For: CrimsonShepard

From: MissJayne

Title: All I Want For Christmas Is You

A/N: A huge, huge thank you to CrimsonShepard for helping me last night/extremely early this morning. I might have forgotten to mention one of the two entries I was frantically writing was for you!

Prompts:
Peppermint bark
Tangled Christmas lights
Shattered ornaments
Jenny's townhouse

Jenny Shepard stared in growing horror at the state of her townhouse. Half a shredded cushion was dumped on the hall floor, the jagged edges of shattered glass ornaments were begging for fresh blood, a small collection of socks sat at the foot of the stairs, and to top it off, what looked like an entire toilet roll covered everything.

"Señora Jenny, I am so sorry," Naomi began, appearing from the kitchen. "Señor Gibbs asked me to look after your Christmas present, but he got loose."

"Christmas present?" Jenny eyed up the mess, having decided to let Gibbs deal with it. "What on earth did he get me? A small child?"

"Sort of…" Naomi hinted.

Her attempt at mystery was foiled when a tiny puppy emerged from the kitchen behind her, creeping out shyly. Jenny's heart melted into a puddle of goo (though she planned to utterly deny this to Jethro when she told him the story, and to focus on how pissed off she was at the wanton destruction caused by his present). She was a short-haired dachshund, tiny with black and tan fur that Jenny desperately wanted to stroke. Her large brown eyes stared up at her, full of innocence. Silently swearing to kill Gibbs for giving her such a loveable creature that she knew she would never be able to return, she kicked off her heels and slowly approached her new housemate.

"Does she have a name?" she asked.

"Señor Gibbs said you could name her," Naomi replied, before dashing back into the kitchen at the smell of burning chocolate. "Oh, the peppermint bark…"

Jenny stared at the puppy, who had suddenly lost her shyness and was moving forward to sniff her new owner. "A name… I think you're a Pearl. Hello Pearl, I'm Jenny."

"Why the hell did you get me a dog? For Christmas, of all things! Have you missed all the warnings at this time of year? 'A dog is for life, not just for Christmas!'"

"I know, Jen!" Gibbs looked up from his attempt at untangling the Christmas lights, a penance cooked up by Jenny. "One of Abby's friends at the shelter called her in a panic. They ran out of space just before Christmas and then this little puppy showed up on their doorstep. Abby's landlord doesn't allow pets and she begged me to take her. And you've talked about getting a dog before. If you didn't want her, I was going to have her myself."

"I have talked about a dog. A big dog! One that could be trained to attack intruders, or people who wander into my house in the middle of the night and start eating things in my fridge."

"That was one time."

"At least once a month. You're lucky I haven't shot you."

"You shouldn't have given me a key."

"I got Abby to steal your key back, and you still pick the lock and wander in."

"Only to prove your security needs upgrading."

"My security detail let you past them because they think you're not a threat to me. Partly accurate, because mostly you're a threat to my fridge. A big dog might sort that out. Not… Big-Eyed Fluffy over there." She pointed towards Pearl, who had curled up on the couch and gone to sleep, but not before running off with one of Jenny's heels and been chased all over the house.

"You should have heard her yapping on the way here," Gibbs replied. "Enough to scare off any intruder."

"You mean annoy any intruder. A big dog would growl and bark and terrify anyone foolish enough to break into my house. A big dog could be trained to attack anyone he didn't know. And instead you give me a cute, tiny dog that wouldn't scare a cat."

"I dunno, Jen. I reckon she could take on next door's cat."

Jenny sighed, gave up on her present wrapping and glanced over to her new puppy, who had taken her usual spot on the couch with glee. "What am I supposed to do with her when I'm at work? She needs walking and playtime and love."

"That's what you have an agency for. Abby would love to help out. And Ducky. And you can order Tony and McGee to swing by and take her for walks when you're stuck in a meeting."

"Oh, you're not getting out of this one so easily, mister. You'll be doing your fair share of walking. And I'll know if you order your team to do it for you."

Gibbs shrugged. "Abby's always wanted a team mascot. I guess we just got one."

"Okay, but no more strays!" she warned.

"Unless it's a big dog."

"No! What if the big dog eats Pearl?!"

Gibbs groaned, tugged helplessly at a particularly tangled section of Christmas tree lights, and gave up in frustration. "So now you don't want a big dog?"

"Not if it goes after Pearl!"

He shook his head and dropped the lights on the floor. "I give up."

"On the lights or the dog?"

"Both."

For a few moments, they both watched Pearl as she lightly snored.

"New deal," Gibbs suggested. "I'll take Pearl for all her walks for the next week, and I'll call DiNozzo to deal with the lights."

Jenny considered the tangled mess on the floor and decided it was probably a fair deal. "Okay. How are you going to blackmail DiNozzo?"

"Abby convinced him he needed to come to work in costume as Dr Frank N Furter for Halloween. Managed to snap a photo in the empty squad room before he realized he'd been had. He doesn't look too bad in a dress."

"You could have given me that photo as a present for Christmas."

"I think this one is better."

Jenny looked back at Pearl and smiled softly. "You're right. Now, while she's asleep, where did you put the mistletoe…"