Ducky hesitated at the door leading into Gibbs's living room, his hand hovering over the handle. He knew that he had to go in there, had to explain to the team where Jethro had gone and why - although he wasn't too clear on the why.

Ducky raised his eyes upwards in a silent plea, he had lost so many friends in this line of work, said far too many goodbyes to those often younger than himself and he didn't want to add Jennifer to that list. Didn't want to see what it would do to his friend, or to Lexie, the thought of that little girl facing the world without her mother made him want to sink to the floor in despair.

Shaking his head, Ducky pulled himself out of his melancholy state, it simply wasn't the time for him to sit and feel sorry for himself, other people needed him to stay strong, to give support. Drawing his shoulders back, he straightened his spine, his finger's tightening on the door handle, he pushed downwards and stepped inside.

As expected the teams heads collectively shot up, their looks a mixture of curiosity and fear. Ducky noted in detached interest that Abby had clutched McGee's hand, the younger man appeared to draw some sort of strength from knowing that she was looking to him for support. Clearing his throat, his eyes met Ducky's and he asked, "What's happened?"

"They've asked Gibbs to go into the hospital."

Abby's eyes fluttered shut, a small whimper escaping from between tightly clenched lips. Again it was McGee who spoke, "What's happened?"

Ducky gave a small shrug, shaking his head ever so slightly as he replied, "That is everything that I know."

The team shared a concerned look, each lost in their own thoughts for a moment, until Kate asked, "What happens next?"

"I told Gibbs that I would stay here, watch over Lexie until he returns, what you decide to do is your own decision, he won't hold it against you if you decide to leave."

It was Tony who spoke up this time. "What are you going to tell her?"

Letting out a soft sigh, Ducky replied, "Just that Gibbs is running an errand, we don't know anything at this moment in time, and to pretend that we do would be cruel."

Tony nodded once, before continuing, "Then if we all go, then she'll know that something's wrong, she's a smart kid." He folded his arms decisively, declaring, "I'm staying."

One by one, the group agreed with Tony's sentiment, putting aside their own fears to be there for Lexie. Seeing the team pull together put a small smile on Ducky's face, it may be a strange family, but it was closer than many real ones and he wouldn't change them for the world.

He was brought out of his reverie, by Kate asking, "Where is Lexie anyway?"

Shuffling backwards on his spot on the carpet, Tony replied, "She went to get her bear, James."

Rolling her eyes, Abby leaned forward and cuffed his ear, informing him, "It's Jake, not James and if she hears you get it wrong, she'll have your head."

"No she won't, I'm the favourite," Tony informed them all cockily.

Kate laughed, "She just told you less than fifteen minutes ago that you weren't."

"She was just trying to spare everyone else's feelings, Katie."

"Uh huh, sure."

Abby chimed into the conversation, "Moving swiftly on, shouldn't she be back down by now?"

"Maybe she got distracted," McGee put forward. "You know what small kids are like."

"Maybe," Abby replied, sounding completely unconvinced.

Ducky took his seat beside the young Goth, and patted her hand reassuringly, "I'm sure she's fine, but if she's not down in a few minutes then we'll go and check on her."

Abby shrugged, her face contorted into a frown, her eyes remaining fixed on the stairway visible past the open door. Her mind elsewhere, she replied, "I suppose that's OK."

*******************

Clutching Jake tightly into her chest, Lexie flopped onto the cold tile floor, sniffling softly she buried her face into the top of her bear's head, her tears soaking into his fur. She wanted to lie down, but the floor was so cold, reaching blindly upward, she pulled a white towel from the railing, and on feeling that it was clean and dry, she folded it up and lay her head on it.

Tugging Jake closer into her, she brought her knees up into her chest and let out a shuddering breath, her mom wasn't going to come back. What was she going to do without her mom? What if her dad didn't want her, he'd promised that he wouldn't leave her, but that was before, everything had changed now and she was all alone.

It took all of Gibbs's self control to concentrate on the road, his mouth was dry, his stomach was twisting itself into knots and his heart was pounding. He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to focus better on the road, his mind replying the conversation over the phone, trying to read between the lines - for once he was unable to. In slight denial, he shook his head, they had only asked him to come down, that didn't mean he should be thinking the worst, it could be something small, they could just need some paperwork signed.

He ran his hand over his chin, his foot twitching on the accelerator. Trying to rally himself, he breathed in deeply, he could do this, whatever it was he could face this, he had to.

Todd stopped at the nurse's station, his finger's tapping impatiently against the wooden countertop, he asked, "Are Jennifer Sheppard's bloods back?"

Hannah looked up in slight disbelief, replying, "We sent them away 15 minutes ago, even with them being marked urgent they won't be through for a while yet."

Nodding distractedly, Todd muttered under his breath, "Of course." Looking up, he asked, "Any change?"

"No, BP and pulse remain high, but sats are still above 95% and she's not showing any sign of respiratory distress." she frowned slightly, adding, "I thought you believed this is psychological?"

"I do, but if this doesn't work I want to be able to move as quickly as possible. Her body's been under enough strain without adding this." Running a distracted hand through his hair he continued, "and just as it seemed to be going so well," he shook his head, eyes narrowed in frustration. It was at that moment that his pager sounded, unclipping it from his belt, he glanced at it and let out a sigh. "I'm needed down in the E.R. let me know how this goes, and page me if she deteriorates."

Hannah nodded, "Of course." She watched him go, and glanced back up at the clock, wondering how long it would take Agent Gibbs to get here. As though someone was listening in on her thoughts, the elevator doors pinged open, and the man in question stepped out. Stepping out from behind the desk, Hannah quickly gave him a once over, he looked tense, his face was shuttered as though he expected the worst.

On seeing her he strode purposively over to where she was standing. His voice steady, he asked, "What's going on?"

Glancing around the area, Hannah made sure that there was no-one listening in before speaking, "We extubated Jennifer today -"

"She's awake," Gibbs cut in, a faint note of hope creeping into his voice.

"She's becoming more aware of her surroundings, but she's still only minimally conscious. However she's now breathing on her own, and coping on only supportive oxygen -"

Once again Gibbs interrupted, asking, "That's good though, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's a massive step in the right direction, but there have been some unexpected complications."

"What kind of complications?" Gibbs cursed silently at the note of despair creeping into his voice.

"Jennifer appears to be very agitated, and we're not sure why. Her pulse and blood pressure are continuing to rise, which is worrying. We think it may be a psychological reaction, but our reassurances aren't working, we are hoping that a familiar voice will calm her down."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"We're running blood tests as a precaution, and if needs be then we'll reduce them with medication, but that would only be as a last result."

"Right." Gibbs nodded, his forehead creased into a frown.

Gesturing down the corridor, Hannah asked, "Do you want to go in?"

Gibbs nodded, and made to move past her, only halting when he heard her call out, "If you need anything at all, let us know."

"I will." he replied, before continuing on his way to Jenny's room.

Abby looked worriedly at her watch, pointing out, "It's been over ten minutes."

Kate tilted her head backwards in an attempt to see up the stairs, frowning slightly she added, "Yeah and she's been really quiet, I think I'll go check on her, see what she's up to."

"Why?" Tony asked. "Surely when kids are quiet it's a good thing?"

Kate gave a snort of disbelief. "You obviously haven't spent a lot of time with kids, I have two nephews and it's when they're quiet that you know they're up to something." Pushing herself to her feet, she declared firmly, "I'm going upstairs, I'll be back in a minute."

She moved up the stairs silently, her footsteps muffled by the carpet, she headed straight for Lexie's room, opening the door she peered inside, and was disturbed to find it empty. Letting out a shaky breath, she told herself not to panic and quickly checked the other rooms, calling out, "Lexie."

Running a hand through her hair, she headed towards the bathroom door, the only room that had still to be checked. She pushed down on the handle and shoved her weight against the door, only to judder to a halt. She jangled the handle pointlessly, her fist banging against the door she yelled, "Lexie, are you in there? Lexie open the door, Lexie!"

The rest of the team heard her yells and darted up the stairs, pushing her way to the front, Abby asked, "What is it? What's happened?"

Kate gave the door one last ineffectual shove before standing back and replying, "I think Lexie's locked herself in the bathroom, but she's not answering me."

Abby's face paled, and a slight note of hysteria creeping into her voice she squealed, "Well then stop standing there and break open the door."

"Gibbs will kill us if we break down one of his doors," Tony told them.

Abby swung round, the worry on her face replaced with pure annoyance as she spat back, "What do you think Gibbs is going to be more annoyed about, a broken door, or the fact his four year old is locked in a bathroom, alone, and with God knows what bathroom chemicals. Oh God," She shoved her way to the door, and hammering on the wood, yelled out, "Lexie don't drink anything."

"Abby the kid's not stupid, she's not sitting in there drinking bleach," Tony pointed out.

"How do we know! The door's locked, anything could've happened, she's not answering us."

Tony opened his mouth to reply, then promptly snapped it shut again, before letting it fall open once more, finally suggesting, "We could try the window, I'm pretty sure that it's open. One of us climbs through, while the other one holds the ladder. That way we get in there quickly without destroying Gibbs's door."

"Fine," Abby replied. "But you have five minutes and if she isn't out by then, then I will kick that door down myself." Abby moved up into Tony's face, whispering, "Do I make myself clear?"

Gulping, Tony replied, "Crystal."

Tugging Abby away from her next victim, Kate suggested, "I'll climb through the window since it's quite small -"

"And you've done it before," McGee pointed out.

Looking at him incredulously, Kate snapped, "Focus, McGee, this is important."

McGee at least had the decency to look contrite, mumbling, "Sorry."

"Better." Kate looked around the group, asking, "Right, who's going to hold the ladder?"

Grinning, Tony gave a pointed look at Kate's skirt and replied, "I'll do it."

Glaring, Kate stabbed her heel into his foot. "You are a creep." She took another glance around the group, Ducky was standing worriedly at the edge of the group, while Abby looked like she was on the verge of clawing the door down with her bare hands. Her only other option was McGee, and as he pointed out he'd been there and done that, and was the lesser of the two evils. Grabbing the younger Agent, she told him, "You're coming with me."

At McGee's stricken look. Tony choked back a laugh, mainly because Abby looked about ready to choke someone, and he was pretty sure that he would be top of her list. So for once in his life, Tony stood quietly, waiting to see whether they could pull this off.

*******************

Kate propped her foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, and glanced up at the gaping window, it certainly looked big enough for her to crawl through, or if not she could always push it open until it was. Giving McGee a warning glance she told him, "Don't look up my skirt."

She waited until he nodded, and then pushed herself further up, climbing the ladder easily until she reached the window. Keeping a firm grip on the ladder with one hand, she used the other to push the window frame until it was fully open. Then grabbing the ledge, she lifted herself off the ladder, and wiggled through, landing in an odd landing, with a 'thunk' on the tiled floor. "I'm in," she yelled.

Looking up, she saw Lexie, lying on the opposite side of the room, her small head resting on a towel that was folded into a makeshift pillow. Her back was to Kate, but she could quite clearly tell that the little girl wasn't moving. Panicking slightly, Kate rushed to her side. "Lexie." She reached out to shake her shoulder. "Lexie are you alright?"

Lexie turned over onto her other side, to face Kate. Her large blue eyes remaining fixed on her face, her cheeks and eyelashes wet with tears. Kate went to pull her into a hug, but Lexie shirked away. Slightly confused, Kate told her, "It's OK, I'm sorry you were up here so long. You should have called us."

Lexie didn't reply, her small white teeth biting into her lower lip, which trembled ferociously. Frowning slightly, Kate reached forward and pulled Lexie up into her arms, and standing up, she headed towards the door. Pulling it open, she had to take a very hasty step back as Abby all but fell through the doorway. The group took one look at Lexie, and all questions died on their lips, and they let Kate past, as she carried Lexie through to her bed.

Gibbs wasn't sure what he was expecting when he went into Jenny's room, but what he found certainly wasn't it. He had always thought that when Jenny woke up, she would wake up, that she would be able to see him, to talk to him. Instead nothing really seemed to have changed from the day before, the only difference was the lack of the ventilator. The machines that measured her vitals, still beeped away, even more incessantly than before, every so often the beeping was accompanied by a high pitched warning bleep.

Moving closer, Gibbs sat down in the high backed chair positioned next to the bed and reaching out he took Jenny's hand, shifting in shock when her finger's closed around his hand, nails biting desperately into his skin. He covered her hand with his other one, keeping her firmly enclosed within his grasp, he told her, "Jen, it's me, it's Jethro."

********************

Someone had taken her hand, Jenny grabbed onto it, using it as an anchor, silently pleading that this would be the person to tell her what was going on, to tell her where Lexie was.

She felt the same person, grasp her hand gently, stroking the back of it soothingly, she felt her shoulders involuntarily begin to relax. Finally the person spoke, the voice sending her senses into freefall. "Jen, it's me, Jethro."

She didn't know how to feel, she wondered whether or not this was real. More than slightly disbelieving that he was actually here, but if she was then he would no where Lexie was. Lexie was the only reason that he would have been contacted.

Desperate for answers, she tightened her grip, pulling at his hand. They'd always been able to communicate without words before, she could only hope that he'd understand what she wanted now.

********************

Gibbs winced as Jenny's grip on his hand tightened, the beeping of the machines surrounding them increasing. Frowning, he tried to think what it was that could have her so wound up, what would get her panicked to such an extent. And then it hit him, it was exactly what would cause him to worry in such an event, Lexie. She'd just woken up, maybe she wasn't aware that Lexie was with him, that she was safe. Moving one hand, he brushed a spare lock of hair away from her cheek, telling her, "Lexie's safe, Jen. She's at home, Ducky and my team are watching her."

He felt her grasp loosen slightly, the beeping of the machines slowing slightly, giving a small relieved sigh, Gibbs continued, "She's fine, has a broken wrist but other than that she's perfect. You've done a great job with her, the team love her to bits, and are spoiling her rotten. She misses you though, I was thinking that maybe when you feel a bit better then she could come and see you, I know she's desperate to tell you everything she's done over the past few days." The beeping slowed even more, settling into a sedate, steady pace, keeping his hand in hers, Gibbs continued to talk, blocking out everything else that surrounded them until the room door opened and the nurse stepped into the room. She gave a quick glance towards Jenny's vitals and seemed to visibly relax, shooting a smile at Gibbs she told him, "I have no idea what you said, but it seems to have worked wonders."

Gibbs gave a small nod of acknowledgement, before asking, "So she's out of the woods?"

"Now that she's off the ventilator we just need to wait and see what progress she makes, but now that all her vitals are steady, she's off the critical list."

"Still in the waiting game though," Gibbs sighed.

"Yes, we can't predict how quickly she'll recover, some people go from strength to strength, but equally some don't fully recover. However Jennifer has shown all the signs that she'll continue to make progress."

"Jenny."

Hannah frowned. "Sorry?"

"It's Jenny, she hates being called Jennifer."

"Oh, well that's good to know. I'll make sure we don't use it anymore." She gave him one last smile, before turning to leave the room, telling him, "Well I'll leave you, I just wanted to check how she was."

Waiting until she was gone, Gibbs took Jenny's hand again, just sitting in an almost comfortable silence, Jenny's fingers wrapping gently around his own.

Ducky sat down on the bed next to curled up Lexie, who had hauled her blankets up to her chin, and placed a hand on her shoulder. It had been almost an hour since they had gotten her out the bathroom and into her bed, but she still hadn't said anything, despite the team making desperate attempts to get her to talk, including Tony promising her a puppy. In the end, Ducky had persuaded the others to leave, telling them that crowding her wasn't going to help, although Abby had had to be forcefully pulled out the door by both Kate and McGee.

Patting her shoulder, he asked, "Do you want me to read you a story?"

The reply he got was a small sniff and a minuscule shake of her head, although she did shuffle slightly closer to him. He didn't speak, just kept his hand on her shoulder as a small sign of comfort, knowing that she wouldn't open up until she was ready.

They sat like that for another ten minutes, before Ducky heard the front door creak open, placing a small kiss to Lexie's hair, Ducky pushed himself off the bed, and headed downstairs. Gibbs looked up at his old friend, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he told him, "She's OK, she's breathing on her own and-" he stopped, noting the look of concern on Ducky's face. "What is it, what's happened?"

"Lexie locked herself in the bathroom, she was in there for fifteen minutes but she's not said anything for over an hour, I think she may have picked up on the fact that something was wrong."

"Right." Running a hand through his hair, Gibbs threw the keys onto the side-table and shrugged off his jacket. He turned to Ducky, "I'll go talk to her, thanks for watching her, Duck."

Ducky merely nodded, and watched his friend sprint up the stairs before slipping out of the front door.

********************

Gibbs pushed open Lexie's door and stepped inside, she looked up at him. "Mommy's not going to get better, is she?"

"Why do you think that?"

Lexie sniffled, "Because I heard you and Ducky talking, you said you had to go to the hospital and you looked really sad. Are you going to send me away."

Sitting down, Gibbs pulled Lexie onto his knee, "I would never send you away, and the reason I went to the hospital is because your mom wanted to see me -"

Lexie perked up slightly, "Mommy woke up?"

"Yes, she's still very tired but she's starting to wake up and she wanted to know how you were. I was thinking that when she feels a bit better you could go and see her."

"She's really OK?"

"Yes."

"And you're not angry with me, or getting rid of me?"

"No, of course I'm not. You need to stop worrying about this Lexie, I'm not leaving you, and neither is your mom."

Lexie took a deep breath and looked up at her dad, telling him, "I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry, Lex?"

"Because I locked myself in the bathroom and made everyone upset with me."

"They were just worried about you, they love you as well, they don't want anything to happen to you."

"So they're not mad either?"

Gibbs shook his head, hugging her closer. "No they're not mad at you, we just want you to be happy."

Lexie looked up at him, informing him solemnly, "I am happy here, I just wish that mommy was here as well, it's not right without her, everything feels weird."

"I know, but she's getting better, it might just take longer than we would like."

"But she'll come home?"

"She'll come home."

"Good." Lexie gave him a small smile, and then added, "And then we can get the puppy Uncle Tony promised me."

I'm sorry for the delay, but I had laptop issues and then I moved flat and had to wait for the internet to get connected. But I'm back :) and now fully aware of my internet addiction lol.

Also thanks for all reviews so far :)

xxx