AUTHOR'S NOTE - This is a twist to SWAK no one saw coming. Just because I can. :)
FYI, I haven't been really feeling the fandom lately and I just can't bring myself to write. Hence my absence.
Not beta'd and English is still not my mother tongue.
DISCLAIMER - Don't own a thing. But, as you can see, I like to play with them. :)
ENJOY!
SEALED WITH A KISS
A ding of the elevator roused her from her thoughts and Jenny Shepard stepped out of it slowly. Looking around her, she noticed no one was in yet. The air she didn't even realise she was holding left her in a rush.
She stopped in the middle of the bullpen, staring at the desk that used to be hers. Staring at the desk that was still his; a testament to them, in a way – she was gone and he was still there. The desk was clean, impeccable as ever, a few new paper clippings on the wall behind it; the photograph of them gone.
She sighed quietly, fingering the white envelope in her coat pocket.
Was she doing the right thing, she wondered, giving him the heads up? Pulling the paper out and running her eyes over the text once more, Jenny couldn't help but smirk at the irony of the meaning a letter was gaining in their relationship.
On an impulse, Jenny placed her red lips on the envelope, before taking a deep breath and placing it on the edge of the desk. She looked at it for a moment or two longer, as if debating once more if this was a good idea, before turning around with a smile on her face and walking away.
When the elevator opened, she all but ran into an intern bringing the post. Jenny smiled apologetically before stepping into the elevator.
John Henry turned around, giving the redhead a once over before the elevator door closed.
Damn, those legs, he thought, shaking his head with a smile as he moved toward the agents' desks.
Approaching agent Gibbs's office, he frowned at the letter on the team leader's desk. The mail was supposed to be left on the probationary agent's desk and he told that to Jessica, the intern who delivered before him, several times already. John sighed and moved the letter with the rest of the mail to the other desk, not wanting to listen to yet another lesson held by one Special Agent Gibbs.
He looked at the little pile uncertainly for a second or two before shrugging his shoulders and leaving.
"Wow, what'd you do?" – Tony asked as he almost ran into sneezing Kate. "Spent the night sake-bombing?"
"It's a cold, Tony," – Kate replied, throwing him a nasty look. "Sake-bombing?"
Putting his backpack down next to his desk, Tony looked at his partner in mock disbelief.
"Oh, come on, Kate. Don't tell me you've never heard of sake-bombing."
"Would I ask if – forget it. I don't want to know," – she replied, raising her hands up in a resigning motion.
"You take a cup of hot sake, you drop it in a beer, you toss it back and ka-puff!" – Tony explained with over exaggerated hand motions.
"Sake-bombing," – Kate repeated, rolling her eyes.
"Great for a cold," – Tony smiled ruefully.
"I'll stick to honey and hot tea, thank you."
"McGee," – Tony called the Probationary Agent. "Kate's never been sake-bombing."
"Yeah, I don't think I have either," – McGee replied, putting several envelopes on Gibbs's desk.
"I work with a pair of wankers," – Tony cried, exasperated.
"And you make three, DiNozzo," – Gibbs said walking behind his Senior Field Agent towards his desk.
"Morning, boss," – Tony said quickly, sounding more apologetic than he intended to.
"Morning," – Kate greeted, a tissue still firmly attached to her nose.
Gibbs stopped in his tracks before turning around and looking at his only female agent.
"Cold or flu?"
"Just plain cold," – Kate was quick to reply, grabbing on a handful of tissues. "Don't worry, I will sneeze into my tissues – unlike some."
She looked pointedly at DiNozzo.
"I have allergies, Kate," – Tony said indignantly.
"Never had allergies," – Gibbs stated matter-of-factly from behind his desk. "Never had a cold."
"You never had a cold?"
"Nope. Never had the flu, either."
"Why do I believe that?" – Kate asked, turning to Tony and McGee, both going through mail now.
"If you were a bug, would you attack Gibbs?" – Tony asked, glad to have made Kate smile.
"Get colds all the time," – McGee said, giving a pile of letters to Kate.
"Of course you do, Probie," – Tony teased without lifting his eyes from the letter in hand.
"This one doesn't have a name," – McGee said suddenly, confusion obvious in his voice as he looked uncertainly at the envelope he held.
"I think that's mine, McGee," – Tony said, noticing the red lipstick mark and reaching for the envelope.
"Ah!"- McGee moved it out of the older man's reach. "How do you know?"
"I recognise the lips," – Tony joked, pulling the envelope out of McGee's hand. "And the scent," – he sing-sang, moving back to his desk.
"Gummy bears?
"Ha. Ha." – Tony replied sarcastically to Kate, opening the envelope.
The silence fell upon the bullpen as Tony sat behind his desk and pulled out the paper, skimming quickly over the neat handwriting filling the page, finally setting on the first line. His eyes widened and his mouth opened as he stared at the first two words.
Dear Jethro, it said.
Before he could stop himself, Tony's eyes moved to the bottom of the page. Jenny? Who the hell was Jenny? An ex-wife or an ex-wife to-be?
There was only one way to find out.
"Uh, boss," – he began clumsily. "I think this might be for you, after all."
Gibbs lifted his eyes from a report he was writing and took his Senior Field Agent's shocked expression.
"Might?"
"Uh, I'm pretty sure it is. Unless you know another Jethro around here?" Tony teased slightly, already approaching Gibbs's desk.
The man in question snatched the paper from Tony's hand and ran his eyes over it. They widened as they met with the neat writing he would recognise anywhere.
Tony put the envelope on the desk as he noticed several emotions he never saw in Gibbs's eyes mixing, before Gibbs closed them momentarily. When they were opened again, they were glaring.
At Tony.
The younger man smiled sheepishly before turning around and going back to his desk. By now, the other two agents were looking curiously between the two men, but neither said anything.
Gibbs stared at all three of them before returning his eyes to the paper his hands were still gripping. He took a deep breath before he started reading.
Dear Jethro –
A/N 2 - I am not writing the end, nor am I putting this under complete, as I am not sure if it is, in fact, complete. I might feel the urge to write one more chapter, where Gibbs confronts Jenny. But - be warned - I will not write what is in the letter.
Tell me what you think! XX