I thought this would be so long, but it isn't compared to the last one lol. I hope you enjoy it either way. Sorry it's taken so long. you can thank madamedirector95 on tumblr for kicking my butt into overdrive though :)
tbcummings30, Macahol84 ,silkysexybitch ,alix33,dewulfstephanie,Chatter in the Monkey Mind ,MissJuliaS,DS2010,ladybugsmomma,TeamCarlisleandEs me8,ncisgirl2389, bemyserendipity,Kikilia14, sunshineforever13, magiclover13, and Left my heart in Paris...
Some of ya'alls names make me giggle lol, but you guys are bomb
Hugs!
The NCIS bullpen was buzzing with the hustle and bustle of a Friday morning. Everyone was working over-time to get all of their loose ends tied up and all of their open cases closed. No one wanted to be stuck there on weekend duty or worse yet stuck there late on a Friday night.
Stan Burley was actually on time for once and he stood in the bullpen staring at their whiteboard with his arms crossed and his mouth set in a grim line.
"What the hell is he doing up there?" Decker demanded as he walked in, snatching the photo off of the whiteboard. "Gibbs'll go nuclear if he sees that."
"If I see what?" Gibbs demanded as he rounded the corner to the bullpen. Decker and Burley shared a look and Gibbs narrowed his eyes. "If I see what?" he growled, and strode across the room so that he stood face to face with Will.
Gibbs looked down and snatched the poorly concealed photo in Will's hands. His grip tightened and the picture wrinkled in his grip before he crumpled the photo into a ball in his hands and pitched it at the floor, glaring at Will for having the audacity to hold the thing in his hand.
"What was that bastard doing on that whiteboard?" he snapped, storming across the bullpen to his desk where he snatched his drawer out so hard it bounced back. "I asked you a question!" he barked, tossing his badge and gun into the drawer before he slammed it shut.
Neither Stan nor Will wanted to answer that question. Ever since Jenny a week ago they had been tip-toeing around him, trying to get on his good side-or as much of a good side as they could expect from Gibbs. Gibbs didn't have a good side though. What was left of it had been shredded last week after that shooting. Jenny was suspended indefinitely and without her there Gibbs was being more of a bastard than usual.
"He's out, boss," Stan finally spoke up, watching Gibbs warily; and Decker snapped his neck in Burley's direction. That was news to him too.
"Out where?" Gibbs demanded in a dangerous whisper and his eyes narrowed to near slits.
"He's going to tell them where the bodies are buried, but they had to take him for him to show them. Don't worry, boss. He's got plenty of security," Stan said, wondering if maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all as he watched Gibbs knuckles turn white with the strength of his grip on the edge of his desk.
Gibbs smacked the side of the desk angrily; and headed for the elevators.
"Kyle Boone," Decker muttered, bending down to snatch the crumpled photo off of the floor. He shook his head as he tossed it in the trashcan by his desk. "Sick bastard."
"What's the deal with him and Gibbs?" Burley asked. The Boone case had wrapped up jut before Burley joined NCIS.
"Guy killed twenty-two women before he was caught. Gibbs caught him. Damn near drove him crazy before he got him though," Will said, and exhaled heavily at the memories as he took a seat in his chair. "Boone went after Gibbs' wife too. She was the only one that got away. That was the case that got Gibbs the reputation he has now. It changed him. It was before I knew him. I was working in L.A. Pacci's the only one left around that saw it first-hand. Team leader retired."
"How many times has Gibbs been married anyway?" Burley asked, voicing his thoughts aloud, walking across the bullpen to his own desk.
Decker shrugged, but a thought dawned on him. He wondered if Gibbs had ever married Jenny. Her last name was Shepard, but that could've been just for show, or she could've re-married again.
Jenny Shepard sat in her study wearing yoga pants and a tank top: her outfit of choice for the past week and a half. That was how long it had been since Jethro suspended her, and how long it had been since they had spoken. She had thought she would be going stir-crazy-and for the first couple of days she had been. Now, though, she was getting used to it, and she didn't mind it.
It was the same as it had been before she joined NCIS, before her father, before Rene Benoit. She spent her days with Kelly, she took her to ballet, she was there when Kelly went to bed. It was the same, but it was different. She missed the weight of a gun on her hip and the mental stimulation of deciphering cases, and the sense of justice she got when she put the bad guys away. She and Jethro weren't speaking. The one day he had managed to stop by to see Kelly, Jenny had been conveniently absent.
"Mommy," Kelly called her, walking into the study with the stray puppy in her arms.
No one had come for him yet, and Jenny was beginning to think he might have been abandoned. It was clear he hadn't been trained. He peed everywhere and ate everything, but nevertheless, Jenny found herself liking him. Kelly was madly in love with him.
"Did he pee on something again?" Jenny asked disdainfully, looking up at Kelly over her glasses and then at the dog with pursed lips.
"No," Kelly laughed, hugging the puppy to her chin. "Can I take him for a walk?" she asked.
"Give me a minute," Jenny murmured, biting the tip of her pen momentarily before she set it back on the desk. "We'll go." She waved her hand absently. "After we eat," she added as an afterthought.
"What are you reading?" Kelly asked curiously, sitting herself on Jenny's lap as she petted the puppy's head.
"Just papers," Jenny sighed, sliding them out of the way.
She had been thinking of moving her mother out to California. It would be good for her-and for Heather. She had been looking at different facilities. She hadn't talked to anyone about it. She was waiting until she decided on a place. Then, she would talk to Heather.
"Can I name him yet?" Kelly asked, looking down at the dog, her eyes shining with happy admiration.
"Kelly, we aren't keeping the dog," Jenny said, sliding Kelly off her lap so that she could stand. "If no one comes to get him by next week we're taking him to the pound."
"Mom, you can't!" Kelly protested with a disgruntled pout. Jenny turned back to her with a sigh of exasperation and was taken aback at the anguish in Kelly's expression. "Mommy, he'll die," she said. "Can't we just keep him, please?" she persisted, following behind Jenny as the redhead turned back and continued toward the kitchen.
"You'll have to ask your father," Jenny said. Much as she would have liked to spite Jethro right then, they had always made sure to remain a united front when it came to Kelly. It was an unspoken rule.
"I could just keep him here," Kelly reasoned as Jenny pulled the refrigerator door open.
"So I can take care of him?" Jenny demanded skeptically, raising a brow. "What do you want for lunch?" she asked, changing subjects.
"Hot dogs," Kelly replied without hesitation. She had developed an obsession with hot dogs. "I'll take him with me when I go to Daddy's house," Kelly said, going back to the dog.
"As I said, you'll have to take it up with your father," Jenny said, setting a pack of hot dogs on the counter along with buns and fixings. She grabbed a pot from the rack over the oven and filled it with water before she set it on the stove to boil. "Will you eat fruit?" she asked. Kelly couldn't just eat hot dogs.
Kelly nodded, and Jenny went back to the refrigerator to grab a bowl of cantaloupe. Jenny and Jethro both hated the stuff. Apparently Shannon had liked it so much she broke out in hives one day from eating in excess. Her love of the orange melon had been passed down to Kelly.
In fact, Kelly ate little else these days. She had turned into a bit of a picky eater. It was a struggle to get her to eat anything other than hot dogs and cantaloupe.
"Are you still mad at Daddy?" Kelly asked.
Jenny's posture turned rigid and she slammed the refrigerator door back much harder than was necessary.
"Why do you ask that?" Jenny ground out, setting the bowl of sliced fruit on the counter.
"Because he said you were," Kelly replied, and Jenny looked up sharply, her green eyes flashing before he looked back into the bowl of cantaloupe..
"Unbelievable," she muttered, as she forked fruit onto a plate. She slammed the fork onto the plate and pressed her hands into the countertop, leaning heavily on her arms. "Did he tell you to ask that too?" she demanded.
"No," Kelly said, reaching forward to snatch a piece of the fruit out of the bowl.
"Use a fork," Jenny sighed despite her agitation, glaring when Kelly ignored her.
"He said he was mean to you," Kelly said, and Jenny snorted mirthlessly, stabbing the fork into a piece of orange fruit again. That was the understatement of the century. "He said you had a big argument and that you would be mad at him."
"Don't worry about it, Kelly," Jenny said with a disarming smile, but Kelly eyed her skeptically.
"But are you mad at him?" Kelly persisted, and Jenny pursed her lips.
"In a matter of speaking," she drawled testily, and Kelly huffed at the evasive maneuver.
"So, you aren't coming to my recital?" she asked with a knowing, sad disappointment as she looked up at Jenny with large eyes.
"I'm coming, your father is coming. We will both be there," Jenny assured her. "Me being upset with him has nothing to do with you," Jenny said, dumping the whole pack of hot dogs into the then boiling water before she set the lid over it. "Go wash your hands," she instructed, and Kelly hopped down off of the bar stool. "Call Maddie and tell her we'll pick her up around 4:00!" Jenny called after her quickly as Kelly disappeared around the corner.
Just how she was going to deal with four screaming nine-year-old girls all afternoon and evening was beyond her, but Kelly was having her sleepover before school started next Wednesday. Jenny had agreed to get Maddie, and the other girls were coming at 5:00.
"Okay!" was Kelly's muffled response as the phone on the wall rang and Jenny snatched it off the hook.
"Hello?" she answered and turned off the stove, pulling hot dogs out and onto a plate.
"Jen," Jethro's gruff voice drifted through the phone.
Jenny paused, shocked that he had the audacity to call her and ran her tongue over her top lip.
"What do you want?" she demanded, setting two hot dog buns on a plate and sticking it in the microwave.
"You need to come in," he said.
"No," she replied shortly, jamming the Start button on the microwave.
"Now, Jenny," he growled.
"No," she said again. "I'm suspended, or don't you remember?" she snapped, and slammed the phone back on its hook as Kelly walked back into the kitchen.
Jenny took the buns out of the microwave and set one in front of Kelly on a plate with the hot dog-because Kelly liked to eat them separately. In fact, she ate everything separately. The brunette mumbled a thank you around her hot dog and Jenny sighed, fixing her with a displeased look.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," she scolded, though her admonishment was lacking its usual sharpness.
Kelly looked up at her in a show of apology, and Jenny bit into her own hot dog. She chewed slowly, not really tasting the food a she stared off with a pensive look about her.
"Why does he do that?" Jenny muttered, watching the dog twist himself up in his leash as she and Kelly walked back around to the townhouse after an hour walk with the dog.
"We should name him Pretzel," Kelly laughed softly, squatting down to help him out of the leash for the second time in the hour.
"You are not naming him after food," Jenny insisted, and Kelly's head shot up. "We should name him Scarecrow for having no brains," she muttered smartly, turning briefly at the movement of a falling leaf to her left.
"We can keep him?" Kelly squealed excitedly, garnering Jenny's attention again and Jenny's eyes widened as she realized her mistake.
She shook her head vehemently.
"No, I didn't say that. We are not keeping him," she said sternly.
"But you said I could name him," Kelly persisted, baiting Jenny in a sing-song voice.
"I did not say that," Jenny called after her, raising her voice to be heard as Kelly ran up the street with the dog. "We are not keeping him, Kelly!" she shouted. As she rounded the corner to the house, she noticed the door was ajar. "Kelly!" she barked urgently, and Kelly spun back to face her with wide eyes.
"What?" she demanded innocently.
Jenny rushed up the walkway.
"Stay here," Jenny instructed, and Kelly began to protest. At the look Jenny gave her Kelly shut her mouth and nodded. Her brow crinkled warily as Jenny reached behind her back for her off duty Glock.
Jenny walked up the steps and stopped at the broken lock on her door. She had been at NCIS long enough. She knew what a kicked in door looked like. She raised her gun in front of her and moved quietly though she knew her shouting had likely set her intruder off. She moved up the stairs, and her ears picked up a noise down the hall from her bedroom.
She tightened her grip on her gun and readied herself outside the door before she spun around the corner.
"Federal Agent!" she barked, but she relaxed immediately as her intruder spun to face her. "Will?" she sighed, shakily as her adrenaline rush wore off. Then, she remembered her broken door and she raised her gun again, on the offensive rather than the defensive. "What are you doing here?" she snapped.
"Jesus, Jenny, put that thing down would you?" Will asked, the look in his eyes a mix of relief and wariness.
"No!" Jenny retorted irately. "Not until you tell me what the hell you're doing in my house!"
"Are you alright?" he asked, his eyes grazing over her as if searching for injuries. "You okay?"
Jenny lowered her gun slightly and narrowed her eyes, screwing her face up in agitated confusion before she raised the gun again abruptly.
"Of course I'm alright," she snapped. "Answer my question, Decker. Why are you in my house?"
"Gibbs," he sighed, running a hand back through his dark hair. Jenny's eye twitched and she snarled. Decker thought she might have even growled. "Look, he needs you to come in alright?"
"I already told him I wasn't," Jenny snapped, turning on her heel as she thought of Kelly outside.
"Come on Jenny," Will almost whined, following behind her down the stairs. "Gibbs told me not to come back without you. Do you know what he'll do to me if I do?"
"I don't know, Will, and I don't care all that much. Why should I after that crap you pulled last week?"
"Come on, Jenny. I'm sorry about that. I said I was sorry about that," he insisted.
"Kelly!" Jenny called out soothingly to the frightened looking brunette in the walkway hugging a restless puppy squirming in her arms. "It's okay."
"What's wrong?" Kelly demanded.
"Nothing, Kelly. It's only Will. I didn't mean to scare you," Jenny said, and Will stepped forward.
"Hey, kid, you remember me? I came to the hospital with your dad when your mom got hurt."
Kelly narrowed her eyes with an untrusting glare, and Decker drew back in shock a moment before he turned up one side of his mouth in a smirk.
"Damn, Shepard, she looks just like him," Decker muttered, and a close-lipped smile of knowing amusement graced Jenny's face.
"Did you break into our house?" Kelly asked, and Jenny turned her head to him with that same amused smile though she had one brow raised in smug expectance in her expression now.
Decker assumed a pained look of embarrassment, and Jenny's smile widened. He grabbed the back of his neck-a nervous habit of his.
"Yeah," he admitted curtly, with a slight wince. He looked down at his belt when his phone rang, and he met Jenny's gaze with a pointed look before he held it to his ear. "Yeah, boss?" he answered, and Jenny rolled her eyes.
"Come on Kelly," she said softly, beckoning the child with her finger as she headed up the steps back into the house. Decker followed without invitation. "Go get dressed for rehearsal," Jenny told her, and Decker watched dumbly as she walked around her house snatching up little girl's things here and there.
Dressed in lounge clothing and an oversized, comfortable looking pale pink cardigan with stray pieces of red hair falling out of her loose bun she looked like a mom. It freaked him out. Jenny wasn't motherly. She was good with kids, but he never saw her as the maternal type.
"Yeah, boss, I'm here," Decker said as Jenny disappeared into the kitchen and he heard the clinking of dishes and the soft splashing of water. "She's not coming," he muttered, looking around Jenny's living room, and he chuckled in wry amusement at Gibbs' explosion. "You want to try coming up here?" Decker demanded hotly. Gibbs said something and Decker's eyes flitted to the kitchen. "Gibbs, I don't think-"
Gibbs' bark of "Now!" could be heard by anyone standing within five feet of the phone.
Decker growled and grit his teeth, but did as Gibbs told him. He stepped around a kid's pair of shoes and walked into Jenny's kitchen. He called her name and she looked up with her hands immersed in soapy dish water.
"What did he say?" Jenny asked with her lips pursed slightly in annoyance.
"He wants to talk to you," Will said, nodding at the phone as he held it out to her.
Jenny weighed her options and narrowed her eyes before she dried her hands on a towel and snatched the phone from him.
"What?" she demanded sharply, leaning back against the sink. She had no intention to talk longer than two minutes.
"Get in here, Jenny," Gibbs growled.
"I'll say no again because I have no more doors for you to have kicked in," she quipped, crossing on foot over the other, her gaze following Decker as he dropped into a chair at her kitchen table. "I've been rather fond of that door since I was a child, Jethro. I hope you realize you're going to pay to have it fixed."
"Goddamnit, Jen!" he barked, and she could just see his eyes flashing. "Get your ass in here or you're fired."
"On what grounds!" she demanded hotly, pushing herself off of the counter, and Decker looked up. "Because I have no issues with putting a bullet through your head right now," she snapped harshly.
"Insubordination," Jethro growled back, and she was robbed of a retort when he ended the call.
Jenny grit her teeth and exhaled heavily out of her nose before she threw Decker's phone on the table in front of him.
"Where're you going?" Will asked warily.
"To get dressed," Jenny muttered, swinging her kitchen door open, ignoring the way it banged back into place.
Will sat there twenty minutes later when the kid walked in wearing a black, skirted leotard and pink tights. She wore a pair of sneakers on her feet and carried a pair of dance slippers in one hand. He watched her carefully as she took a few steps toward him. She tilted her head to the side and wrinkled her brow curiously.
"Where's my mom?" she asked, stopping in the middle of the floor.
"Oh, she went to change," Will said, and Kelly nodded before she covered the distance between them and dropped into a dining chair beside him. "So how old are you anyway?" he asked as she patted the large bun on her head out of habit.
"Nine," she answered, placing her hands in her lap as she swung her feet absently and looked up at him with blue eyes-Gibbs' eyes.
"Jenny's thirty. She was twenty-one when she had you?" Will asked, raising his brows in surprise. Gibbs had really robbed the cradle.
Kelly shook her head, and Will wrinkled his brow in confusion.
"She didn't have me," Kelly said, and she was clearly about to say more when Jenny walked in dressed in a sheer, white, chiffon blouse, a black blazer, and a pair of dark jeans with Kelly's grey jacket in hand.
"Come on," she sighed, waving Kelly up.
Kelly hopped out of the chair, and took the jacket from Jenny while Will stayed seated in his chair. Jenny looked back at him as Kelly ran through the living room toward the front door, and she did a double take at the funny expression on his face.
"What?" she demanded, knitting her brows defensively.
"Mom!" Kelly called impatiently, and Jenny rolled her eyes before she pushed the door open, letting it swing shut behind her.
"I'm coming!" she shouted, forgetting about Will and whatever he had been about to ask.
What the hell does she mean Jenny didn't have her? Will wondered. She looks just like Gibbs-except for the red in her hair. That's Jenny. Isn't it?
He was jarred from his thoughts by the sound of a car starting outside. He jumped out of his chair and ran to the front door just in time to catch Jenny backing out of the driveway.
"Hey, Shepard, who's goin' to lock your door?" he called.
Jenny leaned out of her window with a brow raised behind her trademark, aviator sunglasses.
"I think turning the key in a broken lock is a little pointless, don't you, Will?" she called back. She smirked before she stuck her head back in the car and finished pulling out of the driveway.
Will scoffed, and turned back to look at the splintered door before he realized that he had absolutely no idea where Jenny was going.
Gibbs was going to kill him.
Decker walked into the NCIS bullpen, a little breathless from all his running around. He looked around warily for any sign of his salt-and-pepper haired boss. Stan walked around the corner from the bathrooms, and paused in his stride at seeing Will there.
"Where's Red?" he asked, grinning because he knew that she wasn't with Will.
"I don't know," Will growled, throwing his jacket onto his chair in annoyance. "Where's Gibbs?"
"He left for coffee twenty minutes ago. He'll probably be back soon," Stan said, and Will chuckled wryly.
"Great," he muttered.
"Shepard, better be in the head, Decker because I told you not to come back without her," Gibbs growled as he strode into the bullpen.
"Hey, boss," Decker started, holding his hands out defensively. "Look, I tried, okay? She wasn't budging. She had to take-" he stopped. "She had somewhere to go."
Gibbs got the message, but he narrowed his eyes and his jaw tightened as if he were restraining himself before he brushed past Will.
"You want to tell me why you didn't go with her?" Gibbs demanded dangerously, turning back.
"Not really," Will bit out and swallowed thickly.
"Go find her!" Gibbs barked, and he missed both the sound of the elevator and the way Will looked past him.
The tight, alto voice of the woman in question announced her presence.
"No need," she said shortly, lifting her chin and raising her voice to be heard.
Gibbs spun to face her, and relief flooded his eyes before anger clouded them.
"If I tell you to come, you come," he growled, and Jenny's green eyes flashed indignantly.
"I am not your dog," she bit back. "You say come, and I say bite me," she snapped harshly.
He grabbed her roughly by the arm, dragging her toward the elevators, and she snatched her arm out of his grip.
"Do not touch me," she growled. "I swear to God, Jethro. I will scream."
Gibbs looked back at Burley and Decker who were watching the whole exchange, stunned into awkward silence. At Gibbs' look they shook it off and Decker was the first to speak.
"I need some coffee," he muttered lamely, patting Jenny on the back briefly.
Burley looked from Will to Jenny to Gibbs.
"Yeah, me too," he agreed, giving Jenny and Gibbs one last glance before he followed behind Will, leaving Jenny and Gibbs to duke it out.
Jethro rubbed a hand over his mouth and leaned heavily on Will's desk.
"Where's Kelly?" he asked, looking up at her.
"What do you want?" Jenny snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Jen," he growled in warning.
"What?" she shouted, practically trembling with anger.
Several agents around them looked up, but Jenny was unconcerned. For all she knew she might not even have a job anymore.
"I want to know where my daughter is," he shot back, standing to his full height so that he towered over her.
"You know where she is," Jenny said lowly, looking into his eyes defiantly as he advanced on her. "Don't use her as a buffer, Jethro. I will ask you one more time, what do you want? Answer me, or I am leaving."
"Kyle Boone-"
"Is locked up," she cut him off. "He has been locked up for years, Jethro. He's in the fast lane for the electric chair. I don't care that he's showing them the bodies today. I'm sure he has top-notch security and shackles, and snipers: the whole nine yards. I'm just glad those families will get some peace."
"I care," Jethro shot back sharply, and Jenny rolled her eyes. "I want you safe."
"God, Jethro," Jenny groaned, shoving her hands back through her hair. She looked at him incredulously. "I'm safe. I got away. Those other women didn't. He has nothing to do with me anymore."
"Go get Kelly," he said, and Jenny narrowed her eyes.
"Did you not hear me?" she demanded. "We dragged her along for the ride last time. I won't do it again. She has a sleepover that she has been looking forward to for weeks tonight and a recital she has been looking forward to for even longer tomorrow."
"She's not having that sleepover, and she's not going to that recital. Not until I know it's safe," he said.
"And how long will it take this time, Jethro?" she asked, moving to her feet and looped her purse over her arm. "Weeks? Months? Are you going to break my neck this time?" she spat harshly and stormed past him, leaving him standing there in stunned into silence with a tight jaw and hard eyes. "Bring me some proof Jethro!" she barked over her shoulder.
She jammed the down button on the elevator, brushing her hair out of her face in agitation. She looked back to see Jethro still standing there and she licked her lips. She was wrong. She knew she was wrong. She always threw that back in his face. She knew it would hurt him, and when she wanted to hurt him bad enough she used it against him.
The elevator opened with a ding and she sighed, stepping on. She hit the button for the parking garage and leaned back against the elevator wall. She chewed on the inside of her lip as her breathing got heavier. Finally, she smacked the wall with her hand angrily and she closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. She blinked her eyes rapidly and swiped at her eyes as the elevator doors opened again and she stepped off into the parking lot.
Jenny sat in the car with Kelly an hour later, tapping the tips of her fingers against the steering wheel in agitation.
"Mom, are you okay?" Kelly asked, looking up from her Gameboy in the backseat.
"I'm fine," Jenny bit back, switching on her blinker.
"Did you and Daddy get in another fight?" Kelly persisted, and Jenny's grip tightened on the wheel as she turned the corner to Ellen's street.
"No," Jenny lied tightly, looking at her old house out of habit as she passed by-she had rented it out to a different family every year since she left, but she had never been able to sell it.
She watched the wife walk out of the house with a hand on her round belly. She had red hair like Jenny, but it was shorter and she had striking blue eyes rather than green. She and her husband had a little girl who was three. They had needed a bigger space, but couldn't afford the down payment, so they rented.
Jenny smiled as she pulled into the driveway and Maddie ran out of the house with her mother yelling behind her.
"Madeleine Tyler!" Ellen snapped.
Jenny had barely shut off the car before Kelly threw her door open and ran to meet Maddie. Ellen scolded her daughter sharply, but the little blonde wasn't listening.
"Hey, Jenny," Ellen laughed, shooting the back of Maddie's head a look.
"Hi, Ellie," Jenny sighed with a weak smile and Ellen cocked her head to the side with her brow furrowed in concern.
"Hey, are you okay?" she asked, pulling Jenny by the arm out of earshot of the girls.
"I'm fine," Jenny assured her, waving her off with a shake of the head. "Anything I should know?" she asked, referring to Maddie.
Ellen pursed her lips at the abrupt change in topic, but shook her head anyway.
"You know about the bees. She has her EpiPen with her just in case. Nothing new. You've got my number if she's any trouble," she said, glancing over Jenny's shoulder into the tinted windows of the car where the girls sat in the backseat.
Jenny laughed.
"She's never any trouble, Ellie," she said, resting a brief hand on the blonde's arm in reassurance as she turned and headed for the car. "You'll meet us at the ballet studio?" she asked, and Ellen nodded.
Jenny smiled once more before she slid into the driver's seat, and Maddie rolled down the window in the backseat.
"Bye, mom!" she yelled out of the window, waving excitedly.
"Bye," Ellen called back, waving as they backed out. "Be good," she added with a warning look and Maddie rolled the window back up.
"How are you Maddie?" Jenny asked, looking up into the rearview mirror to see the girl's face.
"I'm fine. How are you?" Maddie asked politely.
"Well," Jenny replied with a smile, and slid her shades down over her eyes. She gasped as the little girl from the family renting her house ran in to the road, and she slammed on brakes.
"Mari!" the mother shouted, moving with impossible speed as Jenny hopped out of the car.
She reached the child before her mother and the bronze-skinned child was sitting in the road crying. There wasn't a scratch on her and she was a good few feet from the car. She just looked scared. Jenny exhaled in relief, and picked her up, shushing her soothingly.
"Is she okay?" her mother demanded with a hand on her belly again, and Jenny nodded.
"I'm sorry, Lisa," Jenny apologized, handing her over into the younger redhead's arms.
Lisa checked her daughter over for injuries before she turned back to Jenny with a shaky smile.
"No, she just belted out there. It's my fault. I wasn't watching her."
Jenny eyed her sympathetically. She looked exhausted and overwrought.
"Are you alright, Lisa?" she asked, and Lisa looked up at her like she wanted to tell Jenny all of her secrets. She exhaled heavily and she looked like she was bout to cry.
"Daniel lost his job," Lisa admitted. "It's been two weeks. No one will hire him. And I don't know if we're going to make rent this month. If you could just give us a month or two to get things back on track I promise we'll pay you with interest," she insisted earnestly.
"Don't worry about the interest," Jenny said with a forgiving smile. I know you'll get it to me."
Lisa looked at her like he was some angel in glowing light, and she laughed in relief like some load had been taken off her shoulders.
"Really?" she asked.
"Absolutely," Jenny assured her before she looked down at the child in her arms. "She looks okay," she observed, and Lisa nodded.
"She's fine," Lisa decided, looking down at her daughter who had reduced her screams to mere sniffle by then. "Thank you," she said again, looking at Jenny with earnest eyes.
Jenny waved her off and winked kindly before she got back into her car, not wanting to have her car sitting in the middle of the road.
"I'll see you later," she said.
Jenny sat in her room later that night trying to tune out the sound of screaming girls downstairs. She had been just enough out of the way to let the girls have fun without the threat of a parent looming over them, but alert enough to hear any problems since six.
Her head shot up out of her book at the sound of shattering glass. Silence descended over the house in a second.
"What was that?" Jenny shouted angrily, clambering out of bed. She strode down the hall until she found the girls in Kelly's room rather than in the living room where she had left them. Her eyes landed on a crystal figurine Joanne had made for Kelly a year ago. "Kelly," Jenny growled, and the other three girls watched the two of them in anticipation.
"It was an accident," was Kelly's excuse, and Jenny shrugged.
"It isn't mine," she said. "You can explain to your grandmother why it's broken next time she visits," she added, and Kelly looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her up. Jenny raised a brow and gave Kelly one last look of disappointment. "Go downstairs so I can clean it up," Jenny murmured.
"Mom, it was an accident," Kelly insisted again.
"I heard you," Jenny said, and Kelly stuck her bottom lip out, then upset with herself-as much for breaking the figurine as for disappointing Jenny-and ducked her head as she walked past Jenny. The other three girls followed behind her, glancing at Jenny with identical guilty looks.
Jenny was dumping the broken shards of glass into a bag when Kelly's insistent shout met her ears.
"Mom!"
"What?" Jenny called back, taking in Kelly's excited tone. Clearly she had forgotten about being sorry already.
"The door," Kelly yelled, her voice quickly getting louder until she appeared in the doorway. "It's the pizza man."
Jenny sighed, pushing her hair away from her face.
"Throw that away," she said tiredly, handing Kelly the bag. Jethro was on her mind and it was exhausting her.
Jenny walked down the steps, tying her robe tight around her waist. She fished her wallet out of he purse on the foyer table and swung the door open as Kelly ran up behind her. She spared the brunette practically dancing behind her a brief glance before she turned to face the pizza guy with a twenty dollar bill in hand-only to find it wasn't the pizza guy. It was Will.
"You're not the pizza man," Kelly accused with discontent and glared at him a moment before she spun on her heel to run back into the room with the other girls.
Will looked after her in confusion a minute before his gaze fell back on Jenny, who looked like the epitome of testy. She looked exhausted-her makeup had faded to nearly nothing-and she stood there with a hand on her hip and a brow ached expectantly.
"You got the door fixed," he said, and Jenny narrowed her eyes at the transparency of his statement.
"I couldn't exactly have children here all night without a lock on my door," she said.
"Gibbs made me come, alright?" Will sighed finally, walking in past her without invitation and Jenny watched him incredulously before she shut the door. "What the hell did you say to him anyway?" he demanded.
"What do you mean?" Jenny asked warily.
"Boss looked like you hit him with a truck of guilt after you left. You've got him whipped, Shep," Decker laughed.
They both jumped back as Kelly and her friend Jessica ran between them with girlish shrieks of laughter.
"Hey!" Jenny shouted and Will winced involuntarily at the sharp tone of authority in her voice.
"Sorry," Kelly yelled back, and Jenny turned to Will with a weary sigh.
"No, I don't Will," she murmured, and he wrinkled his brow in concern and confusion when she ran a harried hand back through her hair. "Why did Gibbs send you here?" she demanded.
"Told me to keep an eye on you and the kid," Will said, following her into her study. "He said not to let you out of my sight.'
"I'm sure it wasn't meant literally," Jenny muttered distastefully and she turned back to Will to see him with a photo in his hands-she kept it on her desk-of her, Kelly and Jethro.
"Damn, Jenny, you two were really serious," he said, glancing from her back to the picture of Jenny with her head tossed back in laughter onto Gibbs lap with a four year old Kelly crawling over her while Jethro looked down at them with an amused smirk.
"Don't, Will," she sighed, holding her hand out for the photo.
"Why'd you end it?" he asked, though he handed it over nonetheless.
"How do you know I was the one to end it?" she demanded defensively, turning the photo face down on her desk. Will just raised a brow, and she pursed her lips in resignation. "I had my reasons," she said.
"Mom!" Kelly shouted, running into the study and both adults looked up.
"The pizza's here," Kelly said, ending Jenny and Will's conversation.
"I got it," Will said, waving off Jenny's protest of his name.
At NCIS, Burley watched in curious and confused silence as his boss strode in for about the sixth time in the past half hour.
"Son of a bitch," Gibbs growled, looking flipping furiously through a file.
"Hey, boss, what's going on?" Burley asked warily, figuring it had something to do with Kyle Boone or Jenny or both.
As it turned out Bone had just screwing around with the state. When they got to where the bodies were supposed to be, he had just told them that he lied and that they could take him back.
"That," Gibbs snapped, tossing the folder on his desk and pointed it to it.
Burley picked it up and flipped through it, his bow creasing.
"This isn't Boone," he said, but it could have been mistaken for a question.
Gibbs glared and Burley took it as a confirmation.
"Who's taking pictures of Shepard?" Stan asked. He paused, and his brow wrinkled in confusion at the last picture. It was of Jenny laughing with a dark haired little girl that looked a whole lot like Gibbs.
"Who's the kid?" Stan asked, holding the snap up.
"Kelly," Gibbs said gruffly, clearly still in internal debate.
"She yours?" Stan asked. He didn't want to approach why exactly Gibbs' daughter knew Jenny when no one else knew her.
Gibbs glared a moment before he nodded slowly.
"Cute," Stan said, but he had the feeling Gibbs hadn't found the picture to get compliments on his kid. "What's up, boss?" he demanded. "Look, I know Boone went after your wife. You think it's a copycat? Think he's going after the women you're close to? Jenny's a redhead. Wife was a redhead. He probably wants to get as close as he can if he can't get the real thing, right?" Stan murmured in thought, pacing the floor.
"He's got the real thing," Gibbs growled, and Stan kept on with his muttering for a moment before Gibbs' words set in and he stopped, turning to face his boss.
"Boss what the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, eyeing Gibbs in pained confusion-and then it dawned on him. "Wait a minute, Shepard's not-"
Gibbs just continued to glare impassively.
"You married Shepard!" Burley shouted, drawing the attention of half the bullpen and Gibbs leaned forward to deliver a loud smack to the back of Stan's head.
"Keep your voice down!" he hissed, but Burley was too giddy with excitement to care about the lethal look Gibbs was giving him.
"I knew it!" he whispered, his eyes full of boyish triumph.
"I didn't marry Shepard," Gibbs shot back, looking like he was ready to smack Burley again.
Finally the severity of the situation hit Stan like a ton of bricks, and his expression changed to one of stricken concern.
"But Shepard's the woman from '96?" he demanded, and licked his lips. "And some crazy copycat is going after her because of it?" He took Gibbs' silence as confirmation. "Well, shit."
"What kind of pizza did you get?" Will asked as he walked down the hall with Kelly, deciding he may as well make an effort to get to know the kid.
"Pepperoni, and I got Mushrooms and Pineapple because nobody else likes it," Kelly answered, wiggling beside him as they walked.
Will laughed.
"Jenny does that too," he said, and Kelly grinned proudly.
"I know," she said. "Only me and Mommy do it. Daddy says it's nasty."
"It is," Will agreed, swinging the door open to reveal a good-looking kid in his twenties holding two pizzas with his dark hair plastered to his head with rainwater.
Will grabbed the pizzas and paid the kid who thanked him before he pulled his jacket tight around himself and ran back out into what looked like it was shaping up to be a nasty thunderstorm.
"Pizza!" Will shouted, in a voice characteristic of a man who grew up in a family of seven.
Three cheering girls nearly ran into him and he barely had time to drop the pizzas on the table before they descended over them like a swarm of locusts.
Jenny sauntered in a few seconds later with a pleased smile on her lips at seeing Kelly having fun, but Will saw the lingering exhaustion and frustration in her eyes. Jenny reached over the girls to grab a slice of Mushroom and Pineapple.
Not five seconds later, a crack of thunder resounded through the air like a whip and bright, white light flashed across the sky before they were left shrouded in darkness. Will and Jenny winced at the hysterical screams of nine-year old girls.
"Girls!" Jenny shouted over the noise, but it was no use until Will yelled like something akin to a donkey and the room went silent. Everyone turned to look at him before the girls dissolved into a fit of giggles. Jenny eyed him in incredulous amusement and Will shrugged.
"Worked for my dad," was all he said. "You have a flashlight?"
"Kitchen, drawer by the sink," she said, and Will nodded before heading in that direction.
By the time he got back all of the girls were gone. He looked at Jenny in confusion.
"Hide and seek in the dark," was all she said.
"You're not worried they're going to get hurt or something?" he asked, but she shook her head.
"They all know this house like the back of their hand," she said, sitting back into the couch, and he tossed her the flashlight.
"Think fast."
"Will!" she shouted in protest, barely throwing her hands up in time to shield her face so that it fell into her lap instead.
They sat on the couch when Maddie came tipping past them in pink pajamas three minutes later grinning madly, and Jenny muffled her laugh with her hand.
Jenny jumped forward in the chair as a loud banging echoed off of her front door and through the house.
"Jesus," she muttered, wondering who would be there so late.
She pushed herself off of the couch, and rolled her eyes when Will followed her with hi gun drawn.
"Hey, Gibbs said not to let you out of my sight. If I do and some nut job murders you at your front door, he'll kill me."
Jenny glared at him in a way that screamed Gibbs before she looked through her peephole.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered distastefully, and swung the door open to reveal Gibbs and Burley on her doorstep.
Will re-holstered his gun and Gibbs strode through the front door past Jenny, quickly followed by Burley who was looking at her like she was some sort of brand new discovery.
"What?" she snapped, and he just shook his head and she screwed her face up in agitated confusion before she shut the door behind them.
"You wanted proof, there's proof," Gibbs growled, holding the manila folder up in the air.
"What are you talking about?" Jenny bit back with bared teeth, her arms crossed over her chest defensively.
She watched him walk past her and down the hall toward her study. She looked after him incredulously before she followed with quick steps and Will and Burley followed behind her.
"Why are you here?" she hissed with more venom than was necessary. "You sent Will to break my door-which I've fixed by the way-then you threatened my job, and sent Will when I wouldn't do what you wanted. Now, you're here. You'd better have a damn good reason Jethro."
"Sit," he growled, and his jaw jumped.
"Have we not established that I am not your dog? You should know from experience that my bite is much worse than my bark, and my bark is pretty god damned bad."
"Sit down, Jenny," he barked, and she pursed her lips while Will and Burley watched the whole exchange with the same awkward feeling they had earlier that day. Only they couldn't escape anywhere this time. "Boone might be locked up, but the kid writing his biography isn't," Gibbs said, and Jenny pulled back slightly, eyeing him with a wary curiosity.
Jethro knew he had her attention.
"Sit down," he said.
"No," she replied shortly, shaking her head with a look of distrust still on her face.
Jethro's jaw jumped.
"Jesus, Jenny, sit down," he ground out, and she watched him warily. He was starting to scare her. "Sit down," he sighed and placed one hand on either side of her waist, ushering her into the chair behind her desk.
She shook him off, though she was less aggressive. She still had the presence of mind to be angry enough not to let him touch her.
She watched him take a file from Burley-who was still looking at her like she had two heads-and set it on the edge of her desk.
"What's wrong?" she demanded. She sighed in annoyance and leaned forward persistently. "Jethro!" she snapped.
"Those cases where you were involved, they weren't a coincidence," he said, sliding the folder in front of her. He opened it and took out several photos. "That's your grocery store, your hair shop, your gym," he stopped and clenched his jaw before he continued. "Kelly's ballet school."
Jenny bit her bottom lip, resting her fingers on Kelly's face in the picture. She was smiling up at Jenny. Jenny remembered it. It had been just last week. She looked up at Jethro with a tormented look in her eyes. She didn't care who had some insane obsession with her, but if she had put Kelly in danger she wouldn't forgive herself.
"Who?" she asked. "Who is taking these pictures?"
"Michael Reed," Gibbs said, and Jenny forgot about being angry. She was just worried and scared.
I am so taking it back there. I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope everyone is having at least a semi-not-hectic work/school week lol.
Thanks for reading!
-Mena :)
