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"It was revealed today that the Director of NCIS, Jennifer Shepard, was hospitalised after attending the funeral of one of her Agents over in LA. The agent that had died, a William Decker, had been presumed to have died of a heart attack, however after an almost successful attempt was made on the life of Director Shepard and a retired NCIS agent, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, his cause of death was investigated more thoroughly and turned out to be poison, which had caused cardiac arrest. The murderer, Svetlana Chernitskaya, a Russian national who was targeting NCIS Agents, was chased through the streets of Georgetown to Bethesda hospital, after she tried and failed to take out another agent who was looking after the Director's house. She was finally neutralised last night when she made another attempt on the Director of NCIS as she lay in her hospital bed, recovering from the first failed attempt.

The Agent who made the killing blow to the woman, saving the life of his Director, was the Assistant Director, Leon Vance, who unfortunately died from his grievous injuries early this morning. An Agent that knew him well said 'Leon always gave his all to his colleagues and his job. His death is a terrible blow to all of NCIS. He will be deeply missed and our thoughts are with his family at this time.' He will be laid to rest at Arlington cemetery next week and he will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his 'especially meritorious contribution to the security of the United States'."

Gibbs switched off the hospital TV and put the remote down next to Jenny on the side table. The press was desperate to get in to Jenny's room and get exclusive pictures of her injuries so Gibbs had told Tony and Ziva to stand guard at the door. He had called Leon's wife to tell her the bad news just after giving the cover story to the press. It had been one of the most difficult calls of his life. She had cried over the phone and begged him not to say what she knew he must be calling for but he'd had to. She had thanked him for telling her in the end but he could hear the silent accusation in her voice of 'Why didn't you save him?'

Jenny caught his eye, shooting him a watery smile and then wiping away a tear using her good arm. She had been told about Leon's death a few moments before he had shown her the news report and while she hadn't known Vance that well, she had supported Jethro's recommendation of the Medal that had been awarded to Kate. This was only the second time that she had awoken after being re-stitched and she was still on the strong pain medication and would be for at least two weeks, until her wounds had healed over enough to not be in danger of tearing open again at the least movement. He had been deferring the duty of cleaning and redressing her wounds to the nurse as he didn't know where he stood with her or how welcome his help would be and he didn't want to make her angry, worried about the damage she could do to herself if she tried to throw something heavy at him.

They needed to have a long talk though, and he tried not to bring it up while she couldn't argue back but it was difficult. He wanted to rant and rave at her for what she had done, but he wanted to hold her and not let go too. She was taking Leon's death hard, not because she had liked him, she hadn't, but because he had died finishing something she couldn't. She blamed herself for what had happened and Jethro loathed himself, because he still couldn't find it in him to tell her it wasn't her fault. Every tear she cried was like a knife to his conscience and sooner or later he would snap. He watched her now, as she regained control of her emotions so she could stop the tears and give him a moment's reprieve to latch on to something else. She unknowingly gave him an opening too good to refuse when she decided to talk to him.

"I have to attend his funeral." Gibbs gave her a disapproving glare.

"Well you can't." she bristled at his tone.

"Why not? I'm the Director; I have to go to all of the funerals of my Agents. It'll be expected in this case because he died saving me!" He rolled his eyes; the 'I'm the Director' speech wasn't going to help her this time.

"You can't even bend because of the strain it'll put on the stitches, how do you think you'll get there? Do you want your bed wheeled down?" she gave him a dirty look and shook her head.

"Don't be ridiculous Jethro; I'm sure I'll survive a few hours in a chair."

"Your doctor says you won't," He wasn't about to back down on this one, she was being unreasonable and he would make her see it. "And I think that since he is the expert on this, I'm going to back his opinion."

Jenny huffed angrily and turned her head away from him, since she couldn't cross her arms petulantly, and they fell into a charged silence, the energy from their argument circling, waiting for another round. Eventually it became too much and one of them had to talk, Jenny breaking first.

"So, what have you been doing?"

"Before or after Svetlana?" Hurt flashed across her features at his dig, and he felt his conscience give him what-for, the twinges of self hate coming back to see him.

"Before." He squashed the twinges into a dark corner of his mind. She was asking, so he was going to tell her, and get to the bottom of it once and for all.

"Reading a very interesting case file actually." He looked hard at her, "About a frog." She stiffened a little and her eyes narrowed.

"Really? Did it say anything interesting?"

"Actually, yes it did." He smiled, it was working, he didn't feel sorry for himself anymore and his conscience was breathing a sigh of relief, causing him to push forwards with his questions and accusations. "Did you ever find your gun, Jen?"

"No, I'm afraid I didn't."

"Strange, considering there were flaws on the bullet found at the scene of Benoit's murder that match those from a bullet from the gun clip you handed me." She pretended to mull it over.

"Strange coincidence." Gibbs' eyes darkened dangerously.

"Coincidence? What did you do with it, Jen?"

"What does it matter, Jethro?"

"You killed an unarmed man, that's murder!"

"You mean my missing gun killed an unarmed man." She smiled sweetly at him. "That is all you can prove. How do you know he wasn't armed? He may just have never had the chance to use it."

"Damn it Jenny!" He jumped up from his chair and paced the floor at the foot of her bed angrily. He fumed silently. Why couldn't she just tell him the truth? He strode back to her bedside and leaned down over her. "Did you kill La Grenouille?" She said nothing and just stared into his eyes until the scrutiny became too much and she looked away guiltily. "Why don't you trust me Jen?"

"What?" she looked confused at his question.

"First Svetlana, then your father, then Benoit. You've kept some pretty big secrets from me-"

"Oh you can talk! What about your first wife? Your daughter? Your revenge against the drug lord that killed them? Did you think I didn't know about that one? What's the matter Jethro, are you the only one who's allowed to have or condone retribution?"

"None of my secrets have cost any innocent people their lives!"

"Svetlana was a mistake! I tried to take her out myself so no one would get hurt."

"So it's ok to not tell me if you kill them first?"

"That's not what I'm saying-"

"If you had killed Svetlana in the diner without getting hurt, would you have told me?"

"I guess we'll never know."

"I am sick of hearing that line from you!"

"Well that's a shame because that is all I'm saying about it!"

"Why didn't you trust me enough to tell me?" he asked viciously.

"It wasn't about trust; it was about need to know."

"Oh, so I don't need to know you've become a cold blooded killer?" he watched her eyes reflect the hurt and he played his ace. "Nine years too late." He added spitefully.

"Get out." Jenny avoided his gaze completely, and the hollow look in her eyes told him he had gone too far.

"HEY!! People are trying to get some shut-eye around here, for crying out loud! Now keep it down or I'll throw you both out!" Mike spoke up from the other side of the hospital room and both Jenny and Gibbs jumped slightly, having forgotten he was present. "Now I've heard everything you two have said, Probie, so you tell me how is her killing this frog any different to me killing Arkady Kobach? While you watched. He'd dropped his gun, he was unarmed yet you didn't care. Just told me someone else would take his place."

"That's different, he had avoided justice for far too long and he killed people-"

"No, he carried a gun, but his henchmen killed people. Probably so he didn't have to."

"You said that guy plagued your dreams-"

"La Grenouille plagued mine!" Jenny spoke up, thinking about all the nightmares she had had over the years, of Benoit murdering her father and her being too late to save him, no matter how fast she ran.

"It's not the same!" Gibbs shouted angrily.

"Why? Is it because she's a woman?" Gibbs glared at Mike, knowing that he was a bigger chauvinist then he ever would be and realised that he was being goaded. He kept quiet and Mike smiled in victory. "Is it because she's your woman?"

Nobody spoke, both Gibbs and Jenny to afraid to hear the answer that the other might give and studiously avoiding being the first to lay their heart on the line. Mike looked back and forth between their faces and was highly amused to see almost the same expression on both of them. After a few moments of silence Mike decided to take matters in to his own hands. He had done all the gentle nudging he was going to do. Now was the time to get tough.

"What's the matter with you two? You've both told me how much you care about each other, but you won't say anything when you're both in the same room?" He turned to Jenny. "You told me that you regret leaving him; that you were going to tell him how you feel, how much you love him." She looked at Gibbs briefly but the hurtful words he had just said to her were too fresh in her mind, so she looked away. He decided to try Jethro. "You told me how much you missed her while you were in Mexico with me. You told me how much you love her. You've been by her bedside since she was brought to hospital after the shooting and even volunteered to look after her when she goes home." Gibbs looked at Jenny, remembering every moment he spent hoping she would wake up, the moment he had seen the gun Svetlana had put to her head. Maybe he was being a bastard now, but he just wanted her to tell him the truth! "Tell him, girl."

"Yes, I killed La Grenouille, and I'm not sorry I did." She looked Gibbs in the eye. "I wiped down every inch of the gun and then tossed it after him, over the side of his boat."

"Thank you, for being honest with me." Jethro returned the show of faith. Mike was less than impressed though, after everything he just said, that was all they were going to say?!

"Right. Well, now that's sorted can you just kiss and make up?" The twin glares that Mike received made him glad that his legs worked fine.