A/N: This happens during season four so everyone knows about Shannon and Kelly.
Corruption 3
The four of them meet up at 0730 the next morning. Jenny brought out the two piles and they dove right back in to work. They took files out of the iffy pile and went through them. Most of them went into the clean pile. They finished going through each one by lunchtime. They all left the building and headed out to a lunch steakhouse. Jess sat in between Jenny and Vance with Gibbs on the opposite side of her. They ate their lunch and talked about everything but work. Vance updated them all on his family and Jess shared stories about the adventures she had with her boyfriend and his family. Jenny and Gibbs remained silent mainly, only asking questions of the other two.
When they finished and settled the bill, they headed back to the Navy Yard and they each took a portion of the left over files and a legal pad. They went through and wrote down every hinky thing on in the files down. When they finished that they condensed the lists before taking each thing off the list and marking down if it was just something they would put in a personnel file or if it was civil or criminal. They did that and left for the night, after Jenny called and made an appointment to speak with the SecNav the next day. Jenny and Jess were the last there as they refilled the clean case reports and put the dirty reports in Jenny's desk.
"I know you said that you worked with Gibbs in Moscow, but how well do you know him?" Jenny asked as they filed the reports.
"Well enough." Was the answer given. Jessica knew there was something between Jenny and Gibbs, but she didn't want to give anything away that Jenny didn't already know.
"Did he ever mention me that year?" She asked, and when Jess met her eyes, there was sorrow and regret in them. Those emotions compelled her to answer.
"When he was awake he never mentioned your name, only revered to you as his partner, but that point was when he started to hammer in rule 12 to all of us on his team. He said me and James were the exception, as we were together before the rule was made. But sometimes at night, I'd hear him whimper or scream your name: Jen or Jenny. It got so bad that Stephanie started staying in the third bedroom. But their marriage was already on the rocks when they both came to Moscow." Jess shrugged, leaving out the part where he said her name more than Shannon's or Kelly's names. She knew that Gibbs didn't tell many people about them and she didn't know if her boss knew about them.
"Did he mention me more than Shannon and Kelly?" She asked, knowing that is was their names he cried out during the nights while she shared a bed with him.
"Oh, so you know about them?" Jess asked, surprised.
"Yes, all of us do." Jenny said as they headed back up to her office to get their things to leave for the night. Jess still didn't answer the question, debating with herself if she should answer the question. She made her choice as they were apart to part for the night.
"Director Shepard, the answer to your question is: yes, he did." She told her boss before she climbed into her car and headed to Ziva's house.
************************************NCIS*************************************
Jenny stood, shocked as Jess drove away. Jethro did love her; he never said the words and at the time she thought it was because they had the mission and their cover over their head, and he didn't want her to think that the words were only for the mission, so he let his actions speak for him. After she left, she tried to tell herself that he never really loved her and that was why he never said the words. After a few years, she believed it; believed it enough to turn him down when she returned as director last year. After all, he said the he missed her, not that he loved her. But maybe that was his way of protecting himself from getting hurt again.
She knew why she left, but he didn't. All he wanted was a second chance, and she was going to give him it. She stormed over to her car and peeled out of the garage and made her way to his house; she ditched her detail by taking a short cut. She made it there and parked across the street. Her determination carried her out of her car and across the street and up to his front door.
She made it inside the house before fear got ahold of her. What if he had moved on after that last rejection? What if he didn't want her anymore? She smelt coffee and sawdust and followed it to the kitchen and to the door to the basement. He was down there sanding the boat's hull with a mason jar of bourbon near his elbow. He didn't look up at her, but she knew that he knew she was there.
She walked over to him and touched his shoulder, causing him to stop sanding and turn to look at her.
"You need something Director?" He asked, though the look on her face, was one he could read. It was Jenny who was with him now, not Director Shepard.
"Jenny, Jethro, the Director is in her office preparing for tomorrow. Jenny is here now, confused. I don't know what to think, Jethro." She confessed, moving over to the couch in the corner and sitting down.
"Don't know what to think about what?" He asked, knowing semi what she was talking about, but wanting to hear her say it out loud. He poured her a small jar of bourbon and handed it to her as he moved to another section of the hull, this one was closer to her. He started sanding again, but made sure that he could see her out of the corner of his eye.
"This whole thing with McCallister. I wasn't supposed to make the hit on Svetlana, I wasn't supposed to see the mission through. I was supposed to die out there, Jethro. I'm just having a hard time dealing with it." She was feeling the need to beg him and tell him everything; he already knew why she joined NCIS; to get The Frog. That was her best kept secret. It should be easy to tell him why she left him in Paris; that she knew that she could get her five-point plan and have love in her life.
She knew she would have stayed if it wasn't for her perceived failure.
"What do you mean Jen?"
"Jethro, I didn't leave because of the promotion. That came after I decided to leave; I hated myself for failing. You and everyone else praised my abilities, and I didn't want to be a failure in your eyes; it would hurt too much. I ran, I ran away. And now I find that I wasn't supposed to be able to do it and I feel angry.
"I threw away a future with you. I convinced myself that you didn't say you loved me back then because you didn't love me. I knew in my heart the entire time that your actions said it. That the words didn't come from your mouth for a reason. Jethro I told that to myself so often and so much that I believed them enough to turn you down last year." She told him, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. She did nothing to hide them; instead she locked eyes with him and let them overflow.
Jethro was cursing McCallister to the seven Hells; that man cost him six, now seven, years with the one woman he truly loved since Shannon. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before leaving the hull of the boat and kneeling in front of her. He locked eyes with her and watched as the tears overflow. He watched as the moisture changes her eyes to a soft, pale green. That was a new shade for him; the last time she cried her eyes turned to a minty color. But the last time she cried was when she was shot.
He never liked it when she cried. When she was shot he cradled her upper body to him and let her cry into his chest. That seemed like a good idea now, so he leaned in and kissed her cheek before standing.
Jenny watched his eyes and couldn't read them like she used to be able to do. She closed her eyes as he kissed her cheek, loving the feeling of his lips. She felt him get up from the floor and thought the worst and she started sobbing. She was losing him, when she just found him again. She then felt the couch dip and Jethro pulled her into his arms and his lap.
Jethro just held her and let her cry against his neck. He just kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back. Twenty minutes later and her sobs had diminished. Jethro's legs were cramping so he cradled her closer and swung himself up onto the couch lying down with her on top of him. Another 20 minutes passed and her breathing had evened out and the tears had stopped. Jethro looked down and saw that she had fallen asleep. He didn't move for another 20 minutes, when he did, he rolled her over onto the couch and covered her with his sports jacked that he had tossed onto the bench when he got to the basement. He kissed her forehead and whispered that he would be right back.
He headed up the stairs and to his bedroom. The sheets were fresh so he didn't change them. He turned down the bed and changed into a pair of sleep pants, removing his shirt. He grabbed a clean pair of boxers and his old USMC shirt and left them on the bed. He padded barefoot back downstairs and back into his basement. HE grabbed his cell phone and called her detail, to let them know that he would bring her in the next day and asked if they could pick up her car in the morning. He then did something that he hadn't done since Shannon and Kelly were still alive: he locked the door. He went back down to the basement, where Jenny was still asleep. He lifted her light weight frame into his arms and carried her to his bed; she didn't awaken. He laid her down and changed her into the clothes he left out and tucked her into bed. He left the room and shut off all the lights and turned on the coffee maker's timer to start at 0600 the next morning.
He headed back upstairs and climbed into bed next to her. He stayed on his side of the bed and tried to fall asleep. He couldn't, not really; so he turned over and spooned up behind Jenny. He pulled her tightly to his side and buried his nose in her hair and found himself falling asleep.