"Five years?" Jen asked skeptically. None of Gibbs other relationships, including his three ex-wives lasted anywhere near that long. In fact his three marriages put together didn't add up to five years.
"We met at a conference and hit it off. One thing led to another and five years later we were still together. We just clicked I guess."
"I have to ask, why didn't you two get married?"
"No reason to. We were faithful to each other and didn't need a piece of paper to prove it. Plus we wouldn't have been allowed to work together on cases. And in reality we really did make a good team investigatively when we collaborated. But it was something we had thought about."
"So what happened today?
"I left the East Coast after I got out of the hospital. I went to Seattle and I haven't seen Him since. It wasn't a good ending. Actually it wasn't an ending at all. I ran. Like I did today." She took a deep breath and stood up. Jen stood up with her.
Jen suspected that there was much more to it than that, she sensed that there was something about their relationship that went far beyond them just being lovers. She had seen Gibbs' with other past lovers that he had bad endings with and none of them had caused the pain she saw in his face earlier.
"Director, thank you for listening. I'm um, going to get some air. I will send someone from my office to pick up the boxes of files. I think it will be better to have a different agent as liaison with NCIS on the cold cases under the circumstances."
"Agent McFergus…Eveline, I just want to say I'm sorry. Sorry about everything that happened. I'll speak with your supervisor and put this in a way that doesn't reflect badly on you. It's just a very awkward situation, he will just have to understand."
She actually got a real grin out of Evie, "Director I appreciate that. Don't worry too much about it though, I'm pretty bulletproof at the agency. Given everything that happened they give me a lot of leeway, and short of killing my superior I can get away with just about anything." And then she added cockily, channeling Gibbs, "Besides I am a great agent that cleans up a lot of old FBI screw ups in cold case. But I'll deny ever saying that."
Jen extended her hand, "I understand. And listen, if there is anything you need, anything, please call me."
----------
She knew that glint in His eye. He was up to something. And then she realized it was their fifth anniversary, of course He was up to something. He told her to get in the car. And when she complained that she needed to pack a bag He looked at her, and dropped His voice and told her that clothing was not going to be necessary. The steel in His voice made her feel flush all over. And when they were back on the same small sailboat they celebrated their first anniversary on she could have cared less about clothing. And one night as she was cocooned in His arms wrapped in a blanket on the deck in the moonlight He asked her to marry him. It wasn't the first time He had asked but it was the first time she said yes.
----------
Abby was a bundle of nervous energy. As the day wrapped up and she left her lab she realized that she didn't want to go home. And she didn't think her place was at Gibbs' either. She found herself driving and on a whim heading for the park where Tony had found Gibbs earlier. She was surprised to see someone sitting alone on one of the benches, someone with red hair.
Abby took a deep breath and got out of the car and headed over to the woman.
Evie was lost in her own thoughts and although she registered that someone had sat down on the other end of the bench she didn't look.
"Agent McFergus?" Abby asked quietly.
Evie turned to see the younger woman and was momentarily taken aback by the her goth appearance, "I'm sorry do I know you?"
"Um no, I work for NCIS. In the forensics lab. I'm Abby."
Evie was still confused as to why Abby was there, it was too weird to be coincidence. "Do you come here a lot Abby?"
"No. I was just driving and decided to stop."
"Any particular reason?"
Abby blurted out without thinking, "Because He came here earlier and I wanted to know why."
Evie raised an eyebrow and asked, "He being?"
Abby looked down at her hands and said softly, "Gibbs."
----------
"I should have protected her. I should have ignored that jackass and shadowed her that night." Gibbs eyes met Tony's.
"You couldn't have known what Stetson was going to do."
"My gut told me that the whole thing was wrong. It was wrong for her to do it, wrong for me not to shadow her, wrong for there not to be more surveillance. Everything about it was wrong. But no one would listen."
Tony could see the guilt that Gibbs carried and now understood why he was so protective of his team, and why he always went with his gut rules be damned. But Tony wanted the story, wanted Gibbs to give him all of it, and once Gibbs did if He shattered, if He were broken Tony would put Him back together like He had done for Tony so many times and so he said with a touch of steel in his voice, "So what happened?"
Gibbs was surprised by Tony's tone and was pleased and relieved, Tony had Him. "Right after the explosion and we realized that she was missing the jackass had the audacity to say that it was her own fault for not aborting when we all heard the explosion. I didn't even think, I just reacted and he was out cold on the ground and I had three men holding me back from killing him. My superior got to the scene and I handed him my badge and service weapon and I left."
He took a sip of his drink and continued, "It took me ten days to find her. Everyone else gave her up for dead. But I knew she was alive, I would have known if she were dead. It was actually her notes that lead me to them. She had interviewed Stetson early on in the investigation and she had a notation near his name. CF10. Stood for Creep Factor of ten. She had liked him for the murders early on but there wasn't any evidence linking him to four of the victims and the jackass insisted that he wasn't the guy. It was how Stetson knew it was a setup, he recognized her."
Tony saw Gibbs clench and unclench his fist as he spoke.
"I went to his house and when I identified myself he laughed, the bastard laughed, and asked me if I was missing something."
----------