Revenge Is Sweet
- Epilogue -

Jenny closed her eyes and opened them to check she wasn't dreaming, no everything was as she had seen it. She looked at herself in the mirror and ran her fingers through the red curls framing her face; she picked up her lipstick and reapplied the rose coloured lipstick to her already perfectly made-up lips. She looked at herself in the mirror again and smiled as she spotted the delicate silver and white rose in her hair, a single tear slipped down her cheek.

She heard footsteps approaching and hastily wiped the tear away, the door swung open and Leanna bounced in wearing a pink satin dress with a matching pink rose head band nestled in her long red curls. 'What do you think?' she asked her daughter pointing to her hair and dress, 'you look beautiful mom,' two faces appeared behind her, 'stunning Jenny,' she grinned at her two friends and laughed out loud at the sight of Abby and Ziva in pink satin dresses and delicate pink sandals. 'Are you ready?' Ziva asked her, she took a final look in the mirror and nodded as she bit her bottom lip nervously.

Gibbs stood shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he stared at the floor and then up to the ceiling, 'boss,' Tony muttered, 'boss,' stop moving you're making me feel nervous,' Gibbs glared at him, 'you're nervous! You're nervous! You're not getting married for the fifth time!' Tony's eyes widened. 'Probie, why did you say he was making you nervous?' McGee opened his mouth in protest, 'me! It was you Tony,' 'shut up.' They turned to find Gibbs staring at them and glared at each other. 'Straighten your ties,' Franks snapped at them, Gibbs ferociously brushing his jacket down smooth nervously, he would never admit just how terrified he was but given the chance he'd be straight out of the door.

The door opened behind the four men and Tony and McGee turned around as they sat down, their mouths fell open at the sight before them. Gibbs stared straight ahead before slowly turning on the spot, he gasped when he saw her standing there dressed all in white. Daring Jenny, a white dress, people will talk. His eyes devoured the low cut chiffon knee length dress with organza overlay, he followed her red curls around her face and down onto her shoulders. He couldn't believe she had agreed to become his wife, the one woman he thought would never say yes to him, stood here before him now, it was a miracle.

‑­

Ducky smiled beside her, dressed to the nines and swelling with pride, he took her arm in his and walked her down the aisle of the small church, past the small gathering of close friends, politicians and federal heads towards his old friend. He had been overwhelmed when Jenny had first come to him to ask if he would give her away, of course he accepted immediately, he was thrilled to be giving her away, she was like a niece to him.

Leanna skipped up the aisle grinning from ear to ear, followed by Ziva and Abby, all three stopped opposite Gibbs, Tony and McGee and turned to watch Jenny walking towards them smiling but the smile didn't reach her eyes, she swallowed and a small tear formed at the corner of her eye. She stopped as she reached Gibbs, he took her hand in his, 'what's wrong?' he whispered, 'nothing,' he knew something was wrong but didn't want to push it, 'okay,' he smiled, 'let's get married.'

…

Gibbs looked around the room and couldn't see her; he wandered around looking for her in the bathroom and then headed outside. He spotted her beside the fountain looking up into the stars; he slipped an arm around her and held her close, 'now will you tell me why you're crying?' 'I'm not crying,' she muttered through the flood of tears streaming down her cheeks. 'It's nothing, just being silly.' 'They're waiting for us,' 'oh please tell me Tony hasn't got a speech planned,' Gibbs nodded his head, 'yup, and so have Franks, McGee, Ducky and for some reason Abby and Ziva.' Jenny rolled her eyes imagining what they would all say, 'let's get this over with.'

Gibbs slipped his arm around hers' and led her inside the hotel to the ballroom, decked out in black and white roses and drapes, with black and white balloons floating against the ceiling all thanks to Abby. Jenny smiled at the guests and stopped as someone patted her on the shoulder, she turned to see an elderly woman in a lemon yellow jacket and skirt with a matching hat. The woman just stared at her, there was something familiar about her, she could feel Gibbs shrinking away on the other side of her, 'Jethro,' she asked warningly turning to face him. 'Matthew! You didn't call me!'

Gibbs cringed and smiled at Jenny's amused expression, 'Matthew?' He looked around the room for help; everyone had gone silent and was watching them. He spotted Ducky holding his head in his hands and silently begged him to come over, 'I waited for you to call,' Jenny was sniggering next to him, 'Why didn't you call me?' he found himself being hit over the head with a walking stick, 'ouch.' 'Yes, Matthew, why didn't you call her?' He glared at Jenny as she smirked at him, waiting for an answer.

‑­

He thought for a second before speaking, 'It wouldn't have been fair to call you when my heart belongs to another,' he stopped for a second before adding, 'and Donald didn't give me your number,' Jenny snorted as she dragged Jethro back up to the head table where Tony was planning a whole list of 'Matthew' and Mrs Mallard jibes. Gibbs spotted the look on Tony's face and glared, 'don't even think about it,' he muttered as he passed him and took his seat. Ducky hurried over to his mother and directed her back towards her seat as she protested that she wanted to talk to Matthew, Ducky continued to remind her that he was married now.

Mike Franks sat sniggering beside Gibbs, he stood up forcing his expression back to neutral and tapped the side of his glass, 'Hello everyone, as best man its for me to start the speeches, I'll try to keep it short because I know at least five others wish to speak,' he coughed and stole a look at the four team members and Ducky listening intently to him. 'You really do have a unique way with women don't you probie? You should be ashamed, your friends' ma,' Gibbs stared at the white table cloth and hoped it would end soon. 'I gotta say, you picked right with this girl, although I can't say wearing the skirt in the relationship is a good omen, the boss at work and the boss in the bedroom, you got your work cut out Probie.'

He waited for Tony to snigger behind him and get a death stare from Gibbs before continuing, 'Probie has had more wives than hot dinners, and none of them had him pining over them like Jenny. A couple of years ago Probie came to Mexico to stay with me for a while, we spent many an afternoon talking about 'the job',' the made quotation marks as he spoke, 'how much he missed 'the job' and how he wondered if things could be different with 'the job' and what if he hadn't quit 'the job', now if ya know Probe it was obvious 'the job' was a woman. I just didn't expect it to be the little red head that interrupted my siesta; I'd have thought you'd learned your lesson with redhead's probie, too fiery, too headstrong, always wanna be in charge,' he grinned as he glanced at Jenny, 'but this one is different, she's worse. She is in charge, god help ya probie, but what ever ya do, don't let this one go, she's a good 'un.' He glanced at his friend as he stared into Jenny's eyes, 'don't it just make ya sick, come on quick, raise your glasses to the happy couple so they can go make out in private.'

Everyone raised their glasses and spoke in unison, 'the happy couple,' Ducky hopped to his feet grinning broadly at Jenny as he waited for Franks to take his seat. 'When Jenny first came to me and asked if I would do her the very special honour of giving her away today I was blown away, to be ‑­

asked to do something so personal for someone so special to me. I've never been more proud than I was today walking her up the aisle to my very good friend Jethro.'

Gibbs watched Jenny's eyes glass over and realised this was the root of her tears, he wrapped his arm around her waist and squeezed her gently, Ducky continued to speak, 'As I prepared to walk her up the aisle I took a few moments aside to think of her father, how he would be feeling as he waited to give his only daughter away. I think he would be proud of her, head of an armed federal agency, mother to an enchanting little girl, beautiful, intelligent and utterly devoted to Jethro. Although I never knew the man I know he must have been a good man to have raised such a wonderful daughter. I know she wishes her father could be here today, to see her united with the man she loves.' He glanced at Jenny, her face wet with tears, 'I want to make a special toast, to someone very special who cannot be here today, let us drink to Jasper Shepard, father of the bride.'

Jenny stood up and hugged Ducky as everyone took to their feet and raised their glasses, 'thank you,' she whispered, 'that was beautiful,' everyone spoke in unison, 'Jasper Shepard,' 'daddy,' Jenny whispered, the tears streaming now as she took a sip of her wine. Tony stood up after Jenny and Ducky had sat down, 'wow, great speech Ducky, how am I supposed to follow that?' He grinned as he bounced on the balls of his feet dying to speak, 'the rest of the team and I wanted to say something really profound, really special, really meaningful, so we decided to let Abby do the honours,' Abby jumped to her feet and wrapped an arm around Jenny and an arm around Gibbs, 'the kids love it that mommy and daddy got married!' She squeezed their heads together and squealed a high pitched squeak. When Abby finally released them Jenny smiled at her and Gibbs just rolled his eyes, 'thanks Abs,' he muttered flattening down his hair.

When they had eaten the tables were moved and the music began to play for the first dance, Gibbs slipped an arm around Jenny's waist and took her hand in the other. His eyes met hers and together they started to move to the music, as the voice began to sing they both raised their eyebrows at each other and rolled their eyes.

Abby was bouncing up and down happily listening to the smooth silky voice of the young singer as he sang 'Can't help falling in love,' she grinned as Jenny and Gibbs moved closer and closer together so that there wasn't a gap between them. They danced as one, gliding around the dance floor having only eyes for each other, lost in their own world. 'Don't they look cute together?' Abby asked McGee, 'I...er I...er I suppose so,' Abby frowned at him, 'look McGee!'

‑­

Leanna separated herself from the crowd at the end of the song and hurried over to her parents, Gibbs lifted her up into his arms and spun her around laughing. He set her down on the floor and she danced happily with her parents, twirling around between them and holding their hands tightly.

Tony, Ziva, McGee, Abby and Ducky watched on from the bar, it was the happiest they had seen Gibbs in a long time. Leanna detached herself from her parents and ran over to join the team, distracted by Leanna's chatter the team did not notice Jenny and Gibbs scouring the room before slipping through the doors and hurrying upstairs.

The End