A/N: I wrote this story a few years ago (2011) and somehow never got it posted here. I'm not sure how that happened. It's so short that maybe it's not worth it. It's a Gibbs/Hollis fic, written for the NFA Man of Few Words challenge, kind of in the same universe as my Right series, but it doesn't require any knowledge beyond that Gibbs and Hollis are together in this story. Just a warning: It's kind of mushy. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the series, the characters or Gibbs' boats. I'm not making money off this story. It would hardly be worth it with how short it is.


No Boat For Me
by Enthusiastic Fish

Hollis looked at the basement. Yes, they'd ended up here again. As always. She smiled.

"Thirsty?" Jethro asked.

"Sure."

He poured her a drink and then sat across from her, staring at her in silence. She took a drink and looked at the empty space.

"No boat?"

"Not right now."

"Why not?"

"Other things I needed to do first."

Hollis nodded and took another drink. Jethro was clearly feeling more taciturn than usual tonight. She mulled over the question in her mind, but she didn't know how to ask it without sounding petulant. It was a genuine question, but it was sound wrong. She knew what had happened to the last boat he'd built. The one he'd named Kelly.

"What is it, Holly?" Jethro asked.

Hollis smiled. "What do you mean?"

"You've been acting like you wanted to ask a question for a while."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"I'm not armed," he said with the barest twinkle in his eye.

Hollis laughed and then looked back to the empty space.

"You never built a boat for me. Why?"

A long silence. Hollis waited...but she didn't dare look back.

"We broke up. I moved to Hawaii! Why didn't you build a boat for me?"

Another long silence.

"Didn't need to."

"Why not?"

"The boats are...to help me let go of the ones I've lost."

Hollis didn't respond, but she didn't look back either. She heard Jethro put down his drink and then walk over. He whispered in her ear.

"I never wanted to let you go, Hollis."

"Never?"

A soft laugh, again in her ear. "Maybe once or twice."

"Not when I left?"

"Nope."

Hollis shivered slightly, a little embarrassed that it was so easy for Jethro to get a reaction out of her. She turned her head slightly toward him.

"Are you sure that's not just an excuse?"

Jethro didn't answer in words. He didn't need to.

His kiss said it all.

...but when they broke apart, he did answer...redundant as it was.

"No...not just an excuse."

Hollis turned around to face him.

"Good."

She kissed him again...and decided that not building a boat was the best gift Jethro could have given her.

FINIS!