Caffeine Jolt

Author: MissJayne

Rating: K

Jennifer Shepard smiled to herself as she walked down the stairs into the squad room. Below her, she could see Agent Gibbs' team scurrying around as though the great man himself was going to turn up at any second.

She knew the feeling. When she had been his partner, she had learnt to anticipate his arrivals out of thin air, usually at the worst possible time for her. He knew everything that occurred, and she was able to sympathize with Tony, Ziva and McGee.

But today they seemed more on edge than usual. Tony was actually working for once. Across from him, Ziva was yelling at someone in Hebrew on the phone while toying with a paperclip and glaring at her partner. McGee was jumping at every loud sound, while his fingers flew across his keyboard. And Gibbs was nowhere to be seen, his empty desk still capable of scaring his agents.

Clutching her coffee, she came around the partition so that they noticed her arrival.

"Where's Agent Gibbs?" she asked.

Tony glanced up from his work. "Probably terrifying Abby. We need to get this case closed fast."

Jenny was surprised. Jethro normally let his favorite get away with anything. And from what she had heard about their current case, it wasn't anything urgent. "What did Abby do?" she wondered aloud.

"Abby did nothing," Ziva growled, slamming the phone down. "This is all Tony's fault."

"How is this my fault?" he protested instantly. "I only spilt his coffee."

Ziva's eyes narrowed, and Jenny took a step out of the way when she saw the assassin's grip tighten on the paperclip. "Gibbs is in dire need for a caffeine fix," she pointed out. "So we have to suffer."

Jenny smiled reassuringly at Tony, trying to break up the impending fight before it began. "It could worse," she admitted.

"How?" Tony demanded.

"On my second day with Gibbs, I got his coffee order wrong," she recalled. "Ended up giving him decaf."

Tony laughed. "How are you still alive?" he grinned.

She didn't answer, having spotted Jethro stalking towards them from the direction of the back elevators. The murderous expression on his face scared her, but she forced herself to stand her ground. She was the Director after all, and Directors were supposed to be made of sterner stuff.

He glared at her as he spotted her with his team. "Come to interfere with my case, Madame Director?" he barked.

She smiled sweetly at him and handed over her coffee. "Drink that," she ordered. "I need to see you in my office when you've got a minute."

Before he could reply, she left. Making a mental note to send Cynthia out for some more coffee, she heard him shouting orders at his team as she entered her office.

NCISNCISNCIS

Leroy Jethro Gibbs stormed up the stairs to the Director's office. He wasn't really fuming, but he wanted to scare Tony for a little longer. His senior field agent should have known better than to spill his coffee.

But Jen had given him her own. It puzzled him. She was as addicted to caffeine as he was, and that cup had been almost full. So why had she relinquished it?

Now he thought about it, she had been doing a lot of little things for him recently. She had dragged him away his desk some nights, long after everyone else had gone home, and made sure he ate something. She had been slipping him information that had helped his cases. She had been watching him more often from the catwalk. She had been there for him when their last case had involved a dead eight year old girl.

He entered her outer office, Cynthia's domain. Today, Jenny's assistant was nowhere to be seen. Thankful that no one was going to roll her eyes at him, he flung open Jenny's door.

As expected, she was sitting behind her desk and seemed unsurprised at his sudden arrival. He supposed she was getting used to his antics and decided to be more unpredictable next time. He did love keeping her on her toes.

"Agent Gibbs," she greeted him, closing the file in front of her and removing her glasses.

He chose to remain standing. "Something you wanted to tell me?" he asked.

She nodded her head slightly, standing up so that she was more at his level. "Fornell called me a short while ago, wanted to give you a heads-up that Diane is heading in this direction."

"He could have called me," he growled, more amused that Tobias had warned Jenny to stay out of the way. He suspected she would be locking herself into MTAC very soon.

"Your cell phone has been switched off and you weren't at your desk," she pointed out with a slight grin. "I didn't tell you in the squad room so you don't have to put up with Tony's comments about train wrecks."

"Duly noted," he replied, heading towards the door. But he stopped with his hand on the handle. "There a reason you handed over your coffee?"

"You looked like you needed it more than me," she answered.

"And the dinners and the information…" He let it hang.

"What do you want me to say? That I still love you…" She froze as she realized her slip.

He locked the door before moving over to her side. "Care to repeat that?" he asked.

She looked down for a moment. Then she let her gaze met his eyes. "I still love you," she repeated. He nodded softly. "I think we can something about that."

THE END