AN1: Apparently this is what happens when you have an important law paper due - you write fiction.

AN2: Still un-beta'd, still don't own it, etc, etc, so on and so forth.

199?

It was only a few weeks since Kate had last been in Georgetown. She was in much better spirits tonight. Agent Bauer had told her that she was showing real potential and she'd be able to start on a counterfeiting case the next week. Kate was imagining what it would be like not to have to dress up for protection details for a while and was wandering around the city on her adrenaline rush.

Once again, she found herself at the same bar. She went inside and found herself hoping to see a tipsy NCIS Agent.

She wasn't disappointed. Jenny Shepard was sitting at the bar. She wasn't her normal classy self however - she had her elbows on the counter, her head bowed, a 3/4 full tumbler of amber liquid in her hand.

As Kate approached, the bartender seemed to recognize her. "Seems your friend can't handle her bourbon. Wanna help her out?"

Kate slid onto the stool next to Jenny. "Agent Shepard. I see you're still practicing drinking for the boss? What'd he do this time? I know it has to be him if your drinking bourbon."

"Really? And why do you say that?" Jenny snarked.

"I'm an observant federal agent."

"And it has nothing to do that past two times you've seen me here, I've been drunk and complaining about him? It doesn't take a federal agent to figure that one out Secret Service Probie." Jenny's words were curt.

Kate decided that 'complaining' probably was not the best word to describe how Jenny talked about her boss but thought if she said so, she might find herself looking straight into Jenny's personal firearm, which by this point, Kate was convinced she always had on her somewhere. "Wow, bitchy tonight aren't we, Agent Shepard?"

The bartender interjected, "I told you she couldn't handle her bourbon. I've seen her down plenty of martinis, but she's still on her first glass."

"Shove it," Jenny said to the bartender. "Well Agent Todd, what else do you remember about my boss?" Jenny stressed the word 'agent.'

Kate remembered most of their previous conversations; it was probably the only time she'd enjoyed herself in a bar since her sophomore year of college. But she wasn't sure Jenny really wanted to know or was just setting Kate up to be on the receiving end of a tirade. She hesitated, "blue eyes and a thing for red heads... a boat, bourbon..."

"Exactly! A thing for red heads!" Jenny seemed to be recovering some of the energy Kate remembered. "He also has a thing for ex-wives."

"Ex-wives?"

"Yes, ex, former, previous, past, no longer. Ex." Jenny took a long sip from her glass and grimaced.

Kate looked confused. "So? He dates red headed divorcees. Aside from explaining some of his apparent personality traits, what's the problem?"

Jenny took another drink. "He doesn't date ex-wives; he has them," she coughed out.

"Them? Plural?"

Jenny laughed weakly. "He has two. Last one took a golf club to his head."

"Well, from what you've told me, the fact that he's been married is surprising. That he's since divorced, not so much." Then Kate smiled; she'd just found her chance to get the NCIS agent back for the probie remark. "Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Why?" Jenny appeared to be losing her energy again.

"If you think the ex-wives are a good thing, logical reasoning says that he just got divorced, or you just found out he's divorced, and you're looking forward to having him all to yourself. If you think the ex-wives are bad, you're just worried about being ex-wife number three."

Jenny banged her forehead against the bar. Kate thought she may have heard Jenny mutter "bad."

"Come on, Shepard," Kate said sympathetically. "Let's get you home."

Kate took the now almost empty glass out of Jenny's hand and set it on the bar. She took out some cash and tossed it towards the bartender as she helped Jenny to her feet. She felt bad about implying, if not flat out stating, that Jenny was in love with her boss, especially since she realized what kind of toll a personal conflict in her professional life would take on Kate. Kate was very glad that her boss did not have blue eyes or a thing for brunettes and was happily married to his first wife.

2003

As Kate heard more stories about Gibb's ex-wives, she noticed there was one more than Jenny had mentioned. Somehow it didn't surprise her but she was certain that Jenny was not ex-wife number three.