drag Lily out into the hall so she could kill her with her bare hands. Now she recognized Bob. Damn it.

Sighing, she decided to head over and help him out.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was starting to enjoy himself. Bob had bought him another bourbon and was pointing out everyone in the hall, telling him a few things about them all.

Not the boring things Jenny would have done, such as who was married to whom and how many children they had, but the interesting things Lily knew. The two people whose braces had locked together while kissing during the middle of the school play, which had led to the school nurse having to pry them apart on stage with everyone watching. The one who had fainted when a jock put a spider down the back of her shirt. The one Lily had somehow persuaded to attend school in drag for the day (not that anyone had been able to prove it, but they were pretty confident she had been behind it).

The fact that Jenny and Lily had dressed identically even then.

He had yet to learn anything he could blackmail Lily with, but he was hopeful. If anyone knew, it would be Bob.

"Ex-marine, right?" Bob guessed.

"No such thing as an ex-marine," Gibbs reminded the man.

"I've always had this… thing for men in uniform."

Gibbs wondered if his hearing was going. And then he glanced across to where Lily to watching him, grinning like a lunatic, and decided his hearing was fine.

"I'm… married," he replied, trying to think of an easy way out of this that Lily would not enjoy.

"So am I!" Bob grinned. "It's fine. There's a motel down the road –"

"I'm good," he answered.

Someone planted a kiss on his cheek. Unsure what was going on, he turned to see Jenny.

Evidently someone had realized what her evil sister was doing and had come to rescue him.

"Everything okay?" she asked. He could see the twinkle in her eye.

"Another time," Bob suggested. "Hey Jenny. Long time no see."

Jenny smiled back and opened her mouth to reply, when her Blackberry went off. Nodding apologetically, she stood back a little and answered it. Bob wandered off as Lily appeared.

"I was hoping for more embarrassing photos," she complained.

Gibbs simply glared at her.

Jenny hung up and turned to them. "That was Agent DiNozzo. Apparently Mr. Palmer has accidently locked himself in a morgue drawer with a body and there's some trouble getting him out."

"See you later," Lily grinned, starting to walk away.

Jenny grabbed her arm. "I'm not stupid enough to leave you here alone. You can assist."

Lily scowled but didn't argue.

As the three of them made their apologies and left, Lily nudged Gibbs. "While I approve of your method of forcing us to leave early, Palmer better damn well be trapped or Jenny will kill you."