The next morning Jenny stopped midway down the stairs to look down at the office. While the atmosphere wasn't as oppressively silent as the previous evening, it was still loaded with shock and grief.
Team Gibbs was back at work. They had all been in before Jenny returned after catching some hours of rest at home and she took a moment to observe them. They were all in the central area of the bullpen, even the unofficial members Ducky and Abby, who were sitting behind Jethro's desk.
The ME was reading a thick file, perhaps the reports of the autopsies done in San Diego, while Abby was slumped over the desk, her arms surrounding something. Jethro's reading glasses, which, as usual, he had left behind when he had hurried to catch the plane to LA.
Tony was pacing and talking to himself as if he was pondering something. Jenny noticed that while he had stepped quickly in his role of team leader, this time there were no signs he was trying to imitate Gibbs. There were no coffee cups on his desk and no polo shirts and jackets on his shoulders.
McGee was typing, apparently calm, but he was biting his lower lip as he worked, and he stuttered when he replied to something Tony said.
As for Ziva, after studying her for a few minutes, Jenny couldn't help but feel worried for her. She looked emotionless, her eyes lifeless, her tone completely flat when she talked with the others.
Jenny could see Ziva kept looking at her left hand and touching the thin, onyx band she wore on her middle finger. Ziva had started wearing it the previous autumn, but no one knew if it was just a piece of jewellery or if it had a meaning or if someone gave it to her, no matter how many times Tony had tried to discover it.
Then suddenly Ziva stood up, pushed back the chair and burst from the desk toward the bathroom, her face pale.
"Ziva!" Ducky exclaimed rising to his feet and following her with his concerned gaze.
"Stay there, Ducky," Jenny called, coming down the stairs. "I'll go to see her."
Ducky nodded and sat down as Jenny crossed the bullpen. When she entered the women bathroom she was welcome by the sound of retching.
Ziva hadn't bothered to close the stall door, so Jenny had no trouble in finding her and wrapping the younger woman into her arms as her friend knelt on the floor and started weeping uncontrollably.
Her sobs weren't those of someone who had lost their beloved mentor. They were the cry of pain of someone who had lost their reason to live and weren't sure how they could go on living. It was then that Jenny suddenly realized Ziva had loved Jethro as much more than a friend and a boss with whom she had much in common.
The door of the bathroom opened, followed by approaching steps and then Tony's concerned face peeked into the stall.
Jenny meet his eyes, and motioned him to say nothing and go away. She knew Ziva would hate to have been seen in that condition. Tony just nodded before walking away, as Jenny kept on offering her silent support to Ziva.
After a while Ziva calmed down and her sobs were replaced by sniffles, and then silence. She shifted her position, loosening Jenny's embrace, and looked around them, probably realizing only in that moment they were sitting on the floor of a bathroom stall.
"Director, I-"
"Shh, Ziva, there is no need to say anything- and don't you dare to apologize or feel bad because you are human," Jenny soothed, squeezing her shoulder gently. "We all broke down after we got the news. Some of us did it in private, some of us did it in public, but we all cried. There is no shame in it."
Ziva's eyes filled again with tears. "I've never felt like this," she whispered, "not even after Tali or Ari died. It hurts so much."
"You loved him, don't you?" Jenny asked softly, although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
Ziva just nodded and looked down at her ring.
"Jethro gave it to you?"
"Yes."
"For your anniversary?" Jenny tried.
"Yes. We got together after he returned from Mexico," Ziva sniffled, but a small smile appeared on her lips. "He got rid of those awful moustaches because I told him I would never kiss him with that fur on his face."
Jenny nodded, happy Ziva had found the strength to open up a little. She knew people need to express a grief as deep as the one Ziva was feeling. It cannot be contained forever, sooner or later it needs to be released or it eats you from inside and pushes you to commit something foolish.
Silence fell on the two women. Jenny wasn't surprised to discover she wasn't jealous of Ziva. She had always known she and Jethro would never been together again--trust, like a piece of glass cannot be repaired when it's broken- and Ziva was a wonderful person. She was happy Jethro had known love again in the last years of his life, he had deserved it after everything he had suffered.
As for Ziva, she would have learn to live with pain, but in time she would realize the grief of losing Jethro wouldn't make her forget the joy of having him. And maybe, if God was merciful, she would discover her bout of nausea hadn't been caused by the grief she had kept bottled inside her, but by a new life growing inside her and that would help her to fill the void left by Jethro's death.
Ziva moved again. "I must return to my desk now," she said, her voice stronger. "I have a job to do."
"Yes, you have," Jenny replied, letting her go.
They stood up, washed the tears away from their cheeks and returned to the bullpen, side by side.
Jenny was about to open her mouth to ask for a sit-rep when Ducky stood up from Jethro's desk and approached her.
"Yes, Ducky?" she enquired, seeing he wanted to ask her something.
"Director, when do you think the San Diego's office will send us the report of Jethro's autopsy?"
Jenny frowned. "Is not it arrived yet?"
"No, they just sent those of the four shooters," Ducky answered.
"I'll talk to Vance about it, it's all right?"
"Yes, it is. Thank you, Jennifer."
Jenny looked as he returned to sit near Abby, then turned to Tony.
"Anything new to report?"
"Dulles finally sent us the tapes with security footage, Director. McGee is working on them now," Tony answered.
"Let's see them," Jenny said indicating the plasma screen.
"The first three clips show Viggo Drantyev walking through the terminal, passing baggage claim," McGee explained as the images appeared on the screen.
"Pros usually travel light," Tony commented.
"This second footage show him as he exits," McGee went on with his commentary and Jenny pressed her lips in irritation and disappointment, because there was nothing useful in those images. "This last piece is from outside. That is Viggo coming through the door, right there…"
Jenny brightened up because on the screen she saw Viggo direct toward a parked car.
"Cab number and plate, McGee?" she asked.
"On it."
The PC program zoomed on the car plate until the numbers were readable.
"Good," Jenny said, hoping they would finally have something on which they could work on.
The tape began to run again, showing Viggo boarding the car, and then another person exited from the airport and walk toward the car.
Jenny's heart began beating faster as she cried, "Wait!"
McGee froze the tape as Ziva, who was standing at Jenny's side, commented, "Professionals do not share cabs."
"Viggo wasn't travelling alone," Ducky commented as he too joined the group in front of the screen.
"Run it back," Jenny ordered and McGee obeyed.
"McGee, pull up the photos from the funeral!" Abby's voice chirped in.
A photo featuring the profile of a blond woman appeared on the screen. McGee enlarged a screen shot of the woman's face from the security tape and pulled it up near the other.
"That could be the same woman!" Abby exclaimed, but Jenny barely registered what she said.
Because there, in front of her eyes, had appeared the confirmation that she, Jennifer Shepard, was indeed the responsible of Leroy Jethro Gibbs' death.
She would have recognized that face everywhere, even after ten years.
Svetlana Chernitskaya. Her target in Paris-her target now.
Putting on her best poker face, Jenny raised her voice to be heard atop the conversation going on around her.
"Tony!"
"Yes Boss!"
"I need to go; I've to meet the SecNav and I'm already late. I'm not sure how long the meeting will last, but on my return I want to know that woman's identity." She pointed to the screen. "Is that clear?"
"Yes, Director."
She started to walk away then turned around, "And McGee, I need to know what that code means! Ask them for suggestions if you don't have any ideas!"
"Yes, Director."
Jenny nodded, then resumed her walk toward the elevator. She should have given them enough tasks to keep them busy and she also hoped that, by the time they discovered she had never met the SecNav because there was no meeting scheduled, everything would be over.
As Jethro before her, she didn't want to involve the team in this. Whatever the outcome, it was going to be a mess, and she didn't want to drag them down with her.
As it was, Jenny had an idea to find Svetlana Chernitskaya-and she put it in practice at once by going down in the lab and rummaging between the evidence bags until she found what she was looking for: Viggo Drantyev's cell phone. Jenny put it on her pocket, returned to the elevator and pushed the garage level button. She had always thought she would be able to leave the NCIS building undetected if she wanted to-now was time to see if she had been right.
-----
Entering inside Jethro's house had been easy, even if he had locked it before leaving for LA.
She had chosen to go there because her own house would be the first place where the team would look once they realized what she had done.
Now, sitting at the table of Jethro's scarcely furnished living room, Jenny waited, her eyes fixed on Drantyev's blood stained cell phone, as she willed it to ring-and when it finally did, she was ready.
Jenny didn't hesitate to open the cell phone and say, "Hello."
"Who is this?" a heavily accented, feminine voice answered
"Does it matter? I've got what you want."
"Where's Viggo?"
"Dead. I need you to come see me."
"Who is this?!" the woman asked again.
"Mr Oshimaida," Jenny answered calmly, but her heart was beating fast as she threw her bait.
"I though it was a man. Decker-"
"Decker is dead, but I'm still alive," Jenny said brusquely, "if you want to meet me, this is my address." She gave the address of Jethro's house and then cut off the communication.
So far, so good- but would Svetlana take the bait or would she disappear again?
There was only a way to know it: wait.
And wait Jenny did.