Gibbs nodded at Vance and SecNav and disappeared into the night.

It had been a stultifying dinner. Apart from the fact that it had taken the Secretary of the Navy's PA three months to find a free evening in his calendar, he just didn't deal well with people thanking him after they'd put spokes in his wheels. But he'd sat there and made all the appropriate noises – well aware that Vance expected it of him.

He looked at his watch, found it to be early still, and wasn't even vaguely surprised when his car drove itself out to Bethesda. It had a habit of doing that.

Gibbs looked up as a glass of bourbon found its way to the spot in front of him the moment he sat on a bar stool.

"Hey Jethro" the young barman asked.

Gibbs shrugged and tipped the drink down his throat. The barman knew him enough by now to recognise the look. He'd come to the conclusion a long time ago that the redhead from nine months ago had managed to get under his skin.

"She's not come in" he said.

Gibbs looked up.

"I come here for the service, Danny" he said as the latter filled up his glass again.

Danny raised a knowing eyebrow.

"So what's it been? Nine months?" he asked.

Gibbs shook his head dismissively; not wanting to talk about Jen, not wanting to remember the understanding in her eyes he had seen three months ago. He hadn't been able to shake the feeling that it had been more than he deserved.

"Danny…" he warned.

Danny held his hands up.

"Just thought you might want want a heads up that's all ..." he said, nodding in the direction of the door before smirking and turning away to another customer.

Gibbs swivelled his upper body, part of him hoping that Danny had been joking, the other half hoping that he hadn't.

He hadn't been.

It was her smile that he'd first seen on her. Wde and easy. Listening as one of her companions said something to her. She laughed and shook her head, before the smile faltered for a second as she took in her surroundings.

Melvin was standing next to her.

"Didn't think university professors needed a detail these days" Gibbs said as the man sat on the bar stool next to him a few moments later.

"I'm here as a friend" Melvin said, ordering a drink. "How are you, Gibbs?"

"How are you doing?" Gibbs asked instead.

"Getting there .." Melvin answered with a wry smile.

Gibbs nodded.

Danny placed Melvin's gin and tonic in front of him and peered into Gibbs' glass before refilling it.

The two men sat in silence for a moment.

"Harris is laying it on thick" Melvin said after a while - indicating the Commander in the mirror behind the bar.

Gibbs hadn't noticed him when they first walked in but he was sitting close to Jen and it was impossible to miss him now.

"I don't trust him" Melvin continued, not looking at Gibbs. Staring into the mirror at the hand on Jen's thigh instead. Knowing Gibbs was looking there too.

"You shouldn't" Gibbs replied.

Melvin looked curiously at him.

"Your gut telling you somethin'?" he asked.

Gibbs smiled a little but didn't expound.

"I'll keep an eye on him."

"I've no doubt." Gibbs replied, a smile gracing his features.

Melvin half turned to him, and a look Gibbs couldn't decipher ran across his face.

"Need to run something by you" Melvin said.

Gibbs waited.

"University."

"What about it?" Gibbs asked - surprise and confusion evident in his gaze.

"Dr. Shepard's trying to convince me to take a class at Georgetown" he said, sounding embarassed. "So's the wife, now that I'm not gallivanting around the globe. Her words" he clarified with a rueful grin, indicating the woman sitting to Jen's left.

Gibbs shrugged.

"I think men like us can't help what we do, Melvin."

He pulled out his wallet from his jacket and handed Melvin a card.

"Give me a call in the morning."

"NCIS hiring?" Melvin asked, staring at the business card in his hands.

Gibbs smiled.

"Wouldn't want all that experience to go to waste" he said simply. "Fill 'em up Danny" he said as he sensed the barman hovering.

Jen shuddered and pushed Commander Harris's hand from her thigh. It had been slowly creeping upwards since they'd sat down and he'd planted himself next to her.

She rolled her eyes at Melvin's wife, who smiled sympathetically.

"Where's Melvin?" Jen asked. "We need to order."

Julie's eyes ran over the bar - her eyes instantly seeking out and finding her husband. For a moment Jen felt a pang of jealousy over the ease and obvious fondness with which Julie gazed at Melvin. She glanced at the bar and felt her heart stop beating. A familiar head of silver hair sat next to Melvin. She was staring at the way his shoulders hunched over the glass when Julie touched her arm.

"Are you alright Jen?" she asked gently.

Jen dragged her eyes away from Gibbs and nodded.

"You look like you've seen a ghost" Julie continued.

Jen glanced at her for a moment.

"You could say tha - excuse me."

She stood from table, taking a deep breath before walking towards the bar.

Melvin nodded at Gibbs as she approached.

"See you soon."

"Countin' on it" was all Gibbs said – other words sticking in his throat as Jen slipped onto the stool that Melvin had vacated.

"Hello Jethro" she said simply.

Then she looked at the barman who had a smirk plastered all over his face.

"Should we skip the you haven't changed a bit bull?"

"Why start lying to each other now?" Danny joked with a laugh. "Whatcha havin'? The usual?"

"You remember what I drink. I'm flattered ..."

"Yeah ... well ... redheads make an impression on everyone round here" the barman replied, looking pointedly at Gibbs.

Gibbs buried his nose in his drink.

Jen swirled the amber liquid in her glass for a while and then looked over at his.

"Have some of mine" she said, pouring half of her drink into the remnants of his – echoing what he had done so many months before.

When he questioned her with his eyes she shrugged.

"Never drink on an empty stomach?" she proffered.

Gibbs smiled as he raised the glass to his lips.

The silence stretched between them until he heard what sounded like a groan. He looked into the mirror behind the bar in time to see Harris approaching.

"Jenny .." he said, his fingers rounding her left shoulder. "I took the libterty of ordering for you. Are you coming back to the table?"

He looked at Gibbs.

"Agent Gibbs .."

"Harris ..."

"I'd ask you to join us but we're kinda tight on space."

Gibbs didn't fail to notice that although Jen shrugged fractionally the man's hand didn't leave her.

"Being in a tight space with you isn't the way I'd choose to spend an evening either" he said, taking a sip of his drink.

Harris looked at him for a moment.

"You coming, Jenny?" he asked.

"Heard you got taken off the Reagan" Gibbs said. "Ever get your money from Senorita Perellos?" Gibbs asked.

"Excuse me?" Harris said.

"You gonna deny it?"

"I was cleared in the investigation" Harris began.

"Of course you were ..." Gibbs said, smiling smugly as he took in the way Jen's eyes narrowed.

She'd put two and two together pretty fast, and this time the shrug was a lot more forceful.

Harris let his hand drop away.

"Do you file something like that under deception or hypocrisy?" she asked him.

"You're going to have to trust me" he began.

"I don't know you well enough to trust you."

Harris leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

"I've already told you, we can fix that"

Gibbs watched in partly-veiled amusement as Jen drew herself up on her barstool – her feathers well and truly ruffled.

"You can cut the charm. Higher-ranking, richer, and definitely better-looking men have tried that on me and didn't get very far. Now ... I suggest you get your eyes off of me and put them on your wife."

Harris stood there gaping for a second. Until Gibbs nudged him.

"I'd say you just got your marching orders."

The awkward moment had been mellowed by several glasses of bourbon.

"This is the last one. Make it last" Danny warned.

Jen laughed as she reached into her purse.

"Haven't we been in this situation before?" she asked both men.

Two sets of eyebrows rose as she slapped her car keys onto the counter.

"I promise I won't drive. Now give me another drink."

Danny smiled.

"Are you trying to get me drunk?" she asked as she watched him pour a double.

"Bah. Jethro will see no harm co-"

"You two are on first name basis? You know ... he didn't tell me his first name till we were ..."

"Male bonding" said Gibbs as Danny moved on to serve other patrons.

Jen looked into her glass, and then downed the contents.

Gibbs tried to gauge how well she was handling her liquor. She'd relaxed visibly the moment the rest of her party had left the bar. He put his hand over hers as she pushed her glass in Danny's direction again.

"Jen?"

There was concern in his tone.

"Dutch courage" she said as Danny refilled her glass warily.

Gibbs waited.

He didn't have to wait long because she covered his hand with another one of her own.

"I missed you Jethro" she said simply, not looking at him.

It came out of nowhere like a punch to the gut, and his instinctive reaction was to raise her hand to his lips. But her next words stopped him.

"And I'm sorry ..."

"Never say you're .."

"I'm sorry because I brought something out in you that I think you wanted to keep hidden."

She downed the fresh drink.

"And it's been horrible feeling that I've caused you pain just by being me."

He was a bit surprised to see tears in her eyes.

"You don't have to share it with me, but I just want you to know that it was never my inten- "

"I know" he said, stopping her.

"I called you a few times through the switchboard" she admitted.

"Shoulda called my cell."

"I wasn't sure how you'd feel about that."

"Shoulda called my cell" he repeated – letting his meaning sit in the air between them.

He didn't tell her how often he'd been tempted to call her up himself. How often he'd driven past her house. How often he'd come here hoping she'd be here too. But looking into her eyes he wondered if she knew.

"How have you been Jethro?" she asked, raising her hand to his cheek.

The impulse to press a kiss to her palm was too strong to resist now.

"Shoulda called my cell" was the only thing he could think of to say.

The moment was interrupted by Danny.

He rolled his eyes at them as leaned on his elbows over the counter.

"I think you two are a bit old for this kinda sap. The bar has a reputation to uphold. Get a room."

They looked at him.

"You'll thank me in the morning" he said with a wink – pouring them one last drink between them.

Jen reached for it but Gibbs pulled it away before her fingers could curl round the glass.

He drained it as she looked on, and suddenly she felt very self-conscious.

"I should ..." she said, standing from the stool.

"Easy .." Gibbs said, grabbing her by the elbow as she felt the effects of the alcohol.

"I never did get anything to eat" she said as the fact dawned on her.

"You feeling okay?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm fine. I think" she said. "It was good to see you again, Jethro."

"Lets go" he said, picking her car keys off the bar and pocketing them.

Jen nodded briefly, and smiled gratefully as she felt his support her by the elbow and guide her out of the bar.

The cool night air was welcome. She'd forgotten what a magnetic presence he had, and the alcohol hadn't lowered her inhibitions. It had rendered them non-existent.

"I'll take a taxi" she said.

And smiled when Gibbs shook his head.

"Not gonna happen" he said. "I'll see you home."

"Not a good idea."

"Why? You gonna be sick all over me?"

"No ..." she almost slurred. "I just can't promise to keep my hands to myself."

"I can live with that" he said.

But she missed what he'd said as she reached into his jacket pocket to retrieve her car keys.

"I'm not going to drive" she said. "But I need my .. I need my .. underwear?"

She cast him a incredulous look as her fingers collided with something soft and she drew a pair of panties from his pocket.

"Do you always carry my underwear in your pocket?"

Gibbs scrambled for a response.

"What do you do? Carry them around hoping to bump into me and return them?"

He could hear the laughter in her voice and it warmed his heart.

"Something like that" he said.

"Shoulda sent them in the mail" she said with a small laugh. "Are they always in your jacket? Because you can't seriously have only one."

Gibbs smiled.

"Nah. Had them in the glove compartment of my car for a while."

"I'll stop short of asking if you ever ..."

And then she clamped a hand over her mouth and suppressed laughter. The silence stretched between them for a while, and then she reached for his face again.

"I really did miss you, Jethro" she said gently.

Gibbs fingered a tress of red hair.

"You still sleep naked?" he asked.

"Is there an invitation in there somewhere?"

Gibbs smiled, his mind wandering back to the last time they'd had this conversation. Even if the roles had been reversed.

Jen broke into his reminiscing.

"Because if there is ..." said, taking him by the hand, "I know this cosy little place just around the corner."

Authors' Note:

That, as they say, is that. In a day or so we'll be putting up a llst of quotes and where they came from. We just didn't feel it would be appreciated if we kept you waiting any longer for the ending.

We are going lone wolf for one story after this. Verity is already writing and posting The X File, and Ellie will start on a new story of her own as soon as she finishes Jezebel.