Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.
Set in time: NCIS 2007/2008, season 5
Spoiler warnings for seasons 3 to 5, specifics in each chapter.
Main characters: Jennifer Shepard, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, Mike Franks.
A/N: JIBBS in three parts for those of us that think second chances are hard to come by (from Jenny's POV).
I Hear The Bells Toll
(by VG LittleBear/vglb)
Operation True Love
Spoiler warning: 5×09 "Lost & Found", minor spoilers for seasons 3 to 5.
Only a few weeks ago Jenny had made her first overture to Gibbs since she came back to DC. It was a spontaneous offer, but she had been thinking about what she wanted from life ever since she had put her obsession with her father's death behind her. Jethro had come to her house, and ended up putting Carson to bed, the boy Gibbs had maneuvred her to host for the night.
The last time she had seen him take care of a little boy, she hadn't known he'd already been a father. This time she knew, and it broke her heart even as he said that the kid would be alright. She'd glimpsed the kind of father he'd been for his daughter when he slipped the boy under covers, then went to the backbag sitting beside the bed and extracted a tired looking plush doggie, the kind of toy loved to bits. Even asleep the boy snuggled it against his neck when Jethro placed it in reach. Jenny had not known it was there, and her rised eyebrow asked and received a reply: neither had Jethro - until he checked the bag. That was probably just experience as a parent. Jethro had this winsome look about him as he tenderly brushed the kid's hair away from his face before guiding her out the door.
Alone together on their own time, Jenny had asked him to stay; for the first time in ages she felt free to do so. He'd turned her down, saying she'd made her choice. True enough, for years she had chosen to put her father, and his memory above all else. Her father had been the most important person in her life, living or dead. She had had a hidden agenda for years, but now her quest was over, and she wanted her life back. And she wanted Jethro in it.
Nine years ago, she had believed she was alone in her grief, her father barely dead a year, dead under a cloud of suspicion. She was sure she knew the one man responsible, and secretly she went on the warpath. For a time she had sought strength and refuge in Gibbs arms, never telling him what had happened in the study of her father. She never talked about her family, and thankfully he never asked. Obviously that meant she never asked about his life either, and Jethro was the strong, silent type anyway. Of course she had known that he'd been married more than once, but with their job and undercover operations, she had probably seen more of Jethro during the times he was married than his wedded wife did. Marriage was overrated anyway. Even though, she had never been 'the other woman', Jethro never put her in that situation.
Back in Paris, undercover and real life his bedmate, she had concentrated on her job. When her own nightmares culminated with a gunshot - the gunshot in the study branded into her memory - it would wake her; shocked out of sleep she often watched Gibbs still dreaming. His sleep seldom seemed happy, but she attributed his nightmares to his experiences in war, the one or other case, even their undercover ops. Some certainly were, but she'd noticed that each time she had driven their car, it had made his dreams agitated. Not that she had understood why being driven would make it worse for Jethro. But while Jethro's driving messed with her stomach for a time, she had never had her dreams affected by his erratic driving.
So she never contested Gibbs' need to drive, even if his driving often was madly inappropriate in European mountain passes, or washed out back roads. Other times it was barely distinguishable from local drivers some she wished had never been given a driver's licence. Then again, she doubted that some of those drivers actually held a valid permit. The times she frequently drove, they were in England. Jethro left driving on the 'wrong' side to her. And they both paid for it, when Gibbs' dreams had him cry out in the middle of the night. She'd never have guessed there was a lost family lying beneath the roiling surface of Gibbs, only manifesting in sleep. When she'd caught him lightening candles in the one or other church, she'd thought it was for lost souls. He'd killed enough people to wish them eternal peace, anything to pass a quiet night. Only his sad eyes didn't quite match that sentiment.
When Jethro talked about setting up house together, she couldn't tell him that she needed to move on. Leaving him between two flights with a 'Dear John' letter and her lovely coat, had been hard. But she had a plan and a mission of her own that were incompatible with settling down. Nor would it have been fair to the man she had believed him to be, to involve him into her dark schemes. Ironically it had been another airport that showed her how much she still counted for Jethro. The fact that her oblique reference to her coat had sent him to the right place to save her, blew her away.
But then came the night Jethro was blown up on that Turkish ship, and he went further away from her than he'd ever been since they had met again. At first she had been afraid for his health, but he overcame that hurdle with his usual disregard for physical pain. His mind though had been laid bare to fresh anguish over the murder of his wife and their daughter. To Jenny, learning that their car had crashed had been a revelation. How often had Jethro wanted to drive their car himself in his tortured dreams?
To him his loss had seemed like yesterday, all the intervening years swept away along with any memory of her. It changed their relationship, even after he'd recovered his memories. Almost two years had passed since, and he'd not let anyone close to this hurt, not even Hollis, who'd had the nerve to poach in her own backyard. Jenny had tried to warn her away when she first showed up in MTAC. The blond Lieutenant Colonel hadn't wanted to listen, so sure in the charm Jethro had woven. They had lasted longer than she had hoped, too, Hollis only liberating the field recently.
Although Jethro's answer had been 'no' in her house, there was that look between them as they witnessed the reunion between Carson and his parents a day later. Maybe he just had his pride, after all she'd shot him down on the stairs, after Tom Morrow had handed her the reins of the agency. Although he hadn't given up then. So much had happened in the mean time, she just hoped there was still hope for the two of them. She knew what she wanted.
Today she had gotten the news that Carson had been legally adopted by his father's wife who had been his loving mother ever since she moved into their household. NCIS clearing his father's name had made it possible. She was going to let Jethro know that happy news, maybe it would lead them to a new beginning, too. Jenny just needed to get rid of her headache first.
- tbc -
