Okay, so first I need to apologise for how long it took me to update this chapter. I couldn't even believe that it was more than two weeks. Geez.... that went fast. Anyway, you should all really be thanking 4sweetdreams, who got me off my ass to write and post this next chapter. Only two more to go, probably, so I hope to be done with this story soon.

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Chapter Ten

11 August 2000

Boulevard de Palais, Paris

12.37 p.m. (1137 GMT)

Their arrival at the courthouse was almost anti-climatic. No fireworks, or even sparks of any kind. Nothing. Nothing at all. Jenny and DuPonte remained in their dark rental parked on the opposite side of the street to the entrance of the courthouse, somewhat obscured by surrounding vehicles and the low hanging branches of the trees above. After the adrenaline rush of the past few minutes as they sped away from the warehouse and from the cars chasing them, leaving a trail of destruction behind, Jenny felt flushed with a familiar exhaustion, remembering that she hadn't slept well since she was safe in Gibbs' strong embrace two nights earlier.

"It's well past twelve-thirty," Jenny commented angrily for the third time. "Where the hell are they?"

"Have patience, they will be here," DuPonte reminded her again, his tone calming himself, but only unhinging Jenny more.

"How can you just sit here like that?! We need to be ready for when they do come, which could be any minute now!"

"I am preparing myself..." DuPonte replied in the same calm tone, his voice almost drifting off. "You should do the same."

Jenny bit back her retort and nodded instead, understanding the truth of his words. They were going to be outnumbered, two to at least half a dozen, probably twice that, with two unarmed prisoners to rescue safely in the middle of a busy and very public street. Their survival would be a miracle, but Jenny knew that each of them were committed to going down fighting, else they would never have placed themselves in the position to begin with. She knew that they could've gotten out of this long ago, after they escaped from Carcassonne. It was only a few miles east to Marseille where there was an NCIS office, or a few miles south to the Spanish border where they could find transport back to her own office in Rota, but they stayed. Jenny sensed that each of her companions, like her, had a great amount of courage, especially when the odds were so bleakly against them.

"Here we go," DuPonte muttered as he watched a prisoner transport vehicle pull up exactly opposite them. He flicked the safety off on his Beretta and opened the door, casually stowing the weapon away in his pants. Jenny copied him and hopped out of the driver's seat, leaving the keys in the ignition in case the need arose for a speedy getaway. She knew that it probably would.

DuPonte had already snaked along the side of the van, Jenny in tow, making sure that they were standing in the blind spot of the driver's passenger side window. They heard a door wrench open and a few men file out. DuPonte bravely snuck a glance around the back of the van to see the armed guards about to open the door. He sank back into his previous position and nodded to Jenny, hoping she knew what that hint was directing.

Meanwhile, in the back of the van, a solemn silence had gripped Gibbs and Ducky as they anticipated their fate. As they felt the van lurch to a halt, Ducky snuck a frightful glance at his companion. "The fact that we're getting a trial must work in our favour, right? Jethro?" Ducky knew that he his question was naive, but voicing that opinion actually calmed his nerves somewhat. It did little, however, for the brooding man sitting across from him.

"I doubt it, Duck. There is a lot off about their plan. Too much we don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say they brought us here to be executed."

"In front of all these people?" Ducky asked incredulously, as if Gibbs had been blaspheming, but he also had the sinking feeling of dread.

"Like I said, there's a lot we don't know. Something's about to happen."

"Marie Antoinette was executed by the guillotine here," Ducky began, but stopped as they heard someone approach and open the doors. It was the guards that had taken them from whatever prison they had previously been held in to the van that transported to where they were now- the Palais de Justice.

Jenny, meanwhile, snuck around the front of the vehicle, attempting to look inconspicuous amongst a flock of tourists out the front of the gates to the May Courtyard and, at the same time, ducking from the view of the van's driver. She quickly manoeuvred around the front of the van, seeing one armed guard on the other side of the van, gripping his assault rifle and staring in the opposite direction to her. Skilfully, she moved towards him with grace and ease and brought her gun up to his temple. Training taught her to kill in these situations, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Without having the time to debate her "weakness" with another part of her brain, she flipped the gun around and brought the butt slamming down with all her might on to the man's temple. He dropped, out like a light, and Jenny caught him awkwardly on the way down to minimise noise. She stood up again and wiped her hands clean, rather proud of herself, before grabbing her gun once more and moving towards the back of the van.

DuPonte was biding his time until the two guards had busied themselves unlocking and opening the doors. It was in that moment that he chose to pounce, shoving one guard's head into the door and, as that man fell to the ground, the other gripped his gun and aimed it in DuPonte's direction. He didn't have time to react, but he'd been expecting it. He dropped to the ground and kicked the man's legs out from under him, causing him to topple backwards and fire shots into the air.

That was when chaos ensued. Tourists and locals alike, all were screaming and running away from the scene. It also meant that more armed officials, both from following vehicles and from inside the courthouse, responded to the situation. Now, DuPonte knew, they would be outnumbered, but he still had the second guard to deal with. The man had almost abandoned the gun for a moment to wrestle, giving DuPonte enough time to collect his thoughts, but he soon remembered it and gripped it once more, as he tried to jump to his feet, but he did not have a chance. Gibbs hurtled towards the struggling guard at an outstanding pace and knocked him flat on his back, his head hitting the road hard and he dropped out of consciousness.

Jenny came around the corner of the van as more armed officers and prison guards rushed towards them. "We'd better get outta here now! Come on, Ducky!"

The older gentleman made his way out of the van after Gibbs very quickly, adrenaline surging through his veins now too. He practically jumped out and joined the other three in taking cover on the other side of the van as it was hailed with bullets from gunfire that they didn't even know was coming. Jenny tried to look, but there was no way she could see where it was coming from without getting shot. DuPonte, on the other hand, was more concerned with getting out of there quickly instead of safely, and was pulling them towards their rental. Jenny gave up on trying to fight and chose the flight path as well, following them as DuPonte got managed to dive roll passed a hail of bullets and get into the driver's seat with Gibbs and Ducky following immediately and getting into the open passenger door. Their hands were still cuffed behind their back, so it was more of a leap head first into the car, one after the other. Gibbs let Ducky get in first and then jumped on top of the man afterwards as Jenny ran forth, gunfire still raging behind her and ripped open the passenger side door, jumping in quickly and shutting hers and Gibbs' doors.

DuPonte already had the engine roaring and he sped off as soon as the Jenny closed her door. They could still hear the bullets tearing towards them and missing, like they had been doing so for the past thirty seconds, but it died off as they sped around a corner. No one had dared yet make the comment that the French police had abysmal aim, but they were all thinking it, ecstatic to have made it out of that alive. Jenny was counting her blessings and found herself staring at Gibbs the whole time. She'd reached into the back seat to help Gibbs and Ducky sit up properly and then picked the locks on their handcuffs as DuPonte was pulling speedway tricks to evade the now pursuing police officers. The three NCIS staffers were having flashbacks of their last epic car adventure in Carcassonne with police hot on their trail and prayed that this one would end differently.

"How is it possible that this operation stems high up enough in your police force that we're being hunted through Paris by them?" Gibsb ejected as soon as his hands were free and he could make rapid gestures to accompany his words. "And who are you?"

"Alexandre DuPonte, French Intelligence," the driver answered quickly and then looked to Jenny to take over in the explanation.

She caught on and did so immediately. "There is a DCPJ agent, the head of a department, who is leading the operation. He has many powerful people in his pocket, including a politician and a Navy captain."

"Name?" Gibbs asked shortly.

"Didier Raoul Corentin," DuPonte answered.

"Where are we going?" Ducky asked, breaking up the chatter about the case.

"Out of the city," DuPonte replied quickly as his driving skills became madder by the minute. "Probably the north-west coast. You can get a boat across the Channel to southern England."

"Good idea," Jenny agreed and then turned around to face Gibbs once more. "What happened?"

Gibbs could tell that she was talking about the wounds that were inflicted on him the night before. He merely shrugged and gave no verbal answer.

Jenny then turned to Ducky. "You know these streets better than me, why don't you hop into the front seat? I can clean Jethro's cuts." And so they awkwardly swapped seats as DuPonte raced down the highway doing twice the permissible speed limit. They could still hear sirens, but they were at least a quarter of a mile behind now.

As Ducky opened the map of the streets of exterior Paris, Jenny pulled out a first aid kit, dabbing some disinfectant on to a tissue and leaning forward to wipe Gibbs face. He shied away from her touch initially, but as it became softer and he became accustomed to the sting of the disinfectant, he found himself leaning towards her. There was no need for words between them—they communicated their thoughts through their bodily and facial expressions.

They sat together in silence when she finished, looking deeply at each other and lost for words. Both knew how close they'd come to losing their lives, and Jenny's gesture of coming to get them was as potent in his mind as her betrayal in Toulouse. He didn't want to bring it up, but he could see the guilt-stricken pain in her eyes.

"It wasn't your fault, Jenny," Gibbs murmured, not wanting the two men in the front to hear their conversation. "You did what you had to do and you came back for us. You don't need to apologise."

But she did anyway. "I'm so sorry, Jethro. If I had known what would've happened to you-"

Gibbs cut her off. "Never say you're sorry. It's a sign of weakness." Jenny found herself murmuring the last part with him. Gibbs smiled at her softly, a smile that she returned. "So at least tell me that you two found out who killed Agent Bellings. I don't wanna hear that this whole party was for nothing."

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