From Paris, With Love by DD Agent

I do not own NCIS or any of its characters, or its settings - all belongs to the lovely folks at CBS.

Thank you to everyone who put this story on alert or has favourited it, makes me so happy to see that people are enjoying what I write! Thank you so much left my heart in Paris and Paris-eternellement for leaving such great reviews! :D

The concluding part will be online tomorrow. Hope you've all enjoyed it!

Act Three

"Do you ever wonder?"

"What?"

"What would have happened if you hadn't have left Gibbs?"

Jenny followed Ziva's gaze, her body collapsing in on itself. They were in a park just around the corner from the hotel, and they were both sitting on the swings watching a small redheaded girl play in the sandpit. Jenny wrung her hands, thinking over the torture that had been the last couple of days. Working beside Jethro again had been hard; she had known it would be. But the revelation that she had deliberately put Tony in that position to stop a repeat of their own failures had made things almost unbearable between them. She was so glad the operation was over tonight.

"It wouldn't have worked. I would have still wanted to avenge my father, and he…honestly? I think Jethro would have tried to do anything to make us work. He would never be the problem."

Ziva looked down to the floor, and then at her friend. It was like old times, meeting in between operations in random places. Only this time they knew too much about each other.

"Tony is…he's confused."

"He's not the only one. I keep trying to do what's best - what was best for me, the Agency, you both…Jethro. But I can never seem to get it right."

Ziva ran her hands down the links of the swings. "When you first met Jethro, when you were a probie - what would she have done?"

"I'd have made you take the shot at the Frog, no matter who yelled at me. Me and Jethro would certainly be sleeping together; I could never get enough of him. Fell hook, line and sinker the first time I met him. He was the one who made me feel like I had a family."

Ziva rested her hand over hers, their friendship starting to return. "Something I have learnt working here is when in doubt, go back to the beginning."

Jenny smiled.

X

He was standing in front of the dresser, fiddling with his bowtie. It just wouldn't sit right on him; he hated the damn thing in the first place. He always preferred to wear ties when he could, but that wouldn't look right tonight. So Jethro stood in front of the mirror, with the two ends of fabric, staring at the glass he had smashed. His brain tried to register the different shards of his features but all he was left with was a cold feeling in his chest.

"Do you need help with that?"

Jethro looked up and felt his heart stop, just for that moment. He'd been looking at her dress for tonight for the last couple of days, a dazzling black affair that would make Jenny stand out and blend in all at the same time. But what his former partner wore wasn't that dress. It was a lilac silk one that cut across her knees. The pale wrap around her shoulders would barely keep her warm.

"I know that dress."

Jenny smiled. "The first time we danced together, I wore this. You wore a tie; I'm greatly impressed you're branching out into bowties for tonight."

"That's a Jenny dress. Not a Jemma dress."

Jenny moved over to him. She was bare foot, hadn't slipped into the elegant shoes he knew were somewhere. She straightened his back in the mirror and moved her arms around his neck to tie the bowtie. Her hair was down rather than the up style she had decided upon previously. She was playing a very dangerous game, as she was definitely dressed like Jenny tonight. As she fixed his bowtie, Jethro turned to the mirror. She looked whole.

"You're going to be cold out there," Jethro ran his arms down her shoulders. "We should get going if we're to investigate this Cyrano guy during intermission. Thank god we've already seen the play."

She laughed before going to find her shoes. Once she was ready, Jethro opened the door to their hotel room for her. His glasses felt heavy on his nose, as did the wedding ring on his finger. Jenny kept fiddling with hers, but then she had always done that.

Outside the hotel was a town car and Tony dressed like a chauffeur. He looked quite dashing, and Jenny gave him a pale smile as he helped her inside the car. Jethro sat on the other side of her, taking her hand gently within his. He wasn't worried about the operation, he was sure it would go down fine. It was more what happened after the curtain had fallen for the last time, the bad guys had been arrested and they were left with this. He wasn't sure where they could go after this.

"Everything's set boss. During intermission, McGee will cause a distraction and you two will be free to go back stage, find evidence about Cyrano and arrest him. Good luck."

Jenny smiled. "Aren't you supposed to say 'break a leg'?"

"You will in those heels," Jethro hissed as he sat in the back seat, frowning at her shoes. She gave him an eye roll before burying herself against his side and closing her eyes. They were still supposed to be playing the role of husband and wife, and Jethro watched as she rested against him. How many times had they sat like this in the back of taxis, in the luggage holds of boats?

Ten minutes into their journey, Tony shifted in his seat as they got to a red light. Something was on his mind and he was ready to spill. That hadn't gone well the last time someone had felt like that. "Boss, McGee installed a microphone in your hotel room on my orders." Jethro held his breath. "If she wasn't my boss, I'd kill her."

Jethro watched as Jenny's chest moved up and down. She had given the bed to him; she hadn't slept since their argument. Just stood on the balcony and looked towards the stars. He hoped this would work; they hadn't played these roles in quite some time. In a perfect world they would have had a couple of weeks to put this plan into action, to get used to working together again. But it wasn't a perfect world, not even close.

"You love her, Tony?"

"Of course I love her, boss," Tony gritted his teeth as the light changed from red to green. They drove forward. "That's what this whole thing has been about. Me and Jeanne."

"Wasn't talking about Jeanne." Jethro brushed some hair off of Jenny's face. He had always liked watching her sleep, seeing his little storm at peace. He supposed Jenny sleeping was like being in the eye of the storm. "Moment I met Jenny, I was attracted to her. Tried hard not to fall in love with her, would have ruined everything. And it did, I guess. You should have seen us, Tony. Back in the day. We were incredible."

A few more streets and they were at the theatre. Tony cruised the car to a stop, before looking at all the glamorous sophisticates of Washington DC attending the opening night of the play. Tony turned back to look at his bosses, and was once more bowled over by the intimate moment of them playing their aliases. He almost wished he could go back and watch them run together all over Europe.

"What should I do, Boss? About me and Jenny?"

"We're all fools, DiNozzo. We all want a perfect life, a perfect world. We all want something we can't have. Forgiveness is a hard thing, and respect is an even harder concept." Jethro pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You have no respect for her as a Director, and that's okay. I have none either, hadn't had for a long time. But you watch her tonight, you watch her as an agent. And you have respect for her as that."

Tony watched in the rear-view mirror as his boss pressed his mouth lightly to Jenny's. She stirred in his embrace and her eyelids fluttered open to see him gazing down at her.

"Come on; let's go catch the bad guys."

DiNozzo watched as Jenny and Gibbs stepped out of the car. They turned to look towards the Play House, magically transformed from the dingy village hall appearance to something resembling the Paris streets. She gripped his hand, and Tony watched over them as they walked inside, handing over their tickets. He could hear them in his earpiece. There was no reinforcement of their cover story, no long rambles about how they had seen this in '99. Just a smile, a tip and a kiss on the lips.

They were ghosts. But they were ghosts together.

X

Ducky had got them a private box. It meant they could observe the goings on in the theatre and look down on the stage. Jethro was using Ducky's borrowed opera glasses to stare at the lead actors bald spot, while Jenny was looking down at the seats of those who had come to the performance. She recognised a few eager faces from her days in Paris, but it was the man sitting centre in the front row that caught her gaze.

"Cyrano's here."

Jethro took the opera glasses to where Jenny whispered, but just smiled. "He's got a friend. Very dangerous guy sitting next to him. Could be trouble."

He said the words with a grin, and it wasn't until Jenny looked down and saw that it was McGee sitting next to Cyrano that she joined in. She rested her head on Jethro's shoulder and moved her hand over his thigh.

"I hate feeling on show like this," Jenny whispered in his ear, and Jethro nodded. "I know you had thoughts about what tonight could do for…relationships," she said, referring to his and Tony's conversation earlier that she had obviously been awake for. "But we've never been good with an audience."

"This is true."

Jenny slipped two envelopes into his lap and sat backwards in her seat, staring at the ceiling. "Long dresses aren't good for state executions."

Jethro opened the first envelope and found burn orders that said they could execute Jacques Morrell. He knew it would come down to this, that his government would want to kill the single man than lose the entire chain. It was likely that the Pierre guy could or had been swayed by the CIA, an easy replacement for what the Frog had done for them. Cyrano was too dangerous to be left alive. And that was where they came in.

"What's in the second envelope?"

"Open it and see."

He did just that and tipped it out to find two tickets for another play. It was a Russian performance, one that he had actually read and enjoyed. In fact, Jenny had bought him the script for his birthday.

"I do believe you're owed." She kissed him on the throat, before gathering her belongings. "Whatever happens tonight, John, I want you to know something."

"Don't apologise, Jem, it won't mean anything."

She smiled. "I would never dare apologise, John. I was just going to say that…" She kissed him again. "I wanted to say that I'm still a fool, because it's only just registered that you are all I have. Jethro, you're all I want."

Her earpiece was dropped to the floor as she went to the bathroom, and Jethro adjusted his bowtie before dropping his and following her. State executions didn't require taped evidence, or junior agents getting involved. It was better for everyone if they did what they did best: become ghosts.

In the corridor he caught up with her easily enough, forced his mouth along hers. Such an easy ploy, but then no one suspected a couple going off to have sex. They both knew that McGee would be aware something was wrong soon, but they hoped he would have the sense to stay put. They didn't want to put his life at risk.

The game had changed, like they both had thought it would. Jethro could almost hear the ringing of his cell phone as Tony tried to call him. But all they had was a pair of burn phones, their real phones back in Jenny's office. The burn phones themselves were back at their hotel room. Out of contact, just the way they liked it. In the women's toilet stall, Jethro managed to find the bag that had been dropped there.

"It was always going to come to this."

"God bless Decker."

The brown package hidden behind the ladies toilet held two guns, and two silencers. They screwed them on like professionals, as they had done many times before. Jethro watched as Jenny's hands didn't tremble as she built the gun, like they had in Paris.

"Little Probie's all grown up."

Jenny slammed the clip into the gun, before bracing her hands on the walls. "Been a busy eight and a half years. Killed a lot of people."

"Aim as good as ever?"

She spun back into his arms, and he pulled her to his waist. The dress she was wearing was better for running, and he knew his partner could run in heels. Jethro gave in for one moment and kissed her. Her hands went to caress his face, her lips moved over his. Guns were forgotten; the arms dealers waiting to be executed outside were forgotten. Just for one moment, they were back in Paris seeing the play one week before she would leave. For one moment all the pain was gone. All the anguish and lies were gone in this one kiss as they were reunited. Partners again.

"I love you," Jethro whispered against her skin as the kiss broke and he watched his lover cry.

"Always, faithfully," she whispered back, pressing her lips to his throat.

X

She was bait.

Little lost American beauty, walking backstage of the theatre. Someone would soon come and escort her, and that was when she'd start making trouble. Jenny stepped over cables and boxes of props, looking for something in the dark of the stage. Her wrap was long gone, left behind in the box. Her earpiece was elsewhere, her lover waiting behind her in the wings. She stepped up to stage right and watched as the main character stared at his lover with his gun resting in his hands, not sure whether to shoot her or to shoot himself.

McGee was still in the front row, and he was looking up instead of down into tissues like everyone on the front row was. He caught Jenny's gaze before she disappeared amongst the curtains. Cyrano was not there. He must be waiting backstage. Jenny chambered a round.

She crept through the back of the theatre, ran her hand down the thick curtains as she forced herself to go further backstage. She heard a noise and raised her gun, keeping her senses awake to hear if anyone advanced on her position or if Jethro was right on her heels.

She went further into the theatre, and walked through the brightly lit corridor of the dressing rooms. After sensing nothing, she dropped her gun down to her side and continued to walk past the doors. Some were open, badly polished mirrors and red stained walls holding all manner of blood stained costumes on show for her.

"Ms Barrett, you're late for this party."

Jenny turned to her left and caught sight of Cyrano and several of his goons. They were in an office leading to the generator room in the basement. She was outnumbered, but then when wasn't she outnumbered? She had a gun; she was quick on her feet. And more importantly she had an answer as to why they had shut down operations in Paris. They had been compromised.

Walking in, she stood in front of Cyrano. He was a tall man, with dirty blonde hair and awkward good looks. He appraised her as he would do an equal, a business partner. Rather than the person who would put a bullet in his head.

"There were stories, urban legends about a couple working with intelligence agencies throughout Europe in the late nineties. After Anatoly was murdered, Svetlana tracked you to your alias. We've all been watching you; waiting for you and your husband to return to this world. Eight years is a long time to be dormant."

Jenny grinned. "Been playing a few other roles, haven't had time to track down all the arms dealers yet. But I'm getting there. It was only a matter of time after I put a bullet in Rene Benoit."

Cyrano and his associates looked at her with new eyes, new fear. Jenny looked steadfast at them, hoping that Jethro wasn't too close. It seemed she had too many secrets. Cyrano stood up, his hand gripping his weapon tight. "We were all under the assumption that Benoit was missing, under CIA protection."

"No. I put a bullet right through his head," Jenny smiled and raised her gun, taking out one of his men behind Cyrano in a simple shot. No one stopped her, Cyrano even looked impressed. "You're running guns, girls? Doesn't really matter to me. I have the paperwork telling me to end you, and that's it. I don't care about anything else."

It was Cyrano's turn to smile, and it unnerved Jenny. Granted she wasn't the most fearsome of creatures, but they had looked impressed before. "Is that so?"

She was still standing as Pierre opened a door into the generator room. She was still holding her gun, trying to figure out why Jethro hadn't come to give her back up, hadn't shot Cyrano and took her back to their box. Then Pierre came back with her beaten lover, his beautiful blue eyes bruised, and she knew. Pierre shoved him in a chair and put tape around his wrists, holding him in place.

They hadn't been ready for this. They hadn't played these roles for so long. And now everything was unravelling. They were betterthan this, or at least they had been.

"I should end him because you killed one of my men, but I won't," Cyrano whispered. "I honestly don't think a cold bitch like you would care."

Jenny's eyes faltered for one moment, looking at Jethro in pain. Cyrano took his chance and smacked his forehead against Jenny's, knocking her to the floor. Jethro kicked in protest, screaming as Cyrano picked her up by her neck and forced his mouth over hers. Her gun was shoved aside in the scuffle and she was soon thrown back to the floor. She moved instantly to Jethro and one hand managed to grip onto his. Cyrano broke every bone in her other as he stamped down upon it.

"I expected better. Obviously that eight year break hasn't done you any good." Cyrano laughed, twisting his foot over Jenny's hand. "You know, everyone always wondered whether you were really married or whether it was all an act."

Jethro coughed blood onto the floor, looking down at his partner with the only apology she would ever receive from him. "It's all one big act. She's just a Probie, trying to be an Agent. Let her go."

Jenny shook her head and gripped onto his hand. "Never was an act. Never was a mistake."

Cyrano rolled his eyes and found Jenny's gun on the floor. "When I saw your names, I got excited at the prospect of tonight. But this is getting boring now, the tragic partner love affair. Time for your curtain call, I think." He pulled the trigger of the gun at Jethro. It wouldn't work. "What the…"

Jenny smacked Pierre in the ankles and dropped him to his feet, right onto the metal table next to them. Jethro's now free hand put the firing pin from Jenny's gun into the last man's neck, blood going everywhere. Behind him, Cyrano smacked Jenny in the face with her gun, dropping her to the floor. Jethro finished off Pierre before rushing over to Jenny's side, cursing Cyrano. He was already gone.

Jethro picked her up, stroking her bloodshot eye, bleeding lip and bulging cheek. "I got distracted by those damn play tickets," he wrapped his arm around her. "You're always so distracting. Gotta solve that."

He set her on her feet. She returned the now bloody firing pin to her gun, her broken hand making her scream in pain. But they would get through it. They had completed ops with a bullet in her, they could do this. "What would you have us do, Jethro?"

"Was thinking dinner. May as well get back together, nothing else has worked," he muttered as he took Pierre's gun and checked the clip.

She gripped his collar and kissed him, needing him like she always had. "After the op."

"Yes ma'am."

They hunted Cyrano like the assassins they were. Both were battered and bruised, but would survive. They stalked through the corridors, guns in hand just as the fire alarm went. Swearing aloud, they ran towards the stage. Cyrano was waiting there, gun loose in his hand and staring up at the bright theatre lights. The audience were filing out of the doors, most of them screaming. The actors who had been on stage were now dead.

"All the world's a stage. How we appear to others, how we appear to ourselves. The same mindless performance day after day but if you slip one night it will come back to haunt you. You can try and mend it, but everyone will remember that one slip."

Jenny and Jethro walked slowly onto the stage but Cyrano turned to them, and fired his gun. Jenny cried out as she took the round in her shoulder. The world stopped for Jethro as Jenny fell to the stage. He just looked at her, and the blood smearing her skin.

"FEDERAL AGENTS! HANDS UP!"

Jethro turned to see Tony and Ziva standing there, joining McGee in pointing their guns at Cyrano. He turned his own weapon on him, but Cyrano just laughed.

"You're a federal agent? I thought maybe military intelligence, not a federal agent without intelligence. Would explain the gap in between operations of course. And would make me see how your little wifey could go from leaving Svetlana alive to assassinating Rene," Cyrano stood on the stage, grinning. "I'm willing to surrender. You can use me for your own devices, I'll give up my network of contacts, work with your CIA. Just don't put me in prison."

Jethro put his other hand around the gun. This man was no fool. He knew what he was worth to the government, knew that with all his people dead he was worth a lot more. He could get away with murder, and none of the higher ups would give a damn if they could be the boys in charge of the sandpit. "Tell me what happened with Corporal Tracey."

Cyrano smiling. "I knew hiring a marine was dodgy, but we wanted someone who wouldn't ask too many questions. Chose wrong, of course. He asked the wrong questions about what we were moving in and out of here, and got himself killed for his trouble. Pity, I sort of liked him. Is that why you came here? To find his killer?" Cyrano kicked one of the dead men on stage. "If you had never found his body, like you were supposed to, we wouldn't be in this mess. Now don't I feel foolish?"

Jenny groaned from off stage, and Jethro took one look at his bleeding partner before pushing his gun in Cyrano's face.

"Boss, put the gun down," Tony whispered from off stage. "He's already surrendered, we can patch her up. She'll be okay."

The world had gone numb. All Jethro could focus on was Jenny and Cyrano, nothing else.

"You hurt her," Jethro stated, biting his bottom lip. "You shot her. I killed the last man that hurt her. And the one before that."

Tony DiNozzo watched as his boss' face turned into something darker, his hand almost pulling the trigger. There was fury in that face, love so broken that Tony didn't want to imagine how hard his heart was beating.

"Gibbs, put the gun down."

Jethro held it tight in his hand. "Be grateful, DiNozzo. Be grateful you neverhave to feel like this. Have your partner and your lover so entwined it hurts because every day you worry about them dying. And when it happens, there is no one to pull you back from the edge."

Cyrano just started laughing on stage, chuckling at Jethro's pain and the bleeding woman behind him. That was until a shot was put clean through his skull, and he dropped to the floor. Gibbs looked at the gun in front of him, but it wasn't until a sharply dressed man came on stage and kicked Cyrano to make sure he was dead that he realised who had taken the shot.

"I hate opening nights," he coughed. "So many mistakes on stage, no one knows their lines. For example, Jethro I do believe your line is…" the man looked up from under his hat. "Thank you Deck."

Jethro laughed in relief at the sight of Will Decker and his gun. "Thank you Deck."

Jethro dropped his gun to the floor, and looked over where his three agents stood. He then rushed to Jenny's side, where Will was trying to revive her. The shock of her broken hand and the bullet in her shoulder seemed to take a lot out of her.

"Oh Jenny, what has your heart got you into this time?"

Tony, Ziva and McGee walked over to the scene, not sure what there was left to say. They could get an explanation of who this man was, and why he had taken the shot, but they didn't think they would. It was obvious that this operation had really been well above their clearance.

Tony looked at Jenny stirring in this new man's hands. He turned towards Gibbs, not sure what to make of the man in front of him. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. She's changed," he spat, his emotions all over the place. But really all he felt was relief. That would never be him.

Jenny opened her eyes to look at Decker before closing them again. Decker smiled. "I've known Jenny Shepard for over ten years. She always thinks with her heart, it's why she gets into such a mess. She's only thought with her head once, although that ended up a mess too." He checked her pulse. "Carry her, Jethro; we need to get her to a hospital."

Jethro slipped his arms around Jenny, holding her close to him. She stirred, pulling herself against his chest. They could hear the sirens outside; and he knew that he could leave Tony, Ziva and McGee to clear up the corpses. They would get their answers, but not tonight.

"What was the time she used her head?" he heard Tony ask Decker as they checked pulses.

He was almost at the stage door when Decker replied.

"Leaving him in Paris."