A/n: Hello lovelies :) I won't say much, just that I hope you're having a good summer, that you enjoy the chapter; and look it! It's up in under a month! Oh, and read the author's note at the end. It's more than my nonsensical rambling for once. ;)
Jenny laid on the couch in Gibbs' living room with her hair tossed up into a bun and her glasses perched on the end of her nose. Kelly sat on the floor surrounded by, but carefully out of the way of her mother's stacks of papers and folders.
"Mom," Kelly called, looking up abruptly; and Jenny lifted her brows slightly, murmuring a distracted sound of acknowledgement though her eyes never left the paper she was reading. "Mommy," Kelly persisted more urgently; and Jenny murmured louder. "Mom!" Kelly sighed loudly, giving her mother's dangling a foot a gentle push.
Jenny sighed in exasperation and slapped the paper she was reading down onto her lap, giving Kelly her full albeit annoyed attention.
"What?" she demanded, taking her glasses off to look at the brunette.
Her head hurt; and she was overworked. Gibbs' team had the weekend off despite the fact that the Bauer case was looking more and more a cold case every day; but instead of spending time with her family she was catching up on back paperwork for her company. Kelly sitting in the same room with her was about as close to quality time as it got. In all fairness, she had expected Kelly to be with Joanne; but they had ended up moving plans to Saturday rather than Friday.
"Laura's mom wants to know what time to drop her off next Friday," Kelly said, capping her marker before grabbing a new one.
"What's next Friday?" Jenny asked absently, her eyes already returning to her paper even without her glasses.
"My sleepover," Kelly reminded her; and Jenny's eyes shot up. She froze, clearly having forgotten all about it. "You forgot," Kelly said matter-of-factly. "Mom!" she groaned. "Lauren, Maddie, Lilly, and Lizzie are supposed to spend the night and then you're taking me and Maddie to our recital."
"I remember," Jenny lied unconvincingly.
"No, you don't. You forgot!" Kelly insisted indignantly, glaring at her mother angrily.
"Hey!" Jenny scolded sharply at Kelly's belligerent tone before her voice softened. "So I forgot. Don't worry about it. You'll have your sleepover," she promised.
Kelly had been looking forward to it for weeks. It was the last time she and her friends would be able to spend real time together before school started again.
"You always forget about me now," Kelly said fiercely, meeting her mother's eyes with contempt. "You're never here."
Jenny paused in going back to her work, wrinkling her brow with surprised hurt and concern in her eyes.
"Hey," Jenny murmured softly, setting the folder aside and slid down off the couch to kneel next to Kelly who was chewing on the inside of her bottom lip dejectedly. "I don't forget about you," Jenny insisted earnestly, grabbing Kelly's face gently to look at her. "I know I'm not home as much as I used to be; but you like Noemi, right?" she asked hopefully.
"She's not my mom," Kelly replied simply, looking up at Jenny through her dark hair with her big, blue eyes; and Jenny's heart almost broke.
Jenny sighed, tucking an errant piece of hair behind Kelly's ear with a guilty look on her face.
"Just because I don't make it to everything and I forget some things doesn't mean I forget about you," Jenny tried to impress upon Kelly. "Have I ever broken a promise to you?" she asked. "Have I ever told you I would be somewhere and not shown up?"
"No," Kelly mumbled, finding the floor very interesting all of a sudden.
"No," Jenny agreed pointedly, tilting Kelly's chin up so that she was looking at her again. "You are at the top of every list. You're always number one. Don't ever think you aren't."
Kelly nodded silently with her eyes on the floor again. Jenny tilted her head down to try to meet Kelly's eyes.
"Okay?" Jenny prodded almost desperately.
"Yeah," Kelly said with a short-lived and unconvincing little smile before she moved to her feet, brushing the lint off of her black shorts. "I'm going to go help Daddy with the boat," she announced.
"Kelly," Jenny called her back, finding her voice strangled by distress and at a loss for words; and Kelly stopped, turning to face her mother's pained expression.
"I know, Mommy," Kelly said with one of her smiles, but it failed to reach her sad little eyes before she turned on her heel; and ran off to find her father.
Jenny caught the corner of her top lip between her teeth; and inhaled deeply as she fell back against the couch. She dropped her face into her hands with a heavy sigh before dragging her hands down to rest against her lips. She stared off into space, rubbing her fingers over her mouth absently, wondering when she had gotten so selfish and Kelly so forgiving.
It became very clear to her that she would have to make a choice soon: her father or her daughter. If Kelly felt that way when she was still just an agent, what would happen as she moved up the ranks and NCIS started sending her all over the world? It would be naïve and simple minded to think that every open position would allow her to remain in the states; and much as she hated to admit it, Kelly was used to her father not being around; but Jenny had always been there.
Kelly stood on a box thirty minutes later sanding the boat with her father behind her guiding her hand. She giggled as he murmured something into her ear in his gruff voice.
"You're silly, Daddy," she laughed.
Jethro laughed softly, looking up as Jenny made her way down the steps: silent without her trademark heels. He followed her with his gaze while Kelly rambled on about the latest in elementary school adventures until Jenny stopped at the foot of the stairs, leaning against the beam there with a bittersweet smile on her face.
Kelly stopped talking the moment she noticed her, eyeing her mother warily. Jenny walked across the basement and grabbed a sander from the workbench without a word; and Jethro stepped away from Kelly just as silently so that Jenny could take his place.
Kelly remained silent as Jenny wrapped her arms around her middle; and rested her chin on top of her head.
"You know I love you, right?" Jenny sighed; and she felt Kelly nod. "I'll do better okay?" she murmured. Another nod. "Still love me?" she asked; and Kelly laughed.
"Yes," the young girl giggled softly, leaning back into her mother's embrace; and Jenny smiled, looking over Kelly's head to meet Jethro's knowing gaze.
She mouthed a thank you as she ran a hand over Kelly's hair; and a lopsided smirk graced his face before he took a sip from the makeshift bourbon tumbler as Kelly picked up where she left off on her tale of snakes at recess.
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Jenny stood in Jethro's bedroom later that night dressed in a pair of Jethro's sweatpants that she had rolled over at the waist band about four times to fit her and a tank top she had left there the previous weekend. She had been spending more and more time there as of late; and now it was expected that either she would spend the weekend at his house or he at hers. She flipped her hair forward, twisting it loosely and secured it into a bun at the top of her head.
"I think I might cut my hair," she mused aloud, scrunching her nose in the mirror before releasing the bun anyway.
"Don't," he objected rather impassionedly; and Jenny snorted, turning to face him.
"I was not asking your permission," she informed him haughtily, tossing the topic of discussion over her shoulder and raking her fingers through the ends.
"Don't cut your hair, Jen," he said, but she merely smiled. The man had a thing for hair—long hair and long legs.
Kelly walked in at that moment dressed in her pajamas and braiding her own hair to one side.
"Can we watch a movie now?" she requested; and Jenny turned her around to usher her out of the room while she followed close behind with her hands on either side of Kelly's head.
"What are we watching?" Jenny asked as they made their way down the stairs.
"Roger Rabbit," Kelly decided, tilting her head back briefly to look at Jenny who smirked.
"Your father will like that one," she murmured, looking back over her shoulder at Jethro, thinking of Roger Rabbit's redheaded and ample-bodied wife.
"You look kind of like Jessica Rabbit," Jethro said a few minutes later as they sat on the couch while Kelly made popcorn.
Jenny snorted at the ludicrous statement; and chose to address it in the joking manner it was meant.
"I don't have her ass," she laughed as she moved to her feet.
"It's a good one though," he complimented her; and she turned to him with a half amused-half suspicious smile.
"What's gotten into you?" she demanded with a cautious smirk before she headed into the kitchen to see what was taking Kelly so long.
When she walked in she nearly had a heart attack at seeing Kelly balancing precariously on the edge of the sink with one foot up in the air, her balance aided only by the open cabinet she was holding onto.
Jenny was across the kitchen in an instant and grabbing her down.
"Mom!" Kelly protested.
"I would prefer if you didn't fall and bust your head open," Jenny shot back smartly.
"I was trying to get a bowl," Kelly explained, pointing to the large Tupperware container.
Kelly had inherited some unfortunate, throwback short stature. Despite both Shannon and Jethro's taller than average heights, Kelly looked more Jenny's daughter in that aspect.
"I'll get it," Jenny said, reaching for the container only to find that she too was too short to reach it. She didn't know why Jethro insisted on putting things out of reach of anyone but him.
Against her own advice, she moved to climb up onto the counter only to be stopped by Kelly's admonishing voice.
"You're going to bust your head open," she mocked; and Jenny glared.
Kelly shrunk back under her mother's glare; and grinned bashfully. It worked anyway. Jenny kept her feet on the ground. She tossed her head back and yelled instead.
"Jethro!"
Kelly jumped slightly. She had once heard her father remark that Jenny had the lung capacity for commanding an army; and in that instant she was inclined to agree.
Jethro appeared in the doorway with an lazy, expectant look. After nearly nine years, he knew that just because Jenny yelled, urgency was not necessarily constituted.
"I can't reach it," Jenny informed him pointing to the bowl, clearly annoyed at the fact; and he rolled his eyes, covering the distance between them in few strides. He reached up, and grabbed it before handing it to her with a slightly raised brow and an amused smirk. He was reminded of just how short she was with her standing in front of him with bare feet rather than her trademark sky-high pumps.
"Do you have to put everything six feet in the air?" she demanded, handing Kelly the bowl; and she leaped forward with a squeak when he goosed her in retaliation. Kelly looked up at Jenny in surprise; and Jenny assumed the look of a deer caught in headlights. Kelly brushed it off and opened the popcorn bag. She knew by now that her mother was less than normal.
Jenny whipped around to face Jethro with a glare.
"Do you have a sudden, insatiate interest in my rear end, Agent Gibbs?" she murmured lowly as Kelly walked past them, hugging the large bowl of popcorn to herself.
"Not sudden," he shot back, swiping a piece of popcorn out of the bowl; and Jenny scoffed at his behavior but grinned, shaking her head nonetheless.
Jenny yawned halfway through the movie, the combination of Jethro's absent-minded massaging of her scalp and the insane hours she had been keeping starting to take its toll.
"Mom, you can't go to sleep," Kelly protested, looking up at Jenny from where her head laid in her mother's lap.
Jenny and Jethro had somehow managed to gravitate closer to each other as the movie went on so that Jenny sat cuddled into his side with her head on his shoulder and him with his hand in her hair; and Kelly laid stretched out across their laps with the bowl of popcorn resting on her stomach.
"I'm not," Jenny assured her, though another yawn made her statement less than convincing. "I'm wide awake," she insisted with sleepy smile.
Jenny looked up, felling Jethro's gaze on her; and she smiled at him in silent indication that she was fine. She rested her head back on his shoulder, wondering briefly how a few nights of casual sex had led to her spending her weekends with him again; and now she was wearing his clothes and snuggling up to him on his couch. He was her boss now. The stakes were higher; and maybe it was the two glasses of wine she'd had talking but she also realized that frankly, she could care less. She burrowed deeper into his side; and he looked down only a moment as she resituated herself.
Kelly Gibbs was not stupid, nor was she was she as blind as her parents seemed to think she was. Clearly, they thought they were getting away with the looks and "secret" kisses. Currently they both had those weird looks on their faces; and Kelly decided to make her knowledge known once and for all.
"So do you guys love each other again yet?" she asked suddenly; and both Jenny and Gibbs looked at her abruptly.
"What?" Jenny demanded, being the first one to find her voice.
"You keep looking at Daddy funny," Kelly said like as much should be obvious—mostly because it was. "Elsie says that's how you look at somebody you love. Not love like you love me," she clarified. "Love, love," as if that created such a distinction.
"Um," Jenny hesitated, truly wide awake now. "Your Dad and I never stopped loving each other," she finally said with a question mark at the end of her statement, hoping to pacify Kelly despite her own uncertainty.
She was unsuccessful.
"That's just semantics," Kelly persisted, using Jenny's favorite word against her.
Jethro grinned; and Jenny's mouth dropped before she too smiled.
"Oh?" the redhead laughed, raising a brow inquisitively.
"Do you love Daddy like a puppy or do you love, love him like a husband?" Kelly asked.
"I love him like a mother loves her child's father," Jenny said evasively; and Kelly scrunched her nose at her in annoyance.
Jethro took it upon himself to put an end to their game and turned Jenny's head toward him, pressing his lips to hers. Jenny froze with a squeak of surprise for a moment before she relaxed and smiled into the kiss, eliciting a squeal of joy from Kelly. Both adults laughed as she shot upright, crawling into her father's lap.
"Close your eyes," Jethro instructed.
"I've seen you and mommy kiss before," Kelly retorted saucily.
"This is scary kissing," he said.
"Scarier than a frog?" Kelly asked.
Jethro murmured in agreement,reaching his arm around to place a hand over her eyes and Kelly giggled, trying to pull his hand down as Jenny slid her hand up behind his neck, nipping his bottom lip with her teeth.
"Jethro," she murmured, her tone an odd mixture of relieved revelation and admonishing warning.
The man had no concept of subtlety or discretion. Everything he did was like ripping the Band-Aid off. Now, there was no denying their relationship; but the thought quickly dawned on her that perhaps that was his intention.
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"Daddy!" Kelly called, running through the house the following morning. "Dad!" she yelled insistently. "Dad!"
"What?" he yelled back from what sounded like the basement-no surprise there.
"Stop yelling across the house!" Jenny shouted louder than either of them, coming down the stairs where she nearly ran into Kelly in the living room—or rather Kelly nearly ran into her. "What are you doing?" she demanded of the child.
"Do you know where my blue dress is?" Kelly asked, toying with the tie on her lavender robe, answering Jenny's question in a roundabout way.
"You have several blue dresses," Jenny pointed out, raising a brow; and Kelly sighed in exasperation.
"The one I really like," she stressed. "With the flowers on it. Daddy said he washed it; but I can't find it."
Jenny laughed.
"Oh, honey, your father doesn't wash clothes. Either I do it or he buys new ones," she quipped.
"Help me find it, please?" Kelly requested, baring her teeth as she drug out her 'e' and tugged Jenny's hand in her father's direction.
Jenny obliged and allowed Kelly to lead her toward the basement. She stopped at the top of stairs and yelled down them.
"Jethro, your daughter is missing a dress," she informed him.
"Told her it was in the wash," he called back.
"So she says. Since when do you wash clothes?" Jenny demanded, sighing at the realization that she would have to go downstairs.
She walked across the basement, coming to a stop in front of him with her hand propped on her hip and her head tilted to the side with a skeptical look on her face.
"Since you stopped," he shot back with a smirk; and she laughed sarcastically.
"Cute," she murmured, thinking just the opposite. "Fine," she acquiesced, turning to head back up the stairs. "It better be there, Gibbs," she warned, leaning over the banister before she disappeared from sight.
"Did you find it?" Kelly asked hopefully when Jenny found her in her bedroom, packing the rest of her things.
"I did," Jenny replied, revealing it from behind her back. "In the laundry room," she said pointedly over Kelly's delighted cheer.
Kelly smiled abashedly.
"Thank you," she said gratefully; and Jenny murmured in reluctant acknowledgement.
"Hurry up and get dressed," Jenny said, already heading for the door to give Kelly some privacy. "We don't want to keep your grandmother waiting," she reasoned before shutting the door behind her.
Jethro jogged up the steps ten minutes later, expecting Jenny and Kelly to already be gone; so imagine his surprise when Kelly's door flew open with a bang and the child in question stumbled out with her dress halfway over her head, her arms caught up in the fabric at an awkward angle so that she looked like something akin to a covered scarecrow.
"Mom! Help me!" she cried, clearly in some severe distress over her predicament. She was only slightly claustrophobic. "Mommy!" Kelly pleaded, getting more hysterical every second.
"Kelly," Jethro called gruffly, making himself known with the beginnings of an amused grin on his face.
"Daddy," Kelly gasped, spinning to face his voice. "I can't get this stupid dress on," she growled, her voice muffled by the fabric.
"Alright," he tried to calm her. "Stop moving. I'll get it on," he said, adopting the yanking approach.
"Ow!" Kelly whined.
"Sorry," he murmured, unable to stifle a laugh at her expense before trying to work the dress down in a gentler fashion; though it was to no avail, and Kelly merely cried out in pain again.
And this is what Jenny found when she climbed the stairs in search of Kelly not five minutes later, wondering what was taking so long.
"Kelly, what—?"
Jenny broke off at the sight that met her and pressed her lips together, narrowing her eyes in half confusion-half disbelief before she giggled.
"Help me," Kelly called in her muffled voice which only made Jenny laugh harder.
"Mom!" Kelly huffed, more annoyed than distressed at this point.
"Okay," Jenny laughed, resting reassuring hands on Kelly's shoulders. "Stand still," she instructed.
"Get it off," Kelly demanded, breathing heavily. She was hot; and it was getting hard to breathe. "Mom, I can't breathe," she gasped, starting to struggle against the dress again.
"Kelly!" Jenny cut in sharply, squatting in front of her; and the brunette finally stood still. "Calm down," her mother laughed softly. "Just stand still, I'll fix it."
Within a minute or two, Jenny had maneuvered the dress over Kelly's head; and the child was looking at her tickled expression. Jenny bit her lip sympathetically at Kelly's now harried expression. Her face was all flushed pink, she had a rather disgruntled look on her face, and strands of her dark hair were down falling all over her face.
Kelly pushed the hair back with a huff, allowing her hands to smack down at her sides.
"Better?" Jenny murmured despite the quivering at the corners of her lips.
"Yes," Kelly sighed heavily. "Can you fix my hair?" she asked, still frowning; and Jenny nodded with a grin.
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Jenny pulled up to Joanne's dirt driveway an hour later; and miraculously only ten minutes late. Shannon's mother owned a nice sized lot of land in Fairfax, and she kept a few horses. Jenny smiled at the older woman through her sunglasses as Joanne raised a hand into the air from where she stood on her front porch. Jenny raised a hand in a small wave; and Kelly much more enthusiastically, stuck her head out of the window.
"Hi, grandma!" she called, waving madly; and Jenny saw Joanne laugh.
"Kelly, get your head back in the car," Jenny scolded though she laughed nonetheless.
She shook her head when Kelly all but launched herself out of the car the moment Jenny turned the car off.
"Grandma, it worked!" Kelly shouted, running up the dirt pathway. "Daddy kissed my mom."
Joanne looked up with her arms around Kelly as Jenny came up the walkway carrying Kelly's bag.
"Joanne," Jenny greeted her with a suspicious smile and a cocked brow at Kelly's exclamation. She pushed her shades back on her head; and handed Kelly her bag.
"How are you, Jenny?" Joanne replied warmly.
"Fine," Jenny said slowly. "Do I even want to know what that was about?" she asked; and Joanne merely cracked a secretive smile. "Six tomorrow?" Jenny asked, reaffirming the plans they had made.
"Six," Joanne agreed; and Jenny smiled before turning to Kelly. She bent over to pull her into her arms despite Kelly's eagerness to get to her horse.
"Bye, have fun," Jenny said as Kelly wiggled out of her embrace taking off around the house. "Be good!" Jenny yelled after her.
"Love you," Kelly called back hurriedly in farewell; and Jenny turned to Joanne with a good natured roll of her eyes as Kelly disappeared from sight.
Joanne reached down to grab Kelly's bag, but Jenny stopped her.
"I'll take it," she insisted; and later she wished she had just gone on her way.
The pink bag was far from heavy, and maybe it was some irrational need to prove her maternal competency to Joanne still buried deep in her psyche; but Jenny felt she ought to take it nonetheless.
Joanne directed her to a pink-painted room full of flowers and Paris. Jenny smiled as she looked around. Try as Jenny had to deter her, Kelly Gibbs loved pink; and it showed in the room. The decal of Audrey Hepburn by the bed made Jenny pause, and she turned to Joanne, pointing to it in question.
"She woke up one weekend when I was watching a movie," Joanne replied; and Jenny nodded.
She ran her fingers along the edge of the pink and white striped bedding; and her eyes skimmed briefly over the dark pink silhouette of the Paris skyline visible behind the white headboard before her eyes came to rest on a pale pink, silk throw pillow.
"La Princesse," Jenny murmured with a perfect French accent and a small smile. She set the pillow back on the bed; and turned to Joanne. "It's beautiful, Joanne," she said sincerely.
Looking around at the room that was just Kelly, it brought Jenny comfort that her daughter would never need for a place to go under any circumstance. She could always feel at home. She already had three bedrooms personalized to her tastes.
"She picked most of it out," Joanne said, looking around the room with a smile of her own. "It used to be the guest room, so most of the furniture was already here; but that's about it."
"Where did she get the Paris thing?" Jenny asked, thinking briefly that it was something she should know.
"Gay Puree," Joanne laughed. "At least I think so."
Jenny grinned.
"I remember that movie," she mused, and her face fell slightly at remembering the memory to be with her father. "I guess I should get going," she announced; and Joanne was pulled from her reverie.
"I'll walk you out," Joanne offered.
As they reached the foot of the stairs, Kelly came wandering in through the back door; and she cocked her head to the side in brief confusion at seeing Jenny still there.
"Are you staying, Mom?" Kelly asked; and Jenny's gaze darted to Joanne and back to Kelly.
Jenny shook her head.
"No, honey, I—"
"You're welcome to," Joanne interjected; and Jenny turned back to meet her indifferent gaze.
"I'm not really dressed, am I?" Jenny asked, looking down at her nude-colored heels and white—everything else.
"Stay, Mommy, please," Kelly requested, grabbing Jenny's hand; and Jenny groaned softly. She hesitated a moment more before finally conceding.
"Alright," she sighed resignedly with a small smile; and Kelly grinned.
"You can ride horses," Kelly said cheerfully, already tugging Jenny toward the back where Joanne kept the horses.
Jenny grimaced. It had been years since she had last been on a horse, and her last experience had not been a pleasant one.
"I haven't been on a horse in years," she objected, voicing as much.
"You can ride Nuts, he's nice. He'll let anybody ride him." Kelly waved her off as they started across the field; and Jenny snorted.
"Nuts?"
"Yeah, I was eating peanuts and he ate them right out of my hand even though they're not supposed to, but he was fine; so I called him Nuts," Kelly explained rather quickly so that her sentence sounded more like some variation of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. "That, and Grandma says his coat is Chestnut."
Jenny blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what she had just heard. The only thing she had understood was the last sentence.
"Okay," she laughed finally, still not entirely sure she got it right.
Jenny looked up as they came upon an open, green shed encasing the horse stalls. Kelly grabbed the horse feed from its place by the door; and held it out for Jenny to take before she pulled out a stepping stool that had been tucked away. Jenny followed her to the first stall which held a pretty, black horse.
"This is Adie," Kelly said, setting the stool in front of the horse's gate, very much in her element; and took the feed from Jenny. "She's grandma's new horse," Kelly murmured, petting the horse's nose.
"Is she friendly?" Jenny asked, smiling at Kelly's uncanny ability with animals. Kelly had informed both Jenny and Jethro on several occasions that she was going to be a veterinarian; and it became clearer every day that it was a perfect fit.
She had spent her entire life around horses. According to Jethro, Shannon loved them and had competed when she was young. She had wanted Kelly to love them—Jenny even remembered Kelly's nursery being horse themed, and Jethro had been adamant about fulfilling her wish. Kelly had also always been the child to bring home stray cats and dogs with the intention of giving them a home. It had taken quite some time to get her to understand that their home was not hers.
"She's friendly," Kelly said, looking up at Jenny. "She doesn't like strangers though."
"Well, I won't try to touch her then," Jenny said, taking a step back from the horse.
"She won't hurt you, or anything," Kelly assured her, furrowing her brows in concern at Jenny's behavior.
"I'm sure that's true," Jenny said, eyeing the horse warily nonetheless. "I think I'll keep my distance just to be safe though."
"You can pet Peg though," Kelly said, her eyes lighting up at the thought of her horse. "Peg likes you."
"I know," Jenny murmured, moving down to the next stable over to stroke the white horse's nose; and she smiled when she leaned into her. "Hey, Peg," she laughed.
Both Jenny and Jethro had objected to such an extravagant gift when Joanne had first presented Kelly with the White Mustang; but it soon became clear that the two would become an inseparable pair. Jenny had made the comment that the horse was Kelly's Pegasus. The name had stuck; but since it was a female horse they nicknamed her Peggy. That had since been shortened to Peg.
Jenny saw Kelly hop off of the stool and set the feed down out of the corner of her eye.
"This one is Nuts," Kelly said, running past Jenny who stroked Peg's nose one last time before she followed her.
"That sounds nice," Jenny murmured under her breath sarcastically.
Kelly failed to hear her or she pretended not to.
"Go ahead, pet him," she prompted; and Jenny eyed Kelly skeptically before reaching out hesitantly and rested her hand on the horse's nose. She relaxed a bit when he didn't rear back and kick her in the face. That was about what she was expecting.
"You're not so bad," Jenny murmured; and the horse merely continued to stare at her with an indifferent stare that reminded Jenny quite a lot of Gibbs 'I don't care' glare.
Jenny and Kelly looked up at the sound of voices and footfalls on the grass. Joanne rounded the corner with what looked like several pairs of riding boots. What made her pause though, was the man at her side.
"Jethro?" Jenny asked in confusion, raising a brow expectantly. "What are you doing here?"
"We've got a case," he said. "Caught Joanne on the way over here. Rule number three," he reminded her with sharp glare.
"What do you mean we have a case?" Jenny demanded, digging into her pocket for her phone. It should have rung. "We're not catching this weekend."
"Director wants all hands on deck. It's some politician's kid," he said, clearly displeased with the unnecessary amount of man power being used.
"It's dead," Jenny said, holding the phone up.
She sighed finally, allowing her hand to drop; and headed toward him like a disgruntled child. The actual child in the group stormed past her angrily; and all but ran from the stables without a word.
Jenny watched her go, tugging her lip between her teeth and wrinkled her brow with guilt before a small smile graced her face. It was gone as fast as it was there; and Jenny turned to Jethro with a serious look on her face despite the barest hint of amusement in her eyes.
"I'm sick," she said, feigning a hoarse and plugged up voice. She gave a little fake cough and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
"Jen," he drawled in objection.
She coughed louder and more pointedly, narrowing her eyes at him. "You caught it from me. You'll be in bed for days."
She hoped Joanne missed her innuendo; but that Jethro would see it and take it as the bribe that it was.
"Days?" he asked blithely with raised brows; and she grinned before assuming a stoic expression. She nodded vigorously with a murmur of agreement that turned into a muffled giggle. "You told me not to give you any special treatment," he reminded her.
"It's not special treatment," she fired back. "If Stan Burley was the mother of your child,"—he grimaced in pain at that thought—"and him being pulled away to work was upsetting her, would you make him come in? Think of her happiness, Jethro," she goaded dramatically, only half joking.
Jethro knew the situation with Kelly. He had been the one to try to convince her that Jenny was trying her best. He rubbed the back of his neck; and sighed heavily.
"Two hours, Jen," he said. For him to allow her anymore would be suspicious and blatant favoritism. Two hours he could pass off as not being able to reach her.
Jenny nodded resignedly, wishing that she had decided to decline Joanne's invitation anyway. Nothing good ever came out of Jenny Shepard and horses. Kelly never would have missed her.
"You're not so sick," she shot back. "You're not even coughing. I think maybe you'll be out of bed in a few hours."
Jethro chuckled.
"Two hours, Jen," he said; and she cupped his face in her hand, brushing her lips against his cheek in thanks as she walked past him.
Jethro turned to see Joanne looking at him with an eyebrow raised slightly, silently judging.
"What?" Jethro demanded defensively.
"Treat her right this time," was all Joanne said before she too walked out of the stable.
Joanne had gained a newfound respect for Jenny Shepard when she realized all the young redhead had been through. By twenty-eight she had managed to save a man from the depression of a dead wife, become a mother to another woman's child, lost her own father, and weathered the storm of an abusive relationship. Now, she balanced two jobs and a broken family. She was no feeble soul, and ironically enough Joanne thought she might have more respect for her at the fact that she seemed to have taken Jethro back; and it might even be said that Joanne had grown to like her.
Jenny found Kelly in the house, grabbing her helmet: a light pink thing that fit her perfectly.
"Kelly," Jenny murmured.
"I know," Kelly shot back sharply, gathering her long hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck.
Jenny raised a brow; taken aback at her tone.
"Do you?" she demanded skeptically, crossing her arms over her chest.
Kelly spun to face her with her pink lips pursed into an angry frown.
"You're have to go to work," Kelly said, stepping into her riding boots. "And you're really sorry," she continued harshly, mimicking the excuses she had heard time and time again. "But you never promised anything." She stood to her full height: all four feet and eleven inches of it, lifting her pert little nose up into the air. "I know." She was silent a moment. "It's fine," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper, indicating that it was far from it; and she stood there waiting for the customary apologetic hug, but it never came.
"I'm not going to work," Jenny said, eyeing Kelly pointedly; and Kelly looked up slowly. A myriad of expressions flashed across her face in the span of about ten seconds: confusion, hope, and then abashed happiness."
"You're not?" she asked, and confusion took the forefront once again. "But Daddy said you had a case. It's important."
"It can wait," Jenny said simply; and Kelly grinned, thinking that maybe she might be getting her mother back.
Kelly Gibbs had never been under the jaded impression that the entire world revolved around her. Her parents had made sure of that; and even if they had spoiled her to death she probably would have turned out more or less the same down-to-earth girl that she was. Those facts aside, she had never felt unloved or neglected: Jenny and Jethro had also made sure of that. In the past few months though, as Jenny spent more and more time at NCIS, Kelly had begun to feel like her mother was changing: as if Jenny were moving on with her new job and her new friends and leaving her behind.
"Really?" Kelly asked hesitantly.
"Do I often say things that I don't mean?" Jenny asked rhetorically; and Kelly shook her head.
She lunged forward to embrace her mother in a brief hug.
"Thanks, Mom," she said before releasing the redhead; and took off toward the stables, leaving Jenny with a semi-stunned look on her face.
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Jenny and Kelly met Joanne at the stable as she was saddling the horses. Joanne looked up with a smile, squinting into the sun and brushed her hair out of her face as the wind picked up. She moved around her horse, Adie and grabbed a pair of riding boots off of the ground. She held them out to Jenny.
"I'm sorry I don't have anything for you to change into," she murmured, eyeing Jenny's white shirt and white pants. She assumed the redhead had left her blush jacket inside the house. Joanne looked down at Jenny's bare feet and red toes with a smirk. She suspected that the heels were with the jacket. "You'll want the shoes though," she said with a grin as she turned back to tighten her horse's saddle. "They should fit."
"Thanks," Jenny laughed gratefully, taking the shoes.
"Have you ever been on a horse?" Joanne asked, and Jenny looked up from where she knelt on the ground, her red hair whipping around her face.
"High school," Jenny answered. "Last time I was on one was the end of my junior year of college. It's been about ten years."
"God, you're young," Joanne murmured, never having had the guile to ask Jenny's actual age.
"Younger," Jenny said with a grin as she moved to her feet, brushing her pants off. She already knew it was inevitable they would get dirty. "I started college as a sophomore. I was seventeen."
"Well isn't that nice?" Joanne mused with a smirk and a hint of teasing sarcasm. "I'd take a helmet if I were you," she said, tossing Jenny a black one. "Nuts won't go any faster than a trot on his best day though, but we won't be going all that fast anyway. Kelly likes to take off sometimes, however."
"I'm sure," Jenny murmured, turning around to look at the child in question who grinned. She turned back to Joanne and waved the helmet off. "It's probably too small. I'll be fine."
"I don't need a helmet, but Grandma makes me wear one," Kelly grumbled; and Jenny smirked.
"Good," she said; and Kelly pulled a face. Jenny turned to Joanne. "Jethro lets her ride all over the place without anything."
"Mommy, you worry too much," Kelly sighed, tightening her helmet on her head.
"It's what mother's do," Joanne said with a smile. "I used to worry about your m—" She stopped and her face fell. She inhaled deeply through her nose. "I used to worry about my daughter the same way," she murmured softly.
"Daddy says her name was Shannon," Kelly asked quietly. She was old enough by now to understand the circumstances that surrounded her biological mother's death and what it did to her grandmother. She had the understanding to realize that a certain amount of discretion was needed when speaking of her.
"It was," Joanne murmured with a watery smile. "After my mother," she said, and turned away to swipe the few tears that had sprung to her eyes.
Joanne always got emotional when it came to Shannon for the simple fact that she had seen neither head nor tail from her daughter for two years before her death. Shannon had married Jethro; and Joanne's objections to the union had caused a rift. They had grown so far apart by the time she got pregnant that Joanne hadn't even known about Kelly until Jethro had called to tell her about Shannon.
"Do I look like her?" Kelly asked hesitantly, leaning against Jenny; and Jenny looked down in surprise. Kelly hardly ever asked about Shannon. She never knew her. She didn't even remember the idea of her. "Daddy says that too sometimes."
Kelly often wished that she looked like Jenny, but she would never dare voice that wish. Even she knew that it would crush her father and grandmother.
"Spitting image," Joanne said and gathered herself, pulling as much of her medium length bob back into a clip as she could. She was. She had her father's eyes and his tan skin; but other than that she looked just like Shannon—aside from the hair color. She even had her smile.
"Do you have a hair tie for your mother?" she asked. She looked up at Jenny who was eyeing her in sympathy. "You'll need one. The wind will have your hair all over your face."
Kelly pulled a black one off of her wrist and held it out to Jenny who took it with a soft thank you and another worried look in Joanne's direction; but the older woman seemed to be fine, seemed being the operative word. Joanne had quickly grown adept at seeming okay whenever Shannon was mentioned.
At first she would become near hysterical, and it scared Kelly; so Jenny had warned her that she would have to learn to cope if she wanted to be around her granddaughter. Jenny understood her emotions and when she looked back she thought it might have been harsh; but Kelly had to come first.
"Ready?" Joanne asked, looking between the two of them briefly. Kelly nodded; and grabbed her stool so that she could hoist herself up onto her white horse. "You remember how to get on a horse?" Joanne asked Jenny; and waited for her nod before mimicking Kelly's actions she thumped her legs against the horse to get him moving.
Kelly and Jenny did the same to their horses, though Jenny had to try a second and third time.
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The smell of green grass on the miraculously green pasture filled the air, the sun shined bright, and the tree leaves danced with the force of the strong wind.
"She's a natural at it," Joanne murmured with Jenny at her side, both of their horses walking leisurely while Kelly pulled ahead.
"Yeah," Jenny murmured in agreement with a proud smile. "She is."
Kelly was one of those children who excelled at most anything they did.
"I see Shannon in her so much," Joanne murmured wistfully as they watched the brunette handling her horse with ease.
"Jethro says the same thing," Jenny replied, wishing she might have met the woman if only for the fact that she might place some of Kelly's personality that was neither her nor Jethro.
She was the perfect example of nurture and nature. Jenny's influence was clear in her periodic feisty outbursts and the way she handled conflict with other children; but her overall gentle and carefree nature had to be Shannon.
"You remembered quickly," Joanne praised, noting Jenny's straight posture on the horse.
Jenny was robbed of a chance to answer as both women looked up at Kelly circling back to them at a gallop.
"Why are you riding so slow?" the child demanded.
"Why are you riding so fast?" Jenny retorted; and Kelly grinned, showing off the gap in her smile on the left side of her mouth.
"Because it's fun," Kelly shot back, relishing in the wind catching her hair and the feeling she always got whenever she was sitting atop a horse. "Ride with me," she requested, directing it at her grandmother for she knew full well that Jenny would not.
"You'd leave your mother?" Joanne asked; and Kelly tilted her head to the side to look at Jenny.
"No," she sighed resignedly with a small pout on her lips.
"Go on," Jenny laughed, giving her blessing. "I'll stay back here."
"Really?" Kelly asked, her eyes lighting up at being able to show Jenny what she could really do. "We'll be right back."
"Really," Jenny assured her.
"Watch me?" Kelly asked; and Jenny nodded with a smile, holding her horse steady.
Kelly grinned and made a kissing noise at the horse and then a gave it a gentle squeeze to get it going; and Jenny watched as she gradually picked up speed, her laughter trailing behind her before Joanne set off after her.
Kelly had made it maybe one hundred feet when Jenny looked around, unsettled when Nuts gave a frightened neigh; and she gasped in fear at the feeling of tipping backwards as her horse reared. Despite a decent amount of skill when she was finally on the horse, Jenny had never really learned how to calm a frightened one; and it was the reason she had taken her fair share of falls. She let out a squeak when he bolted.
"Grandma," Kelly laughed breathlessly, her veins rushing with adrenaline, bringing her horse to a stop as Joanne caught up to her. Joanne smiled; but her face quickly turned stricken when she looked back for Jenny and saw Nuts coming toward them at an uncontrolled gallop despite Jenny's attempts to reign him in, clearly seriously spooked by something.
The horse sped past them at a speed Joanne had never seen him achieve. She was the first to react, sending her horse off at a gallop after Nuts.
Jenny's heavy breathing and pounding heartbeat echoed in her ears as she tried her best to hold onto the animal.
"Stupid horse," she muttered, fearing for her life. Damn, she really hated horses.
Nuts bucked; and Jenny screamed. She flew through the air a good ten or fifteen feet before she hit the ground with a roll and slid another five before coming to a rest in a motionless heap on the grass, silent.
Kelly's piercing, terrified scream cut through the white noise of the fields.
"Mom!"
Joanne hopped off of her horse; and ran toward Jenny on foot with Kelly not far behind.
"Mom!" Kelly yelled, yanking her helmet off; and came to a breathless stop beside Jenny's lifeless form. "Mom!" she cried out; and Joanne looked up at her with a determined set to her jaw.
"Kelly, go inside. Call 9-1-1," she instructed as calmly as possible. From the looks of it, Jenny had hit her head on a rock.
"Mom," Kelly whispered.
"Kelly!" Joanne said sharply, scared to death herself. Jenny had a pulse but she was out cold and hadn't moved a muscle. "Get on Peg and go call! Now!"
Kelly whimpered, but ran off to do as she was told.
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When Gibbs stepped off of the elevator into the bullpen about forty-five minutes after he had left Joanne's, Stan shot out of his chair; and the worried look on his face caused Gibbs to pause before he continued toward his desk.
"Where the hell is Decker?" Gibbs demanded. "Do all of my agents think it's a drill when I say get your asses down here?"
"Boss, it's Shepard," Stan said, following Gibbs with his gaze; and Gibbs head shot up as he narrowed his eyes.
"You heard from her?" he asked, tossing his gun and badge into his drawer. "Tell her when she gets here her ass—"
Stan cut him off.
"Boss, some lady named Joanne called. Said Jenny took a nasty fall off of her horse; and to tell you to get over there when you came in. Decker went to check on her 'bout half an hour ago."
Gibbs looked down at the phone in his hand, wondering why Joanne had thought it better to call him at work.
"Damn pieces of crap," he muttered harshly, throwing the thing onto his desk at seeing that his too had died on the drive over. "Where is she?" Gibbs asked, snatching his drawer open to grab his badge and gun back into his hands.
He tried to keep any emotions out of his voice; but the nagging at the back of his mind that had him expecting the worst shone through in his expression.
"Inova, in Fairfax," Stan replied and Gibbs' jaw jumped. If Jenny had allowed herself to be taken to a hospital then she was either in a hell of a shape or she hadn't been lucid enough to have had a say in it.
And yet, Stan Burley made not one joke or quip or comment about Jenny and Gibbs and their supposed affair. He was worried. Anyone knew that a fall off of a horse could go either way.
"Stay here," Gibbs said. "Tell the Director where we went if he comes down asking for one of us."
"Yeah, okay, boss," Stan agreed; and Gibbs set off for the elevators. "Hey, boss!" he called out just as the elevator doors opened with a ding and Gibbs stepped on.
Gibbs held a hand out to stop the doors; and stuck his head out.
"What?" he barked impatiently.
"Call and let me know if she's okay?" Burley requested; and Gibbs' expression softened—though it was still a far cry from being soft.
"Yeah, Burley," he agreed gruffly before he stepped back into the elevator and the doors closed behind him.
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When Gibbs strode into the E.R. waiting room of the Inova Fairfax Hospital William Decker rose to meet him.
"How's she doing?" Gibbs asked; and Decker ran a hand back through his dark hair with a harried sigh, shoving the other into his pocket out of nervous habit.
"I don't know," he sighed. "I've only been here about twenty minutes. They're not telling me anything."
Both men looked up at the cry of a child.
"Daddy!" Kelly called over the low hum of the busy emergency room, running to him with tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes, still wearing her riding gear.
Will watched in shock as his boss bent down to take the small, blue-eyed brunette who was obviously his daughter.
Since when did Gibbs have a kid? And why the hell didn't he look more surprised to see her running out of the emergency room? She couldn't have been more than eight.
He watched as Gibbs acknowledged an older woman with blonde hair by the name Joanne. Joanne: why did that sound so familiar? Will watched as Gibbs walked over to the help desk with the still teary little girl in his arms. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Gibbs had a kid.
Wasn't that something you told people you worked with?
Will shook himself and followed Gibbs to the desk.
"I'm her next of kin," heard Gibbs say—or growl rather.
The receptionist: a very pretty blonde that Will had already tried charming, told Gibbs to have a seat; and she would get back to him.
"Daddy," Kelly whispered, taking her face out of his neck with a sniff. "Mom'll be okay, right?"
"Your mom is here too?" Decker asked her; and Kelly blinked at him a few times in surprise as if just noticing he was there before she turned back to her father for reassurance without a word.
"She'll be fine, Kel," Gibbs murmured, rubbing her back comfortingly; and sent a warning glare Decker's way.
"I thought Nuts would be okay," Kelly insisted, her voice breaking. "He never spooks."
"It's not your fault," Gibbs said. "Horses spook sometimes."
It dawned on Will why he knew the name Joanne; and it was then that Will made the connection; and he looked at Gibbs incredulously.
"Holy shit," he whispered in bewilderment, pushing a hand back through his hair. "Jenny? Jenny's her mom? Jenny is your kid's mom?" he demanded, his elevating voice drawing stares. "Holy shit."
"Who are you?" Kelly asked softly, sniffing again; and Will was snapped out of what could have easily turned into a manic rage. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly; and tried for a friendly smile.
"I'm uh, I'm Will," he introduced himself. "I work with J—" He stopped. "Your, uh, your mom," he amended hoarsely, the word sounding foreign on his lips when referencing Jenny. "I work with your mom."
"I'm Kelly," Kelly replied politely. "My mom fell off of a horse," she whispered, and tears sprung to her eyes once more as she pressed her quivering lips together. "She's not waking up."
"Yeah," Will said. "Yeah, I know; but she'll be okay," he assured her. "Jenny's not one to let anything keep her down." He said it as much for his reassurance as for Kelly's.
Kelly buried her face in her father's neck again; and Will was unsure if he had done more harm than good.
That was pushed to the back of everyone's minds when the blonde receptionist spoke up.
"Mr. Gibbs?" she called; and Gibbs looked up to meet her gaze with a menacing one of his own. The woman dressed in floral scrubs looked taken aback; but she squared her shoulders. "You can see your wife now."
Gibbs didn't bother to correct her; and Will was unsure if that was just a slip or if Gibbs had just decided to stop blatantly falsifying facts. Regardless the young NCIS agent was sure he would need a strong drink after today.
The receptionist pressed the button to open the doors and allow them into the back: Gibbs went first with his daughter in his arms, the blonde woman followed behind him, and Will behind her with a dumb expression on his face.
They walked down the hall a ways until Joanne found Jenny's room; and Will mumbled something about coffee before Joanne pulled the curtain back to reveal the redhead finally coming to with a pained expression. Jenny held a hand to her head and winced.
"Christ," she muttered, not expecting to see the bulk of her family standing in front of her. "What happened?" she moaned, cursing the pain splitting her skull.
"Get the doctor," Joanne murmured to Jethro, taking Kelly from him before turning to Jenny. "The horse spooked and took off. You were thrown a good twenty feet," Joanne answered, her R.N training compelling her to watch Jenny for signs of everything and anything. "You were unconscious almost the whole ride over. You've been in and out of it the past forty-five minutes or so."
"I thought that horse didn't spook," Jenny muttered, wincing as she sat up in bed. Her whole body ached, she was nauseous, and she really just wanted everyone to shut the hell up. She should have known. God, she hated horses. Despite her background with them she had never had Kelly's natural talent nor Joanne's patience. Horses were not particularly fond of Jenny or vice-versa.
"He doesn't usually," Joanne said, catching the corner of her lips between her teeth in thought and concern for Jenny, who though she seemed to be fine sans quite a bit of pain could have anything as lucky as a bad concussion to brain damage. "He's lazy too. I've never seen him move any faster than a canter. It must have been something awful to spook him that bad."
"It was a fart," Jenny said, glaring up at Joanne through her lashes as the event started coming back to her. "He farted and bucked. Your horse is lacking in the intelligence department."
Something had made the horse rear back initially; and apparently it scared him shitless because he farted the moment his feet were back on the ground; and he had taken off. Another fart had sent him bucking and Jenny flying.
Joanne furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment before a slow grin split her face; and a laugh escaped her lips. Her laughter grew until it filled the room.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, holding a hand to her lips. It wasn't funny, Jenny could have been seriously hurt—but it was.
"I'm renaming your horse Whit," Jenny said with disdain for the animal, rolling her eyes. "It'll be short for Witless."
That only caused Joanne to laugh harder as Jethro walked in with the doctor. The former Marine looked at her like she was insane. What she had found to laugh about in this situation in the five minutes since he had left escaped him.
"You called him, Joanne?" Jenny demanded, looking at the blonde in contemptuous disbelief; and Joanne sobered immediately, eyeing Jenny with reproach. "I'm fine," Jenny told Jethro, knowing full well that he was beside himself with worry. It was one of the things she both loved and hated about him. There was no doubt it should have been his picture in the dictionary next to overprotective and overbearing.
"She was half unconscious the whole way over here," Joanne put in, raising a brow at Jenny who continued glaring.
Jethro reached out for Jenny's face, tilting it toward him to better see the grass burn and stitched up gash marring the left side of her face and his only discernible reaction was the tightening of his jaw before he let the doctor in to examine her.
"I'm Doctor Pitt," the very attractive doctor introduced himself; and Jenny couldn't help but note that he had a strong likeness to Brad Pitt from Thelma & Louise.
"You're not related to Brad Pitt are you?" she laughed, voicing her thoughts as he checked her pupil dilation.
"I am Brad Pitt," he replied; and Jenny pulled back, eying him skeptically. He might have a strong likeness to Brad Pitt; but he was certainly not him; and Jenny had no plans of letting any quack act as her physician.
The Doctor laughed, clearly reading her mind.
"Don't worry," he said. "I don't think I'm the actor. My name is Brad Pitt though."
"You're joking," she murmured with a raised brow, actually starting to believe him; and amusement meshed with skepticism graced her face in the form of a smile.
"Afraid not," he replied with a dazzling smile of his own; and Jenny laughed at his expense.
"That's awful," she murmured, with a slight wince. Even laughing made her head hurt.
"My patients get a kick out of it," he replied, standing to his full height; and marked on her chart before pocketing his pen. "Headache?" he asked, noting her actions.
"A little," she admitted.
"That means yes," Jethro said, earning him a withering look from Jenny. He knew because he would have outright denied it; and she was only about one step less stubborn than him.
"It means exactly what I said," she shot back snippily.
The doctor chuckled; and his eyes landed on the scared looking child in front of the blonde woman he assumed to be her grandmother.
"You're mom's going to be fine," he assured her with a friendly smile; and Kelly nodded.
"You're a lucky woman, Ms. Shepard," he murmured. "It doesn't look like anything more than a decent concussion, good considering. No signs of brain damage, but I'm going to order an MRI anyway. And you weren't wearing a helmet?" he asked, both concerned and a little interested.
"No," Jenny replied; and Jethro spoke up from his place at the foot of her bed.
"What the hell do you mean you weren't wearing a helmet?" he demanded. He never wore one; and he often let Kelly ride without one, but then that was when they were riding Western style and he knew how to handle the horse. He knew for a fact Jenny hadn't set foot near a horse in over ten years—not with the intention of riding it anyway.
"In case you hadn't noticed, I have an abnormally large head," she bit back. "The helmet was too small, so I didn't worry about it."
"You damn well should have, Jen," he snapped harshly; and Jenny's eyes turned hard. She knew him; and she knew that for him worry manifested itself into anger. The angrier he seemed, the more worried he was.
That did nothing to change the fact that she naturally rose on the defensive regardless of the reason for his anger. She turned to the doctor.
"Can I kick him out?" she asked, only half joking. "That vein in his neck looks like it's about to burst. I don't want him to have a heart attack or anything. He's getting to that age," she said, raising a brow at Jethro with a glare.
The doctor smiled a little awkwardly.
"I'm going to get you in for an MRI," he said.
"Then I can go home?" Jenny inquired. She really hated hospitals. "And you aren't going to stick me with anything, right?" She hated needles more.
Doctor Brad Pitt chuckled.
"We'll see what your results say; but no, I don't think we'll have to stick you with anything."
The moment the doctor ducked out, pulling the curtain behind him Kelly ran across the room and climbed into Jenny's bed.
"I'm sorry, Mommy," she apologized, rolling her lips inward to press them together with a guilty look on her face.
"For what?" Jenny asked, genuinely confused as she brushed lingering tears from Kelly's face.
"I told you Nuts was okay," Kelly murmured in explanation, meeting Jenny's eyes with an expression that told her that much should be obvious.
"Kelly, it was a freak accident," Jenny sighed, hugging the girl to her side in a one-armed hug. "It was hardly your fault."
The curtain opened again; and everyone looked up expecting to see the doctor only to see Will Decker standing there instead with a cup of coffee in hand.
Jenny's face turned stricken with mild shock and anxiety.
"What are you doing here, Will?" she asked, wondering just how much of the past ten minutes of conversation he had heard and how much he already knew.
"Hey, you're up," he observed with a relieved smile. "How you feeling, Jenny?" he asked.
"Fine," she replied with a small smile of her own.
"Yeah, I told your kid you'd be fine," he said with the barest hint of acridity in his words; and Jenny drew in a sharp intake of breath.
"Thanks," she murmured with a wary look; and he nodded pressing his lips together.
"Right, well you're mother-in-law called looking for Gibbs," he started; but Jenny cut him off.
"She's not my mother-in-law," Jenny objected wearily, rubbing her eyes. She didn't have the energy for an argument with Will. She was merely putting on a smiling face for Kelly.
"Oh, no, I'm just her grandmother," Joanne added, pointing to Kelly as her gaze traveled to Jenny with concern.
Jenny felt her gaze and looked up with a weak smile.
Jenny and Joanne had both accepted that the other was going to be a large part of Kelly's life; and had grown to have a mutual and cordial respect for each other, even like. Lately they might even consider each other friends—that was a bit far—very close acquaintances who cared for and trusted one another. Nonetheless, they would not have it mistaken that they were related.
Will looked between the two of them, a little thrown off by the flippant way they outright dismissed each other without realizing it. Or maybe they did, he didn't know. He just knew that his head was starting to hurt from all of this.
Gibbs and Shepard had an eight year old kid. So Gibbs had known Jenny since she was twenty-two or twenty-three. Maybe earlier than that because apparently they'd had time to knock boots and have a mini-Gibbs pop out. How old was Gibbs anyway?
"Damn, Jenny," Will laughed, forgetting about the impressionable young girl in the room. "Do you just go looking for trouble or somethin'?"
"It finds me," she quipped back with a teasing smile.
"Yeah, well, I'm glad you're okay," he said, tossing his empty coffee cup into the trashcan. "Cute kid," he praised, nodding in Kelly's direction. "I'm gonna get back to the office. Burley's probably about to die. He's on his own over there, probably has the Director breathing down his neck."
"Will."
"Decker!"
Jenny and Gibbs both called after him at the same time.
"Look, I won't say anything, okay?" he assured them fiercely, knowing full well what they were both thinking. "I don't know the story, it's your business; but we work together. Me and Stan deserve better than that. You should've told us. Jenny, you know you're like my kid sister; but you never should have been on Gibbs team in the first place." He paused and shook his head. "Look, feel better alright?" he muttered, yanking the curtain open; and the remaining occupants of the room were left stunned into shocked silence when as he strode out, brushing the curtain with his shoulder, leaving it swaying in his wake.
Announcements:
1. I finally managed to get a tumblr for when you guys think I'm being a complete jerk for not updating soon enough. I'll be posting snippets of the next chapter as I get through them and pretty much anything to do with my FF. I already have actually. So if that makes you happy and all that jazz then go to " semantics-are-everything" on tumblr, (FF is obnoxious and won't let me put links in) or you can go to my profile. It's there as well.
2. Apparently the word moderation is not in my vocabulary because I also decided to finally try the latest jibbsfest (strawberries & cream, measuring tape, semaphore, and E.R. I believe). Just a heads up in case you care lol.
and
3. Thanks for reading. I am hugging you all in my mind right now *Abby smile* and as always your thoughts on this chapter are greatly appreciated :)
xxxx-Monkeys :]