A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for pretty much dropping off the face of the earth (oops). I got a new job and it's been keeping me busy ever since. But, I'm rewatching NCIS all the way from the beginning and my broken Jibbs heart is inspired.
Summary: the latest case leads the major case response team to the city where the greatest love story began. They will soon learn that everything is not what it seems. Secrets are revealed and a team member's loyalty is questioned.
If I could turn back the clock
I'd make sure the light defeated the dark
I'd spend every hour, of every day
Keeping you safe
Avenue Montaigne, 8th arrondissement
Paris, France
"How is she today?" A soft voice floated through the doors, shaking the older redhead out of her reverie.
The woman turned and smiled at the newcomer. "You're home early. Skipping school?" She teased.
"You wish I'm that exciting." The young girl laughed and walked in the room. "Bonjour, grand-mère." She greeted and gave the older woman a hug and kiss on the cheek.
"Bonjour, mon amour. What have you got there?" She asked, gesturing to the pink box her granddaughter was clutching.
"Macarons from Laurée."
"Mmm… Her favorite."
"I hoped these would cheer her up." The girl looked down at the box in her hands and looked back up towards the lone figure sitting in front of the grand windows of the Parisian apartment.
Located in Avenue Montaigne of the 8th arrondissement in Paris, Josephine Shepard has been living a very comfortable and lavish lifestyle in the French capital ever since she packed up and left the States after her husband's death. Coming from an affluent family, purchasing the overpriced apartment was not an issue. After all, she had a daughter to take care of and being a single parent was not an easy task. Everything was within walking distance and it certainly didn't hurt that when you look out the window, you get a full view of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. She had everything planned out in her head: raise her young daughter, send her to good European schools, make sure she has a successful career, make sure that said career has a long life expectancy and does not involve guns or violence, have her marry a nice man that will take care of her, and pester her for many grandchildren that she can spoil.
Alas, someone once said: Man plans, and God laughs. Her daughter chose to attend Georgetown University in D.C., went to FLETC, became a special agent for an armed federal agency called NCIS, fell in love with her boss, left him and came running back to Paris to her when she told him she loves him and he responded with: that'll be the day, and then revealed that she's pregnant with said boss' baby. Her daughter chose to stay with the agency and powered through desk work for the duration of her pregnancy. A couple of years and several promotions later, Jenny was offered the director position. It entailed her to live full-time in Washington, D.C., and she was torn with what to do. She didn't want to leave her only child all the way in Europe even if it was with her child's grandmother, but at the same time she knew the danger she would be putting her family in once she became the director of an armed federal agency.
Years later, Josephine had lost count of the numerous threats and attempts on her child's life. She recalled that time she decided to watch the American news channel one morning, not expecting anything out of the ordinary, when she was greeted by her daughter's photo front and center on the screen. She was kidnapped and was being held captive by some drug dealer that wanted the return of his drugs and brother - both seized by her agency. She thought that it was enough of a wake up call for her daughter to leave NCIS and come back to France to be with her family. Of course nothing ever comes easy with the Shepard's and her daughter inherited her father's stubbornness, of all things.
It took another two or three years for things to start changing. Her daughter's old friend died. He lived in Los Angeles and Jenny flew out to attend the funeral. The cause of death was a heart attack, they said. Apparently, that wasn't the case. He was murdered and it was made to look like natural causes. She found out that the killers were from Jenny's old case coming back to seek revenge for their friends' deaths. She recalled getting a frantic phone call from Ziva David informing her that her daughter was seriously injured.
Shot multiple times.
Too much blood was lost.
One of the bullets hit a nerve.
It didn't look good.
She had no choice but to book her and her granddaughter on the first flight out of Paris to Los Angeles. She didn't trust anyone and she certainly wasn't letting her granddaughter leave her sight after what happened. Her daughter was in a coma and they didn't know if she was ever going to wake up. Once Jenny was stable enough, they transported her to London where the best doctors were waiting for their arrival. It took several weeks for the swelling in her brain to go down and for the surgeons to take her back to surgery to repair the nerves damaged when a bullet hit her leg. They thought she was never going to be able to walk again. However, Josephine believed in miracles and the doctors managed to fully repair the nerves. Her daughter will still be able to walk. There will just be a long recovery ahead. At that point she will take anything that she can get. Her daughter fought for her life in that diner in the middle of the desert. Multiple men against one person and she still managed to come out alive.
There had been a lengthy recovery process and although Jenny was considered "healthy," she still wasn't back to her full self. She's been having a difficult time with her therapy to be able to walk again and most of the time, the apartment was filled with tense silence after a session. Her granddaughter has been doing her best to entertain Jenny, but she could only get so far. Jacqueline Lauren Shepard-Gibbs became the light and love of her life the day she was born. Her apartment that once felt too big and lonely became filled with laughter and happiness. That was the case until her daughter's attempted murder. Then her granddaughter was forced to grow up. Wise beyond her years, Jackie tries to take care of her mother as much as she could even though she had to juggle school and extracurricular activities along with it.
Her granddaughter doesn't like to show weakness just like her mother, but there were times in the middle of the night when she thought everyone would be asleep and Josephine would hear sobs coming from her bedroom. She wouldn't comment on the puffy and red eyes the next morning, or the tear-stained homework that would be hastily shoved in the school bag. She was pulled out of her musings when the youngest Shepard moved past her and made a beeline for the figure by the window.
"Hi mom," Jackie knelt on the ground in front of her mother and placed the pink box on her lap, "I stopped by your favorite place today."
Jenny Shepard reached down to trace the gold carvings on the box and smiled in thanks at her daughter. "So, did you skip school?"
"I knew you were eavesdropping." She rolled her eyes and laughed before pushing herself off the ground and getting behind her chair. "Nope. Today was early release. I would've been back earlier but I did make a pit stop at the bakery and I ran into Kate."
"How is she?" Jenny gathered the blanket on her lap and squinted at the bright sun that greeted them outside.
"Good. Says hi. She might come over next week if she can slip out early." She slowly pushed the wheelchair over to the small table and stepped on the brakes once the chair was close enough. "Wants to have girl talk with you."
"Is she still with that Navy Commander guy?"
"She is. I think she wants to break up with him though."
"Why's that?"
"She mentioned something about her biological clock ticking and he has never mentioned marriage and kids whatsoever." Jackie laughed.
"Ugh," Jenny groaned. "she makes it seem like she's so old. She's young enough to pass as your older sister."
The young girl shook her head and sat down. "Try telling her that." She reached for a piece of the sweet treat offered to her by her mother and popped it into her mouth.
"Why do you keep on shoving the whole piece into your mouth like you're not being fed. You're going to choke one of these days and your grandmother doesn't know how to perform the Heimlich maneuver."
"I like living on the edge." She shrugged.
Jackie was about to reach for another piece when a manicured hand lightly tapped her hand away from the box.
"Don't eat too much of that. The chef is almost finished cooking lunch." Josephine pushed the box back towards her daughter before taking a seat across from her granddaughter.
"I just had one!"
"It's too early to have that much sugar and besides, I asked the maid to make your favorite. Citron presse - which you put enough sugar in to make a million more macarons." The older Shepard raised her eyebrows before taking a sip of her drink.
The youngest Shepard raised her eyebrows in response and gestured at the drink in her grandmother's hand. "Isn't it a little too early to have your Soixante Quinze?"
"Darling, I'm French and it's five o'clock somewhere." She raised her glass towards Jackie before taking another drink.
Jenny shook her head at their exchange before picking up another piece of macaron to eat, ignoring her own mother's disapproving gaze towards the sweet treat.
Musée du Louvre
Paris, France
The man in uniform walked back and forth, clutching the small velvet box. He was waiting for his girlfriend who attended the mass at the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois Catholic Church just behind the museum. They have been dating for several years and although his girlfriend has been very patient with him and his struggles with commitment, he knew she was running on a short fuse. She's been dropping numerous hints about kids and marriage and he's been silent about the subject. If he didn't act quickly and showed her how serious he is about wanting her in his life on a more permanent basis, he knew that she would drop him like a hot potato and would not look back.
The Commander sighed and tried to practice his speech once more. The sound of footsteps coming from behind caused him to pause.
"Finally, I thought the mass was never going to-" he cut himself off when he turned around and found the barrel of a gun directly in front of his face. The last thing he remembered was dropping the velvet box before a shot rang out and everything went black.
Citron presse - a French version of lemonade
Soixante Quinze - aka French 75/75 cocktail. Made up of gin, lemon juice, sugar, and champagne
You Are The Reason - duet by Calum Scott and Leona Lewis. This song has been giving me the feels and I finally found a good use for it. 10/10 would recommend to be added on your playlist.
A/N: I'm not really putting a timeline on this just because math isn't my best subject and I don't really want to do all the calculation of ages and all that lol. So I'll just give you guys a rough estimate of everything.
-Jenny was very young when Colonel Jasper Shepard died
-Josephine moved them to France (let's just say that she's originally from there and wanted to go back to her hometown to raise her young kid alone)
-Jenny attended school in France until she turned 18 and moved to the US to attend Georgetown University
-Around 21, she graduated from college and went to FLETC
-By 22 she became a special agent for NCIS and was assigned to Gibbs' team (fun fact: did you guys know that the Criminal Investigator Training Program in FLETC takes 56 days? I didn't lol. I thought it's at least a year)
-Two years later the whole undercover thing in Europe happened and she left him that Dear John letter
-At 25, she had Jackie and by 34 she became the youngest and first female director of an armed federal agency (yay Jenny and yay for my whack timeline lol)
-She was the director for about 5 years when the whole JD thing happened
-It's only been about a year since her "death"
-Jenny is around 40 by this time and Jackie is 16
-Kate never worked for NCIS
-Kate is American but moved to France and is working for the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure aka General Directorate for External Security aka DGSE (according to my bff Wikipedia, it's the French equivalent of the CIA and MI6)