A/N: Watched "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" solely to hear John Wayne state: 'Never say your sorry. It's a sign of weakness'. How fitting; as that line is in this chapter:)


It was a slow day at the Marine Recruitment office. Leroy Jethro Gibbs was perusing the new pamphlets the Corp had printed, deciding if he liked them or not. So far he had figured out they had not really changed much since he'd joined up.

It was hot in the office. The glass windows were letting the sun shine right in, and the weather was getting steadily warmer as DC moved towards summer. He didn't mind the heat generally, but it was a nuisance when he was constricted in uniform.

It was still early, almost eleven hundred. He'd dropped Levi off at Preschool this morning, listening to him chatter nonstop about a field trip to the zoo. Kelly had gone into NCIS early to do paperwork. At least that's what she told him. He didn't think paperwork was really important enough to do at five in the morning.

The annoying bell on the door jingled and Jethro looked up, expecting a teenager with baggy jeans or a backwards cap to walk in. It was actually quite the opposite. He leaned back in his chair and smiled lazily as Jenny Shepard waltzed in.

"Come to enlist?" he asked.

She laughed lightly.

"I wouldn't shoot the Marine Corp in the head," she teased, looking around the room. She grasped the back of a chair by the wall and swung it around, pulling it up to the desk. She straddled it, her arms resting loosely over the back.

He flicked his eyes over her appreciatively. She had khaki slacks on and a dark purple tank top. He assumed the rest of the outfit had been left somewhere else. Her hair was drawn back messily and her make-up was smeared from what looked like sweat.

"Hot, Jen?" he asked mildly.

"Why, Jethro, I'm flattered," she responded, cocking her eyebrow. She grinned and tapped the straw of the drink she was holding against her lips and he gave her a curious look.

"Casual Tuesday?" he guessed, gesturing at her unprofessional attire. She glanced down and quirked the corners of her lips up at herself, looking back up and shaking at her finger at him for looking.

"The air conditioning at NCIS died loudly and tragically early this morning," Jenny lamented, giving a solemn bow of her head. "I escaped the fiery inferno that it has now morphed into."

"Using what excuse?" he asked skeptically. She looked quite proud of herself and pointed at the plastic cup in her hand.

"I'm getting coffee." Miles away from the coffee shope five steps from NCIS.

He snorted, and looked suspiciously at the cup. She was drinking it through a straw. He gave her a look. You didn't drink coffee through a straw.

"I see you eyeing my coffee as if you are going to interrogate it," she noted, giving him an interested look. "Are you?"

He looked up at her.

"Doesn't look like coffee," he informed her.

"Since you asked so nicely, I'll introduce it," she said, with a slight roll of her eyes. "It is a Jamaican blend frappucino with two extra shots of espresso and hazelnut-vanilla syrup," she paused, noticed his blank expression, and revised her statement. "Iced coffee."

Jethro now felt very suspicious of this so-called 'coffee'.

"Iced…coffee…what?" he asked, glaring at her.

She bit down on the straw and took a sip, raising her eyebrows at him.

"It's possible that you spend too much time in your basement, Cowboy," she informed him, holding up the drink. "The Iced Coffee," she began formally, "is a novel creation of chilly magnitude. It makes coffee in the hottest of summer possible," she cut her eyes at him and smirked when she noticed his glare. "To use layman's terms, it's like a coffee smoothie."

He glared at her and she got up gracefully and sauntered around the desk he sat at, perching in front of him on the edge of it.

"You educate me on woodwork, I educate you on the newfangled invention that is frappucino," she quipped, tilting the straw towards him. "Taste."

"No," he refused sternly.

"It wasn't a request," she said, inching the drink towards him.

"Get that away from me, Jen."

She looked highly amused.

"It intrigues me that you're so frightened of the coffee—"

"I have rules about coffee!" he protested seriously.

She glared at him and hit him in the mouth with her straw. He clamped his lips shut and gave her the worst glare he could muster. She giggled, and the next thing he knew she was in his lap, her eyes inches from his, fluttering prettily.

"I'll make it up to you if you don't like it," she coaxed, tapping his lips.

He made a show of reluctantly taking a sip, grumbling. He made a face as he swallowed, shuddering.

"That is not coffee."

"No?"

"No," he said firmly. He glared at her. "You owe me."

"Hmm," she agreed, putting her hand on his cheek and tilting her lips towards his mouth. She kissed him and he extracted the cup from her fingers, setting it on the desk and resting his hand on her thigh.

Jenny bit her lip and gave him a mischievous look as she drew back, tilting her head at him. She ran her hand lightly down his chest, her fingers brushing against buttons and uniform ribbons. She flicked her eyes covertly towards the window and stood, letting her fingers ghost across his thighs.

"You have a customer, Marine," she said softly, close to his ear, and he looked over to see the door shutting slowly as a kid walked in looking a little hesitant.

Jethro cleared his throat and sat forward as Jenny straightened up, snatching her coffee thing back and wandering around the desk.

She gave the boy a fetching look and touched him under the chin.

"That's why you join the Marine Corp, honey," she said, shooting a smirk over her shoulder at Jethro as she slipped a hand into her pocket.

The phone she pulled out was glowing, and he could hear the faint buzz of its vibrating. She turned her back, and he heard her answer sharply as he gestured for the kid to sit.

Multitasking, he listened to Jenny's low conversation while he answered the kid's questions about the Corp. She caught his eye as she closed her phone, looked at it for a moment, and then made another call.

He was more focused on the kid, who seemed genuinely serious about getting into the Marines as soon as possible. He was shaking his hand when her harsh, growling voice caught both of their attentions.

"Find out what's going on in Autopsy now Agent Todd!" she ordered, and snapped her phone shut.

Jethro cleared his throat, stood up, and looked at the kid in front of him.

"Any other questions, son?"

"Uh," the kid said, glancing back at him from Jenny. "Is she a drill sergeant?" he asked a little nervously.

Jethro just smirked and handed the kid the information he needed, seeing him off. He looked to Jenny when the door closed and she turned around, the phone in her hand, her arms crossed tightly.

"Problem?" he asked neutrally, studying her.

"I leave them alone for twenty minutes and it all goes to hell," she growled, but her eyes said something else.

She unfolded her arms and squared her shoulders. She picked up her iced coffee from the shelf she'd set it on and gave him a nod, her ponytail swinging.

"I've got to handle this," she informed him, gesturing to her phone. She went towards the door, something completely different about her body language, and he watched her, nodding in acceptance.

Jenny pulled open the glass door, rolling her eyes when the bell jingled at her obnoxiously, and looked him up and down blatantly.

"I'm partial to the uniform, Gunny," she complimented with a smirk.

He smiled and watched her leave. On the street, she was on her phone again in an instant, jerking open her car door as her lips moved quickly. She took off at breakneck speed in the car and he had the sneaking feeling that something had happened.


"What the hell is going on?" Jenny Shepard barked as she stormed off the elevator.

It was still hotter than hell in the building and she was unfazed when she noticed her team was practically naked. Tony was, at least. She wasn't sure Magnum PI boxers would cut it on a normal day, but no one seemed to be bothered on this particular one.

Even McGee had his shirt unbuttoned.

Autopsy was on screen in the bullpen. It was a grainy feed but it was something. She planted herself in front of it and chucked her coffee into the wastebasket, her eyes narrowing. Ducky, Palmer, and Kelly were visible, along with an unknown male.

"One of you better start talking," she growled, and three voices started at once.

Tony's won out, and he bounded up next to her, the clicker in his hand.

"He infiltrated in a body bag," Tony explained. "Don't know who he is, McGee's running Interpol facial recognition—"

"Ducky called Kelly for the evidence box on the Al-Queada muscleman we brought down last week, Qassam," Kate jumped in, speaking from her desk. "She went down, and Abby came up asking why Ducky was doing an infectious autopsy—"

"What?" Jenny asked sharply, turning to look at her team.

"Yeah," Tony said drily. "That's what we said. Kelly didn't come back; Abby said Duckman sounded weird on the phone. We locked everything down."

Jenny swore and whirled back to the screen, glaring fiercely at it.

"The director?" she barked.

"Following the situation in MTAC," McGee answered abruptly.

"McGee, find out who that bastard is," she ordered, turning to her team, wrenching her sight away from the situation in Autopsy. "I want to know his name when I shoot him."

McGee swallowed and nodded, throwing himself into the task.

"Shep," Tony said. She turned to him, her expression hard. "The guy's doing Ducky's autopsy on is our Al-Queada operative."

Jenny's eyes flickered slightly. Her stomach turned as she thought about the implications. She looked at him silently, considering her options, when a gunshot went off behind her followed by the static buzz of a lost connection.

She swiveled around, her eyes on the now snowy screen.

She could have heart a pin drop; the place had gone so silent.

She set her jaw and took her gun from her desk, jamming the magazine in. Coldly, she turned her eyes on her team and they sprung into action.

"He's mine," she promised darkly, heading for MTAC.


Leroy Jethro Gibbs was on his way to pick up Levi from the sitter's house when his cell phone went off. Kelly's best friend Maddie watched Levi for the three or four hours he was out of school on the days Jethro worked the Recruits.

Thinking it was her; he opened the phone and held it to his ear absently.

"He drivin' you crazy, Madelyn?" he drawled good-naturedly.

"Um, Mr.…Sir…Gibbs," mumbled a nervous voice, and his good mood faded a little.

"Yeah?" he asked gruffly.

"This is Agent McGee," the nervous voice said. "Uh, Tim. There—"

"Something happen to Kelly?" Jethro asked tightly, barely avoiding running a red light.

"She's hurt," McGee answered.

"Where are you—she, where is she?" he asked harshly.

"Bethesda Naval Hospital," McGee said a little more confidently.

Jethro hung up the phone, swallowing bracingly. He made a turn on his route to Maddie's place and took off determinedly in the other direction, dialing her number with one hand.

"Hi, Mr. Jethro," her bright voice answered on the first ring. "He's really rambunctious—"

"Maddie," Jethro interrupted quickly.

She fell silent.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a small voice.

"Can you watch him a few more hours?"

"Is Kelly hurt?" Maddie asked.

"I don't know the details," Jethro said gruffly. "Don't worry Levi," he added.

"Sure, whatever you need," Maddie mumbled, and Jethro didn't give her time to say anything else. He hung up, needing both hands to drive as dangerously as he was at the moment. His drive to Bethesda went by in a blur, and more than a few horns were honked at him before he jerked to a stop in a parking spot outside the hospital.

His mouth felt like cotton. He felt like he had when he'd seen his CO's face in Kuwait, right before they told him Shannon was dead. Gunny, sit down…your wife…

He swallowed and shook his head, gritting his teeth as he entered the hospital, his keys still in his hand. He had barely entered the emergency room waiting area when his vision was obscured by a tearful mass throwing her arms around him.

"Abby," he grunted, staggering back distractedly.

"Gibbs!" she wailed.

"Get off him, Scuito!" ordered another sharply, drawing her away. He looked at her red eyes and she looked at his pale face. Tony DiNozzo pulled her back and stepped between them, giving her a look. "You'll make him thing she's dead," he growled, turning to Gibbs.

"Where is she?" he asked curtly.

"Being treated," Tony answered firmly. Gibbs started the shove past him and DiNozzo grabbed his shoulder. "She took a round to the shoulder. Clean through. She's fine," he offered, and Gibbs nodded.

Agent McGee, and Kelly's friend Kate Todd, moved out of his way as he went down the hall, looking for someone to point him towards Kelly. He saw her in one of the glass-walled treatment rooms, glaring balefully at a doctor who was drawing blood while she answered an older man's questions.

Jethro just barged in the door. The doctor looked up in surprise.

"Dad," Kelly greeted, surprised herself, eyebrows going up.

"Just sit tight, Miss Gibbs," the doctor said, holding up his vial of Kelly's blood. "We'll clear you when the lab results come back."

She nodded and the doctor left the room, giving Jethro a look. Jethro ignored it.

"You didn't have to be so dramatic, Daddy," Kelly rolled her eyes. He didn't answer. He crossed the room and stood in front of her sternly, satisfying himself that she was in fact sitting in front of him alive.

He reached out with one arm and hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head.

"Daddy," Kelly said quietly, taken off guard by the show of affection, particularly with another person in the room. She looked at Ducky past her Dad's shoulder and smiled bashfully.

"Finally managed to scare me, kiddo," he said quietly. She smiled and laughed, drawing back. She tilted her head at Ducky.

"Thank him," she said.

Jethro squeezed her shoulder, turning his gaze to the older man. He smiled and held out his hand. Jethro crossed his over and grasped it.

"Donald Mallard," he said, "Most just call me Ducky."

"Jethro," Jethro said, nodding gratefully. He turned his attention back to Kelly.

"Where's my son?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"I asked Maddie to watch him a while longer when McGee called me," he answered. "What happened?" he asked, moving right along.

"Does he know I'm hurt?"

"Kelly."

"A terrorist snuck into NCIS," she answered reluctantly.

Jethro stared at her. He looked to Ducky for confirmation. The older man nodded solemnly. He looked back at Kelly.

"What?" he asked sharply.

"It's sort of a long story," she said airily.

"I've got time," he growled seriously.

"I'll summarize it," she said, glaring at him. "An operative got into headquarters in a body bag in order to preserve a biological attack we thought we stopped Al-Queada pulling off. He took hostages. Jenny took us back. I have sustained minor injuries and am being tested for smallpox, which I do not have."

Jethro glared. He sensed that was the shortest possible version of the story he could have gotten. The mention of Jenny reminded him he hadn't seen her around. In fact, he was a little surprised she hadn't been the one to contact him.

"Is Jenny hurt?" he asked.

"That's very sweet Dad. I was waiting for you to ask," Kelly said warmly. She turned her head to Ducky and wrinkled her nose cutely. "He's worried about Jenny. They have a thing," she informed him secretively.

Ducky laughed.

"Kelly. Gibbs."

Kelly looked at Jethro.

"Is there a reason you're using your angry-father voice?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This isn't funny."

She sobered a little, moving her arm.

"Nah, guess not," she muttered. "I'm going to call Maddie," she said quietly. She reached for her bag next to her and took her phone. "Jenny isn't hurt. She's never hurt. Don't know where she is though."

She said breezily. Jethro nodded. He looked around, and as Kelly put her phone to her ear, she tilted her head at Jethro and waved him away. He started off and heard Kelly greet Maddie, placating her.

"I'm fine. It's a scratch. Oh, you know Dad, he's paranoid…"

He was at the door when the older man, called Ducky, touched his arm softly. Jethro turned to him, questioning.

"Kelly was not the only person injured in this ordeal. I assume you will find Jennifer somewhere secluded. She will not be pleasant."

"Yeah," Jethro said with a short shrug. "Wouldn't expect her to be."

She was in charge of the team. If some of them had gotten hurt on her watch, he assumed she'd be pissed, among other things. It was like losing your men in battle. There was a lot of guilt. He heard Kelly's voice change as she greeted Levi. He left the room.

The young-ish agent he'd seen before in the squad room was leaning against the wall, looking antsy. Tony DiNozzo was next to the door, throwing balled up bits of paper at him.

"This is cute. You're worried about Probette."

"She got shot, Tony."

"Yeah, not like Palmer though. Palmer almost died. Kelly just started cursing like a—"

"Sailor?" Gibbs asked, putting his face close to Tony's with a glare.

The younger man squeaked and jumped a mile. The action brought a tentative smile to McGee's face.

"Don't think a gunshot wound is serious, Da-Nozzo?" Jethro asked seriously.

"No. What? Yes, sir. I think it's very…I'm very sad Kelly is hurt. What? I didn't…" Tony stammered, looking very afraid. Jethro smiled a little. He turned to McGee and gave him a nicer look.

"Don't call me sir," he said darkly to Tony, before giving him a glare just for the hell of it and walking off a little.

He'd taken a turn down another hallway, wandering, when Kate came out of a room, Abby with her. Kate looked at him and paused; Abby shuffled up to him and hugged him. Again.

"Palmer might not get to use his arm again," she mumbled. "You don't know Palmer, but he was cool. He tried to protect Ducky. He almost died. This isn't supposed to happen at NCIS! Only in the field, and even then, Jenny's magic protects everyone!" she protested.

Jethro patted her on the back a little awkwardly.

"Everyone came out alive, Abs," he said.

She sniffled.

"Except the terrorists," she said, stepping away. He looked at her impassively, and then glanced at Kate.

"Shepard?" he asked.

"Oh, she's," Kate looked surprised at being spoken to, "She was dealing with the FBI. Hostage response. She's…pissed."

That seemed to be the phrase of the day.

"Where?" was all Jethro asked.

Kate looked at a loss for an answer. Abby pointed down the hall towards the emergency exit.

"Jenny was really upset she let Kelly get hurt," Abby offered, looking at him apprehensively.

He squeezed the girl's shoulder and gave her a solemn smile.

"She would not want you to tell me that," he muttered, passing them both.

He slipped his hands into his pocket and headed to the exit stairwell. It was all concrete and stale air in the passage way. Jenny was standing on the landing, her head cocked at a considering angle, staring out the small window set into the wall.

He didn't sneak up on her. He took the stairs slowly and leaned against the wall casually, putting both of his hands behind him. He settled for just looking at her. Intently.

"You are making me angry," she stated.

He shrugged.

"No," she corrected. "No, not you. But you're here. It would be easy to be angry at you."

"Guess so," he conceded, shrugging again.

She turned her neck to the side, her eyes fluttering closed and opening again.

"Yassar Qassam had the misfortune of acquainting himself with my Sig when he tried to pull off a biological attack on the Norfolk naval base. Smallpox. We got 'im on Intel from a Gitmo agent, Al-Queada interrogator. He was dead. Thought it was closed."

She tilted her head again, her eyes narrowing as she studied something that might or might not have been interesting outside the window. She snorted sardonically suddenly, shaking her head slightly.

"I was wrong," she said softly, coldly, "Some bastard infiltrates my turf, holds my people under duress, and instigates a firefight on his terms in my presence. He hurt my team. Blindsided me. And the FBI is in my face suggesting I can't police the backyard."

He watched the muscle in her jaw clench.

"Ari Haswari," she hissed coolly. "Enjoy your seventy virgins."

She was vindictive and calm at the same time, and it seemed like a very deadly combination. Jethro pushed off the wall after a moment and came forward, stepping up next to her and following her line of sight.

"I made a maverick call," she snorted, "Threw the rulebook out the window. It's how I do it. Didn't play out this time."

He waited in the silence that fell and then swallowed, folding his arms.

"You lose men, in battle," he said straightforwardly, "You have to make decisions, sometimes, that range from hard to harder. Make mistakes. Make the wrong ones. Happens," he said soberly, shrugging. "Then, someone's husband, someone's dad, isn't going home because you made the wrong call and he saved your ass," he stopped again and looked over at her. "The anger goes away. Guilt, maybe. Can't dwell."

She unfolded her arms and looked down, smiling a little.

"Not bad," she said, shrugging a little. She looked up at him, her eyes guarded. "You fought in Desert Storm. Personal story?"

He didn't answer. Jenny shrugged, inclined her head and rolled her neck.

"Sorry your daughter got hurt," she said, turning to him. She touched his arm. "She wouldn't have, if she listened."

"Don't say you're sorry," he shrugged off the apology. He never understood why people apologized for things that weren't their fault, or in some cases, things they didn't regret. "Sign of weakness."

Jenny cocked her eyebrow.

"Christ, you really think you're John Wayne," she mocked, loosening a little.

She turned towards him and he was a little surprised when she pressed her head against his chest and sighed dramatically. She gave a frustrated groan and shook her head. He smiled and raised his eyebrow at her.

She looked up at him, pressing her palms against his shoulder, and smirked softly.

"Go home to your family, Jethro."

"Come for dinner?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Incident report," she muttered, her eyes taking on a faraway look again. She leaned up a little, not much in the classically present heels, and kissed the corner of his mouth. He caught his hand in her hair and held her lips there for a moment, kissing her properly.

She slipped away from him and started up the stairs. The click of her heels echoed loudly.

"Jen."

"Yeah?"

"You make the kill shot?"

She turned and met his eyes before she answered.

"I'm sure Ducky will enjoy weighing his liver as much as I did double tapping his heart."


"Mommy, does it hurt?" Levi asked interestedly, crawling up to his knees next to Kelly and touching her shoulder gently.

Kelly smiled.

"Nah, it's just a flesh wound," she replied, smiling at Jethro. He smirked.

She was sitting on the couch in shorts and a tank top, her arm in a sling. Levi was fascinated with her "cool" injury, thinking it almost like a movie. He had been trying to cheer Maddie up when they retrieved him.

"What kind of bad guy shot you?" he asked, pulling the sling to the side to look. "Did he have a blaster?"

Kelly laughed. She pulled Levi's hand away from her and dragged him over her lap, looking down at him and tickling his foot.

"No, silly, only good guys like Han Solo have blasters!"

Levi giggled and squirmed under Kelly's tickling.

He crawled away from Kelly's grip, tumbling off the couch and disappearing. He reappeared next to her, jumping onto the arm rest and crinkling his nose at Kelly.

"I don't want him to hurt you again!" he said, glaring.

"Don't worry, sweetie," she said, shaking her head. "He got what he deserved."

Levi pointed his hand at Kelly like a gun and made shooting noises. He crawled back into her lap and grabbed her free hand, holding it and beginning to chatter.

"Ms. Shelley let us all feed the baby goats in the zoo and Zack let one eat his lunch and then when we saw the elumphants…"

Jethro smiled and got up, listening to Kelly and Levi's conversation fade as he left the room, walking back through the halls to his bedroom. Kelly was fine. He made her let him look at the wound and had almost been able to scoff at it. It didn't mean it hadn't upset him though.

He went into the bathroom and shut the door, turning the shower on. He needed to sort his thoughts. He was concerned about Kelly, and then he was concerned about Jenny, and then he felt like concern for Jenny was taking away from the worry he should be devoting for Kelly.

It was complicated and annoying.

When he turned off the water twenty minutes later and dried off, slipping into older, boat-building clothes, it had gotten quieter in the house. Padding around his bedroom, he couldn't hear Levi.

He looked at the door, pausing to listen, and Kelly entered the room, crossing her arms as best she could in the sling.

"Levi was beat," she announced, "Chasing those baby goats at the zoo wore him out."

Jethro smiled. He nodded his head, aware that could happen easily with excited kids. Kelly shrugged and wandered into the room, looking around. It was pretty bare as bedrooms went. She went over to the bureau and put her good arm on it.

"You know, this isn't your fault, Dad," she said, a little teasingly.

He gave her a look. He actually wasn't blaming himself for this one. She smiled at him, reaching up to push her hair back of her shoulders. She rubbed her eyes.

"Is it yours?" he asked gruffly.

"What?" she asked, looking at him.

"Jen," he said slowly, meeting his daughter's eyes, "said you did not listen to her."

She gave him a sharp look.

"You are my father, not my boss," she said, "and just because you're dating Jenny does not mean you have a say in my actions at work."

"You have to look out for yourself, Kelly. You have a young son," he looked at her and lowered his voice, "and you know what it's like to lose your mother."

She calmed a little, blinking. She nodded.

"I was not being reckless," she said softly. "And I didn't ignore her order."

Kelly stopped talking and sighed in frustration, rubbing her face again.

"Jenny," she began, "is upset because when I made a move for the gun Haswari had on her, he jerked and shot me in the shoulder," she gave Jethro a pointed look. "I got the bullet that was meant for her head."

Jethro's eyes widened a little as he processed the information. Kelly nodded curtly, as if to say 'now you know'. She looked away from Jethro and ran her hand back through her hair. Yawning, Kelly straightened up.

"I'm going to have something to eat," she murmured, "Watch Conan, go to bed," she shrugged. "Getting shot sucks. I don't know how you did it four times," she grumbled under her breath, flashing a smile as she left the room.

Jethro moved over to the bureau she'd been at and reached for the item on top Kelly had considered briefly during their conversation: the dark grey sweater Jenny had left over from their weekend together. He made a decision and grabbed his keys.

Kelly was standing in the kitchen scooping ice cream when he walked past. She glanced up, furrowed her brow, and walked out, stopping him at the door.

Her eyes fell to the sweater in his hands.

"Are you going over there, Dad?" she asked, standing in the hallway curiously.

He looked at her. She glanced behind her into the kitchen.

"It's late," she said gently.

"She's up," he said firmly.

Kelly conceded that. She hesitated before she spoke again.

"Jenny is…complicated. She might not want company. She's brooding."

Jethro shook his head slowly, remembering what it felt like to be in her position.

"Nah, Kelly, you don't know the feeling," he said quietly, reaching for the door. "When your people get hurt under your command, you need someone to say you didn't fail."

He told her goodbye and headed out the door to his car. He made the drive to Jenny's house, resolving to wait there until she got home if she was still letting herself be swallowed up at the office. Her car was not in the driveway when he pulled up, and he was forced to fish the spare key from a loose brick in the garden path.

He turned the porch light on. Sort of to warn her someone was here, if the car wasn't a clue. He went straight back into the study, sitting down on the sofa across from the fireplace and leaning back. It was not long before he heard a car door slam.

She appeared in the doorway and looked at him in the dark, dropping her purse carelessly on the nearest chair. Her hair was messy around her shoulders.

"Fair enough," she murmured, inclining her head.

She slipped her heels off and walked towards him softly on the carpet. She put her hands on his shoulders and straddled his lap. He noticed, with her proximity, the faint red ring in her eyes and reached up to touch her cheek.

She leaned into him and pressed her lips against his, removing his shirt swiftly. He slipped his arms around her hips and pulled her closer. He was familiar with this kind of need, and it was a need that was easy to soothe.


He woke up to Jenny shifting around again. He leaned up and reached over to her, because he could see this one wasn't just the mild distress he'd seen before.

"Jen, wake up," he said calmly, touching her bare shoulder gently. "Jen."

"What?" she gasped, sitting up quickly, the covers slipping off of her. She caught his hand and blinked. At that moment, her alarm went off and she winced, turning to glare at it. She hit it violently and took a deep breath, drawing her knees and the sheets back up around her.

Jethro glanced at the clock as he sat up, noting the early hour. Jenny reached over and turned a lamp on, leaning back against her headboard. She closed her eyes.

"Thanks for waking me up," she muttered darkly, and he gave her a slightly surprised look.

"You okay, Jen?"

"Peachy."

"You're covered in sweat."

"Oh, that's left over from last night," she quipped. She peeked one eye open and the corners of her lips twitched up gently. He grinned and she leaned over to him, letting him catch her against him while she sighed and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Want to stay in bed all day?" she murmured, trailing kisses over his shoulder. He rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him, running his hand through his hair and over her spine.

"Hell yeah," he answered, mimicking her kisses.

"Too bad, Gunny, I have to go to work."

"Guess it'd be awkward to continue this there?"

"Ooh, just a little. Your daughter being present and all."

She smiled into his lips and moved off of him, slipping out from under the covers and walking over to her closet. He turned onto his stomach to watch. She disappeared into her ridiculously spacious closet and came back out with an outfit.

He watched her pick lingerie from her bureau. Green lace, matching set. She slipped it on and smiled at him.

"Why don't you make yourself useful," she asked sarcastically, "and go make some coffee?"

"Clothes are downstairs," he said.

She arched a brow.

"Then I suppose I'll get to watch you walk your bare ass down there and get them."

He smirked, and extracted himself from the tangle of sheets. It was a good thing it was summer, or the trek down stairs to her study would have been a cold one.

Clad in his jeans and now wrinkled t-shirt, he figured out the coffee maker easily and started her signature blend, rummaging for mugs in the cabinet. He was, understandably, rather surprised when his pulling a second mug out of the cabinet prompted a sippy cup to fall out.

Setting the mugs aside, he picked up the plastic kid's cup and looked at it with mild interest, wondering who it belonged to. It was blue, and looked something like what Levi had lying around the house.

He had it in his hand when he turned towards Jenny's footsteps as she entered the kitchen.

"Damn, and I was hoping you'd still be naked," she said, sauntering into the room. She ran her hand through her hair and shook it messily over her shoulders, pausing when her eyes fell on what was in his hand.

She looked up at him and her eyes flickered. Approaching him, she took it, looked at it, and then thrust it back in the cabinet.

"Huh," she shrugged, sounding interested. She took a coffee mug and turned away. He gave her a weird look behind her back as she stared at the coffee maker.

"Hurry up, Tony."

Jethro cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows, giving her a look. She glanced at him and jerked her head at the coffee maker.

"Named it after DiNozzo."

"Uh-huh," he said. "Why?"

She turned and glared at the coffee maker.

"It doesn't do what it's supposed to."

Jethro smirked. When satisfied with the coffee, Jen poured a cup and passed it to him. She leaned against the counter and took a sip, closing her eyes. She rolled her neck back and forth slowly. Jenny opened her eyes and looked at him studiously.

"My team is going to thank you today," she murmured with a suggestive smile. "They will be dreading a day with the self-hating, pissed, frustrated boss, yet instead they will be granted a respite when I show up mellow due to all the sex we had."

"Mellow," he snorted derisively.

He set his coffee cup down and approached her. He gave her a stern look and put his arms on either side of her, trapping her. He tilted his head solemnly and leaned closer.

"This is all very intimidating," she stated in a stage whisper, "But what are you doing in my face?"

"Telling you to ease up on yourself," he responded.

"How very noble."

She took a sober drink of her coffee and licked her lips, her emerald eyes taking on a guarded, almost restrained glow. Her lashes twitched slightly and she shifted slightly, still holding her own.

"Sometimes it scares me how close you're getting," she stated. It was straight forward; matter of fact, and honest.

He had the feeling she wasn't referring to the physical proximity. And if he was honest with himself, it scared the hell out of him, too.


And thus I answer all the review/questions I've been getting about the Ari storyline.
-Alexandra