The thought of alerting her security team of her whereabouts hadn't even crossed her mind until she was pulling up in front of his house, and at that point going through the hassle of letting them know would have caused more trouble for her than she was willing to deal with. Besides, the scandal it would have caused was too much of a headache to even think about.
The ground is slick with ice when she steps out of her car, and had she not been so determined to reach his front door without interruption she's certain she would have slipped.
She thanks whatever god is watching over her at the moment that in all the years she's known him he still hasn't changed his habit of not locking his front door.
The metal of the door handle is cold and stings her bare skin when she reaches for it. Her gloves lay somewhere discarded in her home; she had been too focused on getting in her car and rushing over here to have remembered to grab them.
Her mind becomes too fuzzy when he's the subject of her thoughts. She's infected by the idea Jethro Gibbs and it shows.
When she enters, careful to not slam the door behind her lest he think she's an intruder, the house is unsettlingly quiet. For a moment she considers that he's left all together, gone somewhere else to clear his head, but when she catches sight of the light fluttering in from the cracked door of the basement she knows where he's retreated too.
She finds herself rushing down the steps a bit quicker than strictly necessary, her heels clacking loudly against the wood as she does. She blames on the adrenaline pumping through her over what she's about to do for her rushing. Enough time has been wasted between them.
He's leaning against the countertop when she gets to the bottom, expression too much of a mixed bag for her to begin decipher at that moment. He's caught off guard by her sudden appearance, that much she does know.
"What do you want Jen?"
There's a coldness to his tone that she can't quite place, though she can't blame him in the slightest for it.
"You."
In an instant, she's holding his face between her winter chilled hands, frozen fingers grasping desperately at him as she presses her lips to his. It's rough and sloppy and not at all coordinated but she doesn't care one bit. He smells like sawdust and bourbon and something so distinctly him and it makes her weak at her knees.
"I'm so sorry Jethro."
Her coat and hair was damp from the sleet, her body shivering from a mixture of the cold and her nerves as she says it to him.
"I'm so sorry." She muttered again, words repeated like a mantra she hopes he can understand. Her forehead is pressed against his and she kisses him again as she speaks, whispering apologies against his lips with her own.
Her heart all but stops when he takes her hands in his own, separating the two of them just enough that he can fully look at her.
"What happened?" He asks, looking her up and down to take in her disheveled appearance. She can only imagine how she must look at the moment: clothes wet as a result of the weather, eyes glassy from the bourbon, hands shaking from the cold.
She shakes her head, "I got my ass handed to me I didn't care. They tore me and my ability to lead apart, and all I could think about was this. You're right, I am a coward. I'm too afriad to admit to myself that I want this. But I'm done. Done running, done pretending. I will never be able to not want to have this with you, Jethro."
He's searching her eyes for something and it makes her heart pound harder against her chest and for a moment she's convinced he's going to tell her to get out, that she showed up just a little too late and she missed her shot at being happy with him.
"And your no off the job rule? You can't want this then try to undo it later, Jen. I won't let you do that."
She shakes her head, "I'd say that we already have crossed that of which we cannot undo long before right now. I'm not that strong Jethro. I never was, not when it came to this."
He's staring so intensely at her that she begins to worry coming here was a mistake, that she could never truly repent for leaving him before. She thinks that, perhaps, she had lost her chance all those years ago when she stepped off that plane.
All her fears fizzle away when he grabs her and roughly pushes her up against the counter. His lips are on hers and his hands are impatiently yanking at her coat, and it's only when he manages to get it off her that he lifts her up. Instinctively, she wraps her legs tightly around his hips and allowed him to carry her up the steps.
The last concrete thought she has before he renders her completely inept is that this was all she wanted.
A/n: I don't like this chapter. I like the idea of it, but I don't like its execution. Maybe after sitting on it for a few days I'll think differently. I hope at least you guys like it, our two heroes have finally been reunited for some actual action and not just past tense stories.
I hope you guys R&R and let me know if you're liking this story so far. Depending on how you guys respond I may stretch it out a few more chapters than I originally planned, but it's all up to you guys.
With Love, - Ali