CHAPTER 11
Title: Finally some news.
Rating: T
Jenny was sitting in a small café in London near the Thames it was a sweet little place. To a person passing by she seemed to be just like any other tourist, she was sitting in a café, holding a cup of steaming cup of Espresso and not the usual tea most of the other costumers had at this time of the day. She wasn't trying to blend in she was trying to stand out. She and Ziva who had gone to buy a paper were trying to stand out in the crowd, roads of London and make La Grenouille come after them… some might say that Jenny was obsessed with him and forgot the others and the truth was that she was slightly obsessed with him. Which mother wouldn't have been, that man killed her daughter, her baby girl before she was even born. He killed her child… the only child she could have with the man she loved so much. The man who earned her heart almost six years ago, the man who took her heart and still has it wrapped between his fingers, crushing it every bit and a while. She was glad that he didn't knew that thought because then she was sure he was going to use that power in his favor and he'll leave her nothing more than the shell of her current self… and she was already the shell of her normal self…
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Ari and Kate were in Edinburg trying to get contact with some old friends of Ari's see if they knew anything about Eli. While Jenny and Kelly had been obsessed about La Grenouille, Ari, Kate and Ziva had been obsessed with Eli. That man claiming to be their father involved into a team along with assassins, drug dealers, arms dealers and all those people he was pretending to hate in front of the most people. He was one of them… all of these things that he learned his children to believe were a lie…
Ari wanted to take him down, he wanted to be the one who would take him to justice, and he wanted to look him in the eye while he claims that he is innocent.
"Where we will meet your friends?" Kate asked putting her hand onto his. Ari turned his head and smiled at her sweet face
"In a small diner close by" he said
"Good I'm hungry!" she said and both burst into laughs.
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Paula was in New York, her brother was lying motionless on the bed in front of her, that day a month ago she lost her father in the Pentagon but by some miracle her brother was alive. It seemed that he was in the south tower and got out just in time before it collapsed, but the smoke he inhaled catch up with him and now he was lying unconscious onto a hospital bed.
"Hello Mrs. Cassidy" a young doctor said.
"Hello Dr, it's Miss or call me Paula" she said while she was shaking his hand
"Ok Paula, I am Derek Shepard I am here to examine your brother. I am a neurosurgeon, I saw his scans and it seemed as he has a bleeder, at first we had agreed to have a passive approach but the bleeder seemed to cause the coma and it crows so I think and I suggest that it's better if we operate on it." He said. Paula nodded at him and thought for a moment his words.
"Ok, if you think that this is the right choice then do it" she said
"Ok" Derek said and started walking out of the room
"Wait you said Shepard?" she asked, she was sure that Jenny's cousin was named Derek and he was a neurosurgeon
"Yes that's my name." he said smiling
"Do you know a Jenny Shepard?" she asked shyly
"It depends"
"On what?" she asked confused
"Does that Jenny works in NCIS or not?" he asks
"Yes she does:"
"Then yes I know her she is my cousin" he said
"Oh. Well I am Paula Cassidy, I work with her." Paula said smiling.
"You are a friend of Jenny's?" he asked in disbelieve
"Well she is my boss but after everything we've been through together I guess yeah you can call me her friend." She said. "Why? What does that matter?" she asked
"Well after Jenny lost the baby she hasn't spoken to me that much, every time I am trying to reach to her she always says that she has work to do, that she got to go, that she'll call back but she never does. I am worried about her, I know Jenny since we were kids and she was never going very well with loss. She couldn't deal with it. When my father was shot and killed she stopped eating, she wasn't talking to anyone she shut everyone out, she got anorexic, we got to her, I got to her just in time. Since then I swore I'll try to protect her from everything that could cause her to fell of the wagon again. And then when her mother got sick and died I was there trying to help her get through it, she was eating, she was talking and I thought that everything was alright, but then one day I go into the bathroom and I see her there lying on the floor holding a razor, a bloody one in her right hand and her left wrist was sliced. I… I had no idea what to do, she was fifteen and left with me, she was my responsibility. So I thanked God I was already sixteen because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get her to a hospital. I made up a story that she broke a class cabinet and it cut her, thankfully they believed it. I… I even broke one of my mother's cabinets to make the scene at home believable. We got back and as I was staging everything she said to me that she is sorry, that it won't happen again. I wanted to believe her so much… she didn't, do it again I mean but the fear was always there. When her father died she had just finished med school, she didn't harm herself that time, she just canceled all the applications she did for internship and joined NCIS. Technically she didn't broke her promise to me, she didn't cause harm to herself… at least not with her own hand… but she puts herself in the line of fire every time she walks out of the office… Please promise me that you and the rest of your teammates will take care of her… promise me that you won't let her harm herself in any way." He said. Paula was looking at him with her eyes wide open she couldn't believe the things she learned about her boss, her friend. Jenny seemed to be always so strong, she was always so kept together. She just couldn't believe that it was possible for her to have tried to commit suicide and be anorexic… it's too much damage for one person
"I had no idea that she's been through all these things." Paula said her eyes were glistering from the tears she refused to let roll down her face.
"She isn't very proud of her past." Derek said. "How is she dealing with the loss of my niece?" he asked.
It sounded strange to Paula, the word niece coming out of the mouth of a doctor, a doctor who knew that there wasn't even a baby when the shooting took place, it was a fetus. Then it hit her, that baby girl which was killed was someone's daughter, she had a father and a mother, she was someone niece, she had uncles and aunts (she liked to think herself among them), she was someone's sister or she was going to be, she had or she was going to have sisters or brothers, she was someone's cousin, she had cousins to play with. She was a person with a family… she was a person and she was killed, taken away from her family before she even had the chance to meet them… before they had the chance to meet her
"She is dealing with it very well considering the circumstances. She adopted a child. A seventeen year old girl, Kelly is her name. If you see her she looks just like Jenny, she just has blue eyes instead of green but trust me everyone thinks that Kelly is her daughter and it seems that as far as Jenny is concerned she is." Paula said. Derek was impressed, from all the coping mechanisms his cousin had tried this was defiantly the best. She had chosen the child carefully, she was old enough not to remind her in any way her own child, or to be in need of a lot attention and at the same time she looked like what her child could be when she grow older.
"That's good" he said. "Ok I… thank you for the talk, I'll talk to you again later." He said and left the room. Paula turned back to her seat and took her brother's hand "Whatever you heard Bill you cannot tell anyone its classified information!" she said to her comatose brother…
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Mike Jessica and Aiden were sitting by each other in a plane with destination London where the team had relocated. The three of them stayed in the states for almost a month after the collapsing of the WTC helping any way they could. They joined the rescuers in their try to locate all of the bodies of the missing people. But that was in vain. When the towers collapsed everything had vaporized. Counting 7WTC and 3WTC which was a hotel they all supposed that they had to find a desk or at least a chair, a phone, something. But they didn't, the biggest part they found was half of a keyboard from a phone and a leg from an office chair. It was depressing, the view the smoke, the dust, everything was depressing…
Aiden was looking out of the window, she was thinking how Mac is doing her boss was a totally different man since the attach at the WTC, since Claire died he was like a shell of his former self. She felt guilty that she left NY especially now that the NYPD needed as many officers as had…
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Horatio was sitting in his office, he was reviewing the files from last week and thankfully everything had gone according plan… as much as they could. Eric had fit in quite well. Actually he helped a lot in a couple of cases. His diving skills were amazing. He was right, Eric fit in well… he fit in perfectly.
"Hey baby, how's work going?" Alexx asked him as she entered the office.
"Alexx!" she said smiling "Work is going as slow as ever" he said.
"That's a good thing darling" she said and walked to his place. She sat on his desk and leaned her head to the right.
"When was the last time you called Jenny, or Paula, Ziva, Kate, Ari, Greg, Lisa…? Hm?" she asked him. Horatio scratched his eyebrow
"Called it must be a month or so…" he said. He knew that Alexx was worried that this promotion he just took was almost forcing him to work himself to the ground but he just wanted to… he wanted… he wasn't sure what he wanted…
"Here and a month Horatio, it's a really long time!" she scolded him. You have to call them see when they will return to the states." She said and stood up from his desk "And do it today!" she said before she closed the door behind her.
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Derek Shepard had never felt so relieved before in his whole life. He had just finished the surgery on one of his cousin's coworker's brother. He finally could breathe without the weigh on his chest.
Bill was going to leave. He was going to be alright from now and on and he was going to be able to leave this nightmare he lived behind…
"Hey are you coming home tonight?" Addison asked him, it seemed that she was in surgery herself. Her red locks hidden under a soft pink scrub cup.
"I… I am not sure, if I will I won't come early, you shouldn't wait for me" he said softly.
"Oh well, I won't be going home either. Maybe we could… I don't know share an on call room?" she said. The look on her face was mischievous. She was up to something, Derek could see that clearly but he found himself not minding about that.
"Well let me inform Bill's sister and then I am all yours…" he said and kissed her cheek softly. Addison laughed sweetly at him "I will wait for you Dr. Shepard" she said and left. Derek stood watching her walking down the corridor and he couldn't help but think how lucky he was…
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Natalia came home from the FBI office building she was working now, she placed her gun into the safe box along with the bullets and took out her shoes. She found a file in her mail box this morning but the day was hectic and she hadn't managed to open it. She took the file off her back and saw that it was from the states court. Her eyes lighten up this was probably her divorce papers.
She opened carefully the file and took the papers from inside slowly out. She smiled widely this was her divorce papers. She was finally a free woman…
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Derek walked to the waiting room and saw Paula sitting at the last chair next to the window.
"Paula" he said, she turned her head and saw him standing there with a smile on his face.
"How did it go?" she asked, the whole time she was afraid that she was going to lose her brother just the way she lost her father… with no reason.
"Everything went according plan… don't worry we have to wait though for him to wake up before we test the possibility of brain damage from the carbon monoxide, the dust and the other toxic elements he might have inhaled. Ok?" he said, Derek was holding the young woman's arms trying to reassure her, he wasn't that type of doctor usually but this was different, this wasn't just another patient, Bill was Paula's brother and Paula was Jenny's friend…
"Thank you Derek, thank you" she said and hugged him lightly, the hug lasted only for a moment but Derek knew that from this moment he just found a new friend…
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Jenny and Ziva entered the safe house they used in London, it was a small apartment but they didn't mind it was more than enough for Ziva, Jenny and Kelly. Jenny took off her shoes and throw them at a corner.
"I think that if I wait for him to show another day in that boring café I will shoot myself." Ziva said. Today it was boring, that was something that Jenny had to admit. It was boring as hell.
"I'd rather we shoot him and not ourselves" Jenny said. Ziva chuckled, "Yeah I think that would be the best solution." She said.
"That's the only solution" Jenny corrected her.
"Would you like this mission to end soon?" Ziva asked. She knew that Jenny often wished she could just give up and go back to the states, try to have a relationship with the father of her child, get through the loss together, but Ziva wished this mission not to end. She didn't have anything to go back to, her mother was dead, her sister died in a Hamas suicide bombing, her kind stepmother died in Gaza from a suicide bombing as well, and her father was everything but her father. He trying to climb up the ladder in the leadership of Mossad he was trying to be the director as soon as he could, he was barely home anymore, Ari was all Ziva had left but he seemed to be ready to start a family on his own. He was doing everything he could to change his fate. Of course him being a man helped him and gave him much more liberty to do as he wished, Ziva wasn't that lucky…
"If you asked me the same question a year ago I would have told you yes right away but now… now I have nothing to go back to, Jethro is married and happily as it seems so why should I bother." She said
Ziva looked at her shocked, since they came back from Moscow she had changed, she changed so much that sometimes Ziva wished she knew what had happened in Moscow…
Flashback
Jenny was pretending to watch the paint in front of her but in reality she was watching the couple at the other side of the gallery. The man was tall, well build with silver hair and stunning blue eyes while the woman was a little shorter than him with deep red curls and dark eyes. She seemed to enjoy being here, he seemed to prefer to be somewhere else. Jenny saw that the man was turning to her side and immediately turned her head elsewhere trying to avoid his eyes, his stare, the love for that other woman she might find in these eyes which used to look at her with love. It hurt her deeply to see Leroy Jethro Gibbs and the new Mrs. Gibbs here. She wished she could get the hell out of here but she couldn't, she was close to him, they haven't even spoken to each other but still he used his powers over her making her unable to move only by the feel of his piercing blue eyes on her neck, why did she chose to wear her hair up today?
He turned his eyes to his new bride and Jenny found the opportunity to flee the room as soon as possible. Svetlana wasn't anywhere there and she doubted that she was going to show. This was her opportunity to leave before he realizes who she is, before she can see his eyes and give up everything only to be rejected by him. She was walking fast and made it to the exit in a matter of seconds, as she waited for the man in the wardrobe to bring back her coat she turned to see him one last time, he was alone the woman had gone somewhere else and his eyes looked right into hers. She turned her gaze away from his and hoped, no prayed that he haven't seen her, but he did, he saw her and recognized her. As he saw her taking her coat and getting out of the gallery smiling sweetly to the man at the door he felt jealousy rising up in his blood and followed her outside, for once he was glad he hadn't left his coat at the wardrobe as he passed the young man standing there waiting to give back the coats and the jackets he was given by the visitors when they arrived, he didn't miss the opportunity though to give the man at the door his best glare, the one he was keeping only for the most vicious criminals, like Kyle Boone, the man's smile fell as he held the door open for Gibbs to walk out. That moment Ari knew that this man was the father of Jenny's baby. He was wondering if she was going to tell him because clearly he was getting out of the gallery that fast to get Jenny before she flees the scene again…
Jenny sat on a bench outside the gallery, Horatio was supposed to pick her up in two hours and her feel was killing her way too much to walk to the safe house. She knew that staying here outside in the cold was probably the best idea ever but she did it anyway, what worse can happen? She thought.
"Jen?" she heard his voice. She froze, he saw her, he realized who she is… he came after her. Her heart was beating faster he followed her out of the building,
"Jen I know it's you" he said again this time his voice was stronger, he was sure he had seen right in the gallery. Jenny took a deep breath and turned around.
"Hello Jethro" she said. His eyes lighten up and he made a move towards her "Jen…" he said and tried to touch her arm, but Jenny pulled back letting his hand to fall back in place by his torso. "Please don't" she said through her teeth, it wasn't that she didn't want him to touch her, she just knew that if she lets him touch her she will not be able to let him let her go again. The smile on his face fell and he lowered his head, "Are you alright?" he asked, the concern in his voice was obvious
"I… I am trying" she said honestly. She knew that she should lie to him tell him that everything is fine, tell him she was happy, like he seemed to be happy but she couldn't, the concern in his voice, the love in his eyes, the hurt when she pulled back, all those made her crack and say the truth.
"So am I" he said silently, Jenny looked into his eyes shocked, he just admitted that he had a weakness, that he was unhappy. Jenny saw Horatio's blue sedan waiting a block away, he turned off the lights and stayed completely hidden in the dark. Jenny turned to Jethro and hugged him tightly.
"I am so sorry" she whispered to his ear. "I didn't want to hurt you" she gave him a soft kiss on his cheek and tried to leave but he tighten his grip around her waist.
"I'll wait for you" he said in her ear. He took one hand from her waist and placed it to her cheek turning her eyes to look into his. He slowly leaned forward and kissed her. At first she was shocked, but it didn't took a long time to start responding. He didn't seem to want to pull away and she was too dazzled to pull back so they keep kissing each other until they couldn't breathe anymore.
"I have to…" she said when they pulled back
"I know, go, but remember I will wait for you" he said
"Go back to your wife Jethro, be happy I don't know if we will ever see each other again. Please be happy with her." She said and turned away from him, she could tell that he stood there frozen looking at her leaving, disappearing into the darkness…
END OF FLASHBACK.
No one knew that this night Jenny threw away a perfect chance to fix things between her and Jethro he seemed to be eager to wait for her to go back to the states and all knew that their time in Europe might not be so extensive from now and on, at least not for the whole team…
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A/N: The last time I updated the chapter, one part of it wasn't uploaded so I re-Uploaded again. I hope you will enjoy it :)
Happy new years!