A/N: After a massive case of writer's block, I finally managed to write this. I hope you enjoy! Thank you for the reviews! :)
Penelope Shepard was peacefully sleeping in her bed, her blanked wrapped tightly around her body and her untamed red hair was messily spread out all over the pillows. She had one arm angled under her head while the other was lazily dangling from the edge of the bed, swinging slightly back and forth with every even breath she took.
She sighed softly and turned over in her sleep, rolling to her other side and reaching for a pillow to wrap her arms around, when the loud ringtone of her cellphone broke through the quiet night like a siren. Startled and disorientated, Penny shot up to a sitting position, her heart pounding heavily against her chest. She rubbed a hand over her face and groaned, blindly reaching for her glasses on the bedside table and then fumbling her phone off the charging cable. She squinted, her eyes stinging from the brightness of the screen and read the caller-ID: Tony DiNozzo. She groaned even louder but swiped her thumb over the screen to accept the call.
"What do you want?" she grumbled into her phone, her voice still heavy with sleep.
"Rise and shine!" Tony shouted cheerfully into her ear, obviously very amused by her sleepy state, "we got a body in Fairfax. McGee's getting Ziva and the truck and I'll pick you up in twenty."
"Urgh, okay," she yawned and then mumbled something under her breath about not even getting a full 4 hours of sleep, when DiNozzo added,
"Oh, and do you have any idea where Gibbs is? Dispatch couldn't reach him, that's why they called me. I always thought rule three also applied to him, guess I was wrong."
"How the hell would I know? He most certainly isn't in my bed, DiNozzo. Stop bugging me and call him again."
Penny swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, immediately missing the cozy warmth of her bed. She shivered uncomfortably and rubbed her hands over the goosebumps on her arms before walking over to her dresser and flipping on the lamp beside it.
"Geez, you're not a morning person, are you?" Tony muttered and she could hear the jingling of his keys followed by the smashing of his car door in the background.
"Tony, it's three in the morning! If you want me to be ready in twenty minutes, get off the damn phone. We'll drive past his house and wake him if you can't reach him until you get here, alright?" Penny had the phone stuck between her ear and shoulder and was rummaging through her drawers to find clothes appropriate for the cold and dark November night she was about to immerge herself in.
"Or," Tony said loudly against the noise of his car engine starting, "you could go and check your sister's bed real quick, might save us the effort."
Penny could practically hear him grin through the phone. Instead of replying, she just dropped the phone into her hand and ended the call without another word, rolling her eyes. Tony was just being Tony and he had probably no idea that he wasn't too far off with his assumption, but Penny had no intention of adding to the gossip that was already all over the agency.
It had been clear from the day that affair had started off again that whatever happened behind the closed doors of their home would stay between the three of them. And after a while, even her coworkers had realized that Penny would not comment on anything that involved her sister's private life, no matter how long they would press for any juicy details.
She put the phone on the dresser and yawned heavily again, slipping on a black pair of jeans and a green wool sweater, glad that she had decided to take a shower last night instead of in the morning. She checked her phone again for the time and concluded that she would have enough time to make herself some coffee if she hurried up with her hair and make-up. Coffee she would definitely need if they actually had to drag Gibbs out from under his boat in the middle of the night.
Yet, when she opened her door to cross the hall to the bathroom, any confusion about Gibb's whereabouts was suddenly eliminated. She cursed under her breath at the sight of his jacket lazily thrown over the banister at the top of the stairs. Damn, she must have been out light a light, if they had managed to sneak past her.
Penny rubbed her neck and stared at Jenny's closed bedroom door, unsure of what to do now. She really didn't want to go in there and wake them up. Or worse, interrupt. The sudden noise of a phone vibrating disrupted her thoughts and caught her attention. She followed the sound and grabbed the jacket off the banister, rummaging through the pockets until she found it. To no surprise, it was Tony's name that appeared on the small yellow display of the old flip phone. Penny held in in her palm and stared at the device, contemplating whether she should answer it – Tony was coming over anyway. She clutched the phone in her hand and decided to stop wasting any more time instead.
Jenny's bedroom door was unlocked when she carefully turned the doorknob and pushed it open, just as the phone in her fist stopped vibrating. Her eyes needed a second to adjust to the darkness again and when her vision finally became clear, her heart almost stopped beating in her chest when she realized that Jethro was staring at her from Jenny's bed. He was lying on his back, one arm angled behind his neck, the other wrapped tightly around her sister who was still peacefully sleeping on his chest.
"Holy fuck," Penny whispered and put a hand over her own chest, still recovering from the shock of finding him awake.
"Caught a case. DiNozzo's gonna be here in like fifteen minutes," she added and waved his phone at him when he would just continue to stare at her.
"What?!" Gibbs hissed and sat up a bit too fast. Jenny frowned and wiggled her nose in confusion when she woke up from the sudden movement. He stroked her hair out of her face and kissed the top of her head apologetically before focusing his attention back at Penny, who was trying very hard to ignore the fact that both of them were obviously naked.
"You wouldn't answer your phone," she shrugged and threw it at him. He caught it with one hand and flipped it open to check his missed calls,
"Damn it," he hissed under his breath.
"What's going on?" Jenny mumbled and rubbed her eyes, before pushing herself up on her elbows to squint up at him.
"Work," Jethro answered softly and flipped the phone shut again forcefully. He leaned down towards her and slid a hand into her hair, caressing her cheek with his thumb,
"It's still early, go back to sleep," he whispered and pressed his lips to her mouth in a gentle kiss. Jenny mumbled something incoherent and patted his chest clumsily with one hand, before rolling over to her side and turning her back to him.
Gibbs smiled and squeezed her bare shoulder, then grabbed the edge of the blanket, about to lift it to get up. With another look at Penny – who was still awkwardly standing in the middle of the room – he stopped in his motion and raised his eyebrows at her.
"Do you mind?" he asked.
"Mh? – Oh, god, yes – sorry!" Penny covered her eyes and stumbled back towards the door. She closed it behind her and decided that she really needed to get her own place if encounters like this were going to be a regular occurrence.
In the bathroom, she tried to make up for the lost time and hurriedly brushed her hair into a high ponytail, splashed some cold water into her face and decided that a tiny bit of mascara would work as enough make-up. After brushing her teeth and exchanging her glasses for contact lenses, she slipped her phone into her back pocket and left for the kitchen.
Taking the stairs down into the main hall, Penny noticed that the light in the kitchen was already on and assumed that Gibbs also didn't want to leave without at least one cup of coffee.
She grabbed her pair of warm combat boots from the hall and stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, leaning against the frame for support as she slipped into the shoes. Gibbs stood in the kitchen, fully dressed, with a steaming mug in his hand and nodded to the kitchen table where he had placed another one for her. He didn't say a word and just watched her pull the laces tight on her boots, before she walked over to the table and sat down. Penny noticed that he had already added the perfect amount of milk to her coffee and it spoke a lot about the amount of time he spent in this house that he knew exactly how she liked to drink it.
"Soo…," Penny drawled, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "you remember to use protection?"
She smirked into her mug while Gibbs choked on his own coffee, her words obviously catching him off guard. He glared at her.
"Sorry, this is just as awkward for me as it is for you. I'm trying to make conversation," she laughed in between two small sips, careful not to burn her tongue on the hot liquid.
"Don't," he grunted and moved his eyes away from her to look at the big clock on the kitchen wall. It was thirty minutes past three.
"'Guess Jenny allowing you back into her bed means you've apologized to her?" Penny asked, ignoring his attempt to spend the remaining minutes in peace.
"You 'mediating' again?" he asked, throwing the words she used in his basement back at her.
"Nah," she retorted and downed the rest of her coffee, "that's just me being all up in your business to annoy you."
She grinned at him and successfully lightened the mood. He laughed and shook his head at her in disbelief, before putting down his mug and nodding towards the kitchen window. She followed his gaze and saw Tony pull up on the street, the headlights of his federal car reflecting in the glass.
Penny got up, dopped her dirty mug into the sink and walked back into the hall. She got her badge, gun and jacket and grabbed her scarf from the wardrobe just as the porch light was turned on. Before he could ring the bell, Penny opened the old wooden door to find Tony trying to peek through the tinted glass.
"You're late," she announced, and he straightened up to look at her.
"I drove past Gibbs' house. He wasn't home," Tony answered, a worried expression on his face.
"Yeah, I found him," Penny replied and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder behind her, where Gibbs had just appeared from the kitchen. He took a few big steps through the hall and pushed past her and out of the door. Tony's face changed into confusion immediately and he looked back and forth between them, apparently asking himself he was hallucinating.
"Wait – what?" he managed and while he was still trying to make sense of the situation, Gibbs snatched the car keys from his hand and walked to the car without a word.
"Turns out, he was in my bed after all," Penny whispered suggestively and winked at Tony.
"He – what? I thought – You told me you were gay!" he stammered and turned around to look after Gibbs and then back at her.
"I am," she stated simply and pulled the door closed behind her, stepping out into the cold air of the night. She laughed and walked past him, heading to the car where Gibbs was waiting next to the driver's side.
"You comin', DiNozzo?!" he yelled over when Tony wouldn't move.
Tony scratched his head and looked up at the house again when it suddenly dawned on him. They were messing with him. A wide grin spread across his face and he fell into a jog towards the car, hurrying after Penny.
McGee owed him twenty bucks and it was finally time to collect.