A/N: A songfic, basically, but the lyrics aren't actually here. The song is 'Feel That Fire' by Dierks Bentley.
Jennifer Shepard had always held his attention easily. He couldn't place the reason why; he simply accepted it as a fact.
Perhaps it was the was she had swung her legs up into his lap and wiggled her toes, stating quite firmly that he would paint her toenails. He remembered scowling darkly at the pure black shade, but doing it anyway simply to see her smile. Then again, it could be the comical way in which she had poured an entire box of crackerjacks into a bowl and dug through it for the little plastic toy. He loved seeing that child-like side of her.
He could remember taking her to her first rodeo and longing to laugh at the shocked look on her face when the bull had burst from the shoot. Lost in the crowd on the way to the truck, she'd snuggled close to his side and murmured something about putting bull-riding on her bucket-list.
She had loved to wear his old t-shirts when they were alone. The fact that she would rather dawn a stained, torn Marines shirt than a scrap of silk people called a nightgown, and still manage to look sexy, made him smile.
He thought back to the time that puppy had begun to hand around his house and of how attached she had become. The continuous pleading and the way the mangy mutt had taken to her practically forced him to keep it. A few weeks later when Juno had been run over, he hadn't the heart to tell her. She still probably believed he had run away.
He had never quite understood her fascination with his truck. She always wore the brightest of smiles when he let her drive around town with absolutely no destination in mind.
Sometimes when they had lain in bed, Jenny would open up to him. She, oddly enough, wanted to get away from DC completely. She wanted a cabin, perhaps in Oregon, secluded within the woods, near a small pond or lake. Some place no one had ever been. Most surprisingly, she had thought about having kids. He wished he'd been able to give that to her.
He could look back now and laugh at all the things she'd convinced him to do. One of his favorites was the train ride to Russia, when she'd made making love on a train sound completely rational. He recalled the confidence boost at the sight of the bruises she'd gotten from being in a confined space.
Now that she was Director, he tried not to see her that way. He attempted to see a strictly professional co-worker, but every once in a while he caught her eye just right. And when she smiled, all of that effort became useless.
He wondered what it would take to get her to feel like that again, to pull her back into the flame that had been their passion. If such a thing was possible. Perhaps it was, and one day he would be able to bring her back to him.
Days likes this, when she could permit him a small laugh and smile, gave him hope. Maybe one day that hope could be acted upon.
But for now his fire only smoldered for her, unnoticed.