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English
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Part 1 of Code of Honor
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Published:
2009-01-22
Completed:
2011-09-29
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30,877
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12/12
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Code of Honor

Chapter 11: Infinity 2008

Chapter Text

"Zach, I'm so sorry about your party," Jenny said.

"It's okay," the boy insisted, holding the phone to his ear. Gibbs walked into the room and raised an eyebrow.

"But I feel bad."

"Don't, mom." Gibbs motioned with his hand for him to hand over the phone. Zach turned his back on Gibbs and flailed his arm out, keeping him away.

"I miss you," she said softly.

"I miss you too."

"Is Jethro there?"

"Yup, here you go."

Gibbs smiled when Zach handed him the receiver. He held it up to his ear, expecting Jenny to say something. After a few seconds of silence, she cracked.

"I can hear you breathing, Jethro."

"How's France?" He smiled when he heard her sigh.

"Cold. I miss you guys."

"We miss you too."

She caught the tone of his voice and groaned.

"Jethro?"

"Hmm?"

"Please tell me you're not eating pizza every day."

"Nooo. There's Thai, Chinese, Indonesian, Mexican and Japanese if I'm not mistaken. And there's always the fast foods."

Her chuckle was enough to make him melt on the inside. Not that he'd ever admit it.

"Tell me you're joking."

"What do you think?"

"That I should call Noemi to make some house-food."

Gibbs snorted at her choice of words.

"We'll be fine."

There was silence at the other end.

"You there?"

"Yeah... I, uh, heard you caught a break in the case."

He rubbed his hand over his face. He didn't like discussing this with her.

"The case?" he tried.

"Don't play dumb with me, Jethro. My case—our case."

"We caught a break. Found the woman, we're looking for her partner and the two men."

"Alright... Oh, I have to go."

"Ok. Bye Jen, love you," he said, making her take a second and stand still, a smile gracing her lips.

"Bye Jethro, I love you too."

When he hung up, Zach was standing there, looking up at him, smiling.

"So. What's on the agenda for tomorrow?" he asked.

"Tomorrow, you hang out with Abby."

"Why?" he asked, curious.

"Because I need to work tomorrow."

"But da-Gibbs, tomorrow is Saturday, you usually rotate weeks with Agent Cassidy's team, and they have this weekend. I checked," Zach said with a triumphant little smile.

"Zach, tomorrow you're staying with Abby. We're going to arrest three people."

"Jenny's case?" the boy asked. Gibbs nodded. "Ok." He shrugged. "Can we have burgers tonight?"


She had been gone to Paris for nine days and sixteen hours. Not that Zach was counting. That little equation is what he had done, while he and Gibbs were at the airport. It took him a whole ten minutes to count back from when Jenny had left. He was quite impressed with himself. Occasionally, he would pull a red scarf out of his coat pocket and sniff it, smiling. Gibbs would watch on with an amused smile every time he did it. Gibbs had treated Zach with an enormously delicious Cinnabon and a hot beverage when they found out her flight was delayed by an hour. All through eating the roll, something was tapping. If it weren't Zach's fingers, it was Gibbs foot. When they were done, they had just randomly walked around.

"Flight 1710 from Dallas/Fort Worth has landed at gate A11," sounded suddenly over the PA. Zach's eyes widened and Gibbs sighed. Finally.

"Where are we?" Zach asked impatiently.

"B4," Gibbs said and Zach grabbed his hand.

"We gotta go!" Zach started off in one direction, miraculously the right one.

"Okay, Zach," Gibbs said simply as they weaved in and out of the crowd. After a while, Gibbs saw the sign for Gate A11 and Zach got even more raring to go. Zach finally slowed down when he saw that there were any people standing in front of the gate. They stopped a little off the side.

And then Zach saw a flash of red.


She sat down in her seat, glad for once that it was a First Class seat. The Interpol Conference had been a long one. Nine and a half long days away from home. She knew she traveled a lot, but a lot had changed. She was exhausted almost to the point of no return. She sat back and sighed deeply. The conference had been boring this time, and it wasn't like she had sunny little Zach to cheer her up with his cute dimples or youthful comments. She smiled when she thought how hard it would have been at home for her two boys without her. She cringed when she thought about the food they probably had the days she wasn't there. But she was glad to be going home. Oh how she had missed those two. Only three and a half more hours. Unfortunately, there had been no direct flights to Paris and back, so she had to transfer planes in Dallas/Fort Worth. She had just boarded the one to DC. She had missed Jethro's lingering touches when they had company or Zach was there, his breath on her neck and his all-too familiar scent. She missed Zach's laughs, his comforting warmth and strangely enough, his music. She missed the way they would sometimes gang up on her for something they both wanted, or how they would argue, and then making Jenny settle the score. She missed it all.

An elderly man sat down in the over-sized, brown leather seat next to hers. He looked at her and greeted her.

"Hello," she said back politely.

"Leaving home or going back?" he asked, making small talk.

"Going back," she said with a smile. He noticed this.

"Ah, family missing you?" She nodded and warmed up to the passenger. "And you're probably missing your husband and kids." He wasn't probing, just trying to be polite. She smiled and shook her head.

"Not married," she said. He scrutinized her lightly.

"Kids?" he asked, pushing his handbag under his seat.

"I have a son," Jenny said. She wouldn't ever tire of saying that. Zach was her son; she was just waiting for it to be legal. She dug around her bag and found a picture of Zach when they had gone shopping and he had made Gibbs try on something. She showed it to the man, who smiled.

"Cute kid. How old?" He handed the picture back.

"He just turned seven." It seemed she hit a spot when he grimaced

"Ah, yes, a friend of mine has two grandsons that age. Horrible children, but I'm sure yours isn't bad."

"He has his moments."

For the rest of the flight she was in and out of sleep, occasionally conversing with the man. She was relieved when they finally asked for people to put on their seatbelts so they could begin their descend in DC. She quickly brushed her hair and touched up her make-up. When they landed at last, Jenny was aching to leave the aircraft and see her boys. She swiftly grabbed her handbag and stood up to leave. She was one of the firsts out of the plane.

And then she was attacked.


Gibbs was not a man who showed emotions easily, but those around him noticed after a few days of Jenny gone how he missed her. He kept opening his desk drawer and gazing at what lay inside. Only later was it revealed that it was a picture of Jenny, Zach and him, at the beach one time. Her hair was down and she was wearing a bikini that had almost made him go right back home with her and cover her up. She was sitting in between Gibbs' legs with Zach splayed over their legs, tongue out at the camera. She was looking pointedly at it, and Gibbs had a smug grin on his face. It was simple to say that Gibbs missed Jenny. He missed how her green eyes would sparkle when she did something mischievous, her soft lips and those long legs that don't seem to end. He missed her cooking. And he was sure that Zach did too.

It all got better that faithful day she had called home to inform that she would be returning three days earlier, due to a mix-up in some schedule somewhere. He could really care less, as long as she was still coming home. When that day arrived, Zach dragged Gibbs into the car much too early, and they drove to the airport. Where it revealed her flight was delayed. And then suddenly it landed, with no warnings, and he found himself being dragged again, this time toward a gate. Zach spotted Jenny first, coming out of the long mini-hallway.

"Mom!" he said as he ran over to her. She had just enough time to turn to the direction the sound came from before Zach attacked her legs. Gibbs was quickly by her side, steadying her, before she had a chance to fall. When Zach decided it was okay to let go, Jenny bent down and gave him a proper hug.

"I missed you," he whispered by her ear.

"I missed you too, honey." She caressed the back of his head. He let go and took over her handbag. Jenny stood back up straight and looked Gibbs in the eyes. She had really missed his piercing blue eyes. They were standing close to each other, breaths mingling. She smiled brightly at him. He couldn't handle it. He knew he shouldn't—the press and such—but he did it anyway. He pulled her into him, sending her crashing against him, and kissed her deeply and passionately. She wound her arms around his neck, ensuring that if her knees let out, she wouldn't crumble to the ground. When they finally pulled apart, Gibbs coaxed her into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her and she sighed. She had missed how her body fit into his perfectly.

"I missed you," he said to her.

"I missed you too," Jenny said, closing her eyes briefly. "I love you, Jethro."

"I love you, too, Jen," Gibbs said and smiled. Zach was staring up at her. Jenny noticed how he took an all-too-familiar scarf out of his pocket, sniffed it, and put it back.

"Zach, what are you doing with my scarf?" she asked.

"Same thing he's been doing with it the last nine days," Gibbs commented and Zach blushed pink.

"It smells like you," the boy said, suddenly finding interest in his shoes. Jenny stuck her hand out, palm up and wriggled her fingers. He took it out of his coat pocket and handed it to her. She smelled it and grimaced.

"This smells bad," she said.

"He wouldn't let me wash it." Gibbs shrugged.

"It was the only thing left that still really smelled like you," Zach defended himself, then looked back down.

"Zach." Jenny kneeled down. "Is this your subtle way of telling me I don't smell good?" she asked jokingly. He looked up and smiled.

"No!" She raised an eyebrow. "I'm serious," he added softly and a warm feeling spread over her. Her hair was tied in a low ponytail, and his hands ached to run through them, feeling the soft, silky feel of it. Jenny saw Zach's gaze and smiled. She let her hand pull the elastic holding her hair together, off. She sometimes let him brush her hair at night. She took the scarf and placed it in her pocket. Zach lunged forward and hugged her again.

"Really, really missed you." She disentangled herself and the three walked to the conveyer belt to get her luggage. Jenny smiled as Gibbs took her luggage and Zach managed her carry-on, leaving her with nothing to carry. As they were walking out of the airport, Jenny spotted the man who had been sitting next to her in the plane, and smiled. He saw her, too. He winked and smiled. And then he got into a stretch limo, much to her surprise.


"Stop moving," Gibbs said. Zach stopped his wriggling immediately.

"Jenny?" Zach asked.

"Hmm?" she responded passively, her eyes trained on the TV.

"Permission to get comfy?"

"Granted." Gibbs sighed when Zach began to wiggle around again.

After five minutes, he finally decided to lay still.

Another five minutes later, and the boy was asleep.

Without so much as removing her eyes from the TV, she nudged Gibbs.

"Go put him in his room." Gibbs kissed the shoulder closest to him, before lifting Zach up.

When he got back, Jenny was already in bed, with the TV off. He pulled back the covers and joined her. She immediately scooted closer to him, welcoming the warmth.

"How'd it go today?"

"Good. They were all in the same place, so that helped."

"Is it true?"

"Yeah."

"Are we thinking the same thing?"

"Probably."

"Tell me." Gibbs had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Please?" she asked, her breath on his neck. She placed a soft kiss there, and he crumbled.

"We found them... in bed." Jenny smirked.

"That's all I heard. Is there more?" she asked, because she had a feeling there was.

"Threesome," he choked out.

"Did they confess?"

"One of the men cracked. After that, the other two tried to cover their asses."

"So you know why they did it?" Gibbs nodded. "Was it a personal attack?" Gibbs shook his head.

"It was more meant to be a hit to NCIS."

"Thank you."

She smiled and turned his head to kiss him.

"I have something to tell you."

He raised his eyebrows. She took a second too long, then said, "I love you." Making him arch one eyebrow. She laughed nervously. "I'm kidding." And there went the other eyebrow.

She took a long slow breath, closed her eyes briefly, then opened them.

Looking deep into his blue eyes, she knew she'd found peace here in his arms, and all her nervousness melted away.

"I'm pregnant."