A/N: Oh my, I don't even know where this came from. Too much time to myself. Very short, with very little real direction.

Disclaimer: I don't own, I just borrow!

R&R, please!

Director Jenny Sheppard stared down at the glassy unseeing eyes of her attacker, her hands trembling as she dropped the gun to the floor. Red flooded the floor and her vision as it seeped out of the three well-placed bullet wounds in the fiend's abdomen. The familiar face, contorted and paled by death, made Jenny's stomach churn. Her legs remained planted firmly on the floor; she knew they would give out if she moved even an inch.

The door behind her banged open, and Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs rushed in, his chest heaving and his face flushed. The sight before him stopped him in his tracks.

"...Jen?"

A shuddering breath was drawn in and held. The Director did not want her old lover to see her strength fail; a woman did not get to where she was now by being weak.

She continued to hold the breath, struggling to regather her composure, her eyes aching to slide shut as her vision pitched like a sea-tossed ship. Jenny tried to turn, thinking her legs would hold.

She was mistaken.

The world started to slide out from beneath her feet, and the air rushed from her lungs as she reeled, waiting to feel hard cement collide with her body.

Instead, warm strong arms swept her up, holding her gently. They wrapped around her, pulling her into the solid protection of Jethro's body. He pressed his lips into her hair, consoling and whispering as his hands caressed her shaking shoulders.

"Oh, Jethro..." her voice broke, and she cried silently into his shoulder. He didn't say a word, holding her as she pieced her life back together, protecting her as she pulled herself back up from the depths of disbelief.

He would never let anyone hurt her again. Gibbs held her face in his hands, and kissed the trailing tears from her pale cheeks.

"I promise, Jen," he murmured, and she buried her face in his shoulder once more. They remained there, clutching at each other. They could not bring themselves to care about being found. Right now, they were the world.

Fin.