Author's Note: Thanks so much to the people who read the first part, and especially to the people who reviewed. I hope that you like chapter one :)
Chapter One
After six months in her current position Jenny Shepard decided that she was finally getting used to her job. Sure she missed fieldwork, missed the adrenalin rush that accompanied chasing down a suspect, and even occasionally missed the crazy hours and the stakeouts. Now days her gun always stayed locked in her desk, her badge beside it. They were accessories of the past, no matter if that past was distant or not.
The other director's of the various agencies finally seemed to be getting used to having a woman among their ranks. The half hidden jeers that had at first been a constant were gone. No the glares she got now were normal 'you shouldn't be handling this' or 'we have jurisdiction, not you' glares that passed all too regularly between the heads of the alphabet soup organizations of Washington.
Even Gibbs seemed to be ok with her new position. Yes there were awkward moments, and tense moments, and some down right hilarious moments. But none of these openly questioned her authority over him. No he didn't knock, didn't ask Cynthia if she was free, before barging into her office. But this was Gibbs, and that just happened to be the way that he operated.
Though almost six months ago there had been a moment that made her question everything. The moment where she discovered that Gibbs knew Kate was alive. That day when he walked into the bullpen, she had watched. Watched as he climbed the steps to stand beside her. Sure he may have looked like the same old Gibbs, but there was an underlying sprinkle of happiness in his steps. When she had first seen him, she thought that such happiness might have been due to the fact that Ari was dead. But when he invaded her personal space to whisper four simple words into her ear, she knew that his happiness was due to Kate.
"We need to talk." She could still remember the tone, the inflection of his voice. Could remember the feeling of fear that ran through her, as she retreated into her office and asked Cynthia to get Ducky to come up. Her fear had been unwarranted. Surprisingly he wasn't angry with her or the medical examiner that had been a part of the plan. No it seemed like he was just overjoyed with the fact that Kate was now in his life again.
This happy Gibbs of course lasted for only as long as it took her to explain that Mia, as Kate was now known still needed to keep up her cover. She still needed to work for the Mossad, and that she would not be coming back to NCIS, at least not in the near future. Ducky's presence helped keep the other man under control. Control that he barely managed to hold on to when he was told that the other members of the team could not and would not ever know what really had happened to their collogue.
Once he had sworn that he wouldn't reveal anything, and had surprisingly accepted to make Ziva a member of his team, Jen breathed a sigh of relief. She certainly wasn't going to try and get Leroy Jethro Gibbs to stop seeing a woman who made him as happy as Kate Todd did. She wasn't even jealous. He was a man who hadn't had all that much happiness in his life and he deserved a little, no matter how odd the circumstances surrounding such happiness might be.
The ringing of her phone brought her back to the present. Picking it up Cynthia's voice told her that the Deputy Director of Mossad was requesting an emergency videoconference. As she headed quickly from her office to MTAC only to come in contact with the grim face of Ziva's father, she had a sinking feeling that her semi-happy days were going to come to an end.
--
Gibbs couldn't help the sigh that escaped from his mouth as he watched DiNozzo handcuff the suspect before him. This last case had been harder and more deranged then normal, and the interrogation hadn't been much better. Rubbing the back of his neck to release the built up tension that had settled there, he took a long drag on the remnants of his now cold coffee. With a grimace he headed for the door, masking his surprise as he nearly bumped into a tense looking Jenny Shepard.
"What's wrong?" He asked, protesting inwardly that he didn't want to deal with any more situations right now. All he wanted at the moment was to go home and work on his boat, and hopefully find that Kate was back from another one of her missions.
"Not here." Was her only reply, and that only unnerved him more. What could be either so serious or so secret that they couldn't talk about it here? He was about to voice this question, but the look on her face stopped him. She would tell him when she deemed fit and nothing she said or did was going to speed up that process.
The elevator carried them silently to the forth floor, and he followed as she hurried by MTAC and into her office. He was surprised that Cynthia was not sitting at her desk, and was further surprised when his boss reached behind him to lock the door that lead to the bullpen. Entering her inner office she waited till he was inside, only to lock that door as well. Whatever was up, it was something big, and something private. Gibbs had never seen her act this way.
"Please take a seat." She said before moving to take her own. Her voice was soft and caring, almost as if she didn't want to explain, but yet had resigned herself to the fact that she had to do just that. "I need you to promise me that you will hear me out."
"Of course Jen, just get on with it." His patience was beginning to wear thin.
"No, Jethro. I need you to promise." He had never broken a promise, a fact she knew, which is why it was so important that he promise her.
"I promise." At his words Jen lowered her eyes to the papers that were scattered over her desk. They had nothing to do with what she was going to say, but staring at the jumbled words allowed her a moment to gather her wits once more. When she looked up she was ready.
"Twenty minutes ago, I had a video conference with the Deputy Director of Mossad. He had just received a report out of Italy, concerning the disappearance of one of his agents." He looked like he was going to say something, but with a raise of her hand she continued.
"She was on a mission to capture stolen Israeli missile launch codes, before they could be sold on the black market. There's nothing concrete but Tel Aviv believe that she may have been captured by one of the arms dealers, which would enable them to get to codes they were after but also a bargaining chip, in the form of the agent. Only Mossad doesn't negotiate."
"She?" He asked softly, watching as her face fell, her eyes softening before she returned her gaze to the papers on her desk.
Even since she had mentioned the Mossad, all he could think about was that something had happened to Kate. She hadn't said it yet, but he only knew two members of the Mossad, and one of those members was down in the bullpen working on a case report. Every action of the woman sitting across from him confirmed it. The hesitation, the reluctance, but he needed to know.
His voice when he finally worked up the strength to use it was weak and hollow. "Kate?"
"I'm sorry, Jethro."
Half a year ago his first reaction would have been rage, which is probably why Jenny had locked all the doors. That way at least his angry rant would have been controlled, if only for as long as it took him to pick the lock. But these past months with Kate had changed him. She had poked holes in the gruff shell he had always worn, for as much his protection as the protection as others. He had allowed himself to soften, to become more human. Something, at times he was sure he hadn't been since he lost Shannon and Kelly. Yes he had changed, more then he had wanted to admit, but never would he have guessed that his first reaction would be to slump back into his chair and close his eyes against tears that threatened to flow.
The battle to hold on to some scrap of his bastardness, of his dignity, was soon lost and he could feel his shoulders begin to shake. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered the sound of Jen's heels scuffing the carpet. Felt gentle arms wrap around him in a very un-director like move. He knew that he should pull away from her, knew that he should have kept his emotions locked away, but he didn't, he couldn't. Instead he used his own arms to pull her closer, as silent tears fell from his eyes onto the shoulder of her suit jacket.
He didn't hear the soft words of comfort, didn't feel the hands that were rubbing slow circles over the tense muscles of his back. He was in a different place, a different time, hearing different words. "They're gone Gunny, I'm sorry." Words that seemed to tear into his mind, pulling him out of his own personal hell with the realization that Kate wasn't gone, she wasn't dead.
Captured maybe, a prisoner of some psychopath maybe, but not dead. He would know if she was. The feeling of unease that had descended on him sixteen years ago would have been back, but it wasn't. She was still alive, and he was going to find her, before his fears about her being dead became true. Pulling back he tried unsuccessfully to wipe the tear tracks off his face before looking his boss in the eye.
"I will bring her back." His voice was hardened, unwavering, a perfect match for the look in his steel blue bloodshot eyes. He took the tissues that Jenny offered pushing himself out of the chair. Standing, he reassessed what little she had told him; hopefully it wasn't all that she knew.
"I need Intel. Who do the Mossad think is involved? I need further details about her mission." He was in full investigator mode now, and his words came fast, until the woman in front of him held up a hand for silence.
"Look Jethro, I know what she means to you, and I am not foolish enough to try and stop you, but this has to be done right. Caitlin Todd is dead, and she must remain so. You have to understand that I was the one who convinced Mossad to let her stay in contact with you, and now it is my ass on the line if you decide to go and do something stupid."
"Jen, I don't care about your ass right now. I will find her and I will use my team to do it. Unless you think that it would be better that I go this alone?" The anger that she had been worried about was now in full force. His words cutting like knives through the tension in the air.
"Like I said, I'm not going to try and stop you, no one but Ziva and Ducky can know what your true purpose is. No one. I need reassurances that you will not tell them, before I tell you anything else. Nor will you try and do anything on your own." Her tone was matched his, and she was relieved to see him return to his seat, glaring the whole while.
"Fine, I won't tell them. But you sure as hell are going to tell me everything you know, no matter how insignificant you think it is. I suggest you start now."
When he left her office half an hour later, the tear streaks were gone, though his eyes were still bloodshot. Heading to his desk he ignored Tony's, "You look like hell boss." Along with the questioning look from McGee, and a worried glance from Ziva. Instead he took a seat at his desk, pulling up a file and putting it up on the plasma.
"This is La Grenuille, an arms dealer." With a click of the mouse, another picture appeared, showing a woman with red hair and bright green eyes dressed in the uniform of a Navy lieutenant. "He is suspected of abducting her, Mia Rief, a crypto analyst on the Seahawk, while the ship was docked in Naples yesterday."
Gibbs was pleased that he could project his normal gruff tone of voice when he was feeling far from normal. He had been surprised when Jen had come up with that cover story, which as long as Ziva did the digging into her record, should stand up to scrutiny. He moved over to his desk drawer and pulled out his service weapon.
Tony, who had come out from behind his desk, let out a low whistle. "That's one hot lieutenant." A comment that quickly earned him a slap to the head that was a little harder then normal. "Oww, boss."
"DiNozzo, McGee. I want to know everything there is to know about this guy. Ziva, with me." Ziva following quickly on his heels.
Once they were safely enclosed in the metal box, he flipped the emergency switch. "Contact your friends with the Mossad. I need to know everything, I know that there must be things that they won't tell Director Shepard, and I need to know what those things are." He didn't turn to face the young Mossad agent as he spoke.
"I'm sorry, Gibbs." Her voice was surprisingly soft, a quality that he didn't think she possessed. A slight nod was the only acknowledgment her words received.
"Try and keep your inquires quiet if you can. There may be a mole of some kind in your organization." With a another flick of the switch and a whirl the elevator began its' slow descent.
"Where are you going?" She asked, her words difficult to hear above the ding that announced their arrival.
"To get in touch with some old friends." He was gone to quickly for her to question him further, the brown of his coat turning a corner, the only indication of where he was headed.