Chapter 2:First Overseas Assignment

Gibbs looked up from the file he was reading and replied, "Morning Jen. the Director wants to see us in his office in half an hour."

"That's a great way to greet a gal Jethro."

"I do my best."

"Uh huh."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Half an hour passed quickly. When it was time, Jenny and Gibbs made their way up to the Director's office. As they walked up the stairs Jenny asked, "Did he say what he wanted, Jethro?"

"If he did Jen, I would have told you."

"No you wouldn't. You would have kept me guessing. What is it you always say? 'Learn to anticipate?'"

Gibbs smiled at his partner, "Maybe you're right, Jen."

"Oh Jethro, I know I'm right."

"You sound so sure?"

"I am."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now let's not keep the Director waiting, Jethro."

As they entered the Director greeted them, "Good morning Special Agent Gibbs and Special Agent Shepard."

"Good morning, Sir." Gibbs replied.

"Good morning." Jenny said.

"I have a mission for you two. You will be working in France, in Marseille. You will be required to photograph everyone who boards this Lebanese trawler." The Director explained, pointing to a photo of the ship which was in the files. "Here is the file it has everything you'll need to know in it." He handed the files to Gibbs and Jenny.

"How long is the mission expected to last?" Jenny asked.

"Well, Agent Shepard, it depends. It could be three weeks it or it could be two months. It depends on how much intel you get on the trawler." He explained., "You will be leaving on Thursday. Good luck."

Gibbs and Jen looked at each other then they left the room.

"Have you ever done anything like this Jethro?" Jenny's voice sounded concerned or worried either emotion worked.

"What? A stakeout? Yeah. It's not that bad Jen. Actually it's pretty exciting." Gibbs said, trying to reassure her.

"Exciting hey? Photographing people board a Lebanese trawler, that sure does sound like a fun way to spend three weeks - or months." Jenny's voiced was filled with sarcasm.

"It will be, Jen. Trust me."

"Trust you? I thought trust wasn't a part of your vocabulary. Which rule is that? Rule Number 3?" Jenny teased.

"Jen, Rule Number 3 is 'Never believe anything, always double check.' You should have known that." Gibbs explained.

"Yeah, because I'm a mind reader." She replied, sarcastically.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Thursday came around quickly, Jenny and Gibbs were getting ready for their mission in Marseille. The concept was quite straight forward really: photograph everyone who boarded the Lebanese trawler. Simple. Right?

Gibbs was excited this mission. Although he wasn't too keen on the idea of sitting around taking pictures all day, but who's complaining? He did like stakeouts; they were fun. So maybe this one wouldn't be so bad. Especially as he had Jenny with him.

Jenny was nervous, she'd never done anything like this before. She'd only been at NCIS a short while and wasn't sure she was quite ready for this kind of work. But Gibbs was determined to make sure she was ready and able for their mission. He kept double-checking everything she did. Jenny was quite annoyed at it first but after a while she came to see the sense in it, after all Leroy Jethro Gibbs was the best, so why complain if he was helping? She had heard from other agents who had worked with Gibbs that, that sort of thing didn't happen very often. At least he knew what he was doing, unlike Jen who was new at this.

Their flight was scheduled to leave at fourteen hundred hours. The Director had arranged for the flight to France. Once there they could begin their mission.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

By the time Jenny and Gibbs arrived in France it was very late, sleep was the only thing on the two agents' minds. When they stepped out of the airport they saw a car waiting for them. They got in and the driver drove them off to the house they would be watching the trawler from. The ride to the house was fairly uneventful and there wasn't much to see at this hour as every normal person was asleep. When their driver pulled up at the house he got out and helped Jenny and Gibbs with their bags and said goodnight.

Jenny and Gibbs took their bags and went inside. The house was typically French, multiple floors, made from stone and had a terracotta colour roof. It consisted of three floors plus an attic. Each floor was vacant, this was done on purpose so that no one else could snoop around and see what Jenny and Gibbs were up to (it is very common in France for a single building to have a different family living on each floor), as far as everyone else was concerned, the building was vacant and had been for years. Little did they know that the interior had been done up to meet living standards and that two NCIS special agents were currently on assignment and living there for the duration of said assignment.

Once they had dropped their bags they found the bedrooms. (The house had plenty of them.) Which they were both pleased about at this stage, plus more than one bathroom - which pleased Jenny immensely. She didn't like the idea of having to share a bathroom with Gibbs. They quickly chose a room each and got ready for bed. It could be said that they both fell asleep as soon as they hit the pillow - this was a very accurate assumption, because that's exactly what happened.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The next morning Jenny and Gibbs began setting up their surveillance equipment. "Jethro, can you hand me that microphone?"

Gibbs starred at the array of electronic equipment spread out before him, 'Microphone, microphone,' He thought, 'which one? There are so many.' Well that's how it looked to him anyway. Jenny noticed that Gibbs was confused about which piece to hand her, so she pointed at the correct one, "That one, Jethro."

"Oh right, I knew that Jen."

"Sure you did." Jenny replied.

Once they managed to finally set everything up it was close to lunch time, so Gibbs nominated himself to go get lunch, he needed to get some fresh air. He hadn't spent this much time in the same house with a woman for a while now, so he had to readjust to living with someone.

While Gibbs was out Jenny began the surveillance. The house was right near the port where the trawler was docked, this too was done on purpose. Jenny adjusted the telescope and positioned it right onto the trawler, now they had a picture perfect view of it. Once she'd acquired the right position she began taking photos of the people embarking and disembarking. Something which she would become very familiar with by the end of this mission.

It was about twenty minutes before Gibbs returned. By this time Jenny was starving, so Gibbs with food was a very pleasant sight. And he had coffee! Now that was an even better sight.

"Jethro, good, you're back. I'm starving. And thirsty. Trust you to find a coffee shop. You must be like a magnet to them." Jenny said, taking the food and coffee from her partner.

"You're welcome, Jen." Gibbs said sarcastically.

"Huh?" Jenny was too busy eating.

"Nothing. So have you got anything yet?" He walked over to the window where their equipment had been set up.

"I have started the surveillance, nothing exciting has happened yet." Gibbs nodded in reply and then sat down next to Jenny on the couch.

After lunch the two agents resumed surveillance of the trawler. Jenny was taking photos and Gibbs was looking through the telescope. He was moving it around so he could see other areas of the trawler as well as on the dock. The goings on seemed, from this distance, to be pretty much what you would expect to see in a port. However from the photos Jenny was taking of the people boarding the ship you could clearly see abnormal goings on.

NCIS was interested in the cargo this ship was going to be transporting to Lebanon. There were theories that in the cargo they were carrying were parts to make high explosive bombs. There was also speculation that the cargo was illegal firearms. Jenny and Gibbs were there to see which one of these theories was true. Or if it was something else entirely.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As it got later into the night most of the activity aboard the ship ceased. Although occasionally you could see its crew members around on deck. It was pretty quiet in the house so Gibbs decided to start up some conversation.

"So, Jen how'd you like your first day of 'stakeout'?" Gibbs asked.

"It was much like I expected Jethro. Boring."

"Come on Jen. It wasn't that bad."

"Okay, it wasn't that bad. At least I had good company."

Gibbs turned and looked at Jenny with a confused and slightly surprised look on his face.

"What?" Jenny inquired.

"'Good company', Jen?"

"Well your company was better than none at all Jethro."

"Better than none at all? How did you go from 'good' to that?" Gibbs was confused.

"It's your fault Jethro. You're a strange man." Jenny replied.

"I'm strange?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks, Jen." He replied, sarcastically.

"What? Whenever someone pays you a compliment you always dismiss it. Didn't you ever get taught to accept compliments Jethro?"

"No I don't Jen."

"Yes you do, Jethro."

"Well maybe that has something to do with all those ex-wives I have." Jenny laughed at her partner. 'At least he's not boring.' She thought. She could see how his wives could be irritated at him, for one he was always right, that was annoying. But Jenny was, at this stage, not concentrating on the faults of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, but the little things that were unique to him and that made him very likeable. Jenny recalled the first day she met Gibbs, her first impression of him was, 'Wow he has beautiful eyes'. So she knew from then that there had been a certain spark between them. The look on his face confirmed that.

"Jethro?"

"Yes Jen."

"Why do you call yourself Jethro? Why not Leroy, it is your first name after all."

Gibbs was surprised by Jenny's bluntness, but he also admired a woman who wasn't afraid to be so blunt. Gibbs also didn't reveal his past to many people he knew, mainly because it was quite tarnished and it wasn't an easy thing for him to talk about. But with Jenny he felt he could make an exception. "I didn't choose to. It was my mother. She preferred Jethro to Leroy. Leroy was my father's dad's name. And Jethro was my mother's dad's name. That's where it came from. My father's dad was a strange man, she liked to think I was more like her father so she insisted that I be called Jethro instead of Leroy. That answer your question Jen?"

"I'm afraid my name didn't have any interesting links attached, at least none as interesting as that. I did have an aunt Jennifer, so maybe that's where it came from. I'm not sure. But my parents are dead now. My father died in '95. My mother died three years before."

It was getting late and Jenny and Gibbs decided to stop for tonight. As the time neared one o'clock in the morning. By this stage there was no activity aboard the ship so they felt it was okay to stop and resume in the morning. For good measure and to cover their arses they programmed the camera to take a few photos every hour.

"You trust that P.O.C to take pictures without a person?" Gibbs was always confused by technology and whenever he could, he avoided using it.

"It's okay Jethro." Jenny was amused by Gibbs' lack of technology know-how. Although she wasn't an expert herself, she got by. She knew more than Gibbs anyway. But maybe because she bothered to read the instructions unlike her partner, who probably didn't even know there was an instruction booklet.

"Well, G'night Jen. See you in the morning." Gibbs said.

"Night Jethro. Sleep well." Gibbs went down to his room. Then halfway there he decided to turn back, "Jen?"

"Yeah Jethro?" Jenny had been in the bathroom taking her make-up off and undoing her hair when he called.

He walked back over to her and kissed her on the cheek. Jenny looked surprised but also pleased. "What was that for?"

"So the bed bugs don't bite, Jen."

Jenny smiled, and laughed. "Thankyou Jethro, same to you." And she kissed him back.

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