Unbreak My Heart
Chapter 6
A/N
Yeey, finally chapter 6 has arrived. To be honest with you I had a hard time writing this one, you'll see why. Hope you'll like it so far!
At the crime scene
"What did you find Duck?" Gibbs asked the M.E.
"Well we know that this poor fellow here died approximately 14 hours ago by most likely these bullets"
"How many bullet holes are there?"
"We found four holes, and two of the bullets came through and I imagine two are still in there. I'll know more once I have him back at the yard, IF Mr. Palmer would stop texting instead of doing his job" Ducky narrowed his eyes at Palmer.
"Oh sorry doctor, it was Breena who…Never mind" Palmer said knowing by the look of their faces that they didn't care about his problems right now.
From the other side of the street Tony came running towards Gibbs and Ducky.
"Boss the victim's name is Victor Hemning. He's a Navy captain, stationed at the USS. Houston. No wife no kids. Parents died years ago. I talked to some of the crew and apparently he used to keep to himself" Tony informed him.
"Good" Gibbs said and for a second there Tony thought that maybe Gibbs forgot all about his little accident in the office, but then the headslap came.
"That's for disturbing my private time!" Gibbs replied scary through his ears.
"Sorry boss, I'll try to knock next time" Tony apologizes like a little boy done wrong.
A second slap on the head came without expectation. "There won't be a next time DiNozzo!" In the back, Tony could hear Ziva, McGee, Ducky and Palmer all laughing at him.
"Take this car to Abby, and make her take a look at it!" Gibbs yelled at his team as a final thing before he walked away.
Back at the Navy Yard
Down at the Garage
"Oh hey Gibbs!" Abby cheered.
"What do you have for me Abs?"
"Always straight to the point my silver hair fox" Gibbs smiled.
"I found two casings along with two bullets, and some prints" "And that's not even the best part, looks like our killer was sloppy and left the murder weapon behind in the car, we're talking amateur here Gibbs! This is an easy case. I think I'll even go home early today" Abby said smiling widely at Gibbs and he let out a laugh himself.
"Well if you solve this case before my team does, then I'll treat you for CafPows a whole month" Gibbs said to her, and as his answer Abby hugged him.
"Gibbs, you know that I will solve this case before lunch" Gibbs smiled again and started to walk to the elevator when Abby grapped his arms.
"Gibbs wait! I have one question for you"
"Okay shoot!"
"Rumor has it that you and the Director are dating" Abby asked him, slightly uncomfortable with her question.
Gibbs frowned. "Is the rumor's name DiNozzo?"
"I'm not a squealer Gibbs" Abby said defending herself. "Now answer my question" Without answering her question, Gibbs just walked away smiling to himself. As he got in the elevator Abby yelled after him.
"So is that a yes?" "Typical Gibbs" Abby replied shaken head. "Mommy and daddy are so together right now" She cheered.
Autopsy
Jimmy and Ducky are discussing Jimmy's and Breenas upcoming wedding.
"I don't know what to do doctor, should I be a part of the planning or do I just take a step back and let her get what she wants?" Palmer asked Ducky, clueless of his situation about his fiancé.
"You should not step back my dear boy. Of course you should please your bride, but it is your wedding as well…"
"But in the end it's all about the women!" Gibbs replied as he walked in the autopsy interrupting Ducky.
"Well not necessary agent Gibbs…" Palmer started.
"Well it is Palmer, I've been there a few times myself" Gibbs explained to him. Gibbs turned his attention to Ducky. "What do you got for me Duck?"
"Nothing much to say, he was a drinker for sure. His liver was swollen, had a heart like an 80 year old. Two bullet holes which Mr. Palmer here is to take these to Abby's lab"
"Of course Doctor!" Jimmy took the evidence jars from his hand and disappeared out of the room.
As Ducky was cleaning his hands Gibbs walked to stand beside him.
"How is our lovely Jennifer today?" Ducky asked calmly.
"Well it goes…it's moving forward, but she still keeping some things from me, and it's tearing her apart Duck" Gibbs frowned.
Ducky turned to face his concern friend. "She will tell you in her own time Jethro, you just need som patience, which I believe none of you have it, always want everything in your own way" Ducky laughed and Gibbs smiled at his comment about him and Jen, which is the truth.
"I heard you and Jennifer is back together?" Ducky asked curiously.
"Well I don't know anything yet, there are a lot of things that are still unclear between us Duck, she's not ready to commit anything yet, and hell I don't even know if she ever will! And I don't won't to push her to it either. I just enjoy every moment I've got with her" Gibbs answered, not knowing what's gonna happen with his and Jen's relationship.
Squad room 1200 hours
Tony, Ziva and McGee are sitting at their desks eating lunch.
"This…was the easiest case we'd ever had!" Tony said with a mouthful of burritos. "I mean what kind of murderer is leaving their gun behind after a kill!? It's unbelievable!" He laughed. McGee just continued eating his burrito, enjoying it a lot. Ziva looked around.
"Gibbs is not back from his lunch yet" Before she knew it Gibbs walked out of the elevator, walking passing them, up the stairs, and in to the director's office. Tony's eyes goes wide open.
"He must have bought her some lunch. Wow…he's treating her like a royal queen, must be expecting something in return" He smirked as Ziva threw a paper ball at him for thinking about their bosses like that.
"Tony! It is very unprofessional to talk about our bosses like that, what if they hear you saying it?"
"So what!? They're not gonna do anything, the news is wide open, it was this morning's news. Besides I think half of this building already knows about it.
"You mean because you sended e-mails to every one you know in this building to collect your stupid bets about them!"
"Well you have to have some fun in your life right" Tony smirked as they looked up at the top of the stairs.
Inside Jenny's office
"I haven't eaten take out foods in forever" Jenny replied to herself.
"You mean you cook for yourself?" Gibbs asked amusing himself.
"Don't be ridiculous…I have someone doing it for me" They both smiled.
As they were enjoying eating their lunch, Gibbs spotted her shredder, looks like she have been destroying some things in here, he thought for himself. And at the edge of the shredder looks to be like some sort of photos. Why would she be destroying photos, if anything you should keep your photos to remember them.
"Hey Jen?" She looked up when he called for her. "Shouldn't you be keeping your photos instead of destroying them" He said sarcastically, not knowing what he was talking about.
Jenny looked paled, she hasn't been thinking about Patrick since Jethro comforting her in her office this morning. Now that he brought that up, she lost her apatite. She put down her fork and knife, walked quickly to the shredder and destroyed the last piece of the photograph that Gibbs saw. Their moment interrupted when Gibbs' phone began to ring.
"Yea Gibbs!" He answered annoyed. "I'll be right down" "It was Abby, I have to go. Eat your lunch and I mean eat it all" He ordered her and she rolled her eyes. He gave a quick kiss on the cheek then walked out of her office.
"Abs! You've got anything on that print from the gun in the car?" Gibbs asked as he walked in into her lab.
"Gibbs…Would I have called you down here if I haven't got anything for you" Abby said dramatically, slightly heart by his words.
"Abs…" He glanced at her.
"Right…" She smiled, making fun of him, knowing that he always liked straight answers. "Okay…AFIS didn't get a match so I ran the test through Interpol, and guess what?" Abby asked him but Gibbs couldn't reply instead he just continued to glance at her.
"…This is the first time ever that I got to work with this kind of league" She said interesting.
"Abby what league!" Gibbs was about to lose his patience. "Do you have a match or not?"
"No! But if you can make Mr. MIT smart ass upstairs who's claiming to be better at this than me, run this serial number on the gun, you'll get a match of who it belongs to" Abby said, then took a sip from her CafPow. Gibbs nodded and was about to walk out of her lab when suddenly he stopped at the entrance.
"Hey Abs? You never told me what league it was"
It took a while before she answered him.
"It's a bounty hunter league Gibbs"
Squad-Room
"Hey McGee! Run this serial number on the gun for me will ya!" Gibbs said with a loud voice. McGee gave him a confused look.
"Your e-mail from Abby...!" Gibbs made it clear to him. McGee understood, put down his burrito and did what Gibbs told him to do. Gibbs waited eagerly for the answers. It took a minute before Tony and Ziva joined them at McGee's desk.
"Right…Boss? I've got a hit. This guy is known for being a bounty hunter; the most dangerous people in the world hire him whenever they want to hunt someone down. He's very dangerous boss, wanted in every continent"
"His name?"
"His name is Patrick, just Patrick though. Looks like he's been traveling with the same first name but with different last name" McGee informed him.
Gibbs was staring at the picture on the screen with Tony and Ziva behind him.
"Where is he now?"
"It says here he disappeared almost two decades ago" "No one knows where he is" McGee says.
Taking his eyes of the screen, Gibbs saw Jenny as she walking out of her office. They both gave each other a secretive smile. Jethro watch her as she made her way down the stairs towards him. He was meeting her half way there.
"Agent Gibbs" She tried to be professional but couldn't help but smile at him.
"Director Shepard" He greeted her back, smirking himself as he watches her struggling with maintain her professional side.
"Working on your case form this morning?" She asked him, and then glanced at Tony. Tony and Ziva watch the two flirt with each other, it was so obvious that they did. They couldn't hide it even if they tried.
"Any luck so far?" She asked flirting with her eyes.
"Just got our murderer, some bounty hunter" Jenny nodded, didn't really paying any attention to what he was saying, she was just looking in his eyes.
"Care to enlighten me agent Gibbs?" Still flirting. Gibbs led her to the screen and Jenny's eyes went dark when she sees the picture of who it was on the screen. Gibbs felt her body shaken with fear while still holding her arms. He turned to look at her. Her eyes dark, her face was so pale. Jenny felt the whole world just turned black, it was just her and the picture, no one else was in the room.
"Jen?" Gibbs asked with concern. You could see that the others were also. She just turned her head to face him, faked a weak smile at him then turned her heels towards the stairs. When she started to walk she stopped when she heard Jethro's voice calling for her.
"Jen?"
"I don't feel well Gibbs, I think I'm just gonna take a nap on the couch in my office. I'll be fine after that. I promise" She tried to assured him. She walked out of the room helplessly. Her agent saw their director trying to walk straight, but they couldn't help but notice the weakness in her legs.
Jenny's office
Jenny couldn't even think about it. Jethro was about to know everything about this man she has been hiding from. All she thought of was being left alone. If she knows Jethro right, which she does, it would be the matter of time before he storms in here and demanding some answers from her. It was obvious, the way she acted, that she knew the man on the picture. Any one could've seen it.
Jethro storming in her office came sooner than she thought. Everyone outside the office could hear how hard the door slammed against the wall.
"Okay…It's time for you to tell me everything about your little secret Jen, because I don't know how much it'll take for me to get to you?!" he screamed at her, obviously losing his mind with her secretive behavior.
Jenny couldn't do anything but agree with him, it was time that he knows the truth, and the whole truth. She couldn't hold this inside her any longer. It needs to get out, and the time has come for her to tell everyone.
"You're right" she said, standing closely and looked down at her feet. Embarrassed of what he would react if she told him her dark secret that she's been keeping for herself in almost two decades. "It'll probably be better if you call your team up here to, they'll need to know everything if they gonna help you solve this case" Gibbs was slightly surprised at her for giving into him so easily, but it was now or never.
A few minutes later…
Gibbs, Tony, Ziva and McGee gathered around the desk while Jenny sat on her chair, feeling slightly uncomfortable with herself and the whole situation
"You all probably are wondering why I reacted like that when I saw the picture of that man in the squad-room" She started. "And to answer to your common questions is; yes, I do know that man you're looking for" "You know that his name is Patrick and that he uses different last names" "But when I first met him, his name was Patrick Hanson, almost 20 years ago" She turned her eyes to look at Jethro. He just starred at her.
"What's your relationship with him Jen?" Jethro finally asked her, Jenny swallowed hard. She looked him in the eyes and replied; "He was my fiancé" Gibbs and his team were all chocked at what they have heard out of their director's mouth, especially Gibbs. Never could he imagine that Jenny was once in love with someone, someone she was gonna marry to, let alone a murderer, a bounty hunter! He was confused, they all were.
"Of course, at the time I met him, I didn't know that he was a bounty hunter, or a murderer for that matter. He was a sweet man, gentle and treated me like his own princess" She continued and the team listened to her eagerly. Then she turned her head to Jethro once again and said this only sentence straight to him, and him only; "He was the only man who'd ever loved me" Gibbs felt his heart shattered at her words.
That last sentence he heard her say was filled with emotional feelings that she has been keeping inside of her for a long time, and finally letting it out. He heard her voice tremble with emotions. But she found the strength to continue with her dark story that has been a part of her life for a long time.
"We met when I was in college, he was a business man, visiting our campus and before we both knew it…we both fell deeply in love with each other" She swallowed at the memory. "We decided to get marry after seeing each other only one year. Of course I was a different person back then, a lot more easy going" Her wedding day with him, she remembered very well, the details were in her head.
Flashback almost twenty years ago…Jenny's wedding day
Jenny and her bridesmaids laughed at each other.
"Oh Jennifer…you look absolutely wonderful" Jenny heard her mother say to her.
"Mom, thank you" Jenny said hugging her mother. Lauren Shepard took a look at her beautiful daughter who was standing in front of her. Jenny was wearing an A-line mermaid wedding dress, which fitted her beautiful figure so well; she had her curled hair up and a long veil.
"Here" Her mother gave her a beautiful blue old brooch. Tears began to run down both of the women's faces. It was an emotional day for both of them.
"Oh mom…it's so beautiful…this is great, now I have something blue and something old and I already have something new" Her mother put it in her hair, next to her veil.
"Aww Jenny, you look stunning honey" All of her friends squealed. It was a happy day for her. It was her wedding day for crying out loud! This things happens once in a life time and nothing was gonna ruin her big day with the man she loves.
There was a knocking on the door. "Is everybody dressed and ready in there, it's time now" Jenny laughed at her father outside the door.
"Yes daddy, we're all dressed up and ready to roll!" Everybody cheered. Then her father opened the door and looked at her beautiful daughter. Her mother kissed her on the cheek.
"Good luck darling, see you outside" her mother said then gave Jenny's father a quick kiss on the lips. Her mother walked out of the room along with her bridesmaids and friends, leaving father and daughter along to talk with each other. Jasper Shepard walked towards his daughter.
"I can't believe I'm gonna give you away to another man today" Her father said with sad eyes. Jenny rolled her eyes.
"I'll always be your little girl who wants to be sitting on your lap once in a while daddy" Jenny said with a smile to assure him that she will always be there with him, no matter what.
Outside the house, in the beautiful garden, dressed with white and pink roses leading the way to the altar. Jenny's friends and family was gathered around on this wonderful day. There was high profile military, Navy, and US government invited everywhere, and well it has to be, because Jasper Shepard was an important person in the US Navy and he knew a lot of people while playing politics.
Everyone turned their attention to the gate filled with flowers. Bridesmaids and grooms began to walk on the white carpet. Then the music started to play and everyone stood up to welcome the bride. Jenny along with her father came through the gate, and you could see everyone smiling widely, she looked amazing, Jenny heard someone say in the background. Jenny felt nervous, she had this feeling that something was wrong, that this was all wrong. She sqeezed her father's arm tightly and Jasper felt her hands.
"Are you okay honey?" He asked his daughter. Jenny smiled weakly at him, and of course Jasper knew what was wrong, he knew his daughter to well. He felt that his daughter didn't feel comfortable with this whole thing, she was shaken, he could tell, even if no one else couldn't, not even her mother.
"Dad? It doesn't feel right, something's wrong" She whispered to him and walking to the aisle at the same time.
"It's not too late to back out of this honey, no one will judge you" Jasper Shepard hugged her hand tightly and assured her that he was always by her side, no matter what her decisions will turns out to be.
But before she could answer him she was already standing there, on the aisle, facing the man she was gonna marry and living with for the rest of her life. Her father gave her a kiss on the cheek and handed her over to Patrick.
"You look stunning honey" Patrick whispered to her and she smiled at him, but the smile was not by her choice, she had to bring it out with force. Patrick took her hand. She shivered at his touch. Behind them, Jasper Shepard felt uncomfortable with his daughter marrying this guy, his daughter didn't felt good about this, and he wanted to do something, but felt like he couldn't.
As the priest talked about love, Jenny felt more and more uncomfortable standing up here with Patrick. It made her question her decisions about her wedding. Was it too soon to be marrying someone? She loves him, and if he loves her too he would understand, no doubt.
Then before she knew it the priest asked Patrick if he would take her to be his wife; and he said 'yes', then the priest turned to her.
"Jennifer Shepard, do you take Patrick Hanson to be your wedded husband?"
Jenny hesitated and Patrick saw that in her eyes, he was about to say something when his phone rang. He answered it quickly. Jenny looked at him desperately, wondering what was wrong. The audience was all confused of what was going on. They started to look at each other for answers.
Patrick's eyes went dark; he put his phone in his pocket and looked at his bride. He cherishes her face, kissed her and took her in his arms. Then in came FBI, CIA Agents, storming their wedding, pointing their gun at Patrick, snipers were everywhere, ready to take the shot.
"You know that I love you right? Remember that baby" Patrick whispered to her. Jenny was as much confuse as everyone was. Then she felt something pointing at her stomach. Then it came, *Bang*. It wasn't the guns that were fired from the FIB's, the CIA's or the snipers. The crowed screamed at the sound, Jasper Shepard worried about his daughter. They all stood up, not knowing what the hell was going on.
Jenny felt something wet, it hurts, and then her knees went weak. She put her hands on her stomach when Patrick let go of her. The agents ran to him, brought him down on the ground and handcuffed him.
Jenny was shaken, she turned her head to her parents, and her hands were still on her stomach covering something up. Then she fell on the ground slowly, her parents and friends ran to her as quickly as they could. She took her hand from her stomach and revealed the gunshot wound. It was bleeding so much; the blood ran down everywhere covering her beautiful white wedding gown. Her mother screamed, her father was in chock of what just happened.
Present day
"…I lost a lot of blood. They lost me several times in the OR" My father was furious. He tended to make sure that Patrick stayed in prison as long as he kept breathing" As Jenny told them her story, tears was covering her face. "Then just a few nights after he got arrested, someone was bailing him out, of course my father went crazy" "My father tracked down Patrick's boss. His name was René Benoit" Jenny said, revealing why she was so obsessed with hunting him down.
"But no one seems to track Patrick down. But after my parents death he showed up again. Somehow he managed to make my life miserable. And since then I have been running away from him" The team listened carefully as Jenny continued her story. "Until now" She wiped her tears away, stood up, facing her team of agents. "So that's it, the story of my life" She said before walking out of the room.
Gibbs and the others stayed in her office, stunned of what they have heard. All this time, they have been given her some hard times, but knowing what she went through her whole life they understood her better know, why she did what she did, it all made sense at the end.
Gibbs didn't know what to say. Jenny Shepard, the woman he thought was a cold hearted ice queen has a past, and a dark emotional one. He knew that she wanted him beside her today, making sure that she was safe and alright. But all he could think of was taking this bastard down. He was gonna suffer for what he have put her through.
Don't forget to leave a comment!
Thank you!
/Julia