Disclaimer- not mine

Authors note – Hey guys! So, this is the new chapter which is a bit of a Angsty Jibbs chapter, yet no romance just yet I'm afraid – that would be too easy!

So, the italics indicate Jenny's flashback.

I hope it's ok as I'm not great at doing flashbacks.

Oh, and before I forget, all the info on Scarborough is correct, so any questions just ask as I know the place like the back of my hand (near enough).

So, last but by no means least…enjoy my darlings !

After Tony and Ziva had left with Katie, Jenny didn't seem to be able to concentrate. Gibbs meant everything to her, ever since she had been a probie he had been her best friend, someone who she knew she could trust in and out of work and who always had her six. He'd been her lover, but more than that, he'd been her love. Now though, the thing she had hoped would never happen had happened: they barely spoke, he avoided her. With all this piling up in her mind, she knew her chances of doing any more of the mountain of paperwork before her were slim to none. So, she did something she hadn't done in a very long time, she left work at 06 30 and headed straight home.

Once she got in her house the red head ran upstairs and quickly changed into a pair of running leggings and a vest top. She plugged her IPod in and went for a run. She followed the old woodland path that ran parallel to her street before heading off into the woodland on the outskirts of DC. Her security detail had not been impressed in the slightest. The majority if them had protected Tom Marrow who had never been the kind of man to go running, and they had assumed Jenny would not be either. Yet they attempted to follow her only soon lost her.

Jenny ran at a fast pace listening to the beat of her IPod. Long ago she had set p a running play list, shortly after her partnership with Ziva was over. The songs all held so many memories of the mornings Jenny would go running with Danny a few months before he proposed. Jenny soon let the music wash over her and let the memories she had kept locked away flood into her mind…

The sun shone through the windows of the small apartment on the North bay of Scarborough beach. In a ruffled up bed, lay two sleeping lovers, dead to the world apart from themselves. Work for this pair was hectic. Life for this pair was mad. When one of you was in her majesties secret service and the other was the assistant director of NCIS and head of the London MCRT the amount of time they got together was little. So, Danny had decided to take them to a place his parents had taken him when he was younger. They'd arrived two days ago, and apart from getting food the pair had been too unravelled in each other to leave the apartment. But as the sleeping red head awoke from her slumber she decided she wanted to go out running this morning – now if she was honest. The fact it was only 06 30 didn't bother her. And so she began awaking her lover.

Both were soon ready in running gear and Jenny had her headphones in one ear to allow her to keep a good pace. They ran down from the apartment blocks they were staying in, which had once been a corner café where every visitor would come with sand covered feat to buy their cokes. Danny had been shocked to find out it had now being turned into apartments, especially as the corner café had still stood tall when his parents would retreat on their romantic holidays.

Jenny set the pace as they ran alongside the silent and empty beach. All of the previous day's activities and sandcastles had been washed away by the nights tide and left a blank canvas for today. As she ran she felt Danny run next to her. "Race ya!" he said. And before Jenny had a chance to reply he had run off. Laughing the red head followed after him. He smiled and she laughed when he won. "Cheat!" she shouted as she reached him. Only he picked her up, slung her over his back and walked down onto the beach. She felt him heading for the sea and began cursing his name…

As the tourists began to pack the sandy beaches of the northern sea side town that morning, two lovers who had come out to run could be seen walking hand in hand up the beach. They held wet trainers in their hands which matched their cloths. The breeze ran through their wet hair, yet their smiles were brighter that anybody else's. They both had an earphone of Jenny's IPod which had been spared a soaking. As they walked down the beach, Perfect Day by Lady Antebellum played, and the song seemed to fit their mood just right.

Jenny now ran through the woods, nearly eight years later listening to that same song. Somehow, she'd never had the heart to delete it off her IPod, or her running list. In fact all the songs on her running list held too many memories. So she'd simply made a new one, keeping the old there for the times she needed to reminisce. Today as she ran though, silent tears rolled down her cheeks only to be quickly wiped away.

As the Director returned to her house, she couldn't help but smirk at the agents who had obviously not been able to keep up with her. She walked into her house, and not one of those agents trained to protect her would ever have known that on her run Jenny had cried at things she hoped none of them would ever have to experience.

Life Changes – People Move On – But Love Can Remain

Jenny walked down the wooden stairs of the famous basement. After her run she had showered and changed into a white long sleeved t-shirt, a pair of boot cut jeans and flat white leisure shoes. Her hair was still damp but left down, yet her face was free of makeup.

Just as Jenny had suspected Jethro was sanding his boat. He'd changed into jeans and a NIS t-shirt. Jethro knew she'd come down, he always did know when she was around, but he didn't acknowledge her. Jenny sat down on the edge of the work bench and took a sip of his bourbon. Silence passed between the two before Jethro broke the silence.

"Thought you'd be home with your husband seeming as you have the house to yourself."

Jenny was shocked. He really thought she had it all, the perfect white picket fence life. How wrong he was.

"I'm not married Jethro."

"Katie's dad then."

Jenny had to gulp. IT could have made her emotions spill over. Just one simple statement nearly made everything fall down.

"I think I owe you an explanation."

Jethro turned around and met her eyes. For the first time he saw the sorrow behind them, and knew there was something he was completely and utterly missing. With a deep breath Jenny began.

"Six months after Paris I saw Ducky at a conference. He told me about Stephanie and how you two were engaged. I thought I had meant so little to you. Thought you'd never loved me at all."

"Jenny-"

"No, please Jethro, let me say this." He silently nodded and she continued. "I knew deep down you had but, I suppose it was my way of dealing with it all. After that I put myself into my work, tried to forget all about you. Then, then Danny came along. HE was everything I needed, he understood my past, and loved me for it. He didn't want me for my body, but for me." Her eyes glazed over and she tried not to cry. "We…we hit it off, almost instantly. He was funny and handsome, he was amazing. In August '01 he proposed, he proposed. I never stopped smiling; I hadn't been that happy since Paris, I was getting married." Jenny wiped away the tears, Jethro was confused beyond belief. "Then, then in September '01, he had to go to New York, to work on 'relations'. He…he left me with a kiss on the cheek, and telling me to plan the wedding. The 11th September 2001 Danny Martins was in the Pentagon when the terrorists happened. I lost the love of my life again."

Jenny was really crying now. Only Gibbs couldn't move with Shock.

"Jenny, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. A few months after 911 I found out I was pregnant. In a way it was like he'd known he was going, Katie was his goodbye gift. He never even knew his daughter, and she never knew his father."

"Jen-"

"I regret leaving you in Paris Jethro, I really do. But given the chance, I would do the same thing again. If I hadn't, then I'd never have met Danny, and never have had Katie."

"I get it Jen, they're your Shannon and Kelly." The two caught each other's eyes, they looked deep in them for the first time in years. "I'd love to tell you it gets easier Jenny."

"But it doesn't. Trust me Jethro, I've suffered enough loss to realise that."

They remained silent from then on. Jenny joined Jethro and the pair began to sand the skeleton of his boat, something which had strangely enough always soothed Jenny. It allowed her to think, and for once it wasn't about the silver haired many next to her, but another man. This man had been the man to give her the thing she loved most of all, to give her an opportunity she had never thought she wanted who she had loved and lost to forces beyond her control. As time went on Jenny finally looked at her watch to see it was nearing midnight.

"I should go." She said. Placing the sander on the work bench.

"Huh?" Jethro asked, obviously he too had been caught up in his own thoughts.

"It's getting late, I'd best be off."

"That was the only reason you came?"

"Yeah, you deserved the truth Jethro, you more than anyone."

"Thank you. It means a lot."

She left that night with a sad smile on her face. That night could have gone so differently. Instead, instead both of their stubbornness had stopped them. So she left, alone. Yet she knew the trip had not been wasted. She'd told him the truth, something she should have done a long time ago. The path had been cleared of some of the leaves. Meaning they could begin to walk on, and move on, and maybe, just maybe, they would move on together.

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