One Hell of A Woman
Ex-NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo looked at the house that had become a second home over the last seventeen years of his life, it had been close to two years since he had been back and he found he was nervous to step into the house. He could see the light on in the dining room through the window on the door but couldn't see anything other than that. He took a deep breath and opened the door, he was surprised when he wasn't met with the usual silence that normally greeted him when he went to Gibbs' house but rather the sound of laughter.
"Alrighty Gibbs, I'll call." A voice he didn't recognize stated.
Tony slipped off his shoes and made his way into the living room, he listened to the collective groans as his old boss laid down his cards.
"Oh come on!" The same voice called out, "you've gotta be cheating, there's no way!"
Tony rounded the corner in time to see a blonde woman grab Gibbs shoulder as she laughed and shoved him lightly. He expected Gibbs to get annoyed but he only laughed with her and held up his hands defensively.
"Not cheating." He promised with a laugh.
"He just has one hell of a poker face." Dr. Grace Confalone stated.
"DiNutzo?" Tobias Fornell exclaimed as he saw Tony standing between the living room and the dining room.
"Tony?" Gibbs exclaimed as he stood up and turned around, "what're you doing here?" He added as he pulled his ex- senior field Agent in for a hug.
Tony didn't know how to react to the hug, he could count on two hands how many times Gibbs had been genuinely affectionate with him in the almost eighteen years he had known him.
"It's May." Tony replied, "Abby called and told me what she had planned for Mother's Day and I thought it'd be important for Tali to be here and I promised I would bring Abby pictures."
"Mother's Day?" Gibbs asked with a raised eyebrow, "I figured we'd do what we always do for Mother's Day."
Tony knew that Gibbs and Abby had a longstanding tradition of going to church together and then for brunch followed by a visit to the cemetery on Mother's Day, Abby would spend the day reminiscing about both her own mother and Jenny Shepard and then Ducky would meet them and they would go and visit Mrs. Mallard's grave. Tony suspected Gibbs also made an early morning or late night visit to Shannon and Kelly's graves as well.
"Abby didn't tell you?" Tobias asked.
Tony was surprised that Fornell had heard about it before Gibbs had, it was unheard of that Abby could keep a secret, especially from Gibbs.
"Tell me what?" Gibbs asked in exasperation.
"Abby's been planning a memorial for Jenny for the last month, everyone is coming." Fornell stated.
"Everyone?" Gibbs asked.
"Stan Burley is flying in on Friday night, Leyla and Amira are coming, I think McGee, Delilah and the kids are coming and Abby even managed to find her sister." Tony replied, "Are you sure she didn't tell you?"
"Haven't heard anything until now." Gibbs replied.
"Em and I will be there too." Fornell stated quietly, "I can't believe it's already been ten years."
Gibbs ran his hand over his face roughly, it felt like it had been a hundred years since Jenny Shepard had died, so much had happened.
"She invited the kids and I too." Vance spoke up, "The kids are going to spend a few hours with Jackie's dad but I'll be there, we weren't overly close but I respected her."
Gibbs smirked as he remembered Jenny's feelings about Leon Vance, he wished she could have gotten to know him better because he really thought she would've liked him had she had the chance.
"When did you hear about this?" Gibbs asked, turning back to Tony.
"Abby called me about a month back crying, she was missing Jenny and wanted to do something to remember her this year." Tony replied, "she said she was afraid that everyone was going to forget her or had already forgotten."
Gibbs knew they didn't talk about the people they had lost enough, Tony had been Abby's go to to talk about Jenny or Kate, McGee didn't feel like he had known Kate well enough and he had never been extremely close to Jenny, not like Gibbs, Tony and Ziva had been. She didn't talk to Gibbs about it except on Mother's Day, she knew how painful it had been for him when she had died.
"She said she wanted everyone to remember the person who made us a family." Tony said quietly, "She really misses her, Gibbs."
Gibbs nodded and tried not to think too much about how much he missed Jenny, she had been his best friend. Sure they had had their ups and downs, and he wished things had been better between them before she had died but she had been the one person who could go to with anything.
"I've heard her name but I don't know a whole lot about Jenny, could you maybe tell me a bit more?" Grace asked gently.
Tony's eyes fell on the blonde woman sitting next to Gibbs empty seat and then looked back to Gibbs who nodded his okay, Gibbs pulled out a chair for Tony and placed it between his chair and Grace's and then took his seat next to the blonde woman.
"I honestly don't know what to tell you, I wasn't a big part of her story but she was a huge part of mine." Tony replied slowly, he still had mixed feelings about the woman in question.
"She was a good friend." Fornell said, "she was always there for me, my ex-wife hated her but whenever Diane was out of town and I needed a babysitter she would do it if she could. Emily was only six when she died but she still remembers her Aunt Jenny, Jenny always made it a point to make sure Emily knew how special she was."
"She loved Em." Gibbs stated quietly.
"She would've been a good mom." Fornell commented.
"She was a good mom." Tony corrected quietly, "Ziva's mother died when she was young and her father didn't care whether she lived or died, Jenny did everything she could to protect her, she was there when Ziva's sister died and held everyone together after Kate died." He gave Gibbs a meaningful look as he said the last words.
He knew that it wasn't Gibbs who killed Ari, he knew what Ziva had done to protect the man they all saw as a father and he also knew Jenny had done everything in her power to shield everyone from the blowback. Tony and Jenny had had their share of issues but after he had had some space and gotten some perspective he could understand why she had done what she had and he had forgiven her for it.
"I remember she used to give us hints on how to deal with Gibbs, she dug us out trouble more times then I can count." Tony added with a smirk.
"She put her ass on the line for her family more than once." Gibbs muttered.
She had died protecting her family and almost everyone at that table knew it.
"I wish she could've met Tali." Tony whispered, "she's the reason Tali even exists."
"I can just hear Abby teaching Tali to call her Grandma, or even better Nana." Fornell said with a laugh, "Jenny would've been horrified."
Tony saw Gibbs tense and clench his jaw out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the way Jack gently laid a hand on his forearm under the table and the way Gibbs rested his hand on top of hers.
"Why didn't she ever have any kids of her own?" Leon asked.
Tony couldn't fault him for asking the question, Leon didn't know much about how involved Jenny and Gibbs had been, he had no idea that not having kids was probably more Gibbs' choice than Jenny, he assumed that the question would go unanswered but Gibbs surprised everyone by speaking.
"She couldn't have any." Gibbs stated quietly, "don't think she ever really wanted to anyway, think she always knew that there was a chance she'd get sick, didn't want to drag a kid through that."
"She didn't want to drag anyone through it." Tony replied, "she didn't tell anyone, we all found out afterwards."
"Ducky knew, he's the one who diagnosed it and Mike knew." Gibbs replied.
"Mike Franks?" Fornell asked in surprise.
"He said he didn't give her a choice." Gibbs replied, "he was with her when she died." He added quietly.
Tony watched Gibbs take a long drink of his beer as he tried to regain control and he hated himself for doing that to the man he had seen as a father for so long.
"I'm sorry boss." He whispered, "she shouldn't've gone down alone, she deserved better than that."
"She was dyin' Tony, it was over." Gibbs replied, "it was over before we had any idea."
"She did what she had to." Fornell reminded them.
"And then we burnt her house to the ground." Gibbs said with a mirthless chuckle, "she grew up in that house, her father died in that house."
"You did what you had to." Leon stated with a small shrug, "she would've understood."
"She threatened to burn down the house a few times herself." Fornell said with a small laugh.
"Yeah except she was threatening to burn it down while I was in it." Gibbs replied.
"She sounds like one hell of a woman." Jack stated, looking at the smiling men.
"She was." Tony replied quietly.
For all of their differences and fighting he would always admit that Jennifer Shepard had been one hell of a woman.
I got this idea while watching the opening of Pushing the Limits and I know it's horribly out of character and very AU but I couldn't shake it so I thought I'd write it up for the one shot collection… I don't own anything except for my mistakes but I love to hear from you guys!
~Katie