Drawing up outside Director Sheppard's townhouse at 0630 hours Stan Burley tapped his finger's off of the steering wheel of the black armored car. He sat for a few minutes frowning, usually the woman was out of the house in two seconds flat, normally while talking rapidly on her cell phone, today however there was no sign of her. Opening the door he stepped out and moved towards the house, his hand on his holster, ready to draw his weapon if necessary. He knocked on the heavy front door, there was no reply, he knelt down and peered through the letter box and his heart stopped. He could see a delicate pale arm thrown out from behind the wall that hid the staircase. Using all of his strength Stan kicked the door open and rushed in.

For a brief moment all he could do was stare at a woman who had once seemed so indestructible, she was now sprawled out on her staircase in a silk robe and nightgown, one side of her face was badly bruised and a trickle of blood had dried onto her cheek, it had obviously came from a large deep cut across her forehead. Slowly he leaned down and felt for a pulse, undeniably relieved when he found one, for a brief moment he thought she had fallen at some point during the night, then he noticed the bruising that marred her wrists, as though someone had gripped her tightly. His eyes narrowed as he took in the upended table in the upper hallway and he connected the dots, she hadn't fallen, she'd been pushed. He yanked out his cell phone out from his suit jacket pocket and called for the ambulance, he then dialed the number for NCIS to let them know what had happened. In the back of his mind Stan couldn't help but wonder how long she's lain there for, after all no one had seen or heard from her yesterday since she had booked the day off. He knelt down next to her and pushed a strand of hair out of her face, for all her faults the woman didn't deserve this.

Becca lay her head against her husband's shoulder, he took her hand in his, entwining their finger's, giving her the silent comfort she needed. She glanced around the waiting room, her three boy's and their wives' were all here, all waiting to hear what the doctor had to say. It all seemed so surreal, that someone had pushed her Jenny down her stairs, why? Why would someone do that to her? Becca tried but she just couldn't understand.

Her head jerked up as she saw the doctor who was in charge of Jenny's case walk over. Becca jumped to her feet, noting the man looked very nervous, mind you with eight extremely intimidating people glaring at him he could hardly be blamed for it. He cleared his throat awkwardly, obviously not sure whether or not he could speak freely in front of everyone. Her impatience growing Becca snapped,

'So are you going to tell us what's happening with my niece or just stand there clearing your throat?'

Thomas wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder in an attempt to placate her, she seemed to realise she had been slightly harsh and sighed, 'I'm sorry, we're just worried, we just want to know if she's ok'

The doctor gave a small smile, 'It's ok, it's a stressful time. I'm afraid though that I don't have the best of news for you. Jennifer's condition is serious although for the time being she is stable. We are most concerned about her head injury, her head CT and MRI have both shown a mild swelling on her brain which is causing her to remain unconscious, we also found a small sub cranial hemorrhage. In some cases we would operate but because of the location of the bleed we feel it would be better to give Jennifer's body a chance to try and reabsorb the blood, we would really only resort to surgery if her condition deteriorates and the bleeding increases, we'll be keeping a close eye on her. Apart from that she is suffering from some bruising to her ribs, we called down the obstetrician who did an ultrasound and miraculously the baby is in perfect health'

Becca frowned, 'What baby?'

The doctor faltered, 'Your niece is nine weeks pregnant, it was in her notes, I'm sorry I assumed you knew'

'She can't be', Becca looked at the doctor bewildered, 'She isn't even seeing anyone and anyway she would have told us, if she didn't tell me then at the very least she would have told Mel'

At the sound of her name the woman in question spoke up, 'Actually Becca she did tell me', she visibly winced as the group swirled to look at her, the doctor was awkwardly hanging around not sure what to do.

Becca spluttered out, 'When? And why the hell didn't you tell us!', her voice began to rise hysterically, 'You knew we have been worried sick about her!'

Mel wrapped her arms around herself, 'She only told me yesterday, she was planning on telling the father last night and she asked me not to mention it until she had spoken to him'

'I don't believe this!', Becca turned her attention back to the doctor, 'Will they both be ok?'

'At this moment in time as long as Jennifer's condition remains stable the baby should be fine, unfortunately Jennifer is in a coma and we don't know when or indeed if she'll wake up, it's going to be a game of chance I'm afraid, with these type of head injuries we can't guess what is going to happen next or if there will be any lasting damage if she does wake up, I really am very sorry, I wish I had better news'

Becca nodded her head and choked out, 'Right', she turned to head towards the door and Thomas reached out and grabbed her arm,

'Becca where are you going?'

'Jenny's house, I want to get her some of her own things and I need…..I need to get some air', she looked up at her husband pleadingly, 'Will you please sit with her, make sure she's not alone'

'Of course I will'

'I won't be long', with that she turned and walked of of the hospital, breathing deeply.

Gibbs walked slowly into Jenny's house, he still couldn't believe this had happened. He felt unbelievably guilty, he should have been here last night, he could have stopped whoever had pushed her or at least gotten her medical help a lot quicker. Instead he had ignored her, choosing to go for a walk to clear his head. He watched on as the FBI took photo's of the bottom of the stairs, the small marks of blood on the floor. At first he had tried to demand that Assistant Director Vance hand the case over to his team, he needed to catch this guy, Vance had refused, saying that it was better if this case was handled by an outside Agency, that they would be able to keep their personal feelings out of it. He had at the very least agreed to give Fornell's team the case though.

Gibbs walked over to where his team were standing, overseeing the proceedings, making sure that nothing was missed.

Fornell noticed his friend's arrival and headed over, 'Jethro'

'What have you got so far?'

'I'm fine thanks', he took in the man's glare and decided it would be safer to continue, 'Not a lot, no signs of forced entry and apart from the bruising on the Director's wrists and the signs of a struggle we have no evidence. We're just about finished here and then we'll head over to the hospital'

'Any news on how she is?'

'All we know is that she's stable but still unconscious, you not going to see her?'

Gibbs shook his head, he felt too guilty to go near her, he felt as though he could have stopped this, 'No, right now I just want the Bastard caught'

'Fair enough, well that's us done, I'll see you later', Fornell nodded at Gibbs team and gestured at his own Agent's to leave. On the way out he passed by a harried looking Rebecca, she rushed into the room and stopped slightly startled when she saw the four stranger's standing in her nieces hallway,

'Are you the Agents investigating Jennifer's attack?'

It was Gibbs who answered, 'No, the FBI has taken over the case, we're NCIS, we're just making sure they don't miss anything'

'Yes but who are you?'

'I'm Agent Jethro Gibbs', he gestured at the rest of his team, 'These are Agent's McGee and Dinozzo and this is our Mossad liaison Officer Ziva David'

Becca's eyebrow quirked slightly as she looked Gibbs up and down, 'Oh you're Agent Gibbs!', she took in his confused look, 'Abby mentioned you once', she offered him her hand, 'I'm Rebecca Mason, Jennifer's aunt'

'How is she?'

Becca walked into the study and they all followed, watching as she poured herself a large scotch before sipping at it, 'She's in a coma and they're not sure she'll come out of it'. She shook her head and began to talk, it wasn't really directed at anyone it was as if she just couldn't keep in her own worries anymore.

'I should have seen this coming, I knew something was going to happen but I just thought that eventually Jenny would come to us, that she would open up', she let out a laugh, 'How could I have been so naïve? I have raised that girl since she was three years old, she is like my own daughter, I know her well enough to know she hides her feelings. You know my sister Eloise and her husband Jasper tried for six years before they had Jenny, they worshipped the ground she walked on. Then Ell was in a car accident, Jasper was away at the time as he often was, they let me see her before she went into surgery and I promised her that I would look after Jenny as though she was my own, she didn't make it out of theatre and I swore I would follow through. For years everything was fine, she spent most of her time with us apart from a few weeks here and there when her father was home', Becca smiled at the memory, 'Jenny adored her dad and he was so proud of her', her face fell, 'I still can't understand why he did it, he must have known she would be the one to find him, he must have known that it would have destroyed her'

Gibbs's gut was churning as he asked, 'What would have destroyed her?'

Becca looked up, it was almost as though she'd forgotten anyone else was in the room with her, she took another sip before continuing, 'Jasper was a Colonel, always away on business, devoted to his job. Then thirteen years ago he was accused of selling weapons to a man called Rene Benoit', she took in the look of recognition on the team's faces, 'I thought you might have heard of him. Anyway Jasper was suspended and was awaiting an enquiry, Jennifer of course refused to believe that her father would betray his country and one day she went to check on him, she got caught in traffic and arrived later than she had planned. She let herself in and walked into this very study, knowing this was where he always sat, turns out just ten minutes before she had arrived Jasper had decided to blow his brains out'

The team gasped but Becca continued regardless, 'It was ruled as a left handed suicide, although it was always slightly suspicious because of a bruise of a fingerprint on one of the pressure points on one of his hands, at one point there was a question of whether he had been about to put Benoit away and he had framed and then murdered him. This was later disregarded because of lack of proof but Jenny latched onto it, she couldn't bring herself to believe he would have done it. She then decided to join NCIS, determined that eventually she could work her way up enough to bring him down and clear Jasper's name. I could see it was destroying her, the further up the greasy pole she got the more distant and closed off she became, she became completely focused on putting him away. Then a few months ago she informed me that Rene Benoit was dead, didn't even tell me how, I thought at first that would be the end of it but she continued to get worse, I think she felt she had failed'

Gibbs didn't know what to say, suddenly everything fell into place, why Jenny had been so obsessed, he understood it, he had been there, the need to get revenge for the people you loved seemed to overrule everything else, he was so lost in his own thoughts that it took him a moment to realise that Becca was still talking.

'I should have been firmer with her, should have made her talk to me, I could see she was struggling but I just thought that she would talk to someone. I tried to talk her out of living here when she came back to D.C. I knew it wasn't good for her, the night after her father's funeral I found her here, bleaching the floor trying to get out the blood stains', Becca kicked back the rug to expose the pale staining of the wood, 'Her hands were raw, I didn't want her here I never felt she could heal if she stuck herself in the past but she just wouldn't listen'. Becca looked back at the stain for a moment and let out a deep sigh before heading to walk out of the room, 'See yourselves out please, I have a couple of things to do and I'd rather be alone'

Gibbs watched the woman head up the stairs before turning his attention back to his team, who were standing in a shocked silence, 'Come on let's go back to the Agency, see if we can find anything out'

Fornell sat with Mellissa, asking her about her conversation with Jenny, she sighed before replying,

'She planned to tell the father last night, she was going to phone him ask him to come over so they could talk. Jenny seemed convinced that he wouldn't take it very well, although she didn't say why', she gasped, 'You don't think he did this, do you?'

'I'm afraid it's a possibility, we are currently pulling her call records so we should have an I.D. soon', Fornell looked up too see Agent Langer beckoning him over, 'Sorry if you'll excuse me'

Mel's eyes followed his gaze, 'No of course not, go, I want this guy caught so do what you have to, you don't have to explain'

Giving her a curt nod Fornell made his way over to his Agent, 'This better be good'

'That depends on the definition, Director Sheppard only called one person yesterday after her sister in law left'

'The father?'

'I think so but….'

'Spit it out Langer!'

'She called Agent Gibbs, quite a few times actually, the first time he cut her off a few seconds into the conversation, the next three times he didn't answer. The last conversation took place at about 2200 hours and lasted for 2 minutes and 35 seconds, the Doctor's reckon she fell about half an hour later'

Fornell groaned, 'DAMMIT! We're going to have to bring him in'

'Boss do you think…..?'

'I don't know, I really don't know'

Gibbs sat at his desk, tapping his pen impatiently off of the desk, as the guilt started gnawing away at him again, he should have been there for Jenny, he had seen that she was hiding something and that it was destroying her but he had stood back and done nothing. Even when she had asked him to come and see him he had ignored her plea, if she didn't pull through it was on his head because he should have been there, he should have protected her but once again he had failed to protect the woman he loved. He looked up as the doors pinged open and Fornell and Langer stepped out. They walked up to his desk and much to the teams interest Fornell muttered, 'I'm really sorry about this Jethro'

For one horrible moment Gibbs thought that Jenny had died but then he noticed Vance making his way down to the bullpen, he joined the group, the team were now standing and so Gibbs did the same. Vance asked, 'Do you have to do this?'

Fornell growled, 'With the evidence we have we have no choice', he turned to Gibbs and pulled out his cuffs, 'Leroy Jethro Gibbs I am arresting you on the suspicion of the attempted murder of Director Jennifer Sheppard'

I know they wouldn't have arrested him quite so soon but I wanted dramatic. Let me know what you thought :)

xxxxx