Three days later Gibbs was sitting at his desk when a shadow fell across it.
"Annie" he said, rising from his seat and coming across to embrace her.
"Hello Jethro" she said. "I've just been in to see the Director, but before I left I wanted to thank you. For being discreet. For being such a good friend to Will. And for not judging him."
She smiled sadly at him.
"Buy you a cup o'coffee?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders and leading her to the elevators.
A few minutes later they were siting in a coffee shop.
"There's something on your mind, Annie" Gibbs stated after the fourth prolonged silence.
She laughed nervously.
"I feel so stupid talking to you about this, Jethro – especially when I know how tight you and Will were when you were in the Corps. But ... it's ... hard for me."
A tear trickled down her cheek, and Gibbs felt his heart constrict at the sight of it.
"I know he can't help it – and I know he needs help. I know he's not emotionally invested in any of the women he's been involved with, and I know that he loves me. But I ... just can't ..."
She shook her head as Gibbs reached out to hold her hand, and he pulled it away.
"I've reached the stage where I'm jealous of every female he comes into contact with now. Even if I know there can't possibly be anything between them because the situation precludes it."
She looked up to find Gibbs looking at her in confusion, and she laughed a small, wry laugh.
"It doesn't matter Jethro" she said, getting up from her seat; batting his hand away when he tried to pick up the tab. "It's just really hard sometimes."
They walked out into the sunshine together and he pulled her to him.
This time there was no resistance.
"Feeling better?" he asked after she'd had a good long cry on his shoulder.
She nodded, and then touched his elbow.
"I need to ask you a question and I need you to give me an honest answer – no matter what that is. I know your loyalty is to the Marine Corps and to NCIS, but ... I need to know."
"Know what, Annie?"
"Do you think it's possible that ..." she looked away, embarassed, for a second and then came right out with it. "Do you think it's possible that he slept with Jenny while he was down in Arizona?"
For a second Gibbs' blood ran cold.
"I mean I know she was assigned to protect him, and she's been wonderfully supportive. But Jethro she's so beautiful. A man would have to be made of marble not to react to that kind of ..."
"She was what?" Gibbs said.
"Who? Jenny? Don't you know Jenny? From the San Diego office. Jenny Shepard. She was asssigned to protect Will. I thought you knew that. Didn't you meet her in Arizona? I was told she would be watching over him 24/7. Jethro? Jethro ..."
But Jethro was gone – and he didn't stop walking till he stormed Morrow's office.
"You sent me to investigate a case that was already being investigated" he fumed. "Why wasn't I told that Jenny Shepard works for NCIS?
"It was need to know, Jetthro, and you didn't need to know."
"Like hell I didn't."
Morrow sat back in his chair and looked at him hard and long. Before beginning to laugh. A ripe belly laugh that echoed round the room.
"She got to you too, didn't she?" he said, chuckling. "She is the savviest and possibly the best goddamn-looking female agent we've got Jethro. I've been reading the report. She took you all for a ride and continued to do her job. And you fell for it, all of you. Hook, line, and sinker."
"And what was her job, exactly?"
"Protect Will's ass. Keep him out of trouble. Make sure he was still worthy to be Director of this joint."
Gibbs was about to retort when the Director's intercom buzzed.
"The Director of the FBI is online in MTAC, Sir" his secretary said. "There's been a development"
"On my way, Mary Ellen" Morrow said. He spared Gibbs a look on his way out. "Maybe you should hook up with her sometime" he said, his eyes twinkling. "Unless you have rules about that kind of thing too."
Gibbs stood in the Director's office for a few minutes – trying to get his head around the last half an hour. In that space of time everything he'd spent the past four days thinking about had gone to the dogs. He couldn't decide whether he felt pissed or just damn foolish.
"Boss ..." Tony called as he passed by. He held out a phone receiver. "It's Fornell."
Gibbs gave a dismissal signal and kept walking. Tony spoke into the phone for a moment longer, and then slammed it down and ran after him. He caught up with him just as the elevator doors were sliding closed – but Gibbs just stared at him as they did, making no move to let him in.
His cell phone began to ring immediately. He ignored that too.
He wanted a few minutes away from everything to get this thoughts in order, but the only thing he could think about was Jennifer Shepard. And the problem was he didn't know what to think. He didn't know whether to be glad she hadn't really been a patient; he didn't know whether he should call her up and give her a piece of his mind; he didn't know whether he should let it go. He had a hard time admitting to himself that in spite of everything he knew he should be doing, he just wanted to drop everything and seek her out. Force her to make good on her promises and teach him a few things. It was conflict, pure and simple – and Morrow had been right. She'd taken him for a ride to the extent that he'd believed everything about the persona she'd projected - right down to the nitty gritty details. And he'd built his fantasies around that. Around something which didn't exist. For a moment he experienced a sense of loss and betrayal so great that he wasn't sure how to cope with, and the urge to hit something became just a little bit more pronounced.
His phone rang again, and this time he didn't even bother to look at the caller ID. Whatever it was could wait till he'd had another coffee. He'd be more bearable then anyway, he told himself.
He was sipping a steaming cup of coffee when the doors to the coffee shop swung open and two agents stepped up to him.
They flashed their badges.
"Come with us please, Agent Gibbs" they said, as he looked at them in what might have passed as amusement.
Gibbs looked beyond them into the eyes of Fornell.
"Tobias .." he said slowly.
Fornell took a deep breath.
"We need to get you out of here" he replied. "I'll explain in the car."
Gibbs took another look at him and nodded.
"Boss ..." Tony got to his feet as soon as he saw Gibbs and Fornell walk towards him in the bullpen. When he saw Ron Sachs behind them he flared his nostrils. "Some days this job really sucks" he said, loud enough for them to hear.
Gibbs paused en route to the staircase.
"Yeah? Well it's about to get worse. MTAC. All of you."
The team rose as one and followed him up the stairs.
"Is this the team in question?"
"Yes ma'am" Morrow said, shooting Gibbs a look that he couldn't decipher.
"Agent Gibbs. Why does this not surprise me?"
Gibbs shifted uncomfortably in the presence of the Deputy Secretary of State, but kept his eyes on her.
"The FBI has invested two years in this case" she began. "NCIS has invested over six months. You managed to put a stop to all of that in the space of twenty-four hours. And now I am to understand that not only do we have two of our best federal agents missing, we also have to place you in protective custody."
Gibbs let her ire wash over him for a few seconds.
"Is my team under investigation?" he wanted to know when he spoke again.
"No. There is no doubt that they were acting pursuant to your orders, Agent Gibbs. If the need arises, places will be found for them within the manhunt relevant to their strengths. You, on the other hand, will consider yourself in protective custody. You will be monitored for your own protection and you will confine your activities to NCIS headquarters. Do I make myself clear, Agent Gibbs?"
There was nothing warm about Anna Elliot's voice.
"Do I make myself clear?" she repeated when he didn't answer.
"Yes, ma'am" Gibbs said, his stare blank.
"And make no mistake, Agent Gibbs. Once we have recovered Agent Shepard there will be a full internal investigation into your conduct in this case. I am still not clear what you were doing out in Arizona in the first place – but rest assured I will find out."
Anna Eliot leaned forward in her seat as she saw Gibbs share a look with the Director. She angled her face slightly and sought out Morrow.
"Director Morrow ..." she started. And then she looked at Gibbs again. "You are dismissed, Agent Gibbs."
Gibbs turned on his heel and walked out of MTAC, his head pounding. Knowing in his gut that this was going to get ugly, and that he had not only compromised an operation of longstanding, but that something that was supposed to be kept personal was about to be blasted wide open.
Fornell was waiting outside.
"I'm sorry to have to do this Jethro" he said as he attached a bracelet to his wrist. "It's for your own protection."
"I need you to keep me in the loop, Tobias."
"Want some advice? Stay out of the way. They're gonna need someone to blame if this goes down the tubes. Don't make this easy for them."
Gibbs shrugged.
"What's going on Boss?" McGee asked – unable to make head or tails of what had just happened.
"Tell them, Tobias" Gibbs said.
"For the past six months there has been a joint operation between our agencies. Your Agent Shepard and our Agent Krieger have been in Scottsdale for - "
"Agent Shepard?" Tony gasped. "As in .. Jenny Shepard from the .."
Gibbs looked at him with something in his eyes that Tony could only qualify as worry. It stunned him into silence.
"Agent Krieger" Fornell carried on "missed her check in this morning. NCIS have yet to make contact with Agent Shepard. Her check in isn't due for another five hours. But .. about half an hour ago we picked up chatter that indicates that a hit has been taken out on Agent Gibbs."
"Gibbs?"
Ziva looked at him with concern that she didn't bother to hide.
Gibbs ran a hand over his face. He looked like he'd aged ten years.
"I blew their cover in that club."
The hours passed agonisingly slowly as the agency waited for Jenny Shepard's check in time to roll around. When it did and there was no contact, the shifting of gears was seamless and immediate.
The search was on.
McGee's desk phone rang. A phonecall from autopsy that went dead as soon as he picked up the receiver. He looked around him. The bullpen was quiet apart from the agents milling around.
He took the elevator downstairs.
"Boss?" he called as he entered the dark room.
Gibbs switched on the small lamp on Ducky's desk. He sat there nursing a glass of something strong.
"McGee ... do you remember the number or any part thereof on that brown paper bag in Scottsdale?" he asked, cutting to the chase.
"The one you told me to trash?"
Gibbs nodded, and McGee shook his head – immediately realising what it was Gibbs wanted it for.
"I can can hack into the system and see how the powers that be are trying to contact Agent Shepard" he said.
"If they catch you your career is over. And there'll be nothing I can do to stop that."
"I'll have to make sure I don't get caught then" McGee said.
Gibbs smiled and switched the light off again - but McGee didn't move.
"Why aren't you helping with the manhunt, Boss? Tony's liasing with the Scottsdale PD, and Ziva's working with her contacts in Interpol to see what they can find out. I'm working with the FBI to find out who took out the hit on you, but that shouldn't .."
"I'm under investigation, McGee" said Gibbs slowly as he raised the glass to his lips in the darkness. "Pretty much under house arrest."
McGee switched the light on again.
"Did they ask you to turn in your badge?"
"That will depend" Gibbs said.
"On what?"
"On whether Agents Shepard and Krieger are found alive."
He took another long swallow and switched off the light again.
This time McGee left.
He headed straight for Abby's lab.
"We need to hack into the system" he said, pointing at the ceiling.
"We can't Tim – not from here" she said. "They've already been crawling all over my stuff. There are protocols in place to ensure I can't do anything like that again while this investigation is running."
"We have to help find her" McGee said. "They're going to make Gibbs turn his badge if we don't."
"Do what you need to do from a place that can't be traced back to you. Or to us" Abby said, covering his hand with her own.
"I have a friend who works across the street at Cybercrimes."
She turned and gave him a bearhug.
"I'm scared McGee. What if they crucify Gibbs?"
"Not gonna happen Abby" McGee said in his best Gibbs voice.
She gave him a small smile, and then pushed him towards the door.
"Go" she said. "And be careful."
Some twenty minutes later McGee was ensconced in a cubicle across the street, watching cyberactivity in his own building.
All indications were that the cell phone Jenny Shepard had been assigned was switched off. All attempts to trace the phone and her were turning out to be fruitless. McGee reached into his pockets to look for a pen to write down the number for Gibbs. The fingers of his right hand grazed something rough – and then he remembered. He hadn't trashed the piece of paper with Jenny's number on it; he'd stuffed it into his pocket meaning to get rid of it later - and promptly forgotten all about it.
He drew the paper out and looked at the number scrawled on it. And did a double take.
It was a different number. Which made sense when he thought about it. It stood to reason that Jenny hadn't given Gibbs her undercover op phone number.
Not quite sure what course of action Gibbs would want to pursue, he made his way back to HQ quickly.
Gibbs was still sitting in the dark with his drink. He listened to what McGee had to say and sat up a little straighter.
"We have only one shot at this – and it's a long one. You're going to have to put yourself on the line, McGee."
"What do you want me to do?" McGee asked – his unfailing sense of loyalty winning out over his instinct for self-preservation.
"Go back wherever you were. Find her, McGee. And then get a message to this man at this number. When he calls you back apprise him of the situation and give him her location. He'll take it from there."
McGee looked at the piece of paper.
"Who's Mike Franks?" he asked.
