Thirteen

Ducky barely had time to let go of Jenny's wrist before she was up and out of the chair, pulling her sleeve down as she went. He quickly got up and followed her out of autopsy, he saw her bang her good hand on the closed elevator door in frustration before turning to the stairs.

"Jennifer please, don't do something you're going to regret." He pleaded.

"He was serious Ducky." Jenny replied, "if someone doesn't stop him he might actually kill Gibbs this time."

Ducky didn't have time to stop her before she was in the stairwell making a mad dash up the five flights of stairs to the bullpen.

N*C*I*S

By the time she made it to the top of the stairwell it was only pure adrenaline that was stopping her from doubling over, she pushed through the doorway and sprinted towards the squad-room, her heels barely slowing her down. She made it just in time to watch Stan grab Gibbs's shoulder and yank him around before landing a solid blow to his face.

She was a second too late to stop the first blow but by the time Stan wound up to hit him again she was standing between the two men, her arms outstretched.

"Enough." She said firmly, "are you insane? He has a head injury!"

"Get out of the way." Stan ordered, shoving her to the side.

She stepped back in front of him and did her best to push Gibbs away as he stepped forward to fight back.

"You sit down, now!" She demanded, pushing Gibbs, "Special Agent Burley I said that is enough!"

Stan stepped forward as if to make another move and Jenny stepped closer to him.

"If you make one more move I will drop you on your ass so fast you won't know what hit you." She threatened, her voice low.

Stan took another step and Jenny used all of her training from both NCIS and Mossad and had him pinned to the desk, his hand twisted painfully behind his back in a second.

"I said that is enough!" She ordered firmly, pressing her free elbow between his shoulder blades, "I'm going to let you go, you're going to turn around and go down to autopsy and cool down, make a single move towards Special Agent Gibbs and Ziva will shoot you."

The Mossad officer was standing to the side with her gun hanging loosely from her hand.

"Better yet, the three of you, my office now."

Jenny turned and groaned when she saw Leon standing on the stair landing, SecNav beside him watching the scene unfold with a raised eyebrow and a disappointed frown on his face.

"Shit." Jenny muttered, carefully backing off of Stan.

She followed the men up the stairs, carefully avoiding the eyes of the agents watching them in the squad-room. The adrenaline had kept the pain in her wrist out of her mind but now that it was wearing off the throbbing had returned and was worse than ever. She waited until the door to Leon's office was closed before falling into a chair with a sigh.

"Would anyone like to explain what the hell happened down there?" Leon asked, crossing his arms as he studied the group in front of him.

"Hell if I know." Gibbs stated throwing up his hands.

"The hell if you know?" Stan asked, "Jesus, how arrogant can you be? Jenny's black and blue but hey, hell if you know."

"Stan!" Jenny exclaimed, "Shut. Up."

"Why? Because you don't want anyone to know what a bastard he is?" Stan asked.

"What do you mean Jen's black and blue?" Gibbs asked, looking between Jenny and Stan.

"Oh like you don't know?" Stan said scathingly, "I go down into autopsy and Ducky is examining her, and she looks like someone was manhandling her."

"What Stan, you've never heard of rough sex?" Jenny asked.

It was a last ditch effort to pull the attention away from Gibbs and judging by the way Leon and SecNav turned to her in shock it seemed to have worked at least a bit.

"No, rough sex is rug burns on your knees and elbows, marks on your wrists from cuffs, maybe a few minor scratches or bruises, not that!" Stan exclaimed, gesturing at her covered wrist. "You like it rough but not like that Jenny!"

"I'm going to pretend you did not just say that in front of not only both of your bosses but my boss as well."

"Pretend all you want, Jesus Jenny, I'm starting to wondering if pretending is all you're good at. I mean come on, you saw his second marriage fall apart, you know what he's like when he's in a relationship! Hell, your marriage or whatever fell apart and yet you keep. Going. Back!"

"My marriage is not nor has it ever been any of your god damn concern, Stan." Jenny replied sharply, "you've been miserable since you've been back, what the hell is your problem?"

"Enough!" Gibbs barked, "One of you had better tell me what's going on, now."

"Look at Jenny's wrist." Stan ordered, "if you really don't know what's going on."

Gibbs reached out for Jenny's hand but she quickly pulled it away from him.

"I'm fine." She stated quickly before turning to SecNav. "Sir I'm really sorry but this has all been a big misunderstanding that escalated way too much."

SecNav sighed and shook his head. "I don't even know what to do with you three anymore, it is a good thing that you are three of our best agents otherwise I would have fired all of you ten years ago…. I can't keep making excuses for you, the next time we have an outburst of a personal matter in the workplace you're all suspended. This time I'm going to cut you all some slack, it has been a hard month for everyone, Special Agent Burley you'd better get it together because you're stuck here until Gibbs is able to go back into the field. Now, because I really don't want another fight you're all going home and you'd better have your acts together tomorrow or I swear I will not be this nice next time."

"Thank you, Sir." Jenny said, standing up slowly, "It won't happen again, I promise."

She looked over at Stan pointedly and had to fight not to hit him when he rolled his eyes at her.

"Not so fast." SecNav said holding up his hand, "Special Agent Burley you may go, you two sit back down." He said gesturing between Jenny and Gibbs.

Jenny sat back down and carefully folded her hands in her lap, she could feel Gibbs watching her and made a point to look straight at SecNav and not him.

"Do I need to worry about you two?" SecNav asked once Stan was gone.

"No, Sir." Jenny replied quickly, "Like I said it was a misunderstanding."

"I have known both of you for a long time, you were one of NCIS' best teams and I have only heard the highest praises from Tom Morrow about both of you, but I need to know if your personal relationship is affecting your professional relationship."

"Our personal relationship stays out of the office." Gibbs stated.

"Good, keep it that way. As your boss I need to know that you're not letting personal affect professional but on a more personal note I've known both of you a long time, do me a favour and make sure professional isn't affecting your personal lives either. Relationships are hard enough, adding kids is even harder and with a job like this it's near impossible but you two seem to be doing alright, try and keep it that way, you're a good team."

"Thank you, Sir." Jenny replied, "We're doing our best."

"And that's all anyone can do, now both of you go home." He ordered gently.

Gibbs and Jenny both nodded their thanks before standing and letting themselves out of the office. Jenny made a beeline for her office, she made it into the office but he was right behind her, he shut the door before he grabbed on to her upper arm and gently pulled her sleeve up. She closed her eyes as he rotated her wrist, when she opened her eyes he could see the pain on his face.

"I did that." He stated quietly.

"No." Jenny replied quickly.

"If I didn't who did then, Jen?" He whispered harshly.

"Can we not do this here?" She asked, her eyes darting around to check for eavesdroppers.

"We don't have anywhere else to go." Gibbs reminded her, "Stan is at my place and Jack is at home."

"I don't want to have this conversation in my office Jethro, it wasn't you're fault."

"What conversation, Jen? There is no conversation, just look at your wrist! How is that not my fault?"

The look on his face was so broken, she reached out to touch him but he stepped back and threw up his hands.

"You were sound asleep, you were having a nightmare and I reached out to you. I should have known better, Jethro, you reacted on instinct you didn't intentionally hurt me."

"But I hurt you!"

She tried not to flinch at the sound of his voice, it was rare he yelled but it always startled her when he did.

"Damn it, Jen…" He said, his voice barely above a whisper, "I hurt you, I could've broken your wrist, it could've been a lot worse."

"But you didn't and it wasn't." She stated firmly, "it's a bit of a bruise it'll be gone in a week or two."

She was downplaying it and she knew it but she had never seen him look so broken before, she had seen a similar look when he had first spoken to her about Shannon and Kelly, about not being able to save them. This was an even deeper self-loathing an even deeper sadness than she had seen then, she knew it was because he had been the one to directly harm her, he had been the one to lay a hand on her.

"What if it had been one of the kids?" Gibbs asked, "What if it had been one of the girls or Jake?"

"It wasn't."

"It could be next time!" Gibbs exclaimed.

Jenny reached under the conference table and hit the button for the SCIF, she really didn't want any prying ears to overhear them fighting.

"There can't be a next time." He added, his voice more subdued.

"So what are you planning on doing?" Jenny asked incredulously, "are you just never going to sleep again?"

"I'll move back onto the couch." He stated.

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"You heard me Jethro, you're not sleeping on the couch, you're going to sleep in our bed in our room." She replied, her own voice rising, "you're not giving up this easy."

"I'm not giving up anything, Jen! There's nothing to give up! We'll just go back to the way things were."

"Fine." She whispered, "you're right, there's nothing to give up."

She grabbed her jacket and bag off of her desk and made her way towards the door pausing only when he spoke.

"Where are you going?"

"Well there's nothing to give up so I guess there's no point in finishing this obviously pointless conversation." She replied without turning around, "I'll be home by the time the kids come home from school."

It's getting tense up in here Y'all… Thank you guys for your reviews and please remember that the only thing I own are my mistakes :(…

~Katie