Monday

Giving herself one last look-over in the mirror, Kelly gave a small smile at her reflection. Her make-up looked exactly like her friends and she'd applied just as Chloe had shown her the day before. Pushing her make-up into her top drawer so that her Dad wouldn't find it, she grabbed her bag and ran downstairs, feeling triumphant.

On hearing his daughter thunder down the stairs, Gibbs splashed some milk into the cereal he was putting out for her and moving into the dining-room he placed it on the table for her. He looked up as he heard her small footsteps enter the room, and the smile that had been on his face dropped when he saw her.

Her face itself was caked in something that made her face look a strange peachy colour, while her cheeks had an odd bright pink hue to them. He blinked slowly, that strange colour combination aside, the most frightening aspect of her new look was her eyes. They looked as though she'd went around the tip of her lower lid with black pen, and she had so much dark eye shadow on that she looked as though she had two black eyes. "What?" He asked slowly. "Is on your face?"

Her hand went up and touched her face self-consciously, even as she gave him a defensive shrug. "It's make-up," she mumbled.

His frown deepened, his voice becoming slightly louder. "Where the hell did you get make-up?"

"I bought it, with the money I'd saved up." Kelly folded her arms across herself and sent him a matching glare.

"That money wasn't to be spent on…that!" He waved his hand at her face as if to emphasise his point.

"You said I could spend it on what I wanted!" Kelly protested, her eyes blazing with the perceived unfairness.

"Not on that! You're too young to wear that…muck!" he finally spat out.

For a moment his daughter's defensive stance faltered and she swallowed nervously before composing herself. "All my friends wear it."

The brief flash of sympathy he'd just had for her melted away as her sullen tone reached his ears. "I don't care what you're friends wear or do, you will follow my rules," he warned her lowly.

Her jaw tightened and jutted out determinedly. "I bought it, so it's mine and I can wear it whenever I want."

"You'll go upstairs and take it off yourself or I'll hold you over the kitchen sink and scrub it off!" he barked at her, his blood boiling.

She didn't even flinch. "I'm not taking it off," she replied stubbornly.

He had only taken one step forward when the phone began to ring shrilly. Mumbling under his breath, he nodded towards the chair behind her breakfast, telling her, "This isn't finished, sit there and eat your breakfast, I'll be back in a minute."

Kelly dropped into the seat, continuing to glare mutinously as she prodded at the now soggy cereal with her spoon listening into the rather one sided conversation that was taking place in the kitchen.

Gibbs grabbed the house phone - fully intending to cut the conversation of as quickly as it started - barking into the receiver, "Gibbs!"

It was his lawyer, he listened for a minute and his mood blackened even further. "I don't care what her grounds are! She's not getting my house!" He ran his hand through hair that was beginning to grey. He should have known that Diane would have tried something like this, not that she had any right to this place, he'd bought the house with Shannon and Diane had never contributed a penny towards the mortgage or any upkeep it had required, such as the roof he'd replaced the winter before. That being said, Diane was quite capable of pulling some dirty tricks to get what she wanted.

His hand slammed down onto the counter top in frustration - not that he noticed the stinging pain in his hand. He listened for a brief moment to his lawyers suggestion, his eyes closing in disbelief as he heard the man tell him that if he paid her a generous settlement she'd drop her claim on the house. Those eyes flew open again when he heard the amount. "She wants how much! And how am I meant to get it, sell a kidney!"

He shook his head, he really couldn't believe this, it really was the morning from hell. He looked up at the doorway to see Kelly standing there, he moved his head away from the receiver momentarily, mouthing, "What?"

"I'm going to school," she told him. "If I don't go now I'll miss the bus."

"I'll drive you. You're not going out like that."

"Yes I am," she replied primly as she turned away from the doorway.

He was just about to throw the phone to one side and go after her when he heard his lawyers next words. "That money is my daughter's college fund! A fund she never made any contribution to, not that she ever made a contribution to anything! You can't seriously be telling me to hand that over to her."

A noise of disgust escaped his throat as he listened to the next suggestion that they up the amount in alimony she was to receive, with his lawyer assuring him that that agreement would only stand until Diane remarried. The only problem with that suggestion being that he was slightly worried that she wouldn't remarry again just to spite him. "Look," he finally got out. "I need to go. The house and the settlement check are a no go, I don't care what she claims. As for the alimony, I'll think about it and get back to you."

Finally he was able to hang up. He stared blankly at the wall in front of him, he couldn't believe this, he was more than likely have to hand over a ridiculous amount of money to Diane every month just to get rid of her, and his daughter had left the house looking like a clown. He groaned, slamming his head against the doorframe as he remembered that his female Probie started today.

Kelly flopped down onto her seat on the bus. Chloe gave her a quick once over and smiled. "You look good today."

"Thanks, my Dad freaked though."

Chloe waved her hand dismissively. "He let you wear it though."

"Only because I left the house while he was talking to his lawyer. Turns out Diane wants our house." Kelly bit down worriedly on her bottom lip, she hadn't wanted to show it in the house but she was really worried that Diane would get their home and they'd have to move. She wanted to stamp her foot in frustration, Diane had never even liked the house, she'd always moaned and whined about wanting to move out, get somewhere newer and bigger.

Chloe however just shrugged, not really caring for the subject. "She won't get it."

"You don't know that."

An annoyed sigh escaped from her friend. "Well there isn't any point in worrying about it, it's not like you can do anything." She flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled. "I really like that eye shadow on you."

"Um, thanks," Kelly stuttered out. She was quietly thrilled by the compliment, but it wasn't quite enough for her to forget her worries about the house.

Sophie squeezed her arm reassuringly. "Look, I'm sure it really will all be fine. Your Dad will fix it."

Kelly smiled. "Yeah," she nodded. "He probably will."

"You know if you came out with us tonight, that would cheer you up," Sophie suggested.

"You know I can't-"

"Because she has such a long night of homework ahead of her," Chloe giggled.

Kelly winced slightly at her words. She blinked rapidly, barely thinking before blurting out, "I might be able to come out."

Chloe's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and she leaned forward. "I thought you said your Dad wouldn't let you."

"He won't," Kelly replied slowly. "But he's not in at night, so that decision is really for whoever is looking after me. I probably couldn't stay out past six, but it's better than nothing."

"It's a start," Chloe agreed eagerly. She smiled in delight at the plan. "I knew that you would think of something. We meet at four, so don't be late."

"If I can get out, I'll be there," Kelly told her firmly.

By the time Gibbs arrived at the Agency his mood was blacker than black and it wasn't improved by the sight of Burley sitting at his desk looking like a child on Christmas morning, his face alight with the thought of having a new Agent to torment. He grinned almost inanely at Gibbs. "The Director wants to see you in his office," he informed him happily. "I think it's to introduce you to our new Probie."

"Didn't realise that you were able to read Morrow's thoughts," Gibbs growled.

Stan's face fell as he realised that his Boss was in the foulest mood he'd had the misfortune to encounter him in. "I…no…I can't read his mind." He frowned in concern and asked, "You alright Boss?"

"Fine."

"Anything to do with Diane?" Stan hazard a guess, most of his boss's recent bad moods tended to revolve around his soon to be ex-wife.

Gibbs gave a muttered growl in lieu of reply and Stan knew he had his answer and in the interest of self preservation decided to keep his head down as much as possible, and sent a silent prayer of thanks to whoever it concerned for making today the day they sent in fresh meat. He really appreciated it.

"I'll see you when I get back, and I want that report finished and on my desk by then."

Stan frowned. "I gave you the report."

"You might want to spell check it before you hand it over next time," Gibbs growled as he threw said report onto the desk in front of the younger man before charging up the stairs two at a time. He walked through into the Morrow's office, blatantly ignoring his secretary's calls of protests. The door had just fallen shut behind him when his eyes landed on the redhead seated in front of Morrow's desk. His mouth dried up, this just couldn't be possible, she couldn't be his new Probie, surely Morrow wasn't that twisted.

The man in question got to his feet. "Ah, Agent Gibbs I wanted to introduce you to your new Agent, this is Jennifer Sheppard."

The redhead got to her feet, and Gibbs couldn't help but glare at his grinning boss, before his gaze flew back to the woman standing in front of him. She came up to his nose, although as his gaze swept over her he realised that the only reason for that was the ridiculous four inch heels she had on. His eyes moved upwards again, over her long, jean clad legs and the curves of her waist and breasts. His jaw tensed as his eyes swept over her full lips and then finally locked onto her bright green eyes. He was screwed and he knew it, and he didn't know what the hell Morrow thought he was playing at, the man knew his penchant for redheads. Finally he shook her outstretched hand and was pleasantly surprised by her firm determined grip. He could hear Morrow's voice drone on in the background. "Agent Sheppard this is Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, he'll be your supervisory Agent, I'm placing you in his capable hands. I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine. Now if neither of you have any questions…"

"I would actually like to speak to you for a minute, Sir," Gibbs told him dryly. He inclined his head towards the door, telling his new Agent, "Wait outside."

Her lips pursed slightly at the order, as though her first reaction was to argue with him, but finally she nodded, and turning back to Director Morrow, she gave him a small smile, her husky voice hitting Gibbs ears and making his gut kink. "Thank you, Director Morrow. I have absolutely doubt that I can handle whatever's thrown at me."

Her green eyes slid back along to Gibbs, and he couldn't miss the challenge that was in her gaze, and he almost, almost felt a grudging pull of respect for her. He watched her go, and quickly jerked his head away when he realised that his eyes were involuntarily beginning to stray to her ass, it was a great ass though he admitted almost grudgingly to himself.

When the door was firmly shut, he looked over to where Morrow was standing smirking at him. "Problem, Agent Gibbs?" he inquired politely.

"I don't think this is going to work," he replied carefully.

"I think it will." Morrow dropped back into his office chair, grinning. "You complain when I give you Probationary Agents who don't know their backside from their elbow, so I've given you one who scored exceptionally well in all her training and who shows a massive amount of promise. There are a lot of people who have high hopes for her, so really you should feel honoured that you're training her."

"Her training isn't the issue here."

"Ah." Morrow shot him a knowing look. "She doesn't look as you expected."

"Not really," Gibbs admitted uncomfortably. He didn't have a problem with women in the field, and he'd came across attractive Agents in the past, just none of them had intrigued him as much as Jennifer Sheppard had in the very few minutes they'd spent together.

"I'm sure that it won't be an issue. You're both professionals." He looked up at him and stated firmly. "The decision has been made, Agent Sheppard shall remain on your team for as long as I see fit to keep her there. I hope you don't mind seeing yourself out."

As Morrow returned to his attention to his computer, Gibbs knew he'd been dismissed and sucking in a breath between tightly clenched teeth, he left the office.

He'd half expected his new Probie to be lounging casually against the wall - in fact he'd been looking forward to yelling at her for it - instead she was standing upright waiting for him. He motioned for her to follow him.

She kept up with his pace easily. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her brush a curled lock of her fiery red hair behind her ear. "So, what do I call you?" she asked casually.

"Gibbs," he grunted.

Despite his gruff reply, she sent him a quick smile in greeting. "Jenny."

He nodded in acknowledgment but didn't contribute anything else to the conversation. He'd thought this would un-nerve her. It didn't, in fact she seemed quite comfortable with the silence that had enveloped them.

Frowning at this odd turn of events, he led her into the bull-pit and told her shortly, "Your desk." As he waved his hand vaguely towards the desk across from his.

Stan stared at them in growing horror. "Um, Boss, who's that?"

Gibbs looked up, his mood actually perking up slightly at the thought of introducing Jenny to him. A smirk tugged at his lips. "Steve this is Jenny Sheppard, out new Probie."

"It's Stan, Boss," the younger man muttered distractedly, looking distinctly like a puppy dog that had just been kicked, hard.

Jenny extended a hand politely. "It's nice to meet you."

Stan took her hand and sent Gibbs a pleading look. "Please tell me this is a joke."

"Nope." Gibbs hid his grin behind his computer screen.

"But…" He looked at Jenny again and let out a small whimper. Letting go of her hand he dropped into his seat. "That's not fair."

Jenny raised an eyebrow at the man's petulant display, no doubt he'd been looking forward to having someone to boss around, to play tricks on and to make fun of, and her presence had left him on unequal ground. Smiling slightly to herself she sat down at her desk, placing her bag neatly into the bottom drawer and her sig into the top one.

Before she had a chance to ask anything from her new mentor - who seemed more than a little surly - his phone rang. She wasn't surprised to find that his phone manner was just as brisk as he'd been with her, it hadn't appeared like an act just to try and intimidate her. And at least he'd used her actual name instead of just picking a similar one as he appeared to do to her colleague.

She swivelled her chair so she could watch him discreetly. He was a lot more attractive than she'd been expecting, no doubt the strong and silent type - which wasn't her usual - although there was something about those blue eyes…She shook her head. This wasn't what she was here for, so what if her new Boss was attractive? She wasn't going to be acting on that attraction so it really didn't matter.

His deep voice broke through her traitorous thoughts - something she was extremely grateful for. "We have a case, gear up." He stood up and looked down at her black - and she thought rather sedate - heels. "I'll give you two minutes to change your shoes."

"Why would I change them?"

"Because they're heels!" He stared at her as though she was insane.

"I can walk, run and jump in them. Come rain, hail, sleet or snow," she joked lightly.

He glanced away from her bright green eyes, and shook his head, muttering under his breath as they left the bull pit together.