Coffee Shop Chatter
Author: A'serene (Co-authored by elflordsmistress)
Category: General / Romance
Rating: PG
Contents: At Coffee Shops people are always talking; do you always hear what you think you heard?
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, if I did, Mann would have been gone the day after she got there.
A/N: For elflordsmistress, who also helped with the writing.
She was not jealous.
She wasn't.
Not completely.
Well okay maybe a little.
Okay maybe a lot. Especially if her pace back to her office was any indication. She was pretty sure her office doors would need new hinges. Eventually she would go out and apologize for snapping at Cynthia and she would probably have to make sure Agent DiNozzo had gotten any brilliant ideas from her little race from the elevator to her office, or the fact that she was pretty sure everyone in the squad room could hear the door slam, or perhaps the fact that she'd smashed her phone against the door to MTAC as well, that was probably already over the building.
She didn't care. Not really. Oh no, the fact that she'd apparently walked in on a lover's reconciliation, nope it didn't bother one little bit. No. What bothered her was the fact that ten minutes before one half of the newly reconciled couple had called HER and asked HER to Coffee. That's what bothered.
Way to go Jenny, she applauded herself. You fell all over again and look where it got you, her little voice piped up. Who are you kidding, the other half spoke up, you hadn't had to fall again; you were still falling from the last time. And she supposed her warring conscious was right, she had been in no way over Leroy Jethro Gibbs when she'd return to DC as Director of NCIS three years ago, nor had she managed to fall out of love with him. Which wouldn't be a problem if you hadn't... She silenced that thought. She did not need to hear the constant reminder of how she'd screwed up the best thing in her life or maybe how if she had been five minutes faster she could have prevented the whole thing, because SHE would have known then he wasn't free.
The she of course being Retired Colonel Hollis Mann, whom Jenny had sworn had moved to Hawaii. Apparently not permanently, her voice piped up again. No, not yet anyway. Apparently she was waiting for a certain person to go with her, a certain person who Jenny did not want to leave, but apparently what she had thought and wanted meant very little in the scheme of things.
She was glad he had called her. Told her she should take a break and he'd buy her a cup of coffee, if she came and met him. He'd even let her ditch her security detail for the walk. He'd been doing that a lot lately, these nice things for her. She certainly wasn't going to complain, she just wanted to know why. She entered the busy coffee shop and immediately a voice broke in her ear over the normal chatter.
"Hawaii."
"When?"
"Two weeks
"I'll be there," His voice rang loud and clear. "Wouldn't miss it for the world." She felt something oddly sharp in her chest, like a fire poker being stabbed in her and felt her blood turn cold. Bastard. She glanced behind her just in time to see him kiss her cheek. The visual was more then enough confirmation, she slipped back out the door and went back to head quarters.
So maybe that's why he'd been being so nice, because he was leaving again. It had to be. She heard Cynthia's raised voice and cringed. She didn't want to deal with what ever was coming through that door. Which turned out to be Gibbs. Naturally. And she felt that fire poker go just a little deeper and ice water spread.
"Hey, you didn't come," he said. So nice of him to remember. She ignored the fact that he looked slightly worried.
"I got held up," she answered tersely.
"I brought you back a refill." She simply nodded and refocused her attention on some papers in front of her. "Hey Jen."
"What?"
"Do you think I could have Thursday, Friday and the weekend two weeks from now off?"
"Fine."
"Fine?"
"Take the whole week if you're so inclined," she remarked coolly. He looked her over; she was focused on her paperwork. She hadn't asked a single question about why he wanted the day off, she'd just agreed. No, no she didn't agree, she said fine. Which he reasoned was technically agreeing, but not in the way he wanted her to. Fine is never a good thing. Especially when it comes from her. Fine was the word you never wanted to hear fall from a woman's lips, because chances were if she was saying Fine, everything was most defiantly NOT fine.
So what in the last hour could have pissed her off? SecNav? No, he's on vacation. Tony? Nah, she's been in her office since before I called her. Okay the phone call? She'd sounded normal, happy even, seemed delighted with the chance to bail on work. Maybe she got another call? He thought about all the possible people who could have called her but no one seemed to raise a flag, at least no one that would leave her saying Fine. She was still ignoring his presence, okay so what did I do? I called her and asked her for coffee, but she never showed. He remembered that part clearly, he'd waited a while and then got to worrying and practically ran back, coming off the elevator at a faster than normal pace and he'd asked Ziva where the Director was and then... What did she say?
"Ziva, have you seen the Director?" He asked trying to hide his concern.
"Oh we saw her," Tony commented.
"Her phone died," Ziva answered.
"Her phone?"
"Uh Boss, I think Ziva means she killed her phone," McGee translated.
"She was..."
"Not in a good mood," Tony inserted with a look that said exactly what he thought was wrong with her.
"She was upset," Ziva finished glaring at her partner.
Gibbs remembered whacking Tony and then coming up the stairs to the office. "She was upset." Upset with what? He had seen the remains of her phone, she'd obviously been in quite the temper to do that, but what would put her that way. The only time he'd seen her like this was with... Hollis. Shit. Not good. Not good. Why hadn't he thought that before? Hollis had showed up unexpectedly just a second after he'd called Jenny.
He felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
"Jethro?" a female voice asked.
"Hol?"
"I rang you at work. Spoke to McGee. He told me you'd gone for coffee. Have you got a minute?"
"For you, always" he said with a smile, taking her by the elbow and steering her towards a table not far from the window.
"How's the team?" she asked.
"Good".
"How's Director Shepard?"
"She's fine," he answered warily.
"Ducky?"
"You're hedging, Hol. What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about something" she said, looking a trifle nervous. For a moment his mind dwelled on a scenario he didn't want to contemplate.
"Hol?" She fidgeted.
"Funny ... it seemed like a really good idea when it came to me." He relaxed fractionally; all thoughts of her potentially being pregnant dispelling.
"I'm getting married Jethro."
"I take it that's a good thing," he said carefully.
"Yes. I was just wondering if you would ... give me away. My father is dead and I have no brothers or uncles." Gibbs leaned back in his chair and looked at her, surprise written all over his face. Very definitely not what he had been expecting.
"Who's the lucky guy?" he asked after a while; a big grin on his face. Feeling genuinely happy for her.
"He's a dive instructor in Oahu," she said, with a grin of her own.
"He good to you, Hol?" She nodded, a slight blush rising to her cheeks. He nodded back. Satisfied with her answer.
"Where's the wedding?" he asked as he downed the last of his coffee.
"Hawaii."
"When?"
"Two weeks." She looked up at him, with anticipation in her eyes.
"I'll be there," he said as he leaned across to kiss her cheek. "Wouldn't miss it for the world" he whispered into her ear as he got up from his seat.
Could Jenny have seen them? Because that would be a really good reason why she was saying fine, especially if she hadn't heard the whole conversation or any of the conversation for that matter.
"Jen."
"Don't you have work to do?" She commented.
"Nah, that's what DiNozzo is for." He sat down across from her and she looked up in irritation and he knew she was about a step from losing her temper on him. He'd been there before. "Hey have you ever been to Hawaii?"Ouch. If looks could kill, he would most certainly be dead three times over.
"No, not particularly interested in going."
"I was thinking of going. A friend asked me for a favor, honor really. Walk her down the aisle and such." He absolutely loved the picture she presented. Her eyebrow wrinkled slightly in confusion, her eyes slightly widening. He missed that expression and it was there for thirty seconds before quickly vanishing and her face going expressionless.
"Oh, well that sounds, nice," she responded. Well that was intelligent Jen, way to go, she thought sarcastically. She was ready to slap the back of her own head for this one. Of course he wasn't back with Her. You are such a fool, such a ridiculous fool, never assume, always double check.
He leaned back in the chair studying her for a moment. Now knowing Jenny as he did, if she were angry with him for something she would have shot back with some sarcastic comment about weddings, but instead she said nice. Nice was like fine, not necessarily bad to hear, but it did give pause for thought. She says nice, when she's unsure of something, or when something is not as she thinks it is, he reasoned thinking back to the day the FBI agent had been in her office when he'd walked in and apparently known him.
So now all he had to do was try to figure out where her reasoning went astray. He would go with the guess that she had seen him and Hollis in the café. So option a, she just really didn't like Hollis as a person or option b, she had either not heard the conversation or only part of it and was jealous. And if it were option b, he was going to thoroughly enjoy it. It was very difficult to rattle Jennifer Shepard, but making her jealous, that was something to be rather proud of. That and he had a really good idea of how to fix the jealousy.
"You going to ask whose getting married?" He inquired. She smiled faintly and met his eyes this time.
"Wouldn't you say it's none of my business?"
"Well obviously if its making you jealous..."
"Jealous?" She interrupted. She was not jealous. She wasn't.
"Uh huh, or envious, but you never really struck me as the getting married on a beach type."
"Oh really?" She responded. "So what type am I?"
"Tempting, excellent distraction tactic, did I teach you that?"
"I was merely curious, you seem to be an expert on these things."
"Uh huh, I'll make you a deal, you answer my question, and I'll answer yours."
"What was the question?"
"Jealousy or envy?"
"Neither," she assured. "Though I do like beaches. So what type am I?"
"Neither really? But if you like beaches then its envy."
"I said I like beaches not that I wanted to get married on one."
"So then jealous of who's getting married," he concluded.
"Jethro, I already answered your question," She protested. "And I am not jealous."
"Really? So your cell phone just spontaneously shattered into pieces, you should try following Rule 8."
"Be specific when you lie? I'm not lying, so I threw my phone. I told you I got held up here."
"You're right eye is twitching." She stood from her chair and turned toward the window. Damn tell, she cursed. She thought she had fixed that. Well that backfired, he thought. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest, class sign she was irritated. "Jenny."
"What?" She answered. He came to stand next to her, looking out at the yard and watching her from the corner of her eye. "What?" She questioned after his silence extended for more then a minute. He turned to look at her for a second and then looked away.
"You remember that bar in London?" He began. She scrunched her forehead as she tried to figure out what he was talking about, they'd been to multiple bars in London.
"Which bar?"
"The one we went to before you threw your phone in the Thames." Oh that bar, she thought. "See you let me borrow yours, for some reason..."
"Yours had a bullet through it."
"Oh yea, but anyway you let me borrow yours and we went to the bar and there was this girl there..." He could feel her glare. "And she was giving me her number and you..." She reached up and covered his mouth with one of her hands.
"Shut up." Okay so she had been jealous before and a phone had paid the price, she really didn't think there was a connection though. She removed her hand fairly certain she'd gotten him to stay quiet about that particular moment.
"I'm starting to think it's a pattern." Nope. Apparently he wasn't going to stay quiet.
"What I get jealous and toss a phone? That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard."
"So you were jealous," he pointed out. Damn.
"I didn't say that."
"Yes you did," he countered. "You were jealous of that girl in the bar." And the look of surprise on her face was enough to prove to him that she wasn't just jealous of the girl in the bar.
"I had good reason," she mumbled. Riiight, he thought. Like I would have gone for her, even if she was a redhead. He didn't really remember much about the girl, he did remember Jenny coming over and kissing him, staking her territory, and he'd liked that. Well if it had cleared up jealousy in the past, it might work again.
"So you aren't jealous of anything else?" he clarified.
"Not a thing."
"And you haven't been jealous in the last twenty four hours?"
"My neighbor bought an Aston Martin, I saw it this morning."
"That's envy."
"Trust me it was jealousy."
"Your eyes go all green," he teased.
"They're green to begin with," she reminded. Like I need a reminder, he thought, inching closer.
'So you're not jealous of any other women?"
"Nope."
"Not one?"
"Not a one," she responded tilting her head to meet his eyes. He was expressionless but she hadn't realized how close he'd gotten. Back Up Jenny! Warning alarms started going off in her head. She was pretty sure he was buying the non-jealousy thing. But she was a fraction to slow and he brushed his lips against hers. The faintest touch and she felt her knees melt.
"Good!" He replied cheerfully and turned away. She stared open mouthed as he went to grab his coffee from her desk.
"And if I'd said yes?" She inquired before her brain could process the words. I didn't say that, did I?
"You admitting to being jealous Jen?" He inquired mockingly. She glared; he could not almost kiss her and just walk away. He put the coffee back down and came over to her meeting her glare.
"I am not. Jealous that is, but hypothetically..."
"Oh hypothetically...I would probably try and figure out who and then..." she turned back to her desk and he smirked and grabbed her wrist spinning her back. She was officially trapped between him and her desk and he took full advantage of it, wrapping his arm around her and kissing her, deeply. He pulled back only when he realized she hadn't responded. He met her green eyes, suspiciously guarded.
"Well you made your point," she said, her voice short. "Hypothetically of course." She tried to slip away but he held her in place, his hands falling to rest on her hips.
"Only hypothetically?" he inquired unsure. It was distinctly possible that he had totally misread her these last few weeks, but he didn't think that was the case. "Because I can try this again."
"Try what again?" She questioned, if he meant kiss her, she wasn't sure she would protest. He leaned in closer to her.
"Come have coffee with me Jen," he whispered into her ear. He could feel her nod her head and he kissed her again. This time she responded and the kiss lasted infinitely longer then the last one would have probably lasted longer except for the voice that echoed in.
"I'll just come back later," Ziva quickly spit out, turning heel and bolting out the door. They pulled away quickly and watched the door be pulled closed so fast it almost came off the hinges.
"Poor door, it suffers so much abuse," Jenny sighed happily. She caught Jethro's raised eyebrow.
"We could put it through more..."
"Oh no, not happening," she replied. "Not for a few weeks. No alley ways either."
"Oh come on, that was all your idea."
"Me?" She protested. They heard the knock and the door opened to find them a respectable distance apart. "What?"
"My apologies Director," Ducky said. "I was told to come collect Jethro, he has a case." The two followed the good doctor out the door and down toward the squad room. He whacked Tony for staring, and then lightly tapped Ziva. She had the good judgment not to comment.
"Gear up!" The team moved super speed and was assembled by the elevator in record timing, giving Gibbs only a minute to tell Jenny he'd continue the conversation later. She nodded and said goodbye before going back up to her office.
Two Weeks Later
He stepped off the plane into the very bright sunshine that greeted him unexpectedly. He wandered through the exit point and found her trying to blend in, in the coffee shop. She noticed him a second later and he could see she was trying not to move. She after all couldn't attract attention. He glanced around not seeing anyone that might talk and went straight over to her kissing her like he had when he'd left four days ago.
"How was it?"
"Very nice actually. They'll be good for each other," he remarked kissing her again. "She asked about you."
"Oh?" And he smiled at her curious but trying to hide it face. He remembered that well too.
He felt someone tap him on the shoulder in the busy airport.
"Jethro!"
"Hey Hol," he greeted. He kissed her cheek in greeting and spotted the gentlemen behind her, the lucky fiancée, he thought.
"How was the flight?"
"Just fine." She looked around him, seemingly looking for something or someone else, but she came up empty.
"Where's Jenny?"
"The Director is working."
"Director?" Hol echoed.
"Yea, she sends her congratulations though. She introduced him to John and he was glad she was happy. The wedding was beautiful, she made a beautiful bride, and he even danced one dance with her. He was leaving right after the reception so he could be home the next morning and she caught him just as he was about to go.
"Jethro, thank you."
"Anytime Hol, anytime," he assured. He stepped away again till she called him back.
"You know Jethro, I'm rather surprised she didn't come with you."
"Who?"
"Jenny."
"Jen...the Director has a job to do," he answered.
"She won't wait around forever, especially if you don't give her a reason," Hollis warned. He looked at her curiously, true Jenny had never directly come between them, but he had always wondered what she thought and what she actually knew about his boss.
"She..."
"She's the reason you changed you your flight. Hm? Trying to surprise her?" He starred at her as she laughed happily. "Oh come on Jethro, it must be a very classic move, John did it for me."
"And here I thought it was original."
"She's good for you, don't let her get away." He nodded and left for the airport.
"So what did she say?"
"Oh, she wanted to know why you weren't there," he answered shifting his carry all higher up and placing his free hand on her lower back.
"I couldn't blow off the SecNav," she replied. He nodded looking around for the marine who was supposed to be looking after her.
"Where's your detail?" She smiled her mischievous smile, looking up at him from under long eyelashes.
"Oh Ziva was on protection today, someone came to pick her up leaving me with the car here."
"How'd you manage that?" He inquired.
"Told Cynthia I was sick and I wouldn't be in, Ziva came along as detail and she was here until your plane came in," She informed.
"Good, I'll drive."
"I'll drive, you can sleep off the jetlag."
"As you wish Director," he responded. She whacked him lightly on the side. "Hey your bathroom still has that whirlpool tub right?"
"Uh huh," she replied unlocking the car.
"So we going back..."
"Tony's camped out at your house, he wanted to guard it till you got home tomorrow."
"But..."
"Well they don't know that."
"And you called in sick?"
"Well I was feeling a little off..." They got in the car and she merged into traffic. "I was thinking about using the whirlpool tub later."
"Sounds good." He leaned over and kissed her cheek before settling back in the seat, she watched as he soon fell asleep the jetlag finally catching up. She pulled into her driveway half an hour later and watched him for a moment before leaning over and kissing him softly. He woke up and glanced at her for a moment before kissing her back, clearly she hadn't been the only who missed it.
"Jethro..."
"Good way to wake up."
"C'mon sleepy head, let's go," she chuckled getting out of the car and walking up to the house. He grabbed his bag and entered the house right behind her. The bag didn't make it past the doorway as the door slammed shut to everything else outside. "Wanna a cup of coffee?"
"Sure, you never did come to meet me."
"I heard some chatter in the shop about this new coffee maker, makes the best coffee ever, why buy the shop stuff?"
"You shouldn't believe everything you hear in coffee shops."
"Course not, hence the reason I only stocked up on the coffee from the shop. They had that brand you like," she mentioned. She was measuring out the coffee for the filter when she felt him wrap his arms around her. He leaned down and kissed her neck softly, enjoying her familiar scent and the ability to hold her again.
"You still want some coffee."
"Nope. Just you." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him gently, deepening it when she felt him tighten his grip on her. He lifted her up and carried her toward the stairs where he had plans for the whirlpool tub of hers, the coffee could wait.
END
Ending Note: The conversation in the coffee shop was written by Elflordsmistress so she really deserves the credit for this one. There's a couple of little one shots on the horizon and The Cup Of Red Threads is moving along. It will be here someday soon, hopefully.