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Chapter 10: Old Friends?

Two weeks had past since their rescue mission, and two weeks since everyone found out that the Director and Gibbs are married. Luckily there hadn't been many problems with Jen's bosses. They had already known when they approached her for the job. Some of them had even worked with the two of them back in the day.

Gibbs and Tony were completely healed from their wounds and the last week they had been working on a case with the rest of the team. At first, it had looked lik an easy case with only one victim and only one suspect with a hazy alibi. But their suspect had been killed too and was now lying down in Autopsy with Ducky. This time, no leads, no suspects, nothing.

Gibbs had everyone working around the clock to find new leads, and the fact that Abby was away to visit her family didn't improve his mood. She had only been gone for two days but everyone missed her, Gibbs was more easily ticked off than usual and McGee looked like someone had kicked his puppy. Ziva and Tony, especially Tony were glad that Abby was going to return tomorrow. Tony's head had gotten more headslaps in the past two days than he had in the weeks before.

"Boss I think I found a connection."Gibbs looked up and saw McGee standing next to the screen.

"Five days ago, Miles placed a call to this man, James Ryan. And called him a few times after that."

"Your point McGee?"

"The same number popped up from his call log two weeeks before that, about an hour after Deputy Officer Clark was killed."

"Good work McGee, try to find something more. David, DiNozzo, pick him up."

About an hour later Ziva and Tony finally returned, with their suspect. All of them looked very irritated after they got off the elevator.

"Ziva, don't let him get to you, remember what happened last time."

"Shut up Tony, how many times do I have to repeat it. That was not my fault."

"Whatever Zee-vah." He pushed their suspect further.

Gibbs saw the three of them coming and approached them.

"DiNozzo, get him in the interrogationroom and start questioning him. I'll be there shortly."

Tony, Ziva and James Ryan continued their path, the last one a little reluctantly. They crossed paths with Jenny, who was on her way to talk to Gibbs.

James' face lit up. "Jennifer!" She winced a little at the sound of her full name, she had never liked it. Even Ducky called her Jenny.

"Please Jen, can you tell them that whatever it is, I didn't do it."

He looked at her with a pleading face, "Come on Jennifer, you know me."

A little reluctant, she smiled. "I'll see what I can do James."

She watched the three as they walked off. Suddenly she felt a hand on the small of her back. For a moment, she tensed up but soon she smelled Jethro's familiar scent and relaxed against his side.

"You know that guy?"

"We kind of dated a long time ago." She looked up at him. "What did he do?"

"He probably murdered one man and maybe another one."

"And what does your gut tell you?"

"He's guilty."She smirked.

"Well then, put the bastard away if you're that sure."

"As you wish Madam Director." He winked at her and followed his two team members to the interrogation rooms. Jenny watched him as he walked off. Checking out his ass in the process.

(A/N: Kind of OOC but I couldn't help myself here)

Then she went up to her office, to ask Cynthia for a copy of Gibbs' casefile. She probably should keep the promise she just made to James.

"Come on Ryan, you are the only one who knew that both the victims, don't tell me it was a coincidence you called Miles Jones just after John Clark was killed."

As he said the names, Tony slammed their pictures on the table. Pictures of the two men, taken just after they were found.

"Oh my God." James turned his head away in disgust.

"Come on, don't tell me you haven't seen them like that before."

The door opened and Gibbs entered the room.

"Do you know anything yet?"

"He won't talk Boss."

"I think I want to call my lawyer. And I want to talk to Jennifer." Gibbs leaned over the table, in an intimidating pose.

"And why do you thing we'll let her talk to you?"

"Well from what I've heard, she's your boss, and my friend." James let out a nervous laugh. "I'm so glad we stayed friends after we broke up two years ago."

An icy look appeared on Gibbs'face. He stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut without saying a word. Tony winced at the sound. His boss definately wasn't happy to hear that. He looked down at their suspect who looked surprised.

"What's his problem?"

"Nothing you should be concerned about."

Jenny looked up in surprise when the door to her office slammed open.

"Two years ago?!" Gibbs stormed inside, his face all red. She hadn't seen him this angry in a really long time.

"Would you like to tell me what this is about, Special Agent Gibbs?"

"James Ryan was so nice to tell me that you two were in a relationship two years ago."

This really wasn't the way she'd wanted him to find out about that. But she'd never expected James to tell him about their relationship. And she also never expected Jethro to be this angry. They weren't even on speaking terms two years ago.

"Right, like you really cared back then, you'd sent me the divorce papers already!"

"Newsflash, until you sign and file those papers, having a relationship with another man is adultery."

This wasn't like their usual banter. The sarcasm always came out while they were having a fight. Just like right now, and it was going to be a big one.

"You made it very clear you never wanted to see me again and now it's my fault? Don't you forget who screwed us up first Jethro."

"Whatever you say, Madam Director. "He replied with a sneer and stormed out of her office, still fuming with anger.

Jenny picked her mug up and threw it across the room against the door, the coffee dripped down, forming a big stain in the carpet underneath.

She balled her hands into fists. The color drained from them. He had no right to talk to her like that. Fine she dated a man while they were seprated. Like he didn't do the same, see another woman. Or did he?

It didn't really matter, she looked at the file she had been reading while he entered. It was James' file. She picked it up, determined to prove his innocence. Not because he didn't do it, because she wouldn't be surprised if he did do it, but just to prove Gibbs' famous gut wrong.

The following days the atmosphere at NCIS was cold, chilly at best. Everyone had heard about the famous fight between the Director and Special Agent Gibbs, but no one knew what it really was about. Well no one, except Gibbs' team and Abby. Tony really couldn't keep it to himself. And after Abby returned they had told her too. Maybe she could use her status as Gibbs' favorite to find out what really happened behind those doors.

But not even Abby had found out what happened in her office. Gibbs had shushed her protests with a Caff-Pow. And now Abby was planning something to get Jenny and Gibbs in a room somewhere, maybe not the most perfect idea, but it would give them a chance to talk about things.

The Director joined Gibbs' team in the squad room every time they discussed the case. But between her and Gibbs, not much could be discussed, their anger took over every time. And every meeting ended in a shouting match. The others took as little notice of them as possible. Maybe the fighting would stop after the case was finished. It was worth a try.

The phone rang and Gibbs picked it up.

"Gibbs."

"Are you sure?"

"All right, we'll be there in ten."

He put the phone down and looked at his team and Jenny.

"James Ryan's sister is kidnapped. Her husband was told to call NCIS. To make sure Ryan would stop talking. Gear up people, we're going over there."

"Well I'm coming with you."

"Are you this involved with the other cases too, Director."

"You know as well as I do, I can choose to participate in every operation I want Special Agent Gibbs."

Without saying another word he led them to the elevator, and they left for the crime scene.

They drove down in two cars, the women in one, the men in the other. It was the only solution between Zica's driving and having Gibbs and the Director in the same car.

At the scene everything went smoothly, Gibbs and Jenny stayed professional the whole time. Unfortunately the husband didn't have much information. The only thing he had was a note, left in his house by his wife's kidnappers. It said to call NCIS and that they would be in touch soon.

In Gibbs' head many theories were spinning around. But none of them seemed very likely. There was only one possibility that was more probable than the others. The kidnappers wanted to exchange Ryan for his sister for some unknown reason. But that would also mean that Jenny was right, and that Ryan was innocent. He glance d over at her, she tried to hide her smile and to keep a straight face. From the looks of it, she had came to the same conclusion.

"McGee, get the note to Abby. Tony, you and Ziva interrogate Ryan again. Maybe he knows something about this."

From the corner of his eye he could see that Jenny was about to protest.

"Or maybe he knows someone who could be responsible for this."

Suddenly the sound of an explosion shocked all of them, the sound came from the street and they all ran outside to see what the cause was. The only thing they saw was a small fire and some burned metal on the spot where one of their cars had been. It was the NCIS van that Ziva had driven to the crime scene. Quickly Tony grabbed the garden hose and put the small fire out.

Gibbs sighed. "The three of you, take my car." He tossed the keys to Tony. "I'll stay here and ask around in the neigborhood. And Ziva, you lead the interrogation, no gloves."

Ziva nodded in understanding. Jenny interrupted. "Special Agent Gibbs, I'll assist you and I'll call my driver, he can pick us up after we're done."

Gibbs looked at her, a little annoyed, knowing her, she was going to rub this in his face for a while.

The phone rang. She hurried into the study and picked it up.

"And?" She listened intentely to the person on the other side of the line.

" Good work, did any of them get hurt?"

"No? What a shame. Well you can continue with phase 2 now."

Smiling she disconnected the call and sat down in the big leather chair behind the desk. She leaned back a bit, satisfied.

"It won't be long now."