A/N: Thank you again for the reviews! I couldn't bring myself to skip a chapter and this was meant to go up on the weekend but I ended up spending the weekend and beginning of this week sick. Hooray. But I guess it's better to be sick now than at Christmas, right?
********************************
Two weeks to Christmas...
The week passed by in a blur. Jenny felt like a ping-pong ball, bouncing from NCIS to the hospital with an occasional stop back home to get a snatch of sleep. She was living off far too much caffeine and was certain that the exhaustion she felt was etched on every part of her face, but none of that mattered; Ducky was going to be fine. He'd had a major heart attack but the doctors all seemed rather impressed at how quickly he was recovering. It seemed to take no time at all for his eyes to light up mid conversation with Jen before launching into one of his "it reminds me of this time..." stories. The first time she had seen a trace of the old Ducky lying there in the hospital bed, Jenny had felt an overwhelming urge to laugh and cry. They'd come so close to loosing him but every day, she saw more of his former self return. Every day, she became more certain that he wasn't going anywhere.
Work and Ducky had taken up so much of her time that she hadn't even had much of a chance to talk to Jethro, unless it was related to work. They seemed to have developed a knack for choosing different times to visit Ducky, which disappointed her. The less they saw and talked to each other, the more she seemed to think about him. She couldn't count the number of times she'd had to rouse herself from a daydream about the two of them while she was at her desk. It was becoming such a problem that she was beginning to think that it might even be better to put her pride on the line and confess her feelings for him than to let it continue. She'd talked herself into at least waiting until Christmas was over before taking action; Jenny didn't particularly think that adding a possible rejection from Jethro to the depression of Christmas was a wonderful formula.
When the weekend finally approached, Jenny couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Not only could she cross work off her list of things to do for the next two days, but Ducky was returning home as well. Knowing that he was home and well, and that she no longer had to balance work with hospital visits, would take a major load of stress off her. It would also end the continuous arguments between Ziva, Tony and McGee as to whose turn it was to baby-sit Mrs Mallard that night.
It had been tempting to spend the day in bed and just relax after her tiring week but loyalty to her friend won out and Jenny found herself standing on his doorstep just before lunch that Saturday morning.
Ducky greeted her with his usual cheeriness but Jenny looked into the hallway, trying to find someone else there taking care of him.
"I thought you were supposed to be resting?" she asked, a note of admonishment in her voice.
"I have spent enough time resting these past few days to never need to sleep again," Ducky told her firmly, as she walked in. "I sent Tony away the instant I got back. God knows that boy has wasted more than enough time taking care of Mother."
"She must be happy to see you back," Jenny remarked.
"Happy?" Ducky scoffed. "Somebody had the bright idea to tell her I'd gone on a holiday rather than upset her with the truth. Needless to say, she wasn't impressed. She's upstairs sulking in her room because I didn't take her on holidays with me. She's hardly even looked at me!"
"Some holiday you had," Jenny said, a smile twitching on the corners of her mouth.
"God only knows I've had some bad holiday experiences," Ducky said, walking into the living room. "There was this one time-"
"Oh wow," Jenny breathed out, interrupting Ducky as they entered the living room.
Somebody in the Mallard household clearly enjoyed Christmas. The centrepiece of the room was a huge Christmas tree, carefully decorated and filling the whole room with a smell that would forever remind Jenny of her Christmases as a child. In another part of the room, a nativity scene had been constructed and strewn across the room were an assortment of Christmas cards. Jenny couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness at the sight of the room; it reminded her so much of Christmas as she used to know it that it almost made her forget that she was supposed to hate the holiday.
"Yes, Mother is rather fond of Christmas," Ducky told her, taking a seat. "I've had to find a hiding place for our decorations, otherwise I find her trying to decorate the house throughout the year."
Jenny couldn't help but take a step towards the Christmas tree, lift a branch and inhale the fresh pine scent of Christmas. It had been years since she'd experienced that smell.
"Ah, you must have one of those fake trees," Ducky observed. "I must say, I always thought they would be a lot easier than the fuss of watering a tree and then finding a way to dispose of it after Christmas is over. But I could never bring myself to make that transition."
Sitting down in the chair next to Ducky, Jenny avoided his eyes. She didn't particularly want to tell him that she no longer went to the trouble of having any Christmas tree at all but something about her nonresponse alighted Ducky to the truth.
"Ah," he repeated.
"There just doesn't seem to be much point," Jenny said quietly.
"I don't think anybody who saw the way you looked at this tree would agree with that," Ducky said. "You know, you're more than welcome to spend the day with Mother and me."
"Thank you," Jenny said with a grateful smile. "But I'm sure I'll be fine."
Ducky stared at her for several moments before sighing.
"I'm not sure that I should be bringing this up," he began, "but you did know that every time you visited me at the hospital, Jethro would stand outside the door to my room and just stare at you for a several minutes, didn't you?"
"What?" Jenny asked softly, her head snapping up in surprise to meet Ducky's gaze.
"Yes," Ducky said. "Without fail, he would turn up several minutes after you arrived and stand in the corridor. Close enough to be able to look at you but far enough away to be unable to hear anything we said. He'd stay for a few minutes before leaving, only to come visit me minutes after you left."
A frown creased Jenny's forehead as she tried to process this information. She wasn't sure if it was a positive sign that he returned her feelings or an indication that he didn't.
"I shouldn't have told you that," Ducky said gravely.
"Did he mention it when he visited you?" Jenny asked. "Did he tell you why he did that?"
"I think that's a question you should ask him," Ducky said.
"I'm sure Jethro would love that," Jenny said with a chuckle.
"My dear, it's Christmas. Nobody wants to spend this time alone."
*****************************************
After ensuring that Ducky was resting and perfectly set up for the rest of the day, Jenny made her way to the front door. Opening it, a hand raised to knock on the door almost collided with her face and Jenny took a step back in surprise.
"I should have known you'd be here," Jethro said with a smile. "How is he?"
"Resting, after many protestations," Jenny answered, unable to help returning his smile. "I'd be careful if I were you, though. Mrs Mallard is convinced that Ducky went on a holiday without her. She's already accused me of being the strumpet to whisk her son away from her to some island of sin."
"A strumpet?" Jethro asked, his smile widening in amusement.
"Her word, not mine. All I'm saying is that you don't want to come face to face with her right now unless you have Ducky with you."
"In that case; do you want to go for a walk, Jen?"
She cast a wary eye around the world in front of her. On one hand, it was bitter cold: the clouds filling the sky were the sort of colour that suggested imminent snow. On the other hand, it had been so long since she'd spent some time with Jethro and she might get the chance to ask him about what he'd been doing at the hospital. The other hand made up her a nod, she closed the door behind her and started walking alongside Jethro.
"You look exhausted," he said after several moments of silence.
"Thank you, Jethro," Jenny replied sarcastically.
"I've been meaning to say something about it all week."
Jenny stopped suddenly and turned to face him.
"Apparently, you've had quite a few opportunities to do so," she said firmly, a trace of anger in her voice.
"What do you mean?" he asked, although his face showed he knew exactly what she meant.
"I don't appreciate being spied on," Jenny said, pulling her coat tighter around her as a cold wind rustled past. "For whatever reason."
"I wanted to keep an eye on the two of you. Ducky-well, no prizes for guessing why I wanted to look out for him. But you-we both know you're not good at pacing yourself, Jen. You're looking more tired each day and I just wanted to make sure you were still okay. That's all. I'd only stay for a minute and I could never hear what you were saying."
"Why didn't you just ask me yourself? At work, while I was with Ducky, when I left his room?"
"I knew you'd never give me a straight answer. You can tell a lot more by observing."
"And that justifies spying on me?"
Jethro looked down at the blush forming on Jenny's cheeks: a mixture of the cold and her anger. Her eyes were blazing, almost as if she was waiting for him to tell her something he still hadn't. She'd always been beautiful but the thought crossed Jethro's mind that he couldn't remember the last time he saw her looking this beautiful. Without thinking, he opened his mouth and the words seemed to flow out.
"What if I missed you? What if I just wanted to be near you?"
At that moment, he watched a snowflake land in Jenny's hair. Then another. And another. He wasn't aware of any of the other snowflakes falling around them, only the ones nestling into the red of her hair. Reaching his hand out, he ran his fingers through the softness of her hair, melting any snowflakes he came in contact with through his touch. His hands cupped her face and Jenny gazed up at him, waiting for what she knew must come next.
He started to lower his head before hesitating, uncertain if this was something she really wanted. But her whisper of "Jethro" erased any doubts left in his mind and he brought his lips to hers, closing the distance they had created years ago. His hands wound themselves around her waist, pulling her into him as her hands locked around his neck and their tongues rediscovered corners of the others mouth that time had forgotten.
When they pulled away, Jenny expected to see the same look in his eyes that he used to have after they'd shared a moment. Instead, the smile that had creeped onto her face disappeared as she looked into eyes that were a myriad of emotions and a forehead that was occupied by a frown.
"What?" she asked quietly, not certain if she wanted to know the answer.
His hands disentagled themselves from around her waist. He continued looking at her, but the hint of a slow smile appeared on his face.
"I'd better get back to Ducky," he said simply before turning around and walking back to the house.
The snow continued to fall as Jenny stood rooted to the spot, wondering what all of this meant.
**********************************************
Oh and just on a random note: there will probably be quite a bit of snow in the rest of this story seeing as it's summer here and I'm really starting to miss the cold weather. A white Christmas would be so nice...