Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

"Who just walked in to NCIS?" Gibbs asked Henry, the security guard. His voice had been a little dazed, but it was getting stronger now as he recognised the importance of what he had seen.

"Ex-Director Jenny Shepard. She just walked right through the front door looking like a woman on a mission. Do you want me to inform the Sec-Nav? He should probably know she is alive, since Vance is unavailable now." Gibbs listened to what Henry was telling him, glad that at least someone over there had realised they weren't hallucinating and had called him. This was a serious situation, Jenny could have easily fooled him into believing she was innocent and then gone to pick off his team while he wasn't around. He didn't think she would, his gut said she wouldn't, but as a leader he had to protect his team by preparing for the worst.

"No, don't inform the Sec-Nav, Henry. I'll call DiNozzo and have him find her; we can deal with this in house." Henry agreed and Gibbs hung up, slipping his phone in his pocket and turning to look in Abby's curious eyes.

"What did he say?" she asked worriedly, his comment of handling it 'in house' telling her it was about Jenny. He sighed and pulled her into another hug while he decided what to tell her. Jenny could be going in to NCIS to kill someone, so that put everyone at risk. He should have told Henry to gather security and find her, subdue her and put her in a cell until he got there, but he trained Jenny, even if she couldn't remember. She only missed if she wanted to, which was what had made her such a good field agent. When the two of them had been together, there hadn't been a criminal that could escape them.

Sometimes he was annoyed with his current teams' lack of skill, but then they would do something that would completely erase those thoughts. Ziva had taken down the Iranian Intelligence operative that was framing her and tricked her into confessing, something that she would never have done before joining his team. Tony acted up all of the time, often appearing to be clowning around and avoiding working, only to pull out a complete search with results, much to his colleagues' disbelief. Tim would spout ridiculous computer spiel, when he could form a sentence, which all sounded superfluous to the case, and would then pull a rabbit out of his hat; like he had with Ari's picture match, which he had found in a few hours, while Gibbs had been looking for it for weeks. All together his team was incredible, but his mind still reminded him that it took four of them to be as effective as he and Jenny had been. He needed to get to NCIS and confront her himself, but there was the small matter of Abby and the person or person's parked outside of his house.

"Jenny just walked into NCIS. I've told security to stand down and I'm going to call Tony. It'll be fine Abs, Jenny won't be hurt." Abby's eyes widened and she gripped his arm, making him meet her eyes. She shook her head at him, annoyed he could be so cavalier with Jenny's safety.

"You don't know that Gibbs!" she whined, and Jethro smiled at her in that 'I'm Gibbs, I know everything' way that made her feel slightly foolish.

"I do know, Abs. They won't shoot unless she pulls a weapon on them. I also know Jenny. She won't try to run unless she knows she can get away. If she does, it just means Tony and Ziva gave her an opening." Abby folded her arms and gave him her seldom used puppy glare; the one that was threatening, but just too cute to refuse. Gibbs felt his resolve crumble and fought the urge to roll his eyes, she'd be very unhappy if he did that and he would be spending his money on 'please forgive me' Caf-Pow's for the next few weeks.

"We need to go to NCIS, Gibbs! Jenny wouldn't hurt me; we can prove she's on our side!" he sighed in defeat and dismissed the idea to call Ducky over to watch her; he would have to bring her with him.

"We will, Abs. I just need to sort something out first. Stay here." Jethro gave her a final squeeze and then stood up, walking out of the bedroom door and down the stairs before she could protest. He needed to get himself and Abby out to his car so they could get to NCIS, but his gut told him that was an incredibly stupid idea while there was that car parked out front, so he needed a distraction. He pulled his phone back out of his pocket and dialled a familiar number.


Jenny rolled her neck experimentally and stood up, accepting the hand that Ducky held out to her. She smiled at him. Ever the gentleman, Ducky. People could really learn a lot from the elderly M.E.; his manners put most men to shame. She rubbed a hand across her brow, the remnants of the headache irritating her, but not as much as the knowledge of how clueless she had been these past few weeks. She couldn't believe she had listened to Kort's ridiculous lies and thought they were the truth! She was acutely embarrassed and deeply furious, especially when she recalled what she had done. She had attacked her people, tried to kill Timothy and Ziva and nearly succumbed to the urge to put Abby out of her misery. Oh, poor Abby, she had almost witnessed the young girl's rape. She was incredibly thankful she'd still had the integrity to save her, though the words Abby had spoken to her still caused her heart to constrict in pain. 'Mommy', a name she was nearly too old to hear from her own flesh and blood. She had never required a family until Abby had said that to her, it had awakened something in her that craved the unconditional love that her own child would give her. It was unlikely she would get one though, even if she found a man willing to have her, which Jethro wouldn't, he had turned her down already after all. The placement of her bullet wounds could cause serious problems for carrying a child. What if she had a hole through her womb? Would that really matter though? It wasn't as if she would live long enough to have one with this disease killing her. She had to protect Jethro; she had failed in the desert because she had been incapacitated too quickly. This was her second chance to end things her way.

Jenny shook her head, trying to banish the thoughts of family and death that tormented her and brushed imaginary dirt off of her clothes, while she ordered her thoughts, sorting her new memories from the old. Her hands stilled on her hips and her mouth dropped open a little in shock. Oh god, I kissed Jethro. Her cheeks flushed and she heard Ducky chuckle next to her. She turned to him mutely, wondering what could possibly be funny in the world after remembering his betrayed face when she had run from his house, his own gun pointed at him.

"Don't worry about him my dear; Jethro is wise enough to recognise genuine feelings, particularly from you. I'm sure your eye still twitches when you lie, such a thing cannot be erased by the loss of memories." Jenny raised her eyebrows at him, surprised.

"How do you know I'm thinking of Jethro?" she asked softly, and Ducky waggled a finger at her fondly.

"You wore the same expression a great many times in your first few years on Jethro's team, and many more during our time in Europe. However…" His own expression became pensive for a moment, "the look you wore throughout your Directorship was much more regretful." Jenny gave him a sad half smile and then decided enough chit-chat had passed between them. They needed to get down to business, Jethro was still in danger. The Sec-Nav was in on the plot to have her kill Jethro and his team, and her memories had made everything else she had overheard make sense. Leon, the one that Sec-Nav had referred to, was obviously Vance; he had been framed by the Sec-Nav who had been backed by all of the unknowing employees of NCIS, who had just seen him as an intruder into their family unit. He was the ideal scapegoat, but he didn't deserve this. They would have to hope they could find enough evidence to link him with the plot, or Leon would get the blame regardless.

"When I woke up, I couldn't remember anything, not my own name, the faces of my parents, nothing. Kort was there, he told me he was my brother and began to sow the seeds of hate for my targets. He said I was an assassin and that my targets were my friends, but they betrayed me and tried to shoot me to death. I believed him." she whispered the last part, ashamed of herself for even thinking that they would willingly shoot her.

"Who were your targets?" Ducky asked, already knowing part of the answer, her attempts on Ziva and McGee being common knowledge in the group since the gathering in Abby's lab, when a few truths had come out, like Jenny's death being falsified and her drugging, that she still probably don't know about.

"Abby, Ziva, Timothy, Tony and Jethro. Especially Jethro. He told me that even if I failed to kill the others I had to kill Gibbs. I think he will be waiting for me to go to Jethro's house, so he can clean up all of his remaining loose ends in one place." Ducky nodded, it made perfect sense.

"What about the Sec-Nav and Vance?" Jenny frowned as she thought of how Leon must be feeling, hidden away somewhere, his life in the Sec-Nav's hands.

"Leon was framed. Sec-Nav heard how you all thought Leon had done away with me and decided to run with it. He's keeping him in a secure facility until something happens on Kort's end, I don't know where." Ducky's eyes widened in horror, Leon was innocent? He had helped to condemn him, and he wasn't even guilty…

"My God, we were so sure… Leon and Todd were the only two who had the opportunity…" he trailed off, closing his eyes in mortification. Jenny's head snapped to him and she just knew he was referring to something that involved her.

"Opportunity for what?" Ducky opened his eyes and stepped closer to her, hesitantly taking one of her hands between his and grasping it tightly, dragging out the moment so he could figure out how to tell her.

"You aren't ill, Jennifer." Her eyes narrowed at him and she opened her mouth to interject, but he patted her hand lightly, silently asking her to let him finish. "Jethro asked me what you were dying from, so Abby and I took a look at the test I ran for you and she saw something I didn't. Your symptoms were artificially induced by drugs. We investigated further and found that you were being continually dosed through your Bourbon." Jenny stared at him, his words not really sinking in. This was all some sort of dream wasn't it? Or maybe she had died and this was her Hell; where someone she trusted had been slipping her drugs to make her think she was dying, where she betrayed the ones she loved, tried to kill them and then found that everything she thought was true was really a lie. She had thrown her life away because she had believed she was dying, she had given up on so many things… "I should have seen it the first time around, then this may have never happened. I'm sorry Jennifer." His softly spoken words drew her from her self pity and she took another look at the M.E. He was tired, drained and his face spoke of a weariness brought only by deep guilt. She didn't want him to feel that way, it wasn't his fault, it was hers. She should have told Gibbs she was ill, then maybe he would have asked the right questions to bring all of this to light a month or two ago, but she hadn't. There was no use crying over spilt milk. She turned his hand over and grasped it with both of hers.

"We would never have known that the Sec-Nav and Kort were working together, if you had. This way is for the best Ducky, even if it doesn't feel like it yet." He smiled at her and nodded, releasing her hands and then clearing his throat. It was time to get to work.


Tony pulled out the cash for the three coffee cups in the cardboard holder that Ziva had picked up, and then casually strolled after her, catching up to her as she walked out of the front door. She smiled at him as he reached out for his cup and she playfully pulled it out of his grasp, laughing as he followed it, practically tripping her up as he did so, walking straight in front of her and then crowding her, fishing for a kiss. She avoided his lips and his hands that were questing for the coffee. This intimacy was a new development, one that she liked, but wasn't too comfortable displaying in public. She liked to keep it private, just between the two of them, with no witnesses. The privacy was something she needed to have, so she could get used to the changes in their everyday life with no added pressure, or people watching them to see if their love would fail.

"Aww come on, Ziva. I need some caffeine!" he whined, trying to make another playful grab for his coffee. She sidestepped him again and laughed at the look on his face.

"You mean some sugar! No Tony, you can wait until we are back at NCIS. Then we can drink it with Ducky."

"Ducky said he didn't want one."

"Well, he has got one now, hasn't he?" Tony was about to reply, but his phone began to vibrate in his pocket at just that moment. Ziva looked pointedly at his pocket and he groaned, rolling his eyes as he picked up the call. Ziva had avoided showing any form of affection to him around others and while he liked what they had, he wanted them to have a completely honest relationship. They were building up towards a good long talk and quite possibly, an argument. Why didn't she want to be seen in public with him? he ignored his irritation and put his phone to his ear.

"Ducky did you get the test results?"

"It's Gibbs, DiNozzo, don't you look at your caller ID?" Tony jumped and pulled his phone back from his head, glancing at his phone as if to confirm what Gibbs had just said. He put it back to his ear, feeling silly.

"Boss? What's up? You need backup?"

"No. Jenny just walked into NCIS. Find her and keep an eye on her. Subdue her if she's attacks anyone, Abby and I will join you as soon as we can." Tony opened his mouth to ask more questions, but the dial tone shut it again. He shook his head at his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Gibbs?" she asked, one of her eyebrows raised at him curiously.

"Yeah. We need to get back to NCIS."