Chapter- While Rory is away the grownups will play

"Aurora Joy if you don't get your butt down here in the next 5 seconds then I will not eb taking you to camp!" Jenny yelled up the stairs. Rory was going to her very first Girl scout camp and she was being a brat about the whole thing. Rory was like her mother and was a perfectionist. Jenny didn't mind it normally, it meant nine times out of ten her room was tidy, her homework was perfect but this morning it was driving her insane. Rory had been up at the crack of dawn, packing and unpacking her bag because everything wasn't quite right. The next thing she knew she heard her bundling down the stairs with her bag in tow, dropping it at her mother's feet she smiled up at her.

"All ready to go," she smiled all dressed in her uniform.

"Good, let's put this in the car and we will go pick up Lottie and Molly." Jenny had agreed to carpool with the other girls, and it meant that Molly's mom would bring the girls home which meant Jenny had one full week of child free days and she didn't know what to do with herself.

The ride to the campground was loud, and Jenny liked it. Sometimes she felt bad that Rory was an only child and took a moment to imagine what it would be like to have a car full of kids and a husband by her side, but she didn't have that. Rory had literally run off with her friends into camp only giving her mother a quick goodbye and it made her want to cry. "Her first time away at camp?" Jenny turned around and saw one of the leaders standing behind her.

Jenny smiled "Yeah, I've only been apart from her for 10 nights her entire like," Jenny said feeling nostalgic, maybe she should've prepared for this. "and she's off like a shot."

The lady, Natalie her name tag said, put a hand on her shoulder "Means you've done a good job with her. Its Rory Shepard right?" Jenny nodded "Okay so she's allergic to nuts and shellfish?"

"Yeah I gave the medication and her Epi Pen to the other counsellors, but she's got one on her, she knows how to use it." Natalie smiled

"Fabby okay so we just need an extra emergency contact we've only got one down for her," Jenny frowned at Natalie she didn't have anyone else to put down really, "It can be anyone really, another parents, a grandparent or a family friend.." Natalie trailed off and Jenny pondered for a moment.

"Um yeah I've got a few work colleagues, but I will need to put a few numbers down if that okay, we are federal agents and we sometimes can't be reached."

"That's totally fabby just put them down on her form," Jenny took the clip board and began to scribble. Stanley Burley- family friend, William Decker -family friend, Dr Donald Mallard- Family friend, Jethro Gibbs, and as she went to write Gibbs name she paused, because she really did not know what to write for his relationship to Rory, so she just left it blank, because blank was easier.

Gibbs strolled into Jenny's brownstone at 5am on Monday morning, her house keeper wasn't in yet, Jenny probably had given her the morning off because Rory wasn't there, and that was the reason why Gibbs was over so early in the morning. . He took his shoes off at the side of the bed and jumped on top of her and she let out a shriek and hit him on the shoulder and it hurt

"Ah Jen!" He yelled as Jenny sat up, she was wearing brass knuckles. "What the hell Jen, why are you wearing brass knuckles? He yelled

"Jethro!" she groaned shaking her head, her eyes going to the ceiling in annoyance, a small smile touching the corners of her lips. "I'm a single woman with a child, I have to protect myself when strange men jump into my bed " she retorted

"You have a gun Jen," he whined.

"Again Jethro, I have a child, you might remember her 7 year old, fiery red head, same temper as her momma." She said smugly. "My gun gets locked up, in a safe."

He took her brass knuckles off and threw them onto the bedside table, he took his shirt off and gave her a good morning peck, it almost felt normal. "Why are you here?," she asked before quickly adding, "not that you're not welcome." He never came over in the mornings, he only ever came over at work, when Rory was asleep. A couple of times they had snuck to his car and hooked up during lunch break, but he had never come over in the mornings.

Gibbs wasn't really sure how to answer the question, he wanted to be with her, so he left his wife and came over here, and he knew he wasn't going to be asked questions. "Rory isn't here," he said finally, figuring that would be a good enough answer to keep Jenny quiet.

The Saturday that Rory was due to arrive home Jenny had been called into work on a case, but thankfully Molly's mum was going to drop her at NCIS. Jenny was flipping through documents on her desk, when Molly's mother appeared with a sad Rory in the bullpen.

Jenny got out from behind her desk and gave her daughter a hug "what's with the sad face Rory?" she asked, her daughter had called her once, on Friday evening to let her know she had had 'the best time' and didn't want to leave, what had happened in one day.

"I don't want to talk about it I want to draw," she mumbled, and Jenny indicated she go and sit at the unoccupied desk behind Gibbs and Rory sulked off, not looking at anyone.

"She tells you anything Ella?" Jenny asked Molly's mum.

She looked around and the boys pretended to be doing something, "Well you see Jenny, there is a camp day for the girls, the weekend after the 4th of July," Jenny nodded, that was fine Rory could go if she wanted. "It's a daddy daughter trip," she trailed off. That was it, Rory didn't have a dad and she was going to miss out and that was going to make her mad.

"Surely not every child has a father," Jenny started.

"Oh yes and she was told she could bring any male family member, but um she said she didn't have any," and that hit Jenny like a ton of bricks, because of her life and her family her kid didn't have a male role model in her life anymore. Jenny pursed her lips and said thank you to Molly's mum and closed her eyes as she sat down behind her desk.

"Yanno red," Burley started, and Jenny glared, she wasn't in the mood for him to say something crap just now. "We love little red, and I'm happy to go on this thing with her if you want, I'm sure Deck and the boss man would be happy to do so too, she would have her pick," he said smiling at her uneasy, eh didn't want to overstep, but Jenny was family and he littles Red Junior. Rory came out from her hiding spot and ran up and gave Stan a hug.

"Thanks Stan," Jenny said, she was lucky to have the team she did.