Chapter Six
Jenny: Part Three
Jenny stared at the paperwork in front of her. "You're sure," she said quietly. It wasn't a question.
"Jen, you saw what they did!"
"Maybe just a vacation…? You need some time off after what you just went through. Being blown to kingdom come, in a coma—"
"I don't need a vacation. I don't need sick time. I need to be gone. Make it happen."
They were both silent for a long while, Jenny staring at Gibbs, Gibbs staring out the window on the opposite wall. But he hadn't been silent at the hospital.
Awake, he had stared at Jenny in confusion. "Who are you?" But his memory had been there, just under the surface, teasing him as he slept. The names were there…She sat by his bed as he slept, catching muttered words and phrases and piecing together a horrific crazy quilt nightmare.
"The Frog, Benoit, the Frog…" It took a while, but she finally figured out it was a codename for an arms dealer. Less pleasant was the discovery that she had thrown rules and regulations to the wind and chased after him in revenge—for what, she still wasn't clear. He mumbled a lot about Vance—other than Vance Hopkins in accounting, the only Vance she could think of was a Leon Vance, out in San Diego. It made sense—sort of—that "Vance isn't Vance" and he broke up Gibbs' team. Well, sense if she were no longer in the picture—he would be her likely successor. Gibbs' dreams weren't turning out very pleasantly for her.
And they got worse over the days. Murder, mayhem—a lot had to do with Ziva spiraling down a disastrous path that culminated in her hunting someone down and killing him in cold blood. Jenny knew Gibbs' daughter would have been in the same age range as Ziva and Abby, and she could see some paternal leanings in how he dealt with them. His thoughts were going down an ugly, dark track. Maybe, if he had time…
Sighing, she pulled a paper toward her and signed it. She could see him watching her from the corner of his eye, but he didn't say anything.
Good. It meant he hadn't caught what paper she signed…