A/n: Well, here it is. It's slightly shorter than usual but also the first of a two chapter development, so maybe that makes up for it.
"When do you think Shepard'll be back?" Stan Burley asked of his partner with what was supposed to be indifference as they walked past security.
It had been two weeks, and to everyone's surprise, they had seen neither head nor tail of the fiery redhead.
Decker shrugged, sipping from his coffee cup.
"When she's back," he murmured. "Taking your first bullet isn't exactly a cake walk." He drank from his cup again and swallowed before speaking. "Hell, neither are the ones after that."
Burley nodded, standing with his usual wide stance and crossed arms as Decker called for the elevator.
"You been to see her?" Stan asked, looking back at his partner; and Decker met his gaze with eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Yeah," Will replied slowly. "Day before yesterday." He watched Stan for a minute. "Why?" Decker asked, keeping his eyes on his partner as the elevator doors opened with a ding and they stepped in.
"Just wondering," Stan said, shaking his head. He pressed the button for their floor; and Decker nodded, with a hint of a knowing smile. Stan was silent only a moment again when he drew in a short breath before speaking as if he were about to say something rather important. "You think I should've sent her flowers or something?" he asked, wrinkling his brow.
Decker grinned impishly.
"You miss her," he said with confidence as the realization dawned on him; and Stan scoffed.
"I do not," he insisted defensively, and Decker's grin widened as he nodded, pointing a finger at Stan.
"Yeah you do," Will said. "You miss Jenny," he mused in disbelief.
"She's part of the team. I'm just worried about her," Stan bit back, watching as the numbers on the elevator neared their floor. It couldn't get there fast enough.
Will laughed at him.
"No," he insisted in amusement. "It's more than that. You don't know what to do with yourself without her here."
Stan sent his partner a dirty glare before he barreled through the open doors, and set off for the bullpen with Will laughing behind him.
Decker stopped mid-laugh when Stan came to an abrupt stop and he nearly ran into the brick wall that was Stan Burley's back. Will barely had time to dodge his coffee as the top popped off and the dark liquid inside sloshed over the sides of his cup.
"Hey, what the hell, Stan!" he barked, standing straight once more. He moved around Burley curious as to what had him grinning like such an idiot.
Soon though, Decker had the same stupid grin on his face when he caught sight of what Burley had been blocking. There at her desk sat Jenny Shepard with her trademark, red hair in becoming curls falling over her shoulders, a sling on her arm, and a pair of black-rimmed eyeglasses on her nose.
"Are you two just going to stand there grinning like Dumb and Dumber or did you plan to do actual work today?" she murmured without taking her eyes off of her paper.
Burley and Decker shot forward, all but tackling her out of her chair, crushing her into the middle of a group bear hug, though they were careful of her arm; and an undignified squeal of surprise escaped her lips.
"Get off of me!" she commanded breathlessly, but any attempt at authority was marred by her laughter and muffled by their arms. She struggled against them half heartedly a moment before she sighed helplessly and the corner of her lips quirked up as her cheeks were smushed in the theatric antics of Stan and Will.
Finally, they released her, laughing at her expense; and she shot them both mild glares as she attempted to smooth her no doubt rumpled appearance.
"What's gotten into the two of you?" she snorted, and Decker reached out to ruffle her hair.
She smacked his hand away, and glared; but he smiled.
"We missed you, Shep," Decker replied. "Gibbs is meaner without you around. Stan was ready to cry."
"I was not!" Stan insisted again, and Jenny grinned devilishly before a mock-touched smile graced her face.
"Stan," she drawled, looking up at him through her long lashes as she held a hand to heart teasingly. "You do care."
He gave her a mild glare, and shoved her in her good shoulder lightly, earning him a smile from her.
"So, when do you get that thing off?" Decker asked, nodding toward her sling as he took his seat.
"Couple of days," she replied flippantly; and Decker nodded.
They settled into the typical silence after teasing greetings, waiting for Gibbs to walk in with a scowl on his face ambience of the MCRT until Stan broke it.
"Hey, Jenny," he said, and her head shot up so fast she thought she might have gotten whiplash. He hadn't called her anything but Red since her first week there.
"What?" she asked, so caught off guard she forgot to be snarky.
"I really am glad you're okay," he said, and a genuine softness crossed her face.
She smiled. Stan did care about her. They were at each other's throats constantly, but they cared. It was some dysfunctional way of showing affection: like Gibbs' head slaps.
"Thanks Stan," she murmured softly; and he just nodded firmly before returning to work.
Gibbs rounded the corner at that moment with his morning cup of coffee in hand.
"Grab your gear," he barked, doing the smallest of double takes at seeing Jenny sitting at her desk. He narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing here?" he demanded of her.
She had not told him she would be back. She hadn't even dropped a hint; so to say seeing her there was a surprise, was an understatement.
Jenny looked up at him with the seemingly permanent expression of devilish delight and a hint of smugness that indicated something witty was going to come out of her mouth.
She interlocked her fingers and set her chin on them.
"Well, I applied for a job here; and I passed all of my test with flying colors," she murmured, waving her open hand through the air in a rainbow motion. "Then the Director told me I was to report to you at 0700. I've been working here ever since," she said with a flippant shrug and a contradicting glint in her eyes.
"What are you doing here now?" he growled. "Doctor clear you?"
"He did," she replied simply. "Sling comes off in two days."
He nodded curtly; and turned to Burley and Decker.
"Come on, grab your gear," he repeated, waving them along as if speaking to small children with wearing patience.
Both men tossed their bags over one shoulder, and headed for the elevators. Jenny moved as if to do the same, and Gibbs stayed her with an open palm.
"Not you," he said with definite authority, and she scoffed in disbelief and discontent.
"Gibbs," she protested like a child who had just gotten their favorite toy taken from them.
He pointed to her shoulder.
"You ride a desk until that sling is off," he said, and she growled in disgruntlement before dropping back into her chair with the dramatics of a petulant teenager.
He nodded in satisfaction before heading off after Burley and Decker, who was holding the elevator door.
Jenny pulled a face as she flipped the page on her report violently. She knew he couldn't see her; but it made her feel better.
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"What do you think Shepard's doing?" Burley asked, grinning at the idea of her stuck at a desk, no doubt thinking up the most interesting case imaginable to be missing.
"Probably screwing with Gibbs' stuff," Decker snorted, pulling his bag from the back of the truck.
"She wouldn't," Burley said, shaking his head with a contradictory smirk. Decker fixed him with a look pointed look, and Burley nodded. "Yeah," he agreed after a second thought, slinging his own bag over his shoulder before shutting the back of the truck; and Decker nodded.
"Bet you ten bucks she messes with his coffee before he notices," Decker snickered.
"Twenty says she takes his gun again," Burley challenged, grinning at the memory of the metaphor she had made clear it represented.
"Thirty, she does both," Decker said, and Burley tipped his own cap back to look the other man in the eye, and held his hand out.
"You're on," he laughed. There was no way she'd get away with both.
Decker took the offered hand and they shook on it as Ducky drove up behind them in his medical examiner's van; and stepped out with a grace only Ducky possessed when exiting an elevated vehicle.
His new assistant, Sunshine, or Sunny as she insisted she be called-because who in their right mind wants to be called Sunshine?- followed behind him. Her name actually fit her: given her constant, unnaturally chipper attitude, tanned, freckled skin, and blonde hair despite the ever changing colors she streaked it and her penchant for black nail polish. Not to mention, there was always the slightest bit of sarcasm under all of that sunshine.
"Hi guys!" she greeted them with her bordering-on-maniacal smile.
"Hey, Sunny," they replied simultaneously with identical looks of shared amusement.
"Ms. Harris," Ducky interjected. "We do have a body to attend to," he reminded her, and she nodded her head vigorously.
"Quite right, Doctor Mallard," she agreed, nodding curtly with mock stoicism before she set off in the direction of the entrance to St. Augustine Catholic School.
Ducky shook his head, and Burley and Decker snorted.
When they walked through the doors there was no doubt word had spread. Students in navy and olive uniforms lingered in the hallway even as nuns ushered them along with stern voices. The students shared looks and their whispers grew as the NCIS team walked past them.
The girl's lavatory door had been propped open and Gibbs stood over the body. The victim was Sarah Bauer, a senior at St. Augustine and daughter of Navy Captain Harrison Bauer.
"What can you tell me, Duck?" Gibbs asked as Decker and Burley started taking crime scene photos.
Ducky knelt beside the body, turning her head to examine the wound to her crown: the blood staining and matting her blonde hair.
"Given the extent of rigor mortis, she's been dead several days."
He pointed to her head wound.
"I'll be sure when I do the autopsy, but I think it's safe to assume, this wound here is the cause of death." He checker her hands and arms. "No defensive wounds," he announced.
"She knew her attacker?" Gibbs deduced, and Ducky nodded.
"Yes, that or she was taken by surprise," he murmured. "Perhaps both."
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At NCIS Jenny, having caught up on their recent cases, was indeed messing with Gibbs things, or trying to.
She sat at his desk, jimmying the lock with her nail file. She smirked with a sound of triumph when it popped and she pulled it open.
"What the hell are you doing, Shepard?" Chris Pacci's voice boomed over the white noise of the bullpen and Jenny jumped upright.
Pacci laughed, and Jenny glared at him.
"I am teaching Gibbs a lesson," she replied primly, going back to selecting seemingly random things from his desk drawer.
"Oh yeah?" Pacci asked, sauntering toward her with curiosity. "How so?"
"You'll see," she murmured, smiling up at him. "Wouldn't want you spoiling my plan."
Pacci held a hand to his chest in mock-hurt.
"I'm hurt, Shep. You don't trust me or something?"
"Mmmm," she murmured noncommittally.
Chris Pacci was a prankster extraordinaire; but he had started around the same time as Gibbs and was one of Jethro's closer co-workers at NCIS.
"He's going to kill you, you know that right?" Pacci laughed, eyeing the assortment of office supplies on Gibbs' desk trying to figure out just what Jenny was doing.
"He won't know that it was me," she murmured confidently taking apart one of Gibbs' pens and taking out the ink chamber before reassembling said pen.
"You're not me, Jenny," Pacci gloated. "I could help."
"You could…" she agreed, sparing him a brief but pointed glance.
Pacci took the hint, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Alright, alright," he acquiesced. "You're going to wish I had though," he said in a sing-song voice as he walked away.
"Is that a threat, Agent Pacci?" she demanded playfully.
Pacci grinned as he paused in the entrance of the MCRT's cubicle.
"Me? Threaten you?" he asked sarcastically. "I'd never."
Jenny smirked, returning to her task.
She looked up at the sound of her desk phone ringing. She abandoned her scheming and walked the few steps between her desk and Jethro's. She snatched the phone up and held it to her ear.
"Shepard," was her customary, professional answer. The voice that replied was one she had not heard in some time and was entirely unexpected.
"Jenny?"
"Joanne?" Jenny murmured, wrinkling her brow as she dropped into her seat. "What's wrong?"
Joanne didn't really call Jenny just to chat. In fact, she hadn't called Jenny or Jethro at all in the past few months.
"Oh, no, nothing's wrong," Joanne assured her. "Why would something be wrong?" she asked.
Jenny laughed a little awkwardly.
"You don't really call me without a purpose, Joanne," Jenny said: her tone was not unkind, rather matter-of-fact.
Joanne was silent a moment before she spoke carefully.
"I was calling to see if you might bring Kelly out this weekend to see me," she requested, and Jenny inhaled through her nose before smiling tightly.
She responded with weak enthusiasm.
"Sure," she agreed. "She's been asking about it anyway."
Joanne hadn't returned to Washington but Kelly went to visit her on a regular basis.
"Has she?" Joanne asked with audibly surprised happiness; and Jenny cracked a genuine smile.
"Yeah," she murmured, and pulled out her calendar, flipping to the right month. "When did you want us there?"
"Friday afternoon?" Joanne proposed. "Four?"
"That's fine," Jenny said, penciling the date in. "We'll see you at four."
They said their good-byes and Jenny placed the phone back on its hook with a sigh. Talking to Joanne always left her feeling drained even when the conversation was easy as this one had been.
She looked over at Gibbs desk and bit the inside of her lip. She wasn't exactly in the mischievous mood anymore; but Gibbs could use a good mind-fuck. She hopped up on her desk and kicked her heels off before moving to her feet so that she was standing on her desk.
"Pacci!" she shouted over the bullpen, and the dark-haired man looked up along with several other agents. Jenny smirked. "Your services are needed."
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When Decker, Burley, and Gibbs made it back to NCIS some few hours later Jenny was nowhere to be found.
"Get the rest of that evidence to Hodges," Gibbs instructed, taking a seat at his desk. He picked his phone up to check his messages out of sheer habit only to find it disconnected. "What the hell?" he muttered. "Decker!" he barked, stopping the younger man in his tracks on his way to the elevator.
"Yeah,boss?" he asked.
"Get one of those techy kids up here to fix this phone," he demanded in agitation. "Or find Shepard."
"Sure, boss," Decker said, and continued toward his original destination.
When he made it to Forensics, he expected to see Jenny there harassing Hodges or whatever it was she did to him. She was the only one who could get the contentious little bastard to do anything.
"Hey Hodges!" Decker shouted, breaking through the deafening silence that was Hodges' lab.
"Your first grade teacher never taught you what an inside voice was?" Hodges asked acrimoniously, not looking up from his microscope.
"Come on Hodges, I got a present for you. I know how important chain of evidence is to you." Decker snickered, swinging the box onto the counter. Important was an understatement. The man was an OCD control freak. "Hey, put a rush on these will you?" he requested.
"You'll get it when I get to it, Special Agent Decker," Hodges murmured, unaffected.
"Jesus Hodges, the vic's a seventeen year old girl," Decker informed him testily. "Even your icebox of a heart has to melt at that."
"I've got a six year old boy, a war hero, and about six weeks of back cases. You'll get it when you get it," Hodges repeated with finality.
"Fine," Decker growled. "Look, you seen Shepard?" he asked, and Hodges actually bothered to lift his head at her name.
"No," he said a little too quickly. "Why? Is she coming down here?" he demanded with his usual jumpiness when it came to Jenny.
"I don't know," Decker snapped. "Gibbs is looking for her."
"I haven't seen her," Hodges said, and Decker nodded and turned slowly on his heel, heading for the elevator.
He strode into the bullpen without Jenny fifteen minutes later only to find her sitting at Gibbs' desk.
"I've been looking all over the building for you," he grumbled.
Jenny looked up at him with feigned innocence.
"Did you look at Gibbs' desk?" she asked smartly; and Decker shot her a glare.
"The girl that found her, what's her name again?" Gibbs demanded, taping the picture of the brunette to the whiteboard as Decker came up beside him.
"Marisela Sanchez," Will said, having been the one to interview her. "Eighteen."
"According to some of the other students, she and the victim weren't the best of friends," Burley cut in. "Almost started a fight over some guy."
"Who's the guy?" Gibbs asked.
"Uh," Burley hesitated, running to his desk for his notepad, flipping the pages quickly. "Felix Lucci. Also a senior." He looked over at Jenny, realizing she was uncharacteristically quiet, and smirked at seeing her with a coffee cup between her legs. "Suspended last month for possession on campus, cocaine," he continued, walking back toward Decker and Gibbs though his eyes remained on Jenny with curiosity. "Didn't show up to school today."
She popped the lid off with her thumb, watching the back of Gibbs' head warily as she quickly emptied about five packets of artificial sweetener and three creams into the cup. She grinned at Burley and winked as she took a deliberate sip from the cup, making sure her trademark red lipstick stained the rim before she set it back on the desk.
"Start there," Gibbs said, walking back to his desk. "Find that kid. Bring him in."
The shrill ringing of Gibbs' desk phone cut through the bullpen, and Gibbs snatched it up as Burley and Decker grabbed their things. He narrowed his eyes at the glaring, scarlet stain on his coffee before lifting his gaze to settle Jenny with one of his infamous glares.
"Gibbs," he growled in to the phone, snatching his cup up. He knew better than to drink it from past experience and simply dropped it into the trash can, earning him a satisfied grin from Jenny. "Yeah," he agreed gruffly to the person on the end of the line, rolling Jenny out of the way in his chair to pull his drawer open.
He grabbed a pen and held it to the pad, pressing harder when no ink came out. He growled at the back of his throat, and grabbed another one only to find it empty too. He looked to Jenny sharply, positive she had something to do with it, with everything actually; his phone being disconnected, the random things missing that he took for granted every day: his staples, his paperclips, the little do-dads that he used to clip his files together. She simply looked back at him through her lashes with an air of innocence and smiled sweetly, producing a pen for him. He snatched it from her.
'Not nice,' she mouthed, shaking her head in admonishment and he rolled his eyes. Jenny leaned in obnoxiously close, peering over his arms as he scribbled the message down.
He slammed the phone back into its cradle and tugged her up by her arm and out of his chair, turning her toward her desk. He yanked his bottom drawer open in search of his gun and badge; and pulled them out, only to find them considerably lighter. Upon closer inspection it was clear that they were toys.
"Jen," he growled; and she looked back at him with that infuriating wide eyed, innocent look.
"What?" she demanded; and he held up his 'weapon.' "What?" she repeated.
"You know damn well what," he snapped.
She moved forward, grabbing them from him; and wrinkled a brow, raising the other skeptically. He ran a hand down his face; and turned back to his desk, propping his foot up on his chair to grab his backup. He didn't have time for this.
"What is your problem?" she asked with an air of annoyance. "There is nothing wrong with them," she said, shoving his gun and badge back into his hands.
He snatched them back, narrowing his eyes in befuddlement. Sure enough, his actual gun and badge were there in his hands. He could have sworn...
He shook his head, hooking them onto their rightful places on his belt and replaced his back-up.
"Situation at the school," was his only explanation as he strode out of the bullpen; and Jenny smiled at his retreating back with mischievous content before she laughed softly and tossed the dollar store 'Police' toys she had been holding behind her back into her desk drawer.
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Situation was an understatement. Chaos was more fitting. There were ambulances and fire trucks with their whaling sirens and various cars were lined up the street as parents screamed over the commotion demanding to see their children.
Gibbs ducked under the yellow tape, jogging up the school steps for the second time that day. He flashed his badge, walking through the crowd of evacuating students and teachers past the firefighters and local LEOs.
"Fornell," Gibbs growled at the FBI agent: less greeting, more displeasure.
Fornell meant FBI; and FBI always meant a jurisdiction battle. More often than not, that meant a joint investigation.
"Gibbs," Fornell replied with just as much discontent.
"What've you got?" Gibbs asked, coming up beside the other man, taking in the charred remains of what he assumed had been a teacher's desk.
"Bomb in the desk," Fornell said. "Nun walked in, saw her desk on fire."
"Lucky she wasn't sitting at it," Gibbs murmured.
"Maybe she wasn't supposed to be," Fornell suggested logically. "Bomb was an amateur job. Barely enough to start the fire. Cleaning fluid fueled it."
"It sure as hell wasn't an accident," Gibbs countered.
"More like a warning," Fornell concluded.
"The daughter of a Navy Captain was murdered on campus, makes it NCIS' jurisdiction," Gibbs said, already starting in on his claim to the case.
Fornell scoffed, giving Gibbs a 'yeah, right' look.
"Navy Captain's daughter wasn't bombed," Tobias shot back. "The school was. FBI's jurisdiction."
"Navy Captain's daughter took this class," Gibbs growled territorially. " Could have something to do with her death."
The two men glared at each other, a hand on one hip like something out of an old, Western movie. The only thing missing was, 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.'
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"Where's Gibbs?" Burley asked of Jenny as he and Decker walked into the bullpen, dragging a no doubt drunken young man. His eyes were heavy and he was entirely out of it.
"Something at the school," she replied, watching the dark-haired boy.
"You're pretty," he slurred at Jenny, his head lolling to the side when Stan and Will propped him against the wall of the cubicle.
She snorted, sparing the starry-eyed boy a brief look.
"This is Felix I take it?" she laughed, directing the statement at Will.
"Yeah, found him half passed out on the sidewalk next to a convenience store a few miles from the school," Decker said, casting the kid a side-eye glance. "Keeps swearing he never had a drink."
"I didn't, I swear," Felix insisted; and Jenny narrowed her eyes at him curiously. "Not today anyway," he laughed. "Hey, can I have some water?"
The elevator doors opened with a ding and Ducky stepped off of them dressed in his doctor's scrubs as Jenny knelt beside Felix.
"Where is Gibbs?" Ducky asked, willing to take an answer from any of the three agents.
"Ducky?" Jenny murmured, drawing everyone's attention; and it was then that Ducky first noticed the nearly unconscious boy on the floor. "Does he smell like alcohol to you?" Jenny asked Decker softly, who was closest.
Decker furrowed his brows, and bent over to sniff him. A look of confused realization crossed his face.
"No," he said, frowning at Jenny.
"Ducky, there's something wrong with him," Jenny said; and Ducky wrinkled his brow, approaching the young man.
"I have to pee," Felix slurred, trying to get up.
"Jesus, you just went!" Burley snapped. "After you puked everywhere," he muttered, grimacing in disgust at the memory.
"Oh, dear, " Ducky murmured, approaching Felix and Jenny. "My dear boy, are you thirsty at all?" he asked.
"He was just asking for water," Jenny interjected, looking up at Ducky worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm really thirsty," Felix agreed.
"William, call an ambulance," Decker instructed, and Decker looked at him funny.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"This boy is slipping into a diabetic coma," Ducky sighed, and Decker's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He snatched the phone up, and dialed the right numbers. Ducky turned to Jenny. "Jennifer run to autopsy; and bring me my bag. Ms. Harris will know where it is." He then turned to the boy in front of him. "How are you feeling young man?" he asked.
"Yeah, not so good," Felix replied lowly, shaking his head slowly as his eyes grew heavier.
"Not to worry. You'll be just fine," Ducky assured him, patting his knee. The doctor looked up at Decker who looked as if he were about to speak.
"Ambulance is on it's way," Will said.
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Gibbs and Fornell walked through the hallway of St. Augustine's in search of the nun who had been the target of the bomb. Gibbs paused at the sight of a familiar face on the Hall of Fame wall. He turned back and rolled his eyes shaking his head. There, preserved in a photo was an adolescent Jenny Shepard with a brilliant smile on her face despite the braces; but even then there was the unmistakable glint of smug mischief in her eyes, giving her a 'cat ate the canary' expression.
"Christ," he muttered. Did she have to have history in every damn case? At least she wasn't personally involved this time.
He walked out into the now scorching afternoon sun and smirked at seeing Fornell already trying to talk to the woman he assumed was the nun.
Said woman was batting away anyone who tried to get within a three inch radius of her.
"I am fine," she insisted, swatting a paramedic's hand away. "The desk caught fire, not me."
"Ma'am," Fornell tried.
"Sister," she corrected him. "I am a woman of God young man."
Fornell rubbed the back of his neck, thoroughly admonished. It was clear he had been at this for a bit.
"Sister?" Gibbs asked, and the white-haired woman looked up at him expectantly with sharp, gray eyes. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."
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Jenny, Burley, and Decker stepped off the elevator onto the NCIS floor after seeing Felix Lucci off in the ambulance. His mother had been called and she was on her way to the hospital to meet him there.
"What kind of idiot takes cocaine with diabetes?" Burley muttered, and Jenny pursed her lips with a shrug.
"I hated Catholic School," Decker grumbled, dropping into his chair lazily. "Sister O'Hannigan called me William Nathaniel once in freshman year and I never lived it down."
Burley snorted.
"Your middle name is Nathaniel?" he laughed, his lips quivering as he tried not to grin. He felt embarrassed for him.
"That's what I said, Burley," Decker snapped defensively. He balled up a piece of paper and sent it sailing toward Stan's head. Burley threw his hands up and dodged the projectile. "What's your middle name?" Decker demanded.
"Matthew," Stan replied with a shrug. It was normal; nothing to spark any interesting stories, but it was nothing to be embarrassed about wither. "I wish I'd been in Catholic School," he mused aloud, grinning at the idea.
"You wish you'd been in girls with short, plaid skirts and knee highs," Jenny quipped crudely; and Decker snorted, grinning at Jenny..
"Nice," he laughed, and she smiled.
"Ah ha, ha, ha," Stan said mirthlessly, bobbing his head from side to side. "What's your middle name, Shepard?" he demanded, realizing she had been quiet up until then.
"None of your business," she replied loftily, turning her nose up; but she was a red-head and she couldn't hide the tell-tale hot flush of her skin.
Stan grinned like a kid who had just found the cookie jar, and he slid out of his seat like a lion with its sights locked on a gazelle.
"No," he drawled gleefully, shaking a finger at her knowingly. He laughed like someone who had just found the president's law school sex tape with his professor in a time capsule. He had blackmail gold if he could pull it out of her. "Come on, Red," he coaxed.
"It is worse than Sunshine," she grumbled, grimacing as she went back to writing. Stan actually giggled, and she looked up at him with a dark glare through her lashes. "Go away, Stan," she deadpanned.
The elevator doors dinged, and the three of them turned as they always did.
"Oh my God!" Jenny gasped, baring her teeth in a grimace of fearful disbelief as she slithered out of her chair and onto the floor like water through a sieve.
Stan and Decker both looked at her like she had lost her mind.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Stan laughed, watching with amusement as Jenny peeked over the back of the cubicle before ducking down again, balling her fists up in front of her mouth.
"That!" she hissed pointing backwards and Will and Decker watched as Gibbs neared them with an elderly woman in a grey sheath dress and a crisp, collared, white shirt with a cross at her neck. "That is Sister O'Carrol-Conolly. She is the meanest woman I have ever met! Oh my God, why is she still alive? She was nine-hundred when I was eight."
"She doesn't look all that bad," Stan laughed, looking at the small woman with white hair who was shuffling down the hallway at Gibbs' side.
"You wait," Jenny growled through her teeth with wide-eyed conviction.
A/n: So, Jenny has a funny middle name and you guys get to chose...partly because I can't :) There is a poll up on my profile, so go vote! Then look for it in the beginning of next chapter.
I hope everyone is having, or had a wonderful spring break :)
Thanks for reading!
xxxx-M :]
