A/N: So I'm really excited about this story and so grateful for the reviews and alerts! Thanks you guys are all the best!

Leon Vance was literally being dragged to MTAC by Jenny Shepard and he did not like it. But he went anyways knowing he would have to face the music at some point and know was as good as it was going to get. Once inside MTAC they were met by SecNav who was looking particularly unhappy. Jenny felt bad for Vance; he had to admit he had created a huge mess on a day when SecNav appeared to be in a very bad mood. At least she got to tell him she had created a big mess on a day when SecNav was in a good mood.

"Shepard, Vance," he said with a head nod.

"Hello sir, how are you today?" Jenny asked in a cheerful tone.

"That well depend solely on what you two have to tell me." Jenny gulped hard, one minute in and this was already not going well. Vance was lucky he helped her clean up the whole Frog ordeal, because if he hadn't she'd be in California with her family instead of nervously facing SecNav.

"Shepard you look nervous, you didn't do anything did you?" he asked jokingly. Although he had been incredibly pissed over the whole Frog ordeal when he first learned of it, he had gotten over it and now they joked about it from time to time.

Jenny took advantage of his suddenly cheerful mood, "sorry sir but I'm afraid it is me. I pissed off an arms dealer named The Bear and he's after me. Don't tell anyone, but I'm the run from him as well as The Tiger, The Lion, and The Monkey." Vance shook his head and smiled, she sure knew how to lighten the mood. He hoped one day he could look back on this mess and joke about it the way Jenny did with the Frog. Right now that seemed impossible, but maybe one day, if he lived, it would.

"Oh Shepard what am I going to do with you? You've got to stop pissing off those animal arm dealers!"

"They really are animals, but I'm sorry sir, I'll try," Jenny said with a laugh.

SecNav laughed, "good. Now would one you, preferably Vance like to explain what's going on? I'm going to go out on a limb and say Vance got himself into a mess and Jenny flew out her to help clean it up." Vance nodded his head before hanging his head low in shame.

"Dead on as usual, sir! How do you do it?"

"Shepard, care to explain why are you brown nosing me? This must be one hell of a mess." Jenny sighed; you can't blame a girl for trying. Things were looking so promising before when she made him laugh, now not so much.

"I put the entire agency in danger," Vance finally said. His head hung down, refusing to make eye contact with the other man. Jenny looked at SecNav for a sign of what he was thinking, but his face was expressionless.

"You can give him the silent treatment all you want, but our agency is in danger and we need a plan. You can even put him in time out while we discuss our options, but we need to talk now. I'm not going to sit here and let anyone threaten my, I mean your agents." She had forgotten how good it felt to be in control of things again, to be able to do something about the situation she was in. After her "death" she had been controlled by her illness, the treatment, and her overbearing mother. Even after she was treated her mother still tried to control her actions, SecNav and Vance told her where she could and couldn't go, and her nieces and nephews dictated what she would do when she babysat them. She wanted very much to rescue Ziva from Somalia, to help take down the Mexican drug cartel, to be there for Team Gibbs after Mike died, but instead she got reports from Vance on the happenings. It left her feeling hopeless and jealous of Vance. She certainly did not miss the paper work and brown nosing but she missed the interactions with the agents, the feeling after a successful op in MTAC, and even Gibbs barging into her office. Now she had a chance to help save the day and it felt good to be able to have a say, even if she might've gotten a little carried away.

"Just how bad is this mess?" SecNav asked. Usually it had to be pretty bad for Vance to call Jenny; he often tried to prove he was good at what he did. But when he found that he had brought Jenny into NCIS headquarters, risking her former agents seeing her, he knew he was dealing with something seriously wrong.

"It's pretty bad sir," Jenny answered.

"That's what I thought. Sheppard, you are not to leave MTAC and no techs are allowed to come in. Do some research, surf the web, do whatever you want, but do not leave MTAC. Vance make sure MTAC remains locked and no one gets in and then sit in your office until I get there and try not to screw anything up. I'll be there in an hour." Jenny was not sure what surprised her more: the fact that SecNav was coming to headquarters or the fact he had put Vance in, what sounded like time out.

"Yes sir, I'll see you then." Jenny answered, for once feeling no jealously towards Vance.

"Yes sir, I won't screw up." Vance responded, his voice filled with shame. And with that the feed was cut and the screen faded away. He gulped hard; SecNav was definitely going to kill him when he got here. He hoped for a clean shot to the head instead of painful torture.

"Jenny, if I don't make it tell my wife and kids I love them," he said in a dramatic fashion.

"Oh please Vance. I know you love drama, but SecNav is not going to kill you….yet." She said laughing as she watched Vance's facial expressions.

"Thanks for the support," he said in a bitterly sarcastic tone. The last thing he needed right now was her little jokes.

"Vance, this is a bad situation, you don't need me to remind you of that. I'm here risking my life to help you out and I don't mind that. But if I've learned anything from the past few years it's that you've got to make the best with what you have. Right now we have a bad situation so I'm trying to lighten the moment with jokes. But you're so uptight and serious right now that I want to hit you. Calm down, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that either we'll make everything okay or we'll go down trying. Now go to time out before he gets here and grounds you."

Vance walked out and locked the doors to MTAC leaving Jenny alone in the semi-dark room. She looked around, like the rest of NCIS, nothing had changed. She had so many memories of this room, of staring at the screen and waiting. This was the room where she had seen Jethro for the first time since Paris, where Gibbs had shared his coffee with her while discussing Ziva, where she had stood watching Tony's car get blown up and believing that Tony had died, and so many others. And with that she was back to thinking of Jethro and his team. Did Ziva still mix up her idioms? Does Tony still refer to McGee as probie? Has McGee realized that he really is a damn good agent? These were the things she wanted so badly to know, questions she had asked Vance, but he was unable to answer. Her train of thoughts was interrupted by the door opening and Vance entering.

"Ooo I'm telling SecNav you got out of time-out!" Jenny teased in a childish tone.

"I'll have you know that SecNav told me to come back here to check on you then sit in MTAC until he gets here. And from the tone of his voice, I can tell you he really, really does not want to be coming here. He's very, very pissed off." Vance sighed; he was not looking forward to the arrival of his boss. He had already written his resignation letter and it was sitting on his desk. He liked his job, but he was so certain he should be in control after this mess.

"Well I could've told you that, SecNav is not a fan of actually having to come here. And it's probably not going to be pretty when he gets here, but-." Jenny started to say before being cut off by an impatient Vance.

"That's really reassuring Jenny."

"You didn't let me finish! As I was saying we're going to get on his good side by showing him the research we did and the game plan. He'll be impressed, he likes when people take charge."

"That would work wonderfully…if we actually had those things!" Vance was getting more and more frustrated with the red head standing across from him.

"Ye of little faith, I have both of them right here," Jenny said holding up a folder labeled 'Operation clean up Vance's mess.' She had spent hours the night before researching the Italian mafia and trying to come up with a plan. After talking to some contacts she had in Italy, she determined quite a few things. First off, apparently the mafia wasn't stupid like they appear to be in movies, they were highly trained. As a matter of fact most were ex-government officials who had grudges against something or somebody. Second of all, they like to wait a long time to revenge or to do it slowly over a few months. Third of all, she was pretty certain they were screwed.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" Vance asked, feeling more and more at ease. He hadn't been sure at first, but now he knew, without a doubt calling Jenny had been an excellent idea. As he read through her research and plan he determined she spent hours attempting to save his ass.

"Well there was that drunken night at the bar…"

"We said we'd never speak of that again!" Vance exclaimed, embarrassed, even though they were alone in the room.

"Sorry I couldn't resist, you're just too funny when you're drunk. Anyways what do you think of the plan?"

"It's very good; I see you haven't lost hold of your agent skills."

"Of course not, I was trained by the best and I never forgot."

"I have to admit, Special Agent Gibbs is one of the best. He trains his team well and they do good work. They're like their own little family." Jenny felt a pang in her chest when he said the last part. She used to be part of that family, she was the mom. They were a dysfunctional family, but they cared deeply for each other. But she made a series of stupid choices and was forced to leave them behind. She knew they were doing okay without her, but she missed them.

"I hit a nerve there didn't I?" Due to his current situation, Vance hadn't put much thought into what he was saying. He only realized after seeing the look on her face that had been the wrong thing to say. He had been told Abby used to refer to her and Gibbs as the mommy and daddy of their family, but he had momentarily forgotten that.

"It's alright, I just miss them. We really were like a family, but I tore that all apart."

"You really loved Gibbs, didn't you?"

"Yes, I always have and I probably always will. It was stupid to leave him in Paris when I loved him and even stupider to tell him no off the job when I wanted so much to push him up against the wall and kiss him senseless. But no, I did both things, because I thought my job was more important. I tried to tell myself that he didn't tell me about Shannon and Kelly because he didn't love me, but I knew that wasn't the case. I tried to convince myself that if I was in a relationship with him, it would affect my job. I even tried convincing myself I never really knew him. But I knew these were all lies, I loved him so much it was pathetic. And now I'm "dead" and he'll never know how much I love him, because I'm so damn stubborn!"

"For someone who's supposed to be dead, you sure look alive to me," Gibbs said startling both Jenny and Vance. They'd been so absorbed in their conversation they hadn't noticed that he, his team, and SecNav were all in MTAC staring at her. Gibbs and his team couldn't believe their eyes; their former director who was supposed to be dead was standing in front of them, declaring her love for Gibbs.

"Um," Jenny stammered, "hello Special Agent Gibbs and team, how long have you been standing there?" Jenny was embarrassed, to say the least. She had wanted to tell Gibbs she loved him, but not like that.

"Long enough to here you declare your love for Gibbs," DiNozzo answered, expecting a head slap from Gibbs. But Gibbs, surprised him by doing nothing.

"Oh, well, um how are you all?" Jenny had been in a lot of awkward situations, but this one won hands down. The MCRT team was staring at her and she was sad to find that she could no longer read their expressions. An awkward silence broke out in the room until Abby, Ducky, and Palmer burst through the metal doors.

"MOMMMYYYYYY!" Abby screamed, running to Jenny at full force. She threw herself at the red head and wrapped her into a tight hug that almost knocked her over.

"Jennifer is that you?" Ducky asked, eyeing her curiously.

"Yes, Ducky it's me and I have a surprise for everyone, I'm not dead!" Everybody started asking questions at once, trying to make sense of everything. Gibbs looked around at the scene unfolding in front of him. Vance was sitting in the back with his head down, effectively tuning everything out. McGee and Palmer stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to say. Neither had been close to Jenny, but they were glad she was still alive. Abby was talking a mile a minute while she, Ziva, and Tony asked Jenny a million questions. Ducky was watching the scene with a wide grin on his face. Jenny had been like a daughter to him and he had missed her dearly. He had many questions for her as well, but they could wait. SecNav stood away from the group, impatiently tapping his foot, but saying nothing.

"Jethro?

"Yeah Duck?"

"Are you alright, you seem distant?"

"Yeah I'm fine; I'm just trying to process this whole thing." Gibbs looked at Jenny, still not believing she was standing right in front of him. She looked different, but in a good way. Her hair was back to its normal color and was long again, like it had been in Paris. She was slightly tanned and looked much healthier than she had the last time he'd seen her. She was no longer stick thin, but a healthy weight. She wore a pair of khaki shorts with a yellow tank top and a white sweater on top. She had her aviator sunglasses perched on top of her hair and wore a heart necklace around her neck. She looked beautiful and happier than he had previously seen her. The Jenny in front of him was Jenny his partner, not Jenny the director. He thought of how great Paris was, until his thoughts were interrupted.

"Jennifer, dear why don't you tell us the whole story?" Ducky asked.

"I will Ducky, but first we have more important things to discuss. SecNav and I aren't here for a social visit, we're here because NCIS is in danger." The room went silent as everyone looked around for answers. Vance stood up and walked down the stairs to the front of MTAC where he joined SecNav and Jenny. All three were grave expressions and everyone looked to them nervously.

"Jenny has done research and says she has a plan sir. I've read over it and I think it sounds like the best course of action for what we know."

"Leon, why is the former director of NCIS doing research and plans for your mess?"

"Leon has been arranging security for those who might be in danger: his family, Agent Keith, and Agent Keith's family. He's done an excellent job and I believe they will all be safe. Here's the research and plan." Jenny handed the him the file, praying he would accept it. She wasn't quite sure why she still carried what he thought; he was no longer her boss. Gibbs and his team watched, confused as to what was going on. They wanted badly to know, but knew better than to ask.

"Nice work Jenny, this seems like a good plan. Do we have a timetable for this plan?"

"Well sir the 23rd is this Friday," Jenny said hoping the man would catch her drift. On the 23rd of each month she saw the doctor to see how her body was reacting to the treatment and medicine. In the three years since she'd been diagnosed, she'd done two rounds of treatment and took medicine daily. Her illness had been treatment two years ago, but she took the medicine and saw the doctor once a month to be sure. Once a year she underwent a touch-up treatment, as her doctor called it, to keep the illness away.

"Yes, I'll fly you back out Thursday night on my jet. When can you come back?" Team Gibbs exchanged even more confused looks. It was clear SecNav and Jenny had secrets.

"Thank you sir, I appreciate. I can fly back out that night if you like I'd like to start on this ASAP."

"For the thousandth time you don't need to call me sir, I'm not your boss anymore. However if Leon doesn't start acting like the director, you can have your job back." Leon grimaced, glad he had wrote up that resignation letter.

"Vance has been doing a good job under his current conditions. It's hard to try to clean up your mess knowing your boss is pissed and you've put others in danger. I was in his place four years ago and it was me you wanted to fire. But Vance and I cleaned up my mess and we'll clean up his as well, believe in us." Jenny's speech shocked everyone, especially Gibbs. He was under the impression Jenny hated the man, especially after he said their relationship was inappropriate. Now he was feeling a little betrayed, why had she run to Vance when she was in trouble? Why hadn't she gone to him?

"You have a good point Shepard, just make sure you act on those words. I know I couldn't get you to be director again even if I tried." Jenny and Vance chuckled, that was very true.

"We will sir, I promise. And you're right, it wasn't what I expected and I can't say I miss it all that much. I do miss the interaction with Team Gibbs though, but working in the LA office has been great. Do you have somebody to replace me out there while I deal with this? You don't want to piss off Hettie."

"I already sent an agent out there. I wouldn't want to piss off Hettie," Vance replied, hoping to prove he was doing something.

"Thank you Leon. Now Shepard, coordinate everything this week so you and Agent Gibbs can go undercover next week. You may not like it, but you'll deal with it, after all you just declared your love for him. I must get going but I'll be in touch." And with that, SecNav strode out of MTAC, content with his plan to get Jenny and Gibbs back together.