After hanging up the phone Jenny decided that a hot shower was in order, try and ease out the tension in her muscles, she turned the spray on and was thoroughly annoyed to find the water was freezing cold. She threw open the cupboard in her upper hallway that hid the boiler and noted with dismay that the pilot light was off. She tried the usual tricks that would get the temperamental heater to work but to no avail, so sighing in defeat she called the emergency plumber and had to make do with a cold shower. She had just finished pulling on her clothes when the doorbell went, Jenny glanced out of the window and saw that the plumber had actually arrived as promptly as he had promised.

Running down the stairs Jenny threw open the door and shot a polite smile at the grinning man on the doorstep, he wasn't very old, maybe late twenties, he was tall with dark spiky hair. He peered past her into the hallway as he asked, 'Miss Sheppard? You called for an emergency plumber?'

'Yes that's right', Jenny showed him in and beckoned him to follow her up the stairs, 'I have absolutely no hot running water which is obviously a big inconveniance'

'I'll bet, I'll have a look and hopefully I should be able to do something about it right now'

'That would be great', Jenny then realised she had left the front door open and told him, 'I'll leave you to it', with that she headed back down the stairs.

Just as she was about to shut the door over, a car pulled into her driveway and a very familiar woman stepped out. Jenny walked down her front steps and hugged her arms around herself she waited for her friend to make her way to the house. Mellissa slammed her car door shut and pulled her dark blonde wavy hair out of her jacket collar, she smiled at Jenny, 'So what's the problem'

'I don't really fancy talking about it on my doorstep, the net curtains will be twitching already, they're not used to seeing me home at this time of the day'

Mellissa laughed as she breezed past her into the hallway, 'Well you are a complete workaholic, you can't blame them, especially since from that van sitting outside I can tell that I'm not the only one here'

'My hot water's out, the plumber's upstairs is fixing it just now', Jenny led the way into the kitchen, 'You want a tea or coffee'

'Coffee would be great, I was up most of the night helping Chris with his science project, which he had of course left until the last possible second to even start the damn thing'

Jenny smiled as she listened to Mellissa's rant about her fifteen year old son's latest exploits. She and Mellissa had been great friends ever since James had brought her home to meet everyone just over twenty years ago. Mellissa was the closest to her in age out of all her cousin's wives, she was only three years older than Jenny. When they had first met, Mel had been a newly graduated lawyer who had just started work at a prestigious law firm, after her second child though she had given up her career to focus on raising her family. Eight years and another child later Mel decided to join legal aid, she was fed up of being at home all day but felt she had left it too long to join a firm and didn't want the long hours anyway and since they didn't need the money she had decided that it was the perfect solution.

In many ways Jenny envied her friend, she was happily married with a beautiful family and she loved her work, her life was perfect and it was almost the complete opposite to hers. Despite this they had remained undeniably close over the years, each one confiding in the other when things got tough.

Sean Allen whistled under his breath as he took the opportunity to glance around the upstairs hallway, it was a nice house, full of expensive ornaments he bet they were worth quite a bit as well. He moved away from the boiler and took a quick look in each of the bedrooms, noting that there was some more stuff in every one. Part of him wondered whether or not he could lift some of this stuff and sneak it out but decided against it, she was in the house, she would know who had taken it and he was only just off of his probation, he didn't fancy going back behind bars.

Slamming the cupboard door closed he started to head down the stairs to get paid, Sean paused just out of sight of the kitchen as he heard the two woman's voices float out into the hallway,

'So why are you home today anyway?'

'Oh I took the morning off'

'I'm sorry you, Jennifer Sheppard actually took some time off! I think I need to cheek if hell just froze over'

'Oh ha ha, I'll go back this afternoon, no doubt I'll now be stuck in the office until the small hours of the morning because of it'

Sean couldn't help but smile, that was perfect, he could come back while it was dark and grab the stuff then and no one would know it was him. He moved into the kitchen doorway and the pretty red head from earlier smiled at him,

'How did you get on?'

'Good, I had to replace one of the parts but it'll work like a charm from now on'

'I should hope so from how much it cost me to get you out here on such short notice', Jenny reached over and opened her purse counting out and then handing over the agreed sum of money.

Sean smiled, 'It was a pleasure doing business with you', as he walked away he added silently in his head, more than you'll ever know.

As the front door slammed shut Mel narrowed her eyes and took a sip of her coffee before asking, 'So come on then, what was so important that you phoned me at nine in the morning and asked me to drive for an hour so we could talk? I mean don't get me wrong I'm relieved that you're finally opening up, you had us all worried for a while', Mel let out a strained laugh, 'Becca has been driving us mad, do you know how many family meetings she has forced on us to discuss your behaviour over the last few months? Let me just tell you it was far too many'

Jenny placed her cup of tea on the counter, 'I told her I was fine'

'Well no offence but it's pretty obvious that you weren't. I wanted to talk to you when you finally turned up for dinner but with everything that happened I never got the chance', Mel cocked her head to the side, 'Is this about your dad?', If she was honest Mel didn't know too much of the story surrounding Jenny's father, she had been on the scene when he shot himself and had seen how badly her friend had taken it and knew that she had joined NCIS because of it but didn't know why. Jenny and Becca kept most of the story to themselves, even James admitted he had no idea why Jenny had so suddenly decided NCIS was the career path for her.

Jenny frowned and shook her head, 'No it's not that. Mel I'm pregnant'

That had been the last thing she had been expecting to hear and Mel's mouth just about smacked off the counter in shock as she stuttered out, 'Um wow, congratulations, I…..I didn't even know you were seeing anyone'

'I'm not', Jenny raised her tear filled green eyes to meet Mel's brown ones, she whispered, 'It's all such a mess'

'Hey Jenny calm down, it can't be that bad'

'Oh no believe me it is, he hates me, we've barely spoken for the past month. At first when I found out I just didn't want to believe it, it took me almost a month to go and even have the pregnancy confirmed and this morning', Jenny took in a shaky breath, 'This morning I was meant to be having a termination'

'I take it you couldn't go through with it?'

'No I want this baby, it just took me a while to realise it. But I just don't know what to do next'

Mel drummed her fingernails off of the counter, 'You need to tell the father Jenny, he needs to step up to the plate'

'He'll hate me, even more than he already does'

'That doesn't matter, you still need to tell him'

Jenny turned to look out the window as she spoke, 'I know, I do, really. It's just I never wanted it too be like this, I can't keep going on this way, I need to make some big changes and I don't know how or eve what they are'

'Take the rest of the day off Jenny, take some time to get your head straight, you can't go into work like this and you know it. Then when you have things straight call him but do it tonight, it's only going to get harder the longer you leave it.'

'You're right', Jenny absentmindedly nodded, 'I've got the rest of the day off anyway, I may as well take advantage of it, then tonight I'll call him, ask him to come round here so we can talk'

Mel smiled encouragingly, 'You never know he might take it better than you think'

Jenny let out a small laugh, 'Oh no, believe me he will not take it well', she looked almost panicked for a moment, 'You can't tell anyone what I've just told you, especially not Becca, I mean I will do it eventually but I need to sort things out in my own head first and figure out how involved the father wants to be before I face her and her inquisition'

Mel couldn't help but laugh. 'Oh don't worry I won't feed you too the wolfs but again don't wait too long she's driving us all nuts with her worrying about you'

Rolling her eyes Jenny replied, 'I can imagine'

Getting up from the stool she was perched on Mel paused, 'That's not just it though is it? I mean when we saw you that day at dinner you couldn't have know, so what was bugging you then?'

Jenny shook her head, 'Mel I don't want to talk about it'

Knowing not too push her luck she didn't ask anything else she just smiled, 'Ok but if you change your mind just call', she leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, 'Take care and let me know how tonight goes'

'I will, I promise', Jenny watched as Mel ran back out to her car and waved as she pulled out of the driveway, she wasn't looking forward too tonight, she had a horrible feeling it was going to be one hell of a night.

Next chapter might not be a very long one but since I've still too write it I can't say for sure.

Am all happy because I've finally figured out a plot-line for my re-write of tangled web :) Don't worry though I plan to finish this story first. Also happy because I have gotten the most reviews for this story than for any other I've written so please keep reviewing it's making me smile :)

xxxxxx