Chapter 9

"I hope you'll be happy here Jenny" Tom morrow told the redhead opposite him.

They stood in his office having finished the tour of NCIS, Jenny's mind still on Jethro and the fact her new team would be located right next to his, so there was no avoiding him.

"I'm sure I will" Jenny told him, she liked NCIS, it was a lot different from the FBI. A lot more relaxed and focused on getting the bad guy.

"Well, lets get you and your team settled" Tom suggested, leading her out of the office and back across the catwalk, down the stairs to the bullpen where teams were already busy working.

Tom stopped when they came to an area of the bullpen next to Gibbs' team area, their desk and mirror image. Three people already stood at the desk's unpacking things from boxes.

"Agent Shepard meet your new team" Tom got their attention. "This is Paula Cassidy" he introduced the tall leggy blond, bright sapphire eyes and charming smile. "Stan Burley" a tall skinny brunet man, Jenny could already see from his belonging upon his desk and the hair jelled up into spikes and the way he looked at Paula and herself, that he was a play boy. "And William Decker" Tom continued introducing a tall, once again dark haired man, same age as Jenny maybe a little younger. "If you need any help I'm sure team Gibbs will be more than happy to help" Tom said making Gibbs and his team look up and at the new team and then walked away.

Jenny turned slowly, afraid of how Gibbs was going to react but found he was gone and his desk was empty.

Turning back to her own team, she found there was only one let and it was the one next to Gibbs, the only thing separating them was the plastic divider.

Having no other choice she sat down feeling like an animal in a Zoo. Gibbs' team watching hers intensely.

She watched as the tall almost cocky Italian man crossed over into their team and leant casually against the divider, almost leering at Paula and Jenny "…I'm very special agent Anthony DiNozzo, if you lady's need anything…." He began putting on the most charming voice he could muster before his head was jolted forward "Sorry boss" He mumbled.

"Get back to work" Gibbs growled as he walked passed with a fresh cup of coffee in his hands.

"I was just welcoming the new team" Tony tried to defend himself as she scuttled back to his desk.

Gibbs looked over the divider at the team, he scowled at each member in turn but his gaze softened at each member in turn but his gaze softened when coming to Jenny, something that only she noticed. After a couple of moments he sat down at his desk and slipped his coffee as if nothing had changed.

….

A couple of hours later Jenny had let her team go to lunch and so had Gibbs. Neither had realised the other was still in the bullpen.

Jenny heard a cough beside her and noticed he was there. An idea hit her, she'd noticed earlier that there was a small crack in the white divider that separated her team and Gibbs' and it was right next to her desk. She picked up a sticky note and then scribbled down a message and then pushed it through the gap.

Gibbs had thought he was alone, then he noticed a bright yellow piece of paper fell through the crack in the divider, that he may have created when he got angry in the past. He looked up over the divider to see the familiar redhead, typing away at her computer.

Unfolding the paper he read it 'We need to talk, Dinner tonight? J x'. He couldn't help but smile a little, he was going to write back his answer, but Abby stopped him.

"Gibbs" she called his name as she walked over to him "Why are you smiling?" she asked him "Did you find a rebound?" she asked him with a smile, happy for once he might be taking her advice.

Upon over hearing this Jenny stood up from her chair and stormed out.

"No Abby, Ah" Gibbs clenched his fists in frustration, just as things could have gone one way the moment slipped through his fingers and went through another.

"Who was that?" Abby asked looking at the now closing elevator doors that the redhead had just gone through.

"It was the new team leader" Gibbs mumbled, closing his eyes for a moment, wishing Abby hadn't interrupted them "what did you want Abby?" he asked her, sounding a little annoyed.

"I wanted to see if you wanted to go for lunch" Abby told him with a smile.

"I can't" Gibbs told her "I have dinner plans" He added.

"Abby grinned "Well my silver fox, you'll have to tell me all about it tomorrow" she said flipping a pigtail over her shoulder and then walked away.

Gibbs watched Abby leave before picking up another sticky note and scribbling a message down the through the crack in the divider and then went for coffee.

Meanwhile Jenny was in the break room, trying to take her frustration out on a vending machine, of course Gibbs could never have feelings for her, they could never try a real relationship. All she was to him was a rebound from Diane.

"Is everything alright my dear?" Jenny almost humped out of her skin when she came face to face with an older man, wearing light blue scrubs covered by a white lab coat, his glasses perched on the end of her nose.

"I'm fine" Jenny mumbled, trying to compose herself.

"I'm Doctor Donald Mallard, friends call me Ducky, I'm the ME here at NCIS" he introduced himself holding out his hand.

Jenny took his hand with a smile "Jenny Shepard, new team leader for the second major case response team" she shook his hand.

"I didn't know there was a second major case response team, it will be very good for Jethro's team, they are very much over worked" Ducky mumbled more to himself than to her, when he looked at her he could see in her eyes he'd said something to upset her, he only wondered what Gibbs had done is such a short time she'd been here.

"Yes" Jenny nodded "It was nice to meet you doctor" She said and then tried to move past him to walked out of the door.

She sighed before walking to the elevator where the girl that had been talking to Gibbs, already standing in the elevator, she stepped in and stood in the opposite corner to her.

"I'm Abby Sciuto, the forensic scientist" the Goth introduced herself.

"Special agent Jenny Shepard" She smiled at her slightly, the knots in her stomach about Jethro loosening a little, maybe she had misinterpreted what she had heard.

"I look forward to working with you" Abby told her with a grin before the elevator stopped at her floor and Abby got off a skipped back to her lab.

Jenny then got off at the next stop of the bullpen, she sighed with relief when she saw that Gibbs was gone somewhere, so she walked over to her desk and sat down, she looked up to her computer and then she saw a bright yellow, curled up piece of paper on her desk right near the crack.

She smiled before picking up and reading it, it had an address on it, what must have been Gibbs', she smiled at it before screwing it up and putting it in her pocket for later.

….

Later that evening Gibbs stood in his basement, wearing worn out jeans, red hoodie, working on his next boat, brunt the last that he'd named after Diane.

He didn't know if Jenny had got his message, he'd not seen her for the rest of the day, or he had but with both of their teams around they couldn't really talk, he hopped she would turn up, he wanted to talk to her, to ask her why she'd left him in Paris like she had, why she hadn't contacted him sooner.

He heard his front door open, it could have been anyone but he wished it was her, it had to be, no one else had a reason to come and see him, he stepped away from the frame of the boat he had been sanding.

Hearing the footsteps above him stop, then start again he wondered what had happened then his visitor appeared at the top of his stairs.

She took his breath away, Jenny stood there dressed in a knee length, green dress which had a little shimmer to it, a green jacket, her hair curled around her shoulders, a pair of silver high heels dangling from her hand, to stop her from falling down the stairs.

He couldn't help but watch her legs move as she walked down the stairs, "Jethro" she smiled at him as she reached the bottom, her smile was just how he remembered it, bright, happy and made her look even more stunning, if that was possible.

"Jen" he smiled at her, taking a step closer to her, so glad she was here.

"How have you been?" she asked him, all of a sudden feeling a little awkward.

"Up and down" he told her "My divorce was finalised" he added after a moment, his own way of telling her he was free to be with who he wanted, to do what he wanted. "How about you?" he asked.

"Andrew and I sorted things out" she told him, "It turns out he fell out of love with me, I just wonder if I ever did love him, if I just said yet to marrying him because he was safe" she admitted.

Gibbs nodded, he still thought Andrew was asshole and that if he ever met him in the street, not that he knew what he looked like even if he did pass him in the street. "Why'd you leave Jen?" he asked her after a moment.

Jenny shook her head "It wouldn't have worked if we'd started something in Paris, we would have come back to D.C been out of the haze of Paris and realised that what we were doing was wrong, we needed to figure out what was happening in our lives and sort it out" she began to ramble, making Gibbs smile, she liked to talk and he didn't.

"I think my life is sorted out, how about you?" Gibbs asked her.

"Well I left the FBI and started a new life at NCIS, so yeah I think my life or at least my personal life is sorted out" she told him once again, rambling maybe more than she should have. "I mean maybe if we try, not tell anyone as it's against the rules but eventually if it wor…." She began but Gibbs cut her off.

Gibbs found it so cute, he reached out and tilted her chin up to his "Jen, shut up" he said with a slight chuckle making her blush, she tended to talk too much when she was nervous, he leant down and kissed her, she kissed him back, both blinking back to Paris in the ice-rink.

TBC…

Do you guys want an epilogue? Or what? Suggestions wanted please, should I end it here?