6 yrs later
Size 5 feet splashed through the water, mud flying everywhere as six-year-old Amanda Sheppard ran giggling from her mother. Children swarmed around the park in raincoats and gumboots, their parents watching with expressions of awe and worry. Jennifer Sheppard followed her daughter laughing, clutching a cup of coffee in her hands.
"Amanda! You're getting mud all over your clothes!" She called trying to hold back another fit of laughter as Amanda kicked mud into the air, and managing to make her blue jeans splattered brown.
Amanda looked back at her mother briefly, and suddenly her foot caught a root of a tree that was sticking up out of the ground. Her hands went out, attempting to break her fall, but instead they slid through the mud, sending her to her stomach.
A few soft sobs shook through her small body, as two large hands wrapped around her arms, lifting her off the ground. Looking up, through a layer of tears, Amanda saw an unfamiliar man, yet found his grip and look comforting. He smiled at her reassuringly.
"Are you okay?" he asked, setting her down.
Amanda nodded, backing away slowly, and smelling her mother, turned around and hugged Jenny's legs.
"Thank-you," Jenny said gratefully, never taking her eyes off her daughter.
A few moments passed and Jenny wondered if the man had walked away, but looking up she found not that he had walked away, but that the man simply stared. His hands started to shake slightly, and Jenny's breath caught in her throat.
The man in front of her may have been unfamiliar to Amanda, but Jenny could put a name to that face any day. She had spent the best part of a year waking up to his face, and she believed that she most probably knew every laugh line, wrinkle, and grey hair on that man. A spark of happiness exploded in her stomach, but suddenly died down when she realised something wrong with the scene that the man was staring at.
His daughter was in it. The daughter she had told him she lost 2 months through the pregnancy. Then she had left saying that it was best for everyone. Unconsciously her mind leapt back to that day…
Jenny Sheppard found herself wake to the sound of the coffee machine, humming in the next room, and after a minute of drowsiness, she stumbled out of bed.
As she passed the mirror, a smile crept to her face, spotting her lover in the bed behind her, the covers strewn awkwardly across him. Grabbing her robe off the back of the door, Jenny proceeded through the apartment, entering the familiar kitchen.
She had to admit, she would miss this place. She would miss the city. Their assignment was up here, and they were leaving this afternoon. But she didn't want to. A lot had happened here. She had fallen pregnant.
She remembered how happy he was when she told him, and how crushed she was when, just a week ago, she had explained she lost the baby. She also remembered quite clearly how much it hurt her to tell him. But she had to.
Jenny poured herself a cup of coffee, and leant against the bench, knowing that he wouldn't be awake for at least an hour or two.
Silently she walked back into the room, where she pulled on a blue blouse and jeans.
They were the only clothes she had unpacked.
It suddenly occurred to her as she watched him sleep, that today would be the day. It was the day that she left her old life, of love and pain and she would start on her way to success.
Jenny snapped out of her thoughts, as Amanda tugged on her hand. She stood up, taking her daughter in her arms, and stepped towards her ex lover. She knew he was still probably upset at the way she left.
A note on the counter, with little to no explanation about why. Just that he didn't fit into her plan.
"I…" She started to say but he turned on his heels and stalked away, and Jenny swore she saw a tear fall from his eye.
As they arrived home, Jenny felt as if though a burden had been taken off her shoulders, her heart had been torn. Amanda looked at her mother, and spotted tears in her eyes.
"Mommy?" Jenny looked down at her daughter, and brushed a lock of red curls out of her face.
"Yeah?" she said, struggling to hold back tears, seeing the likeness in Amanda and her father.
"Who was that man today?"
Jenny contemplated not telling her but she knew she couldn't do that; keep secrets from the only family she had left.
"Well sweetie…" Jenny bent down and nervously fiddled with her hands, "That was your father. Leroy Jethro Gibbs."
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