Au/N- Hey everyone! This is 'Secret's Within'! I've been hit with some writes block on my Castle story so I started writing this one. INcase you didn't know, I love happy endings AND cliffhangers. In all of my stories there is at least 1 cliffhanger. Now this story is different for me as I have never written on elike this before. Anyways, I would just like to thank you all for reading. Please read and review. I love hearing feedback. Oh, one last thing, Vance is a little OOC but we don't really get to see Vance that often and I choose to portray him in a new light.

Disclaimer- Sadly, I do not own NCIS. Unless someone would like to buy it for me, I'll sadly never own NCIS.

I turned towards Kate Todd and smiled. "I never thought that I'd see you here, pretending to be dead." She held up her hands in a means to surrender but started laughing. Her brown hair fell in her face. "Hey I'm not the only one pretending." I sighed knowing she was right. I was also playing dead. My reason was because I was sick. Yes, deathly sick, or at least I was. Well, then again, if I was being honest with myself, that wasn't the reason. Even though the disease I have is deadly that's not the reason I left. A certain silver haired man kept me awake at night, distracted me from my work, and made me bad at my job. That was why I was almost killed. After that fight in the diner I decided to try something new. I decided to play dead. Kate seemed to see where my thoughts went and hugged me. In the past year that I had been dead, Kate and I started getting closer. "Jenny, don't think about it. It'll just bring you down and remember what the doctor said." I sighed. Of course I remembered what the doctor said. "He said not to dwell on things that will upset me because if I get upset the bleeding might start up again." I recited the doctor much to Kate's amusement.

Just then my phone started ringing. I looked down at the caller I.D and saw Vance's name pop up. "Hey Kate, I've got to take this." I walked outside into the pouring rain and answered the call. "So, what can I do for you today director?"

There was a laugh on the other end. "How did you ever handle him?" Vance didn't have to say the name of the person he was referring to of course. I knew without a name.

"What has Jethro done this time?" Vance laughed at how I could read him.

"The usual, got in a fight with the FBI, chewed out the secretary of the navy, keeps barging into our office, yeah the usual." When he said 'our office' he was talking about mine and his. He hated calling it his office when I wasn't dead. He always thought of it as my office, not his.

"Alright Leon, enough small talk, what's going on?" He sighed. I knew him way to well.

My red hair clung to my face in strands as I waited for his answer. He sighed on the other end of the call. "I need you to come to NCIS." He paused and I could tell that this was an emergency. Only four people knew I was alive. Kate Todd, Leon Vance, my mother, and Secnav. So him asking me to come to NCIS was something big. "I know you'll need time to think it over but lets just say my problem involves the Russian mob."

"Well if it involves the mob I'll be there in a few hours." I knew that he needed me and if I put in contacts and wore something Jenny would never wear than I should be alright.

"Are you sure Jen?" Only four people ever got away with calling me Jen; my mother, Leon, Ziva David, and Jethro.

"I'll be there in two hours." It was a Saturday so I was hoping that Cassidy's team had this weekend and team Gibbs wouldn't be in.

I hung up the phone and stepped inside the small house on the edge of DC. Kate shook her head at me when she saw me. "You're going to catch a cold!" I laughed and looked around not spotting the other occupants of the house.

"First off, you aren't my mother, I'm older than you," I said this part laughing and sobered up for the next part, "secondly, where is she and the little one?" Kate smirked.

From behind I heard a shriek of "mommy" and felt two tiny arms wrap around my midsection. "Mommy, grandma and auntie Kate said that if you say it's alright I can pick out dinner. Ooh, can I? Pleaseeee?" I laughed and bent down to her level.

"How about we make a deal. You go to visit Uncle Vance with me and then we'll pick out dinner together." She seemed happy with that proposition so I went upstairs, put in my dark blue contacts and changed into a pair of loose fitting sweats and a large T-shirt.

I took her little hand and walked out of the elevator. Everyone from team Gibbs, even Abby, looked up at us. I made sure to turn my head and look up at the catwalk when they looked over. Vance smiled down at us. "Uncle Vance!"

Vance started descending the stairs when my little girl saw him and started running towards him. "Paris!" Vance smiled and lifted her into his arms. "Hey Stella. Come up to my office and we can catch up." I smiled up at Vance and started up the stairs. Of course the team was staring at my back. Vance, Secnav, and I agreed that in public people would call me Stella. My name was Stella Montgomery.

Inside Vance's office he shut the door and turned the new sound proof system on. "Vance, tell me, what the hell did you get yourself mixed up in?" Paris laughed and curled up on the couch. I turned to Vance and with his eyes he gave me permission to let her sleep in here while we went and talked.

We went over to the elevator and pulled the emergency switch. "While me and my family were on vacation, we went to Russia. As you know, we were traveling a lot and somehow we made the Russian Mob mad. Now, I know what you're about to ask and I have no clue how, no I haven't told Secnav, and yes my family is safe."

I smirked but let it fade quickly. "Well you're lucky that I did some research on my way here." I sighed and decided to just go for it. "Let's go tell Secnav." As we stepped out of the elevator Vance gave me a hug and thanked me. I could hear the gasps from everyone in the bullpen. Nobody but me and his family saw Vance's soft side.

We walked into MTAC and called Secnav. "Hello Jenny. How are you feeling?" Secnav had graying hair and light blue eyes. He reminded me of that grandfather that didn't want to grow old.

"I'm doing fine." He could see in my eyes that just standing here for so long was wiping my energy. He gave me the look of a disapproving father and I sighed. "I'm fine, just stressed and weak."

"Yes, is that why you're at NCIS talking to me? Did Vance do something again?" He sneered at Vance and at that moment I knew I would do anything for my friend. Leon and I had been friends since we were kids. No body knew this, not even Secnav, but I was Leon's best friend and he was mine. When we were 5 we met as his parents moved in next door to our townhouse. He knew my family well and by the age of 6 we were best friends. Since then we did everything together. That's why, if I go back into remission and I don't make it, he was to be Paris's foster dad.

"It wasn't entirely Leon's fault sir. In fact, it wasn't at all Leon's fault." HI sucked in a breath and tapped my right arm three times. It was mine and Leon's code for, Just go with it. "It was my fault sir. I angered the Russian mob and when Vance stepped in to smooth things over with them, they got a little violent." Vance nodded solemnly.

"Sir, I've been doing research and I think that I might have come up with a plan though." Secnav and I both looked at him. Secnav gave him the 'continue' sign and he looked at me for a moment. "Well the Russian mob is already here so if we set agents up in a remote location and lure them towards the center of the location we can basically capture them and get answers."

Secnav seemed to debate the plan. "You say Jenny is the reason why they're so angry?" We both nodded even though it wasn't my fault. "Than we can use agent Stella Montgomery to lure them to the location." I gave him a tight lipped smile. Back when I first 'died', we created Stella Montgomery in case someone saw me. "Give her some weapons, protection, and create a full prove plan." At that Secnav signed off leaving Vance and I in the dark.

Vance sighed and turned to me. "You're lying to him." I nodded. "He's going to kill you if he ever finds out." Just then Gibbs came crashing through the door and walked over towards us. "Agent Gibbs we are busy."

He stared at me for a few minutes. "Abby wanted to know if you were interested in secret Santa this year." You could tell by his very essence that he didn't want Vance to be part of it.

I smiled at Vance. "Oh Leon! You have to be apart of it! Do you remember when we were both just starting out here and we were apart of that secret Santa and you ended up with Janice?" Vance turned to smile at me. "Yeah, you got her a spatula since you used to say all women belonged in the kitchen."

We both started laughing which made Gibbs even angrier. It wasn't that he was really angry, but he thought we were wasting his time. "Yeah but then I met you Stell and I saw how horribly you cooked." He wiped a tear from his eye and sighed. "Sure, Agent Gibbs, you can put me and Agent Montgomery in."

Gibbs turned to stare me up and down. Of course he didn't recognize me because I had a lot done and the disease was taking it's toll on me. "I'm agent Stella Montgomery. Just flew in from the Paris division. You must be Agent Gibbs, I've heard a lot about you." My voice was sugary sweet. It was something that you wouldn't expect from Director Shepard so I used it more and more now.

Gibbs turned and stormed back out the door, most likely on his way to Abby's lab. Vance shook his head and I smiled. "He's very rude." I nodded still staring at the door. "Come on, let's get back to Paris and see if we can't make a good plan."

I turned towards the man holding a gun to my head. "So that's why I was in the clearing." The man laughed and his Russian accent came through.

"Jennifer Shepard, You aren't telling me everything." He pronounced my name like Jenny-fur. The man holding the gun was about 6 foot 5, had brown, almost black hair, and his brown eyes were hardened. The man's eyes looked like they had been hardened into stone and painted brown. He showed no emotion and I was positive he never would until the day he died.

My arms were tied behind the chair and every time I moved the rope would cut deeper into my skin. My ankles were handcuffed to the chair and every so often they would put a blind fold over my eyes. "Of course sir. I didn't tell you the rest of the story. For every piece of the story, I want some information from you."

The man laughed in his Russian accent and this time, it wasn't from humor. He pushed the gun into my skull and clucked his tongue at me. "That isn't how this works. Better luck tomorrow." With that, he hit me over the side of my head and soon, black had over taken my vision.

Au/N- So? What did you guys think? I don't know how I like this so if you think I should go on, please review and tell me so. If you think I'm buttchering the plot of NCIS and you think I should just stop torturing everyone, I would also like to know. Thank you -S.R.H