Disclaimer: Don't own the characters:/ So sad.
A/N Please PLEASE review. I want to know what you think so far.
'This is so boring.' Jenny thought. She was sitting in the front row of MTAC, bored out of her mind. SECNAV and a naval commander were on the screen discussing the latest undercover operation going on between NCIS and the FBI. She was so tired, not even her coffee was helping her this time. She got no sleep last night. She was too busy thinking about Anna and what her next move would be. She couldn't just let the girl hide out in her home for the rest of her life. She knew that she had to call the Florida police to let them know that she was safe. On the other hand, what kind of a 'friend' would she be to Anna if she sent her back to Florida where she would be unhappy? The other thing on her mind was Gibbs, the man that had her heart. It wasn't that she had been ignoring him; it's just that her fiancé has been so difficult lately. It's like all of the sudden, he's mad at the world. She wanted him back to the way he had been before they had gotten engaged. She needed him to be happy again.
It was a late Friday afternoon in Washington DC. Jenny and Gibbs had decided to go see a movie. Every night for the past several months, their 'dates' were sitting on the small couch in Gibbs' house watching re-runs of The Dukes of Hazzard. Although it was nice to be alone after long days at work, they decided that they needed to get out this night, so Jenny had opted for a movie in town. There wasn't much playing so they just picked one at random. The showing of 'Titanic' had won. They climbed the theater stairs and sat in the way back. They sat down and instantly wrapped their arms around each other like it was the most natural thing in the world to them. They were barely paying attention to the heart pounding action going on in front of them on the large screen. They were too busy enjoying each other's warmth 'without' sitting on that damn couch, and at that moment, it was like they were the only two people in that theater, in the world.
Jenny came out of her thoughts overhearing the two men on the screen saying their goodbyes to Jenny. She hadn't had a clue what they had been talking about, but she didn't worry about it much because there was an NCIS agent that had been sitting behind her the whole time taking notes. "Thought you might need a refill." Came the low voice of the man that she was totally in love with. He held out a cup of coffee to her. She took the coffee with a smile and motioned for Gibbs to sit down next to her. "How is your morning going Jethro?" She asked staring ahead at the dark screen.
"It would've been better if I had woken up with you next to me. Are you gonna tell me what's been going on? Why have you been avoiding me Jen?" He questioned in a low, patient tone.
She sighed, "I am not avoiding you Jethro; I love you. I am just dealing with a lot right now. Things have come up that need to be attended to and I don't have a lot of free time."
"Who was that girl that came in with you?"
Jenny paused and thought about the words that she would use very carefully. "Her name is Anna."
Gibbs was silent, motioning with his eyes for her to go on and continue. When he saw no indication of Jenny planning on explaining any further, he sighed. "Is that all that you're going to tell me Jen?"
She shook her head, "I met her in Florida a couple years ago when you got hit by that truck." She said allowing the painful memories of that night to flood back, but she continued anyway. "Her parents died that night in a car accident. She was sitting in the hallway alone, lost. I helped her find her grandmother." She paused pushing the tears back behind her eyes. "Last night she called me. She needed help. So that's exactly what I did. I'm sorry I have been shutting you out today Jethro. This is just a lot to wrap my head around at once. This little girl lost her grandmother, was forced into an orphanage, and ran away all by herself. Did I mention that she is only ten years old?"
Jethro looked down, not knowing what to say. He put his arm around his soon-to-be wife and pulled her into a hug. "Why didn't you just tell me that last night?"
She sighed once again. "I didn't want to worry you. Although not answering most of your calls probably didn't help. She called me from Virginia, Jethro. I had to get to her as fast as I could. For all I knew at the time she could've been hurt. She could've been running from some crazy killer. I didn't know what I was walking into."
Gibbs nodded, "Okay, I understand. Sorry for hovering last night, but will you please stay over my place tonight? You have no idea how lonely it is there without you. The girl-"He paused looking at Jenny questioning.
"Anna." She stated, answering his unspoken question.
He nodded again. "Right, Anna can stay in the guest room."
Jenny kept silent a moment to think. Would bringing Anna to Gibbs' house be a good idea? Not that he would be anything but nice to the young girl, but is Anna ready to meet someone new just yet? She'd seen how scared she was even meeting Naomi. Naomi was the nicest person and was never rude or loud. Jenny knew that Anna was going through a lot of stress right now. Maybe bringing her to Gibbs' house wasn't such a good idea. Although, she had told Anna a lot about him, maybe she would feel more comfortable with him because Jenny talked about him. She looked back to Gibbs and smiled.
"I would want nothing more than to spend the night with you tonight, but if you don't mind sweetie, I think I should ask Anna first and make sure that she's comfortable with it okay?"
"I understand Jen." He smiled, kissed her gently on her lips and got up to leave MTAC when Jenny spoke up once again getting his attention. "I love you." She said, not caring about the other technicians currently on the other side of the room working at the computers and monitoring systems.
He looked back at her and smiled lovingly. "I love you too. I will understand if Anna doesn't want to stay at my place tonight, but if she doesn't, can you at least come down to my desk and say goodnight before you leave today?"
"I promise." Jenny nodded watching her fiancé, lover, and best friend walk away.
After another several more moments of thinking, Jenny got up out of her seat and walked out of MTAC. She walked towards the elevator, glancing down stairs at Gibbs working hard at his desk and she smiled. She got into the elevator and sent the metal box down to Abby's lab. She hoped that Anna was okay. She had dropped her off with Abby without any warnings.
She walked into the lab and was surprised when she heard no music. "Abby?" She called and got momentarily nervous when she got no reply. She walked further into the lab and headed back towards Abby's office. She stood in front of the clear doors, just smiling at the sight on the other side of the glass.
She saw Abby and Anna sitting on the floor laughing hysterically. Jenny couldn't help but laugh too. The funniest part of this sight was that it seemed as though Abby had decided to play 'dress up' with Anna. The little girl was sitting on the floor, her golden blonde hair in two high pigtails; she had black eye makeup and black lipstick.
Jenny walked through the doors and laughed at the two girls. "Black looks good on you Anna." She smiled. Anna turned around and jumped up hugging Jenny. "You've been gone for so long." She said.
Jenny nodded, "Sorry about that, my meeting ran a little longer than I had expected. Did you have fun?"
Anna jumped up and down, "Yes! I love Abby she's so nice! She taught me how to put on makeup." She smiled running back to hug Abby. 'This is the sweet, little, happy girl she met two years ago.' Jenny thought to herself. She was glad that Abby was able to bring that sparkle back into Anna's eyes. "I'm glad you had fun, Anna. Abby, were you able to get any work done on the case for Agent Gibbs?" Jenny asked transforming into the director side of her.
Abby nodded, "I did. Actually, Anna helped out a lot. She helped me run facial recognitions and fingerprints through AFIS."
Jenny chuckled. "Good work, make sure you brief Agent Gibbs' team."
Abby nodded. "Yes ma'am." She saluted earning a cute laugh from Anna.
Jenny took Anna's hand and walked her into the elevator. "Abby is so cool." Anna said as they entered the elevator.
Jenny smiled. "Yes she is." She said pulling an unused tissue from her pocket and gently wiping the Goth make up off of Anna's face. "Not that you didn't look beautiful in that makeup, but it hides your gorgeous eyes."
Anna smiled, "Can I keep the pigtails?" She asked with puppy dog eyes.
Jenny nodded. "Of course."
They walked out of the elevator and back into Jenny's office. "Okay Anna, now I have some very important paperwork to do, so would you be okay sitting over there on the couch? I can put the TV on for you." Jenny smiled.
Anna nodded and jumped over to the couch excited.
About an hour passed and Jenny was still sitting at her desk. She was done her work for right now and she was currently fighting to stay awake. She was trying to focus her eyes on the girl sitting across the room. Anna's eyes were still glued to the TV as she watched the Disney Channel.
Soon, Jenny lost the battle against sleep and allowed her eyelids to close, falling into a much needed, deep sleep. When the commercials came on, Anna looked back over to Jenny to see that she had fallen asleep. She walked over to the desk and quietly grabbed the TV remote from beside Jenny. She walked back over to the couch, turned the volume down a little, and turned on the news. She loved watching the news. Since she was young, not a lot of people let her know what kind of things the world was facing. They didn't think that she was mature enough to know, but the news was the only thing that allowed her to feel a part of the outside world.
She lay back on the couch, putting her feet up, and enjoyed the warmth of the room. After about a half an hour passed, Anna sat up on the couch so fast that she could feel her brains being tussled and thrown around. Her eyes went as wide as they could as she stared at what made her jump up. There was an article on the news of a missing ten year old girl from Florida. "Florida state police are asking that if you know anything about the whereabouts of this young child, you are to call 911 immediately. Anna supposedly stuck out of her room late at night and has gone missing." The news reporter said. She replayed the voice on the TV over and over in her head when Jenny's office door opened and the older man from downstairs walked in looking at Jenny, then over at Anna. "How long has she been asleep?" The man asked.
Anna hesitated, let out the breath that she didn't know she had been holding on to, and spoke quietly. "Almost an hour."
The man nodded moving over to Jenny's desk. Anna watched as he took his coat off and gently covered it over Jenny. "You must be Anna." He said walking over to her. Anna nodded and felt herself get a little more comfortable.
"Mind if I sit down?" He asked motioning to the spot on the couch next to Anna.
Anna once again nodded and didn't say a word. The man sat down and she waited for him to speak.
"I'm Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. You can call me Gibbs, or Jethro, which ever you like." He smiled.
She smiled back. "I like Gibbs. It's a weird name."
Gibbs looked at her pretending to be offended by her comment. Anna put her hands up, "But weird in a good way." She laughed.
"You've met Abby?" He asked her.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Anna asked settling back into the couch a little more.
Gibbs motioned to her hair. "That's an Abby hair-do if I've ever seen one." He laughed.
Anna laughed with him and they both fell silent for a moment.
"You're, you're the man from the hospital?" Anna hesitated to ask but already knew the answer.
Gibbs nodded, "Yep, that's me."
"Are you feeling better? I mean I know it's been two years but, you know." Anna questioned.
"I'm all better. Good as new." He said. "I got a pretty mean scar on my back, but I'm still alive so I'm not complaining." Gibbs smiled.
"Scars are scary." Anna said looking into the man's eyes.
Gibbs tilted his head a little. "Scary?"
She nodded. "They're scary because they're a reminder of the pain. I feel bad when I see someone with a scar."
Gibbs thought for a moment. "That's true, but I have much worse scars from when I was in the Marines. However, those scars aren't a reminder of pain. They're a reminder of why I am living." He smiled.
"I don't understand. How do the remind you of why you are living?" Anna asked.
"They remind me that I'm here on this Earth to do good for this country, and to fight for our freedom. That's all I've ever tried to do."
Anna smiled. "You were a marine?"
Gibbs nodded.
"My Daddy was a marine. He said that the Marines were like his second family."
Gibbs nodded again. "If your Daddy was a marine, then he must've been a real nice guy. Wish I could've gotten the opportunity to meet him."
Anna smiled. "You're a nice guy Gibbs."
Gibbs chuckled, "Well you should try convincing that to some of the agents here." He paused. "Did Jen ask you about tonight?"
"What about tonight?" She asked.
"Jen and I wanted to know if you'd be okay staying over at my place tonight. It's not as fancy as Jen's house, but it works." He nodded.
Anna thought, not sure of what to say. "Will Jenny be there too?"
Gibbs laughed, "Of course she will. She wouldn't just leave you alone. She knows how stressed you are right now." He smiled at her.
Anna chuckled. "Okay, I'd love to! Just one question." Anna said.
"Okay what?" Gibbs asked.
"Can we have pizza for dinner?"
Hope you liked it:) XOXO