Author: Morgan72uk

Rating: T

Summary: You make lots of choices in life - some of them simple, others less so. It's not always clear which is which.

Disclaimer: Don't own the characters, don't have any money - and I probably shouldn't be doing this.

A/N - I don't entirely know where this came from - I really wanted to write some Jibbs fluff and I'm not sure this is it, exactly. But maybe it's as close as I can get given how complicated their relationship is.

Choices

Should she or shouldn't she? She touched the delicate fabric with her fingertips – definitely tempted by what was only slightly more than a scrap of very expensive green silk. Designer lingerie was one of her weaknesses and trips to Paris had been thin on the ground lately. But, she was supposed to be buying a book and she had already left it late in the day to find what she was looking for. Slipping away from her desk for a hurried hour of Saturday afternoon shopping had proved to be difficult. She glanced at her watch and decided that she had time. Maybe the green was too much – she spotted the same garment in ivory and turned to look at it, the movement halted by the sound of her name.

"Director Shepard?" Well, that was the price you paid for indecision – DC was a fishbowl at the best of times and the Director of NCIS wasn't sure she wanted her shopping to be the topic of gossip. She fixed a smile, preparing to pretend not to mind the interruption and turned in the direction of the voice. Almost at once she realised that there wasn't going to be any gossip – although that didn't mean the situation was without complications.

"Colonel Mann," her smile of recognition was genuine, "fancy bumping into you here." This was a very expensive, very exclusive store, where she was a regular patron. She knew passers by couldn't easily see inside – so, that raised the question of what Hollis was doing here. But she wasn't going to ask her that; anymore than Hollis would ask her what she was shopping for. Not right now anyway.

"Well, I recognised the security detail."

Jen glanced past her companion to where Hector was standing stoically watching her – and everyone else who got close. He hadn't been delighted by her choice of shopping destination, but he was far too much of a professional to let it show; though he was probably hoping she wasn't planning on trying anything on. And, as uncomfortable as he might be right now, she imagined he was very relieved he at least had the excuse of being responsible for a woman's security. Watching over one of her male peers in this situation would be a lot more awkward.

"Do you have time for a coffee?" She asked, the impulse surprising her. But though Hollis looked equally surprised, she accepted with alacrity and before she had time to really think about what she had done, Jen found herself settling into the corner of a small coffee shop with a former Army Colonel for company – and Hector trying to look discrete in the corner. Only in DC would this pass for almost normal.

She hadn't spent that much time with the woman opposite her – but, though the circumstances had been less than ideal, they'd somehow got along. She certainly wasn't averse to a catch up over coffee, even though the catching up might involve a little treading with care. But she was used to that.

Hollis had retired from the Army several months before, having turned down an invitation to join NCIS – a decision that Jen understood; though at the time it had disappointed her. But it was interesting to listen to her describe her adjustment to civilian life – and having just embarked on a PhD gave her a whole new window on the world. Listening to her recount her experiences Jen realised with a pang just how little she had to talk about in exchange. Her world pretty much revolved around the agency and while plenty had been going on there; very little of it could be shared with someone who wasn't a NCIS agent and didn't have the appropriate security clearance.

Since other, more personal, subjects were very definitely off-limits she found herself describing her recent appearance before a Senate Committee. The hearing had been extensively covered in the media – but this description was more, personal and she was relaxed enough to throw in some decidedly sardonic observations about some of her fellow witnesses.

"You don't miss interviewing suspects?" She asked, returning to the subject of what the other woman was doing now.

"This involves a different type of interviewing, same skills more or less." Hollis took a sip of her coffee, her expression faltering for a moment, "and I needed the change."

"Sometimes the only thing you can do is make a clean break," Jen offered, remembering some of the decisions she'd made and where they had led her.

"You'd find it hard to walk away from your agency," and, though it was true, it wasn't that simple.

"I would – but it could still happen. I'm vulnerable to politics, to changes in policy, personnel – and in the end the buck for everything we do stops at my door."

"And what then?" It wasn't something she thought about very often, but there were moments when Jen couldn't help but play her very own version of 'anywhere but here'.

"Well," she took sip of her coffee, imagining herself in a situation that would probably cause her a great deal of pain. "I don't think I'm cut out for a Ph.D., so if the worst happened, a little private consulting, some travel, take some time to work out what I want to do next."

"From a beach in the Caribbean?"

"Or a street café in Paris." The two women shared a smile and lapsed into a surprisingly comfortable silence, until Hollis asked the question that Jen had been expecting her to ask, sooner or later.

"How's Jethro?"

"Well, you know Jethro - unco-operative, difficult, pushing his team, annoying other agencies."

"Pretty much the same as usual then?" Jen smiled and drank some more of her coffee before answering that. Perhaps she shouldn't have made it sound as though he had bounced back from the end of the relationship so easily. But, going into more detail would have led her down a path she knew was much better avoided.

"I'm sorry things didn't work out between the two of you." She offered, hoping it was a safe alternative.

"Are you?" There was no malice in Hollis' expression, but before Jen could quite decide how to answer that she let her off the hook. "It's all right Director – it wasn't your fault, and it's water under the bridge now anyway."

"You sure about that?" The softness in her expression, the tone of her voice – this was a woman not yet over the end of a love affair. And why should she be? After all it had only been a few months. Jen knew better than anyone what it took to get Leroy Jethro Gibbs out of your system.

"More or less," she drained her cup, "I should let you get on – I'm sure you don't have much time."

"It was good to see you," Jen was surprised by how much she meant that – in different circumstances she thought they might have had a shot at becoming friends.

"You too," Hollis got to her feet and then paused, "Director, can I give you a piece of advice, before I go?"

"Of course,"

"Buy the green silk - I think Jethro will like it a lot." Though she was surprised by the comment Jen was far too good at her job, far too experienced a dissembler to let that show.

"What makes you think he has any say in the matter?" Hollis tilted her head and seemed to be considering her words. It wasn't entirely a surprise when she didn't answer the question.

"Another piece of advice, this one not about what you should buy and who for. The fact that you can read him so well, that you can see things in him long before others can – he needs that, it's part of the reason he'll never quite let you go. Believe me, if it had just been about the hair colour, I'd have dyed mine in a second." And this time she did walk away, leaving Jen to gaze into the dregs of her coffee, thinking about what she'd said, and about green silk lingerie.

TBC