It was somewhat of an unspoken understanding that any evening they chose to spend together would likely be at her home. It was matter of convenience, mainly for her. Security was already stationed outside her home at all hours of the day. Staying at her place eliminated the hassle of informing her security detail and saved her from having to argue her way into dismissing them, despite the fact that she would be with a fully capable agent.
Not that she could blame them per say, they were only doing their job. She was an agent too, once upon a time, but it didn't change the fact that the constant supervision was one of the few things about being director she disliked.
Tonight was a rare occasion though. She managed to convince her head of security to leave her alone for the evening while she was at Gibbs home, with the agreement that he would drive her to and from his home.
"As long as you're sure, ma'am." Stanley says, pulling up along the curb in front of Gibbs house.
"Very," She insists, "I will call you tomorrow once I'm ready to leave."
He gives her a skeptical look.
"Agent Gibbs is very capable," She reasons, "No one but he and my security team know I'm here. And in the event something were to happen, he's more than qualified to protect me. And I'm an excellent shot too."
He chuckles a bit at her comment, "Of course ma'am. You have a nice evening."
She had been stuck in a meeting that ran over by almost an hour, delaying her time she was trying to leave the building, meaning he had been home long before she even left her office.
The door was unlocked, as she knew it would be, and with a final wave to Stanley she let herself in.
She had expected him to be down in his basement, working on his boat, so when she walked through the door and found him standing on the other side she was rightfully spooked.
"Scare you?" He asks smugly.
She glares, "Shouldn't you be sanding a boat?"
He reaches out and gestures for her coat, which she shrugs off and hands to him wordlessly.
"Didn't realize I didn't have permission to walk around my own house, director." He says, tone bridging somewhere between mocking and something akin to flirting.
"I know you," She shoots back, "You waited there with the intention of frightening me. You love to get on my nerves, both at work and home."
He gives her a lopsided grin, something she finds so endearing on the normally stone faced agent that she can't help but smile back. She appreciated the many facets of the infamous Jethro Gibbs, particularly those that she had to work for to see. Time apart and their eventual reunion when she became director only made her appreciate them more.
"That's 'cause you make it too easy, Jen." He says, hanging her coat up alongside his.
She rolls her eyes and heads in the direction of his living room, expecting him to follow.
It's only when she doesn't hear him behind her the she glances back over her shoulder, and she turns just in time to see him twist the deadbolt in order to lock the door.
She stares at him with what she's sure is a dumbfounded look.
When he turns to follow her he pauses, clearly thrown by the look on her face.
"What?" He asks, brow furrowed.
She blinks, "You locked your door."
"Yeah?" He asks, clearly not understanding her point.
"You never lock your door." She specifies, "That door hasn't been locked in the decade I've known you."
Something she had more than once chided him about. Not that it ever made much of a difference. Jethro Gibbs was nothing if not a creature of habit.
He stares at her, clearly trying to hide the amusement that crossed his features.
"There's no winning with you." He smirks, "You're as bad now as you were during your probie years. Picking fights."
She glared, "You're not as amusing as you think, Jethro."
He snorts, briefly glancing back at the locked down before turning back towards her, and takes a few steps towards her.
"You're staying the night, so I locked the door." He stated, a bit more matter-of-fact than she expected, "Or did you forget you dismissed your security team, Director?"
It was the way the last word rolled so smugly off his tongue that it finally clicked in her brain.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs, perhaps the biggest enigma she's even came across, consciously broke one of his most infamous habits.
At times it's daunting at how different their relationship is this time as opposed to before. There was a transparency between them that hadn't been there the first time. Something she takes for granted the longer they are together, but something that she was also sharply reminded of at times like these.
"You locked the door for my safety." She clarifies out loud, more to herself than him.
"Didn't think it would cause this much conversation." He says, smirking at her.
Every so often she finds herself wondering how she ever left him in the first place.
"You are a strange man, Jethro Gibbs." She says before kissing him soundly, "A strange man indeed."
A/n: A super late update. I hope all will be forgiven.
