The raindrops tapped against the window, as if they asked for admittance. Far away you could hear thunder rumbling silently, it heralded the upcoming storm.

Jenny stood in front of the window in her study and clutched the crystal tumbler filled with Bourbon. She trembled.

She was in the country again since exactly five days, eleven hours and forty-two minutes, after she had left it oh so many years ago. Jenny thought it should feel like returning home. She didn't really miss the US, she loved being abroad, first in Europe and later on in the middle east, especially in Cairo.

She would have said that she was happy to be here again, happy to see her colleagues, but that just wasn't true.

Incredible fear overcame her, when she thought about the meeting tomorrow, the meeting with the person she once left without a word.

It hadn't been easy for her to leave him, but at that time she thought of it as the right thing to do.

And actually, it had been the right choice.

If she hadn't taken the opportunity back then, she would probably still be an agent. Special Agent, maybe, but an agent still. Not the director of NCIS.

She drank the rest of her Bourbon in one gulp, savoring the burning in her throat.

It was still present, even after the long years in which Bourbon has been her best friend too often.

Sighing she pulled her short dressing gown closer, realizing the cold that surrounded her.

There had been a time this room was warm, a fire burning in the chimney constantly.

The Jenny back then sat in front of her father and drew, drew the happy family she once had.

She felt her loneliness as never before.

And, probably the thousandth time, she vowed vengeance.