A/N: Here is the next chapter. I wrote most of it during my German lessons so it's possible that there more idiomatic mistakes in it than usual. I still can't think English and German at the same time... ;)

Chapter twelve: Scapegoats

Jenny's gaze never left the little boy peacefully sleeping on her lap. When they arrived at the Navy Yard, Gibbs parked his car in his usual parking lot. He looked over at his lover who was completely mesmerized by him. Manolo had Jenny's shirt grasped in his tiny fists and mumbled incoherent words in his sleep. She didn't acknowledge his presence until Gibbs opened the door for her. She got up carefully not to wake the boy, smiling first at him, then at Jethro. He put his arm around her waist and lead her towards the elevator.

"I'll walk you to your desk Jethro." She said softly as they entered the metallic box.

"That could take a while Jen." He smirked as he hit the emergency switch and the elevator came to a sudden halt. He pulled her to him and pressed his lips to hers. Her free arm sneaked around his neck, pulling him impossibly closer -

that was till she became aware of the movements on her hip and she broke the kiss. Gibbs took the chance to lick along her jaw line and close his lips around her earlobe, sucking lightly.

"Jethro!" Jenny hissed, pushing him away from her. "There is a child present. Who is away now by the way."

He smirked, straightened his clothing as did she and ruffled the boy's hair, then kissed her on the forehead. "Consider it our secret buddy." He told him a bit smugly. Manolo merely looked up at him, still to sleepy to understand anything that was going on around him. She smirked too and they spent the rest of the ride in silence.

After Jenny had gone back to her office, Manolo still with her, Gibbs decided to pay Abby a visit. With a CafPow! in his hand for her and his usual cup of coffee in the other one he stepped out of the elevator. The music was blaring at least twice as loud as normally and he found himself wondering how much he would spend on earplugs in this moment. Probably a month worth of salary.

"Abby!" she shouted fanatically trying to gain the attention of his favourite. She didn't seem to notice him though so he unplugged her boxes and and the lab was filled by a sudden silence. Abby spun around, ready to kill anybody who dared to...

"Gibbs!" she squealed, delight in her voice, her anger forgotten and her narrowed eyes relaxing slowly.

"What have you got Abbs?" Gibbs asked as he handed her the CafPow!.

"I cross checked Shawn's and Lewis' stories and I can say they told you the truth. We already knew that Shawn hadn't kidnapped Manolo, so I checked the surveillance tapes again to check if it was Lewis who abducted him or yet another dummy. You were right by the way, Lewis is our kidnapper. Then I checked if he called Shawn to make him steal the cars but I could proof that he did not. So I think whoever it was wanted to frame Shawn first and as he rattled on Lewis he wanted us to believe that he's not only the kidnapper but also the head of the organisation and the murderer of Kapmann, Morrison, and Johnston jr. I digged into Lewis' life and found out that Metro Police had him in for questioning at the time the call was made. To sum it up, both of your suspects are scapegoats for either one crime or the other."

"Do you have any idea who this head of the organisation might be Abby?"

"Unfortunately not, but I'll keep on looking for them."

"Thanks Abbs, good work." Gibbs kissed her cheek lightly and went to check up on the rest of his team.

"Boss" McGee hurriedly jumped out of his chair "I've got something!" He grasped the remote control and brought a map of DC on the plasma screen.

"I've wondered the whole time how Márisa found the warehouse with our terrorists in it in the first place as she lives nearly on the other side of DC. I spoke to her friends again and one of them, Susanna Miller, born in Mexico too, told me that the two of them had used to go on their morning runs around the area and that they had often bypassed the warehouse. Then, about three weeks before Manolo was abducted, she fell ill and couldn't work out for a week. Márisa told her she'd kept running but the next time the two of them met, she demanded they'd change their path. She seemed to be afraid of something nevertheless Susanna saw her car parking near the warehouse at least two other times after Márisa had changed her path.

"It seems to me she saw the men around the warehouse and became frightened, maybe she saw the weapons they dealt with, but nonetheless wanted to find out what was going on."

"Good job McGee. Can we narrow down the time she first saw the men further?" Gibbs asked.

"We are working on it." McGee replied but his boss was momentarily distracted by Jenny exiting her office with Manolo in tow. The boy seemed to take to her rather quickly and was chatting away about something he couldn't make out from the distance. As the reached the top of the staircase, he put his hands up in the air and Jenny bent eagerly down to pick him up.

"Tony and Ziva are about to find out if Manolo was with her once, maybe that was how they knew about him and targeted him." Gibbs looked over at DiNozzo who was, like most of the agents in the bull pen, drooling about their director.

*whack*

Ziva snickered. "What the?! I didn't do anything Boss, I..." He was met by Gibbs' icy stare and Ziva giggled again. "It's rude to stare, you know that Tony?"

"I didn't stare at her. Or maybe I did, but just because I can't picture the director as a mom. The boy seems comfortable around her though and so is she around him, obviously. And you must admit she looks se.."

"You better stop rambling here and now DiNozzo or you won't live to stop it anymore!" Gibbs shot him a menacing glare.

"Everything alright Jethro?" The director wanted to know as she entered the bull pen. She went straight to Gibbs's desk and sat down on it, Manolo in her lap, and ignored DiNozzo's curious glares. The moment Gibbs turned around to face her, Ziva received a message from Tony. "A bit overprotective of her, isn't he?" She read and couldn't help but to laugh. "Tony!" she hissed, but his attention had already strained from her to his boss and his boss' boss.

"I have a meeting with the directors of the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security and a few senators in about half an hour. Do you think you could watch Manolo for me Jethro?" He merely nodded. She knew, and he knew she knew, that he couldn't deny her a damn thing and this was definitely one of the better tasks. Jenny looked down at the little boy who was playing with her hair, tangling her silky red curls around his little fingers.

"Did you hear me sweetheart?" The small boy looked up at the sound of her voice. "You wanna stay here with Jethro until I come back from my meeting? Can you be a good boy for me?" He nodded enthusiastically, eager to please her, but his eyes were clouded with uncertainty.

"Will you come back to me? Not like my Mama?" Jenny's heart broke for the little boy, obviously he had lost all hope to ever see his mother again. She stroked his hair as she nodded and pressed a light kiss to his forehead. She sat him down on the desk and bent down, taking his hands in hers. "Of course I come back hun. I couldn't leave you all on your own, could I?" He nodded more to himself it seemed as to her.

"Hug?" he asked. She smiled, picked him up, and hugged his small frame to her, then she passed him on to Jethro. "See you later" she said, brushing her hand along Jethro's knuckles and kissing Manolo's cheek a last time. Eventually she turned around and followed her security detail to the elevator.

Jenny was already angry as hell. Not only was she the only woman in the boys' club and all the present politicians had tried to look down her shirt, no, some of them tried to look up her skirt as well. She wished that just for once they would respect her for her achievements. She had pulled NCIS out of the mud after all. She talked about NCIS, its missions, its agents, and its success and all they thought about was her ass in a skirt. And it started to royally piss her off.

The sharp ringing of her mobile interrupted her thoughts. Suddenly very conscious of the gazes lingering on her, she pulled it out of her bag.

"What it is Agent Gibbs?"

Manolo was calm the first minutes after Jenny had left the squad room. He sat on Gibbs' desk facing the elderly special agent and was happily chatting away about anything and everything. Gibbs took him to the break room about half an hour later, buying himself a cup o f coffee and a hot chocolate for Manolo. They returned to the bull pen and the little boy decided to explore their workplace.

First he went to Tony's desk, snooping into the cabinet behind him and told the agent everything about their trip to the break room. Then he walked over to Ziva but was soon over at Tim's as she was speaking to one of her contacts on the telephone. The youngest agent of Gibbs' team wasn't at his desk at the moment so the child could sneak glances at everything that caught his interest. Gibbs contemplated if he should stop him but decided that as long as Manolo wasn't in any danger to hurt himself, he would let him go on exploring. The boy bent down to open the drawers of McGee's desk, looking genuinely amused as he found a part of the agent's Elf Lord costume. He climbed on the chair behind the desk, quietly sitting there before he began to play with various office supplies. McGee was likely to get a heart attack when he saw the mess on his normally extraordinarily tidy desk. Gibbs observed him as he came across the keyboard, humming to himself as he punched a few keys.

Suddenly the boy began to tremble and curled his hands into fists. He had tears in his eyes and a high-pitched sob escaped his mouth. Gibbs rushed over to him, taking him in his arms instantly. You could see the inside of the interrogation room on the screen. Lewis sat at the table, frustrated slamming his fists down onto it.

Gibbs kneed down in front of Manolo and took his small hands in his. He whispered soothing words to the boy, trying to calm him down. Slowly his sobs turned into hiccups and his tears subsided. "Where is my mom Gibbs?"

"I don't know buddy, but we do everything in our power to make sure we find her, promise."

"I miss her." He was quiet for a few moments before he asked "Can we go see Jen please?" Gibbs had to smile at this. Hearing his nickname for her out of a child's mouth was strangely amusing.

"Jenny isn't here right now, but we can go see her later."

"But she said she would come back later." The little boy started to cry again. By now most of the agents in the squad room stared over at them, especially Tony and Ziva.

"Okay buddy, look at me. Jenny is in a meeting right now, but maybe we can give her a call. What do you think?"

"I wanna see Jen! Please Gibbs, let me see Jen, please."

Gibbs sighed. Manolo wouldn't calm down until he got to see Jenny so he really had no other choice. "Okay buddy, grab you jacket, we are going to pay her a visit."

Tony grinned, amused by his boss' antics. "Didn't think that Gibbs was that much of a softie around kids" he said to no-one in particular as Gibbs strolled over to the elevator, Manolo on his hip.

"What is it Agent Gibbs?" she asked.

"Manolo won't stop crying Jen. He wants to see you, we are on our way over now."

"What do you mean you're on your way over now? I'm in the middle of an important meeting Jethro!" Shit. She cursed herself under her breath, she could practically feel the curious glances and knowing smirks. What did she think, calling her best agent by his first name? Half of the other agency heads already thought they were sleeping together. What they were, but that was beside the point.

"He just wants to see you. Surely you have a minute to spare?"

"Okay, I'll meet you. Where are you?"

"On the other side of the door."

At this moment somebody knocked on the door and Jenny ended the call. The door opened and a blonde secretary announced "Director Shepard, Special Agent Gibbs is here to see you."

"At least he has learnt to knock before he opens a door." She replied wryly as she stood up to meet him halfway to the table. Manolo calmed instantly as he saw Jenny and reached out for her to pick him up. She placed him on her hip letting him hide his face in the crook of her neck again. Soon enough she felt his fingers playing with some loose strands of her hair.

"Are you okay now sweetie?" He nodded hesitantly. "You wanna go back with Gibbs now? I will be back in another one hour and a half and then we can leave for the night, okay?"

"Can't I stay with you? Please Jen-ny?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure if..."

"Please, don't make me go! I don't wanna go! Please!" He begged, fresh tears in his eyes.

"That a problem for you Jen?"

"No, nothing I couldn't handle. See you later?" She asked.

"Sure thing. I'll keep trying to find his mother." He said as he gave her hand a brief squeeze and ruffled Manolo's hair, giving the starring politicians the picture of the perfect little family.

She smiled at his retreating form before she sat down again, Manolo on her lap. She let the boy play with her hair again, content to just listen to his quiet humming for a few precious moments. Then she started talking again, fully aware that by then her auditory had lost any interest in what she was saying - what meant this conference would be over and done with within the next hour and everything would be exactly the way she wanted it to be.

Maybe she should tag a kid along more often.

I hope you liked the chapter. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! THEY ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED! CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS WELLCOMED TOO!