The doctor entered the exam room with the patient's file in his hand. He closed the door behind him and looked at the redhead as her piercing green eyes stared back at him.

"Ms. Shepard, all test results came back normal except for one," he told her, sitting down on the rolling stool. His patient was rarely sick. She usually came in only for yearly physicals.

"Except for one?" she questioned, attempting not to let her nervousness come through. She still had ambitions, and an illness was not in her five point plan even if her plan had slightly changed over the years.

"Yes, one," he said, looking up from the file. "You're pregnant."

She was silent for several minutes as her brain processed the information. "That…that's impossible. I'm on birth control. Do the test again."

"Birth control has its faults, and it was run twice. You are pregnant."

She swallowed hard and felt like she would have taken the news better if she had actually been told she was dying. She merely nodded her head and slipped off the exam table. "Thank you," she told him. She didn't care if the exam was over or not. She had to get out of the exam room. The walls were closing in on her or so it felt.

"I wrote a prescription for prenatal vitamins and another to ease the nausea," he informed her, tearing off the papers from his prescription pad.

She took the prescriptions from him and stuck them into her purse. "Anything else?" she asked, placing her hand on the doorknob.

"You'll need to schedule an appointment with your OB/GYN. Considering your age, the pregnancy is considered high risk."

She rolled her eyes, not needing to be reminded of her age. Forty wasn't over the hill. You're only as old as you feel…that's what she had told herself since her birthday. "Thank you," she told him again and left the exam room.

As she sat in the back of the Lincoln Town Car on the way back to NCIS headquarters, her mind raced back over the last months. She thought of the night of her birthday. She hadn't wanted to celebrate her birthday, but Jethro had insisted on taking her out to dinner which was rare. The man had always preferred take out to a sit down meal. After a few drinks, they had wound up back at his place. The next morning, she woke up tangled in his arms and legs and naked in the hull of the boat. She would castrate him if he had done this to her. Her mind raced back before that to nearly four months ago. McGee had brought his scout troops to tour NCIS, and one of them had turned up as a missing child. Jethro had conned her into taking Carson Taylor, the nine year old boy, home with her.

Four Months Ago…

She opened her door and wasn't at all surprised to see Gibbs standing there.

"Surprised it to you so long to check up on me," she said to him with a wry grin. She moved her head back, signaling him to step inside.

He stepped inside and stood in front of her in the foyer of her home, waiting for her to close the heavy wood door.

"Except that's not why you're here…is it?"

Gibbs only looked down to where she kept her cell phone on the waist of her pants. She looked down and noticed it was missing. She laughed at herself, somewhat embarrassed at being fooled by a child.

"Explains where my cell phone went," she said, scratching the side of her head.

"Kids," Gibbs said, walking towards the study to talk to Carson. He had called him, needing to talk. She stood by the doorway and listened to Gibbs talk to the boy. He'd always had a way with children. She didn't think she had a way with children as he did and in a small way envied him for it. After the talk, Carson fell asleep in the study. Gibbs and Jenny took him up to bed in one of the guest rooms. Gibbs walked ahead of her down the stairs.

"He'll be fine," he said.

Jen nodded her head as she looked back up the stairs. "It's been a long time," she said, looking at him. "…us…together outside of the office."

"Paris…if you don't count hospitals and car chases," he replied, getting his coat.

"I don't."

He put on his coat and looked into her green eyes. He thought about Paris. Paris was one of the best times in his life, and it was all because of her presence.

"Once upon a time, I would have asked you to stay, and I wouldn't have taken no for an answer."

He looked at her, debating on what he should do. A glass of bourbon with her couldn't hurt. There would be nothing more. It would be a drink with an old partner after a long day of work. After all, she had told him there would be no outside the office activities with him. There had been a few occurrences. If he showed up on her doorstep or she showed up in his basement, the old spark between them reignited especially if she was being herself. Being herself meant she was Jenny…not the Director. Their protective barrier was not between them.

She smiled softly and walked into the study with him following. She poured two glasses of bourbon. "I forgot."

"What?" he asked, throwing his coat onto the back of one of the chairs and walking over to her, standing inches from her.

"How good you are with kids."

He smirked. He wasn't an expert when it came to children, but it was easier to deal with them than adults. Children were too innocent to blatantly lie as adults did. He watched her finger trail over the rim of her glass, and her expression was thoughtful. He wondered how often she thought of Paris and if she was there now in her mind. "Jen, you ever think about having kids?"

"No," she answered quickly as she was snapped out of her thoughts.

"You're lying."

"I don't, Jethro."

"When you lie, your right eye twitches," he said, pointing to her right eye.

She sighed softly and took a sip from her glass. "I do…sometimes especially after a night like this one…but at my age, it's not going to happen. I have to accept that."

He knew she wasn't ever good with acceptance. Acceptance had been the hardest lesson he had taught her. Everything else had come so naturally to her when she was under his wing. In that moment, he decided what he would give her for her birthday. She deserved getting what she wanted on a personal level. It seemed as if she had everything, but everything was on a professional level. "You never know, Jen. It could still happen."

"Jethro, I made a choice years ago. I have to do what's best for me and not having a child is best."

He stared into her eyes, knowing that's what she told herself. It was too rehearsed to be the honest to God truth. He finished the rest of his bourbon in one gulp and left the study, grabbing his coat and walking out the door. When she heard the door close, she sighed heavily and finished her bourbon. There was another reason she would never have children. She pushed men away especially Jethro. Her defenses were up when it came to him. She'd let him in years ago, and her love for him had nearly destroyed everything she'd wanted for herself. If she didn't push him away, he walked away from her. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to be hurt by her a second time.

Back to Present Day...

She hadn't noticed the car coming to a stop, but Stanley opening her door refocused her attention. With a shake of her head, she tried to shake off the feelings from four months ago. At the moment, she felt numb and was still trying to process the information given to her earlier.

"Ma'am?"

"A lot on my mind, Stanley," she told him.

He nodded his head and closed her door once she slid out of the car. He made sure she entered the headquarters. She wasn't fond of being escorted into the building. She stepped into the elevator and wasn't paying attention when she hit the button. "Dammit," she cursed under her breath. She'd hit the floor to the squad room instead of the floor to her office. She took a deep breath, hoping and praying Jethro wouldn't be at his desk when she stepped out.

He heard the elevator doors open on his way to them. He needed a cup of coffee. It had been over two hours since his last cup. DiNozzo yelled at him, and he turned his head. Seconds later, he felt a body colliding into his chest. "Dam—Jen?" he questioned with concern after seeing her expression. He pulled her back into the elevator with him, pressing her floor number.

She shook her head and adjusted herself, not making eye contact with him. "I'm fine, Jethro. Was it necessary to pull me back into the elevator?"

He peered at her, instinct flaring up on him. She finally made eye contact with him, and he knew not to ask anymore by the look in her eyes. "You're fine," he said in mocking tone as he continued to read her like a bestseller. "Wanna get coffee?"

"No. I have work to do so do you."

"Want me to bring a cup back?"

"No, Jethro. I want you to leave me alone for the rest of the day if possible," she said firmly as she stepped out of the elevator.

He mumbled under his breath and watched her quickly walk towards her office. Someone must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but he wouldn't know for sure. He hadn't woken up in her bed in quite some time. His gut was telling him there was something more than a bad day. As the elevator took him down, he thought about all the work he'd thrown away in the last month. He was sure he'd worked his way back into Jen's heart. She had never left his heart. However, Jen put the barricades back into place since he started seeing Hollis Mann.