Hold the phone, stop the presses and check outside to see if pigs are flying, because we have made it to ch8! I'm still chugging along. a big thanks to all my readers x.
Gibbs's plan went off without a hitch, with Fornell and his sidekick seemingly none the wiser as they drove off with DiNozzo in the back of their FBI truck. Tobias would kick his ass later, and Gibbs didn't care.
He laughed at the thought. Truthfully, he had just wanted to see if he could get DiNozzo to actually do it, and the fact that he had quietly amused Gibbs to no end. The fact that he got away with the body because of it was just icing on the cake.
He paused at the top of the gangway and watched as Jenny disembarked from the plane with bags of gear slung over her shoulders and stifled a yawn into her elbow for what seemed like the fifth time in as many minutes.
It was after midnight, and she looked like hell, though he wasn't about to tell her that. He felt a stab of guilt for not looking after her properly. She was clearly exhausted, and the fact that she had come so close to a potential contaminant on the plane scared him. He couldn't let it happen again; he wouldn't let it happen again, but he'd deal with that later.
Gibbs noticed Kate watching him with a glint in her eye.
"It's kind of cute, you know," she said, having got his attention.
"What is?" Gibbs asked indignantly.
"You obviously care about her, a lot. You know, a hard-ass like you." She said and laughed.
Gibbs glared at her. She was teasing him, and he felt irrationally annoyed at being called cute anything, especially by her, so he changed the subject.
"Get some of your guys to the loading bay, Ducky needs help with the body."
"Why, you got somewhere else to be?" Kate needled, grinning, though she could predict who and what was on his mind.
Gibbs gave her a hard stare and started down the steps to the tarmac.
"That's sweet!" Kate shot at his retreating back.
Gibbs jogged to catch up with Jenny who was now about halfway to the terminal and she shot him a questioning look as he fell into step beside her.
"I'm taking you home." He said simply.
"Since when?"
"Since now. You're exhausted, Jen."
Jenny looked like she wanted to argue but was prevented by another yawn, and Gibbs took this as an opportunity to relieve her of the gear she was carrying.
"Chauvinist," she groused.
Gibbs shrugged, not unfamiliar with the barb. "Well y'know, women and children first." He said, smirking.
But instead of the scoff or eye-roll he had expected, the response from Jenny was silence. Her behaviour, which had warmed somewhat on the plane, had cooled once more.
He gazed evenly at the side of her head. "What's wrong, Jen?"
"We need to talk," she deadpanned, forcing him to acknowledge what was weighing heavily on her mind, and all that hinged upon it.
"Jenny," he said, causing her to look at him. "It'll be okay," he said, in an attempt to put her at ease.
"I hope so," she responded simply, lightly. But in truth, it sounded a lot like a warning.
Jenny was so quiet in the car that for a while Gibbs wondered if she had fallen asleep, but there was nothing relaxed about her posture.
He slowed the car as they neared the familiar row of townhouses and spared her a glance before pulling into a space across from her house, and when he killed the engine it only served to amplify the silence between them.
After a beat Jenny turned her gaze on him in what he recognised as a challenge, with her chin angled down and her eyes hard.
Gibbs looked at his hands a moment as he worked on summoning the right words. "I'm sorry, Jen. I screwed up," he said, looking at her hesitantly. "I never meant to make you feel like your feelings weren't important, or that you didn't matter."
Her eyes had gone from hard to wide, and she took in a sharp breath.
He took this as his cue to continue. "When you told me that in Paris I panicked. You weren't the only one, but I couldn't say it – felt like I was betraying them."
A wave of nausea struck Jenny as she was hit, not with anger, but fear, because here was the moment of truth, and he was preparing to let her down.
"I'm sorry about your dad, too."
At this she took a shuddering breath and forced herself not to look away. She had one final question, and the answer was everything. "What about now, are you still betraying them?" she asked, her voice thick with emotion.
Gibbs shrugged. "Maybe, but it doesn't matter. If I do nothing, then I'm betraying you."
At his admission, the tears that may have threatened before flowed freely down Jenny's face, as the enormity of what they'd become to one another was acknowledge out loud.
Gibbs reached up to caress her face with a work worn hand and brushed the wetness on her cheek with his thumb.
Jenny laughed a watery laugh. "I thought you were about to tell me to take a hike.
"Nah. You're too important for that. Both of you," He added meaningfully and reached for her hand.
The air stilled as they became physically aware of one another.
"Jethro?" Jenny said, breaking the tension before it killed her.
"Mm?"
"Kiss me."
Gibbs wasted no time and swiftly moved in to capture her lips with his own, and Jenny's hand found its way to the back of his neck, playing with the hair it found there. Their reunion was intense but was soon slowed down by the weight of the day's fatigue.
The temptation to kiss her again was great, but she was exhausted, and Jenny looked at him as though she could read his mind and her bleary eyes sparkled with mirth.
"Come on, time for bed," Gibbs said, which caused Jenny to raise her eyebrows at him.
"What?" Gibbs challenged playfully with mock indignance. "You need sleep."
"So do you." Jenny countered and pursed her lips into a smile.
"Nah, I got coffee."
"Yeah, 'cause that's always the best option," she deadpanned. "Besides, there's food."
"You don't cook."
"No, I offered to pay Noemi extra if she made meals as well."
Gibbs snorted. "You have a housekeeper."
"Well you see I have this mean boss who makes me work all the time…"
Gibbs rolled his eyes at her. Ideally, he'd wait until the case was over to fully throw himself back in with her, but sleep was good, and family was important and that's what she was now. Somewhere absently in his mind it registered that he should probably tell his dad what was going on, but that was for another time. The case could wait a few hours. He popped the trunk and grabbed his overnight bag before following Jenny, who hadn't waited for his answer.
He grinned.
Jenny tossed her keys on the sideboard as she entered the house, and Gibbs closed the door behind them. The house was silent except for the old clock in the corner ticking away loudly.
She placed her bag on the floor in the corner. "Bedroom's on the second landing and then to your left," she called to him as he headed for the stairs.
"I know."
"How? You've never been in it."
"No, but I've called you when you have." He replied with a smirk. There'd been a few times before Europe when he'd needed her to come to work, fast, and he'd quickly learned by calling her while he was sitting outside that her bedroom was at the top of the front of the house, and watching her come to the window to see whether he was indeed where he said he was had amused him to no end.
Jenny smiled to herself and shook her head as she watched him ascend, his curiosity obvious as he disappeared from view.
Gibbs slowed as he reached the third floor. He'd counted what looked like two bedrooms on the last landing, and there were another two up here. He made his way towards the front of the house to the one he knew was Jenny's and found himself in a decent sized room with its own bathroom, and the bay window that he'd seen her standing in many times before. It was full of the same kind of old furniture as the rest of the house, but with a decidedly more feminine touch. He dropped his bad unceremoniously onto the expensive looking covers on her bed where it landed with a satisfying bounce and disturbed a few of the many pillows.
Gibbs smirked. Good mattress.
The room smelled a lot like her, which made sense given how much time she spent in it. He surveyed the room once more, noting the dressing table in the corner and what looked like work clothes piled over the back of a chair.
"Having fun?" Jenny asked wryly, appearing in the doorway.
"Yup," Gibbs replied wearing a grin that wouldn't look out of place on DiNozzo's face.
She moved past him and started pulling clothes out of the nearby bureau.
It all felt ridiculously domestic in a way that similar actions as they'd travelled together had not.
She gathered her things and took them into the bathroom to get changed. She did not, Gibbs noted, close the door.
Jenny winced as she caught sight of herself in the bathroom mirror; the dark circles she found there were visible even through what was left of her makeup, and there was no hiding the puffiness that had also taken up residence there.
She then wiped her face clean and paused to assess the full extent of the damage. She looked like hell. Every ounce of exhaustion she felt was written plainly on her face. This case had been the biggest they had worked since her return, and it was becoming abundantly clear that she could no longer just push through like she always had.
She put on her pyjamas, noting with some irritation that the elastic waistband was starting to feel tight across her abdomen, which meant that she was going to have to buy a new set soon unless she planned on sleeping naked, and then brushed her teeth.
When she emerged from the bathroom, she found Gibbs already in her bed reclining onto a pile of her many pillows with his arms folded behind his head. Jenny smiled at the sight and folded back the covers so that she could slide in beside him.
"Move over," she said nudging him playfully, but no sooner had she pulled the covers back over herself he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
Jenny laid her head on his shoulder and muffled a yawn into it, and Gibbs kissed her on the forehead.
"Sleep," he murmured into her hair, watching in amusement as she frowned with her eyes still closed from the yawn. "It's less appealing if you tell me what to do." She stated thickly, never opening them, and it wasn't long before she obliged.
Gibbs studied her face as she slept and was caught off guard by a wave of affection towards her. Really, he shouldn't be, his feelings weren't in question, but he was so used to allowing himself to feel it in the first place.
He took a moment to savour the warm weight of her in his arms and then froze as it hit him like a tonne of bricks that he could distinctly feel the firm roundness of her belly pressing into him. It was small, but it was definitely there.
He wanted to reach out and touch it but resisted in case he woke her.
He tried to remember if this had happened with Shannon was pregnant but was his with a fresh wave of guilt when he realised, he couldn't remember. In his mind he saw vividly standing and trying to smile as tears rolled down her face. He was being deployed, and she was saying goodbye. She'd been eleven weeks pregnant, and he hadn't seen her again until a few months after Kelly was born.
A familiar guilt gnawed at him, but it was with a strange sort of relief that he realised that his feelings for Jenny and the baby were sitting alongside his love for Shannon and Kelly just fine, and it was with that thought that he surrendered to sleep.
When Gibbs awoke a few hours later Jenny was still curled into his side, breathing softly against his neck, and the unfamiliar shadows of her room were playing on the ceiling. He lifted his head to get a better look at the glowing numbers of the clock on the bedside table before beginning to slowly disentangle himself from her sleeping form.
His feet reached the carpet the same time as her voice reached his ears. "What time is it?" She asked, her voice made all the huskier by sleep.
"0600; go back to sleep."
"I live close, but not that close," she scoffed softly. Work started in an hour, and if she was going to be ready, she had to get up.
"Meeting with the FBI isn't 'til 0900, don't need you 'til then." He said and leaned over to kiss her on the lips. He was sorely tempted to tell her to take the day but letting her come in late would already raise a few eyebrows. "Also need to talk about your workload," he added, smoothing her hair, which elicited little more than a bleary nod. She sank back down into the pillows and closed her eyes, which only affirmed his decision.
"I'll have DiNozzo come get you at 8.30." Gibbs said, and was satisfied to see her wrinkle her nose and regard him through slitted eyes.
She could drive herself and they both knew it.
"See you in a couple of hours." He said softly and kissed her one last time and began to get ready for work.