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It had taken Gibbs a lot of nerve to finally convince her to listen to him, but he succeeded, and so it was that they were both sitting on the couch in her living room, finally able to talk reasonably to each other.
"She came over to convince me to cancel the upcoming date for our divorce," Gibbs said softly, putting his arm over the back of the leather couch, looking deep into her eyes.
"Then why are you kissing?", she asked glumly, tugging persistently at the blanket draped over her legs.
"I wouldn't call it a kiss right now, actually...", Gibbs murmured softly.
"What else are you going to call it? She's shoving her tongue down your throat, but it wasn't really a kiss at all, was it?"
"Well, it wasn't meant that way at all. I...", but Gibbs stopped before he continued. He had a silent thought in the back of his mind that made it impossible for him to finish his sentence.
Slowly, he leaned in a little, trying to look into her eyes, but her hair hung over her shoulder, blocking his view. Carefully, Jethro brushed her hair behind her ear and lifted her chin with his index finger. She had to look at him.
"Are you jealous?", he asked suddenly, receiving an extremely meaningful look.
"Jealous?", she asked quickly, looking at him uncertainly. "What makes you think that?"
"You're jealous."; Gibbs stated rather quickly, and couldn't help but grin a little.
However, she quickly shook her head, slid a little to the side and still tried to talk her way out of it, but failed miserably.
"Bullshit, I'm mad, but I'm nowhere near jealous.", Jenny muttered annoyed and propped her arm up against the back of the couch, leaning her head against it.
"Of course you're jealous, look at you!", he continued to tease her, wanting confirmation of that suspicion.
His lips played around an ever-growing grin. Now he also realized her behavior. Of course, she was angry too, but most of her reaction was triggered by jealousy and Gibbs had a found food. Something he could use to tease her until she finally owned up to her feelings.
"Weirdo.", Jenny muttered in annoyance before standing up and throwing one of the many pads in his face, leaving the room.
Rolling his eyes, Gibbs watched her go. Her thick skull, he hated it, but it still looked pretty familiar. Slowly, as now, Leroy also got up from the couch and followed her into the kitchen. Watched her silently at first as she leaned her arms against the kitchen counter, lowered her head and just stood there for a brief moment.
"It's okay to be jealous, Jen, isn't it?", he murmured softly in her ear, had his arms around her stomach.
She flinched, startled at first, hadn't noticed him, thought he was still sitting in the living room waiting for her. Actually, she wanted to leave, didn't want to find herself in his arms or be near him, knowing she wouldn't be able to control her feelings. But then when she felt his warm breath on her skin, his arms around her belly and his lips on her neck... it was over for her, it was over. She couldn't take it anymore, couldn't even manage to be angry with him.
Slowly she let her head fall back, closed her green eyes and bit her lower lip, panting softly. His rough fingers on her skin caused butterflies in her stomach, made her heart beat faster.
"You know I only have eyes for you.", he whispered softly, pushing her skirt a little higher with his hands.
"Jethro...", she gasped hotter as she could feel him stroking his fingers, agonizingly slow, up the inside of her thighs further and further.
She felt the blood rushing through her body. Goosebumps spread all over her skin and when his hands undid the first two buttons of her blouse, she stopped what he was doing.
"Don't.", she said composedly, turning in his arms. "I can't."
"Here.", she said, tossing him a package of frozen peas. "For your eye.", added Jennifer, dropping into the couch next to him.
She hadn't noticed it at first, but the longer she sat next to him, eyeing him, the more she noticed his slightly bluish eye.
"So?"
"So, what?", she asked, looking at him expectantly.
His look was quite enough, he didn't need to say anything else, and she understood. He now wanted to continue their conversation from earlier.
"Yeah ok, maybe I overreacted a bit.", Jenny started to speak and intertwined her fingers with his; "But, when I saw you two... it just brought up all the feelings from Paris. After all, Stephanie was the reason I left and seeing you with her like that...", she broke off her sentence, though.
"I know.", he said with a loving undertone, and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry, I didn't want you to see."
Tenderly, he stroked her arm, pressing a kiss to her temple.
"I'm sorry too, I feel like a jerk.", Jennifer murmured softly, straightening up.
"If anything, I'm the jerk. I should have told you right away, I was going to, but then there was this thing with Ari, you were in the hospital and I just wanted to wait until you were better to talk to you about it. I didn't want you to get upset, there were much more important things to deal with and her coming to the office, I didn't know."
"At least you're my jerk.", she whispered with a smile and pulled him in closer by his shirt collar, kissing him gently; "I love you too."
Snuggling close to him, she felt him put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. Her lips were graced with a smile, her eyes sparkled with his and all the frustration, anger, and heartache was forgotten. In retrospect, it annoyed her that she acted so stupidly and didn't even let him get a word in edgewise. But after this conversation and the honest words from both of them, peace seemed to have come between them again. And lo and behold, there was something positive in the end, the redhead finally admitted her feelings towards Gibbs.
"What happened to your eye?"
"Stephanie found my baseball bat in the closet.", Gibbs replied.
"So it shouldn't be that tender between you two, right?", she inquired, wanting confirmation from him on that question.
"Let's put it this way...", Gibbs began to speak, placing the frozen peas on the coffee table in front of him; "We talked again when I was home and I made it clear to her once again that we couldn't save this marriage and that divorce was the only way to go."
"And that's why she hit you?"
"Not exactly, she suspected that I was already in a partnership with someone else and got angry when I packed my things and wanted to carry them to the car."
"You packed your things even before you knew I forgave you?", she asked incredulously, sitting up slowly.
"Had a feeling I would," he grinned, curling a strand of hair on his finger.
"Liar, you just got lucky that I forgave you.", Jennifer said, and I couldn't help but grin either.
"You just can't stay mad at me for long, admit it."
Shaking her head, Ziva walked up and down the ladies' washroom. Yesterday she wanted to stay with her, after everything that had happened between Gibbs and her, she didn't want to be left alone and Jenny hadn't contacted her either. Now she was already spending her entire lunch break here in the washrooms, with Jennifer, who had been throwing up almost without interruption for the past 30 minutes.
"Let me help you, please...", said Ziva, slowly getting desperate. "I'm going to get Dr. Mallard now."
"No!" she heard, right after the toilet flushed, from her friend.
It didn't take a minute, and the director came out of one of the stalls. Her skin was pale, her eyes were adorned with slight shadows and her gait was extremely wobbly. Seeking support, she walked to the sinks, held on with both hands and let her head fall forward, closing her eyes in hopes that the nausea would finally subside, and the headache would improve.
"Jenny, you're not okay!"
"I'm fine, really.", she murmured softly, taking a deep breath before looking at herself in the mirror.
Good, definitely looked different, she thought, closing her eyes again.
"At least let me take you to your office then."
Sternly, Ziva looked at her, walking closer to her, ready to support her in case she lost her balance. She could hear the redhead let out a soft sigh and tied her long hair into a loose braid. Slowly, Jennifer turned around, looking at her counterpart silently. There was such a sinking feeling in her stomach, a queasy feeling, and she couldn't tell if she was going to throw up again or if it was finally going to stop. She didn't actually feel sick, she didn't feel nauseous, she just threw up several times. That was exactly what made her so thoughtful.
"Come on, let's go to your office, and you lie down for a few minutes, okay?"
Nodding, she finally acquiesced to Ziva's offer. The washrooms were near her office, so it didn't take too long to get there. Since it was lunchtime, Cynthia wasn't in her seat, but Ziva could always talk to her later. For now, it was quite enough for the redhead to sit on the leather couch for a moment. Ziva, also already handed her a glass of water, which was on her table. She wouldn't drink much, though, didn't want to go back to the booths and throw up again.
"Don't you think it would be better if you went home?"
Shaking her head in the negative, Jenny placed the water on the small table in front of her before taking off her shoes and slowly laying down on the couch. Tired, she closed her eyes, placing a hand on her forehead. The headache still wasn't any better either, on the contrary, it only got worse since last night.
"Let me get Dr. Mallard."
"Ziva, it'll be all right in a minute.", she murmured softly, swallowing hard.
"You've been saying that for half an hour. What if this...", she started to speak and stopped her sentence, had to think what that word was.
"Edema."
"Exactly. What if this edema thing in your head got bigger?"
"It certainly isn't, I'm on these medications for it."
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything.", a deeper voice behind the dark-haired one spoke up. "The drugs are seen as therapy, but you don't always achieve therapeutic success."
Silently, she sighed, exactly what she wanted to avoid. But before Ducky really got closer, the redhead had sat up as well, ignoring the sudden dizziness and smiling kindly at the medical examiner.
"How can I help?", asked Jenny suddenly, putting her shoes back on.
"I was just going to give the report you asked me to, but I think there are more important things right now," Donald stated rather quickly, placing the report on his supervisor's desk.
Jenny shook her head in denial and got up from the leather couch. A bad thought, because as soon as the petite woman stood, she felt her balance slipping. Ziva was just able to support her before she would seriously hurt herself.
"Stay seated, why are you getting up?", the Israeli asked, upset, gently pushing her back into the couch.
"I'm fine, really.", Jennifer said, slightly annoyed.
The look Ziva gave her friend revealed that this was definitely not the case, and Ducky noticed too, something just couldn't be right.
"I just need some fresh air, that's all."
"But while I'm here, I might as well take another look at the scar...see if it's healed well, and you tell me what's been going on in the last few hours," Ducky said quietly, taking a seat next to her on the settee.
Rolling her eyes, she looked at both of them.
"You undoubtedly got that look from Jethro.", he just couldn't help himself.
"The stubbornness, too.", Ziva now added, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
However, when Jenny gave her an extremely, clear look, Ziva also understood that it would be best to leave them both alone now and come back a little later.
"Did you two speak yesterday?"
Carefully, he looked at the scar on her temple. It had healed very nicely, you could actually hardly see anything except for small details, would have to look very closely to see that a good month and a half ago, she still had a large open wound.
She nodded, turning her head to him as she could sense he was finished.
"Did you know he was still married with Stephanie? Did you know about his divorce?"
Ducky nodded in response to her question.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Because, I told Jethro this too, he has to tell you himself, and the fact that it didn't happen sooner was simply because of all that had happened in the last few weeks."
"He was engaged to her then, while we were both undercover, and if I hadn't found out myself, would he have even told me then?" she asked quietly, propping her arm up on the backrest, resting her head in her hand.
"I don't know that.", Ducky said softly, reaching for her hand; "But I know how much you mean to him and how much he loves you, even though he lied to you and hurt you back then. He's spent the last six years fretting about his behavior, wanting to find you, but he had no dates, knew nothing, and Director Morrow, hadn't given him any information about you either."
"I was so mad, so angry, but also so hurt at the same time because I didn't understand why he could keep this from me, that I was way too hasty. I didn't want to transfer at all, but I felt it was the right thing to do at that moment and I just wanted to get away from him, from Europe, from D.C."
"I know.", Ducky said softly, taking the redhead in his arms.
Then, as now, she was like a daughter to him, and it also hurt him that she just left without saying anything back then. Of course, he could understand her conditions for this transfer, but when he saw how Gibbs changed in the last years because of it, he was even more grateful that she was back in Washington. Gibbs needed her and Jennifer needed him. The two of them couldn't do without each other, they just belonged together.