"Done...", Gibbs muttered, setting the black travel bag down on the bed.

Her stay in the hospital was going to be a bit longer than just one night, the results of her ECG were not satisfactory and in order to be able to do more tests, Dr. Jordan decided to keep her here a bit longer - just to be on the safe side, because that way an echocardiography could be done as well as another ECG and a blood count. They still had to wait for the findings, though, as well as the discharge letter.

"Are you okay?", he asked with a loving undertone as he stopped close to her.

Silently she nodded, and despite all her efforts she did not manage to suppress the tears that were welling up. It all became too much for her, she could no longer control the whole situation. The collapse due to the heart muscle disease was a clear cry for help from her psyche. She had to change something and although the missed divorce date would have been a possible new beginning for her, her heart had not been able to cope with taking this step.

"I thought I could handle it, I had everything under control...," Jen said barely audibly, turning her head back to him. "I tried so hard until I lost it all."

Her eyes looked deep into his again, they were slightly reddened making the green stand out even more and as a tear made its way down her cheek. Hesitantly but still he raised his hand, catching the tear on her cheek with his finger.

"Lost what?" he inquired uncertainly.

"Us, but mostly you. You know, this whole divorce, it was the biggest bad decision either of us could have ever made."

"You were for it too, we talked about it intensely," Jethro reminded her.

"I know that...", she muttered in a hotter voice. "But, we were such a good team, privately and professionally. We've been together for so long, we've been able to solve any problems, and nothing could hold a candle to our relationship. I have tried so hard, but had even believed that we will both somehow find back to each other. When I went to court a few days ago, I knew I had lost both of us."

She smiled, forced to. Lovingly, he wiped the tears from her cheek, looked deep into her eyes. Secretly, he was glad she said it, after all, he didn't have to explain to her how much he too wanted to cancel the court date again.

"I really tried, I wanted to talk to you, but I just couldn't. Every day I spent in our house... All those pictures on the wall, the memories, my wedding ring.", she had to finish her sentence though, the lump in her throat was way too thick. "It hurt me so much every time I took the ring off, I just kept wearing it," she sobbed, and Jethro knew he would have to do something if she didn't calm herself down soon.

"Jen..." he said softly, taking her head between his hands. "I know it hurts and that you're hurting, but you need to try to calm down a little."

She nodded slightly, but still couldn't calm down, just couldn't get over that threshold. It was up to him to make sure she didn't get even more upset, also because the doctor would be coming. Lovingly he took her in his arms, held her tightly against him and stroked her back up and down.

"Sorry.", said Dr. Jordan after he entered the room. Urgently, he looked at both of them and before asking the all-important question in the room; "Are you okay?"

Gibbs nodded, also starting to notice her calming down a bit. "It's just all a bit much." he replied quietly. "Maybe this can cheer you up a bit." said Dr. Jordan, waving a pile of paperwork in front of both their noses, "You're free to go."

"Is there anything that needs to be addressed?", Gibbs wanted to know, curiously, after he put some distance between their two bodies again.

"The last tests were actually good, currently there are no abnormalities, but still caution is advised. With an illness like this, which is triggered by severe stress due to psychological strain, I still advise you to take care of yourself for some time and avoid stress at all costs," the young man, who was perhaps half Jenny's age, explained with a stern undertone.

"You still have me on sick leave all next week?", she asked in surprise as she looked at the papers, just wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

"It's urgent, you can't have any stress. You and I had a conversation yesterday, and what I just saw here is fire on the roof. You need to slow down, Jennifer."

"Why don't you think of it as a doctor's order?" he said, smiling at both of them.

"But I can't miss another whole week, I've already missed this week."

"You'll have to be able to if you don't want to end up in the ICU another time," Jethro said, packing all the paperwork into the black bag.

"I have another medication here that I'd like you to take regularly with breakfast."

"This is for what?", she asked as she looked closely at the packaging.

"It's a beta blocker, which ensures that your blood pressure is lowered, and your heart is shielded from the stress hormones. It's been used in some cases of broken heart syndrome, and in most patients we've stopped it after a period of time."

"Every day?"

He nodded, "Please also make sure to take it conscientiously and don't discontinue it yourself. You and I will be seeing each other a little more regularly in the near future, so we can discuss how you are doing with the medication and what your heart is doing." With a smile on his lips, he nodded to both of them and said goodbye.

Quietly, Gibbs closed the door behind him, not wanting to wake her.

The fact that she had been asleep for a good three hours now was also a sign earlier that she desperately needed a break. Even if they didn't live together anymore, he had been able to watch her in the office often enough. How often had she spent the nights here? Hardly, because she was in the office far more than in her bed. But why hadn't he said anything? He knew exactly how she felt since the accident, he of all people should have been there for her. He of all people knew how best to deal with this pain. All the time they spent avoiding each other, all the time he spent trying in vain to get close to her, all the time he spent retreating, all this time he could have used to question more closely what was going on inside her. It all happened too fast and who knows how things would have turned out without the accident, maybe they wouldn't have set a divorce date. But could he really do that? Could he blame the accident for the divorce?

But where did all this "could have" and "should have" take him? What if, this question is also completely out of place here, because every divorce always involves two people. But maybe her breakdown was also something positive. Maybe fate, with their little medical emergency, had finally shown them that they could still save their marriage.

"Hey...", he said softly as she came awake again. He hadn't even noticed at first, but that gentle touch on her part after she turned over on her other side brought him out of deep thought. "Sleep well?"

"Fine, I just kind of feel like I got hit by a car," Jen mumbled before slowly sitting up in bed.

"That's normal, you're just still weak."

Sighing softly, she ran her hand through her hair. He had looked at it a bit critically at first, after all she had cut her hair and besides she wore it straight now. But the longer he looked at it, the more he liked it. It showed off her eyes and made her face look not so narrow. Basically, it didn't really matter how she looked, he hadn't fallen in love with her because of her looks. And there it was again, love. Of course, he loved her, how could this love ever go to waste? Mockingly he could hear the soft voice in his head laughing, he was thinking of love and just three days ago he wanted a divorce. It didn't add up at all, Gibbs thought, turning his attention back to Jennifer.

"Why are we here?"

"Because I'm not driving you to a house where you've gotten into all this trouble," he answered her honestly. "Besides, I can take better care of you here, make sure you don't have another breakdown."

"And here I thought you brought me here because you changed your mind about the divorce," she laughed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Jenny." he said sternly, reaching for her hand.

"I miss it, I.. I miss you and us. Do you know how many couples lose a child and their relationship is doomed to fail? That's exactly why we need to prove to everyone how strong we are. I am grieving as much as you are, even now I blame myself for overlooking the truck. I love you, I love us and I don't want this divorce, even if at the beginning I was for it just like you, I knew right away it was a mistake and...", she couldn't finish, couldn't explain to him how painful it was and still is for her to accept the wedding ring.

Their lips found themselves in an empathetic kiss that deepened. His fingers buried themselves in her hair while her hands clung to his jacket. How beautiful was this? It was almost like a dream, but it was reality! They kissed so intimately that they were already running out of breath.

"I love you and I will never stop doing it. We're all not perfect, we make mistakes and I never blamed you, but everyone grieves differently and while you dealt with your grief openly, I just dealt with it quietly," Gibbs said calmly and added; "But we both have to work on our relationship if we want to be happy together again." Even now, tears were still running down her cheeks. She was so caught off guard by his words that she just couldn't get a normal sentence out, just the three words in question.

"I love you."

"I don't know, Ducky," Ziva muttered sorrowfully. "Don't you think the whole thing is strange?"

"What exactly do you mean, dear?"

"Well Gibbs and Jenny." the brunette said and continued right away; "A few days ago she just collapses out of nowhere in the elevator, Gibbs won't tell me what's going on at the hospital and a few hours later he calls me, thinks she's fine again."

Silently he listened to her words, not knowing any rhyme or reason to this story either, but what he did know was the fact that he had known Gibbs and Jenny for quite a long time, much longer than Ziva and knew that if the two of them wanted to work something out between themselves, then the others had to respect that.

"Ziva, I can't tell you anything for sure either, I know as much as you do. But I can tell you that if Jethro and Jennifer don't want to talk to us about it, then we have to accept that."

She rolled her eyes, "But Ducky, you've talked to her yourself a few times, you saw she wasn't well too."

Again the pathologist nodded, again he told her the same thing.

"I don't deny that either, but she didn't tell me anything specific either, and that's why we'll just have to wait and see how this thing develops."

This was definitely not the answer the Mossad agent was expecting. Of course, she knew that Ducky didn't have any concrete answers either, but she still expected more support from him. How was she supposed to be able to help her friend like that?

"I want to go to Gibbs and her anyway, see how she's doing."

"Can I go with you?"

"I think it's best if I go alone first, after all, she just got back home from the hospital today, she'll need rest and not a worried friend asking her questions."

"Will you let me know after?"

He nodded, smiling lovingly at her.

Here we are, Chapter 1!

Hope you liked it, let me know!