So, I got this song in my head that just screamed Jenny and Gibbs to me - The Heart Won't Lie by Reba McEntire and Vince Gill. Well, the fact that Reba is a redhead and Vince Gill was in a Marines uniform in the mini-movie they call a music video definitely played a part in the little plot bunny that was growing steadily in my head. But still, the song is pretty apt for their relationship, I think. While you read this, maybe you can go listen to the song. It's a great song:)
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or the song used here. This got removed for some reason and I was locked out of the account for a while. WHY?
The Heart Won't Lie
The crackly AM radio choking and spluttering at the back corner of her study contrasted greatly with the decor of the rest of the room. It was an old, nearly broken wooden speaker box with an even older radio built into it.
She could not bear to throw it away; sometimes it felt like it was the only thing she had left of him and those days before and during Paris.
She could still remember sitting with him in his basement, drinking bourbon for the first few times, talking about everything and nothing, jibing each other jokingly.
Sitting with him, going way too deep into their pasts, yet not going quite deep enough. Telling him about the old AM radio that her father that, the one she loved but could no longer stand the sight of.
Sitting with him, nursing a mason jar of bourbon as he carved and sanded at something he shielded from her with his life.
Sitting with him over bourbon and steak he grilled in the fireplace the night before you both were to leave for Positano. The night before you saw him get shot before your eyes and you thought for a moment that he was dead.
That was the moment you realized you were in too deep. There were other things that needed to be done. You could not afford to fall so deeply and dangerously for this man.
That night, he presented you with the old radio in the intricately carved cherrywood case. He did it while on one knee, almost as if he was proposing.
Now you know, he would have. He was going to, but he saw the doubt in your eyes on the last night in Paris.
That old radio was churning out what might just be its final song, and for the first time in a very long time, you actually listened.
Looking back over the years,
Of all the things I always meant to say
But the words didn't come easily.
That night in his house over steak and bourbon, the cherrywood case and his boat in the basement. You should have known, you should have asked. You should have told him what you were so scared of.
He would have kept you from throwing your life away hunting down La Grenouille. You would have kept him from remarrying so many times to get over Shannon and Kelly. You would have known about them.
You should have told him you loved him that last night. He would have proposed, you would have said yes.
You would not have had to write him that Dear John letter. You would not be a coward.
So many times,
Through empty fears
Of all the times I tried to pick up the phone
So scared of who might be answering.
Who knows how many times you had punched every digit of all his numbers into your phone over the years. You tried from your cell, your home phone, the burner cells you bought for all your ops with Ziva.
You nearly called his cell, his home, hell, even the NCIS switchboard. You could never bring yourself to press the little green call button.
The doubts were still so fresh in your mind - was he with someone else? Who would answer his phone? What would you do if it was another woman, or worse, Jethro himself and he rejected you?
But all of that seems so pointless now. His marriage was falling to pieces; pieces which Tobias would later pick up and then discard again. He loved you, you knew that. That was one thing you never doubted.
Yet you still ran. You ran and never went back.
You tried to live your life from day to day
But seeing you across the room tonight
Just gives me away
That night at the ball, when he had been so worried for your life that he was willing to put himself in a monkey suit and watch you schmooze the whole evening. He had always been devilishly handsome. He knew that all too well.
But he never understood the need to dress up like DiNozzo did. Suits were never his clothing style of choice, but he definitely cleaned up well.
His suit was the same one he had worn during the undercover op in Marseilles. It had been about just under twenty years since he had put in on then and yet it still fit him perfectly.
That night, you had spent even more energy and self control to keep from approaching him as his Jen from all those years ago that you had on making sure you did not snap and threaten to shoot all those politicians there as he would have.
Scratch that, he would actually have shot them.
'Cause the heart won't lie
Sometimes life gets in the way
But there's one thing that won't change
I know - I've tried
The heart won't lie
You can live your alibi
Who can see you're lost inside a foolish disguise?
The heart won't lie
Long after tonight,
Will you still hear my voice through the radio?
Old desires make us act carelessly
If the neighbors were to look over to the front porch of the Shepard manor, they would be concerned, no doubt. A single figure lurked there, the moonlight glinting off his head of silver hair.
He peered in through the window, looking at the only woman other than Shannon who had cost him so many sleepless nights. There was no sign of the cold, controlled demeanor she held on so desperately to when they were at NCIS.
She rested her pointed chin on open palms, her emerald eyes glowing with unshed tears. The few she had inadvertently allowed to run down were gathering above her cheekbones before the weight finally gave in to gravity and tumbled down her porcelain cheek.
The static of the radio crackled through the muffling effect of the glass and his weary face cracked into a slanted grin.
He could have sworn he thought she would have incinerated that case by now, yet there it was, sitting in the corner playing a song.
Somehow, the usually reserved Marine was overcome by the hope that they could have a something together, even after all these years.
His feet carried him to her front door, raising his hand to knock then hesitating. She might not be wanting anyone to see her in this condition; the 'Director Jennifer Shepard' mask would go on straight away.
There would be no way of getting Jenny out from that protective shell, let alone try to weasel out Jen.
He knelt down and reached into his pocket for the bobby pin that he kept in there at all times for this very reason. Sliding it in an twisting with practiced ease, he heard the lock retract itself with a satisfying click.
Pushing the door open ever so gently, he stopped it just before it reached the angle at which it would begin to creak. Slipping in, he shut it silently before padding towards the direction of Jenny's study.
"Jethro?" The voice stunned Gibbs out of his silent approach, "I know it's you."
"Damn, Jen. You always did know when I was sneaking up on you."
She stood, leaning jauntily against the edge of her desk.
"Really, Jethro? Are you sure it's not just you getting old?"
It was then that he realized that her face held only the barest reminders that she had been crying just seconds ago.
He stepped forward, not wanting to overstep his bounds but he heard the song that was weakly trickling out of the radio and he knew he had to give in.
Lifting one calloused hand, he touched the ivory cheek that still felt the same as it did in Marseilles - smooth, soft, supple and only slightly weathered.
The slight dryness to it and the smattering of lines around her eyes were the only indication of what she had gone through for the job.
"Good lord, Jen, I can't do this anymore."
Coyly, she teased him, "Do what, Jethro?
He could hear the tint of sadness at the back of her throat. Only him.
"Could we just, for one night, act as if that last night had never happened?" He drew out the worn letter she had left in her coat from his pocket, "That this letter and your coat had never been left behind?"
Her hand mirrored his, resting on the leathery skin covering his jawbone. Pulling him closer to her, she leant forward to answer his question.
"Yes." She smashed her lips into his with surprising force.
For the first time since Marseilles, they felt that blaze of passion and the burning fire coursing through their veins.
He broke the silence nervously, apprehensive.
"Jen, did you ever think back on the day I gave you that radio case?" He breathed audibly, waiting for an answer he was not sure he wanted to hear,
"Did you ever hear me nearly propose so many times?"
Her lips parted slightly, poised to respond.
Long after tonight, after the fire,
After the scattered ashes fly
Through the four winds blown and gone you
Will you come back to me?
They lay in the soft recesses of Jenny's king sized bed, sheets messed and tangled around them, bodies intertwined.
Jenny stirred from the balmy slumber the both of them had settled into and realized with a start that she was lying in the arms of one Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
This was a mistake she had vowed to herself to never make - give in for just one night.
She cast an eye around the room, seeing the remnants of their night of passion that tore through her usually impeccable house.
Ashes of a fire that burned too bright, too fast, she thought.
"Jen."
Shit. He was awake.
"Gibbs."
She gathered herself quickly, putting her clothes back on in a rush.
"You have to go, Jethro. I have to run an op in MTAC in half an hour."
When he was finally gone, the void that had originally been left by him was even more glaringly empty.
Sinking to the floor against the heavy oak of her main door, she cradled the cherrywood case of the radio to her chest and ran her left ring finger over the carvings in the thick dark wood.
"Come back, Jethro. Come back to me." She pleaded quietly. "Please."
You try to live your life from day to day
But seeing you across the room tonight
Just gives me away
While the the team had been giving him the rundown on their progress in their latest case, he could not help but sneak glances up at the catwalk heading towards MTAC and her office.
Ziva had thrown him quite a few questioning glances at first, but once she had caught a glimpse of where his focus was deviating to, she gave him a sad smile and nodded in understanding.
Jenny could have that effect on people.
After all, Ziva herself had been caught glancing towards the elevator or the stairs leading to the lab in the basement by Gibbs every now and then.
Even so, Gibbs did not appreciate being called out on this.
Halfway through the work day, Jenny finally appeared on the catwalk.
Gibbs was sitting at his desk, filling in the paperwork that the closing of the case had resulted in.
"I'm sorry, Jethro."
'Cause the heart won't lie,
Sometimes life gets in the way
But there's one thing that won't change
I know - I've tried
The heart won't lie
You can live your alibi
Who can see you're lost inside a foolish disguise
The heart won't lie