Director of NCIS Jennifer 'Jenny, Jen' Shepard, is putting her folded clothes into her suitcase that is laying on her couch. After the nightmare and the memory of being in his arms she was forced to relive only mere hours ago, she needs to get out of the city. She needs to get away from him and the memories that surround him. Zipping up her suitcase and placing it near her front door, she puts her passport, phone, wallet, keys, her paperback romance novel and her Ipod in her handbag before taking one last look around at her living room before locking the front door behind her.

She won't be back here for a while.


Every hotel she stays in reminds her of her time with him and this one is no different. She puts her handbag on the double bed before walking to the balcony doors and opening them, letting in the midmorning air. She turns around and faces the bed, a smile on her face as memories involving a bed flood her mind, playing like a movie.

Her being pushed back gently against the hotel room door.

His lips crushing hers in a bruising kiss.

Her wrapping her arms around her neck and her legs around his waist as he kisses her deeper, lifting her into his strong, Marine arms.

Him walking backwards towards the bed, shredding both their clothes off them.

Her falling against his naked chest when he falls back onto the silky sheets.

Her using her body weight to flip them over so she's underneath him.

Blue and green eyes locking as they look at one another for confirmation.

The sounds of their breaths filling the hotel room as they both give each other what they've been wanting to do all day.

Him flipping them over so she's on top of her.

Him smiling when she squeals in surprise as he flips her over.

Her collapsing his chest, catching her breath after he's just made her feel loved for the third time that night.

His smirk when she asks if he's up for a fourth round.

Her cute pout when he says 'no', a word he rarely tells to her, insisting she's too exhausted to go for a fourth time

Her smile as their legs tangle together, the silky sheets around them.

His grin as she succumbs to the exhaustion she's been feeling for the past two days.

Her smile as his hand runs through her mess off red hair as her eyes flutter closed.

The kiss she feels being pressed on her head.

Her head laying on his naked chest as she falls asleep wrapped securely in his warm arms.

The whispered 'I love you' in her ear as he drugs off the sleep beside her.

The ringing of her phone in her back pocket of the jeans she wears brings her out of the memories of the memories that surround that particular night. She sighs as she retrieves her phone, flipping it open and putting it to her ear, not checking the caller ID: she has an idea who it is already.

"Shepard." She says, using her last name as a way of greeting the caller.

"Where the hell are you?" Comes the familiar gruff voice on the other end of the line.

"I'm not telling you, Agent Gibbs." She growls, she can't tell him where she is because she knows that he'll be on the next flight out to get her to tell him why she decided to get away from D.C.

"You'd better tell me where the hell you are right now, Shepard." He orders, his voice angry. She laughs bitterly over the phone. She can't believe he's using her last name as if she's his junior agent again.

"Need I remind you, I'm not your agent anymore, Agent Gibbs and that you are, in fact, my agent?" She hates using her Director title with him.

"Jen, I swear to God, if you don't tell me why you're not in your office or at home, you're going to get a head slap so hard that even DiNozzo hasn't felt." He threatens.

"Are you threatening me, Agent Gibbs?" She asks incredulously. She can't believe he has the nerve to threaten her, the head of the agency!

"If that's what you want to call it, then yes, I am threatening you." He replies. She lets out an audible snap of her teeth over the phone.

"You do realize that I can have your badge for threatening the head of the agency? She asks him rhetorically.

"Yeah, I know you can, but you won't, Jen." He says, sounding sure she won't fire him.

I just might fire his pretty ass if he pisses me off one more damn time. She thinks to herself as she groans: she can't be dealing with him over the phone like this.

"Look, I need to get away from D.C for a little while, I just need time to myself without any interruptions, I'm fine, don't call me unless it's an emergency or if you've managed to kill DiNozzo, you've managed to set fire to the building or if you've managed to destroy the world." She tells him hurriedly and hangs up with him before hearing his response. She throws her phone down on the table beside her and pours herself a glass of the wine that is in the hotel and takes the glass to the balcony.

Leaning against the balcony, she remembers the morning they spent on the balcony, wrapped in each other's arms, drinking coffee, being content in the silence that surrounded them. She shakes her head vigorously as she hears her phone ring in the bedroom. Rolling her eyes, she drains her wine and she walks into the suite and grabs her phone.

"Shepard." She bites out.

"Not knowing where you are, is an emergency, Dir-ec-tor, is it not? Comes his smug, smirking voice over the phone, drawing her title out.

"I swear to God, if you don't stop calling me, I'm going to shoot you with my SIG." She threatens as she fills her wine glass. She hears his chuckle.

"I taught you how to shoot with your SIG, Jen." He reminds her. It's true, he did: she remembers him standing behind her, his hands around her own, his breath in her ear as he instructs her how to shoot without killing anyone.

"Jethro, I got away from D.C for a reason, please let me enjoy my alone time in peace." She begs him.

Jen, you hate going away alone, so that's a load of bullshit, what's really going with you and where are you?" He asks her softly, he's worried about her. She closes her eyes as tears spring to them: how can she tell him that he's the reason she had to come away?

"I just needed to be alone, can't you just accept that people need to be alone?" She snaps at him before hanging up with him once again. She turns her phone on vibrate as she walks into the bathroom, turning on the shower as high as it'll go and stripping off her clothes. As she stands underneath the hot water, her mind drifts back to Jethro: she shouldn't have snapped at him like that but she needs to distance herself from him because she's not sure how much longer she can go on having these memories flooding her mind whenever she thinks about him.

She can't keep wishing he'd come back to her, her heart in his hands and his blue eyes locked on hers for much longer when she knows it'll never happen: she had it once and she threw it all away for some five point plan!


The sun is just setting and she's sipping another glass of wine when a knock at the door. Hoping that it's room service with her dinner, she slips off her couch, pads to the door and opens the door, a surprised smile sliding onto her face as she sees the man leaning against the door, a look between a frown and a smirk on his lips with a takeout bag a bottle of wine and a bottle of bourbon in his hands is the one person she didn't expect to see yet she did expect to see:

Jethro.

"Jethro, what are you doing here? And how the hell did you find me?!" She demands of him, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him her best 'Director' glare that demands answers. Jethro chuckles as he brushes past her and enters her suite.

She remains frozen in place, her heart beating wildly in her chest: how did he find her? What memories will this bring up for her now?

After eating the simple meal of steak and french chips, both she and Jethro are sitting on the couch, drinking wine.

"What the hell are you doing here, Jethro?" She asks, draining the rest of the wine in the bottom of her glass.

"I'm here because you ran without any warning, because you're scared of something or you're running from someone. Who are you running from?" His tone holds no room for arguing and it's in the tone he uses for when he's extremely pissed off. How is she supposed to tell him it's him she's running from? How is she supposed to tell him she's running from the memories surrounding him and their past? How is she supposed to tell him that she's running from because she's scared to tell him that she's in love with him? That she's always been in love with him? That she's never stopped loving him?

She looks at him in his blue eyes, tears filling her own.

"I had to get away from you." She admits softly, their eyes lock on one another's.

"Why did you have to get away from me?" She hears him ask her gently. She sighs and tucks her legs underneath her, her eyes still on him.

"Over these past couple months, I've been assaulted of memories, flashbacks really, of us in Paris and the one I had last night was the icing on the cake and I couldn't handle it anymore so early his morning I hopped on a flight and came here, only telling Cynthia and Vamcr that I needed time away for a little bit." She admits sheepishly.

"And what are the flashbacks about?" she winces at his barking tone.

"The night before I left, the morning I left, the morning we spent on the balcony in the winter and the night you comforted after I had that nightmare." She tells her former boss.

"I don't get it: so you're having flashbacks of us, why would they make you run?" She knows Jethro is confused by her explanation.

"Because they're telling me that I still love you!" She shouts at him, standing up and pacing the living area of the suite, aware that Jethro is looking at her with his blue eyes wide.

"And are you?" she stops pacing when she hears him ask the questions she's been wanting to hear him ask.

She looks at him, her green eyes wide. Can she admit that she's still in love with him?

"Yes." She whispers quietly, so quietly that she's not sure she heard him. Her heart is beating wildly as she tells him she still loves him. She resumes pacing around until she feels his hands on her shoulders, stopping her pacing again, his eyes staring into hers, a smile on his face.

She doesn't get a chance to say anything to him before she feels his lips crushing against hers. She immediately winds her arms around his neck and kisses him back with an equal amount of passion he's kissing her. They pull away from each other with smiles on their faces.

She leans her forehead against his and stares into his blue eyes. His eyes are full of love for her.

"I love you, Jethro." She whispers.

"I love you too, Jen." She bites her lip as his thumb across her cheek.


She looks up at him as he wraps his arms around her as they stand on the balcony, watching as they watch the sun sets across the city.

"Why did you follow me here?" She asks him.

"Jen, as long as we're together, If you run, you can bet your ass I'm following you to the ends of the earth." He says as she turns around, facing him. She grins at him.

"That's why I chose the one city you'd follow me to with no questions being asked: because I knew you'd follow me."

She's glad that she ran to the city and that he followed her because this city gave them a second chance at love, and a second chance to rebuild the pieces of their hearts.

She couldn't have chosen a better city that he followed her to.