Chapter 1: Slaying the Dragon

Washington D.C, 2005

Jenny was the new director! Gibbs' life, which had been quite uneventful since his divorce from his third wife, had been full of unpleasant surprises ever since Haswari had shown up. Waves of shock hit his body. After all these years, she was finally here, right in front of him. She looked much the same way. The years had been kind to her. Gibbs had tried to reach her when he got back to Europe. But she made it clear that she wasn't having any of it. In the end he had to let go, for his own sanity. A day hadn't gone by when he didn't think of her. The sound of her laughter rang in his ears. He could still taste her kiss. He could still hear her ragged breathing when they made love. The thought was enough to arouse him instantly. Gibbs was glad that MTAC was partially dark so she couldn't see his erection. He took a couple of deep breaths to slow himself down.

The former director had left the two of them to reacquaint themselves.

"You have no idea, Jen, how much it pleases me to see you" he said when he was absolutely certain that they were alone.

She let out a derisive sigh. "I bet you do" she mumbled under her breath. "I just want to know if you'll have a problem taking orders from me" she inquired.

Her tone acted like a blast of cold water. That doused his desire. For the first time in many years he was glad for it.

"As director or as a woman?" he asked.

"Either."

"It's been years. Water under the bridge. The past won't be a problem for me" he informed her.

Jenny could see the wheels turning in his head. She thought it prudent to change the topic to Ari Haswari. When she tried to dissuade Jethro from hunting down Haswari, he cut her off.

"The bastard has already killed one of my people. He's trying to kill more and I'll tell you something else. No suit with a tight sphincter is getting in my way and that includes you, Jen" he said as he walked down the stairs.

For a second Jenny was rendered speechless. She recovered quickly. She folded her arms across her chest. "Special Agent Gibbs" she called out to him. She could see that it didn't bode well with him. She had never called him Gibbs before. It gave her a perverse kind of pleasure. "On the Job, it's Director Shepard or Ma'am."

"Okay." He agreed. But that wasn't all. "What about off the job?"

Did the man have no shred of decency? She thought.

"There won't be any off the job, Agent Gibbs" she told him.

"That's too bad. I've missed you, Jen".

That threw her off for a second.

"Don't make this difficult, Jethro".

"Fair enough. Won't happen again" he said. But in his heart he knew that he wouldn't let it go. Not without a fight. He had lots to say to her. But he figured now was not the time.

In the past he often thought about her. His thoughts automatically moved on to the baby. He didn't know if she had given birth or not. But he still thought about it. Maybe now he would know and then he'd be at peace. He hoped that time had mellowed her hatred. One thing he knew for certain he still loved her. The years they had spent apart just melted away.

The fact that Tony put his nose where it wasn't needed stopped Gibbs from confronting Jenny at the office. That and he had a dead agent at his hand. This could wait. Kate needed his attention more. It pissed him that Jenny along with other agencies were convinced that Ari was not the person who shot Kate. But he wouldn't stop until he had the bastard where he wanted him. And then there was the Mossad officer Ziva David. He didn't like the whole scenario one bit, but he couldn't get out of it either, if he wanted Ari's head. For the life of him he couldn't figure out why Ari was targeting women in his life. First Kate, then attempting to shoot Abby. If Ari wanted, he could have killed Gibbs. He had had the chance on the rooftop. It just ate at Gibbs insides. Why did Kate have to die for him? Why did any of them had to die for him? The bastard was right, one of them would be killed, and Gibbs wanted it to be Ari only then would he be at peace. Vengeance was an unquenchable thirst. He had known it before and he had put an end to it. He would end it again.

Jenny had expected to see Jethro. Agent Gibbs, she corrected herself. She'd prepared herself for this. But faced with him, the all the years of planning and preparing herself went out the window. She was still blown away. Jenny had come to terms with it long ago. She knew she would love him forever, despite his betrayal, but she still found it difficult to forgive him for everything. She had seen something in his eyes. Questions. She would enjoy torturing him. That would be her revenge.


It appeared they had caught the shooter, but only to Jenny who ordered them to go home since it was now over. Gibbs wasn't convinced. Down in Abby's lab, he obsessed over things they had uncovered. Tony and Abby didn't say anything. While Ziva and Jenny were still hard pressed that Gibbs was wrong about Ari. It still didn't make any sense. In the midst of it all, Ziva revealed that she had prepared a dossier on him for Ari. That was a wake-up call of sorts for Gibbs. Shannon and Kelly, his first wife and daughter, were a secret he never told anyone. Sure, he had told Jenny he was married, but she didn't know the half of it. After, things had went down horribly, he never mentioned them again. Not even to his two ex-wives. After all these years, it still hurt. So, he had buried them in the deepest recesses of his mind. Not even Ducky, his close friend and confidant knew. He figured that Ziva had it in her dossier. He asked the others to leave.

"You found out about my first wife and daughter". It wasn't a question. One look at Ziva told him all. She didn't look at him.

"Yes. I'm sorry", she said after a few moments had passed.

Ari knew it too, then. All pieces fell into place. That's why he killed Kate and shot at Abby. He was hitting Gibbs where it hurt most. Gibbs would get him. Getting him right now wasn't soon enough. He asked Ziva to set him up for Ari. But she was reluctant. He convinced Ziva to cover his back if he was right about Ari being the shooter. She had agreed but in the deepest recesses of his mind, he had his doubts. But he would take the chances.

Later that night, he went home and straight to his basement. He was shocked to see Ari. He didn't know Ari would take the bait this quickly. Gibbs was unarmed and he didn't see any chance of arming himself. Ari had Gibbs' rifle. This was it then. These were perhaps the last few minutes of his life. Images flashed. His family, Shannon and Kelly, waving him goodbye. There was Jenny, a very pregnant Jenny. There was his team. Then he heard the shot. He realized quickly that it wasn't him that been shot. It was Ari. Ziva had shot Ari. Gibbs looked at her as she came down the stairs. She looked stricken. He pieced it all together from what Ari had said. Ziva confirmed it for him. She was Ari's sister. Half-sister to be exact. It must be hell for her. So he left her alone to say goodbye to her brother.

When he breathed, it was much easier than before. The weight that had settled on his heart ever since the arrival of Ari was gone. He would have been much happier had he been the one to shoot Ari, but this qualified too. Now there was only one mission. Jenny. He would complete all paperwork necessary for closing this case and then he he would have his sight set on Jenny.


It was a few days later. Jenny unlocked her front door and went inside. Something alerted her to the presence of someone. "Jethro", she breathed. Perhaps it was her sixth sense or her woman's intuition, but she knew it was him. The initial storm was over, she reckoned it was time for a different kind of storm. She straightened up and steeled herself for the onslaught when she actually faced him. Jenny had had years to prepare herself for this confrontation. She schooled her features and headed to her study. He was there, just as she'd thought he'd be.

"I made myself at home" he indicated towards the whiskey in his hands. He waited for her to say something. When she didn't, he continued. "We can either indulge in small talk or we could get straight to the point. Which do you prefer?"

She shrugged. "I see no point in exchanging pleasantries. Why don't you get straight to the point and tell me why you have broken into my house?"

Her voice had risen a notch or two.

"You know why, Jen" he replied.

"Do I?"

She didn't want to make it any easier for him. Why would she?

He was irked.

"Okay, we'll play by your rules" he said giving in.

There was a pregnant pause. Clearly, Gibbs was going to be the one who did the talking.

"I did what you asked. I stayed away." Gibbs' voice was steady. It peeved Jenny that even after all this time she could sense his feelings. Turmoil lurked under his tough façade.

"It was the least you could have done, Jethro" she replied without any emotion.

"You were never like this, Jen" he observed, "The Jenny I knew was a warm and vibrant woman".

The temperature rose a few degrees. "I am what you made me. You did this to me." Jenny checked herself.

That was true, Gibbs thought to himself. If only he hadn't – hadn't what? Had sex with her? Played with fire? It was true that she was the one to initiate everything between them, but he had been in equal partner. More than that, he had been the guilty party, she hadn't known about Shannon. He hadn't told her anything. He should have told her at the beginning. She would have understood. It was all his doing. In all these years, he could have kept abreast with her activities, he could have "spied on her", but he didn't. He had caused her enough pain and he wasn't going to compound it by harassing her as well. He thought it would be best to let her deal with everything on her own terms. And then there had been the matter of Jenny's pregnancy. He had been in the study for a while now. There were pictures there. Jenny as a child. Jenny with her parents. But there were no pictures that suggested that Jenny had had the baby. It hurt. All these years, when he had pictured Jenny, there had always been a baby. This was hard to accept. The only explanation he could find was that she had a miscarriage. He knew things had been tough. It had been tough for him, he could hardly imagine what Jenny went through. The thought that Jenny could have had an abortion didn't cross him. Never had he imagined that. She just wouldn't do it. This was the time to ask her about the baby. To share with her what had been his right and his duty all those years ago.

"Jen", he waited for her to look at him. When she looked at him, he asked the question. He was afraid of what the answer night be. "The baby. What happened to the baby?"

His stance was rigid. Fearful of what was coming. Jenny had had years to come to terms with losing the baby. Whereas he had only just discovered it.

Jenny was a bit taken aback. She hadn't expected him to jump to this topic so quickly. To give her credit, she recovered quickly. Gibbs was otherwise occupied and missed the tiniest sparkle of hatred in her eye.

"There is no baby. I had the pregnancy terminated". She offered no explanation.

Silence.

It had the effect of a body blow. Gibbs couldn't believe his ears. The Jenny he knew wouldn't have harmed their baby. But then, his Jenny was long gone. Replaced by the person who stood before his eyes.

"If you did it out of spite –", he broke off. There wasn't anything he could say. What he had done had been terrible. He had lost all rights to reprimand Jenny for her actions. In fact he didn't have any right to begin with. If the thought of losing the baby had hurt earlier, this was a hundred times worse. It slowly sank in. Their baby was gone. His baby was gone.

"After what you did to me, there was no way I was going to have the baby. How could I? It belonged to a man who betrayed me. I wanted no part of you", Jenny said in a nonchalant manner.

That was it. Gibbs snapped. The bi–, no he wouldn't call her that. He had loved her too much. He breathed deeply a few times to calm himelf.

"You could have come to me, I would have gladly taken the baby".

"Like I said earlier, I didn't want it. Didn't want to bring it into the world." she said in a detached manner.

How could she be so causal about this?

"You hated me enough to destroy my child". It wasn't a question.

He needed space to think. "I need some air" he said before leaving.

During the course of their conversation, Gibbs had been too distracted to notice Jenny's tell, the twitch of her eye when she lied. Jenny let out a breath when he left. She had lied blatantly. When he had asked, something inside her had risen and demanded that she wound him as he had wounded her all those years ago. Somehow, her little charade was not as satisfying as she had thought it would be. The wounded look in Gibbs' eyes and his defeated posture hurt her. It tied her up in knots. She didn't like it one bit that something inside her ached for him.


Gibbs wasn't angry. Just beaten and broken. He had lost another child. It hurt like hell. What hurt more was that Jenny was far out of his reach. He had pushed her so far away that return didn't seem possible. He crawled into his basement to lick his wounds. He had taken too many hits. First Kelly and then Shannon. Kate had been killed because of him. His and Jenny's baby had become a casualty of his actions and Jenny's fury. He didn't think he would survive another blow. It would finish him. Not even his boat seemed to distract him tonight. The more Gibbs though about it, the more guilty he felt. He hated to feel that way. In another lifetime, Jenny had loved him and he had broken her. Gibbs had thought he had put it behind him and was moving on, but one look at her in MTAC and he knew he was still madly in love with her. This time, there was no way he would let Jenny get away. She was his. It would take time to heal old wounds. And he would make sure they healed. He'd give her space to come around. And then he would pursue her relentlessly. But he would not let her slip through his fingers.


A/N:

Hope you guys liked it. Don't forget to give feedback.

Also, I'm in a bit of a fix. Can't decide a name for Gibbs and Jenny's kid. Would you all please suggest something (names for both, girls and boys would be awesome).