The warm rays of the sun on her skin, the cool breeze that brushed through her hair, made her forget, at least for a moment this unbearable headache. It was maddening! She couldn't stand it anymore, couldn't turn off the thoughts of this stupid edema in her head, and when Ziva said that the discomfort could be caused by it, she felt even more uncomfortable than she already was.

"Here you are."

Slowly she turned her head to the left, looked over her shoulder and spotted Gibbs. Who else, really?", she thought, turning her gaze back across the harbor.

"I just needed some fresh air."

"Why didn't you say something?", he asked quietly, coming to stand beside her, leaning his arms against the railing.

"That I needed some fresh air for a minute?"

"No, that you weren't feeling well."

A sigh left her throat. So Ducky had told him! But she didn't understand why at all, after all, she was doing quite well otherwise, only the headache and nausea made her day a bit more tiring than usual.

"Because it's no big deal, Jethro."

"I think it is, though, Jenny. I heard you spent almost half an hour just throwing up."

Rolling her eyes, she looked off into the distance, though thanks to the sunglasses, Gibbs couldn't perceive the gesture. Only slowly did she turn to him, tucking the sunglasses into her hair and eyeing him. She could understand his concerns after all, but then again she didn't really feel bad.

"Maybe it's just stress. I feel better already, too."

Wordlessly, Gibbs looked at the petite woman across from him. Her eyes said otherwise, they were slightly glazed, wore barely discernible shadows and her skin color was pale. Really, her last statement was not convincing, but what could he do? He didn't want to argue with her, too, when she wasn't doing very well anyway. There was no point in that.

"Honestly...", she added, smiling at him.

He would like to believe her, but his gut was giving him clear signals that something could definitely be wrong. Gibbs took a step closer to her, took her head between his hands and stroked her cheeks. Tenderly, he kissed her.

However, neither of them was to have much togetherness; as soon as their lips touched, they heard the ringing of her phone. It was bewitching! She had not had a minute today to distract herself from the stressful day. She was constantly on the phone, holding meetings or conferences, writing emails, and getting file after file dumped on her desk. Was this really what she wanted? Was this how she had envisioned her new job? Or was everything just getting to be too much for her right now?

She sighed, searching in her jacket pocket for the phone.

"Shepard?", she picked up, not even noticing at first how annoyed her tone sounded.

"Your twelve o'clock is here, ma'am.", she could hear Cynthia say.

Of course! She had totally forgotten about that. Jarvis was supposed to come to her at twelve o'clock to talk about some organizational things concerning NCIS. How could she have forgotten?

"I'm sorry, I have to go.", she replied curtly, putting the little phone away again.

"I know.", Gibbs said softly, smiling at her. "Go, I'll see you later."

Nodding, Jenny smiled briefly as well, pressing one last kiss to his lips before heading back to the compound.

"What do you mean, they're sleeping together, right?", muttered Tony, putting a forkful of noodles in his mouth.

"Tony, again?", asked McGee, annoyed. "Ever since Kate's funeral, that's all you've talked about. Isn't it getting to be enough?"

Rolling his eyes, DiNozzo averted his gaze from him and turned his attention instead to the newest addition to the team. Ziva. She was his ace in the hole; after all, she had known the Director for some time and simply had to know what was going on between the Boss and Director Shepard.

"Tell me, Ziva.", Anthony started talking and gave McGee a meaningful look. "What do you know about the Director and Gibbs?"

"I'm not going to tell you anything private about the Director."

"Come on, every agent in this building is already talking about it."

"Look, it's none of my business, and besides, why would I tell you of all people?"

"What's that supposed to mean?", he asked indignantly, eyeing both Ziva and McGee.

"She means that Gibbs' love life is none of your business."

"Probie...", the senior officer sighed, dropping his head into his neck before continuing; "Any person with eyes in their head can see that those two are getting it on. Why else would they come together, go together?"

"Probably because the director is still in discomfort and can't drive?"

"That's exactly what these two are telling gullible people like you."

McGee rolled his eyes and exchanged definite glances with Ziva.

"The whole office is already talking, and Ducky is just as entangled in this as Ziva, isn't he?"

"Entangled?"

"Entangled.", Tony corrected himself.

Questioningly, the brunette woman looked at her colleagues.

"That means you're involved in these rumors, you know details.", Tim explained.

"Whatever you think is going on between them, I can't tell you.", Ziva repeated herself and got up from the office chair, moving away from the groups of tables.

"Come on!", Tony called after her, but Ziva stood firm.

For nothing in the world would she ever share anything she knew Jenny had told her in confidence with anyone else, and certainly not Antony DiNozzo. While she didn't know the two agents on the team that well yet, Tony had figured them out by now, and she knew when to keep something private.

"Everyone here knows those two are having sex.", he said to McGee in a low murmur.

"DiNozzo!", the young man could hear his superior barking as well. "I hope your report is ready."; Gibbs grumbled, less than pleased when he overheard Tony's last sentence.

"No, boss.", he said quickly, turning back to his desk; "In a minute, boss."

"You were with her today, did she tell you anything?", asked Gibbs of the medical examiner, leaning against one of the four dissection tables.

"When you ask if she told me anything, what do you mean exactly?"

"About how she's doing."

Ducky shook his head in denial and turned his chair around to face Gibbs.

"Jethro, I understand your concerns, but I'm afraid I can't tell you anything specific either.", Ducky began to speak, looking thoughtfully at the gray-haired man. "I only know this much, our dear Jennifer is plagued by headaches and according to Ziva, she had also spent quite a bit of time in the ladies rooms this morning, as she was apparently also very unwell."

"Yesterday, after her meeting at the Pentagon, she also said something about a headache."

"Have you had the check-up appointment yet?"

"Tomorrow morning.", Gibbs replied. "Do you think it's from the edema? Do you think it's gotten bigger?"

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Jethro. I can understand that very well, of course, but Jennifer had a lot of nerve-wracking weeks behind her, too, and yesterday's incident had left its mark, too."

Rolling his eyes, Gibbs glanced at the older of the two.

"Jennifer has talked to me a lot about Stephanie, and it's all been a lot for her. You're doing her good and as long as things stay this harmonious between you and the divorce decree is actually consummated...", the pathologist spoke, taking off his glasses. "I don't begrudge you your happiness and wish that you can finally enjoy it."

"Ducky, I..."

The sudden ringing of the phone interrupted the senior field agent as Ducky picked up the receiver.

"Autopsy?", he asked, putting his glasses back on.

"Dr. Mallard, we need you in the director's office."

"Has something happened?"

"SecNav Jarvis asked me to call you. The director is not well."

"I'm coming.", Ducky said quickly, putting the phone back on the hook.

"Are you all right?"

"Speaking of the sun..."

Ducky got up from the office chair, hung his gown on the hook, and reached for the large brown bag sitting next to the desk.

"Best you come right along.", he muttered, heading for the sliding doors.

"What's going on?"

"That was Cynthia, she didn't say anything specific, but something must have happened."

Gibbs sat silently at the foot of the black leather couch, looking at her thoughtfully. She didn't look much worse than before, but as we all know, that didn't mean anything. What was on his mind, however, was that she seemed to still be complaining about that headache from yesterday. But he couldn't really understand why she didn't say anything. She could have just talked to him, couldn't she?

"Do you still think it's just stress?", he asked softly, stroking her shoulder with his hand.

"It was nothing, I'll be fine.", she murmured, closing her eyes for a moment.

The nausea, however, made it very difficult for her to make him believe she was really fine. Yet, there was a very simple reason for this discomfort – there had simply been a lot going on in the last few weeks.

"Please, do you realize what's happening around you right now?", he asked, concerned and stern at the same time. "You almost collapsed infront of the SecNav during a meeting."

She nodded silently, swallowed hard and put a hand on her forehead. Somehow she thought his caring was sweet, but how was she going to explain to him that he didn't have to worry so much? She didn't want to tell him that she almost fell into the arms of the SecNav if she hadn't propped herself up at her desk in time, but the Jarvis beat her to it.

"Drive her home, Jethro.", Ducky now spoke up from the background. "There's no point in going on like this."

"But...", Jennifer started to protest and slowly sat up, and even now she had to fight the rising nausea.

"He's right, Jenny, you can't work like this. You've been sick all day, do you want to go to the hospital?"

"No.", she muttered.

"Look, we've discussed everything important, and from what I've been told by Dr. Mallard, there's another follow-up appointment at the hospital tomorrow. I also think it's best if you go home and lie down."

Shaking her head, Jennifer looked at all three of them, but still had to admit, she was outvoted. No matter what she said, she was going to hit a wall here. She was outnumbered, three against one. Did she even have a choice anymore? Probably not!

"It's better this way, believe me."

Silently, she stood in the bathroom, taking a look in the mirror in front of her. She had just thrown up again, and after rinsing her mouth to get rid of the taste, she noticed that her skin color actually looked very pale. But when she glanced at the object in her hands, she immediately felt even more nauseous. How was she going to explain this to Gibbs? How could this even be happening?

A knock on the bathroom door snapped her out of her thoughts. She quickly dropped the item in the bathroom cabinet, turned to the door, and just as she was about to open it, he came into the room.

"Hey.", she said softly, smiling at him. "How was the office?", she asked, trying not to let her inner turmoil show.

Questioningly, he looked at her, unable to explain exactly where this euphoria suddenly came from. He noticed immediately that something was different, but he had not yet figured out what it was that made her suddenly act so strangely.

"How are you?"

"Fine."

"Jenny.", Gibbs said sharply, watching her stop in front of the bed. "The truth."

Rolling her eyes, she took a step towards him, wrapped her arms around his neck and said; "A little better than earlier in the office."

Jethro still wasn't that convinced though, but he didn't want to upset her too much right now either, was glad that things were feeling very slightly better at all. Carefully, he put his arms around her waist and returned her smile without thinking about it for long. How much he loved that smile, and how much he missed it in the last years. She was beautiful as a picture, a very special person and now that he had her with him again, he wouldn't let her go anytime soon. At least not willingly.

"What are you thinking about?", she asked softly.

"About how much I love you.", Leroy replied in the same tone before pressing a kiss to her lips.

"I love you too."

After they both exchanged one last, tender kiss, Gibbs parted from her as well. Took a step back and reached for the white bag he placed on the dresser earlier.

"I would have picked up some food on the way from the office, but I don't know how much of an appetite you'll have."

"Depends on what you have to offer."

She really didn't have much of an appetite, though, more of a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Well, I've been to a few stores, since I'm not sure what's good for you right now.", Gibbs began to speak, opening the large bag. "I got soup once, some rice with vegetables, and barely seasoned chicken."

"Thanks...", said Jenny quietly, glancing into the bag. "But I guess I just can't get anything inside me right now."

The smells alone made her feel sick, and she really wanted to avoid throwing up again.

"Maybe later."

"I'll take it to the kitchen, do you want something from downstairs?"

"No."

Don´t know what to think about that ending, but I hope you guys like it anyway!