Talk to her. Ducky made it sound so easy and at first Gibbs thought that maybe it would be. It was early yet, he might even catch Jenny before she got into full director mode. But the moment his wife entered the building, she was the lady people needed to see. First she was swept into an MTAC conference that lasted well over an hour. Then, when she got out, she was on the phone with different office heads like Hettie in L.A. and her counterparts in New York, Florida, and New Mexico.
Gibbs was just about to take a coffee break to get them both something to drink when a call from Human Resources came to remind him that the team was scheduled to attend the bi-yearly sensitivity and sexual harassment seminar with the other teams from their floor in Conference Room #2. Oh great, just what he needed.
The team noticed their boss was practically growling, but none of them were particularly pleased about the seminar either. Tony spent his time covertly shooting spit balls at McGee, who was sitting closer to the front and couldn't retaliate without being noticed. Ziva sat twirling her knife and giving the speaker death stares which caused her to stutter and stumble over her words.
Gibbs finally confiscated Ziva's weapon, but gave her the authority to headslap DiNozzo when the speakers' back was turned. He leaned back in his chair, fiddling with the cell phone he didn't really know how to work, thinking once again that there were days when he acted more like a high school principal than the team leader of Major Crime Response at NCIS.
Finally the seminar was finished, just before lunch, and Gibbs headed straight for Jenny's office, at this point ready to drag her out to eat something and to give them some space to talk. Cynthia shook her head when he walked in.
"I'm sorry Special Agent Gibbs, but the Director is not to be disturbed."
Never put off that easily, Gibbs simply ignored Jenny's assistant and reached for the door handle. It didn't move. He tried again, but to no avail. The door was locked. Gibbs stood and glared at the door for a minute, and when he heard Cynthia mutter, "I told you so," under her breath, he glared at her too. The only time Jenny's door was locked was when he was in there with her or she'd gone home.
Then he knew. She was trying to keep him away. Jenny had figured he'd try something to fix them after this morning, so she'd locked him out. Defeated for a moment, Gibbs left the office and walked slowly towards the elevator, preparing to tell Ducky that he'd tried. But somewhere between floors he hit the emergency stop switch and looked around the small metal box, an idea beginning to form. Smiling, he started the elevator again, got off at his floor, and picked up his phone.
"Duck? Jethro. It's time for Plan B. I need a favour."
He placed another phone call immediately after the first one concluded and when he put the phone down, Gibbs' next move was to change the order of the day.
"DiNozzo!" he snapped.
"Yes Boss!" Tony jumped up, glancing around nervously, wondering what he was in trouble for this time.
Gibbs tossed the Senior Field Agent his phone. "You're in charge."
Tony frowned. "Boss?"
Gibbs glared. "Don't get used to it. It's only for the rest of the day."
"Where are you going Gibbs?" Ziva asked.
"That, Officer David," Gibbs pointed at her, "is none of your business."
Sufficiently shut up, Ziva sat back down, glowering at Tony. "If you try to play Gibbs..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're going to find a painful way for me to die. I got it. Don't you think the death threats are getting old Zee-vah?" he smirked.
Ziva's eyes gleamed. "Perhaps. But there is always torture..."
Tony backed off, not wanting to know. "At ease Officer David," he mimicked Gibbs, "go about your business."
McGee kept quiet and stayed at his desk. Tony in charge, even for a few hours, meant dangerous things. Like campfires, unusual nicknames, orders he'd be forced to follow, and that hateful air of superiority Tony flaunted. The resident computer genius sighed. It was going to be a long day.
NCIS
Jenny answered the phone, the ring telling her the call came from her outer office.
"Yes Cynthia?"
"Dr. Mallard just called Ma'am. It seems you're wanted in Autopsy, but he wouldn't say what for."
Jenny smiled. Ducky. Of course he would want to help. Either Jethro had told him something was wrong, or the older man had figured it out himself. And anyways, she'd barely seen him in the last week and a half, not counting when he'd appeared in her office to examine her, so a visit was long overdue. Before she left the room, Jenny looked back, and on second thought grabbed the blue journal from Kristyn. Perhaps it would ease Ducky's mind to know that she was beginning to write things down.
NCIS
Gibbs knew the timing had to be perfect. He listened for the Director's office door to close, then heard the ding of the elevator arriving at the floor above him. Hurrying towards the back elevator, Gibbs pushed the down button, knowing it would have to stop for him. When the elevator stopped, Gibbs got on and waited for the doors to close, ignoring the look on his wife's face. A second later, he threw the emergency stop switch. Jenny faced him angrily.
"Jethro! What are you doing?" she asked, not in the mood for a talk, not in the mood for anything.
"We're going to talk Jen, whether you like it or not, and we'll stay here until we do," he told her calmly. "I have nowhere else to be today, Tony can handle anything that comes up for the team. And as we speak, Cynthia is clearing your schedule as well."
Jenny crossed her arms, spitting mad. "How dare you? You have no right to interfere like this Jethro."
Gibbs glared at her, letting his own emotions show for once. "I'm your husband Jen, I have every right!"
She flicked the switch and the elevator lit up for a second before Gibbs turned it off again and moved Jenny to the other side of the small room.
"I don't want this Jethro," she told him. "I'm fine. I don't want, or need, to talk about it."
"Did you know your right eye twitches when you're lying?"
Infuriating man! Jenny clenched her teeth together and paced in the three foot space on her side of the elevator while Gibbs delivered the rest of his plan.
"I don't care if you get mad. I can handle it if you decide to hate me for trying to help. But by all that is holy Jen, I swear that I will not lose you. So go ahead, get comfortable. Do what you have to do. Cry, scream, hit me - I can take it." He gestured around. "This is a safe place. No one can hear you but me. And I brought ear plugs." He pulled them out of his pocket to show her.
Jenny was angry. She stood and glared at him for a full thirty seconds before ignoring her husband for the better part of ten minutes while he just stood and watched her. Finally she gave up on saying anything to make him let her out of this box, and slid to a sitting position with her back against the wall, still refusing to look at him.
NCIS
It had taken the team about two minutes to realize what it was Gibbs had done. And while McGee only threw a quick glance at his teammates before disappearing down to the lab to report the news to Abby and hopefully hide until the storm blew over, Tony and Ziva rushed to the back elevator doors and pressed their ears against the metal, listening for sounds and wondering what exactly was happening in there.
Tony looked at his partner. "What's going on in there? Think they killed each other?"
Ziva crossed her arms and glanced at him. "Here is a better question: if there was a fight, who would win?"
"Ooh...Ziva," he shook his head. "That is a dangerous idea." Tony's eyes glinted. "Wanna bet on it?"
"No Tony," she rolled her eyes. "I will not make one of your stupid bets on Gibbs and the Director." She shrugged. "I worked with Jenny, I know that she can fight. You saw her yesterday, you know she can fight."
"Yeah," Tony frowned, "but this is the Boss we're talking about Ziva. Gibbs the invincible. The outcome is obvious."
"If he were fighting against another guy maybe," Ziva pointed out, "but would Gibbs actually get into a physical fight with his wife?"
"How are you asking Ziva? There are so many different kinds of physical fights." He winked.
Ziva's eyes narrowed. "Tony..." she said in warning.
Tony got the message and backed off, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. But right now I would kill for there to be a camera in the elevator so we could hack into it. It must be one fireworks match that we're missing."
Ziva headed back to her desk. "If the doors open and Gibbs sees you standing there...you're going to see far more than fireworks Tony," she told him.
Having a funny feeling that she was right, Tony hurried to catch up, wanting to find a way to look busy for if and when Gibbs came back to the squadroom.
NCIS
Gibbs sat in the elevator opposite his wife, content to wait out her resistance. Because she couldn't get away, he knew she would eventually start to talk. Oh, Jenny was good at the silent treatment, but he also knew something was eating at her and it was about him. So he was going to hear about it sooner or later. At least, that was how it usually happened. Getting comfortable in the corner, Gibbs leaned his head back and pretended to sleep, keeping an eye on her through the slits in his eyelids. He didn't care that she was angry, he'd expected that. What he cared about was that she made it through this healing process leaving herself and their marriage in one salvageable piece.
Jenny huffed, once again glaring daggers at her husband, but it was obvious he didn't care. For all she knew, he was having a nice nap over there, while she was forced to sit here and do nothing but be angry with him. Actually, she was furious and what made it worse was that Gibbs wasn't acknowledging that. Arms crossed, features tight, heart rate elevated, Jenny sat stewing on the floor of the elevator, waiting to see who would break first.
The seconds ticked way into minutes and the minutes grew into an hour and still neither made a move or said a word. By now things had changed. Jenny had given up on being mad. It did her no good without anyone to actually fight with. So she'd looked at her journal, counted spots on the floor tiles, and played with her jewellery.
The butterfly necklace that sat near her heart reminded her that it stood for hope. And when she twisted her wedding and engagement rings off, the inscriptions couldn't help but catch her eye. I promise to be yours...Past, Present, Future. It was the last word that held her attention and Jenny knew right then that if she wanted a future with her husband, which she did, that she would have to talk to him and they would have to work through all that lay broken between them from the last couple days.
She sighed, long and slow. "Okay," she finally bit out, not wanting it to look like giving in, "you want to talk, let's talk." Her arms were crossed, though not nearly as tightly as before. Jenny wasn't thrilled about this arrangement, but at least she was trying to communicate with her him.
Gibbs opened his eyes and looked at her. Finally he sat up and shrugged. "I listen for now. Tell me something you want to talk about."
That was something she hadn't seen coming. He was not going to drag answers out of her, he wanted her to open up and simply tell him what was wrong. Why were the simplest things always the most complicated? she wondered. Jenny bit her lip. Finally she took a deep breath and met his eyes, looking insecure instead of angry now. She picked the first thing she remembered that hurt.
"Why didn't you want to sleep with me Wednesday night?"
Her husband's eyes widened. "Jenny, I never like spending a night without you in bed beside me, no matter what is going on. I just thought I would give you and Rachel a chance for some girl talk. Can't do that with a guy in the room. At least," he smiled sadly, "that's what Kelly told me once."
Gibbs knocked on his daughter's door one night while she and Maddie were having a sleepover. "Mind if I join you girls?" he asked, with a smile.
"Daddy!" Kelly laughed, "You can't be here. We're having girl talk."
Gibbs raised his eyebrows. Girl talk, at eight? What were they talking about? he wondered. "Does girl talk mean no daddies?" he finally asked, not sure how to respond to that one.
"Sorry Mr. Gibbs," Maddie said seriously, "we can't have girl talk with a guy in the room."
"Oh, but I just made pop-corn," he announced.
"Ooh!" the girls squealed as he brought the bowl out from behind his back, reaching for it.
"Ah, ah, ah...kiss first," he grinned.
Both girls leaned up to kiss his cheeks. "Thank you Daddy," Kelly said.
He stepped back to the door. "Have fun," Gibbs smiled, stepping out of the room.
"Girl talk?" he sighed to Shannon minutes later as he sank down on the couch. "I'm not sure if I'm ready for this," he'd muttered amid her laughter.
It had been a good night.
Jenny stared at him hard. "You didn't give up your place in our bed because something was wrong? You were so quick to volunteer and so I just...thought...maybe after that morning...really?" she asked.
Gibbs gave her a half-grin. "I spent most of the night wishing you were there beside me in the guest room bed. It's an okay place to sleep, but it didn't compare at all to us sleeping together." He looked at her curiously. "Is that why you were so quiet in the gym yesterday? You were mad about the sleeping arrangements?"
"I wasn't mad Jethro," Jenny said quietly, looking down. "I was hurt, thinking you didn't want to be with me, thinking you were avoiding or rejecting me because something was wrong and then being nice at work for appearance sake."
"Oh Jen," Gibbs sighed. "I don't pretend that well. I had no idea what was going on." He thought a moment and returned the question. "Why did you get Rachel to stay over again last night so I couldn't sleep with you?"
Jenny's cheeks went red. "I didn't want to give you the chance to find an excuse not to be in our room again. And I didn't know what to say to you, the day had been so messed up between us."
Gibbs reached out his hand towards her. "Jenny..."
She looked up at him, eyes still very troubled. Tentatively, she pushed her hand across the space, letting him hook their fingertips. But there was a flash of something in her green eyes and Gibbs didn't like it, not one bit.