Disclaimer – NCIs is note mine

Authors note – sorry I have not replied to your amazing reviews, I usually do that in my free elssons but being on holiday I have not had chance to get around to it as I have too much revision to be doing. Anyway, thanks to you all, you're amazing! I really mean that so thank you.

Sorry for the delay, I've been a bit stuck but I hope that you like this.

Also please go and read 'Obviously Perhaps' that I took over from left my heart in Paris. The next chapter has been sent off to her and should be up soon. It's on her profile and she set the whole thing out, it's a great story line which I take no credit for.

Anyway, here it is, the one you all wanted. So enjoy . . .

Harder to Shine

Chapter 7

The week passed Jethro by in almost a blur. The case came and went and by Friday afternoon there was nothing for them to be working on except cold case files which everyone seemed to completely 'forget' about. The team had the weekend off so they were all in good spirits as the end of the day drew nearer, Tim and Abby were chatting away by messenger whilst Tony and Ziva were discussing which bar they would be going to that night. Every time they had a weekend where they were not on call, Tim, Abby, Tony and Ziva would go out for drinks at a bar on the Friday night. The thing that amused Jethro was that every single time Tony would start a discussion with one of the others as to which bar they should go to. Yet each time they would end up at the same little place just outside of the Navy yard. From time to time Gibbs and Ducky would join them, but they all knew how Gibbs was a lone wolf, so no one got offended when he didn't go.

Tonight was one of the nights he would not be going. He had booked himself a flight down to Rhode Island and was going to spend the weekend with Jenny. He didn't know what to expect. But what he had promised himself was that the thing he would not do was force anything on her. Her marriage had only just broken down and he knew that she was not the kind of woman who would jump into anything. Gibbs knew that he'd be in the spare room, especially when he had heard the regret in her voice. HE knew she felt guilty about what had happened, whilst most women would instantly drop their husbands, something told him Jenny wouldn't.

Looking at his watch he saw that it was half five. "Go home, have a good weekend." HE said as he placed his glasses onto his nose and carried on looking at the file in front of him. There was a chorus of 'bye boss' before they left. Usually on a Friday Gibbs would stay at work for hours and hours before he left. Tonight though, things were different. HE stood up, put on his Jacket and pulled out his bag from under the desk. It was time to go and see Jenny, so with bag in hand he left the building and headed off to the airport.

For Jenny the week seemed to have dragged. Every other hour she had had Richard or his PR man ringing her. Every time she had ignored them, sick and tired of them both and their lies. Jenny's kitchen was filled to the brim with baking, some of it was not the best, but other parts had worked out well. The spare room had been cleaned and had fresh bedding on it for Jethro. IT was not that she didn't trust him enough to sleep in the same bed, but it was simply that she was still married and Jenny was not sure that she fully trusted herself.

So with the house ready and dressed in a pair of boyfriend cut jeans and a white three quarter sleeved t-shirt with a scoop neck she was ready for her guest. There was a smile on her make-up free face. She knew that Jethro was not like Richard in the way that he was not obsessive over her appearance. He liked her for who she was, not whether she had her fringe up or down. Hearing the buzz of her phone alerting her with an e-mail she picked it up and sat down on the sofa. When she saw it was from Richard she nearly put the phone back down, but then she decided to open it and see what he had to say for himself.

You're annoyed and you have every right to be.

The press conference is on Monday at 2pm outside of the white house.

Please be there, and wear one of the dresses I bought you.

-Richard

"Jerk!" She said and chucked the phone across the ground and onto the wooden floor. She really didn't care what happened to it. She lay back on the sofa and groaned. She didn't know why it was her that felt responsible for this whole mess. She had done nothing wrong, yet it was her that ran away, not him. She walked over to her IPod dock and flicked through the songs, so much of it was stuff she had because Richard liked it and not because she did. Decided she was sick of the life she had she picked it up and grabbed the cable, plugged it into her laptop and downloaded a truck load of new music. Things she had liked when she had been a child, a teenager. The things she had danced to with Jethro in Paris, and then she found her wedding song. The song that she and Richard had danced to. She sat there, curser hovering over the play button. "How did I end up like this?" She said to herself. She moved to delete it, but something stopped her. Maybe it was the realisation that she once must have felt something for the man or that he was still her husband.

She didn't delete it, not because she didn't want to but because it didn't feel right to. No matter what had happened she had still married him, he was still a part of her past life. So she left it and synced all the new music. Once it was done she pulled it out and put the computer to sleep. When she plugged it in and gentle beet of 'Five for fighting' started to play through the room she smiled.

With the patio door open she watched at the place of the sun in the sky moved, as it went from high in the sky to nearer and nearer the line of the horizon. A nock at the door made her smile, and she almost had to stop herself from running over. Subconsciously she ran a hand through her hair and opened the door to see Jethro stood there. She smiled and opened the door wider. Once he had stepped inside she smiled. "Hey." He said in his usual gruff voice.

"Hey." She replied. "Thank you, for coming down."

"What are friends for?" He stated. That made her smile, that after all the water they had passed under the bridge between them, e would still call her a friend, and he would still trust her enough to stand by her.

"Come here." He said, with a small smile. She walked over and he hugged her. Jen instantly relaxed as she became wrapped in his embrace. His arms were strong and his body warm and comforting. He softly placed a kiss on her forehead and it made Jen smile. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat. She realised then how she had locked herself away for the world this last week when in fact she had needed to be hugged. Letting her emotions get the better of her for a moment with the one person she knew she could trust she let slow and silent tears fall from her eyes. Jen didn't try to disguise them when he pulled away and looked down at her. With his callused thumb he wiped the away from her. "Hey, you will get through this, and I'm here beside of you, no matter what. Understand?"

She just nodded and let him place another kiss on her forehead, wishing so much that she wasn't an honest woman so could capture those lips with her own once again. Wishing that she could kiss him with all the love she had buried deep down and tried not to let surface for the past decade. "So, where is all of this food I've been hearing about?" He asked with a smile. "Or did it burn down?" He asked, she laughed for what felt like the first time in weeks and playfully slapped him on the shoulder.

"I'll get something heated up; you go put your stuff away. You're in the spare room, second door on the left." She said, yet he watched as she was about to say something.

"The spare room is fine Jenny. You're married, and I would never disrespect that, not unless you wanted to?" He winked at her so she knew he was joking. Then he picked up his bag and went up the stair. Smiling still Jenny walked into the kitchen where she heated up two bowls of homemade soup and buttered two bread rolls she had baked earlier, warming them through too. Walking out onto the deck she placed the bottle of bourbon and two glasses onto the table along with two soup spoons. Momentarily she debated lighting a candle but decided that would make this like a date – which it was not.

She walked back into the kitchen and pulled out the food just as he came down the stairs. "Out of a can does not count Jenny!" He said as he took the two bowls and she took the bread.

"I'll have you know that I made this from scratch, and the bread."

"Yeah right." He said as he sat down.

"Fine then, don't believe me!" She replied. She looked at him in the dusk, the sound of the music still audible from the deck. He'd changed into jeans and a red hoodie. Why do I still want to kiss him? I'm still married! She asked herself. But it was true. She still had strong feelings for the man who was sat beside her, yet it was her marriage that in that moment stood between them, and even if it didn't she knew she'd hurt him too much to ever get him to trust her enough to take things past being friends again.

Jethro sat there; both of them quiet, and took the moment to look at the woman beside of him. She was thinner than she had been years ago when they'd been together. Yet he saw that the bags under her eyes and grown less noticeable over the past week. She sat free of makeup and he was not sure if he could see a rosiness on her cheeks that had not been there previously. Right then, sat on a deck by the see as dusk approached he couldn't stop himself from thinking that she had never looked more beautiful that she did then.

She put her bowl down after him. He listened to the music change until it was a slow song that he recognised came on. As the first few bars of Jon McLauglin's Beautiful Disaster filled the air he stood up and held out his hand. "What are you doing?" She asked him with a signature smirk on her face.

"Dance with me?" HE asked her.

"Are you serious?"

"Come one Jen." She stood up with a smile on her face and he placed his arms around her waist with hers on his shoulders. Jethro's version of dancing was just swaying to the music, but it worked for them and it made her smile. She rested her head against his chest and sighed. Both got lost in the music, listening as one song changed to another. But under the setting sun, wrapped in the others embrace they were happy and secure.

"Is it my fault?" She asked, still not looking up at him.

"No." Was all his replied. He had been in her position, been the one who got cheated on. But he'd never had to deal what the media knowing, never had to even contemplate how he would cope if the whole world seemed to have known before he did.

"Why'd he do it then?"

Jethro wanted to say it was because he wasn't smart enough to know what he had, or because he was a worthless piece of junk that didn't deserve to be alive. But he kept his mouth shut. Because in all honesty he didn't know, the man was still her husband and he was there as he guest. So he answered the only honest answer he truly could. "I don't know Jen, I honestly don't know." She looked up at him, with eyes showing just how much this had gotten her down.

"Should I divorce him?" She asked. Jenny knew she would not mention he press conference, it was something she needed to do for her, but something Jethro would not understand.

"I can't tell ya that Jen. You have to decide." She sighed and looked down.

"I know." She smiled a sad smile. "Why didn't I marry you Jethro? I'd never had had to deal with this."

"Because you are your own person Jen, you deserve better than me."

She leant up and kissed his cheek. "You, Leroy Jethro Gibb, are the best man I know." She smiled, took the plates inside and then returned to the door. "Good night Gibbs."

He turned to look at her. "Night Jen." With that she walked up the stair and head off up to bed. He walked down the beach and looked out to sea. He picked up a pebble and skimmed it across the water. He'd wanted to take her into his arms right there and then, kiss her until night had long fallen and day had risen. But he didn't. He'd spoken honestly when he said she deserved better than him, because in his mind she did. Jenny deserved better than Richard, better than him, better than any man he knew. But now he worried one thing. He worried that after all of this she'd never let herself fall in love again. HE worried that she would blame herself and that so she'd never give her heart away. That she'd never move on, never be happy.

With one last pebble he watched as the orange sky reflected into the water, and sighed, before making his way up the beach to his room. Hoping he could be the person Jenny needed who ever that may be.