They both knew that they loved each other even after all these years, he just hoped it hadn't been this one night that told them that.

NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs took a long gulp of the bourbon from the bottle as he polished his rifle on the floor of his basement, the one place, outside of work, he spent most of his time. He looked around his basement and heard her giggling, and smelt her perfume: his two girls were here to haunt him again, just like they did every night. He looked down at his rifle and thought about putting the large weapon to his chest and shooting himself just so his girls would stop and coming to torture him every night just like they've been doing for the last 15 years, he shook his head, no, this was too big for him to do himself, his SIG would do the trick, he thought, smiling as he put his rifle; down and retrieved his SIG from the workbench and put it to his head, his finger on the trigger. He was about to pull the trigger, about the say goodbye to their ghosts permanently when he heard her voice, Jen, screaming at him not to do this, begging him not to leave her, not to make her grieve for him for a second time as she'd barely survived it the first time.

His shaking hand took his phone out of his pocket and pressed his first speed dial, a second later, her sweet, soothing yet sleepy filled voice filled his ears.

"Jethro, what's going on?" She asked him sleepily, his voice cracked.

"Jen, I need you." He whispered to her.

"I'm on my way, Jethro, I'm coming." she said softly before she hung up.

She was coming to him, as she always did.


Former Special Agent and current Director of NCIS Jenny Shepard had just slipped into bed and was only asleep for five minutes when her cell phone rang, filling her silent bedroom with noise. She cursed aloud as she saw the caller ID, she answered it, knowing something was wrong as he wouldn't be calling at this time of night, 0345, if it were nothing serious.

"Jethro, what's going on?" She asked him sleepily as she got out of bed and slipped on the nearest clothes she could get her hands on. She could hear his voice crack on his end of the phone. Something was seriously wrong with him and she needed to find out what it was fast.

"Jen, I need you." He whispered to her. Jenny closed her eyes for a minute. Her green eyes opened and she stuffed her feet into her brown ankle boots, wrapped a scarf around her throat, grabbed her car keys and ran down the stairs, out of her door and into her car.

"I'm on my way, Jethro, I'm coming." She said softly before she hung up and drove to his house, hoping she wasn't too late for whatever it was that Jethro was thinking of doing. She reached his house in ten minutes and entered his unlocked door, calling his name as she ran to the basement.

She couldn't hold back the gasp as she ran down the steps: sitting on the sawdusty floor with his SIG to his temple, was her former lover. She walked quickly in front of him and wrapped her hand around his, gently prying the gun away from his temple and out of his hand and threw across the floor before she wrapped him in her arms and held him as he cried into her red hair. She tightened her hold on him as he tried to move out of her arms.

"No, Jethro," she reprimanded. "let me hold you." She whispered. After she was sure he was calm, she sat herself beside him.

"They're everywhere, Jen, they're torturing me every damn night." Jethro whispered. She knew he was talking about: Shannon and Kelly, his first wife and their daughter who had been killed in a car crash while he was fighting in Desert Storm.

She didn't say anything and smiled when he lent against her, breathing in her shampoo as he watched their ghosts disappear once and for all.

"You made the ghosts go away." He told her, looking into her green eyes, as they both held onto each other.

She smiled her dazzling smile at him.

"I always do." She said as they remained in silence wrapped in each other's arms on his basement floor.

He'd always keep seeing their ghosts as they were a part of him, but she'd be there to vanquish them every time he needed her to, because that's what true love is: it's about not only being there for the good parts, it's about helping vanquish their demons too.


A\N: My first Jibbs one-shot and I think it's pretty good despite it being 0110 in the UK.

Enjoy.