So this chapter is a little bit longer with a little more action. Do enjoy and please review.

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Chapter Four

9 August 2000

Hotel de l'Elysee, 12 rue des Saussaies, Paris

6.28 a.m. (0528 GMT)

Waking up the following day in such a position was not what Jenny Shepard had expected the first thing in the morning. She had been used to it, granted it had been a while, but for some reason it was her nervousness that made it feel foreign. As her eyes fluttered open like a butterfly emerging from its timeless cacoon, she thoroughly understood that she was not alone in the bed. It took her a few moments to remember what had happened, then, upon realising the owner of the arm draped softly across her waist, she speedily eased herself out from underneath the sheets, and from underneath the man imprisoning her.

More and more each day since Gibbs came back into her life she felt that that prison, her mental anguish, was stemming from her own temptations and limitations, not the boundaries Gibbs had placed on her. She grabbed a set of clothes from her over-packed ready bag and walked over to the shower, grateful that the luxurious hotel had their own source of products. Toiletries, except for a toothbrush, were not as high on her priority packing list as clothing for several occasions as well as all the information and files she would need. She was glad that it was summer. She had no idea how to fit several long coats, scarves, gloves and undergarments into her travel bag.

Gibbs woke up not long after she'd walked into the shower, cursing himself for not waking up first. He was still tired, but he knew that they had work to do, so he forced himself up. First he made sure that the room was still secure, then he rang Ducky, waking up the older English doctor and near ordering him to dress quickly, check out of the hotel and get straight over to the one that they were now staying in. He changed with speed and ordered breakfast from room service for the three of them as Jenny re-emerged from the bathroom. The Eggs Benedict were expensive, but after all, he was not the person paying for it. God bless the NCIS credit card, Gibbs thought with a mischievous smile as his ex-lover walked over to her bag.

"What are you smiling about?" Jenny asked without even looking at him.

Gibbs removed his expression immediately. "Nothing. I, uh, ordered us breakfast. We should eat before we go. It may be the only meal we get today."

Ducky was knocking on their door not long after. He bustled his way inside, about to share his previous night's ordeal before Jenny shushed him so that they could go over the plan before breakfast came.

"Okay, so our best way to get that file is to go directly to the source," Jenny began, a commanding voice becoming her. Gibbs was going to put his two cents in, but knew that this was her plan and she had every right to take the reins, junior agent or not. "Case files of this nature are kept under lock and key within the office of the senior investigating officer until they turn it over into filing. The officers keep the ongoing case files in a vault or cabinet or filing unit of some kind, but most of them are only locked by a very simple design. That is not the hard part."

"I thought it sounded easy," Gibbs put in.

Jenny shot him a look and he immediately shut up, allowing her to continue. "The hard part will be getting into the building, and the room, unseen."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Ducky asked.

"From what we've seen, it'll need to be an inside job," Jenny answered with a slight sigh. She did not like inside jobs. Too much room for error. "The technicians wear a uniform that is not difficult to match. In fact," she said as she walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a set of blue overalls on a coat hanger, "They wear the same things that this hotel's maintenance do."

"You stole that?!" Gibbs shot out with disbelief. "When?"

"I didn't steal it, I borrowed it," Jenny said, her voice showing the distinct clarification. "And did you really think that I was in the bathroom that whole time last night, Jethro? I slipped out and came back and you didn't notice a thing?"

Gibbs didn't answer, but instead chose to rack his brains to try and remember if she'd actually left the room the night before. He was ignoring her, or doing his best to, and it seems that he may have succeeded. He couldn't recall if she was actually in the bathroom for that whole time.

So Gibbs was designated their undercover technician and Jenny was going in wearing a very revealing top to attract some attention her way as he snuck in. Ducky, on the other hand, was babysitting the equipment in the hotel room as well as utilising it to look out for any flux in security so that he could alert them immediately. Funnily enough, the plan went off without a hitch.

If Gibbs had known that the snatch would have been this easy, he'd have done it earlier. Who leaves an open case file on the desk in plain view, Gibbs wondered, while your fifty feet away chatting up an American redhead with a fake French accent? Grabbing the file from the officer's desk, he slipped his tradesman attire back on and walked out of the building, elated and near-whistling. He had to say that it was the easiest lift he'd made yet. Then his mind fell back into reason. Perhaps it was too easy. It became painfully obvious to him that maybe someone had wanted him to find the file. Was it a trap or just goodwill that passed the file along to him? Goodwill is what led him to his first wife's and daughter's murderer. Franks had left the case file on his desk too. But the officer's reasoning in this instance was elusive. It was very probable that he was just being careless, but Gibbs was sure that he couldn't take the chance.

"Something's going on. That was too easy," Gibbs announced as soon as they'd gotten back to the hotel room with the file. He ripped off the overalls and threw a pair of pants over his boxers with a polo shirt on top.

"Just because it was a well thought out plan, Gibbs, does not make it too easy," Jenny told him with a flash of anger. "We got in and out successfully because we were prepared for it."

"Prepared for what, Jen?" Gibbs asked, throwing up his arms in question. "The case file was lying on the desk. The door to his office was open. The office was left unattended. You still think this wasn't a set up."

"If this was a set-up, then why not catch us in the act?" Jenny questioned with rising animosity for her colleague. "Why let us go free?"

"I don't know! To trap us later? To see what we uncover?"

Jenny huffed at him and turned her back, leaving his questions unanswered. She walked over to Ducky, who was reading the file. "What's it say?"

"Well, our poor boy died of a coupling of gunshot wounds to the chest," Ducky answered, translating the autopsy report from French. "Four to be exact. I'll tell you this, the killer most certainly knew what he was doing. Tight coupling of the shots, all of them fatal. Somebody wanted the poor fellow dead."

"We got that part, Duck," Gibbs called out from the other side of the room. "What else is in there?"

"He didn't die in Paris," Ducky told them.

"Cannes?" Jenny asked, mildly surprised by the new information.

"No, Carcassonne," Ducky replied.

"What the hell was he doing in Carcassonne?" Gibbs questioned, finally standing up from his seat in the corner and walking over to join the other two.

"Well, I couldn't tell you that, Jethro," Ducky pointed out as if it were obvious. "But I can tell you that there are several witness reports but even more unanswered questions."

"What do you mean?" Jenny questioned.

"Either the local police in Carcassonne are trained very poorly for this type of homicide, or they were coached into what information they had to receive. These statements are utterly meaningless, my dear. The officers did not ask the right questions and there was no follow up interviews by the DCPJ."

"So we re-interview them," Jenny concluded, pulling out her laptop and connecting to the internet.

"Carcassonne is several hours away," Gibbs pointed out, sceptical of her new plan.

"Do we drive?" Jenny asked, ignoring his comment.

"The Eurostar train will be much quicker, my dear," Ducky told her. "To Narbonne. We can hire a car from there to Carcassonne."

"Great, the train leaves at eleven o'clock," Jenny announced, reading off the schedule. "That gives us approximately one hour."

---

9 August 2000

Lac de Cavayère, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

4.39 p.m. (1539 GMT)

Gibbs was still growling about the size of the car he was driving as they arrived just south of the city of Carcassonne. Jenny, who had the credit card and untraceable alias, had to hire the Renault Clio III for them, which she did while Gibbs and Ducky were in a convenience store buying a road map of the Languedoc-Roussillon area. She didn't know what possessed her to rent the little blue car while they were in Narbonne. Perhaps it was just for the sheer enjoyment and satisfaction of annoying her former lover and mentor, but she was starting to regret it. With Ducky in the back seat, she was, once again, far too close to Gibbs for her to handle.

The Englishman had fallen asleep some time ago, letting the gentle movement of the car take him away to clouds of his dreams, while Jenny and Gibbs sat in awkward silence. Both wanted to strike up a conversation, but couldn't think of anything worthy to discuss. They'd gone over the case file during the four and a half hour train trip from Paris. They could start fighting again, but they'd probably wake Ducky up and that meant having to listen to another rendition of European train travel through history. So they resigned to the silence, eventually arriving at the cafe restaurant of their first witness, Pierre Duvonne.

Gibbs woke Ducky up while Jenny went inside to question Duvonne. She did speak better French after all. Ducky stretched widely as he overlooked the medieval town of Carcasonne.

"You know, Jethro," Ducky began in his signature reminiscent tone. "The fortress village of Carcassonne was built by the Roman Empire about a century before the birth of Christ, but its original inhabitants can be dated back almost 3500 years earlier. It became a stronghold for Occitan Cathars escaping persecution by the Catholic Church during the Albigensian Crusades. It actually became a border citadel-"

Gibbs cut him off by raising his hand. "Duck, it's been a long day." He was saved from having to say anymore by Jenny's return to their tiny car.

"Jen, why did you hire this thing?" Gibbs questioned in a strained and tired voice. "Seriously, that's not a car, that's a lunchbox."

Ducky chuckled loudly, but Jenny was not amused.

"The waitress inside claims that Duvonne went for a walk along the lookout of the lake over there," she told them, nodding her head in the direction of the small body of water.

"Then let's go find him," Gibbs concluded, locking up the car and making sure that his Sig was secure behind his back.

Jenny and Ducky followed close behind him as he trampled through the wind towards a group of people standing by the side o the road, overlooking the water.

"Pierre Duvonne?" Gibbs called out into the group.

"Oui. Yes," Duvonne answered. Gibbs kept walking towards him, only stopping when he recognised the men he was with as DCPJ officers. He, Jenny and Ducky then decided to back away slowly, but not before their heels were trampled by an onset of local officers pushing them in the opposite direction.

"Where are you from, Americans?" one beefy DCPJ officer asked in a thick accent. "Passports?!"

A million things were running through their minds. They weren't prepared for this. Gibbs was right, Jenny thought, it was a trap. The only thing going through Gibbs' mind was run. Ducky had the case file and the local officers seemed to congregate around him.

"Run," Gibbs whispered in a low but urgent voice to the other two. And they didn't need telling twice. Jenny quickly stepped around the two cops that moved to grab her, tripping one of them over on the road. Gibbs had no problem bowling through the group and managed to reach their little Renault first. He unlocked the doors and hopped into the driver's seat. The engine roared at the policemen as they came towards the car. Ducky looked like he was in the most trouble. An officer lunged at him. He moved quickly to get out of the way, but at the same time, shoved the man towards the water.

The police officer had no balance. He fell over the cliff and took an eighteen foot dive into the pleasantly cool lake water below. Every single person there stopped and looked at him. Ducky and Jenny used this to their advantage, reacting faster and slipping into the car before they could surround it. Gibbs sped off as soon as the door was closed. The air was whistling through the open window as Gibbs pushed the car to do 110 mph. The police cars behind them were rushing up fast with their sirens blaring.

"They're gaining on us!" Jenny shouted at Gibbs anxiously.

He didn't reply, but swerved into another street at the last minute, throwing most of the cars off their route. It was then that Jenny really regretted her choice in automobile. The little blue car could not handle the intensity of a Gibbs car chase.

So some more action up next chapter. Just how do they escape the cops. And a bit more Jibbs for good measure.

Please review.