Author's note: I haven't written an NCIS story in a very long time and I'm super rusty, so go easy :)
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters, plot lines etc. are property of Belisarius Productions and anyone else who has a stake in NCIS... which doesn't include me.
I am not an articulate man.
I don't always know what to say or when to say it. And I don't always know how to express what I'm feeling, at least not in words.
That's what the boats are for.
I've always remembered my mother's words, not long before her death. Someone who has a boat named after them never really dies.
The boats are my way of grieving. Of remembering the people that I've loved and lost.
Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes they don't ease the pain. Then I start again.
It's been a while since I felt the need to build another boat. But that's changed now. Dad and I started this more than thirty years ago. This boat will be different; smaller, a model made to match Mom's.
He would've wanted it that way.