Chapter 37

Welcoming Them Home

"She has been pacing all morning," Abby said to McGee from behind Jen. "I wish she would stop. They're not due in for another hour."

"I'll check the flight plan again to be sure that it's on time," McGee said.

"Could you make her stop pacing?" Abby asked.

"I can hear you, you know," Jen said with a soft glance back to Abby, who looked instantly guilty.

"Abby, leave her alone," Kort said, coming to the bottom of the stairs. "She often goes without seeing Isaac and has been very worried about him. Besides, her father and Ziva were also on this mission and they are both family."

"I know, I know," Abby said with a wave of her hand. "It just worries me how impatient she is. Her father can sit still for hours waiting at a time. She doesn't seem to have that quality."

"I did have a mother, you know," Jen said, still pacing the hall. "Her name was Shannon and from everything I remember and everything I have heard, she was not the most patient person in the world."

Jenny chuckled at her argument. "And you grew up with Eli David, who wanted instant gratification."

"Doesn't everyone?" Abby asked.

Everyone except Jen laughed about this. She was still pacing back and forth and no longer paying attention to the on goings of the room. She was only focused on what she could hear outside. She continued to pace while McGee assured the others that the flight was scheduled to land on time.

The others were working as Jen paced. Finally, Jen decided to sit on the porch. Jenny followed her out.

"Something on your mind?" she asked.

"I'm nervous," Jen admitted.

"What about?"

"Dad's been with Isaac for a few days," Jen said to her, looking at her with a knowing glance.

Jenny chuckled and went back inside while shaking her head. Jen sat there for another half hour when a car started down the driveway. Another few minutes and it was parked. Jen's head was down and she only heard the doors to the car. She counted out four doors closing before she looked up to see three former Special Agents and one marine approaching her. She stood up slowly and looked at each of them, almost like she was taking an inventory to see that there really were not serious injuries.

Isaac was walking next to Gibbs. Ziva and Tony were next to each other. They were not touching, but they were close. Isaac was glancing between Gibbs and Jen. She was glancing between Isaac and her father. Gibbs was glancing between his daughter and his future son in law.

Jen stepped down the steps of the porch and began to run straight for Isaac. She nearly leapt into his open arms and he pulled her into a hug, picking her right up off her feet and spinning her around. She kissed him on the cheek and then blushed as she was set back down and turned to her father. He was smiling at the sight. Ziva and Tony were also smiling.

"Thank you," Jen said to her father and then nodded also to Ziva and Tony.

"Anything, anytime," Gibbs said with the smile widening on his face. "He's a great guy, Jen."

Jen smiled and then turned to face Isaac. "He doesn't know you at all, does he?"

"We had a little heart to heart," Isaac said.

"Little?" Ziva asked.

"Nope, not little at all. The last four days were a heart to heart," Tony said carefully.

Jen laughed at this. It was great to have them home. Ziva had her brother. Jen had her fiancée and her father, as well as Ziva, who was like her sister. And Tony. Tony was like her brother already.

"Let's get inside and you can all update us on what you have so far!" Gibbs said.

Jen smiled and led the way. As they got inside Kort was smiling softly at what he saw. Jenny was smiling, but didn't dare to move. She remembered too well the little heart to heart that her and Jen had had last night after one of Jen's nightmares.

"So, now that's resolved," Jen said, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking to her left at Jenny. "We need to talk about my father."

"What about him?" Jenny asked.

"What did I point out the first day we were all here?" Jen asked, as though she had no memory of it.

"Yea, thanks for that," Jenny said with an eye roll to rival a teenagers.

"Not a problem. Someone had to say it and the others were obviously too afraid," Jen told Jenny. "I guess I understand. My father has his rules and he is a little religious about them. One of the things he is not saying is that he is afraid that someone will replace Shannon in his heart. But, that's not the case, Jenny. He never felt that way about you. It was just assumed that you would never want that, because you rejected him once. He's still hurt, Jenny. You need to make him see that it's not like that anymore."

"How do you suppose I do that?" Jenny asked.

"I don't know, go for a walk on the beach?" Jen asked. "Talk to him. I know he's not big on talking, but he talked to you when you were both undercover in Paris, right?"

"Yes, he did," Jenny said.

"So, take some time and gain his trust back, Jenny," Jen explained. "Walk on the beach. Talk at night. You two are in the same room, because I happen to know how you feel about each other. It's not like either of you hide it very well."

"No, I guess you're right," Jenny said. "Okay. I'll do what I can. But, what if he doesn't cooperate at all?"

"You keep trying," Jen said. "I can see how he feels about you when he looks at you and he thinks no one else is watching. And, he's very protective of you, Big Jen. He wants you to be safe and happy. That's nothing small. He cares deeply about you, but his eyes tell me that he loves you."

"His words have never shared that," Jenny said. "Not once, ever. Probably had he said it all those years ago, something more would have come of it. I never would have gone off and worked with Mossad all that time. I never would have gone off as an agent afloat. I would have stayed with him. I would have fought to stay with him."

"That's because you love him, too, and you want that assurance that it's not for nothing," Jen explained. "My father holds a lot of things dear to his heart that he won't say out loud. You are one of those things. But, someone's got to make him open up. Yea, sure, I could do it, but what good would that do? It'll take him time to trust what he's feeling and that he can love you and still please his memory of my mother and honor me. I'll show him that you and I are perfectly fine with one another. Besides, you're the mother I never got to have."

"I won't be your mother, Jen!"

"I didn't mean that at all, Jenny. What I meant is I view you as a mother. I didn't have one and you would never replace the one I did have at one time. But, you are very much a mother I would want. I feel as though you are a mother to me," Jen explained. "You care for me the way a mother would care for a child."

"What about Eli's wife?"

"She was a wonderful woman who took excellent care of me. And, yes, I did call her Ima," Jen said. "There was a time when I called Eli Abba. But, he was not a wonderful father for me. So, he lost the title as soon as I realized exactly what he had done to me."

"That's good, I suppose," Jenny said thoughtfully. "Do you think you are fine to sleep now?"

"I can try, but the nightmares might return," Jen said honestly. "They usually go away when Isaac is around."

"When you are happiest," Jenny added for the younger red-head.

They shared a hug and then Jenny left the room with a smile on her face, knowing that it was only a matter of time before none of them had to wake up to her screaming night after night and sometimes multiple times in a night.

Jen walked over to Jenny and placed a kiss on her cheek. Isaac was following her.

"Everyone, this is First Sergeant Isaac David, my fiancée," Jen said. "Isaac this is everyone. Jenny Shepard, a woman who I view as a mother. Abby Sciuto, the forensics expert and an excellent sister. Doctor Mallard, or Ducky, the autopsy and psych guy, who is like a grandfather. Tim McGee, the awkward brother. Ziva David, you know. Tony DiNozzo, who you've met, yet another goofy brother. My father, Gibbs, who is great. And Kort, who's like that strange and slightly creeping uncle…."

"Creepy," Tony corrected automatically.

Jen smiled at him and then laughed. "Yes, he is the creepy uncle, that no one understands and everyone hates because they can. He seems cold and heartless, but there is a heart in there and his soft spot was always me."

"You got problems with English?" Gibbs asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I spoke primarily Hebrew for ten years of my life, what do you think?" Jen asked. "It is funny, because I spoke perfect English when I was eight. By the time I was eighteen I was so unused to speaking it and I had learned so many other languages that things started to get jumbled except for Hebrew."

"You speak Hebrew?" Tony asked.

"Ken," Jen said nodding her head and smiling at him. Ziva and Isaac both laughed. "Ani ohev otach, Isaac."

"Gam ani ohevet otcha, Jen," he whispered and placed a kiss on top of her head.

Gibbs was smiling. He knew what the interaction was, though he had never heard the words. The looks in their eyes were enough to give them away. No one was focused on work at the moment. They were all focused on Isaac and Jen in the center of the room. They stared for another moment until Jen ripped her eyes away from him.

"Okay, back to work," Jen said. "Jenny you worked on bank records and such. Go."

"Nothing highly unusual," she said. "No credit card transactions phone records are fairly clean, though there has been minimal contact between our three."

McGee stood up. "Their movements indicate that they are all in the Middle East. Orli is in Tel Aviv right now, though her presence is highly covered up. Ray is currently in Saudi Arabia, but he doesn't fail to get around. Ulman has been spotted in Yemen, but has gone back and forth between there and Somalia for a while. He is still using that camp, we believe."

"There have been numerous emails between the three which I have kindly translated from Arabic to English for all of us. They sometimes use Spanish, French, or Hebrew to throw off watchers. The one that got me was the series that was sent in German, that was around the time that Yaniv Bodnar was sent by his brother to Berlin to collect the diamonds for him. I was not expecting it, not that I don't know German, but I was just not expecting it."

"The forensics show that Ray Cruz and Hassein Ulman were both involved with the guy's severed head and that means there must be a body somewhere. Orli Elbaz's prints have shown up in various locations too where suspicion was high that the three were involved somehow," Abby explained.

"As for the psychological I have a lot," Ducky said. "Orli is your typical Mossad person, with very few emotions showing. But, primarily what I see is a need for dominance and a feeling of abandonment, which probably extends back to her time with Eli David or even before. It is difficult to say. Hassein is a terrorist and is pretty sociopathic, except that he likes to keep one or two close friends at all times; people he could trust to do his dirty work for him without question. Cruz is another matter. He shows all the signs of a serial killer and a terrorist all in one package. It is unnerving how emotionally unstable this man really is."

"Now, I have found in the emails," Jen said, "that they are to meet on the beach in Haifa in three months time. When they do we will be there to get them. I have split up the work already on who will go after who, but if there is a snag we all must be able to work together.

"Ziva and I will take Hassein and his crew. Tony and McGee will take Cruz and whoever he has with him. And Jenny and Gibbs will take Elbaz and her crew. Isaac you will assist Jenny and Gibbs as will you, Kort. She is Mossad and is skilled. Ducky and Abby will be at a base that we will set up in Haifa and they will monitor things for us from there.

"Now, we must all train and we must all remember what was lost from our days as either Federal Agents in training or marine corps personnel," Jen continued on. "We leave for Haifa in three weeks time. We have from now until then to sort everything out. That's the way of it. We also need to be able to work with each other for when one job is done. This is no easy job. We start training tomorrow. Everyone has the rest of the day off."