SET DURING 16.05 FRAGMENTS

Twenty-One

She missed him. She missed his smug little smirks and the way he popped in and out of her office to ask questions or offer his opinion on their latest case in his customary monosyllabic way. She missed him and she hated herself for it, hated that she had let him get close enough to her that she actually missed him. He had been gone all of two days and she felt like a love sick teenager pining after her boyfriend. Except, she wasn't a teenager, she wasn't in love and Gibbs certainly wasn't her boyfriend. She liked his dependability, the way he made her laugh and the way he helped her to forget the more gruesome parts of their jobs, they were friends and nothing more. She groaned and buried her head in her pillow, she wasn't fooling herself any more than she was fooling Leon. She may not be in love but there was a part of her, a part that she hated, that had to admit that she did like Gibbs... She couldn't pinpoint when he had wormed his way into her life and subsequently her heart but there he was smack dab in the middle of it with his steely eyes that twinkled and danced when he laughed and his stupid lopsided grin. She hated herself and she hated him.

Except she didn't and that was the whole problem, he would be back in the office tomorrow and she wasn't ready to see him. Nothing had changed between them, they were still nothing more than friends but him going on his little woodland adventure had made her realize just how much his presence affected her day. It would be fine if he ruined her day, if the thought of him returning filled her with anger and dread... Instead it caused her stomach to do a small flip and her heart to flutter just a bit too fast.

She knew they would have to talk sooner rather than later, they were tiptoeing around the line of friends or more, they had been for months... Since she had kissed him that night at the beginning of the summer, she had no idea what she had been thinking except that his eyes had looked exceptionally blue and that she felt safe in his arms while chaos reigned around them. There had been a tension surrounding them since that night, not anything obvious to anyone else but definitely a small strain on their usually easy going friendship. She had been awake for the last few hours agonizing over, and hating herself, for these feelings that didn't quite come out of nowhere but were none-the-less surprising in their intensity.

N*C*I*S

Jack bit her pen and blinked a few times as she listened to the tape recordings, she had finally fallen asleep just after two in the morning, she had managed to get three hours of sleep. She was lucky that the tapes were fascinating to listen to. They were fascinating for her as a Doctor, as a Veteran with PTSD, they were a bit more difficult and there were a few times where she visibly flinched when the gunfire or bomb blasts in the background brought back all too familiar memories of her own war.

She looked up when she felt another presence in the room and smiled when she saw Gibbs striding in like he owned the place. She reached down and paused the old machine before looking up at him.

"Hmm, that's a beauty." He commented, nodding down at the cassette player on her coffee machine.

"Yeah, right?" She responded, "I dug it out of our old technology graveyard downstairs. Oh! I found a phone for you down there too, if you ever want to upgrade."

"Yeah." Gibbs said, sighing as he sat down, "What're you thinking?"

That I really missed that grin. She responded mentally.

"Uh, I'm starting from the beginning, listening to them in order." She responded out loud.

"Trying for a read?"

"The lieutenant's state of mind. So far, he's not nearly suicidal, but it's still early on in his second tour. He did two back to back."

Gibbs nodded, and reached for one of the vintage cassette reels, he held in his hand and considered it for a moment.

"He had a lot to say." He commented.

"He was going to be a reporter when he got out." She informed him, leaning back on the couch with a grin. "These tapes were correspondence with his wife for sure, but he was also doing it to hone his craft. Documenting and interviewing."

She trailed off when she noticed Gibbs studying her intently, she raised an eyebrow and waited for him to say what he was thinking.

"You got that look, Jack."

She tilted her head and took her pen out of her mouth, she gave him a small smirk and raised her eyebrows.

"You know me so well, Gibbs."

He offered her a lopsided grin and she felt her heart melt, she quickly diverted her attention away from him and put her glasses back on.

"Just listen to this again, okay?" She said, her voice full of excitement and an underlying hint of nerves.

She pressed play on the tape and studied Gibbs as he listened to the tape, his hands folded in his lap and his shoulders forward listening intently with a small smile on his face.

"The guy laughing with the lieutenant, it's the same guy who supposedly killed him." She informed him.

"Ray Jennings." Gibbs supplied, "They were friends. Claire mentioned that."

"Yes, but it was much deeper than that. These two had a real bond; they were almost like brothers." She replied earnestly, "I'm telling you, Gibbs. This does not fit the typical profile of a fragging.

He considered her for a moment before nodding, "maybe it wasn't."

She pursed her lips and nodded, now that they were done talking about the case she was surprisingly at a loss for words.

"I'm gonna take McGee and go talk to Jennings." He said, pushing himself up with a small groan.

He made his way to the door and then paused for a moment before continuing on, she watched him go without turning back and went back to her recordings, silently relieved to be alone again.

N*C*I*S

Jack closed her eyes and gripped the arm of the seat tighter as she listened to the presentation Kasie had put together. She could feel tension radiating off of Gibbs as he shifted in his seat and sat up straighter. She paused the video and raised the curtain, unwilling to make either of them suffer any longer.

"Oy." She gave a long sigh and crossed her arms in her lap, "Kasie wasn't messing around with this presentation."

Gibbs gave a sigh of agreement, the tension and sadness in the sigh had her leaning forward to rest a hand on his forearm, she could tell he was struggling and she was all too familiar with the feeling.

"You alright?" She asked.

"Yeah." He replied weakly.

He shifted his arm so her hand was incased in his and twined his fingers through hers, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"Different war… Still, it's… oof." He took a shaky breath and shook his head with a small mirthless chuckle.

"Me too." She agreed quietly.

He glanced down and seemed to notice their hands at the same time she did, she cleared her throat and stood up quickly, trying to flee the situation. His hand had been warm and calloused against her small smooth one, the roughness almost comforting but at the sight of it, that innocent gesture that brought them one step closer to crossing the line they were tip toeing around, her fight or flight kicked in and she knew she needed to get out.

"I'll spare you the rest." She said quickly, "Turned out okay."

"Yeah, except it didn't, Jack." He replied, his voice harbouring a bit of a bite.

"No. Of course. You're right, there's no way Lieutenant Hall wasn't affected by what he experienced out there. I mean look at us, our hearts were pounding just hearing it. This was Hall's second to last tape, he was stressed you heard him but he was keeping it together, he wasn't suicidal."

"His last tape, he was?"

"Right." Jack confirmed, "So the question is, what happened between those two tapes?"

"The last scout with Ray Jennings." Gibbs supplied.

"Right, but what happened?"

She barely got the question out before McGee entered the room, his head in a full swivel trying to survey the changes to the lab.

"Hey. What's with the…?" He trailed off, "Oh, my God. Why didn't anyone tell me what's going on back here? We got a sealed subwoofer with a passive radiator."

"McGee." Gibbs interrupted the younger agents geek-out, "the reports."

"Right." McGee replied, snapping himself out of it, "Kasie tried to de-mold as best as she could. The JAGMAN was beyond repair, but I was able to read part of the NIS Report of Investigation."

"Anything?" Gibbs asked.

"Yep, Ray Jennings changed his story."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Well, at first he said he threw the grenade into the lieutenant's hooch from the outside, at a distance and then later, he said that he was in the actual hooch when he threw it and then ran outside, like Fletcher said." McGee explained.

"So he was insistent in saying that he did it." Jack stated incredulously, "Why would he change his story about where he was standing?"

"You think you can get him to talk?"

"We'll find out." Jack said, walking out of the room, leaving the two men behind.

She needed to get out before McGee left and she was forced to be alone with Gibbs.

N*C*I*S

Gibbs raised his sander to the wood in front of him, it had been a long few days and his mind was all over the place. The case itself had been horrifying, a Marine had spent almost fifty years of his life in prison for a crime he hadn't committed. His own war and subsequent PTSD had been brought to the forefront with Kasie's video. McGee had taken the case personally, his father on his mind throughout the investigation. Jack had been acting off for the last few days and he couldn't understand exactly why he'd felt so hurt when she'd stood up and dropped his hand as if she had been burned. The rest of the day had been tense, they had been able to work together but he hadn't been able to look her in the eye and she had stayed on the opposite side of the room from him.

Everything else aside his mind kept coming back to Jack. Things hadn't been great between them in awhile, he knew that, he just couldn't quite understand why. He had been hoping that with Leon's return would come some sort of normalcy, to some degree they had gotten that but he didn't know how to approach things with Jack. He hadn't meant to take her hand in his, it had been instinct really but it had obviously been a mistake. He understood why Jack wouldn't be interested in an old man like him, there were fourteen years between them, she was gorgeous, funny, smart and most importantly she was full of life. He was… not. He understood why but it didn't make it hurt any less, especially when he thought about how it might affect their friendship.

He heard his front door open and close and the sound of footsteps above him. He knew without a shadow of a doubt who it was, but for the first time in a year he wasn't looking forward to her company, he was dreading it. He heard her at the top of the stairs but didn't turn around. He continued to sand as her soft steps came down the staircase.

"Gibbs." She said quietly.

The sander stopped sliding against the wood and his shoulders tensed but he still didn't turn around. He heard her sigh and from experience knew she was running her hand through her hair.

"Gibbs… I'm sorry."

Everything in him wanted to quote rule six and brush off the apology completely but he could tell by the tone in her voice that that tactic would not go over well for him.

"Can you… Please look at me…" She sighed again, more brokenly this time. "Jethro."

That made him turn around. She had never used his given name before, she had always called him Gibbs or Cowboy never Jethro.

"I get it, Jack." He assured her, "No need to apologize."

"What do you get?" She asked, raising her eyebrow and crossing her arms.

"I was outta line today, won't happen again." He promised.

"No." She replied quickly, "it's not-"

"It's fine, Jack." He cut her off, "I shouldn't've crossed that line, I know nothing's gonna happen."

She looked at him indignantly and he could see anger flash across her eyes as her shoulders tensed and her arms tightened across her chest.

"You're an idiot." She stated, throwing her hands up in frustration.

He looked at her in confusion, he wasn't sure what she was upset about now and she didn't give him time to ponder it before she was across the basement floor. She placed both of her hands on the back of his neck and stood on her tiptoes to claim his lips in a kiss that shocked him so much it took him a moment or two to respond. By the time he realized that he hadn't responded to the kiss in anyway Jack was pulling back her eyes hurt and her cheeks pink with embarrassment. She opened her mouth to speak but he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, this time putting more than enough effort into the kiss. His hands settled on her hips and he pulled her closer against him while her arms wound around his neck. He backed them up until Jack's back was against the workbench.

Instinctively she knew what he wanted without him having to ask and she hopped up onto the counter and spread her legs enough that he could stand between them. She had fantasized about what having Leroy Jethro Gibbs standing between her legs would feel like but this was better than anything she could have imagined. He let out a quiet groan as she wrapped one leg around his waist to pull him closer against her.

He broke his lips away from hers and began kissing a trail down her neck, making sure to catalogue exactly which spots made her squirm. He was rewarded with a quiet moan when he scraped his teeth against her pulse point and he grinned against it as he continued on his exploration. He pulled the collar of her shirt aside and placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder. He looked up when she carefully pushed him back enough to allow room for her hands to come between them and he watched captivated as she unbuttoned her shirt to reveal a white lace bra. It wasn't anything overly fancy and he had no doubt in his mind that she owned much more… interesting lingerie but in that moment, Jack Sloane sitting on his work bench shirt unbuttoned, chest flushed with a cheeky grin on her face…. Beyond sexy…

"You just gonna keep looking, or…." She let the question trail off as she raised her eyebrow and bit her lip.

"It's one hell of a view." He commented after a moment, his voice lacking its usual confidence.

Jack smirked and hooked her leg back around his waist to pull him back to her, she felt his hands slide of the bare skin of her sides and couldn't help but shiver at the sensation.

Her shiver seemed to make him a bit more aware of where they were and what they were doing as he quickly pulled back nodded towards the stairs.

"If…" He swallowed and tried to remember what it was like to have confidence, "bed might be more comfortable, definitely warmer."

Jack nodded and hopped down from the counter. She wasn't sure how they made it up two flights of stairs without one of them breaking something but they managed and by the time they made it to Gibbs' room he had lost his polo along the way and was now only in his undershirt and dress pants. His lips never left hers as he backed her up to the edge of the bed, she felt the back of her knees connect with the mattress and paused for a moment. She pulled away from Gibbs and undid the button to her dress pants before slowly letting them fall to the ground, she delicately stepped out of them and kicked them out of the way all the while silently thanking whoever was listening that she had bothered to put on matching underwear. She hadn't exactly planned on getting naked with Gibbs of all people but now that it was happening she wasn't about to be the one to stop it.

If Jack Sloane sitting on his workbench with her shirt unbuttoned was beyond sexy, he didn't even know how to begin to describe Jack Sloane standing in front of his bed wearing only her panties, bra and an unbuttoned blouse, her hair tangled from where he had run his fingers through it. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, he knew that the next step would be the hardest for her, she was down to her last defence, the only thing between him and the horror's of her past was a flimsy blouse. He tilted his head and claimed her lips in a slow and gentle kiss, a complete change of pace from earlier, when she relaxed he slid his hands underneath the back of the shirt and slowly up until he reached the clasp of her bra.

"Okay?" He asked quietly, pulling away just enough so that he could see her face.

She swallowed and nodded, she knew rationally that he had already seen the scars but this was different, this was intimate and… More than just her begging for help while she relived the worst time of her life. She was surprised when Gibbs' hands drifted away from her upper back and slid around to the front of her shirt to push it off of her shoulders.

"You say stop anytime and we stop." He promised quietly as he dropped a kiss to her neck, "okay?"

She nodded her agreement and hummed quietly as he found her pulse point again. She tensed when she felt his hands rest on her shoulder before gently turning her around. She did everything possible to make sure her partners didn't see her back, she had mastered the art of keeping attention elsewhere but she knew that wouldn't work with Gibbs. She wasn't sure what he was doing in the moments of silence when he turned her around but she certainly wasn't expecting the gentle kiss he pressed right between her shoulder blades, right in the centre of the mess that was her upper back.

"You're gorgeous." He whispered, kissing a trail up her back to her neck.

She turned back around and grabbed the hem of his white undershirt, she could see a flash of hesitation in his eyes before he slowly lifted his arms to help her. She understood his hesitation as soon as she saw the large scar that ran right down the middle of his chest. There were other smaller scars scattered all over but this one was impossible to miss. She knew what a burden it was to carry a visible reminder of trauma, it was especially hard when other people had to see it. So she didn't question it, she didn't offer him a glance that said 'I'm sorry' she simply leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the centre of his chest, offering him the same quiet support he had given her not two minutes ago.

LONG LONG CHAPTER…. I have never written anything remotely steamy before and I have to admit I found this difficult however I really think this is where things would have started between them (Had they been together in canon) Like I said I am not good at writing M-Rated so this is as close to that as I'll probably get for now I tried my best so I hope everyone at least sort of enjoyed it… Yes they still have to have a conversation and it is coming, in their own sort of way, they need to play the whole 'wondering' thing a bit longer…. OKAY LAST NIGHTS EPISODE…. JUST WOW OKAY!? It was so perfect from Slibbs to Ellick to Diane and then the ending just… WOW…It's going to be a long wait until September that's for sure…. Anyway enough from me, I don't own anything and any recognizable lines or long strings of Dialogue come directly from the episode Fragments and belong to DPB, CBS and NCIS… I love to hear from you guys so please please review, I hope you enjoyed!

~Katie