Note: In this story's universe, I've bent canon just a little bit in regards to Gibbs and Jenny Shepard's history together in Europe.

As the three ate breakfast inside the sparse wooden cabin, Gibbs began to open up about his past.

He talked more in those two hours than either Kensi or Deeks remembered him talking in the entire time they had known him. Even though Gibbs was talking a lot, he still wasn't one to waste words. He made his points quickly, then moved on to the next subject.

The final subject was the former director of NCIS, Jennifer Shepard, whom Gibbs had worked - and slept - with, while both were undercover in Europe.

"You slept with the director?" Kensi said, her eyes widening in shock, as Deeks chuckled at her response to Gibbs' admission.

"She wasn't the director yet, Blye, but yeah," Gibbs replied as he stepped away from the table to refill his cup with coffee.

"So what happened?" Deeks asked. Gibbs filled the cup, walked back to the table, and sat down. He looked away from them and out the open door, thinking how to tell the rest of his story.

"What Deeks said," Kensi followed. "What happened? You spent all that time together - did you two fall in love and break up?...or did she break up with you? Or you with her?"

"Yup," Gibbs finally said several moments later. Deeks and Kensi glanced at each other, mouthed 'what?', then suddenly understood what the senior agent was getting at.

"'D': All of the above," Deeks said, and Gibbs nodded.

"We had finished a mission with another agent. Jen and I had been told we were going to be taken out of Paris, sent back to Washington. I had kept my emotions close to the vest, but I was head over heels in love," Gibbs said between sips of his coffee.

"And she knew that," Kensi said.

"She knew it," Gibbs continued. "I made reservations at a restaurant, nothin' extravagant, just a quiet place to tell her how I felt about her. Instead, she pulled me aside, and we had the talk in that apartment we were living in.

"I told her I loved her, and wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together. I hadn't had time to buy a ring because of the case, but I knew there was a shop on the way to the restaurant I would stop at. Well, she let me down gently, short and sweet. Told me I didn't fit into her 'plan', and she had decided to stay in that part of the world."

Gibbs looked away from Kensi and Deeks, again out the window; memories of reuniting with Jenny after she became director, and the three years leading to her death, flew through his mind.

"She dumped you," Deeks said. "It's harsh, no matter how it's put."

"Yup," Gibbs said.

"So what does all that have to do with us? Deeks and I?" Kensi said, matter of factly. "How does that tie into 'he doesn't trust Blye and Deeks because they have a thing' that breaks one of his rules?"

Gibbs paused, then looked her in the eyes.

"Twice, in the field, there were times when we were in danger - once working with that other agent, the second with civilians," Gibbs said. "Let my emotions get the better of me. Fortunately, the agent didn't get hurt in the first case, and she shot the terrorist in the second before anyone could get hurt or killed.

"I dropped my guard. I put her above the mission, put someone else in the crosshairs, and that's unacceptable. So I decided to retire, ask her to marry me, change our lives so I wouldn't be in that position ever again...never expected her to say I didn't fit into her plans. She's not where Rule 12 came from, but she hammered it home for me."

"So," Deeks said a few moments later, "you thought I might put my partner ahead of the mission in any case we worked together."

"With you and your team," Kensi followed. "You didn't trust us because looking back, you didn't trust your younger self in that situation."

"I didn't know, plus Washington and Los Angeles aren't close enough to where our cases would usually overlap. Never had to think about it - until Leon told me we were working with OSP, like it or not," Gibbs said. "After the matter was settled, I did my homework on you two, spoke with Callen and Hetty, told Leon I wanted to see you two in action for myself."

"That's why we got reassigned to D.C.," Deeks said. "You put us to the test from the first day."

"And you passed," Gibbs said. "You're pros, both of you. You'll do your jobs. You'll look out for each other, and your teammates, in the right way. Now...finish your breakfast. After you two finish chopping that wood outside, we'll head back to D.C."

Gibbs looked at his plate, putting the last piece of scrambled egg in his fork, then looked up and saw Deeks and Kensi staring at him in shock.

"That's it?" Kensi finally said. "That's what all this was about?"

"Yeah," Gibbs replied. "And I wanted to get out here for a day or two. Spent too much time in the basement this year. Wanted to get some fresh air...and to give ya this, Deeks."

He reached over for a manila folder hidden within a small stack of folders and envelopes next to the dinner table. He handed it to Deeks, told him to open it, and watched as the LAPD detective found an NCIS agent's application and a pen inside.

"Waitin' for your signature," Gibbs said, as Deeks and Kensi noted Hetty and Gibbs' signatures at the bottom of the sheet. "You're more than ready for this job...and somethin' tells me you'll move on soon from the LAPD anyway."

"What...excuse me?" Deeks said, thinking of the Internal Affairs detective he ran into twice at the coffee shop the week before.

"Investigation's a sham," Gibbs continued.

"What investigation? Deeks? Gibbs?" Kensi said.

"The one Leon will fill you in on when we get back to the Navy Yard tonight," Gibbs said. "He'd like that signed when you get back...easier to sign on a sheet of paper on a sturdy table than in a pickup."

Deeks and Kensi had all kinds of questions, but only one was asked before Gibbs sent them out to finish chopping the wood for the cabin. "What about Rule 12?"

"What about it?" Gibbs said.

"Don't date coworkers," Kensi said.

"That's my rule, not yours," Gibbs replied. "And you work for Hetty, not me...if she's alright with it, that's not my place to decide. If I were you, I'd sign that paper and ask Vance how to get back to L.A. ASAP...he tells me Hetty's getting 'crotchety' without two of her best agents there."

Deeks and Kensi sat speechless, turned to one another, then laughed.

-poof-