A/N: Next up is the final chapter of this little collection. All in all, this turned out a lot different from what I had planned initially. I really wanted to finish this whole thing with 10 chapters in total, so I kinda squeezed this one in. I still hope, you enjoy!
Jennifer Shepard's heart was pounding hard against her chest as she was almost running into the emergency room of Bethesda Naval Hospital, her heels thumping loudly on the linoleum floors.
"Jethro," she panted and walked straight up to him. He was standing next to the reception, a clipboard and pen in his hand and still dressed in his official NCIS crime scene attire. His cell phone was clamped between his ear and shoulder and he dropped it into his free hand, flipping it shut when he saw her.
"Jen," he said, slipping his phone back into his jeans pocket, "' was about to call you. How -".
"The hospital already called," she interrupted and when he shot her a confused look, added, "Next of kin? How is she?"
"Right," Gibbs answered and handed her the clipboard. "They wanna to know blood type and possible allergies," he explained, showing her the questions on the paperwork.
"Thank God!" Jenny breathed out and leaned against the empty reception counter, catching her breath. Gibbs stared at her, his head slightly tiled, questioning.
"I take it, it means she's still alive?"
"Oh, yeah," he said, waving it off as if it was nothing, "bullet went through clean. She'll be fine."
Jenny reached out and hit him against the shoulder with her fist, her eyes shimmering with tears.
"Hey!" he protested, "What was that for?"
"Next time maybe start off with that information. All I got was a call, informing me my sister had been shot. For all I knew, she could've been dead!" Jenny yelled at him, her voice trembling.
"Hey," he said again, softer this time, "Jen. C'mere." He reached for her waist and pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her. "It's okay. She's okay," he whispered against her hair, before placing a gentle kiss to her temple and holding her tight for a minute.
Jenny pulled back after a while and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, turning her head away from him. She cleared her throat and asked, "How the hell could this even happen?"
"Didn't know suspect had a gun. Started shooting when we tried to arrest 'im," Gibbs answered, "got her right in the shoulder. She went down, double tapped his heart with the good hand. Body's probably already back at NCIS with Ducky, team's securing the scene."
Jenny nodded and chewed on the inside of her cheek with a frown on her face, obviously still trying to understand the situation. She opened her mouth and took a breath, her lips almost forming a word but then she decided against it and licked her lips instead, remaining silent. She took the pen from him and started to scribble the necessary information down on the clipboard.
When she was done, she placed the board back onto the reception counter and looked up at him expectantly, nervously tapping the pen between her fingers.
"What?" he asked and took the pen away from her. For a second, he thought she would hold on to it and fight him but then she relented and let him place it next to the clip board.
"What, what?" she snapped, her eyes scanning the room for any medical personnel, "what the hell are we waiting for?"
Jethro grabbed her by the shoulders and blocked her view, moving closer and into her personal space. She was agitated and held on to his wrists, probably contemplating whether she should push his hands off and find her way to her sister on her own. Instead, she raised her bright green eyes back up to his, waiting.
"They said, they're gonna send someone once they're done stitching her up and dressing the wound. Shouldn't be too long," Gibbs clarified and squeezed her shoulders, "do you want me to get you some coffee while we wait?"
"No, Jethro, I don't want coffee. I want to see my sister," Jenny snapped and took a step back. His hands fell off her shoulders and he watched her pace back and forth in the foyer. She pulled the elastic from her ponytail and ran both her hands from her temples into her hair, massaging her scalp to occupy her hands and calm her nerves.
He observed her silently and checked his watch every once and then, unsure of how long exactly he'd already been here before she'd arrived. He knew Penny was going to be fine, she had been complaining the entire ride back in the ambulance and even refused to take the pain meds they had offered her. Yet, he couldn't deny that he'd also been scared for her when he saw her go down. There was no way they could've known that the suspect would pull a gun on them and her getting shot was no one's fault, really. He still felt guilty. He should've reacted faster, should've seen it coming, should've –
"Agent Gibbs?" a voice from behind broke through his line of thoughts. He turned around to look at the nurse that had appeared from the doors leading to the examination rooms and who was now approaching them. Jenny stopped in her tracks and struggled with her hair for a moment, twisting it into a messy bun eventually while hurrying towards the other woman.
"We're still waiting for the doctor to sign her release paperwork, but you can go see you agent now, if you like," the nurse said and took the clip chart from the counter, before turning towards Jenny with a smile, "Director Shepard, I presume? We spoke on the phone. Don't worry, your sister will be fine, we took good care of her."
"Thank you," she answered, and Gibbs raised his eyebrows at her as if to say 'see, I told you'. Jenny ignored him and pushed him to the side as she followed the nurse through the heavy doors and down a long corridor with numbered doors on either side.
The nurse opened one of them at the end of the hall, before disappearing towards the nurses' station with the rest of the paperwork and leaving them alone.
Penny sat on the edge of the examination table, a very annoyed expression on her face. They had put her in a hospital gown and her left arm was in a sling, angled close to her body. She was barefoot and her legs were dangling off the table, her clothes, shoes and badge were on a chair in the corner by the window and she looked pale and tired.
"Nelly…" Jenny breathed out in relief and met her sister in a careful embrace, mindful of her injury. She pulled back quickly again and stroked her face, hair and neck as if to assure herself that she was in fact alive and breathing.
"Jen, I'm fine. Stop being overprotective," Penny said and shook her head to get Jenny's inspecting hands off of her. Gibbs chuckled quietly to himself from his position by the wall, glad that Penny seemed, in fact, alright.
"They told me I got very lucky – as if luck had anything to do with it – and I don't need surgery. Took a million x-rays to make sure, though," she explained and crossed her legs, sitting up a bit straighter, "then they had some idiot intern stitch me up and put my arm in this goddamn sling, just to realize afterwards that I was still in this ugly gown and needed to get dressed again." She grabbed behind herself with her good hand and loosened the strings of the gown around her back.
"I kicked him out and told him to get someone to sign my release forms while the nurse got you. Now, could you grab me my clothes from over there, please?" She nodded towards the pile by the window and started to wiggle out of the gown. Gibbs cleared his throat and averted his eyes, uncomfortable by her undressing in front of him. Penny noticed his sudden interest in his shoes and rolled her eyes,
"Seriously?" she asked, "I catch you in bed with my sister two weeks ago, but this is too awkward now? Don't worry, they let me keep my underwear on." Gibbs took her word for it and started to open some of the cabinets in the room, peeking inside and examining a box of gloves curiously.
"Here," Jenny said and dropped her clothes on the table, "scoot back and stretch out your legs." She shook off her own coat and bent down to grab Penny's foot to shove it into her jeans. To everyone's surprise, the younger Shepard complied and allowed Jenny to help her with her clothes. A task that turned out to be a lot more complicated than expected since Penny had chosen that day to wear the tightest pair of jeans she owned. It was almost comical how Penny awkwardly hopped off the table with her pants hanging around her thighs and Jenny struggling to pull them up and button them.
"Next time," she panted and blew a strand of red hair out her face, "can you maybe wear a pair of pants that don't fit like a second skin?"
"Oh, I'm sorry that me getting shot inconveniences you so much, Jen. I'll make sure to wear a onesie with a zipper next time." Penny retorted sarcastically and despite her sassy comeback, her mood seemed to lighten up a bit.
"I can't believe, I was worried about you," Jenny mumbled under her breath while she knelt down and grabbed her sister's ankle a little too roughly to put on her sock.
"Speaking of things, you can't believe," Penny said, a mischievous grin suddenly appearing on her face, "they wanted to make sure that the bullet didn't injure my spine in any way and had the neurologist come in for a consult. Take a wild guess who that was."
Jenny's head shot up and her eyes widened, "Oh, God. No."
"Yeah," Penny laughed, her eyes gleaming, "Dr. Todd Gelfand. Imagine his surprise when he saw me. That was awkward."
Jenny blushed and shot a careful glance over to Gibbs who was now placing the box with the gloves back into the cabinet and narrowed his eyes, the name obviously also ringing a bell for him. He scratched the back of his head until it dawned on him and he said,
"Wasn't that – "
"The doctor that treated you after the explosion," Penny cut him off and grinned. She bent over to grab her shoes on the floor and managed unlace them enough with one hand to slip her feet inside, before wincing from the pain the movement caused in her shoulder.
"What did you have to do with my doctor?" Gibbs asked, his question directed at Jenny, who tried her best to avoid his inquisitive stare by looking for the rest of Penny's clothes.
"Where's your shirt?" she asked, only finding the NCIS windbreaker.
"They had to cut it up to work on the gunshot wound," Penny explained and reached for her jacket.
"What did you have to do with my doctor?" Gibbs repeated, taking the jacket from Penny's hand and helping her put her good arm in it. He carefully pulled the other side over the sling, before zipping it up, his glance still fixed on Jenny.
"Well, I obviously had to work with him back then. Since he was, as you've pointed out, your doctor and you got injured on the job," she finally said while she inspected the bullet hole in Penny's jacket.
"Yeah, and afterwards, he asked her out," Penny revealed, swatting her sister's hand away from her shoulder again, "they dated for, what, three months, until she ghosted him."
"I didn't ghost him! I was just very busy," Jenny defended herself and crossed her arms over her chest.
"You dated my doctor?!" Gibbs asked and looked almost offended.
"I didn't know I needed to ask your permission to see other people, Jethro," Jenny snapped back and finally met his eyes with a very impressive glare of her own.
"You're seeing other people?!" his voice was louder now and the look on his face went from bewilderment to anger.
"What?!" Jenny wasn't sure if she was confused or affronted.
Penny watched the exchange like a tennis match, her head turning back and forth between them. Admittedly, she had brought that subject up on purpose, hoping it might be the final nudge they needed but this situation had escalated a little bit too quickly for her taste.
"I asked you, if you were seeing other people now?" he asked sharply but a bit calmer this time. For a second, he even looked scared that she might say yes.
"Are you?!", she hissed angrily, not appreciating to be put on the spot like that.
"I asked first!" he grunted and held her gaze, pointing a finger at her.
Penny raised her eyes to the ceiling and sighed heavily, mumbling "are you fucking kidding me," to herself. They ignored her.
"No, Jethro, I'm not. Although, I didn't even know you cared," Jenny finally relented and uncrossed her arms. She braced a hand against the exam table next to where Penny was sitting again and looked down.
"Of course, I care!" he exclaimed and reached for her other hand, "I don't want you to see other people."
"Okay," she said and fixed her eyes on him again. "I don't want you to see other people, either," Jenny admitted and interlaced her fingers with his.
"I'm glad, you could finally agree on something," Penny piped in, reminding them that she was also still there. They had a habit of simply ignoring her presence and usually Penny didn't mind, sometimes she found it even entertaining. Right now, however, she was afraid they would start to make out and trap her in between.
"I'm also really happy that me getting shot lead to the defining moment of your relationship, but I would very much appreciate it, if one of you could now get my release papers so we can all get the hell out of here," Penny added and waved her hand in between her sister and her boss.
Gibbs was the first to turn his attention back at her, a smug grin playing around the corners of his mouth. He let go of Jenny's hand, not without squeezing it first and caressing his thumb over her wrist.
"Be right back," he said and left the room to get the paperwork.
Jenny looked at her sister and rubbed her neck nervously, her cheeks flushed. Penny grinned and nodded towards her shoes, "Help me with the laces?" she asked and stretched out her legs again. Jenny grabbed her feet and placed them on the back of a chair, before tying Penny's shoes for her in silence, a bright smile on her face.