Chapter 6

His famous gut was on overload, a horrible sinking feeling about Jenny. The recent events had been bad enough, but this was more. He snuck away from work early, going home, the feeling getting worse and worse every moment, almost like the night Jenny had been raped or when Shannon and Kelly had been killed. With that realization in his mind, he drove even faster, hoping, no, praying that he was overreacting, that his senses were on overdrive because of everything that had been going wrong. He left the door to the car open, as well as the door to the house, running inside, calling, almost screaming, her name, still desperate to believe it was all his imagination, but with every second turning into minutes and still no answer, he became frightened. When he reached the bedroom, saw the bottle of pills and alcohol, Jenny passed out on the bed, that fear turned into full-blown panic.

Gibbs shivered at the secret memory that, all these years later, only four people knew. He didn't know how they'd kept it low-key, other than Ducky calling in favors, but he was glad they had. That one night had changed everything as far as he was concerned. After Shannon died, he'd built up walls, convinced himself not to fall that in love with anyone, which, in hindsight, might have been more than a small factor in his divorces. With Jenny, after that night, there was no denying what she was to him, what she meant to him, and he'd done everything in his power to protect her, even keeping her secret, even after she left him, even during the Frog mission. He didn't realize until it was almost too late how eerily similar her behavior over Davidson and Le Grenuoille had been. She'd always drank, usually no more than he did, but she'd started heavily drinking again, as well as not sleeping, mood changes, crying…When he'd seen the bottle of sleeping pills that night in her house, he wasn't taking chances. He didn't know if she intended on a repeat performance, but he sure didn't. He began to do everything in his power to spend time with her and, if he absolutely couldn't be there, he had Matt, Cynthia, or Shelby report back to him. They'd finally gotten over Le Grenuoille, gotten to a spot where he felt more secure, sure that she would be all right, and then Davidson had gotten paroled. The facts that Jenny had known for a week and hadn't told him or that he hadn't gotten informed in the first place didn't matter at the moment. What did was that she was in trouble yet again and, whether she liked it or not, when she was in trouble, he was always going to try his hardest to protect her, because, whether he liked it or not, he still loved her.

"Grilled cheese, coffee, and…" Tony took a whiff of the air as he walked into the kitchen. "Cookies…Peanut butter?"

Shelby half-smiled at him, letting herself relax slightly. "Yeah." She noticed how tired he appeared, almost as tired as she felt. "Coffee?"

"God, yes. Thank you." She poured him a mug, fixing it the way he liked, and handed it to him, noticing the pictures. "Are those…"

He nodded, keeping them turned where she couldn't see them. He, of course, knew that she'd seen the bedroom already, but it was his subtle way of trying to protect her. "Did he get home?"

"Yeah, a few hours ago. Broke up with the bitch, we talked for a few minutes, and he's been with Jenny ever since. I thought about going home or seeing if you guys needed anything, but I think I'm going to stay here in case they need anything." He studied her as she took the cookies out of the oven, reaching for one, getting swatted for his trouble. "Let them cool."

He let the cookies cool and smiled as she gave him two. "Actually, you know…this is probably the best place you can be right now. Cynthia wants to help, so she can probably go run wherever for us. Your brother needs backup." He finally asked. "How's Jenny?"

"Well, when we got here, she went to lie down, but she wasn't sleeping. I don't know. I didn't go check on her after Jethro got here. I didn't…" She hadn't wanted to intrude.

He nodded, seeing the bruising on her arm, knowing it hadn't been there before. "Are you okay?"

She followed his gaze. "Yeah. Let's just say Hollis and I had a difference of opinion." He got up and got a cool wet washcloth, wrapping it around her arm, making her sit, taking care of the sandwiches himself.

"That woman made some of my dates look normal." Tony shook his head. "Gibbs should have broken up with her long ago."

"Is that right, DiNozzo?"

Tony involuntarily braced himself for the slap to the head he was sure was coming. "Didn't know you were standing right there, boss." He shot Shelby a look like 'why didn't you tell me'.

"Obviously not." Shelby took the mug out of his hand, refilling it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I made sandwiches and cookies." She noticed something on her brother's face. "You care if I go work on the boat?"

"You know I don't." Shelby started to walk out. " Shelby?" She turned back around. "Thank you." She nodded, leaving the room.

"Uh, boss…" Tony began.

"Forget it, DiNozzo. You're right. I should have." He paused, taking a sip of the coffee. "How's Shelby holding up?"

Tony felt privileged, knowing Gibbs trusted him with his baby sister. "Hasn't said much, but that's nothing new." Like Jethro, the quieter Shelby became, the more an observer knew something was wrong. "She's going to stay here, in case you guys need anything."

Gibbs nodded. "How much did she tell you? About what's happening?"

Tony hesitated and then simply answered. "Enough." He paused. "I brought the pictures of her house."

Gibbs outstretched his hand, looking over the pictures, his jaw tightening. The scene was simple enough, no cause for alarm, a scene a boyfriend might lay out for a special night with his girlfriend. Taken in context though, it was enough to make Gibbs' blood boil. "I'm going to kill him."

"Boss…" Tony could understand the desire his friend had to protect Jenny, or at least he tried to, but he also realized no good could come of it. "She needs you here." His boss didn't comment and Tony was more than a little afraid that the words were not sinking in. "How is she?"

"Sleeping." He'd held her in his arms until she'd finally fallen asleep, without pills, without alcohol, and he was a little more than relieved. "She's holding in there, but…" He didn't know how much more she could take.

"He's still calling the house." He remembered Ziva answering one of the calls and shouting what he could only assume were obscenities in her native tongue. Needless to say, he hadn't called back. "Is there anything I need to bring her?"

"Depends on how long it lasts." He didn't want her going back home until she was safe. "Who's with Bella?" His voice softened at the mention of his goddaughter.

"The sitter." He always felt sorry for his daughter, being shuffled between his apartment, Shelby's house, daycare, and the sitter almost every day, her maternal grandparents and Jenny's at least one weekend a month.

"Bring her here. It'll do Jen some good. Shelby too." It had taken him awhile to accept the fact that Shelby was so crazy about Bella, to the point that she was the only mother the girl ever knew.

Tony hesitated and then nodded, knowing it would give Jenny something else to focus on and both women loved his little girl. "Okay, boss. I'll go get her." He walked down to the basement, telling Shelby what was going on before leaving. Gibbs watched him go before returning to Jenny's room, watching her sleep, his hand moving some of the red hair out of her face.