Traces Of A Lost Love

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst/Hurt/Comfort/Romance/Drama
Pairings: Jibbs
Warnings: Tissue warning.
Summary: He knew there was something up with the message. . . But he never expected this. . . Jibbs.

AU Jen was critically injured in Cairo, she’s taken back to the States and is in Bethesda, while there she is reunited with someone she thought she’d never see again. . . Jethro Gibbs. But, is it too late?

Chapter 1:

Cairo, 2003

It glided against her skin, like a red-hot pin being driven into her arm. She cringed and placed her hand over the wound, as if a natural response to the pain. It had only grazed her left arm, she examined the wound for a moment, it was nothing too serious, she would survive. She quickly looked around to see if there were any more bullets heading in her direction. She couldn’t see any. Her next thought was to Ziva, where was she? “Ziva!” She called, not thinking how stupid it was to be calling out in the middle of all this, she would most likely be caught for that mistake, it could cost her the life she was trying to protect at the moment - her own. Realising the implications of giving away her position by calling Ziva’s name out, she called out softly, “Ziva, where are you?” She continued to search for Ziva, trying to stay low to the ground and not giving a second thought to the wound on her arm.

After searching for a few minutes, Jenny found Ziva, she was busy ducking bullets. “Jen, I thought you’d never show up. Where have you been?”

Jenny pointed in the direction she’d come from, “Over there, near the alley. I was trying to stay out of the commotion, I guess I didn’t do such a good job.” She showed Ziva the wound the bullet had left.

Ziva took a close look at the, now probably infected, wound. With all the dust flying around this place, she was sure it would be infected soon if not treated. But Jenny’s superficial wound was not their greatest concern at the moment. . . The bullet heading right for them was. Ziva’s keen eye saw which direction it was heading, it was heading right for Jenny, Jenny had her back turned to the bullet and didn‘t see, so Ziva yelled, “Jen!” And jumped in front of her.

Unfortunately, she was too slow, the bullet had impacted in Jenny’s side. Ziva dragged her out of the line of fire and began to make a make-shift bandage to try and save her friend.

NCIS, Washington D.C, 2003.

“DiNozzo, what are you doing?” Kate asked from her desk. The sight she saw boggled her mind.

“It’s called eating, Kate.”

“Really? It looks more like -”

“Like what, Katie?”

Kate thought for a moment, she actually had never seen anyone eat like that in her life, so she really didn’t have an answer, “You know what, Tony, forget it, you keep. . . Doing what you were doing, I think you called it eating didn’t you?”

“If you two don’t stop being children, you won’t get to eat.” Gibbs told them, walking towards his desk. “Grab -” He hesitated, he saw a yellow phone message note on his desk; strangely it caught his attention, normally he ignored them, he picked it up and read it, phone call for Special Agent Jethro Gibbs read the first line, underneath in the reason for calling section it read, personal. Gibbs was perplexed by this message, who would call him about something personal? He studied the phone number he was supposed to call back, it was a number he wasn’t familiar with, at least one he didn’t use a lot - but then, how often did he make a personal phone call?

Kate and Tony noticed Gibbs’ odd hesitation, “Everything okay, Gibbs?” Kate asked, not sure if she should be standing up and getting her stuff ready or if she should be sitting down, trying her best not to look at Tony and his ‘eating’.

“Do any of you know who left this?” He asked, holding up the phone message.

“No, sorry boss.” Tony replied, in between mouthfuls of noodles.

“DiNozzo, stop eating like a pig.”

Kate had a satisfied grin on her face and Tony just listened to Gibbs and stopped eating.

“Well, come on, let’s go!” Gibbs said, noticing that his agents were just sitting there starring into space.

They quickly fumbled around and grabbed their stuff and rushed towards the elevator.

Gibbs left the crime scene early, leaving Tony and Kate there to handle thing. The crime scene had been pretty routine - as routine as it could be, that is, so he felt they would be able to cope. He had left early because the phone message had been in Gibbs’ thoughts the entire time he was out, he didn’t know what it was, but he knew as soon as he got back to NCIS he would follow it up. The suspense was too much for him to handle.

He walked over to his desk, sat down and dialled the number.

"What just happened?” Kate asked.

“I don’t know, is this some kind of dream? Pinch me and see.”

“You are such a child, DiNozzo.”

“What?”

She decided pinching him would be fun, so she did.

“Ow, Kate, that hurt!”

“What? You told me to pinch you. . .” She smirked.

“Yeah, but not like that!”

“I guess having all those brothers did teach me something after all.” Kate replied.

“But back to the original question, did what just happen actually just happen? Did Gibbs actually leave a crime scene early?”

“I never thought I’d see the day.” Kate replied.

“Neither did I.”

He listened to the dial tone for a moment, before someone picked up, “Bethesda Naval Hospital, how can I help you?”

“My name is Special Agent Gibbs . . . I believe someone called me earlier and left a message. . .”

“Special Agent Gibbs, yes, of course, I think you should come down here.” The receptionist said.

“Why? What is so important that you can’t tell me over the phone?” Gibbs was getting irritated now.

“I really think it’s best if you come down to the hospital, Special Agent Gibbs. Everything will be explained when you arrive.”

“Tell me now, I’m not going to come down for something that I don’t know about!” Gibbs retorted.

“Sir, it’s Miss Shepard.”

tbc . . . Please review :)