Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Clarisse Hurley.

A.N.: Thanks to MatteaAM for telling me about the letter she left on her desk. I know you told me about it so long ago, but it took this long to get them to the point where they can have a civil conversation, lol. Special thanks to everybody who has reviewed this story and the 54 people who have it on alert! Jibbsy fluff ahead!

Leroy Jethro Gibbs placed his newly acquired hot coffee on the table between Jenny and Abby, and then brushed some stray hair from Jenny's face as she slept, wondering why he became such a coward when it came to talking to her, especially about his feelings. He seemed to need to turn everything into an argument, to feed his frustration at her, preventing his heart from getting to the point of being hurt. It had worked well for so long, at least with his three ex-wives, but Jenny was different. His heart always got hurt in their arguments, no matter how much he tried to shield it, and now he was sure hers did too. The conversation they had had the day before was enlightening in many ways. She had spilled her heart to Mike too, and if what they each hadn't said yesterday was any indication, she was just as unsure about saying something as he was. He smirked to himself as he decided on a plan of action, then the smirk faded as he remembered she still had to find out he had rummaged through her underwear drawers. The paper underwear the hospital staff put on her had to come off for good at some point, which was when she would get mad at him. Maybe they were just destined to dance around each other, never getting closer, to the point of being together.

Mike made a strange noise to attract his attention, so he turned to look at him.

"Time's a wastin', probie. What's it gonna take to get the two of you together?" Jethro heaved a sigh of annoyance.

"If I knew that, don't you think I'd have done it?" Mike raised his eyebrows.

"At the rate you two are going? Not really. What's it been since you told me how you felt? Two years?"

"Your point?"

"My point is that you have been harbouring these feelings for so long, you can't let them out. Don't kid yourself in to believing that a near death experience will change things between you, your coma was such an experience, and all that did was to make you crawl off to Mexico and hide with me for four months."

"Are you saying I should give up?"

"No. I'm saying you should get your act together and take charge of the situation. Women like a man who can take over, someone who can take care of them."

The heavy hinting at the end of the sentence clicked on the proverbial light bulb in Gibbs' head. He had already committed himself to looking after her, Ducky had pushed him to that, so he should just tell her that he was taking care of her and not take no for an answer. He had something to distract her with anyway. He patted his jacket pocket, thinking about the letter he had found on her desk. He had nearly sent it to get washed with the rest of his bloody clothes, but had remembered it at the last second and transferred it to this jacket. There was no way she was getting out of explaining this to him.

"No time like the present, probie."

Mike stressed the word angrily, he was clearly getting impatient and now that he had nothing better to do, he wanted to play matchmaker. Well he wasn't the only one who wanted to see them together, Jethro did too, but he just couldn't seem to broach the subject. Jenny was a live mine, no matter how carefully you step, if you get too close to a sensitive area; she explodes. He yawned suddenly, sitting down back between Jenny and Abby and closing his eyes for a moment.

He had spent the night briefing the new Acting Director, Clarisse Hurley, who would be taking over for Jenny until she was well enough to go back to work. She had been a rising star, much like Jenny had been, and her promotion to Assistant Director was to be officially announced a week after Leon's funeral in respect for him. She had no intention of being Acting Director for long though, she was getting married in a few months and she hoped to be able to go on a honeymoon, and come back to a less dangerous and more family friendly job than Jenny's, since she was two months pregnant. Jethro smiled, it was nice to work with someone who wouldn't stab you in the back for a promotion. Clarisse had never wanted to be Director, the publicity was far too much for the shy woman, and her fiancé didn't want his picture in the Stars and Stripes whenever he accompanied her to a function. Secnav had had to practically bribe her to take the position by promising longer maternity leave. After Leon, she had been the most qualified by far. She had even worked in the NCIS building during Jenny's Directorship, so she knew what she should and shouldn't do and the staff liked her. She was the perfect filler while Jenny recovered.

Ziva and McGee had reported in at 4 that morning, bringing all of Svetlana's belongings to evidence and closing the case, finally. They would be writing their reports today, as would he when he left to go to the Navy Yard. He would take Abby with him and ask one of his team if they would be present at Jenny's room at all times. Nearly losing her so many times had made him slightly paranoid, but if it kept her alive, he didn't care. A nurse entered the room, bringing a bowl of water and a sponge to wash Jenny's wounds. Gibbs stood and took the bowl from her.

"I'll do it, thanks."

"Feeling brave again, Mr. Gibbs?" the nurse teased him, since he hadn't dared to do it since Jenny had woken up. He smiled at her, taking the good natured jab as intended and she left, pulling Mike's curtain along as she passed, giving them some privacy.

Turning to Jenny, he carefully removed the bandage from her shoulder, and pulled the covers down to her waist, then pulled her gown up just enough so he could see her wound, while keeping the rest of her covered. He peeled back the bandage on her stomach and reached for the bowl. The angry red skin of her bullet wounds contrasted sharply with the pale white all around, and he couldn't help but close his eyes against the reminder of how close he had come to losing her. 'Get your act together', Mike's voice resounded in his head, and he determinedly chose his words carefully for when she awoke. He was going to win the inevitable argument because he was right and she will know it and give in, hopefully. He smiled despite himself as he recalled how difficult it was to talk to her, particularly with one or both of them always throwing some double entendre or an accusation. He picked up the sponge and carefully began cleaning the stitched up holes, being sure to get every bit of dirt that might be covering her. She stirred beneath his touch and her eyes flickered open, before taking in the scene. He knew it was time to talk to her.

"Jethro, what-?" before she could get too angry at him, he decided to lay down the law. May as well get all that anger out of her at once.

"I'm taking care of you from here on out, Jenny. Ducky has agreed to come over to my house and check up on you. To make sure I haven't killed you-" he mumbled the last part mostly under his breath, but he was really too close for her to not hear him. He set the sponge aside and watched her face take on a red tinge of indignation.

"I'm more likely to kill you! How dare you make such a decision-?"

"You are in no fit state to take care of yourself-"

"Noemi can help me."

"Noemi has a family of her own to go to. She does have a life outside taking care of you."

"I know that! There must be someone else-"

"I don't have any other commitments to attend to while I'll be looking after you, so the only realistic choice is me. Unless you have a boyfriend you haven't told us about?"

"No, I don't."

"Then it's settled. I'm taking care of you." Jenny closed her eyes in resignation and then glared at him.

"On one condition, we stay at my house." Gibbs sighed, and picked the sponge back up.

"Fine." No boat at her house, oh the things he did for her...

He helped her to carefully turn over so he could reach the exit wounds, and then he dipped the sponge and began cleaning those too. She winced a little, but he was quite gentle, so she couldn't complain too much. He saw Mike leaning around the curtain to give him thumbs up, and he shook his head in amusement. When he was finished, he bandaged her up and helped her turn back over, bandaging up the front and the adjusting her hospital gown and bed cover. She smiled at him in thanks and reached up with her good arm to help him move the bowl, just as he moved to put the sponge back in it and her hand connected with his pocket by accident. His pocket made a crunching sound and her forehead creased in concentration, trying to identify it. Jethro took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest. He may find out what the letter was supposed to say sooner than he had planned.

"While I was at your house to pack you a bag, I found something on your desk." Jenny's eyes narrowed and she glared at him suspiciously.

"You packed a bag for me? What did you get?"

"Clothes, underwear, toiletries…" he looked at her sharply. "Don't change the subject." Jenny's expression hardened as his list went on and he knew the explosion was due any second. When she spoke her voice was steady and cold.

"You went through my underwear?!" Gibbs sighed and looked up just in time to see Mike slink back behind the curtain warily. Lucky bastard. He really didn't want to scrap with her, so he made his voice as soft but resolved as possible.

"Jenny, it's nothing I haven't seen before. I have had four wives." She had the good grace to look embarrassed and properly chastised.

"I know, I'm sorry. It just feels like I'm spoiling for a fight. I've been cooped up in here for too long." He knew the feeling, just staring at the same four walls had been too much for him too, and he had been able to leave for a short wander. She couldn't, so all her frustrations were being stored up until an unwitting idiot (like himself) pressed the wrong buttons.

"Well, I'll see about getting you some physiotherapy sorted out, how about that? You won't be able to do much but it should give you something to focus on." She smiled at him gratefully.

"That would be great, thank you." He grinned at her and watched her eyes return to his pocket. He decided the best approach would be to just show it to her. He pulled the letter out of his pocket and unfolded it, knowing he had her undivided attention. Her eyes caught the paper and once she recognised it, they widened.

"I found this on your desk. You addressed it to me, but it's unfinished." He showed her the script on the paper, saying clearly 'Dear Jethro' and his gaze captured hers. "What was it going to say?" She swallowed hard but stayed silent. "What did you want to say to me, Jenny?" She looked away and then sighed before returning her eyes to his burning gaze.

"Do you remember Carson?" Gibbs nodded remembering vividly the child he had tricked her in to keeping at her house overnight, during the investigation into the boy's father. It was that night that she had, in a roundabout way, asked him to stay the night and he had refused her. "I began the letter that night, before you came over." she blinked away a few tears angrily, as the sting of his rejection resurfaced. "But after you left, I realised there was no point in carrying it on." Gibbs placed the letter on the side table and then reached over her, taking both her hands in his, stroking them soothingly. "I couldn't burn it, so I hid it on my desk beneath all my work and tried to forget about it." He felt wretched and promised himself a head slap for later, for giving her the wrong impression with such dire consequences.

"It wasn't that I didn't want you Jenny; it just wasn't the right time. There was a nine year old 'DiNozzo' in the house and… you were broody. It was wrong of me to make you take care of the boy when you never had children of your own." She shook her head gently in disagreement.

"You misread me. I wasn't asking you for anything like that. I just wanted you to stay with me." He internally groaned as he thought of all of the time they had wasted, time they could have spent together. He cursed his gut for not telling him he was making a mistake, before apologising to it because it had; he had just ignored it, his wounded pride getting in the way. He decided to swallow some of that superiority and ask her a question that had been worrying him, his stomach flip-flopping in anticipation.

"You weren't worried about being the rebound?" She raised an eyebrow at him and smirked.

"Hollis was the rebound, Jethro." He couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him at that. He had known there was a reason she hadn't been particularly hostile to the other woman, and apparently this was it. She had known Hollis wouldn't last very long and had kept out of it, avoiding possible altercations and blame throwing later. His Jenny was a clever woman. She smiled back a little smugly. "You had come out of a coma not long ago, so from your perspective you had just lost your family. If I were you, I'd have wanted someone who looked the polar opposite to them, too." He grinned and dropped his head, his gaze straying over their joined hands. He squeezed them tenderly and indicated the letter with his head.

"So, what would it have said?" her smile turned coy suddenly, and she bit her bottom lip.

"It was going to say that I'm sorry for leaving you a letter when I walked away nine years ago, but I hoped this one would make up for it." She lifted her good shoulder in a self-conscious half-shrug and gave him a small smile. "It would have said that you flaunting Hollis at work had hurt me and that I'm glad it ended, even though I know I deserved every minute." She sighed and closed her eyes briefly, recalling the words she had been about to write on the paper lying two feet from her on the table, the letter she had decided she couldn't finish after he had tersely rebuffed her advances. "That I had never wanted to cause you pain but I hadn't wanted to be hurt either. I didn't want to be just another number to you. I didn't know about your family back then, to me you were just a multiple divorcee with no apparent intention of settling down. You were a complicated risk that I just wasn't strong enough to take." Her eyes pleaded with him to understand her reasons and she paused, waiting for some sign that she should carry on, or that she had said too much. He nodded to her and she took a deep, relieved breath. "It would have said that I still love you… and that leaving you was the most difficult thing I have ever done, and the only decision I have deeply regretted since making it."

She didn't have chance to add anything to the end as Jethro leaned forward and captured her lips in a gentle but possessive kiss, re-staking his claim on her. She released her good hand from his grasp and wound it around his shoulder, threading her fingers into his hair and holding him close to her, so she could deepen it. Jethro realised her intentions and enthusiastically intensified the kiss, losing himself in her taste and her smell, the fresh sensation blending with his memories in a perfect union, the moment too incredible to stop. He was finally kissing his Jen; it felt so right, like he was back where he belonged, there was no way in hell she was getting away again. She moaned softly in his mouth and he pulled back to look into her eyes.

"I love you too, Jenny." He whispered it to her, but the sound carried around the spartan room and he suddenly became aware of other sounds, like a curious snuffling. He turned his head and followed the source of the sound to a tearstained Abby being shushed by Mike, who threw his hands up in defeat when he noticed they had stopped kissing.

"That was so beautiful…" Abby dissolved in to another fit of tears and Gibbs shrugged apologetically at the slightly flushed Jenny, not knowing what to do with Abby now she was crying, in what he assumed was happiness. "I'll call Timmy to come pick me up!"

She jumped up and raced out the door, her belongings already packed up. Jethro shook his head wondering where she got her energy from before catching Mike's gaze, who indicated the suspiciously non steaming coffee cup he had placed there. He narrowed his eyes, Abby just shot rule 23 to hell, and she was going to pay for it. Tomorrow. Jethro leaned back over Jenny, catching her more than willing lips in another searing kiss. Now she just needed to heal and their blossoming relationship had to survive it, but finally after nine years they were back on track.

Next chapter skips ahead to him bringing her home from the hospital!