A/N: Wow, lots of reviews, made me want to write this chapter immediately! I know I should update my others, but seeing as there is a huge LACK of Jibbs stories coming out, I figured to get some more ideas out there and work on all of them…yes, I may be just a bit crazy…please review and let me know what you think, it's a wee bit heavy this chapter, but necessary. Thanks^.^
"She should be here any minute Director, and then we will continue." SecNav informed.
"I'm here SecNav, thank you for waiting." Jenny said trying to slip back into her director facade, this conversation was going to be hard on her, and she knew she needed to slip into the one role that rarely showed emotion. The thing was, after two years of what she went through, that strong safety mask was lacking, it had been stripped from her like countless other things.
"Well, I'll be! Jennifer Shepard, last I heard you were dead, care to share?" Vance asked confused and curious.
"Last everyone knew I was dead." She said with a false smirk on her face.
"You need not go into details, but share what you feel we need to or should know, whenever you are ready." SecNav said knowing Jennifer did not want to have this conversation, but also knowing Vance and himself needed to know.
"Very well, I suppose the best place to start is when I was five; I had a twin sister, identical in every way.
"As I'm sure you both read, or were personally informed on my obsession with La Grenouille, and at that time I refused to admit it, but I was.
"I wasn't home the first time he came to my house, I was at dance, which Anne was supposed to be as well, but she had stayed home sick.
"My father hadn't come to pick me up, and I was brought home from my instructor. I walked in and knew something was off. There was blood on the floor leading from my father's study.
"I ran in, worried something had happened to him, but all he said was my sister had been kidnapped and there was no way to get her back.
"For years I tried to forget about Anne, as my father ordered, he said she never existed, and to never speak of her again. Said it was for my own safety.
"It wasn't till I was twenty did she come back into my life somewhat. I was in my room when I heard the door close. Knowing my father had people come and go all the time, I thought nothing of it. That is until I heard shouting.
"I left my room and listened in. My father was furious and yelling about Anne being taken, as he shouted La Grenouille's name.
"He started talking, said if my father didn't agree, he would kill me. That's when my father asked about Anne, and Grenouille replied that she had woken and started screaming, and him not wanting to deal with it, ended her life. Said he had already inflicted the pain he had wanted to." Jenny revealed, anger coursing through her, finally an emotion that was strong enough to help her continue.
"I remember hearing a fight take place before everything got quiet. I heard Grenouille say to not worry; he'd take good care of me, before I heard a gunshot.
"I waited till I saw his face before running to the back of the house and climbing down the fire escape…" Jenny stopped and took a few deep breaths trying to calm herself. She had never told this story to anyone.
"How was your sister never mentioned in your family records?" Vance asked never remembering hearing about an Anne Shepard.
"My father was extremely powerful, and knew the right people to go to, to get her erased from history." She informed bitterly.
"Anyways, once Grenouille was dead, I started receiving calls asking about things I had no knowledge of ever planning or doing. Eventually I received a call confirming an appointment for the following day.
"Wanting to find out why I was receiving the calls, I went to the meeting. Imagine my shock when I saw someone that looked exactly like me standing there.
"Anne saw me and went as still as I had. We left for my house, and there I realized Grenouille had not only gave me the impression my sister was dead, but he made it abundantly clear, she no longer existed.
"When she was able to escape him, everyone started calling her by my name, so, naturally, she eventually just went with it, but only for things that were extremely important…" Jenny stopped, getting the feeling Vance wanted to ask a question, she turned to him, indicating she was listening.
"Does your sister have anything to do with your supposed death?" He didn't beat around the bush. He may not know Jenny that well, but he knew when she wanted to get out of something.
"Yes and no. No, she hadn't given anything up to the people coming after me. Yes, she is why everyone thought I was dead.
"I stopped hearing from Anne about two weeks before I left for Decker's funeral. I thought it was strange, and I admit I was worried to suddenly stop hearing from her, but I had a job to do, so I tried not to worry about it.
"I heard the word Oshimida spoken at the end of the funeral, and knew something was wrong. It was from the assignment Decker, Agent Gibbs, and I worked years back. It was the safe word, in case we were ever found out we would use it to warn the others.
"I got some leads that brought me to the diner. Last thing I remember I got two rounds to my stomach and…" Jenny stopped taking another deep breaths, the next part was the hard part.
"Seeing as you're not dead, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it wasn't you Agents DiNozzo and David found?" Vance questioned already knowing it wasn't.
"Bravo Leon, it wasn't me, it was my sister…"
"Then what happened to you Jennifer?" SecNav added.
"I was captured." She answered really hoping they wouldn't push, knowing they were going to, they needed to know.
"By whom?"
"Some of Grenouille's men. Turns out, they thought I murdered him…"
"Did you?" Vance asked remembering Kort confessing, but curious as her answer.
Jenny just stared at him for a minute before answering.
"I wish, but no, it was Anne…"
"Kort admitted to his murder a while back, I'm sure you remember…" Vance was thrown for a moment and he noticed Jenny blanch slightly before disgust filled her features.
"I remember; I also knew he didn't, but I couldn't mention Anne, and he admitted, so I wasn't going to cause more doubt by disputing it, it was, after all, what he and Grenouille had discussed if he were to be murdered.
"The thing I didn't know was why he took the blame, that is until he revealed exactly why." Jenny said anger and fear coursing through her at the memories inflicted by the name.
"Which was…?" SecNav pushed slightly seeing the effect this was having on her.
"Grenouille wanted Kort to take his place, and in order to do that, he would have to throw everyone else off, NCIS mainly, and find the real killer. He suspected it was Anne and me from the beginning.
"He found out about the loose ends of the mission I was telling you about and used that against me, to flush me out in a sense.
"He knew I would loose my detail if I heard about the case, and try to face things head on and end them before they got out of hand. The thing was; it wasn't just Svetlana I was up against; it was Kort and his men as well.
"The fire fight started and I had taken out four of the five guys, but the fifth got me twice and grounded me. I remember seeing Kort walk in from the side door and shooting the fifth guy. There were also people arguing outside the diner arguing, but that was it before I passed out." Jenny said wishing they would end it there, everything inside was crumbing and, she was terrified of continuing.
"That doesn't explain where you were for the last two years." SecNav hated to push her, but if there was a threat out there, then they need to know about it.
"I…I was being held by Kort…he told me about Anne's death. I hoped someone would see she wasn't me, but she was identical, everything about her was identical to me!
"After the first few weeks, Kort knew Anne had killed Grenouille, but he refused to let me go, he enjoyed torturing me, it became his sport to see how much I could endure.
"Three weeks ago, Kort was too cocky. He left me to a group of his men, where…where I eventually was able to get the upper hand when they were distracted. Kort only allowed one gun into the room, knowing I was still dangerous no matter how much they tortured me. The thing was; every one of them wanted to…long story short, I was able to get a hold of the gun and break myself out."
Jenny couldn't stop the quick extremely shaky breaths from sounding as she clamped her eyes shut to ward off the memories.
"I stayed as hidden as I could, knowing Kort was still out there, and no doubt looking for me. When I got the chance I came straight here, and you know the rest." Jenny said praying beyond anything they would leave it at that, she needed to get out of there NOW!
SecNav seeing Jennifer starting to crumble before him, told her to go take a break, and they will have someone get her if need be.
Relieved Jenny almost ran from the room, she took one look at the bullpen as she bolted for the far elevator, needed to get away from everything and everyone.
...
Ziva and Tony snapped their heads up when they heard the MTAC door slam open. They stared in shock, concern, and fear somewhat, as the strong director they had know, bolted for the elevator. It wasn't that she was running to the elevator that concerned them, it was her face.
She looked completely broken and they had never seen her like that before, but it scared the hell out of them.
Ziva did the one thing she could think of and dialed Gibbs' cell number. When he didn't pick up, she slammed the phone down on the receiver before trying again. This time she got an answer.
"This better be good…"
"Gibbs, its Jenny…" Ziva said before she heard a click, signaling the connection was ended.
Ziva stared at the phone enraged, she could not believe he hand hung up on her when she had mentioned Jenny's name.
...
"What they hell did you do that for?" Gibbs demanded, his gut telling him the phone call was important.
"I believe we were having a very important conversation, and we agreed no phone calls." Allison challenged.
"That call was important!" He bit back stepping closer. Heart mirrored his actions.
"This conversation is important!" She dared him to challenge it. They glared at each other for no less than five minutes before Gibbs started towards the exit.
"Where the hell are you going Jethro?" Allison asked jogging to catch up to him, effectively stopping him by grabbing his arm and turning him round.
"That women you saw earlier, was my partner and director, she was murdered two years ago, now she's back, Ziva called mentioning her, but you hung up before I could hear what was wrong! Where do you think I'm going?" He said and started to walk away again.
"Partner?" Heart asked crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yes, ex-partner, I was her boss." Gibbs stopped and walked back to her.
"I am your girlfriend Jethro, you are going to put your ex-partner in front of me? Now of all times? When we are having this discussion?" She demanded bewildered and starting to loose her patience.
Gibbs debated for a minute, she did have a few good points there, this conversation was extremely important…
Heart, noticing he was thinking about it continued. "Agent David is probably just over exaggerating…"
"Ziva doesn't over exaggerate…"
"Choose, me or her?" She asked cocking her head slightly and raising her eyebrows waiting for him to answer. Gibbs now sensed just how serious she was and took a second to think about everything.
He and Heart were good together, very good in fact. Did he want to end that to go see what was wrong with Jenny? He squashed the immediate answer that shouted 'Hell yes!' and went with the second one.
"Allison, I'm not going to choose." He said and she just stepped closer.
"It's either you go and see what is wrong, if anything, with that women, or you stay here with me and finish this conversation. What will it be?" She demanded needed to show him, if he chose to go back for her then they were over.
"Allison!"
"Jethro!"
"Fine, we'll finish the discussion, but then I'm going to see what is wrong." He answered and had to stop the slight anger that he felt when she grinned that same bitchy smirk she had earlier.
'Don't risk this for her! She's good for you!' His inner self ordered as they walked back to the shop they were just in.
A/N: So? Keep going? I know, it didn't have any Jibbs in this one, but it was important. Any guesses as to what they are discussing, or what some of the things Jenny went through? The more reviews I get, the faster I want to get the next chapter out^.^ Thanks again.
~Quibilah