A/N: This takes place immediately following S13 E10 Blood Brothers, so they're still in Oklahoma, about to head back to D.C. Slight AU where Ziva's still around. Hints of Tiva and McLilah, but they aren't focused on.

Spoilers: Brief mentions of events that occur in S13 E11 Spinning Wheel and S13 E17 After Hours, but really only spoilers for S13 E11. S13 E17 has been moved up to follow immediately after S13 E11. After that it goes in it's own direction.

Also, there's a HGttG Easter egg hidden somewhere in here (Hint: it's not in Chapter 1).

Nod to Huntchaser and whiterabbit (ArchiveofourOwn) for their Bishop/Gibbs stories. Had I not found those, I never would have written this, and certainly wouldn't have published it.

Saturday morning, Bishop and Gibbs loaded up her truck with their suitcases, and began the drive back to D.C. After an uneventful day of driving, they arrived at a motel in Tennessee that evening. While Bishop went to get them a room, Gibbs called to check in with the team in D.C. They had finished orchestrating the bone marrow transplant, and were just finishing up the paperwork. No new cases had come in yet. As Gibbs hung up, he saw Bishop walking back to the car, and immediately noticed something was off. "What is it?" he asked. "Did they not have a room?"

"No, I got us a room," she replied. "But the only room they had left only has one bed in it."

Gibbs merely nodded his head, and they both grabbed their bags and headed to their room. Bishop opened the door and they walked in. Seeing the size of the bed, Bishop said, "I can sleep on the floor, it's just for one night."

"Of course not."

"Gibbs, I'm not letting you sleep on the floor. This is all my fault. You wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for me and my problems. I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor."

"That's not what I was saying. The bed's big enough for two. I won't encroach on your side."

"It's not you I'm worried about. I tend to move around a lot when I sleep. At least …" Here she broke off for a second before taking a deep breath and continuing. "That's what Jake told me."

"We'll be fine," responded Gibbs, before setting his bag down and sitting down on one side of the bed.

Later that night, Bishop changed into her sleeping clothes and crawled into bed before turning the light out. Gibbs was already laying on his side of the bed, eyes closed, on his back, on top of the covers, lying stiff as a board.

When Bishop woke up the next morning, she found herself curled up next to someone. For a moment she thought she was back in her old apartment with Jake, but then she remembered that she was on her way back from Oklahoma, and the man she was curled up next to was most certainly not her cheating husband Jake, but rather her much more imposing boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. She quickly rolled back onto her side of the bed, hoping and praying that he was still asleep and didn't know that she had been curled up next to him. After a few minutes, she looked at her phone, and saw that it was already 0700, so she quietly got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to change. When she came back out a few minutes later, she saw that Gibbs was still in the same exact same spot he'd been when she went to bed last night and when she had woken up this morning, only his eyes were now open and he was looking at her as she walked out of the bathroom.

"Sleep well?" he asked her.

"I did," she replied, still wondering if he knew she had been curled up next to him. "How can you sleep like that? You look like you haven't moved an inch all night, and that doesn't look particularly comfortable."

"You learn how to sleep anywhere," he replied, getting up and heading to the bathroom. Bishop assumed he was referring to his time in the Marines. After Gibbs came back into the room, they headed to the hotel's breakfast before they started the second half of their trip back to D.C. Before he went in to the dining area, Gibbs stopped to check in with the team in D.C. to see if they had picked up a case yet. When he walked into the dinning area, he saw Bishop already halfway through a large plate of food, and couldn't help but smile to himself as he started to get his own food. Even though she was the smallest member of his team, she ate more than most of his team combined, and by the time Gibbs had finished his plate of food, Bishop had already finished two more plates of food. "Any new cases?" she had asked as he'd sat down.

"No one dead, but Vance has them running background on a defense contractor that may have ties to terrorists in the Middle East. Its a long shot, but since there are no active cases, it'll keep them busy. And hopefully keep DiNozzo from goofing off too much."

After they finished eating, they headed back on the road. When they got back to D.C. that evening, Bishop dropped Gibbs off at his house before heading to the new apartment she had rented.

The following morning Bishop returned to work, where they quickly got a case involving a dead Marine in an alley that put an end to her coworkers' attempts to determine if she was still with Jake or not. Later that day Jake dropped by NCIS to force Bishop to talk to him, during which she officially ended things between them, leaving a visibly upset Jake standing in the garage as she went back to work.

A few days later they had successfully apprehended the murderer, and found Ducky's long-lost younger brother as well. The next case they got turned out not to be quite so open and shut as they first thought, but Bishop, Gibbs and the rest of the team were soon back into the normal routine, and little was said in the office about Bishop's recent breakup. Even less was said about Jake himself, but everyone clearly still felt animosity towards him.

One morning, about a week before Christmas, Bishop was woken early by a soft noise outside her door. She grabbed her gun and peaked through the security hole. Seeing no one, she cautiously opened the door, and saw a square package about a foot and a half tall sitting in front of her door. She pulled out her knife, and carefully opened the package, taking care not to touch the package or make any sudden movements. Finally opening the top, she saw a mess of wires leading to what looked far too much like a timer, but without any numbers showing.

She instantly leaped into NCIS Special Agent mode, and rushed to pull the fire alarm to get everyone out of the building. Making sure everyone was heading outside, she called Gibbs to tell him what was going on. As she continued to herd people down the stairs, Bishop hung up with Gibbs, who said he would let the NCIS bomb squad know. Knowing it was a risky move, she grabbed the bomb and entered her apartment. Hoping to keep the blast as small as possible, she quickly stuffed it into her nearly empty fridge, and then shoved the kitchen table up against the refrigerator door. Grabbing her work bag, she headed back out into the hall. Making sure everyone else was in front of her, she headed towards the stairs herself. Exiting the exterior stairwell, she saw Gibbs' truck squealing into the parking lot. As Gibbs opened his door, Bishop was suddenly thrown into the parking lot by a deafening explosion. Her ears still ringing from the blast, she saw Gibbs rushing towards her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she gasped, trying to catch her breath. "Make sure everyone else is okay," waving in the general direction of the explosion. At the same time, the fire department and the NCIS bomb squad pulled in, quickly followed by a dark blue Charger, driven by their teammate Ziva, who barely avoided hitting a fire truck before screeching to a stop a few feet away from where Bishop lay on the ground. Tony and Ziva instantly popped out, slowly followed by a slightly sick looking McGee.

Assured that his youngest agent was okay, Gibbs quickly began barking orders to his three senior agents. By the time Bishop had been released by the fire medic, Gibbs had returned to check on how she was doing.

"I'm fine," she said before he could ask. "Just a few scrapes from being thrown onto the pavement. How is everyone else?"

"As far as we know everyone made it out safely. You appear to have been the last one out, and the only one close enough to have been thrown by the explosion. Fire department's checking all the rooms, and bomb squad's gathering what they can of the bomb."

"I'll start canvassing my neighbors, see if anyone saw anything," said Bishop, getting up to walk away. But before she could take a step, she felt a firm hand grab her arm. "DiNozzo, Ziva and McGee've got that covered. I want to know exactly what happened," Gibbs said, pulling her over to the side.

When she finished telling Gibbs her story, he had a stern look on his face. "You shouldn't have wasted time putting the bomb in the fridge! It could have gone off at any moment, or had some kind of motion trigger! You just barely got out in time!"

But before he could continue, the bomb squad leader came over to them. "Did you by any chance put the bomb in the refrigerator? I'm guessing by the look on Agent Gibbs face you did."

"Yes sir," Bishop replied, guiltily.

"Well, it was an extremely reckless and dangerous thing to do, but since I'm guessing Agent Gibbs has already told you that, I just want to say that it probably saved several people's lives. The fridge contained the explosion surprisingly well. It still did a lot of damage, as I'm sure you can tell, but it would have been much worse if it had gone off in the open. As it is, merely the shock wave traveled through the building. Other than your apartment, which is mostly destroyed, the rest of the building survived pretty well, and the fire department was able to quickly put out the fires. Your quick thinking saved the majority of the building, and possibly several people's lives from flying debris."

Bishop nodded as the bomb chief walked away. Waiting for Gibbs to say something, she was thankful to see her teammates walking towards. It would be a while before she would have to hear the rest of Gibbs' remonstration.

"We talked to everyone, boss. No one saw a thing," said DiNozzo as they walked up.

"Are you okay, Bishop?" asked the other female on the team, sparing Tony a quick glare for his insensitivity for not checking on how his teammate was doing.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Bishop quickly assured them, before asking, "Have you checked the security footage to see if they were caught on any of the cameras?"

"Not yet. We haven't been given clearance by the fire marshal or bomb squad leader to enter the building yet," replied McGee.

"McGee, when they give us clearance, get the security footage. DiNozzo, Ziva, with me to check out the crime scene. Bishop—"

"I'm fine, Gibbs. Really. I can work."

"All right then, crime scene with us."

After Bishop hurriedly put her computer bag in the Charger, she followed the rest of the team up to her apartment; or at least what was left of it. She caught up to them standing in the hallway outside of where her front door used to be, where she'd first found the package.

Thirty minutes later, they left the crime scene to see if McGee had found anything on the security footage. Bishop's apartment had yielded few clues, as the bomb had destroyed almost everything, and the package had merely been dropped off outside her apartment, not in it. They had sent all the bomb fragments they could find back to Abby, hoping she could ID the bomb, and maybe the bomb maker. Finding McGee in the security room, he had little to offer, either.

"All the security cameras are on the front of the building, and our bomb planter clearly didn't come in that way. The card reader on the back stairwell registered a card right before Bishop heard someone outside her room, but no name, and there's no cameras on that side to see who it was."

A little while later, they made their way back into the Big Orange Room. "What do we have?" ordered Gibbs.

"Well, the assumed target is Bishop, but we are looking into the rest of the occupants to see if one of them could have possibly been the target," started Tony.

"Abby is determining the blast radius of the bomb to determine who else could have been killed from it's original location, along with who made the bomb," chimed in McGee.

"We are looking for any other cameras in the area that could get an ID on our bomber," continued Ziva.

"And I assume someone needs to interview the suspected target to find out about any potential enemies. And no, I don't know anyone off the top of my head who would want to blow me up," finished Bishop.

"Ziva, interview Bishop. DiNozzo, bring in Jake."

"Conference Room or Interrogation, boss? And I know they just got divorced, but do you really think he could have done it?"

"Conference Room. He's not a suspect yet, but I still want to talk to him."

"Anyway," Ziva chimed in, "don't you always suspect the spouse, Tony?"

"Yeah, but... It's Jake. Doesn't exactly seem like the killing type."

"Go," came Gibbs' voice, putting an end to their discussion.

A few minutes later Ziva and Bishop sat down in the conference room. "All right, so, do you have any enemies that you know of?" asked Ziva.

"None that would bomb me. Jake took it rough when I told him it was over, but I could hardly believe he would want to kill me, and especially that he would plant a bomb. He's not exactly a field agent, and I'm not sure how he would even know how to get his hands on a bomb.

"Other than that, the only enemies I could think of would be suspects we've put away at NCIS. Or perhaps NSA, but that's been several years since I was a field agent."

"What about the girl Jake cheated on you with?"

"Taylor Matthews? She's just Internal Affairs. She'd be less likely to know how to get a bomb than Jake would. And anyway, I'm not sure why she'd want to kill me. I'm done with Jake, he's all hers if she wants him."

Down in the Bullpen, McGee was still looking through traffic cam footage when Ziva and Bishop came back down.

"Well, no obvious enemies. Tony would normally suspect the spouse, and then there's always the mistress. But neither of them seem to have knowledge or willpower to pull it off, which leaves a long list of criminals she's helped put away," said Ziva as they walked up.

"Pull up all case files we've worked on since Bishop joined the team involving bombs and bomb makers, and reach out to the NSA get any files from bomb makers she worked on over there."

"On it boss. Still no traffic cam footage of our bomber."

From up above them they heard the Director's voice. "Gibbs. If you've got a minute."

"I'll be right up," Gibbs said up to the Director, before refocusing on his team. "Ziva, get copies of those case files to Ducky to see if he thinks any of them might go this far for revenge, and make a list of suspects and accomplices who are currently out of jail. Bishop, look through Jake and Taylor's financials to see if anything stands out. And make sure Jake never see's Bishop!" he finished as he started up the stairs.

"I'll go check in with Abby, and work from my laptop down there," said Bishop as she headed towards the elevator.

Gibbs entered Vance's office, and closed the door behind him. "I heard you were bringing Bishop's ex-husband in."

"Standard protocol. Talk to the family, see if they know anything," Gibbs replied.

"As a grieving ex-husband, or a suspect?"

"Both," replied Gibbs with a slight tilt of his head. "It's too early to tell if he had anything to do with the bombing, but I still want to talk to him."

"Of course. And the girl he was sleeping with?"

"I'll have DiNozzo go talk to her while I'm talking to Jake."

Vance nodded his head. "Well, that's not really why I called you up here. One of our own was targeted by a bomb. Protocol is to put her in protective custody. Are you going to?"

"Maybe. Or she could just stay at another agent's place for a while."

"Who's?"

"I don't know. I'm sure someone will volunteer. They all seem to like her."

"And if not?" questioned Vance.

"Have you met Bishop? She's not going into protective custody. She'll want to be out there where the action is. Hell, it's part of what broke up her marriage."

"This is serious, Gibbs. One of our own was nearly killed."

"I know, Leon. It's a risk of the job. But Bishop is not going to quit doing her job just because she was nearly blown up, and nor should she. The safest place for her to be is with her team, finding out who did this." Gibbs paused for a moment. When Vance didn't say anything, he continued, "Are we done here? I have an ex-husband to go interview."

"I will let her stay out of protective custody on one condition. On the job she is always with at least one other agent, and outside of work, she stays with you."

Gibbs started to open his mouth to protest, but at Vance's look he sighed and shrugged his shoulders in defeat, before heading out the door. Walking down the hall, Gibbs came up to DiNozzo standing outside the conference room. "Jake's inside, boss, but he's not too happy I wouldn't tell him what's going on."

"I'll take it from here. Go talk to his new girlfriend."

"Yes sir," replied Tony, and headed towards the elevator. Gibbs turned the handle to the conference room, and walked in.

"Agent Gibbs," said Jake, standing up to shake hands with Gibbs. "What is going on? Did something happen to Ellie?"

"Please, sit down," replied Gibbs, ignoring the outstretched hand, and walking over to the other side of the table and sitting down. Once Jake had sat down again, Gibbs began. "Someone put a bomb outside Bishop's apartment this morning. Fortunately, she wasn't there when it went off, and it wasn't powerful enough to hurt anyone else in the building. Do you know of any enemies she might have that would want to do this to her?"

"A bomb? That's terrible! And, uh, no. I, uh… I don't know anyone who would want to bomb her. I mean, everybody I know is from before she started working at NCIS. At the NSA she was just an analyst. Big picture kind of things. She wasn't close enough to any suspects for them to seek revenge on her."

"So you think it was someone from one of her cases here?"

"Who else would it be? She's been practically married to her work since she joined NCIS."

"Ever heard of a guy named Benham Parsa?"

"No. Is he a bomb maker?"

"Bishop's been put into protective custody until we've determined who wants her dead. She'll be safe," finished Gibbs, getting up and walking out the door, informing the agent on the outside of the door that he could escort Jake out of the building. Gibbs headed back down to the Bullpen to get an update from his team. "Sit-rep" he ordered.

McGee started. "I finally found an unmarked van going towards the apartment complex just before the bombing and leaving right after it. BOLO's out, but don't have a license plate yet."

"Still compiling a list of bomb suspects, nothing stands out yet. Bishop is down with Abby running Jake and Taylor's financials. Tony is out talking to Taylor. Find out anything from the ex-husband?"

"Only that he blames us for putting Bishop in danger, and that they weren't talking since long before she left the NSA. Bishop apparently never told him about her field agent days tracking down Benham Parsa."

"Abby called. She said she has something," said McGee.

Gibbs stepped out of the elevator to be greeted by an ever enthusiastic Abby, loud music, and Bishop sitting on the lab floor with her papers and snacks spread all about her. "What have you got, Abbs?" Gibbs shouted. Seconds later, the music shut off. Handing Abby the Caf-Pow he was holding, Gibbs walked over to Abby's computer.

"So I was trying to reconstruct the bomb fragments, and I noticed something interesting. Most homemade bombs have some kind of fertilizer as the basic ingredient. But I haven't found any traces. In fact, I haven't found any traces of anything. It's like all the fuel was completely burned up."

"Military-grade bomb?"

"With the amount of destruction it caused, it would have to be a fairly small one, but that's all I can think of, unless someone really knows their chemistry. I still haven't pieced enough together to make an ID."

"Thank you, Abbs," responded Gibbs, giving her a quick peck in the cheek. Turning to his youngest agent, he asked, "Have you found anything in either of their financials?" As Bishop continued to pay no attention to him, he realized she had her headphones in, and didn't know he was there. He tossed the couple of candy bars he had for her down in front of her, startling her. She quickly pulled her earphones out of her ears and looked up at her boss with a smile. "Hi Gibbs!"

"Find anything yet?"

"Other than the fact he's spent a lot more money on her than he had on me in a long time, nothing useful. Only deposits are his normal ones from the NSA. He's bought her more jewelry in six weeks than he had for me in a couple years and they've already taken a trip to Vermont, but everything I've looked through seems normal. And I've just started looking through her's, but nothing yet."

"Keep looking. And Jake should be gone by now, if you want to come back upstairs."

Thirty minutes later, the three younger agents were quietly working when they heard DiNozzo exiting the elevator, and saw Gibbs approaching from the opposite direction. "Update" came the voice of their boss.

Grabbing the remote, Tony pulled up the driver's license of Matthews. "Taylor Matthews, thirty-three years old, born in Summit, New Jersey. She's lived in D.C. and worked for NSA Internal Affairs for ten years. According to her, first started talking to Jake at an NSA meeting about a year ago, and first slept with him in Dubai. She's a complete bitch, but has an alibi for this morning; she was in an all night NSA Internal Affairs meeting. Apparently there's a leak selling intel to the Palestinians. She certainly wasn't upset about Bishop nearly being blown up, but I don't think she had anything to do with it. And I quote, 'there's no reason for me to try to kill that Bishop girl, Jake has clearly preferred me for a long time, and honestly, who wouldn't'."

"And she knew you work with Bishop?" asked Ziva.

"Depends on how much Jake has told her. She knew I was NCIS, but I don't know how much she knows about what Bishop does."

"Found anything about her, Bishop?" asked Gibbs.

"Nothing interesting, boss. She seems to spend very little for as much as she makes, and apparently is living with Jake now, since she no longer has an apartment rent. But nothing to indicate that she hired anyone to bomb me."