Sorry that it's taken so long to update, this chapter is going to be mainly from Jasper's pov.

Chapter 5

Jasper Shepard wandered out of NCIS with his head held low. He knew in his heart that Jenny would never have forgiven him; in fact she took his turning up out of the blue better than he thought she would. She was head strong just like her mother; he believed she would have shot him dead then and there when she discovered he was still alive. He sighed deeply and walked to the closest coffee shop.

"Hello Sir, can I help you?"

"Small cappuccino please" The woman smiled and grabbed a cup from behind the counter. Jasper reached into his pocket and pulled out his money.

"There you are Sir, that'll be 2,50 please." Jasper handed over the money and smiled a 'thank you' to the coffee attendant. He sipped it slowly as he made his way back to the small motel room he had been renting for the past few weeks.

In fact it had been exactly 3 weeks since Jasper Shepard had arrived back in Washington from England. He had been living in London ever since he had 'died'. Neither he nor Jenny had known anyone in London and therefore there was less of a chance of running into anyone he knew. It had taken 3 weeks to pluck up the courage to go to NCIS and see his daughter. Just as his head was sipping with memories his mobile rang. He rushed to answer it.

"Jennifer?"

"No sorry it's Margaret, I take it the meeting with Jennifer didn't go well then?" Jasper sighed and slumped down into a chair.

"That is an understatement darling." He heard the laughed from his partner down the phone. Jasper had met Margaret nearly 2 years after he moved to London. She was a divorcee with a son living nearby. They had struck up a friendship immediately and it was she, and only she he had confided in about his past. He had expected her to run away in horror at his actions; however Margaret had been understanding and had listened to his sobs and moans about how much he would miss out on his daughters life. He missed Jenny, and it broke Margaret's heart to see him in so much pain. They had been living together for 18 years and in that time Margaret's son Liam had grown to love Jasper as a father.

"So what happened?"

"Well when I got to the main command room, she was with a group of agents and this older man, whom I'm guessing is the boss of the said agents, and they were laughing over something. Then she turned and saw me at which point she fled. I tried to follow but the older gentleman, whom I believe is called Jethro, told one of his agents to place me in an interrogation room. It took about half an hour before Jennifer arrived to talk to me. I was actually amazed she would talk to me, you should have seen her Margaret, she was trying so hard not to cry, in the end however she gave up and sobbed into Jethro's arms." Jasper sighed at the memory.

"Carry on darling."

"Well Jennifer acted differently to any other way I've ever seen, she was so dominate and broken at the same time. It was completely obvious she is in love with this Jethro Gibbs. I just never thought I would see my little girl so broken up, although to be completely honest Margaret I never thought I would be the father of the Director of NCIS!"

Jasper had been following Jenny's progress ever since he had left. A friend in the Navy, who had been swore to secrecy about Jasper's fake death had been keeping him up to date with Jennifer's career climbing; and when he heard she had been made Director he thought his heart would burst with pride. His little girl had come so far, and done so much, all without him.

"Sweetheart, she just needs time. Finding out your father is actually alive will be a huge shock to the system. Give her a few days and she will get in contact, from everything you've told me about her, she loves you dearly. She won't want to have anymore time apart from you." Jasper hoped that his partner was right.

After talking to Margaret for a few hours, she headed off to bed. For Jasper however it was still slightly light so he decided to go for a short walk to clear his head. He found himself walking the same route he had walked that morning and he found himself gazing up at the NCIS building. Suddenly he saw the members of Gibbs' team leaving for the night. First came the cocky young boy he had see and the woman who had placed him into the interrogation room, then after a few minutes the other male agent and the girl with the pigtails in her hair appeared and headed off. He waited for a few more minutes before his gaze fell upon Jennifer. She looked just like her mother, she walked towards the car which must have belonged to Gibbs as she had her arm linked in his and he held her close. Jasper felt happier. At least he knew that Jennifer would be happy if she decided she didn't want to see him again. Jasper sighed and slowly but surely made his way back to his motel room.

As he arrived back to his room his phone rang again. The ID was blocked but Jasper had a strange feeling he knew who was calling.

"Hello?"

"Jasper?"

"Yes."

"It's Tom, Tom Morrow. Remember me?" Jasper laughed.

"How could I forget you Tom? It's been years how are you?"

"I'm good thank you. Listen I've got a friend who sometimes keeps me up to date with cases at NCIS, I heard through him that you went to see Jenny? What were you thinking?"

"That I wanted to see my daughter Tom. I've missed her so much, I made so many mistakes when I left her and I just wanted to set them straight."

"Your not actually dying are you?" Jasper laughed again.

"No. I may not be as agile as I use to be, but I'm still going to be alive and kicking for a few more years." Tom laughed.

"Maybe we should meet, drink?"

"Probably best if I don't Tom. As far as the country of America thinks I'm dead."

"Good point. We'll how about you come for dinner?"

"I'd love to old friend."

And so it was that the next evening Jasper Shepard found himself joining Tom and his wife Harriet for dinner. Harriet had recognised Jasper the second he arrived at the front door, and after a quick explanation, she was sworn to secrecy.

"This is delicious Harriet."

"Why thank you Jasper, I always remember you were quite a good cook weren't you?"

"I dabbled a bit."

"Dabbled! If I remember right you were obsessed!" The group of friends laughed. It was then the phone rang. Harriet got up to answer it.

"Hello… oh hello Jethro, how are you? Yes I understand, I'll just get him. Tom it's for you." Tom excused himself and answered the phone.

"This had better be important Gibbs; I was in the middle of dinner."

"I'm sorry I forgot nothing came between you and Harriet's cooking." The men laughed.

"Do I hear something behind you?" Tom asked.

"It's Jenny. She got some… unexpected news today and she needed to stay with me tonight."

"Needed or wanted?"

"She needed someone there Tom." Tom laughed.

"You told her?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"It's been a bit busy round here these past few days Tom, maybe after this case Jenny and I can talk about it. But I'm not letting her go this time."

"Good on you, anyway what can I help you with?"

"What I'm about to tell you is in the strictest of confidence, no one else can know."

"Understood."

"Jen's dad didn't kill himself, some how he faked his death and ran away. Jenny found out yesterday."

"How did she take it?"
"She didn't. She cried a lot, and then she kicked him out." Tom pulled a face, he felt for Jasper, he really did.

"Anyway, we got a new case this morning Marine found stabbed to death in his house. Looks like he had known the attacker, there was nothing to indicate a struggle, or he fought back."

"Right."

"Abby ran the print she found on the knife through her databases and got a match to Jasper Shepard." Tom was speechless. Jasper was an old friend, he knew he would never hurt anyone unless they came at him. And Jasper had said so himself, he wasn't the most able of men anymore.

"You sure?"

"Abby ran 5 times, all came back to the same guy, Jasper Mark Shepard."

"Oh boy. That's why Jenny is at yours I'm guessing?"

"Yeah." Tom ran a hand through his hair.

"What do you want me to do Gibbs?"

"Well I just thought that you might have known him, would he do something like this?"
"I knew Jasper Shepard yes, but I haven't seen him for over 20 years Gibbs, until now I thought he was dead." Tom said truthfully. "Honestly though, I can't see Jasper doing something like this Gibbs."

"Ok, thanks Tom." Gibbs hung up.

Tom stood there for a few minutes looking at the phone. He slowly put it down and went back to the dinning room.

"Harriet, can speak to Jasper alone for a minute please?" Harriet looked confused.

"Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, everything's fine, I just need to talk to Jasper about some old things. Nothing to worry about darling." Harriet knew he was lying, but she respected his wishes and left.

"What's wrong?"

"That was Jethro Gibbs."

"Jennifer's bloke?"

"Yeah. Apparently you've got some explaining to do." Jasper looked confused.

"His team got called to a case this morning, Marine stabbed. Their forensic scientist ran the knife for prints, it came back with one set of prints, yours."

"Mine?" Tom nodded his head. Jasper started to laugh.

"This is a trick is it. One of your jokes!"

"I'm not joking Jasper. The forensic scientist ran the prints 5 times, each time they came back to you." Jasper soon realised it wasn't a joke.

"Did he say who he was?" Tom shook his head.

"This is insane I didn't stab anyone."

"I know you didn't mate. But it's not me you've got to convince." Jasper covered his face with his hands.

"Jennifer must hate me more."

"Jasper look. If I were you I'd go to NCIS tomorrow. Tell them I told you about the case and you're here to prove yourself innocent. What man in his right mind, would stab a man and then go the police to prove his innocence. You will have a lot to explain, but I think that walking in to NCIS will help you out here; and it may help your relationship with Jenny." Jasper nodded seeing the sense in his friends plan.

"You can stay here tonight. I've got the day off work tomorrow, so I'll take you back to your motel, you can get changed, have a shower and then I'll take to NCIS." Jasper nodded in agreement.

Again sorry that this has taken so long, the next chapter will be up quicker I promise. Everything has just been going so fast lately. I've had so much to do in a short space of time, and writers block doesn't help! So please read and review, it means a lot to me.

Beth ^_^