Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A.N.: Thank you Mrs. Elizabeth Gibbs, black widow mistress, HesMines and justconfused1234 for reviewing!
Trent Kort swore and hung up his phone. There were no available seats on any plane for at least three days. He would have to rent a boat or risk driving across the border to Canada if he wanted to disappear. He paced the short length of his living room in the secret safe house he had set aside for himself, just in case something like this happened. He hadn't trusted any of his associates in any of his deep cover operations, and he was still alive because of it. Now he needed to use the place, he realised just how much danger he was in. The mission had gone pear shaped, Shepard had failed to kill anyone and was now either rogue or back in NCIS, trying to convince them she was the victim of his evil and twisted plans.
He hadn't really thought about failing and being caught when he had volunteered for this job, but it was fast becoming a reality. There was nowhere to hide in DC; the Secretary of the Navy had the power and connections to have him found by either NCIS or the CIA, which would be only too happy to cut him off in order to keep their involvement secret. He should know, as he'd been the executioner for several such expended assets; Jasper Shepard and Rene Benoit to name the most prominent.
He sighed; it had seemed like the perfect assignment, the ideal revenge for all of the trouble Jennifer Shepard had caused in her relentless pursuit of Benoit. For nearly two years he had stayed undercover with Benoit, he had gained his confidence, studied the ins and outs of the arms market and was in waiting to take over for the old man once he was ordered to take him out, but then Shepard had begun to squeeze their operations. She had intercepted their shipments, arrested their buyers, seized their weapons and put quite a few regulars out of business. And if that wasn't enough, she had hit Benoit where it hurt; his daughter. Trent had been forced to waylay her attempts at taking down Benoit's arms empire until his superiors could come up with a solution, and that was when the Sec-Nav had become involved.
The Sec-Nav had felt threatened by how much loyalty Shepard had inspired in her subordinates and had decided to have something done about it. He didn't want to be ignored or disobeyed when his orders clashed with hers, so the only option was to depose her. The investigation into Benoit's murder had been a blatant attempt to pin the murder on her, but they had failed. She had left her gun at the marina and Kort had happily used it instead of his and then buried it in Shepard's backyard, but it wasn't there when they had searched her home and grounds. Instead of letting the investigation drag on with no results, they had agreed that they would be making a fool of themselves, so the CIA had stepped up with the kill order and they had hatched the plan he was currently cursing himself for accepting.
All he'd had to do was recruit someone to drug Director Shepard until she fell under their power and then he would gain her trust, train her and then use her to take out her own growing power base in NCIS. He had easily found someone willing to drug her; an ex-boyfriend, Dr. Todd Gelfand, who just couldn't accept she didn't want him. The pathetic man had sent tainted bottles of bourbon to her home, believing Trent would then let him run off into the sunset with her, where they could live happily without Gibbs interfering. It had almost worked, but then she had gotten herself shot, which had put their schedule forward considerably. Sec-Nav had gotten his wish, someone that couldn't create a group of Agents loyal to him. Leon Vance was the best candidate; he had shown his leadership qualities during Benoit's murder investigation when they had made him replace Shepard, and best of all, he was unpopular amongst the masses.
The ring leader of Shepard's little following was Jethro Gibbs; so naturally, he was the one that needed to be killed, particularly because he had his own loyalists that could still cause trouble. Gibbs was one of the main reasons Kort had volunteered to take this job. He curled his fist remembering the moment in the observation room after he had given Vance the CIA order, when Gibbs had twisted his thumb. No one did that to him, no one embarrassed him like that, especially not an ex marine, still clinging to the glory days when he'd had the guts to stay in a warzone and fight for his country. Then DiNozzo had punched him… oh he had jumped at the chance to use Jennifer to kill all of the people in NCIS he had a grudge against. Who wouldn't? The Sec-Nav would hunt him down until he was dead now though. He was screwed wasn't he? Or was he?
Trent smiled and picked up his phone, very carefully dialling the one number he would never have thought he would call. He put it to his ear and listened to the ringing, waiting for the person on the other end to pick up.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Gibbs sped along the roads, watching his mirrors continually to make sure he wasn't being followed. Kort had been much better at chasing him than he had expected and for a moment back then, he had been worried for Abby's safety. Luckily Kort had only fired two bullets, and since he was driving the car as well as shooting, couldn't take corners like he had done. Abby had been silent, knowing that screaming in terror when the bullets started flying was the second most distracting thing to do, the first being to cling to the person trying to rescue you. Well Abby was not the damsel type, she had sat as still as possible in her seat and hoped Kort wouldn't shoot at her. He hadn't, and they were now on their way to the navy yard, almost at the turning to take them to the employee car park. His ring tone sounded in the silent car and he dug it out of his pocket, flipping it open and then addressing the person on the other end.
"Yeah?" Abby watched as Gibbs suddenly tightened his hand on the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. He said nothing else, just flipped the phone back down and tossed it on the dashboard, looking grim.
"Who was it?" she asked, worried about the look on his face. He didn't look at her as he replied.
"Kort." Her eyes widened and she waited for him to elaborate. Gibbs simply carried on driving so she asked him something else.
"What did he want?" Gibbs finally looked at her, and she saw he was mad, but also calculating. Whatever it was that he had wanted must be serious.
"A deal."
It was very early morning, around three o'clock and Cynthia had been trying to sort out the mess Vance's arrest had made of the Director's schedule. She had successfully cancelled every appointment he'd had for the rest of the week and had delegated with the MTAC techs about the time he had booked and who was to tell the overseas operatives they were now leaderless and therefore temporarily unable to help them, and she was attempting to contact every department head in the other NCIS offices so they knew not to ask for Vance. It was very tiring work and she still hadn't finished.
Cynthia squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, hoping to stay awake for a few moments longer but just couldn't stop herself from yawning. She sighed in defeat and shut down her computer before carefully making sure her desk was clear. She stood and unlocked the Director's office and then walked in, making sure that the files that needed signing off on where stacked correctly. She didn't know if there was going to be a temporary Director coming in to take over from Vance, but she wanted everything to be as straightforward for the newcomer as possible.
Her hands stilled on the stack of folders as her eyes were drawn to a little pile of toothpicks on the corner of the desk. She scrunched her face up in disgust and pulled out a tissue, picking each one up and dropping them in the bin. She suddenly felt awful for every time she had laughed at Nikki Jardine, the clean freak, knowing that given half the chance she would prefer not to touch something so obviously unhygienic too. Jenny would be disgusted if she could see what Leon had done to her office.
The thought of Jenny just made Cynthia's eyes water, and she wiped vigorously at the spot on the table where Vance had left the toothpicks. Sometimes she thought she saw Jenny around NCIS, she'd even had that hallucination about half an hour ago, even though she knew it was impossible. If Jenny had really walked in to work everyone would be talking about it, her return would be on the news and most importantly, she would have gotten an email telling her who she was now secretary to. She would give anything to see Jenny walk through those doors and say-
"Good morning, Cynthia."
"Good morning, Director." She replied instantly, before what she had just heard penetrated the sleepy fog of her mind. She turned to the doorway, dreading seeing nothing there, but too excited at the prospect she wasn't hearing things to ignore the impulse.
Jenny stood leaning against the door, smiling at her with Tony, Ziva and Doctor Mallard stood behind her, all watching her reaction with big grins on their faces. That was the thing about joy; it was contagious. Cynthia stared for a second more and then walked hesitantly over to her friend and ex-employer. Once she was two steps away Jenny moved forwards and happily received Cynthia's hug.
"I've really missed you Cynthia."
"Same here Jenny, you have no idea!" they laughed for a moment and then pulled apart, moving further into the office so everyone could fit in and close the door. "I thought-" Cynthia began and Tony filled her in on everything they had discovered.
"Did he ever stay in here on his own?" Ziva asked her.
"The Sec-Nav? Oh… I never thought but yes, he was in here quite often when Jenny was in MTAC, he said he'd wait for her but usually left before she came out." Cynthia shrugged. "He said he had other appointments, I believed him. I'm so sorry Jenny." Jenny shook her head and waved off the apology.
"It's fine Cynthia." Jenny turned to Ducky. "Is there any way we can link him to the drugs?" Ducky shook his head regretfully.
"No. he never left a trace of himself on the glass and even if he did its circumstantial. He was in here quite often as Cynthia said."
"So he can get off Scot-free?" Tony said incredulously, this was just too much to bear. If they couldn't tie the Sec-Nav to the case, they would be in danger for the rest of their lives.
"No, but Kort might." Everyone turned to the source of the new voice and Gibbs walked through the doors, followed closely by Abby, who squealed happily and threw herself into Jenny's arms as soon as she saw her. Jenny hung on to Abby, the sense of loss that she brought with her stinging her eyes. She loved Abby like her own, but that made it harder to remember she was alone. She looked over at Jethro, her heart skipping when he looked at her and realised she was herself, rather than the broken woman that had cried in his arms. He gave her a tentative smile, still smarting from watching her walk away with his gun, and then he turned his attention back to the rest of the team. Gibbs pulled out his phone and waved it at them. "Kort just called me, he wants to deal. Even if we kill the Sec-Nav, we'll be prosecuted for murdering an innocent man, but Kort has a plan. He'll give us the Sec-Nav if we give him over to the CIA."
"If we give him to the CIA he'll never be tried as part of this conspiracy. He'll be spirited away." Jenny protested. She wanted Kort dead, not disappeared.
"Yes, but he really is the only chance we've got."
