Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize I do not own. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

****NCIS****

Los Angeles July 2008

Leroy Jethro Gibbs had spent the better part of two months sitting in the same hospital room that held NCIS Director Jenny Shepard. When he called Jenny's phone that afternoon in May, he was surprised when his Senior Field Agent answered. Hearing that Jenny was in the hospital after being shot multiple times, his heart felt like it had stopped beating again. The only other time he felt like that was sixteen years earlier when he received word that his wife and daughter had been murdered. Of course, he and Jenny hadn't been together in almost a decade, but he still cared about her. Knowing that she had no family to speak of, or anyone to make decisions as to her care, he stepped up and was her voice so to speak.

"Good morning, Agent Gibbs," Jenny's nurse said, walking over and looking at her patient's vitals on the machine. "How did she do last night?"

"Stayed the same basically," he replied, watching as the machines were breathing for her. "How much longer can she be comatose before it becomes too damaging to her?"

Looking at him with an expression that Gibbs could only describe as pity, she answered him as honestly as she could. "She really needs to wake up. However, she does have some brain activity, so not all is lost. Doctor Kinkirk will be in shortly to talk with you more. He might be able to tell you about what happens if she stays in this coma much longer."

"Thank you, Lucy," he said, as he continued staring at Jenny's seemingly lifeless body.

****NCIS****

Later in the afternoon, Gibbs was doing what Jenny's doctors had suggested. He was talking to her about their past. "You remember that stakeout in Positano?" he asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "When I took that bullet to the thigh, then we got back to the safe house and you 'played nurse' to me? You got so angry that I couldn't pace myself, cause I couldn't help you finish off." Sighing softly, he reached forward and took her hand in his. "Remember your first night back as Director? I took you to look for Ari, and we sat in the car for almost an hour talking, waiting for him. Talked to Ziver last night; she and Tony are still beating themselves up for you getting shot. Abby's walking around depressed without either of us there." Moving down to her ear, he whispered adamantly, "Damn it, Jen, you need to wake up. There are quite a few of us who will be hurt if you die."

****NCIS****

Later that night, Gibbs was trying to sleep, rather uncomfortably in the chair, when he heard a low moan coming from Jenny's bed. Snapping his eyes open, he got up and moved beside her. "Come on, Jen, open your eyes," he said, pushing the nurse call button a few times, hoping to get someone in there quickly.

"Mmm," she moaned again softly as she could hear Gibbs telling her to open her eyes. There was a small part of her that was shocked he was there. The last few months, hell the whole last year and a half, was less than pleasant between the two. She wanted to say his name, but there was something stuck down her throat preventing her from talking. Finally forcing her eyes to open, she was met with the dark cobalt blue eyes of the one man she loved and had foolishly walked away from a decade ago. Before Gibbs could say anything to her, both her doctor and nurse rushed into the room. Doing the few exercises the doctor asked of her, they finally said they'd remove the breathing tube from her throat and would put her on a nasal canella. "Jethro," she managed to croak out, once the tube was out of her throat. "What happened?"

"You don't remember the shootout?" he questioned, watching as her eyes moved around constantly, almost like she was remembering bits and pieces of it. "Going to Will's diner in the desert with Mike? The shootout with Svetlana's people?"

"I remember now," she said, wincing a bit as she moved in the bed. "What happened to Mike?"

"He's fine, he came in and shot the last couple of her men," he replied, not wanting to tell her much more than that. "He's back down in Mexico now."

"I had to protect you," she mumbled quietly, turning her head to look out the window. "I couldn't let my screw-up place you in danger like that. I didn't care what happened to me. I just didn't want you to be killed because I couldn't kill her back in Paris."

"Why didn't you tell me that you never completed the job? Why did you let me think we got out of Paris clean?" he asked, as those two questions were burning in his mind for the two months that she was in the coma.

Sighing softly, Jenny pushed the button to raise her bed slightly. "When was I supposed to tell you, Jethro? We left Paris practically the next day. I didn't see you again for six years, and when I did see you again I didn't know how to tell you," she said, looking over at him. "Then you got blown up and came back from your Mexican Margarita Safari a different person. I was obsessed with La Grenouille and finding him. I really never thought much about Svetlana after we got out of Paris."

"You getting shot like this, Jen, it's made me realize that I care for you as much as I did for Shannon," he said, causing tears to form in her eyes. "I love you, Jen."

"Jethro, I…" she started, unable to keep the tears from falling. "I really never meant to hurt you all those years ago."

"It's in the past," he said, not wanting to tell her it was all right, cause she had hurt him by leaving the way she had. "Let's just focus on now."

"I love you, too," she whispered, as she leaned forward to kiss him for the first time in almost a decade.

A/N: I'm not sure if I should leave this as a one shot story or maybe post another chapter or two. The decision is up to you guys, if you want another chapter just let me know in your reviews.