I totally missed my usual update time last weekend, but I hope this chapter will make up for that. I had a great idea for a later point of the story that just had to be written first...
Chapter 2 – Fall 2005
He looked around the bullpen, growing more annoyed at his team by the second. He'd sent Ziva down to Abby's lab almost half an hour ago, and then had sent DiNozzo to get her fifteen minutes after that. Now his resident skirt chaser had apparently absconded with their Mossad assassin-slash-liaison, and only McGee was still diligently working away.
He walked briskly over to the elevator, hitting the button with more force than probably necessary as the doors opened to reveal their new director.
"Special Agent Gibbs," she greeted, sending him a small smile.
"Jen," he answered, his demeanor at least somewhat friendlier than just a couple of seconds ago. "Abby's lab?" he asked then as he looked at the button she'd pressed. She nodded as the doors opened again and he motioned for her to exit the elevator ahead of him.
They were about to step into the lab when they heard the raised voices coming from the inside.
"I am very sorry if I have offended you, Abby," they could hear Ziva's heavily accented voice. "I was simply remarking that maybe some of the policies Director Shepard is newly enforcing have been put in place because they help agents with their work."
"Well, neither you nor your best friend the Director have been here nearly long enough to know what anybody needs, so maybe you should stop trying to guess," Abby responded, her voice icy.
"Again, I did not mean any offense," Ziva reiterated, clearly forcing herself to be patient with the forensic scientist.
"Well, in any case," Tony butted in, trying to steer both women away from the issue, "we've got the results Gibbs wanted, so that's good."
"Next time maybe you could come pick them up right away?" Abby's hopeful voice asked.
"Abby," Tony started, but Jenny had heard enough.
"Ms. Sciuto," she said, stepping fully into the lab, "Officer David will continue to do what Special Agent Gibbs asks her to do, and I would expect you to be helpful and support her in doing her job," the redhead announced icily.
Abby looked at the redhead, her face closed off before she pleadingly turned to Gibbs.
"You two," Gibbs barked, pointing at Ziva and Tony, "back up to the bullpen. You better have some answers for me when I get back." He then turned to Jenny, sending her a steely glare. "What did I say about messing with my team, Jen?"
"Special Agent Gibbs," she hissed. "It seems there is an issue between a member of your team and agency personnel not specifically assigned to you. I would assume it is my job as director to mediate."
"I'll take care of it," Gibbs answered curtly, trying to add an edge of politeness to his tone.
Apparently, it had worked as Jenny just nodded her head but didn't offer any further comments, instead handing a couple of files to Abby.
"Could you please have a look at these, Abby?" she asked courteously. "I have all people involved in these cases review them; they will go to trial in the next two weeks. They are all rape cases, and I don't want any of these SOBs to get off on a technicality," she explained.
Abby nodded, seemingly finding common ground with the redhead for the first time. "Of course, Director," she confirmed before she turned back to her machines.
"Thank you," Jenny replied before she turned around, letting Gibbs lead her to the elevator with a hand on the small of her back.
"Could you talk to Abby about this, Jethro?" she asked as the doors opened.
"What about?" he wanted to know.
Jenny sighed. "About making Ziva feel welcome. I know I just put her on your team, but I care about her – a lot – and it would mean a lot if I knew that she is happy here." She paused a second. "Ziva is family, Jethro," she added quietly.
Gibbs looked at her, trying to figure out why Jenny considered the young Israeli family, even if they had been close partners. "She has to earn her trust, Jen," he said evenly. "Abby loved Kate, they were like sisters, and Ziva's brother shot her. You can't expect her to just welcome Ziva with open arms."
"Jethro," she said even more lowly, her patience running out. "I am not asking for a lot here, and I think you owe Ziva. The least you can do is to make sure that she's not unnecessarily harassed by your favorite."
"Don't tell me how to run my team, Jen. If Ziva can't handle it, maybe you should have sent her to the CIA after all. I hear they are more of a solitary bunch over there," he answered, matching her tone. They silently stared at each other for a couple of beats, willing the other to concede their point. "Ari was a heartless bastard, and Ziva's tainted by association, that's just how it is. She'll have to work through that herself."
"Ari, too, was someone's brother and friend," Jenny answered tightly, thinking of the man who would stand up for his sisters to their father and who'd helped her keep Tali as far away from Mossad as possible, even if they couldn't save her in the end. "In fact, for some time he was even my friend, so maybe you shouldn't be so happy that Ziva had to shoot her brother. She just lost a sister last year."
Gibbs grit his teeth. "I shot Ari," he said tightly.
Jenny snorted, giving him a disbelieving look. "Don't even try, Jethro. And don't think of accusing Ziva of ratting you out either – I know both of you better than you'd probably like, and I know when I'm told a story."
"Well, you clearly didn't know Air well enough, otherwise you wouldn't have made the mistake of cozying up to a terrorist," Gibbs said nastily, hitting the switch to make the elevator go on up to the squad room.
Jenny turned around, a hard look in her eyes. "I know that you're giving her a chance, Jethro," she said quietly, coming back to their issue from the beginning. "She wouldn't be here anymore otherwise. I also know that Special Agents DiNozzo and McGee are making at least some effort to welcome her. I'd just appreciate it if you could tell Abby that Ziva isn't her enemy, that's all." She looked at him beseechingly, and he felt himself giving in at the look in her big emerald eyes.
He nodded, not sure what annoyed him more, that he'd allowed her to stick her nose into the affairs of his team, or that he was apparently still putty in her hands if she just looked at him that way.
"I'm home," she called into the hallway as she closed the door behind her, faintly hearing her driver pull off. For a second, the house was quiet, then she heard the pitter-patter of tiny feet racing from the living room to the hall.
"Mommy," Arielle cried excitedly, running into Jenny's arms as the redhead swung her up into her arms, settling her on her hip.
"Have you been good for Noemi?" she asked, smoothing her daughter's brown curls out of her face. The little girl nodded vigorously, a big grin on her face.
"Will Noemi tell me the same if I ask her?" Jenny asked skeptically. The child's grin became somewhat hesitant as the older woman stepped out of the kitchen, regarding the two of them with a smile.
"The little senorita was very well behaved today, senora," Noemi announced. "Well enough in fact that she earned herself a cookie after dinner."
"A cookie?" Jenny asked, her voice playfully disbelieving. "No way!"
"Yes, mommy," Arielle butted in. "But no chocolate," she added, her tone somewhere between complaining and bragging.
"Well, chocolate chip cookies are for very special occasions only. But you like oatmeal raisin cookies, too, right?" Jenny asked.
Arielle nodded.
"She likes raisins a lot better than you ever did, senora," Noemi teased her with a small smile on her face, her accent becoming more pronounced as she tried to keep herself from laughing. "I remember your father trying to get you to eat them, it was a wonder you didn't spit them out again."
"Noemi," the redhead whispered loudly, acting devastated as if a big secret had been revealed as Arielle turned her head into her mother's shoulder, trying to silence her giggles in Jenny's sweater.
The Latina laughed with them as she grabbed her coat and her purse, opening the door. "Have a good night," she wished before she went out into the night, leaving the two Shepards alone in the house.
"How was daycare, sweetheart?" Jenny asked as she put the little girl back onto her own feet to step out of her shoes.
"Tom played with me. We built a castle in the sandbox. Do you have friends, mommy?" Arielle recounted before she looked at her mother earnestly.
The redhead smiled, thinking about her argument with Gibbs in the elevator earlier that day – he was likely the closest thing she had to a friend. Truth be told, she had no idea what she and Gibbs were exactly nowadays, but that might be a little too much to unload onto her three-year-old.
"I do," she answered simply as she walked into the kitchen, pulling Noemi's leftover chicken out of the oven.
"Who are they?" Arielle wanted to know as she observed Jenny serving herself.
"Well, there is Zee," Jenny started.
"Zee is my sister," the child proclaimed, drawing out the vowels in 'Zee' and 'sister.'
Her mother nodded. "She is, baby, but she is also my friend, and we work together."
"I also like Lynn. And Jess. Jess and I played, too, today," Arielle threw in. "Do you have more friends?"
"Ziva isn't enough for me?" Jenny teased as she ruffled the little girl's hair. "I have my friend Jethro, too. He has known mommy for longer than even Zee. Longer than I have had you, honey."
Arielle's mouth formed a perfect 'o' as she took in that information, not fully understanding the concept of Jenny's life before herself.
"But now that I have you, I don't need any other friends, except maybe Zee," she added, watching as a smile lit up her daughter's face. Arielle was clearly pleased by her words, even as Jenny herself got lost in her thoughts.
Ziva wanted her to tell Jethro about Arielle, first and foremost because of a misguided belief that Gibbs still loved her – if he had ever loved her to begin with – and that she would settle down with him. She could admit that he would make an excellent father, she'd seen him interact with kids during in the early days of their work relationship often enough that she had no doubts about that. She doubted he would be able to cope with their family situation, though, once she told him how things had come to be.
Jenny shook her head as she rinsed her plate and put it in the dishwasher, picking up Arielle to get her ready for bed. Arielle deserved the best, and Eli clearly wasn't, as Ziva had slyly pointed out to her during one of their many discussions about her telling Gibbs. However, including Gibbs in their secret wouldn't guarantee he would be the father figure in her daughter's life that she didn't want Eli to be.
She sighed. She needed time, and despite what the young Israeli might think, this was not a decision she could make in a matter of days or even weeks. There was too much water under the bridge.
She tucked Arielle into bed, giving her a kiss on the forehead before she walked down into the study, pulling a stack of files out of her briefcase. The redhead worked steadily for some time before the pages in front of her started to get blurry.
She leaned back into her chair, letting her gaze fly across the room before they settled on the Bourbon in her liquor cabinet. Jenny smiled as she remembered how Gibbs had introduced her to his preferred type of alcohol.
They had only worked together for a couple of weeks at the time when he'd dragged her to a bar after a particularly gruesome case, nixing her order when she'd asked for her usual Martini. Instead, he had ordered two glasses of his drink of choice, putting the second glass down in front of her.
Gibbs had watched her take a generous gulp, laughing out loud as he watched how the alcohol burned her throat and she'd sputtered and coughed until the sensation had finally let off. She'd been ready to storm off until he'd placed a hand on her shoulder, carefully squeezing to keep her in place. Jenny had taken another sip of the drink and ordered a glass of water on the side, but by the end of the night, she'd finished off her shot of Bourbon and two weeks later, she'd been drinking it with him in his basement.
Jenny shook her head, getting rid of the memories as she dragged herself out of the study. A couple of weeks after that, they'd been doing more than just drinking Bourbon in his basement, but she wouldn't allow herself to think about that now.
Not when the little girl in the bedroom down the hall had to be her first priority, always. And not if telling Gibbs about Arielle would involve divulging her deepest, darkest secret to him.
I hope you've enjoyed this (despite Jenny's long introspection). Please leave a review!