Here's the 21st story in my series. If you haven't read the other stories, then I advise you to not proceed until you do. This is a series. It runs in sequence. To understand certain things (especially where Jamie came from), it's best to just start at the beginning. This series is kind of like my very own NCIS season 4. As of this point, the series consists of: story 1 A Link to the Past (comes in 3 parts)… story 2 Wrong Place, Wrong Time… story 3 Second Job… story 4 Daughters… story 5 A Personal Vendetta… story 6 Bless the Children… story 7 Eyes of the Condemned… story 8 Disturbing Affection… story 9 No Man Left Behind (story that introduces Chioke; aka Kid)… story 10 Finger Swap… story 11 Imperfect Heist… story 12 The Color of Skin… story 13 Death to the Jedi… story 14 Brotherly Love… story 15 For the Love of a Child… story 16 Devil's Playground… story 17 Forced Alliance… story 18 Firing up the Screws… story 19 Close to Home (story that introduces Julianna)… story 20 Last Place on Earth… story 21 The Two of Me (current story). Hope you enjoy it.

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Saturday

Chapter 1

Sometime after dawn in Baghdad, Iraq, a couple marines are in an abandoned complex which has been fortified to be a Forward Operation Center. Inside the sleeping quarters, the marines are leisurely getting ready for an operation into the Red Zone an hour from now. One marine, Corporal David McAvoy, is sitting on his cot writing a letter. Another marine, a sergeant major, is nearby and closely monitoring what the corporal is doing. The sergeant approaches.

"I hope you're not writing your will, Corporal."

"I don't plan on dying anytime soon." The corporal stated. "I'm just writing a letter to my wife."

"Your wife…? You never mentioned a wife before."

"I don't know. I guess it slipped my mind. But yeah, I have a wife. We met…"

"Hold that thought. I'll be right back."

The sergeant major walks to his belongings and uses the key from around his neck to unlock a small box. Once the box is open, he takes out the secured satellite phone contained inside. The sergeant leaves the sleeping quarters in order to find an isolated area where he can make a private phone-call.

The sergeant major dials a number.

Somewhere at a private residence in the Washington D.C. area, a phone starts ringing in the bedroom of a man trying to sleep since its nine hours earlier than in Iraq. The man wakes up. His hand reaches for the phone and picks it up.

"This better be important." The man stated groggily.

"The subject remembers." The sergeant major stated. "He's writing a letter to the wife right now."

"The subject isn't supposed to remember. He shouldn't. We made sure of it."

"Yeah well, he does. What are your orders?"

"Intercept the letter, burn it and terminate the subject. Make it look as if he was killed by the enemy. We can't allow the subject's memories to jeopardize the future of the project."

"What about…"

"Don't worry about the body. When the body is sent back to the states, I'll have my investor intercept it." The man said. "Just get your part done."

The man hangs up. The marine turns the secured satellite phone off and walks out of the private room in order to return to the sleeping quarters.

The man lies in bed reluctant to make a call to his investor, especially after promising the subject wouldn't remember. Unfortunately for him, the investor is a powerful man who will eventually find out, so there's no choice to cover it up from the investor. It's a call he doesn't want to make but knows he has to.

The man opens the drawer to the nightstand. He takes out a disposable phone and dials a number.

The phone rings in the office of Geoffrey Benson at his private residence. After placing his pen down, he picks up the phone.

"Yes?" Mr. Benson wondered why he's being bothered at this time in the night.

"There seems to be a slight problem with the Chambers Project." The man said.

"You know I hate problems."

"The subject of the project remembers the wife. I received a call a couple minutes ago that the subject is…"

"You better get a handle on the situation, Doctor. Your assurance for having the subject's memories under control is why I invested in the project. And now you're telling me you lost control. Figure out what went wrong."

"This is nothing that can't be fixed, Sir. Our watchdog is going to terminate the subject. And I'll have all records of his existence erased. His body will be sent back to the states, but I…"

"You need my people to steal the body, don't you?"

"Yes, Sir." The man said. "Once the body is destroyed, it'll be like he never existed. Then we can start over."

"I'll have one of my people handle your mess when it arrives in the states. But my patience is wearing thin, Dr. Brock."

"I apologize, Sir. I'm so sorry for this inconvenience. It's a minor setback that won't happen again."

"It better not, Doctor. Because if it does, the only inconvenience I'll be dealing with is how to dispose of your corpse."

Geoffrey Benson hangs up the phone. For a couple seconds, he remains seated in his chair in order to think. A couple seconds pass. He looks across the desk at the person sitting in the chair in front.

"I need you to steal a body for me." Mr. Benson said.

"As much as I'd love to help you out, Geoffrey, I…" Jared Lucas Gibbs begins to say.

"It's stealing a body from the military. The Marine Corps to be exact." Mr. Benson stated. "It might give you a chance to say, hi, to your brother."

"You certainly know how to spark my interest." Jared stated with a sinister smile because he knows NCIS will investigate the theft of the marine body. It could be a nice opportunity for him to mess with his brother's head or even further his own devious agenda.

Meanwhile, at the Gibbs residence, it's still nine hours earlier than Iraq time. With it being late Friday night, Gibbs is downstairs working on the boat. As he works on the boat, he takes a deep breath and puts the tool down because an odd feeling suddenly hit him. Gibbs exits from the basement and walks upstairs.

Gibbs continues to walk up the stairs to the second floor. As Gibbs approaches the door to Julianna's room, he hears whimpering coming from the room. He opens the door and enters.

"Julianna… Are you alright?" Gibbs asked in concern for the eight-year-old girl he was awarded temporary custody of just yesterday. He sits on the bed; still without a response from the whimpering Julianna who is lying on her side, not facing him. "Julianna…?"

"I'm afraid I'll forget what my mother looks like." Julianna finally said as she wipes a tear from her eye.

"I know you'll never forget what your mother looks like."

"How do you know?" Julianna asked as she turns her body in order to look at Gibbs.

"I just know." Gibbs said with a slight smile as he wipes a tear from her eye.

There's a moment of silence as Gibbs reads Julianna's body language. He can tell there's something she wants to ask.

"Whatever you want to ask me, you can ask."

"How long did it take for you to stop hurting after losing the red-haired lady?"

There's a brief hesitation from Gibbs as the question Julianna asked doesn't have a simple answer; it still hurts him to this day.

"You'll never forget your mother, Julianna. You'll always remember her. But it'll take some time for the hurt to go away."

Gibbs leans down and kisses Julianna on the forehead. He stands up, tucks her in and walks to the door.

"The red-haired lady loves you." Julianna said as Gibbs stops in the doorway.

"I know she does."

"In your closet is a loose floorboard in the back. The red-haired lady wants you to see what's there."

"Did she say anything else?" Gibbs wondered what else Shannon might have said during Julianna's near death experience the previous week. The near death experience occurred as a result of the car accident Julianna was in and Gibbs witnessed.

"No."

"Good night, Julianna."

"Good night, Jethro."

Julianna closes her eyes and tries to go to sleep. Gibbs exits from the room and turns the hallway light off.

Gibbs enters into his bedroom. He walks to the closet and opens the door. After pulling out the boxes of Shannon's belongings from the back, he searches around for the loose floorboard.

Gibbs' hand reaches back into the closet, near the corner to the left. His hand discovers the loose floorboard and detaches it.

Inside Shannon's secret hiding spot is a dusty book; a diary. Shannon wanted him to find it. She made sure the message was given to someone who could pass it along. Gibbs can't help but think that maybe the only reason Julianna lived through the ordeal is because Shannon made sure of it. Whatever the reason for Julianna being alive, there's a chance the diary holds an answer.

Gibbs reaches into the secret hiding spot and lifts the diary. The amount of dirt and dust that accumulated on the diary is abundant after sixteen years. Gibbs gently blows on the diary. A small dirt and dust cloud is created.

After the dirt and dust settles, he sits in the closet and opens the diary.

Shannon's diary: entry number one

I've been writing diaries since I was a teenager. Today, I start my 5th diary. And I think I know what the majority of this diary will be about.

I met a guy today at a 4th of July barbeque. The guy's name is Jethro Gibbs. A mutual friend introduced us. I could tell he was nervous. So was I. Jethro probably thinks he made such a fool of himself. He dropped his beer on my shoe, managed to squirt ketchup on my shirt and caused me to fall into the pool. I admit the day was full of mishaps, but I wouldn't change today for anything in the world. My friend told me he's never seen an uncomfortably nervous Jethro before. His nervousness was adorably irresistible. I know Jethro really likes me. And I really like him too. He left a couple minutes after the pool incident. I guess he felt he totally blew it and didn't want to embarrass himself further. Sadness swept over me after he left; like a part of me suddenly stopped breathing and died. I never felt that way about a guy before. The barbeque wasn't the same without him. An hour later, I heard a couple friends talking about going camping next weekend. I'm not one for camping. I'll go camping, but I don't get excited over it as my other friends do. The thought of being bothered by pesky insects, raccoons and not having an actual bed doesn't thrill me. But when I heard Jethro is going, I practically begged my friend if I can go. I don't know what it is about Jethro that I like so much, but I'll see him next weekend. I'm excited at the thought of seeing him again. I just hope he doesn't back out, because he's the only reason I'm going.

I hope Jethro asks me out. I really think he might be the one.

End diary entry

Gibbs closes the diary and laughs slightly as he remembers the mishaps and how nervous he was the first day he met Shannon. The only woman to ever make him nervous was Shannon. But that's because no woman has ever made him feel the way Shannon did. Gibbs never believed in love at first sight, but after that day, it was a little hard to keep not believing in the possibility.

He plans on reading more of the diary entries later. But for now, Gibbs is rather tired and decides to go to sleep.