Jethro Gibbs walks up the stairs to her office with two cups of coffee in his hands. He looks at her assistant who's typing on her computer.
"Is she in yet?" He asks the woman gruffly, Cynthia looks up and shakes her head.
"No, Agent Gibbs, she just told me she's not coming in for a few days so Assistant Director Vance is in charge until she comes back." She tells him, Jethro frowns in confusion. He was right: something isn't right and this is it.
"Is she sick?" He asks, knowing that she, the Director of a Armed Federal Agency, would only call in sick if she couldn't get out of her bed and stand up in her ridiculous death traps of shoes she calls high heels.
"I don't know, Agent Gibbs, Director Shepard didn't say." The young woman says. Holding back a sigh, he walks back down the stairs towards the elevator, ignoring his team's looks.
He drives to her house and notices her car isn't parked where it usually is, this confuses him further as she's not in the office nor at home.
Where is she? He asks himself.
He sighs as he pulls his phone from his pocket and presses the first person on his speed dial. The phone rings six times before it picks up.
"Shepard." She says, using her last name as a way of greeting the caller.
"Where the hell are you?" He demands of her, growling at her. He needs to find her before he loses his mind
"I'm not telling you, Agent Gibbs." She snaps at him through the phone.
"You'd better tell me where the hell you are right now, Shepard." He orders, his voice angry. He hears her laugh bitterly, he shivers when he hears it: it's not the laugh he wants to hear.
"Need I remind you, I'm not your agent anymore, Agent Gibbs and that you are, in fact, my agent?" she tells him, he sighs when he hears her 'Director' voice.
"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. He hates threatening her but what else can he do to make her answer his question?
"Are you threatening me, Agent Gibbs?" She asks incredulously.
"If that's what you want to call it, then yes, I am threatening you." He replies. He hears her let out an audible snap of her teeth over the phone and he grins.
"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 as he knows she won't fire her former boss and best agent she's ever worked with even if he had killed someone.
"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." Before he can open his mouth and tell her that he won't kill DiNozzo, or at least try not kill him, or destroy the world, he hears the dial tone in his ear telling him that she's hung up on him. He stares at his phone as he lowers it. Rolling his eyes and mentally preparing himself for his death, he dials her number again.
"Shepard." She bites out. She's pissed. He thinks to himself before he answers.
"Not knowing where you are, is an emergency, Dir-ec-tor, is it not? He says in his smug, smirking voice over the phone, drawing her title out, his smirk growing wider as he imagines her scowl.
"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. He lets out a chuckle at her so-called threat.
"I taught you how to shoot with your SIG, Jen." He reminds her. It's true, he did: he remembers how he stood behind her, his hands around her little ones, shaking slightly as she held the gun, feeling the shiver go through her as his breath entered her ear as he instructed 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. Something is seriously wrong with her if she's begging him to enjoy some alone time with herself.
"Jen, you hate going away alone, so that's a load of bullshit, what's really going on with you and where are you?" he knows how much she hates being alone when she's on 'vacation'.
"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.
He groans as he hears the dial tone in his ear. He needs to find her. Now.
Just when the sun is setting around the city, covering it in a soft orange light, he walks into a hotel lobby, a takeout bag in one hand and a bottle of wine and a bottle of bourbon in the other. He walks up the stairs to the penthouse suite, a small smile on his face as he knocks on the door with some difficulty and leans against the door as the door opens, a surprised smile on her face. He stares at her for a minute, admiring her beauty even in sweats and a tank top with her flaming red hair piled on the top of her head. She looks beautiful and really relaxed, more relaxed than he's seen her in a long time.
"Jethro, what are you doing here? And how the hell did you find me?!" Jen's demanding voice breaking through his staring. He glances at her and sees her crossing her arms over her chest and giving him her best 'Director' glare that demands answers. He chuckles as he brushes past her gently and enters her suite, walking into her living area, setting out their meal he's brought with him.
He watches as she remains frozen in place, her bare feet frozen on the carpet of the doorway.
After eating the simple meal of steak and french chips, both of them are sitting on opposite couches, drinking wine.
"What the hell are you doing here, Jethro?" Jen 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. He waits as she thinks about his rather long question, arguing with herself until she looks at him in his blue eyes, tears filling her own.
"I had to get away from you." She admits softly, their eyes locked on one another's.
She what?!
"Why did you have to get away from me?" He asks her gently, if he shouts at her, she'll clam up before she talks to him. He hears her 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 Vance that I needed time away for a little bit." She admits sheepishly.
"And what are the flashbacks about?" He sees her winces at his barking tone. He can already see her telling him the flashbacks.
"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."The same ones he's had.
"I don't get it: so you're having flashbacks of us, why would they make you run?" Why would her flashbacks of their time in paris make her run from D.C? From him?
"Because they're telling me that I still love you!" He's rarely speechless around anyone, but her: her beauty can stop any words he has coming from his mouth disappear with one look at her.
"And are you?" He asks, she stops pacing and looks at him.
She looks at him, her green eyes wide.
"Yes." She whispers quietly, so quietly that he almost didn't hear her. He watches her pace some more before he gets to his feet and places his hands on her shoulders, stopping her pacing again, his eyes staring into hers, a smile on his face.
He crushes his lips to hers, stopping anything she was about to say. 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.
Their foreheads rest against each other's as blue and green eyes lock together.
"I love you, Jethro." She whispers.
"I love you too, Jen." She bites her lip as his thumb across her cheek.
His arms are wrapped around her as they both stand on the balcony, watching as the sun sets across the city when he feels her beautiful green eyes on him.
"Why did you follow me here?" She asks him. He smiles at him before he answers the question with hesitation.
"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."
He'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.
He couldn't have chosen a city better to give his heart to her once again.
