The New Flame

Jenny was a bit taken aback by the news of my split with Ethan. Needless to say she would be blown away when she found out that I was dating one of her agents. Agent Balboa and I had a dinner date planned for later. I was hoping against hope that today wasn’t going to be one of those times when we worked all night. After stopping at my desk following the disastrous meeting with my sister I had gone down to see how far Abby had gotten with ballistics test. I had learned from my sister and Jethro never to go down to Abby’s empty handed.
“Here you go, Abs.” I said as I set the caf-pow in front of her.
“Thanks; are you here for the ballistic test or the finger print match?”
“Ballistics.”
“The rounds from Fornell’s dead guy are .45mm. The first two missed major organs from what Ducky said. But the third isn’t in good shape, it’s pretty smashed up.”
“Okay, anything else?”
“Nope, onto something not related to the case. I hear that you and Ethan are no longer together.”
“McGee was kidding, word travels fast around here. Yeah, Ethan and I ended it this morning.”
“You okay?”
“I’m fine, Abby. In fact I have a dinner date with Agent Balboa tonight.”
“Okay.” Abby said as she hugged me.
“Did you find out what killed Fornell’s agent and the Marine we brought back yesterday?”
“Not yet, Major Mass Spec is working on that.”
“Thanks Abby, I’ll tell Gibbs when he gets in.”
“You look happy Jay.”
“I am; couldn’t be happier if I tried.”
“I am too, and all of us have managed to snag an NCIS Agent our own. The Director and Gibbs, Tony and Ziva, You and Balboa, McGee and me.”
“Yeah, we did pretty well for ourselves. I’ll see ya later Abby.”
When I got upstairs I heard Fornell asking Tony and Ziva a question.
“What is going on with Jethro’s team? You all are acting differently.”
“We’re not acting differently Tobias.” I answered.
As Fornell looked over to me Jenny looked down from the overlook in front of MTAC.
“Yes you all are.”
“No we’re not.”
“Well it looks that way to me Agent Shepard.”
“What you see as acting isn’t. We are a family all nine of us. We put our lives in each others hands everyday with this job. It’s too bad that you don’t see it. Let alone have that kind of relationship with your agents.”
Fornell didn’t like that; a second late he rose from Jethro’s desk and made his way towards me. Before long Ziva was in between Fornell and me.
“I’d back off Fornell.”
“Not after that I won’t.”
“You really should.”
“Agent Fornell.” Jenny called.
Fornell backed off and Ziva returned to her desk after Fornell went back to Jethro’s desk.
“I told you we were a family. In a family the baby is always protected.”