"Here, this is for you." Jenny said as she thrust the paper bag she had been holding at Tony.

"Where's Gibbs?"

"Two squad cars pulled up down by the park. Gibbs went over to see if it was a crime scene," she said pursing her lips.

"Of course he did." Tony said, stating the obvious, before he proceeded to open the paper bag. "Oh hey, a muffin!"

Jenny narrowed her eyes at him as the chagrin she was feeling reached her face.

Tony's faltered at her withering stare. "You and Gibbs – you both do the – never mind," he said as he clearly decided against finishing what he had started to say, taking his hint from the eyebrow she had raised in his direction. The phone on Tony's desk started to ring. "Oh hey, boss. Sure, okay, I'll be right there," he said, placing the receiver back in its cradle. "There's a crime scene alright. There's a dead guy, and that dead guy is none other than Major Kerry."

"Shit," Jenny swore. She tried to ignore the sinking feeling that was taking hold once more. This was big, and it more than confirmed Gibbs's suspicions that this was not over; it wasn't even close. "Hope you hadn't planned on sleeping any time soon," she said as she once more took in Tony's obvious weariness.

"Hey, what are desks for!" He replied with a thousand-watt grin, but his smile failed to reach his eyes. "What are you going to do?"

Jenny shrugged. "Go over everything again, see if I can come up with anything."

"Well, good luck with that." Tony said, not unsympathetically before swinging his gear onto his back. "Seeya."

Jenny sat down at her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose. They didn't really have anything. The lab results hadn't magically changed, the autopsy report read the same as it had that morning, and the rest of the case was as inconclusive as ever, which became more painfully obvious with every minute she spent poring over it. She glanced at her watch. It had only been half an hour, but if she sat here much longer she was going to go insane. She wondered absently if Ducky might have something new. The odds were low, but he was a friendly face, and the morgue was, at the very least, not her desk, and that was a start.

Ducky looked up from cleaning the table as the doors to autopsy swooshed open.

He smiled warmly at her. "Jennifer, my dear, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well, Gibbs and DiNozzo are out in the field. It wasn't safe for me to go with them."

"Ah yes, of course. It's amazing, isn't it, how early we humans start making sacrifices for our young. I'm imagining it's not your first, and it certainly won't be the last."

"It's so strange to think of myself as a parent. I've had goals my entire life and I've reached them. Get good grades, get into a good school, graduate with honours, get a good job, work hard, rise to the top, and this? This is definitely not that."

"Yes well. Life has a habit of throwing the best laid plans out the window at the best of times. I hear you turned down quite the promotion back in Europe."

Jenny inclined her head in quiet assent, not quite trusting herself to speak.

Ducky watched her for a moment with a thoughtful expression. "Do you regret it at all, coming back?"

"Not really, not under the circumstances, I think I'd have regretted not coming back a lot more. I'd worked so hard and I'd succeeded. I just feel so blindsided by it all."

"It's perfectly understandable. Pregnancy is quite the adjustment for any woman, and that's without taking into account the who, why and where. I imagine for you that meeting Gibbs was quite the surprise in and of itself," Ducky said smiling knowingly.

Jenny laughed ruefully. "You can say that again."

The shrill ringing of Jenny's cell phone interrupted them. "Shepard. I'm fine, Jethro, I'm down in the morgue. Yeah, I'll tell him. Okay, I'll be right up." She grimaced at Ducky. "You remember Major Kerry from the plane?"

"Why yes, of course."

"He's dead from what looks like the same thing."

Ducky took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Well it's highly unlikely they both died of exactly the same natural causes, which I'm sure is exactly what Gibbs is thinking."

Jenny nodded curtly, feeling the pull of upstairs. "I'd better go."

"Of course. You take care, and if you need anything, you know where to find me."

Jenny flashed him a genuine smile. "Thank you."

"Now. Where were we." Ducky said before opening the drawer with the Commander inside. "I'm afraid it's not over yet, my dear fellow. You know, there was a time when the mere sight of an autopsy made Jennifer ill…"

Gibbs's gut was churning, while his mind chewed on the implications of Major Kerry's demise, but right at the top was the fact that Kate was now the top suspect, and he had just let her get on a plane with the president.

He could also feel Jenny's eyes on him but was choosing to ignore her. She knew what he was thinking, she always knew, and right now he was desperate to stop the terrorist attack that was about to happen.

"What have we got!" He yelled, causing Tony to wince, but Jenny remained patiently impassive.

"Other than the fact that they served together? Nothing at all. However, the bartender did mention that he'd seen Major Kerry with a man fitting the Commander's description last week. He also mentioned that Major Kerry had also been seen about five times with none other than Agent Caitlin Todd." She said calmly.

Gibbs swore under his breath while appreciating what her tone was telling him: getting worked up wouldn't help. He felt helpless, and he didn't do helpless. There was nothing they could do. Unless new evidence came up it was not under their jurisdiction, but even if it was not Kate, this was simply more evidence of a plot already well underway.

Jenny's desk phone rang, and Gibbs looked at her questioningly.

"Okay, I'll be right there," she said, hanging up. "Director wants to see me." she said by way of explanation.

Gibbs nodded and she left. They hadn't really spoken about it, but she was almost certainly about to transfer off the team, and he was all for it.

He noticed Tony watching their exchange with great interest and fixed him with a penetrating stare, predictably, the younger agent scrambled to recover. "You know, I'm just going to get back to work." he said, pointing lamely to his desk.

"You do that." Gibbs growled, and stalked out of the bullpen.

By time Jenny returned Gibbs had stalked off and back again, and Tony had gone through everything twice to no avail. They had another body, but they still had flat nothing. Gibbs slammed down the case file and glared at Tony who yelped in what was a comical scene for a grown man.

"There's gotta be something here. Look again!" Gibbs growled.

All they had were that the two men had met outside work once and were both dead, and nobody could find anything else.

Her meeting had been fine. She'd be back on the terrorism desk in what was close her to her old position with only a lifetime of experiences between her and it, and if she stuck it out after that, she'd be up for a senior position. She was struck dully by the fact that she didn't really care, which was so antithetical to everything she'd thought she was.

What had been shaky in her own sense of identity had always been covered by strong convictions and the ability to carry out a plan, and with every passing day she felt distinctly unmoored. She'd be okay of course, being well practiced in adapting and surviving came with the territory, but it wasn't something she enjoyed.

"Gibbs!" Abby yelled, as she appeared at the end of the dividers, "I've got it! Australian Taipan venom. It's nearly impossible to trace, but not if you know where to look-"

"Jethro!" Jenny yelled as the television behind Tony caught her attention. Images of Air Force One flashed on the screen before settling on a reporter. Tony rushed to turn up the volume

'...A Secret Service Agent has foiled a terrorist plot on Air Force One. A man posing as a journalist tried to arm himself before attempting to force his way into the cockpit; he was presumed to be Al Qaeda.'

"I wonder if it was her." Tony wondered out loud.

"Yup, there she is!" Exclaimed Abby as a slightly dishevelled Kate appeared onscreen.

Jenny and Gibbs made eye contact across the team. It was done, everyone was fine, and they could stand down now.

Gibbs had not been home long when he heard the sound of his front door opening and closing again, followed by the sound of a bag hitting the floor. A smile spread across his face when, moments later, he was faced with Jenny herself who shared his smile.

"Got everything you need?" He asked.

"And these," she replied, brandishing a box full of what appeared to be small, sweet smelling cookies. "I told Noemi I wouldn't be needing any food tonight, but she apparently didn't believe me."

"Yeah, well." Gibbs said, tipping his head. He could hardly blame the other woman. Jenny might act like she could take on the world and then some, but her vulnerability was never far below the surface. He leant over and kissed her lips and allowed himself a moment staring into her eyes at the faint goldish bloom around her irises.

Her cheeks tinged pink under his gaze. "Is it wrong that I'm glad you weren't on that plane?" she asked, turning the mood sombre.

"Nope," he responded with deceptive ease, but he could tell from her expression that she sensed the 'but' behind it. His new and fragile sense of family was something he was willing to protect at all costs, but it didn't stop the feelings of guilt still nagging. It could join the queue. He tugged her into the lounge and down onto the couch with him.

"I can't believe it was that simple: a terrorist saw a movie and then thought he'd try it in real life," Jenny mused, half muffled into his shoulder.

"Damn near worked, too."

"Agent Todd deserves a medal."

"Yeah. She won't get one."

Jenny's brow furrowed as she pulled back enough to look at him. "Why?"

"She slept with a co-worker. It's against the rules, she'll probably have to resign."

Jenny smiled ruefully. "I guess we're lucky NCIS is a little more understanding."

"Yeah, we are. If I offered her a job, would you be okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I thought you didn't like her."

"I don't not like her."

Gibbs snorted. "That'll do. Speaking of, how did things go with the Director?"

"Oh, fine. I'll be in a desk job by the end of the week."

"Good."

"Is it? Everything's changing, Jethro."

"Would have changed if you'd stuck your promotion, too."

"Yeah, but I would have chosen the difference. I'm choosing the same but falling down next to it."

"Do you regret coming back?" Gibbs asked in what was an unknowing echo of Ducky's earlier question.

Jenny stilled next to him. "Not at all, it's just taking a while for me to catch up."

Gibbs played with her hair as he mulled this information over. "I love you, if that helps," he offered gruffly.

"I think it might," she replied, and he watched a fragile smile bloom across her face.

"Good."

"Jethro?"

"Mm?"

"I'm so damn tired."

Gibbs laughed at the change of pace. "First we eat, then you sleep."

"Do cookies count as dinner?"

"Nah. C'mon, Jen - Chinese. Is your favourite still your favourite?"

"It was last time I checked."

"Good."

"Good?" she asked, though her eyes were heavy, and her lips were bent upwards in jest.

"Good." Gibbs declared, and went off in search of the phone.