Through the Looking Glass

The blizzard had lasted a record of almost 6 days. It took Washington DC a week to dig out just the main thoroughfares . Quantico and the surrounding military related areas were done much sooner. The Armed Services wanted their people accessible and ready. Lainy and Gibbs found themselves able to get out but no where to go. They finally made Jethro's Neuro doctors appointment and he had healed enough that he was given a return date of 4 weeks if a follow up CT remained negative. Jethro groused about it all the way home.

He claimed to Lainy he was dying of boredom because he couldn't drive until cleared and couldn't return to work until then either. He had tried to talk Vance into letting him at least do desk work and consult, but Vance's answer was that was exactly what he would be doing when he first got back.

Lainy's answer to his complaints was to go to the library and have him load up and then take him for a new pair of running shoes and push him out the door to join Smitty and TJ for a run.

He turned around to argue further but heard the unmistakable sound of the locks and bolt being turned. He turned to his friends and said succinctly: "Shit."

They laughed at him and TJ punched him lightly in the arm and said to him in his deep bass voice "Give it up Gunny. The women always win."

Jethro tipped his head to the side then nodded. He moved to the stoop to do his stretching, then they took off.

Lainy's "boys" shortened their run because it was Jethro's first run since his injury. He had been running on a treadmill but not the track or street. He was sweating when he came home but felt refreshed and pleased. After he said goodbye to his friends he moved to the house.

The door was unlocked this time. Hesitating in order to form his apology Jethro stood with his hand on the door handle. He saw movement out of the corner if his eye and turned. Ivy was standing in the driveway looking at him. She looked more ghost like than she ever had except in the dining room the other night. Pale, wearing the clothes she had died in and with blood on her shoulders. She gave him a smile that made him shiver and vanished. He paused staring at where she had been and then panicked. Lainy… his mind refused to go further than that as he shoved open the door calling for her.

"Lainy! Lainy?" He slammed the door shut hard behind him. He took 2 steps toward the laundry room, heard a sound and whirled to see his wife coming out of her den/office.

"Jethro? What's wrong Love?" She hurried to him arms reaching out to him.

He put his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent to calm himself. She clung to him molding her body to his instinctively, her arms around his neck with her fingers in his hair.

"Babe you're soaked. You have to shower and change before you get a chill."

When he didn't release her she held him a moment longer then gently pushed him back.

"Honey. Please tell me what's wrong?" She stroked her fingers down his chest.

Catching his breath, Jethro looked instinctively over his shoulder. He turned back to gaze longingly into her beautiful emerald eyes. He felt himself relax a bit and sighed.

"She's back. I saw her outside. But the way she smiled at me, it made me afraid for you."

"For me? She came for me? What did she say?"

"She didn't really say anything! That's what made me worried."

"Alright. I'm here and I'm fine. So will you please get cleaned up? I need a little snuggle time while dinner bakes." Lainy felt the need to take control and calm him. She grasped his sweatshirt and gave him a gentle shake. "Move out Marine."

"Yes Ma'am Staff Sgt." Jethro said with a smile. Lainy pulled him down for a kiss which she lengthened, their tongues gently tasting and stroking. With a soft hum which he felt to his toes.

Jethro returned to her in just 10 minutes, dressed in clean sweats and hungry. He moved into the kitchen and poured coffee for both of them. Suddenly he grabbed the counter and gasped as his head felt like it was going to explode. He heard Lainy crying out for him but there was lightening and suddenly he was back in the coffee shop.

He saw himself lying on the floor bleeding profusely from his head. He could smell the cordite of gunfire and he saw the doctor and her assistant half running, half crawling toward him. He saw himself turning his head toward the dead blonde girl on the floor. Her hand outstretched, their blood intermingling, her eyes dilating in death as the blackness took him.

"There was nothing I could do…" he moaned. "Nothing I could do…" He stiffened and slowly went limp.

"You did everything you could Love. Everything that could be done."

Lainy was angry. She looked up and around the room. "You stop it! You stop it right now!"

Ivy slowly stepped forward from the outside wall of the dining room. She moved without walking this time.

"It looks like you're getting used to being a spirit. You're not bothering to move like a person any more." Lainy fairly spat at her. "Let him go!"

Ivy tipped her head looking down at Jethro who had slumped in Lainy's arms and was now on the floor in a faint. She smiled a cold smile.

"No. I don't think so. I've pretty much decided I want a little company now that the whole Ronnie thing is over."

Lainy looked up at her in shock. " You WHAT!"

"Yup. I like him. He is a loving person. I need some of that."

"Jethro is very selective about the people he lets inside Ivy. You're not one of them. It certainly won't make him feel more friendly toward you if you keep causing him to faint and have headaches." Lainy tightened her grip on her husband and shifted to support his weight against her trunk.

"Oh I'm not gonna ask him to like me. I've decided I'm takin' him with me when I go. I told you, I need some sweet company. I saw him with you. He's strong and gentle at the same time. He's got a lot of passion in him. He's a good lover! I want some of that."

"You're insane!" Lainy gripped her husband so tightly she had to make her arms loosen so he could breathe.

"No… I don't think so. I'm pretty sure once he's dead he'll come to like me OK. I mean I'll be the only one around he'll know really." She shrugged and stepped closer. "He's not lookin' so good right now is he? A little more pale and not breathing so good. A little more pressure and he'll be lookin' at you from 'the other side' or whatever you want to call this damn place."

Lainy spared a look to her husband's face and saw that what Ivy said was true. Jethro was gray, his lips slightly blue. Her mind froze for a split second then she began to reason.

"You could kill him Ivy. But you don't realize how he is. He'll ignore you for the rest of the brief moment he'd see you. If Jethro dies he'll be moving on. There's no reason he wouldn't move on into Heaven. He has nothing to fear eternity's judgment about. You'll have Jethro's death as well as whatever your past holds to worry about. You will find your actions will simply leave you more alone than you already are."

Lainy could feel Jethro's breathing change, becoming more shallow. Her fear made her make a small sound. She leaned in to him and pressed her lips to his forehead. She turned her focus and all of her heart in towards her husband. All external stimuli became fainter then passed away for her. She moved her minds effort into her husband.

Calling to him, pouring her love for him into him, memories of moments in their past. The first time he told her he loved her. The first time they made love. Their incredible first year together. His wonderful relationship as father to Liz, their daughter.

All of the little incidents and 'lovings' that made up an incredibly intimate, intense, passionate and conflict free relationship. They were both extremely complicated people who knew when to give each other space and when to pull in tight. She refused to simply let him die. Not by some terrorist and not by some damned spirit! Not without making him feel her, feel how she would cease to exist if he died.

"Listen to me ionúin! Listen only to me! It's me who loves you. It's me who needs you. There is nothing else but us mo muirneach. We are what matters. If you can't stay Jethro then I will try to understand. I will follow you where ever you will go! But please try to fight Love. Please try to fight for me! We aren't done Jethro. You promised me forever! Forever isn't now."

There was a long, long moment where she thought he wasn't responding. Then as her own heart beat seemed to falter he stirred. A weak lifting of a hand which fell back. Another pause, then he moved his head rolling it back and forth. His eyes fluttered and then opened. He fought to keep them open and in a hoarse voice spoke one word- "Lainy".

She leaned down to him, her fingers traced gently down his throat to his pulse point. It was weak and thready but present. He settled his head into his wife and gave a soft sound and fainted again.

Lainy spent another few minutes ignoring Ivy who continued to make imprecations and threats. Ivy for her part was bewildered. She had felt him sliding into death, just as she had felt Ronnie going. He had been running from the pain, what the pain was doing to his brain. But now, now she couldn't feel him at all !

Ivy gave a screech of fury and vanished. It was a good five minutes before Jethro could rouse enough to get off the floor with Lainy's help.

"I can't keep doing this Lainy…" Jethro muttered to Lainy. She helped him shower and put him to bed.

"I love you Babe. You're not going to have to do this anymore. I'm going to deal with it. Just sleep Love." She kissed his lips and slipped out leaving the door ajar.