Diane looked Gibbs in the eye chuckling, "It's funny how you still come to her rescue."

"What are you talking about, Diane? Have you lost your mind?"

"No, Jethro, I haven't," Diane said shaking her head. "But apparently you have."

Gibbs glared at her not saying anything expecting her to continue on with her rambling. He wasn't disappointed when she resumed.

"What are you doing with the Colonel, Jethro?" Diane asked her voice toning down from anger to concern. "First it was Stephanie, then Ginger and however many others in between and after … now the Colonel. Haven't you had enough?"

Gibbs opened his mouth to defend himself and his actions. He didn't even know what he was defending against in the first place.

"When are you gonna stop using people to get over those you really want?" Diane asked him meeting his confused blue eyes. "You used me to get over Shannon, for a while you used Stephanie … then you met Jenny and you fell for her."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jethro replied, his voice low. It was an unsaid agreement between Jenny and himself that they would deny their history, one less thing to put her high position at risk.

"Sure you don't Jethro," Diane muttered. "I'm sure you don't."

"But hypothetically…"

"Stop stringing the Colonel along when you know that at the end, you're gonna end up with the Director anyway. As much as I hate her guts, she's good for you. You don't just let a good thing go."

"We were a good thing, weren't we?" Gibbs asked her. Diane was a good distraction; sometimes he thought that he might even have loved her. The problem was that the second time around, he wasn't letting himself get attached because of he knew that he would get hurt if everything would take a turn for the worst.

"Sometimes," Diane shrugged. "You and I both know that nobody's gonna be able to be as great as you and Shannon, but you and Jenny."

"There is no 'me and Jenny', Dee. Never has, never will."

"Well," Diane paused. "Just don't wait around too long. Don't make her wait around too long. You'll have your own Emily someday."

"I did, remember?"

"Didn't Kelly want a sibling?"

Gibbs nodded.

"Well then," Diane said. She reached over and pressed the elevator to resume its course. "You're a good man, Jethro. You deserve her. Just… ignorance may be bliss… but you can't stay ignorant for long."

Gibbs had a feeling that it wasn't Hollis that she was referring to.

-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-

To say that the conversation in her office was awkward would be an understatement. She knew that the question about her and Gibbs' past relationship would come up; in fact it had come up an awful lat lately.

First, it had been the team's questions full of good-natured curiosity.

Then it was Todd, the doctor from after the coma. He had been a nice addition to her life, especially when she needed to stop thinking about Gibbs being down in Mexico, but he, like every other guy needed someone who could open up to him.

Hollis came next, but for some reason she never quite gathered up enough courage to flat out ask her, instead she just tried to pry out whatever information she could from everyone but the two in question.

Now Stephanie wanted to know. She wasn't bitter or rude about it either, but Jen just flat out lied. There was no doubt Stephanie had known she didn't tell the truth but she let it go sensing it was a touchy topic.

Jen was leading her out into her outer office and as she made her way to the catwalk Stephanie grabbed her elbow, stopping her. She raised her eyebrow as to ask why the sudden interruption from their walk to the bullpen.

"I know you must not want to talk about it, but I always wondered what happened." Stephanie said not really comfortable bringing up the topic.

She wasn't exactly sure what this woman was asking, but if it had anything to do with the previous conversation she had a pretty good guess. But, feigning ignorance might detour Stephanie from continuing on with this talk. She just raised her eyebrow higher.

"Between you and Jethro, what happened? You guys must have been good together. Why did it end?"

Jen was thankful that Cynthia had left for a coffee run, even though she had no intention on answering the question completely it would not bode well for her assistant to hear the topic even being brought up.

"Work happened." She said hoping her answer would suffice.

"It always does with him," Stephanie half whispered, there was definitely some bitterness left over.

"That time, it wasn't his fault." Jen said gaze on the ground, like she was remembering times back when they were happy together. She just pulled herself together and nodded towards the stairs.

"Shall we?" She asked with a forced smile.

Stephanie just nodded dumbly, surprised that she got that much out of this woman who was so well guarded.

They made their way down the stairs, Hollis Mann would be waiting at the bullpen to escort Stephanie out, but just as they stepped into the bullpen, so did Gibbs and Diane.

"Oh no, train wreck," Tony muttered. "I wanna turn away, but I can't!"

"Agent Gibbs," Jenny greeted with a nod, her head titling over at Diane's direction a bit mentally asking what she was still doing there. She had expected Gibbs to escort Diane out of the building as soon as she was out of her office.

"Director," Gibbs said with a shrug, his hand dropping from the small of Diane's back.

"Dee," Stephanie greeted Diane with a hug coming between Jenny and Diane. A smart move in Gibbs' book.

"Steph," Diane greeted Stephanie.

"If you're all quite done there, I'd like my witness back," Hollis intervened the awkward situation, but she didn't help matters. If anything she just made it worse.

The three redheads looked over at Hollis with scrutinizing eyes. They were all trying to see what it was in her that captivated Jethro's attention. It was obvious she was pretty, but what else about her interested Jethro?

Jenny coughed a bit to gain their attention. "Colonel, I was just assuring Gibbs' – your witness, that Agent Gibbs can separate himself from the personal matters of this case."

"Well, I'll monitor him closely, Director," Hollis replied. It wasn't intended to be a hit to either three of his exes but even as it came out like that, Hollis couldn't say that she was sorry for it. It was her turn with Leroy Jethro Gibbs, as far as she was concerned, those three women gave up their rights to him a long time ago.

Diane, Jenny and Stephanie all shared a look.

"I'm sure you will," Diane muttered loud enough for to be heard by the small circle.

Gibbs shot her one of his infamous Gibbs glare earning a smile from Stephanie.

"That the look you were talking about?" Stephanie asked Jennifer who nodded her head.

Jenny chuckled a bit. "Yeah. That's the one."

Hollis turned to look at her current beau seeing the look on his face. She smiled to herself.

"Yep, we've all seen that one," Hollis replied not wanting to be ousted in this little pissing match they had going on.

"You need a new look, Jethro," Diane said patting his back moving closer to the other two redheads leaving Gibbs to one side of the circle with Hollis Mann. "That one's getting old."

Diane then turned over to Jenny. "Can I take her home?"

"Well, Ms. Flynn can leave as far as I'm concerned," Jenny said. "Unless…"

"No, no," Gibbs butted in wanting them out of his sight. He couldn't take all of them at once, especially when three out of four of them had united against him, or with him, he couldn't really tell. "She can leave."

"For now," Hollis said wanting the last word.

Tony looked over at Ziva with a smile. "Told you, train wreck."

Stephanie and Diane walked over to the elevator to get out of the building. "You talked to Jethro?"

"Mhm," Diane replied.

"Is he as blind as she is?"

"Only a bit more than a lot," Diane confirmed with a smile on her face shaking her head. Sometimes, Leroy Jethro Gibbs could be so stupid.