Whew. Sorry this one took so long, guys! SiD will be updated as soon as Liz has some free time and breathing space. I hope this part wraps the series up sufficiently for the lot of you. I know I'm happy with the ending. Somewhat.

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Everything

"Here you go."

"Thank you, Jethro." Jenny replied, her head bowed so that she could stare into the steam rising up out of the cup of tea Gibbs had just handed her. She was sitting on the sofa in her office, her heels thrown in some corner so that she could sit cross-legged on the cushions. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders,keeping the chill away. Her make-up was long gone; crying ceaselessly tended to do that to powder and rouge.

Gibbs sat down opposite her, watching her with a small frown, eyebrows furrowed together. She might have stopped crying, but the stream of tears had left her eyes red and swollen. A look that didn't really go with the dark shadows under her eyes. The ex-marine took in the hunch of her shoulders, the pathetic look in her eyes and knew that, even if she hadn't been trying to kill herself, this was a woman at her breaking point.

"Jen..." he began softly, but she cut him off.

"What, Jethro?" she demanded angrily, raising her head to glare at him. Gibbs wasn't fazed by her sudden defensiveness; he'd gotten used to it over the years. After all, he didknow her all too well. "What do you want me to say? 'Why didn't you come tome, Jen?'? 'You should have opened up, Jen.'? Because that's bull, and you know it! If you hadn't been such an asshole – all of you – then I would have been obliviously pointing a gun at my head!" She had gone straight from anger to accusations, the color rising in her cheeks. Gibbs bit his lip nervously. The way she was going, she might shout herself into unconsciousness.

She really didn't know how to pace herself.

"Calm down, Jen-" he began.

"Don't you tell me to calm down!" she countered, now even more upset. Ethro pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a long, deep breath to calm down and get the words he wanted to say in the right order.

"I'm sorry, jenny." he said quietly, looking down at his hands. Those words, more than anything else, stopped her from biting his head off.. Instead, guilt and a deep-rooted sorrow filled her. They weren't supposed to be like that. They were good together, not this tangled mess. She'd never expected him to apologize. In fact, she hadn't even been sure he remembered those three little words existed. Now that he'd said them, however, she couldn't continue treating him like an ass. No matter how much he deserved it.

"Jethro..."

"No, Jen!" he burst out, raising bright, blue eyes to her own. "You might have screwed up, but we were partners! Friends! I had no right to act like such a smug jackass like I did. The others might have some excuse, but I don't. I know you. I should have been able to trust you more. But try to understand. You were so obsessed with the Frog that I... I thought you'd lost it."

His explanation didn't make Jen feel any better. If anything, her grip tightened around her teacup and she bowed her head. She really had messed things up for all of them. Even if she accused him of hating her, she was still the root problem. It was her obsession, her stubbornness that had gotten them all into this situation and, now, she had no idea how to get out of it.

"It's my fault." she said softly. "You did nothing wrong, Jethro. You wanted to protect your agent. You wanted to follow a leader that didn't seem completely insane. I... I've been out of line for a while now, and look where it got me. You all hate me. No wonder." she sighed, fighting back the tears.

"No, Jen, that's not true..." he tried to protest. There was something in her demeanor that scared him now. It wasn't out of control or maniacal. That might have been better. What frightened him was the utter calm in her disposition, the way she seemed to have completely accepted the truth of her words. He knew she had been blaming herself, but not to this extent. He had to fix it – and fast. If she'd been dangerous before, now she was potentially destructive now. "I should have tried harder to get through to you. To support and not try to oppose you." he tried desperately, clutching at the tiniest straws that still remained.

Jen sighed softly, setting her cup down. Gently, she shrugged off the blanket that surrounded her thin frame and got to her bare feet,padding towards the desk. There, she stooped and picked up the elements to her gun, snapping them together and setting the weapon on her desk. "You should go now, Jethro." she said softly, sitting down at her chair and resting her head back. She looked so tired, so worn-down that Gibbs' heart threatened to crack just looking at her. Quietly, he got to his feet and went to stand behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"No, Jen," he said in a quiet, yet resolute voice. "I'm not going anywhere."

The End