TITLE: Hard times
AUTHOR: nicis_anatomy
CHARACTER: Jenny Shepard
GENRE: Gen
PROMPT: #11 "At times like this." for lj's "24_times" & prompt ##12 "You can cut the charm …" for lj's madame_director"
RATING: PG-13 (for some words)
WORD COUNT: 555
SUMMARY: Jenny has a hard time to convience the men she is dealing with that she is more than just good looking ...
WARNINGS: English still isn't my native language (although I wish) and the story is not beta'd..
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. If I would Season 5 would have ended different.

"You can cut the charm. Higher ranking, richer
and definitely better looking men have tried that on me
and didn't get very far. Now I can't speak for you, Commander,
but I didn't get where I am because of my looks."
5.06 Chimera (Jenny)

~*~*~*~*

The first time she nearly had lost it was two days after she had become the Director of NCIS.
She was finally doing that interview for CBS morning show she'd postponed long enough until Ari Haswari had been caught. She was getting ready for the live show. A young girl was checking on her make-up, when she heard two of the show's assistants whisper.
"Look at her. She definitely is hot."
"Damn well, she is. Makes me wonder, if she's only boobs and legs or if she's actually …"
Sighing frustrated, Jenny had blended the conversation out, concentrating only on what was in front of her.

The second time someone was questioning her expertise, happened one month later.
She'd been invited to a dinner with all other Directors and their wives. The location was exclusive, black tie a requirement. She had worn one of her favorite dresses; long, black, sexy. Stanley, her driver, had accompanied her, drawing the doorman's attention at him. He hadn't even so much as considered that Stanley wasn't the Director and she wasn't just his plus one.
She had bit her tongue, faking a smile, while Stanley was making clear that he was only the driver. Blushing, the doorman had mumbled some excuses, but still avoided to look at her.
Later in the car they had laughed about it, but at the time she had been just angry.

A fews month later she was invited to a Dinner Party at the White House. Except for the catering personnel and herself everyone else was male and in his late fifties - and horny as hell. When she had felt the first hand touching her butt, she had smiled, assuming it had been just an accident, but when she had felt the third hand reaching out to touch her she'd used what Ziva had taught her and what Tony would call 'her Ninja skills'.
The next day that Representative was seen on the news, entering the congress with a plaster cast on his arm, and explaining the waiting reporters he had felt down the stairs.

Two years later she had thought she was over this; that she had achieved enough to even teach the worst of all chauvinists she had to meet occasionally, that she was capable of doing this job, that she was more then just good looking, and that she had earned this chair and this nice office.
But Commander Skinner had just proved her wrong again. He was hitting at her, giving her the feeling she was just a cheap whore, who had slept her way up the ladder.
She had a hard time focussing on what was really important: The mission, the life of her agents. She had to do everything to safe Jethro and his team, and Skinner knew it. Problem was, her definition of everything wasn't compatible with his ...

Jenny sighed, giving the Commander a look, Jethro would have been proud of.
"You can cut the charm," she said. "Higher ranking, richer and definitely better looking men have tried that on me and didn't get very far. Now I can't speak for you, Commander, but I didn't get where I am because of my looks."

At times like this she wished she was born as a boy. But then again … where would have been the fun in that?

- The End -