Authors' note:

Just a word to say that this story is still settling – and that this is primarily a chapter about frustration. Well, that and a means of involving the team. Things shake up a bit in the next one.

"I will not stay in my office, and I don't need Hector staring at me while I do paperwork," she hissed as she followed him down the stairs.

Gibbs stopped abruptly and turned to look at her, his jaw clenched.

"Someone getting in and out of the locked office of the Director of an Armed Federal Agency without being noticed isn't a joke, Jen. Regardless of their intention."

What he was saying made sense, but it irked her nonetheless.

"Well it's obviously someone within the Agency. Maybe it's someone playing a joke on Cynthia. Maybe it was a dare. Whoever it is probably swiped the keys from the janitorial staff."

"Maybe. But we still need to know who's responsible," Gibbs snapped in reply as stopped in front of McGee's desk.

The young agent looked up. Eyes wide as he felt the dangerous waves radiating off his boss and the Director. She was standing just behind Gibbs, looking like she'd very much like to shoot him. And beyond them Cynthia was now rushing down the stairs. All in all he figured that this wasn't going to be good for him, and his nervousness was crystal clear as he said, "Boss?"

"Need you to pull up the security footage from the Director's outer office."

McGee shot an apprehensive look at the bristling redhead.

"Um, I can't do that. We don't have access to it from our desks."

"Hack into it," Gibbs growled.

McGee glanced over at Jenny again. Unsure which one he should annoy.

"McGee, I'm well aware of your capabilities," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I'll look away this once so we can be done with this debacle."

By this time both Tony and Ziva had looked up from there own work, and had also made their way over to McGee's desk. Tony glanced at his fuming boss.

"Problem, Boss?"

Gibbs ignored him, turning instead to Cynthia. "What time did you leave your desk?"

"I was gone from about half past three until just before four."

"Bring it up, McGee. We want anyone who was in the Director's office in that time frame."

"On it."

Jenny frowned slightly, and cleared her throat.

"They couldn't have been left then."

"What couldn't have been?" Tony asked. Sharing a thoroughly confused look with Ziva and McGee.

Gibbs once again ignored him as he demanded, "why not?"

"The note refers to me securing our budget. At that time I didn't yet know the result."

Gibbs frowned, and then glanced back at McGee. "Check it anyway." As McGee went to work, he turned his full attention back to Cynthia. "Was that the only time you were away from the office?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes." Then she thoughtfully shook her head, "No. No, I left the office for few minutes just before Director Shepard came back."

"What time?"

"Five thirty, maybe."

"McGee .."

"I'm in, Boss. Just increasing the playback speed." He turned the screen so the crowd around his desk could see it. They watched as Cynthia left her desk and saw that the outer office remained empty. McGee hit another button. "Got it." The images flashed on the large plasma screen as he worked his magic.

Again they watched as Cynthia disappeared from view, only to appear again a few minutes later - with absolutely nothing happening took a deep breath of frustration as Cynthia turned pale.

"Those are the only times I left the desk all day, and no-one went into Director Shepard's office when I was there."

Gibbs let out an impatient hiss of breath. One of the muscles in his jaw twitched as he struggled to keep his voice at a normal level. "Someone was obviously in there. They didn't just appear by magic."

"What didn't?" Tony mouthed at McGee - who merely shrugged in reply.

Gibbs glanced down at the card in his hand and added, "I'll take this down to Abby, get her to run prints." He glanced over at Jenny, who had crossed her arms across her chest. "We'll find out who sent them, then we'll find out how they got in."

Jenny gave a brief nod. "Fine. Cynthia, you look exhausted. Go home."

"Stay!" Gibbs snapped in reply.

Jen shook her head. "Go," she said forcefully.

For a moment it seemed as though Gibbs might argue, but after a moment he started to walk to the elevators. "Just make sure you're available to answer questions," he tossed over his shoulder.

Cynthia seemed to hover on the spot indecisively for a moment, and then finally gave a small nod. Jen gave her a small smile before hurrying to catch up with Gibbs.

"What was that about?" Tony asked as soon as the elevator doors slid closed.

"Someone left the Director flowers."

"She's had flower deliveries before. How did that turn into, well, this?"

"They've never just appeared in her locked office before."

"Someone got into the Director's office?" McGee asked in concern. "When it was locked?"

Tony caught onto McGee's train of thought, and ran with it. "So whoever it was somehow got past everyone here, past you, and wasn't caught on the cameras. Which means we've got a security issue."

"No wonder Gibbs is pissed," McGee muttered.

Gibbs leaned against the wall of the elevator, watching Jenny distractedly brush a lock of hair off her cheek. She looked even more on edge than she had in her office. His gut churning, he reached out and hit the emergency stop button. Jenny's head snapped up as she was jerked back to reality.

"When this breaks I'm going to deduct the cost of repairs from your pay," she said coldly.

He ignored the comment, and held the card up between his thumb and forefinger.

"Anything else I should know, Jen? Anything else bothering you?"

"No."

He caught the almost undetectable twitch in her eye, and his stomach twisted a little more.

"You're lying."

The thought that something was off with her came out of nowhere. He couldn't put a finger on it, but the more he looked at her the more his gut told him something was wrong. That he needed to keep a close eye on her.

Jenny crossed her arms across her middle. "It's nothing."

"Well then you won't mind sharing."

A small stream of air rushed past Jen's lips as she looked at him.

"Let's have it," Gibbs said.

"I've had the feeling for a while that someone's watching me."

Gibbs let out an annoyed rush of breath through his nose, nostrils flaring.

"Why am I only hearing about this now?"

"Because it's just a feeling, Jethro. And I don't report to you, you report to me."

"Once upon a time you trusted your feelings, Jen. You trusted your instinct. You should have mentioned it to your detail. You have a detail for a reason. Is there anyone it's likely to be? Any dates who were overly familiar?"

"There's no-one."

He stared at her, her behaviour in the office falling into place. Jenny wasn't someone to overreact and she didn't do paranoia. If she felt someone was watching her then it was more than likely that someone was, in fact, doing so. Stepping forward, he met her eyes. His hand brushing down her arm in the only gesture of comfort he thought she'd tolerate.

"I'll find him, Jen."

Abby sucked happily on a Caf Pow she'd stored in her fridge. Bobbing her head in time to the music. Feeling the presence of someone else in her lab, she whirled round to see both Gibbs and Jenny standing only a few feet behind her.

"Hi Gibbs! Director!" She turned and rooted around in one of her drawers - pulling out a sheet of paper. "I know that you still need to allocate the money if you get it, but I've made a list of things I really need for the lab. You know, I'm being proactive and .. stuff. The things in red are-"

"Abby!"

Abby looked at him in a state of shock. Gibbs never snapped that way. Her eyes slid to Jenny, belatedly noticing the slightly grim set to her jaw, and then back to Gibbs.

"Need you to pull prints off this," he said as he held out the card.

Abby slipped a latex glove onto her hand and took it. Frowning as she scanned the message. "What case is it for?"

"Off the record. My prints and the Director's are already on it. I want an ID."

"And here I thought it would be difficult," Abby said with a laugh.

"How long?"

"Depends on how long it takes to go through the database."

Gibbs nodded. "All federal employees as well, Abs."

"Sure." Abby watched as the two left her lab and then she glanced over at Bert, "Did they look unsettled to you?"

Less than an hour later Gibbs found his gaze wandering up towards Jenny's office. She'd agreed to stay in the building until they had the results back from Abby, and Hector had positioned outside her office door. Giving the third degree to anyone who so much as looked in his direction. He glanced away. Satisfied that, for the moment, Jenny was safe. He looked over at his team, watching as they kept themselves occupied, wanting them there when the ID came through. Just as the thought rumbled through his mind, the phone rang.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"Hey."

"Whatcha got?"

He heard a small sigh, and his small smile disappeared as she replied, "I'm really sorry, Gibbs, but there were only two sets of fingerprints on that card. I ran them both through AFIS anyway and one set was yours and the other was the Directors. I looked at the card but there's nothing special about it. I can't trace it," Abby finished miserably.

Gibbs rubbed at his forehead as he slammed the phone down, and look up again as Tony's voice cut into his thoughts. "Anything, Boss?"

"Nothing," Gibbs replied. "We got nothing."