Secret Santa Story

by Mrs Scott 323

for ilovenascar


Christmas Eve

She'd been watching his house since this morning. Waiting for him to go to work, find some kind of crime scene or anything else that would take him out of the house for a few hours. Finally at ten he stormed out of the house, his side arm still in his hands when he quickly made his way to his car and drove out of the driveway. She smiled and rubbed her hands, to get the feeling back in them. She knew she had to work fast. There was no time to spare.

Jenny crossed the road and walked around the house, if she remembered correctly, he had a spare key hidden right.. there. Thanking him mentally for not changing the hiding place she walked to the back door and entered his house.

"Now if I was Jethro, where would I keep the decorations."

On an impulse she walked up the stairs, and then another set of stairs right to the attic. She was lucky, the first thing she saw when she opened the door was two boxed marked Christmas decorations. They were covered in dust, obviously, they hadn't been used in quite some time. Jenny carried the boxes down the stairs and set them in the living room.

She went back outside again, walked down the block to her car where she'd left the tree. She parked her car on his driveway and set the tree inside. Now the fun things could begin.


It was already very late when he returned home, the case had taken longer than he'd expected. Especially since his team had been off for the holidays. They all went home to spend Christmas and in Ziva's case Hanukkah with their families. Ducky hadn't tried to convince him to spend Christmas Eve with him and his mother, and for that he was glad. His friend knew that Christmas was still a very difficult time for him. It was one of the days in the year that he missed Shannon and Kelly the most. But not just them, Jenny too.

He'd prepared himself for a night in his basement with his bottle of bourbon but when he entered through the front door the smell of pine greeted him.

And he definitely didn't remember setting up a Christmas tree.

He followed the smell and it led him to his living room. There it was, decorated and with presents underneath: a Christmas tree. He walked closer, wondering who'd put it there. Then he noticed the ornaments in the tree: there were some old ornaments, obviously made by a child. He smiled, Kelly's hand made ornaments were always something. When her teacher had told her to try to make a reindeer, she'd made a snowman, when they told her to decorate some balls with snowflakes, she'd made three with all of their names on it: Mommy, Daddy and Kelly. All of them were there.

But there were some new ones too: Tony, Ziva, Abby, Tim, Ducky, Kate and Jenny. He took the last ones in his hands, glad that whoever did this, had included them too. Then he heard someone walk up behind him.

"Thank you."

He turned around and was greeted with a face that he'd never expected to see again. Eyes he'd never thought he'd see again.

Jenny.

Jenny with two mugs of hot chocolate in her hands.

"Merry Christmas, Jethro."

He wasn't sure if he could believe it. Not sure if he should be angry, upset or happy. In a daze he walked over to her. He raised his hands his fingers tracing the outline of her face and putting a lost lock of hair behind her ear. She smiled at him. Leaning slightly into his touch. Or was it just his imagination?

"Want some?"

He accepted the mug. Opening his mouth to ask the most important question.

How was this possible?

She raised her fingers to his lips. "I know I owe you an explanation. But for tonight, can't we just be?"

He was torn, but the pleading look in her eyes told him that whatever it was, it would be a conversation that would be very difficult for the both of them. He took her hands away from his mouth, turned it around to press a kiss on the back of her hand. He led her to the couch, and they sat down. Jenny leaned on his shoulder and he raised his arm to make it a bit easier for her to snuggle against him.

And even with all the questions that were still left, they both enjoyed their quiet evening together, watching the Christmas tree. Telling stories about Christmases past. The ones they'd spent when they were little, the ones they'd spent together and all the other ones they'd spent apart.

He felt that her head was leaning slightly heavier onto him and he turned his to look. She'd fallen asleep. Smiling he gave her forehead a kiss and pulled her a bit closer, enjoying the feeling of her against him once again.

It certainly was a happy Chirstmas.