A/N: This is probably the longest chapter I will ever write.

Chapter thirteen: Playing happy family

Gibbs wasn't sure what he should think about Jenny spending such an amount of time with the little boy he had left in her care. Obviously there was already a tight bond between them. Manolo had taken to her rather quickly and she had naturally become his main care giver. It was quite surprising, even for him, especially considering they had known each other for barely eight hours. And yet they were depending on each other. Manolo needed to be loved and Jenny needed someone she could look after and care for. Nonetheless he feared how she would react once they had found his mother and she would have to let him go.

He let those thoughts rest, at least for now, and made a pit stop at his favourite coffee shop before he went back to his team.

"Where is Manolo boss?" DiNozzo asked as soon as Gibbs set food into the bull pen. Gibbs glared at him, his stare icy. "Playing happy family with the director, what did you think?"

Tony looked rather intimidated and decided not to say anything for the time being. Gibbs on the other hand was already thinking about the next problem. Although Manolo seemed to be fine and wore more or less clean clothing he needed new clothes and to be checked up on. Besides they had to find his mother. If she wasn't dead yet, her clock was certainly ticking. Her captors had to know by now that they had rescued Manolo and it was just a matter of time till they would perceive to be a liability.

"Have you found anything?" he asked his team. "We compare the picture of Shawn and Lewis' known associates to the photo of the man ordering Manolo's kidnapping we got from the surveillance tapes when he placed the call to Shawn. We haven't gotten anything so far." McGee answered looking up from the screen of his PC. Gibbs gave them a look to make sure they would go on working, then he walked to the elevator.

"Keep on digging into it, I'm gonna pay Abby a visit."

Gibbs stopped directly behind Abby with a CafPow! in his hand, waiting for her to acknowledge him. She was dancing to her music, spun around and collided hard with his chest.

"Gibbs" she exclaimed, happily pulling him into a bone-crashing hug. "You scared the hell out of me!"

"You look quite alive though Abs." Gibbs grinned and patted her head. "What have you got for me?"

"I found four people who know both Shawn and Lewis. One of them happens to be in jail, another one is in Russia. The other two are Jacob Miller and Matthew Doyle, both are currently in the States. I sent their pictures up to McGee. He should be able to identify the mysterious man if he is one of them."

"Good job Abbs." Gibbs smiled and turned to go. "Gibbs?" Abby called. "Maybe you could send the director to see me when she returns? I'd love to meet her little shadow."

"I'll do what I can, but she will probably come by tomorrow morning. We have to get him checked up on first."

"We?" Abby asked with a Cheshire grin on her face. "As in the director and you?"

"Abby." Gibbs gave her a stern look, the warning clear in his voice although both of them knew Abby would get away with it. "I'll see you later."

Jenny was rather content as she stood in the elevator with the other agency heads. The meeting had been over sooner than she had initially thought and most of her the senators were convinced of her ideas what meant they would get much more money. As the doors opened at the lobby of the building Manolo was still playing with her hair, his signature move it seemed. She didn't know what he was so mesmerized by, whether it was the crimson color or the curls that flowed down her back. She didn't care though. As long as she let him play with it, he was calm and happy. And as long he was calm and happy, Jenny was too. She was completely absorbed in a conversation with the director of the FBI, smoothing over the waves of Gibbs' latest turf war. She nodded absentminded to the young man holding the door open for her. She stepped out of the door, heard all the noises and instantly shielded Manolo's head with her hand and her neck.

She looked around, seeing nothing but flash lights and cameras and became suddenly aware of the media surrounding them. How the hell could she forget the press? This was one of the most important meetings of the year, of course there would be reporters! Now she had to explain to SecNav why she attended such an important conference with a four-year-old. Manolo giggled and grasped the collar of Jenny's shirt with one hand while he waved to the reporters with the other. He was clearly enjoying the attention he got. Another thought came to the forefront of her mind.

"Manolo honey? Were there any reporters when Gibbs brought you here?"

He nodded. "Yes, they were. But Gibbs didn't seem to like them though." Jenny snorted at that making the boy look up at her with wide eyes. "Never mind sweetie." she said, affectingly touching his nose with her pointer finger.

Suddenly she didn't care about the press as much.

"You ready to go Jethro?" Jenny asked quietly as not to draw any more attention to them. She could already feel the stares of Gibbs' team members on her back (and probably the ones of half her agents too for that matter). He nodded and smiled briefly at her, gathered his things and grabbed his jacket, then he proceed to walk her to the elevator, his hand on the small of her back. Manolo clung to her hand, visibly not wanting to lose any sort of physical contact he had to her.

"Anybody told you you could leave DiNozzo?" Gibbs shouted without even looking at his senior field agent.

"How the hell does he do that?" Tony murmured lowly before he answered louder "Er, no Boss, I thought... You and the director are leaving so..."

"Don't think DiNozzo! Finish your reports, then go home. I want them on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. Clear?"

"Crystal Boss! Getting back to work now!"

The drive to the mall was spent in a comfortable silence. Manolo sat on Jenny's lap once more as the didn't have a booster seat yet. He slept peacefully while the adults listened to the radio playing softly in the background. When they arrived at the mall they headed to the clothing department first.

"Jen you do realize that there are only fancy, high-end stores around?" Gibbs asked carefully, not wanting to piss her off. Jenny grinned at him, her expression amused. "Ten out of ten for observation. We are now going to analyze your findings." She replied ironically. He merely lifted an eyebrow at her. "Relax Jethro. That's where I go shopping usually. I know the stores, I know the owners. Some of them have kids too so they have a few really cute pieces for children around his age."

"That will cost you a small fortune Jen" he pointed out, recognizing the sign for her growing attachment to the boy.

"I know. It doesn't matter though. I have just Heather to spoil and even she refuses to let me pay for some of her things saying she 'values her independence too much'" She used her fingers to put the quotation marks in the air. "She lets me treat her for lunch once in a while but beside that I only buy her a present for her birthday and Christmas."

He nodded slowly. "If you think so. I just don't want him to be harassed because he wears branded clothing only."

"Jeez, Jethro, do you really think he or any other kid his age for that matter knows the difference between branded and not branded clothing?" He didn't see the logic in asking her why she was going to buy him branded clothing then. After all he had to pick his battles and this one was definitely not worth it. If it made her happy then be it.

He smiled at her and laced his fingers into hers.

Almost two hours later, they had finally bought several new outfits, a few toys, a teddy bear and a booster seat for Manolo. They had ordered pizza on their way home and were now sitting in front of the fireplace in Jenny's living room. Manolo was sitting in-between the two adults, getting sleepier by the minute. Before he could actually fell asleep on one of them, Jenny decided it was time for bed now. Thank god it wasn't much of a struggle. They let him show them how well he could brush his teeth, then they changed them into his pyjamas. Jenny's breath caught in her throat as Jethro pulled the boy's t-shirt over his head and they saw the angry bruises all over his torso.

"What did this son of a bitch do to him?" she hissed angrily.

"Calm down Jen, we have him checked up on by Ducky first thing in the morning." She nodded curtly, still to angry to actually speak. She calmed down slowly as she sat down with Manolo, popped up against the headboard of the bed in her spare bedroom. Jenny watched Jethro while she listened to him reading the boy his bedtime story. She couldn't help but wonder if that was what it would have been like if she hadn't left him in Paris six years ago. Would she have been a stay-at-home-mom or would she have accomplished her career goals nevertheless? She somehow knew that they would have made it work.

She smiled softly at the little boy who had fallen asleep against her chest. She moved carefully to not wake him up, tucked him in and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Jethro's hands found their way into hers as he encircled her small waist with his arms from behind. He placed feather light kisses all over her neck and along her jaw line, enjoying the quiet moans he drew from her. "Jethro" she said a little breathlessly as she let her head rest against his shoulder to give him better access to her neck.

"Let's move to the bedroom"

"Jen?" He murmured while he came down from her high. "Yeah?" she mumbled back in a post-coital laziness.

"We should probably put a little clothing on"

"Why's that?" she asked, obviously confused. "There's a little boy in your spare bedroom down the hall and I don't want him to get an early sex-education when her storms into our room tomorrow morning looking for you and finds us together in bed - completely naked."

"Gee, I hate it when you are right and I have to move because of it." she grumbled, the frown on her face he found adorable. He bent down and kissed it away before he got up and threw a tee and a pair of panties at her. She laughed, enjoyed observing him while he change into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt on his own.

They laid in bed for a while, legs tangled, arms around each other, not moving, not talking, just appreciating the closure and the familiarity. He kissed the crown of her head lovingly. "Go to sleep Jen" he murmured quietly. She let her head rest on his chest and pressed a kiss to his throat, letting the steady sound of his heartbeat lull her to sleep.

The next morning Jenny woke up to a softly spoken conversation next to her. She opened her eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the dim light of the lamp on her bedside table. She really hated the early month of the year. It was 06.15 already and there wasn't even the slightest hint of sunlight outside of her bedroom window. She turned her head and smiled brightly at the scene in front of her. Manolo laid sprawled out on his stomach on Jethro's chest, tugging at the special agent's silver hair, making it stick in all directions. The boy grinned as he told Gibbs about last night's dreams and Jenny was instantly glad he hadn't had a nightmare. However she held her breath as he began talking about his mother in an oddly detached way, without showing any emotion at all. She reached out with her hand, caressing the side of his face. "Manolo honey, don't you miss your mom?"

He looked at her, maybe confused for a moment, she couldn't really tell. "My mom didn't come when I was with the scary man even if I called for her as loud as I could. You came." He stated, putting his small hand to her cheek affectionately.

Jenny covered his hand with hers, squeezing his fingers softly. "Maybe she wanted to, but couldn't come?" She asked, not wanting the boy to think his mother had abandoned him.

"She never came to help me when Carlo punched me. My and Carlo's mom just went on talking." Gibbs looked at Jenny. He could see she didn't know what to think and quite frankly he didn't know either. They had thought the bruises on Manolo's torso were an effect of his abduction, not of a beating he had obviously taken.

"Did she hit you?" Jenny asked carefully. To her relief he shook his head. "The others were just always more important. She never came when I called for her." His voice trembled, a few tears rolled down his cheek. Jenny looked at Jethro, having tears in her eyes as well as she knew how Manolo felt. Gibbs nodded, he would have his team digging into it. She put her arm around the two of them and wishing she and Jethro could do to console him.

They arrived at work shortly after half past seven when the team sat already at their desks. Gibbs had made them pancakes and bacon for breakfast, not wanting the little boy to adopt their bad habit of skipping breakfast in favor of coffee.

After he was sure that Jenny and Manolo were safely out of earshot he asked "What have you got?"

"McGoo here was able to identify our mystery caller as Matthew Doyle. He was born in Tennessee in 1974. Parents died in a car crash six years ago, he hasn't got any siblings. His only living relative is his aunt which he hasn't had any contact with for the last five years. He's an Ex-Marine, dishonorable discharged in 2000, so he matches our profile. Later on he worked for several local newspapers but was fired every time they found out about his crazy obsession for psychopathsand crimes." DiNozzo reported.

"Good job. Go take him in for questioning."

"And there we come to the fun part boss. We don't know anything about his current whereabouts, but we are working on finding him."

"Okay, Ziva, McGee, you two go on with whatever you are doing to find him. DiNozzo, you look into Márisa's and Manolo's medical files, find out if there is anything suspicious."

"What about you Boss?" DiNozzo asked before he could stop himself.

"I and the director are taking Manolo down to Ducky to get him checked up on. Any questions?"

"No boss.?"

*whack*

"Then don't ask DiNozzo!"

He met up with Jenny and Manolo in Autopsy where the kind doctor had already charmed his way into the little boy's heart. Like always Manolo sat on Jenny's lap, shirtless this time, while Ducky was examining his bruises. He didn't seem to be afraid of the doctor and only flinched a little when the ME cleaned his wounds. Jenny squeezed his hands a bit tighter and pecked his head. When Ducky was done, she helped him to put his shirt back on while Gibbs was briefed on Ducky's findings.

"Most of the bruises are recent ones, but there are a few older ones that are dated back to before he was abducted. I think they were caused by kids a few years older than him, ten-year-olds maybe. The bruises are too small to be caused by an abusive parent. There are kids about eight to ten years old who are recruited by the local gangs beating up younger children to proof themselves worthy. It's highly likely that he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time." The Scottish doctor ended his monologue and Jethro breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks Duck. Anything Jen and I can do?" Ducky smiled knowingly at the use of 'Jen and I' but knew better than to comment on it. "Just keep his wounds clear and change the dresses once in a while to make sure they are healing nicely."

Gibbs looked over at Manolo and Jenny and saw they were ready to go. "Will do Duck. See you later." Ducky nodded, kissed Jenny on the cheek and shook Manolo's hand.

"I think I will see you again?" he asked him and the little boy nodded enthusiastically. Jenny smiled and scooped him up, then she followed Gibbs to the elevator to introduce Manolo to Abby.

The bubbly Goth was ecstatic when she met 'the director's little shadow' as she put it. Gibbs was sure she was high on caffeine and if it wasn't that, he was sure it was only gravity that held her in place, otherwise she would have been over the moon by then, literally.

Abby was bouncing up and down, her black pigtailsflying around her head. Manolo shrieked back the moment he saw her and pressed himself further into Jenny's torso. Abby didn't seem to notice though as she simply enveloped both of them into a bone-crashing hug. "Abby let them breathe!" Gibbs said seeing Jenny's skin was paler than usual.

Abby pulled back instantly. Manolo trembled in Jenny's arms and she had a hard time calming him down enough to get him to look at the forensic scientist. She ruffled his hair, making him look up at her. "Manolo sweetie, this is Abby, a good friend of Gibbs and mine."

Abby beamed at him, waving enthusiastically. The boy looked to Jenny and Gibbs seeking insurance before he smiled back at her shyly. He watched her for a few moments, then he laid his head back on Jen's shoulder.

"That's soooo sweeeet! Like the cutest thing in NICS' history." Abby squealed. "Can I take a photo, please? Just one, director?" Jenny looked a little self-consciously and was about to shake her head in the negative as she became aware of Abby's disappointed frown. One picture couldn't possible hurt, could it?

"Okay, go on then Abby. Manolo hun, smile at Abby please?" Manolo smiled at her and the lab rat took her photo. She was about to put her camera back in place when she saw out of the corner of her eye Manolo playing with Jenny's hair and the redhead kissing his nose softly. She took a second photo, unnoticed by the pair, but was rewarded with a genuine smile from Gibbs.

When Márisa woke up, the room was still dark. It didn't mean much though as even in the early afternoon the room was only dimly lit. She had a fever, her limbs hurt, her eyes hurt, her head hurt. All in all, it was a bad day.

She knew the days when the bad turned into the worst and threatened to overwhelm her. Those where the days she couldn't breathe because of the memories that knocked the air out of her. Still.

At first she thought about the happier times she had spent with her boy's father, before he had left her for his fiancée he had claimed he'd loved. Sometimes she looked at her son and couldn't help but seeing his father. She felt weirdly detached then, couldn't bring herself to actually help him when he called for her. The confused part of her thinking it was his father taking the beating.

Her doctor had told her she had a mental decease. He'd given her meds to help her but she hadn't been taking them for a while now. It was getting to her slowly. The fear constantly surrounding her turned into panic, she anticipated the worst. Call it a gut feeling but she just knew something was going to happen soon.

She had to get out of her cell. The small room, the memories of what she had done, what she had witnessed, haunted her and were about to catch up with her. It was suffocating. She hadn't slept for almost a week, she couldn't stand the thought of being vulnerable, assailable.

Her thoughts jumped. She would try to make a run for it the next time they would come to feed her. She had no plan, no idea what to do but she knew she had only one chance. She would just run.

She heard the noises on the other side of the door as they came. Márisa pushed herself up against the wall, made her way towards the door slowly, on weak legs. Her muscles seemed to burn, screamed at her to just give the hell up. She wasn't sure she would even make it out of her cell, but she wouldn't be going down without a fight. She had been passive long enough.

The door opened and she could make out the frames of two men against the light in the hallway. She didn't think anymore. She stumbled out of her cell, tried to run as fast as possible.

"Shoot her." A cold, hard voice ordered behind her. Emotionless.

She heard the sound of a gun being fired and knew these were her last seconds. She thought about Manolo, wishing she'd been the caring mother he deserved, prayed he was luckier than her and made it out of this hell hole alive. For the first time in a long time she felt happy, peaceful. She let herself love her son, with all her being, for her last seconds.

She was dead before her body hit the floor.

A/N: Maybe I should explain a few things.

1. As you may have noticed, this is a quite Jenny-centered story. She is my favourite character, but for your sake, I will try to keep it at bay in the next chapters.

2. We talked about gangs during our social studies lessons and our teacher told us there are gangs who recruit eight to ten-year-olds. I think this is idiotic, they are children and shouldn't be under that kind of pressure, but it was quite useful for this story. I don't know if they beat up younger kids though or if there are gangs like these in the States.

3. Yeah, it is possible that career-driven people/females change their lives from one day to another to care for a child. I've seen it.

As always thanks a lot for reading and please leave a review.