Well, my muse has decided to be an extremely cheeky little thing by going on vacation without any notice, she was meant to be back by now and I can't seem to find her. Maybe you can spot her here somewhere?
The beeping noise of the ventilator machine became silence now as her ears became accustomed to it and she briefly wondered if that was what it was like when she got out of the car crash.
Her phone rang through the piercing silence and she answered it immediately, as if not to disturb him.
"Shepard." Her tone ice cold as she looked out of the window of his room to the sight of dreadful weather and rain soaking everything in sight.
"Yikes. Agent DiNozzo here." replied Tony, surprised at her tone at first but then did not hesitate to continue, "Cynthia, told me you stayed at the hospital. Is the boss awake?"
"I am, Agent DiNozzo." She answered him harshly, tilting her head downwards briefly, contemplating where to lead the conversation. "You have a sit-rep for me?" she asked him although it was more of a statement, why else would he be calling her? Her tone softened with each word she spoke.
"I do, Director Shepard." He said formally, following it through, "Crime scene's been processed. Evidence tagged. Remains are on the way to autopsy; Officer David and Special Agent McGee are questioning the crew. We have an ID on the suspected bomber."
She turned slightly to watch over Gibbs.
"The freighter's radioman Pinpin Pula. Filipino. Suspected to be Aby Sayyaf. BOLO's been issued for his apprehension. That is all I have to report Ma'am." Finished Tony
Resting against the wall and looking at Gibbs as she addressed Tony. "Agent DiNozzo."
"Director?"
"I was out of line." She admitted, she just wasn't in the right frame of mind, things had made a very giant leap into the pool of complication in quite a short amount of time.
"You are the Director, Ma'am, you cannot be out of line." He told her
"Please. I was bitchy. Let me apologise. I'm sorry." She knew that even though it was one of Gibbs' rules, it wasn't one of hers; hers was different because in all reality, she knew that it took strength to apologise and to admit when you're wrong.
"If I may state an opinion, Ma'am?" he requested
"Fire away." She said instantly
"Never apologise. It's a –" he began
"Sign of weakness." They finished together, Jenny smiled; Jethro always did listen to her in the past, before she became Jennifer Katherine Shepard.
"I was his partner too, DiNozzo." In more ways than one, she thought, "I know all the Gibbs-isms."
"Actually, he borrowed that one from the Duke." Tony informed her
"John Wayne." She recalled
"Said it to Joanne Dru in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."
"Jethro's a lot like the Duke." She told Tony, remembering what he used to be like before
"I keep waiting for him to say, that'll be the day." He said trying his best to impersonate the Duke
"He said that to me once in Paris when I told him that I –" She stopped there straight away, she was over sharing way too much, even though it brought a small smile upon her lips, a dull reminder of happiness.
Silence filled the other end as Tony waited for her to complete that sentence.
"When we were working together." She explained effectively ending that topic conversation of awkward small talk.
"Shouldn't he be awake by now?" he asked
"You know Gibbs, he keeps his own schedule." She said amused, some things wouldn't change.
"Do you know what REM is?" she asked him as she gazed at his face
"Sure, rapid eye movement, happens when you're asleep and dreaming." He replied
"That's what it looks like he's doing right now."
"Oh, well that's gotta be a good sign, right?" he said, his tone happier than the beginning of this conversation
"If it isn't a nightmare." She said sadly as they ended the conversation.
She was worried about Kylie so she decided to give her a call, just to check in and make sure everything was okay, she didn't answer all three times she'd called.
Maybe Jenny was the one in a nightmare, except the downfall was that she couldn't wake up.
Another few coffee's later and a chicken sandwich later and Tony came to the hospital and stood next to her, both of them watching Gibbs like a hawk.
There were three medical personnel in the room with them, phone in her hand.
"Coffee." Said Tony suddenly
Jenny looked at him puzzled, "Coffee?"
"Sure way to wake Gibbs." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world
"Good idea." She agreed, "But he's intubated, we'll have to use the IV."
"Ah." Said Tony as they both shared a knowing smile
"Uh, tell Miss Shepard that I didn't abandon Gibbs. Chief neurologist would have been here today, anyway." The same doctor from last night said to Jenny, ignoring Tony's confused expression
"I'm sure she'll understand. Kylie's not the type to hold a grudge forever." Said Jenny
"I hope so. I like women with fire." Said the doctor before leaving
"Kylie Shepard?" asked Tony
"Sister." Explained Jenny shortly
"DiNozzo, does he look in pain?" she asked him, she'd been trying to decipher it all morning
"I don't know. I've never seen Gibbs show pain, Director." He replied honestly
Not satisfied, she took a step forward.
"Doctor, is he in pain?" she asked, when he didn't respond she tried again, "Doctor?"
He turned around, "Was this man a marine?" he asked her
"Yes."
"Wounded in Desert Storm?" he asked for confirmation
Wounded? Jethro, I'm so sorry. Why wasn't I there? I should have been.
"He has a purple heart." She said instead of voicing her real reaction
"That's it." The Doctor pieced together, "I treated him in Kuwait."
Jenny's heart constricted.
"Gibbs never told me he was wounded in Desert Storm." Said Tony
"Me neither, I saw his purple heart." She said just to make Tony feel a little better and less out of the loop.
"He was in a coma when we evacuated him to Frankfurt. I mean, you talk about déjà vu." Said the Doctor, still not believing it
"But is he in pain?" Jenny persisted
"Certainly not extreme pain, he may be hurting but the only way for us to know is for him to tell us." He advised her
"Why not give him painkillers just in case?" asked Tony, Jenny agreed with him
"I want him to wake up, an opiate would only deepen his coma." Explained the Doctor
"I've just never seen Jethro look like this." Said Jenny, wanting to cry now, more than ever, not caring whether or not Tony was in the room
"I have. That's why I remembered him. That's the expression he had in '91. It's more anguish than pain."
Oh, Kelly. What did we do?
Even though the tears had subsided, the pain had not.
She'd cried herself to the point of exhaustion and now she slept peacefully, dreaming of her own memories and what she'd missed out on.
It was summertime on the beach, they all went out riding horses and had a picnic lunch before going for a swim on the beach.
She loved galloping with her horse instead of trotting slowly alongside her parents. The thrill excited her, besides it wasn't as if she didn't know what she was doing.
"Please?" she begged her mom, her blue eyes sparkling
"No, Kelly." Said Shannon, giggling at a previous joke said by her husband
"Ah, let her go, Shannon." Said Jethro, he trusted her and Kelly raced away when she heard her mom laugh and call her dad's name.
She didn't go far, she never did but then when she turned around all she saw was her mom's blood over the car seats and she looked seriously hurt. Kelly wasn't hurt, she tried asking the driver for help but soon realised that he was dead.
She pulled the handbrake just before the car hit a pole, the car was stopped for now, "Kelly." She heard a raspy voice say
"Mom?" she said panicked, what was happening?
Her mom grabbed a phone, and pressed a button, calling someone perhaps?
The other person on the line must have answered because there was a brief conversation before her mom passed out.
Kelly couldn't tell what was happening now, she was being pulled from the car and her mother was gone, two bodies were put in the car and she was being driven off to a large building, she assumed it was a hospital with her uncle from her mother's side, Matt.
"Kelly," He started, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, where's mom?"
"She's okay for now kiddo, but there's some things that you need to know." He said, "I'm not really your uncle, my name is Matthew Hughes, I'm a Metro Police Officer, and I was your mom's boss, before she resigned."
"What are you talking about?" she asked in fear
"There's a group of bad guys that are after your mom, they don't know you exist yet. But for safety, we are placing you in the witness protection program as well as your mom." He explained
"But what about my dad?" she asked him
"He can't know anything, he didn't know that your mom was a cop, it's a very complicated situation. I'm taking you to a safe house and then in a few days I'll bring your mom. Everything's going to be fine; you just need to be brave. Do you think you can do that for me?"
"Does that mean I can't see my dad ever again?" her eyes were teary
"Your mom will be able to explain everything in a lot more detail but at this stage, yes, you won't be able to see him again until it's safe."
"Daddy!" Kylie screamed as she was jolted awake, sweat covered her forehead and she was inhaling sharp intakes of oxygen as she took in her surroundings
She was okay physically, but emotionally, it was downhill.
It was like time was passing so quickly, she was in the hospital staff lunchroom with Doctor Geffland, the Doctor from earlier that treated Jethro in Kuwait.
Yet, another coffee in hand, she had to do what she had to just to get through this.
"I ordered another CAT scan on the off chance that he haemorrhaged since the last one. I think it's unlikely." He said
"So why are you doing it?" she asked
"Covering my ass." He replied as they walked through the room, he grabbed a sandwich, an apple and a hot pastry of some sort
"You don't strike me as the ass covering type, Doctor." She said amused
They walked over to a set of tables.
"You know, I dislike this doctor-captain-director formality. I'm Todd." He said
Shannon.
"Jenny."
"The truth is, Jenny, I'm puzzled. Gibbs took a long time to come out of the coma in '91."
"You followed his case after he left Kuwait?"
"Not until today, from Frankfurt, he was air-vac'd to Bethesda. They faxed me his hospitalization records. He was in a coma for 19 days."
"My God." She said
"That's not terribly unusual. But the tests weren't typical of someone who was in a coma that deep. I mean his CAT scan didn't reveal any cerebral damage, his EEG was normal. It's the same as now." He told her
"How do you explain that?" She wanted to know, she needed every amount of information that she could get.
"Sometimes patients don't seem to want to wake up. Any reason why Gibbs might be one of them?"
Because I became Jenny instead of being Shannon and he thinks she's dead as well as Kelly, our daughter.
He was met with silence.
She was frantically looking around the attic for some sort of clues that she could send Gibbs for when he got out of the coma.
If her mother wouldn't let him know, she would.
He needed to know, she needed her father.
She missed her old life in a big house with her parents and the simplicity of life, no hiding and no running.
She found a large box in the corner of the room, it looked heavy however it was labelled.
Shannon, Jethro, Kelly Gibbs.
She decided to have a peep inside and was shocked to find videos, photo albums and even trinkets and jewellery and much more.
It would take too long to search the entire box, she was hungry and her stomach rumbling was not helping, she left her mother's town house and went back to her apartment, in hope that maybe, just maybe her dad may have woken up.
"I don't have an answer, His EEG is normal, his new CAT scan is normal. How well do you know Gibbs?" said Todd
He was my husband and the love of my life, before I screwed it up.
"He was my mentor at NCIS, he taught me most of what I know." She came up with
"Yet, you're his boss." He observed
"Jethro's a great field agent and he's a great team leader, he even deals more efficiently with difficult politicians than I do." She explained
Noting the puzzled look on his face, "Then why isn't he...?"
"He shoots them." She added
They walked back into his room, nothing had changed, Jethro was still out cold, but she couldn't wait 19 days to know that he was okay.
"So you didn't know him when he was wounded in Desert Storm?" he asked
Yes, I did.
"No." She answered him
"He seems to be repeating that trauma, a coma he doesn't want to wake up from. In the morning I'm gonna try to find the neurologist who was on his case in '91."
"Well, why wait until the morning?" her Director side showing through, then with realisation that she was in a hospital and not the navy yard. "Forgive me."
"Yeah." He muttered
"I'm just tired." She said lamely
"I can arrange a cot for you in this room."
"No, I've been away from my office far too long." She said finally
She walked over to Jethro, by his side, and placed a hand over his, before grabbing her bag and coat and leaving the room with Todd.
"I'll find someone who knew Jethro back then." She said, besides me, she thought afterwards
"That'd be helpful." Agreed Todd
"Here are all my numbers and my cell." She said as she handed him a card with her handwriting on it
"I'll call you with an update at 0900, earlier, if he shows any signs of waking up." He said
She nodded; it was the best she was going to get, regardless.
"It was good to meet you, Jenny. Not under the circumstances of course but good nevertheless." He said as they shook hands
She said nothing and walked away and through the exit doors.
Now Jethro's Doctor likes me, great, she thought sarcastically.
Slightly longer than the last one, not as long as I had originally planned but this is finally getting on the path to where I want it to be. Hope you liked.
THANK-YOU TO REVIEWERS! As FF authors, you know how good it feels to get a review, and how it feels not to get a review, so why not share the love yeah? Xx
As to actually replying to reviews, I haven't been able to, the link to reply is expired or something? But I do appreciate all of them! :)