Jethro stares at the envelope in his hand and frowns at the loopy handwriting he recognises anywhere. His mind takes him back to the morning he woke up without her in his arms, her side on the bed cold and empty, all except the envelope he holds in his hand now, the morning she ran away with his heart and hasn't returned it back to him.
Flashback Paris 1999.
It's the emptiness in his arms that wakes him up from his deep sleep, not the cold in the air, noit the smell of coffee that usually wakes him along with the smell of her perfume, it's her not being in his arms. Half-awake, his hand seeks out her warm body only to be met with the cold sheets that are supposed to be slept in by her. His hand reaches something on her pillow. He sits up and sees an envelope with his name on the front written in her loopy handwriting. He looks around the room and sees that everything of hers is gone, leaving only the envelope on her pillow for him. Feeling angry and heartbroken, he opens the letter and begins to read the words on the page.
Dear Jethro,
By the time you read this, I will have left you asleep in our hotel room in Paris, I will already be on the plane heading back home.
I'm sorry it had to end like this but this wasn't the way it was supposed to go: I wasn't to fall in love with my boss, but I did and because I have to leave.
I want you to know that the assignments that we've taken over the past two years together have been the best two years of my life and I never wanted it to end, but you know that saying 'all good things must come to an end' and we are no different.
I love you, Jethro, I've left my heart in Paris, with you and I don't ever want it back. Take care of yourself, Jethro,
All my love,
Jen.
The letter floats out of his hands and he grabs his cell phone from the balcony, not caring that it's 0730 on a Parisian winter morning: he only cares about getting his second love of his life back. He calls her but she doesn't answer and therefore breaks rule number 3: Never be unreachable. Jethro sighs as he walks back into the room, sitting on the bed, watching as his vision blurs as tears leave his eyes: once again, he gave his heart away and once again it's been broken, smashed to a thousand pieces, ripped out of his chest and stomped on by a redhead with dangerous high heels, and once again, he's never getting his heart back, not that he wants it back after this.
Jethro comes out of the past with a sharp shake of his head, he shouldn't be remembering the past, but ever she's entered his life again, the past, and her, is all he can remember.
He doesn't remember a time when he's had his heart locked inside his chest, behind impenetrable walls, but one thing is for sure: Jenny Shepard is not breaking down his walls around his empty chest without him breaking down hers too.
