Author's note:
Some fibre optic thingy near my house is down. We've had a DSL outage for the past 30 hours. Am going to post this using a USB key from the library, but since the outage has affected lots of homes I anticipate not being able to be online long enough to answer any reviews for the last chapter. Sorry. Hope you continue to enjoy this. _______________________________________________________________________________
Three months later ...
"He's been struggling for a while. Sometimes grief manifests itself in aggressive behaviour, but that isn't the case with Gabriel. He's become ... withdrawn. Is it the same at home?"
"He's withdrawn when he thinks nobody's looking" Jen said after a moment's consideration.
"He had a huge meltdown this morning. The third one this week. It's the reason I sent for you. I think I've figured out what this is about" the school counsellor said kindly.
"He no longer talks to me about anything that happens at school. Is that normal?"
"Yes. He can't express what's going on."
"Is he being teased?"
"No. Far from it, in fact. His class mates have been surprisingly supportive for five year olds, and his teacher has made every effort to work around sensitive topics. However, there are some things even she can't avoid."
"Like?"
"Career Week is coming up in two weeks. Every year the students submit a project about what their parents do. They've been talking about it during circle time and Gabriel just keeps falling apart."
"Should I just keep him home till its over?" Jen asked, at a loss what to reply.
"No" the other woman said with a shake of her head. "There is no doubt that the child is still grieving, but I think what triggers the meltdowns is the fact that he wants to participate and feels he can't."
"You've lost me."
"He's very proud of his father, as most children are. The fact that he's dead doesn't diminsh that. In fact it makes him want to put more effort into the project so that he can show everyone what a great man he was. But he realised this week, as everyone shared their stories, that he has no real idea what his father did. He knows nothing beyond the fact that he was a federal agent killed in the line of duty. Now considering Mr. Pacci's line of work this isn't surprising, but in his head he can't do the project because he has nothing to talk about. To a five year old who's grieving that means he can't do right by his father, and he can't deal with that right now."
Jen closed her eyes against the renewed pain of loss.
"What can I do?" she asked when the extreme emotion stopped swirling.
"Is there anyone that you can turn to? A colleague of your brother perhaps. Someone who would be able to get him into the Navy Yard. Show him his father's desk. Maybe give him a tour of the facility. Explain to him in basic terms how cases are handled. Show him any equipment his father would have handled. Maybe even arrange a short meeting with the Director. Anything to give the child a feel for what his father did on a daily basis. Things he can share."
_________________________________________________________________________________
Jen nursed a coffee and looked at the little boy sitting across from her.
"Am I in trouble?"
"No. I took you out early because I thought it would be nice if we spent some time together without Molly. We don't often get to do that."
"Okay."
"How's your hot chocolate?" she added when he didn't say anything else.
"It's good. Can I have another one when I'm done?"
"Sure you can" Jen said, wrapping her arm around him and pulling him into her side. "Gabriel ..."
"What?"
"Why didn't you tell me about your project for Career Week?"
The child's tone turned defensive immediately.
"I forgot" he lied.
Jen considered her next words carefully as she remembered the counsellor's parting advice to get the child's input before attempting to contact NCIS.
"I spoke to Mrs. Milligan this morning. She's nice."
Gabriel nodded but didn't make eye contact.
"She thinks it might help if you could see where daddy worked. Would you be able to do your project then?"
Gabriel's eyes lit up for the first time in weeks and he took a long swallow of his drink. Jenny drew deeply from her own - and waited for the inevitable question.
____________________________________________________________________________
Abby jumped slightly as Gibbs' voice flowed into her ear.
"Looks like a serial number."
"It's part of one" she said with a smile.
"The good part?"
"Can't go straight for dessert, Gibbs. You have to eat your peas first."
"Ach, I hate peas" he said as he stood closer to the plasma.
"The serial number indicates the manufacturer, the lot number, and the year that it was built. We only have a partial, so we only have part of the picture."
"The g-"
"Special Agent Gibbs, please report to HR" a voice blared over the PA system. "Special Agent Gibbs report to HR."
Abby followed him to the phone in her office.
"Gibbs" he said when someone from that department picked up. "Got it. Thanks."
The goth looked on with interest as a look of disbelief crossed his face. But when he opened his cell phone and punched in whatever numbers the person at the other end was giving him and moved towards the door, her interest escalated into curiosity.
"What about the ..."
"Hold the thought" was all he said as he left the lab with his phone to his ear.
He waited till he was somewhere private before he depressed the button that would place the call.
"Jenny?" he said, surprised to hear the anxiety in his tone. "Jenny .. you there?" he added when she didn't respond immediately.
"Jethro?"
"Yeah. You called?"
"Yes. I .. "
"You okay?"
He relaxed fractionally when he heard her say "I'm fine" but it still didn't explain why she was calling, or why there was insecurity in her voice when she said "but I'd like to talk to you. Maybe later, or tomorrow, or .."
"I can talk now, Jen."
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Second thing?"
"Staff Seargent Rafael is holding out. I can feel it in my gut" Kate said.
"Guts are good."
"He's having a little time out in the interrogation room. So when you're ready I'll go over my notes -"
"Boss .."
He turned towards the sound of Tony's voice and his breath caught in his throat. He wasn't sure if it was because she was standing in the same spot her brother had been, or because she was more beautiful than he remembered – but he knew he was staring. Conscious of the fact that all his team were now staring at him, he turned back to Kate.
"I'm afraid Staff Seargent Rafael is all yours" he said, amused by the way her eyes widened in shock.
"You always do the interrogations, Gibbs."
"Not this one" he said, breaking away from her. "Going for coffee" he tossed at Di Nozzo as he put an arm under Jen's elbow and steered her towards the elevators. "Call me as soon as Abby's worked out my ID. and tell Stone I'll be ready to roll as soon as the meet's set up."
Jen shifted nervously from one foot to the other as the elevator made its way downwards. For weeks she'd meant to call and apologise for the way she'd reacted on the night of the memorial service. Had picked up the phone several times even. Only to put it down again; unable to make the call. Watching him at work just now she could well believe Chris might have felt uncomfortable and backed off. Even she'd felt awkward – and he'd been expecting her. The aura surrounding him at NCIS was very different from the one at the funeral and at home, and she could see Chris backing off and not coming back if something important had been going on. Fleetingly she wondered if she'd imagined that he'd been happy to see her. It was imcomprehensible to her that he could be, after the harsh words she'd thrown at him, but the way her insides had fluttered when he'd looked at her made her hope that the look in his eyes hadn't been a figment of her imagination.
"I don't want to take you away if you have a case ..." she began.
"Nothing my agents can't handle."
"The ... meet?"
"Not for a few more hours."
"Is it something dangerous, Jethro?" she asked, fear creeping over her as his hand settled at the small of her back – even though she knew she had no right to feel anything in his regard.
"I'll be fine" he said as he ushered her out of the elevator.
Ten minutes later when they had settled into seats at his regular coffee haunt it was still on her mind.
"Have you got good back up?"
Gibbs looked across the table at her and was struck all over again by the intensity in her eyes. Part of him wished he could tell her that he was going on a fake undercover op, just to put her mind at rest. But since that was impossible, he settled for reaching across the table and placing his hand over hers.
"The best" he assured her, smiling slightly when he realised that she wasn't pulling away.
"Jethro, the night you were at the house I was .."
"You were grieving, Jenny."
"I was out of line."
"No, you weren't."
"Yes, I was. I needed to be angry at someone."
"Jen .."
He stilled the moment she raised her fingers to his mouth and cut him off.
"Let me apologise."
She wasn't sure what was making her so bold, but she knew that touching him was as instinctive as it had been the last time she'd seen him. She smiled a little when she realised that he looked as surprised as she felt, and lowered her fingers self-consciously. If anyone had told her a few weeks before that she'd want to be anywhere near the man she held responsible for her brother's death, or that she'd be worried about his safety, she'd have laughed in their face. But a long talk with Alberto had opened her up to the possibility that Chris might have made his own choices. That it wasn't fair to blame someone else when he might not have waited for help. She'd reached the conclusion on her own that she was so conflicted about Leroy Jethro Gibbs because she'd been attracted to him. That nugget of information had been harder to reconcile to than anything else because of the circumstances; and ultimately she' done nothing about it - because she was sure she'd burned her bridges the night she turned on him.
"You don't need to aplogise" he insisted – and because she could sense it was important to him, she let it drop.
"I never asked you who caught Chris's killer" she said softly after a while.
"We did."
"You mean you did?"
"Team effort" he said, unable and unwilling to take full credit.
"Where is he now?"
"Dead."
"Who pulled the trigger?"
He did her the courtesy of meeting her eyes before he answered.
"That'd be me."
She knew if she tried to speak her voice would crack – so the hand that had never left his applied gentle pressure.
"That why you wanted to talk to me?" he asked when he was sure she'd be able to answer. "To ask me that?"
"No. It's about Gabriel."
"He okay?"
"If it's not too much to ask I need a favour."
"Anything."
Gibbs listened as she told him what was going on.
"Bring him in tomorrow after school" he said. "I'll do it myself."
Jen didn't try to pretend to herself or to him that his words didn't affect her. She felt her eyes soften as she looked at him. Felt a rush of warmth as she saw his soften in return and a small smile spread over his lips. As a companionable silence stretched between them they stared at each other over the rims of their coffee cup – neither one willing to break it with anything as mundane as words.
But the moment couldn't last.
"Gibbs" he said into his cell phone, even though his eyes remained on her. "On my way."
"I take it that means you have to go" she said as she reached for her jacket.
"Yeah" he replied as he helped her into it – his hands lingering on her perhaps a bit longer than they ordinarily would have on another woman.
"If anything changes you'll let me know?" she asked as they left the coffee shop.
"Nothing's gonna change" he promised.
"Then we'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll be waiting."
