Gibbs entered the bullpen, coffee cup in hand. He glanced up towards the balcony, and saw Jenny. He gave her a warm smile, which was not returned. Instead he got an angry glare. She was making her way towards him, clearly angry at something. It probably had something to do with one of her overnight operations; they were classified so he shouldn't anger her even more by asking what was up. When she was angry, he knew that he shouldn't annoy her. So, instead of heading towards her, he walked the long way around the bullpen, to the other elevator. He wanted the case to end quickly so that he and Jenny could go on their long weekend. His first stop was autopsy.


She had just left her office and strode past Cynthia's empty desk. Of course she was bound to see him before she had had her first coffee. Upon seeing her he had given her a warm smile; does he think that smiling at me was going to get him out of trouble? Well… generally it did. But she wasn't letting him get away with it today. Instead of smiling back at him, she gave him a glare, communicating how angry she was. At him. She started to move towards him – yelling at him without coffee, despite giving her a migraine, should hopefully teach him a lesson about arguing with Fornell in front of the media! What she didn't expect was for him to full on avoid her. Walking the long way around the bullpen! Was he trying to make her even angrier? She made a move to follow him, but he jumped in the elevator, with the doors closing quickly. Her mind was made up – she was getting this fight over with now, and then she could relax with her coffee. She turned towards the stairs and headed for his first likely spot, Abby's lab.


Gibbs continued on his mission to saving his weekend. He strode into autopsy, and looked to find Ducky, leaning over his dead Marine, looking at something peculiar.

"Ducky, what have you got?" he asked in his usual abrupt manner.

"Well, it appears that our Corporal has died due to the extensive damage caused by his repeated stabbing. It is clear from the bruises covering his body, and hands, as well as the cut marks up his arms that this poor fellow put up a fight. I did find a cut on one of the bones that has a clear marking of the knife's edge, which I am just getting a mould of now. Hopefully Abby can get a match."

"Thanks Duck," Gibbs replied with a curt nod.

"Jethro," Ducky called, "Have you seen this morning's news headline?"

"No."

"Well… I advise that you take a quick look at it. Rumour has it, that it is the reason as to why our Director is so pissed. Look at it before you see her."

"Err… thanks Duck" Gibbs said confusedly. Has the media been publishing untrue stories about them again? He made his way towards the elevator, closely followed by Palmer with the mould of the knife mark.


Meanwhile, down in Abby's lab sat Jenny. She was furious to find that Jethro was not in Abby's lab. So she took a seat to wait patiently for him. Abby was working nervously around her. Having seen what the news article said, she was worried that the Director was going to hurt Gibbs. She didn't like it when her mummy and daddy fought. Especially since she knew that they both really needed the weekend away from everything; they needed to relax. Hopefully Gibbs' live argument hadn't ruined that. Jenny sat glaring at the elevator for another five minutes before the ding of it indicated that someone had arrived.

Both Gibbs and Palmer stepped out and made their way into Abby's lab. The first thing that both of them saw as an angry Director and a nervous Abby. Palmer, sensing that something bad was about to happen, quickly handed Abby the mould of the knife.

"Umm…" Palmer said nervously, "This is the mould of a knife edge that Ducky found on the victim's bone."

"Thanks Palmer, I'll try and get a match as quickly as possible," replied Abby, in a subdued form of her usually bubbly personality. Palmer made a quick exit, not wanting to be caught in the cross-fire between the argument that was sure to come.

Gibbs, who was glaring back at Jenny, walked past her and towards Abby. He wasn't sure what he had done, but he was obviously the reason why Jenny was angry.

"Have you found anything Abs?"

"Not yet Gibbs, there isn't much evidence to go on. I've got the CCTV footage from the store that was broken into, but I can't see anything because it was dark. I'm running it through a filter now to see if I can lighten the image, but I'm not very hopeful. I'm also waiting on the CCTV footage from outside the store. I've managed to get a few fibres off of the Marine's clothes, which could hopefully link back to the burglar. About the Marine Gibbs, I have identified him as …"

But Abby was cut off by Jenny saying,

"Corporal Paul Harper. A decorated Marine. And this particular Marine happens to have caught the eye of the media. Which brings me to the reason why I am sitting in Abby's lab. The media happened to have caught your bitter exchange with Fornell this morning. Do you have anything to say about that?"

As Jenny had gotten further into her rant, her voice increased to her yelling at the top of the voice. Gibbs had already known that he was in trouble, but he wasn't expecting this. But before he could reply, Abby bravely said:

"There are no arguments in the Labby. If you two are going to have an argument, can you please take it somewhere else? I have a lot of stuff to get through, and I don't want to have to act as a mediator between the two of you. I hate it when mummy and daddy fight, and I don't want to witness it"

Gibbs and Jenny, both shocked at Abby's outburst, both glared at each other and made their way over to the elevator. Luckily for them, McGee had just came down to the lab to give Abby some fresh evidence, so they quickly jumped into the empty elevator. He looked back at them, sensing that he was not going to have a good day.

In the elevator, the tension between Gibbs and Jenny is building.

"So, are you going to answer my question?" asked Jenny.

"He started the argument," Gibbs replied defensively.

"Then why didn't you just ignore him? You both have worked on several cases before, why do you always have to argue? It makes our agency look bad."

"Is that all you care about, how our agency looks? I'm just trying to get justice for the dead marine!" snapped Gibbs.

"Of course I care Jethro, all as I'm saying is that there are better ways about going about working with other agencies. And you shouldn't argue in front of the media"

"I didn't know they were there! And it's not like other agencies don't have turf wars."

'You're missing the point Jethro."

"Well, how about I continue working the case, and you sort out jurisdiction Director. Isn't that your job?"

"No Jethro, cleaning up after you isn't my job. But it is what I will be spending the rest of the day doing, and possibly even tomorrow. Are you happy about this?

"No, I'd rather you were with me at the cabin tomorrow."

"At the rate you're going, you will be here tomorrow as well."

"Clearly you don't know me very well then."

"Well I don't think you will, you haven't even co-ordinated with Fornell yet."

"If you weren't yelling at me, I could have done that by now".

"I thought it was my job to sort it out?"

"No, your job is to tell the FBI that we are leading this investigation!"

Before either of them could continue, Gibbs' phone rang.

"Gibbs" shouted Gibbs into his phone.

"The FBI are here" winced Tony into the phone, clearly not enthused with the idea of an angry boss.

"Be right up." He snapped his phone shut, and flickered the elevator switch back on.

But Jenny had other plans. She flipped the switch back off.

"We haven't finished our discussion yet."

"What do you want me to say?" asked an exasperated Gibbs.

"You're impossible" she replied, in a hurt voice. She flipped the switch back on, and they continued to ride in silence. Once the doors opened up, she stormed towards the other elevator, and Gibbs stormed towards the bullpen.


A/N: What do you think? I hope the argument was still in character, I found it difficult to try and get right. Please R & R!