Here we go. This is the dinner between Jenny, Gibbs, Jasper and Margaret, and featuring the return of a familiar old face.
Chapter 9
"Jen?" Gibbs called out as he entered Jenny's home, using the spare key she had given him.
"In the kitchen." came Jenny's reply.
"Oh boy." Gibbs muttered under his breath. He headed through the hallway and into the kitchen where he found Jenny standing over her cooker in an apron stirring something which smelt like it had been burnt to the bottom of the saucepan.
"What are you doing?" Gibbs asked placing down the bunch of flowers he had bought over for his girlfriend.
"Cooking. I was trying to make those brownies that Abby told me about this afternoon."
After Jenny's tearful conversation with Jasper, Abby had been helping her to plan her menu for the dinner party. Jenny had confided in Abby that she wasn't a brilliant cook, something which Gibbs knew all to well, and Abby had helped her to fix a sure fire menu that even Jenny couldn't burn or destroy.
"And this is my triple chocolate brownie recipe. The nuns at bowling cannot resist one when I've made them."
"Jen, do you know that you're supposed to put the chocolate in a bowl and melt it in that, not in the saucepan." Jenny stopped suddenly. Gibbs clasped his hand over Jenny's and pulled the spoon out of her hand and turned off the heat. Jenny turned and buried her head in his chest.
"Help me." Gibbs laughed.
About an hour after Gibbs had arrived, the doorbell rang. Jenny rushed out of the kitchen and hurried to the front door. She pulled it open to see her father standing on the doorstep, and woman on his arm and a smile on his face.
"Hello dad." Jenny said, and hugged Jasper. Jasper hugged back his daughter pulling her as close as he could get her. Gibbs noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jasper's companion was smiling. She caught Gibbs's eye and nodded her head. Gibbs nodded back.
"Nice to see you again Mr Shepard." Gibbs said, extending out a hand to his partner's father. Jasper caught Gibbs's tone and extended a hand to meet Gibbs's.
"Please call me Jasper." Jasper extended his arm to his companion. "Let me introduce Margaret. Margaret this is Jennifer, and her partner Gibbs."
"Lovely to finally meet you Jennifer." Margaret gestured to Jenny for a hug and Jenny hugged her. "Jasper talks about you all of the time; he had followed your career with interest. When you became Director I thought he was going to burst with pride." Jenny blushed. Gibbs laughed.
"You had a better reaction than I did." Jenny shot him a look as if to say:
'Shut up! My father doesn't need to know about that!' Jasper laughed.
"Don't worry. I know that the two you worked undercover together." Jenny and Gibbs gave each other a look.
"So when did you go get together?" Jasper asked innocently. Margaret caught the look Gibbs and Jenny gave each other and swallowed back a laugh. Jasper looked confused, when he suddenly sniffed the air.
"Is something burning?" He asked.
"Oh God!" Jenny cried before rushing into the kitchen. They heard her open the oven door, the shatter of pans, and a few choice swear words, as they realised she had forgotten to cover her hands as she got the dinner out of the oven. The three rushed into the kitchen to find Jenny holding her hand, and the remains of what was to be their dinner all over the floor. The trio were silent as Gibbs grabbed Jenny's hand and shoved it under the cold tap and ran the water over her red hand.
"Have you got any cream?" He asked her.
"There's some in my bathroom cupboard."
"I'll get it," Jasper said, "same place as before?" He asked, Jenny nodded.
"Here let me help." Margaret took Jenny's hand and Gibbs began to rummage around for a first aid kit. Jasper soon returned with the cream, and Margaret helped Jenny to apply an even amount to the burnt area of her hands, and then wrapped them in a bandage Gibbs had found in the first aid kit.
"I see you took after me in the kitchen department." Jasper joked, as he and Gibbs cleared away the remains of dinner.
"True as that may be, what are we going to eat? Luckily we had put desert in the fridge before you got here." Jenny said.
"Well we could always start with desert and order Chinese?" Gibbs suggested.
"Sounds like a wonderful idea." Margaret said, and Jasper agreed. Jenny smiled; Gibbs knew just how to make things better.
A few hours later Gibbs had ordered their Chinese, and after finishing up their chocolate brownie desert the 4 had tucked into Chinese, from what Margaret and Jasper admitted was the best Chinese they had ever tasted.
Jenny smiled again at Gibbs.
"This is the shop that Gibbs often brings me dinner from when I'm working late."
"I thought that you said you had only been together for a short time." Jasper said confused.
"Well even so, the Director's gotta eat." Gibbs said placing another forkful into his mouth. The group laughed.
Meanwhile at NCIS HQ, Abby, Tim, Ziva and Tony were all sitting in the Bull-Pen watching a film on the big TV.
"We really should invite Gibbs and Jenny to join us soon." Ziva said snuggling into Tony's shoulder. Suddenly Abby stood up.
"I forgot to turn off my computer!" She said. "Hang on I'll be right back." She fled the Bull-Pen to her lab and to her office where she switched off her computer. As she was hurrying out of the office she grabbed the blanket she kept in her office to keep herself warm in the cold Bull-Pen.
"I really need to ask Jenny about heating." She said absent mindedly to herself. As she left her office she didn't look where she was going and banged into her desk causing her computers wireless mouse to fall on the floor.
"Ouch!" She said bending down to pick up the mouse. As she did she realised that the computer in her main lab wasn't turned off, just on sleep mode. She realised that she had forgotten to turn it off earlier and had left it running on the search she had going to identify the DNA on top of Jasper's under the dead officers fingernails. The computer was blinking with a match. Grabbing her mobile, she scrolled through till she found Gibbs's number and pressed dial.
"Come on Gibbs pick up!"
Gibbs had just poured himself a glass of Bourbon when he heard his phone ringing.
"Jethro, Abby's calling you." Jenny called from the living room. Gibbs returned to the room, and picked up his phone.
"Abs?"
"Thank god, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to answer. Gibbs you really need to answer things quicker, I mean isn't rule 3, 'Never be unreachable'?"
"Alright Abs, what is it you have for me?"
"I have been running the DNA that was on top of Jasper's and I have a match. I had to go through a load of databases to find it Gibbs. Took me forever!"
"Abs, rambling!"
"Sorry, anyway I found a match in the French DNA database."
"The French DNA database?"
"Yes, the prints belong to a guy called René Benoit, alias La Grenouille. That's French for the frog. Isn't he the guy that Jenny told you about?"
"Hold on Abby. Jasper what was the name of the man who you were suspected of being bribed by?"
"La Grenouille, but that's an alias, his real name is…"
"René Benoit." Gibbs finished.
"Yes how did you know that?" Jasper asked.
"Abs, I'll call you back. Stay with McGee, Tony and Ziva, and tell Tony any popcorn he spills, he is cleaning up." Gibbs said hanging up the phone.
"How did he know we were watching a film?" Abby said aloud.
"Jethro what's going on?" Jenny asked a worried look on her face. She knew that anything to do with La Grenouille was bad news.
"Abby just got a hit on the DNA from under the dead guy's fingers."
"You mean other than me?" Jasper asked.
"Yes the guy had two different DNA types under his nails, yours and another on top of yours meaning that he was in a fight with someone else after he fought with you. Abby said that the results came back to La Grenouille."
"How accurate your little scientist is." Came a voice from the doorway. The group turned to see the man who had made not only Jasper's life a nightmare, but also Jenny's. In his hand was a gun trained on Jenny's head.
"One wrong move and I will shoot your darling little girl right between the eyes Jasper. I will kill her right in front of you." René stated coldly.
DUN-DUN-DUN! What will happen will they survive this encounter with the notorious Frog?!
Ok I know I'm milking it a bit here, but I love the suspense! On a sadder note, I have only got one more chapter plus and epilogue left of A Blast from The Past, before I will be bringing this story to a close. I have however got a plan for a sequel for Sisters of Magic, and am currently writing the next chapter for A Love that would last forever. So I hope that you will read and review like always, and enjoy this chapter. ^_^
Beth xx
