Three weeks later ..
0330
The cries intensified as he ran down the corridor, but room after room was a sea of cribs filled with faceless infants. The panic surge intensified as he realised he wasn't sure he remembered what she looked like, and he picked up the pace slightly; battering the last door down when it wouldn't open. There was something familiar about the crib in the middle of the room, and he approached with trepidation.
Kelly looked up at him and gurgled softly, but as he reached out to touch her she morphed slowly but surely into another child. A child whose features were less defined, but who he knew to be Imogen. For a moment she lay there placidly – and then suddenly she stopped breathing and turned back into Kelly. Lying there motionless. And completely still.
Gibbs woke with a start; perspiration beading every part of his body as he gasped for breath. He scrubbed a hand across his face as he looked at the time – trying to figure out how often he'd had this dream over the past few nights. Struggling against what it might mean. Sleep, elusive at best, was gone, so he got out of bed and trudged slowly to the kitchen. Busying himself with making coffee while his brain fixated on whether Imogen's car seat had been installed properly.
He'd fully intended to track Jenny down to whichever hospital she'd been taken to, at first. To make sure that she was fine; that the baby was fine. But work had kept him busy, and as the day had come to an end he'd been assailed by doubts about whether she'd want to see him – especially after finding out what decisions he'd made on her behalf. The days had stretched into weeks but he hadn't realised until a few days ago that he was paralysed by his fear.
And that's when the nightmare had become a permanent fixture.
He looked at the clock in the kitchen as he poured his coffee – wondering whether Jenny and the baby were asleep or whether it was feeding time. Wishing he could see them. Part of him argued that if Jenny had wanted to see him she'd have found a way to track him down by now. The other part reminded him mercilessly that Jenny was a single mother with a newborn to look after.
He was hardly going to be on her list of priorities.
Shepard Residence, Georgetown
0840
"How's my girl?"
"You know, dad, I'm your girl too," Jenny said with a smile as her father walked into the kitchen and took the baby from her.
"But this one doesn't talk back," Jasper said as he held his grand daughter in the crook of his arm and admired her.
"Yet."
Jasper chuckled and pressed a kiss to Jenny's temple before asking, "get any sleep?"
"A little." She looked at the clock. "I wasn't expecting you this early."
"She was restless when I left last night. Thought you might have had a rough one." He looked closely at her. "You didn't get any sleep at all, did you?"
"Not really," she admitted. "I keep waking up to check if she's breathing. She makes all these … noises."
Jasper chuckled again.
"Your mother and I did that for the first few weeks of your life, too. Till the doctor told us it was the surest way to go stir crazy. Go get some rest. I'll be here."
"You'll be okay?"
Jasper laughed heartily.
"Get some sleep, Jenny."
"Dad …." She turned back as she reached the doorway. "Did you manage to find out anything about Jethro?"
"Yes."
Jenny felt a small bubble of excitement well up inside her – but it only lasted until she realised that her father's expression had turned sombre.
"What is it?"
She retraced her steps slowly until she was standing in front of him. Taking Imogen back as he pulled a piece of paper from his wallet and placed it on the counter.
Jasper placed his hand over the slip just as she reached for it.
"He's had a lot of loss, Jenny. Lost his first wife and his daughter while he was on active duty."
"Accident?" Somewhere deep inside she knew it was a lot more complicated than that, and although she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, she couldn't stop herself from asking.
"Murder," he said gently. "He was serving in the Gulf when it happened. His wife, Shannon, was set to testify against a drug dealer accused of murder. An agent was assigned to protect her, but he was ... shot. Mother and daughter were in the car with him." He trailed off as he saw emotion rise in his daughter's eyes.
"You said first wife."
"He's had three more since."
"Did he have any other children after her?"
"No."
Jenny swallowed around a lump in her throat. Images of Jethro in the elevator, in the labour and delivery ward, and then with Imogen, flashing through her mind. Just the thought of what she must have put him through, of what it must have cost him to be thrust into role of father and husband with no warning, made her feel sick to her stomach even as it made tears spring to her eyes. Looking down at her daughter she couldn't fathom what it must feel like to lose a child. Or your entire family in one fell swoop.
"What was his daughter's name?"
"Kelly," Jasper said softly. Watching as she held the baby a little tighter. "I just though you should know before calling."
"I won't be calling him." Her voice sounded small and on the verge of breaking as she walked from the room holding the baby tightly to her - but she knew she was making the right decision.
The only decision she could make.
Jasper watched her walk away and nodded grimly to himself as he crumpled the piece of paper and dropped it into the trash can. Although he'd pretty much known Jenny would react like this he couldn't help but feel sorry. For his daughter, because she'd clearly connected with the man in question, but more so for Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Five days later
Autopsy suite
"Observe, Mr. Palmer, that in the first wound the killer's knife penetrated the clavicle just above the second rib and went on to pierce the upper lobe of the left lung. In the second wound the knife slipped into the left pectoral muscle between the third and fourth – ah Jethro." The medical examiner looked up at the tell tale swish of the doors.
"Whatcha got, Duck?"
"As I was telling Mr. Palmer, the knife slid into the left pectoral muscle between the third and fourth ribs. From here it cut through the left ventricle of the heart and out again, eventually piercing the tenth thoracic-"
"Bottom line?"
Ducky's head snapped up.
"At the moment all I can tell you is that while the knife did little external damage to the chest surface, the organ damage was catastroph-"
"Cause of death?"
"Haemorrhaging. Although if you want me to be more techni-"
"I got it, Duck. Exsanguination."
"Jethro ..."
The man turned from the doorway, and Ducky took a moment to study his body language carefully. Jethro shifted from one foot to the other imperceptibly; almost as though there was somewhere else he needed to be. Even though Ducky knew that to be untrue.
"Would you excuse us for a moment, Mr. Palmer," he said slowly. "What's the matter, Jethro?" he asked when Jimmy had disappeared into the back room.
"Want answers, Duck."
"It's too early for answers."
"Then call me when you have some."
Ducky shook his head as Gibbs turned on his heel and left the room. He couldn't quite place a finger on what was bothering the younger man – but he was quite sure something was. He always bristled when a case needed solving; was always impatient. But there was an additional element to him recently.
Something was on his mind.
"Whatcha got, Abs?"
"I don't have anything for you yet, Gibbs," she said cheerfully. "You usually only show up when I actually have something."
"Guess you won't be needing this then."
"Gibbs ..." Her eyes almost popped out of her head when he dropped a caf-pow into the trash and turned to go. She stared between the spilled drink and his retreating back. Knowing she had to make a decision quickly.
"I can find her, Gibbs."
He stopped in his tracks and turned round slowly; the fact that he didn't query who she meant by her telling Abby she was dead on.
Her smile faded the moment she saw the stony look on his face and saw the word "no" form on his lips.
"But Gibbs ..."
"I said no, Abs."
She was still mulling over how short a fuse Gibbs was operating on when Ducky walked into the lab a short while later.
"I've preserved some of the maggots from the slit wounds on Petty Officer Jameson's face in an alcohol solution, but I've brought you some live ones for – are you burning sage?" He sniffed the air.
Abby was standing in the middle of her lab, clearing pondering something important.
"Gibbs brought bad mojo into the lab," she said slowly. "I'm worried about him, Ducky. He isn't himself. He trashed my caf-pow because I didn't have answers. He never does things like that."
"To you, perhaps," the medical examiner said with a gentle smile.
"I offered to help and he shot me down."
"Offered to help?"
"Find Jenny and the baby."
"Of course." It all made perfect sense all of a sudden, and Ducky silently reprimanded himself for not having made the connection sooner.
"There's lots of places I can hack into and find her, but he said no."
"Perhaps he thinks it would be an invasion of her privacy."
Abby's shoulders drooped.
"I wish we could find out how she was doing. Then at least we could let him know she was okay."
The light bulb went off in Ducky's head even before she'd finished her sentence.
"Ducky ..." Abby whined as he turned to leave. "What are we going to do about Gibbs?"
The medical exmainer smiled broadly.
"Just as you suggest .. we're going to find out if Jenny and the baby are doing well."
"How are we going to do that without a conta – you have a contact number ..." she breathed in amazement as she watched his eyes twinkle.
"Trouble?"
"Work, I'm afraid."
"It was good to meet you, Ducky." Jasper held out his hand.
"Likewise."
Jasper stared at him for a while – and then pulled a card from his wallet and handed it over.
Ducky nodded his thanks and pocketed the card without a word.
"I'd forgotten all about it until now. I'll be back later my dear."
Abby's smile lit up the room.