A/N Hiya! This is my first NCIS story based on a headcanon I have always had. It was written within three hours so not everything will be perfect. This had not been beta read.

Jimmy's Story

The person in interrogation had tears streaming down from his light green eyes. Dark hair stood up at odd angles from running his hand through it. His suit was ruffled and blue tie askew, and his dark black coat lay on the chair behind him. He was drying his tears with a tissue he had retrieved from his pocket, and a glass of water sat before him in his hands. The entire of the MCRT stood in the surveillance room: Tony leant against the wall with his arms crossed, Ellie stood with McGee (who was on his phone), watching through the glass and Gibbs stood at the back with his phone in his hand. Ducky entered the room and looked around at the team.

"I heard all the commotion, whatever is going on?" Ducky asked, and it was Tony who replied.

"The guy confessed to killing his friend, the navy captain on your autopsy table," the Senior Field Agent explained, and everyone turned back to the glass.

"Who is he?" Ellie asked.

"Daniel Stone, a civilian," Gibbs explained, not looking up from his phone.

"Are you going to interrogate him, Boss?" Tim asked.

"Not me," Gibbs replied, and suddenly the door to the interrogation room swung open and in rushed the last person any of the team expected to see on that side of the glass.

On the other side of the glass, Jimmy Palmer opened and closed the door to the interrogation room. The man at the table, Daniel, stood up the moment he saw the Assistant Medical Examiner.

"Jimmy?" Daniel asked, and Jimmy approached the man and hugged him tightly.

"It's alright, Danny," Jimmy said, pulling away to hold Daniel at an arm's length. Slowly, they both sat down so Jimmy sat facing the glass. "You didn't kill him, it's not your fault-"

"Yes, it is!" Daniel cried loudly, causing the members behind the glass to flinch. "It's all my fault Jack died. I'm so sorry, Jimmy!" Tears began to fall again, and Jimmy leant forward to hold the man's hand gently.

"Hey! It's alright, Danny," Jimmy said, smiling a little at his friend. After a moment, the sobs subsided again.

"Where's the agent I spoke to?" Daniel asked, drying his eyes on the tissues that were now completely sodden. From his pocket, Jimmy brought out some more tissues.

"He'll be here soon, I just wanted to talk to you first," he explained, passing the tissues over, "Danny, can you tell me exactly what happened?"

"Gibbs, why is Mr Palmer interrogating him?" Ducky asked Gibbs, who put away his phone and turned his attention to the men on the other side of the glass.

"Palmer went to high school with Daniel, still talks to him occasionally. Also said he had big trust issues. The man's so emotionally disillusioned that Jimmy said he could get through to him better than anyone else, so I let him do the talking."

"It's all my fault, Daniel said again, this time a little calmer. Jimmy patiently waited for the man to continue with his story, "Jack asked me if he should go to New York to visit his sister for the weekend, or if he should wait a few weeks until his sister comes to DC. I said he should go and see her as she just had a baby and it would be a nice surprise." The tears came again, "If I hadn't told him to go he wouldn't have died. It's all my fault!"

"Why does he keep thinking it's his fault?" Ellie asked.

"Says here in his file he suffers from severe depression, diagnosed after the death of his big sister. Apparently, he blames himself for that too, even tried to tell the police it was his fault," Tim read out from his phone. He'd been looking for information on 'Daniel Stone'

"Poor kid thinks he's killed another person, came to us for punishment," Tony summed up.

"Jack's death was not your fault," Jimmy argued, his voice soft and kind, "you could never have known what had happened. I bet Jack didn't even know." His words didn't seem to have much of an effect on Daniel. "Danny, do you blame yourself because of what happened to your sister?"

"Please don't bring Lucy up," Daniel begged, "I don't wanna talk about her right now."

"Okay, we won't walk about Lucy," Jimmy replied. There was a small silence between them. "I know you, Danny. You're not a killer. You're one of the kindest people I know, and trust me, I work with some of the kindest people in the world," a small smile lit up on Jimmy's face, but it fell when he got no reaction from Daniel.

"Danny? Have I ever told you about my first ever friend?" Jimmy asked, lacing his fingers together on the table in front of him. This caught Daniel's attention.

"No, you haven't. What about her?" He asked, and Jimmy let out a small laugh.

"Well," the Assistant ME said, "let's just say that if you're guilty of Jack's death, then I'm guilty of hers."

"I met her in third grade. I was sitting alone at lunch like usual when she came and sat next to me and started to talk. It was her birthday and she'd brought in special sugar cookies for everyone in the class. She had one left and it had my name on it."

The door to the surveillance room opened again and in came Abby. No one acknowledged her arrival until she spoke.

"What's going on?" She asked, "Why is Jimmy in there? Is he in trouble?"

"Palmer just confessed he thinks the death of an old friend is his fault," Tony explained to the Gothic forensic scientist. The atmosphere of the room fell rather awkwardly as no one really knew what to think. Jimmy Palmer was seen as the harmless Autopsy Gremlin who wouldn't hurt a fly if his life depended on it, yet he confessed to blaming himself for the death of a friend none of them knew he had.

"I was surprised, to say the least. I didn't have any friends as everyone thought I was a freak for being smart. The fifth graders who often bullied me and beat me up came over and started to harass me, and my new friend broke one's arm and another's nose. And afterwards, she gave me a hug."

"She was the first friend I ever had and she was the nicest person in the world," Jimmy continued, smiling as he remembered everything from those days, "from the day I met her we did everything together and she always included me in whatever she was doing. I made a lot of friends because of her. I went to her place for dinner every Friday, though I only knew her mum. Her dad was always away in the Core."

"What happened to her?" Daniel asked, and Jimmy's smile fell.

"She told me one day she and her mum were going on holiday, but that it was her decision whether or not to go," Jimmy began, slowly. His eyes were watering slightly as he spoke, his voice turning a little gravelly, "she asked for my advice and, being eight, I told her to go because 'It will be an adventure!' " The smile appeared once again, thought it was more of a grimace that disappeared very quickly. "She and her mum died in a car crash less than a week later."

Silence once again; that was becoming common between the two men in that interrogation room. Jimmy took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"When I found out, I cried for hours. I was kept off school for almost a week because I was just too upset. She had been my first ever friend, and I had lost her after just six months of knowing her." He stopped and took a deep breath. "I blamed myself for their death because I was the one who said she should go to Mexico. I was the one who said it would be an adventure. I was the one who made up her mind. I blamed myself for it up until very recently."

"What changed your mind?" Daniel asked.

"There had been a case where a petty officer had died. I saw the killer running off and I wasn't able to stop him. I felt horrible when I found out he was the killer as I knew it was my fault he got away, and we didn't catch him for weeks afterwards. But thankfully, I work with a lot of people who opened my eyes."

"First, Dr Mallard spoke to me at the end of the case. He's my boss and there have been times where he has been more of a father to me than my own dad. More often than not. He told me it wasn't my fault, and then told me stories about things he's seen. I listened to him talk for hours and hours, and it was just what I needed at that time. He made me forget all my worries like he does every time I'm troubled."

Jimmy must not have known that Ducky too was in the surveillance room with the others, but everyone turned to face the ME when Jimmy spoke his praise for the man. Though, it didn't stop there.

"And Abby, she baked my favourite cookies. Her smiley face skulls - sugar-free of course. Without even saying a word, which is very unlike her, she cheered me up. I'd only gone to give her some blood samples, but she made me laugh and she hugged me and just being around her instantly made me feel better. She always has that effect on everyone. She really is a great friend. And Tony, and Tim, and Ellie, they all helped too. None of them said anything, but they invited me out to the bar with them after work and Tony asked if I wanted to go to a game with him. Ellie and Tim would bring me coffee throughout the day and still do now. Y'know, I used to be scared of all three of them when I first met them many years ago, but not once have they ever made me feel alone throughout my time here at NCIS. I don't know what I'd do without them."

"I never knew Jimmy thought so highly of us," Ellie said, and the others all nodded in agreement before their attention was grabbed again.

"But out of everyone, I owe a lot to Agent Gibbs."

"You remember Agent Gibbs, right? The one you spoke to outside?" Jimmy asked, and Daniel nodded. "I'll tell you what, he might be the toughest guy I've ever met."

"I mean, he lost his wife and daughter on the same day, but you never hear him mention it. Instead, he builds boats in his basement. He's not exactly a hugger, ya know? At least I've never been hugged by him, but everyone relies on him so much. I admit, sometimes I've worried about him because of everything he carries on his shoulders. Yet, as tough as he is, on that very day when I blamed everything that went wrong in that case on myself, Gibbs was the one that comforted me most. We were in the lift at the end of the day and he flipped the emergency switch and asked me how I was doing. I told him I felt terrible and he said to me, 'Don't beat yourself up over this, Palmer. There was nothing you could have done. If you blame yourself for this, and you keep blaming yourself for things that were beyond your control, it'll eat you up until you can't function anymore. Sometimes, you've just gotta accept things and let them go.' And Gibbs was right. The best advice I've ever gotten. Hugs or no hugs, I will never forget his kindness that day.

Everyone listened to Jimmy's words, yet only Gibbs cracked a smile.

"He opened my eyes not only to that case but to that I couldn't keep blaming myself for her death because there was nothing I could've done that day. For all I know, if I had told her not to go, she may have gone anyway," Jimmy explained to Daniel, "and the same things goes for you, Danny. If you had told Jack to not go, he could've gone anyway." Daniel averted his gaze. "Danny, I know you blame yourself for this, but I also know that you know the truth. This was not your fault, and neither was losing Lucy." The tears were falling again now, but Daniel nodded. After a brief pause, Jimmy spoke again.

"I hadn't been allowed to go to my friend's funeral, my mum said I was too young, but I begged my older sister Sophie to take me that Saturday whilst mum was at work," Jimmy said, and now a few tears were forming and falling, "She took me to the graveyard in the evening, and no one was there except her father. I can't for the life of me remember what he looked like or what his name was, but I do remember this."

"I had written a letter to her apologising for telling her to go on the holiday, and saying thank you for being my friend when no one else would. I gave it to her father and told him that since she couldn't have it, I wanted him to have it, and what I was so sorry for their deaths. I told him that she was my best friend. He looked at the letter in its bright blue envelope, and then he kneeled down and gave me a hug I can only describe as being the same one I'd gotten when I first met her. I will never forget that day."

Abruptly, Gibbs moved and left the room, slamming the door shut. It caused the members of the MCRT to jump and snap their attention away from Jimmy.

Jimmy looked at his watch and then got up from his chair. "Agent Gibbs should be here in a minute and he'll wanna have a word with you. Don't worry, he's a great guy." Jimmy headed to the door but stopped in his tracks when Daniel called his name.

"What was her name?" He asked. Jimmy smiled and opened the door to leave.

"Kelly."

That very evening, when everything had calmed down and Daniel had gone home, Jimmy had been on his way home when he'd gotten a call from Gibbs. The Special Agent had asked for Jimmy to go to his, so the Assistant ME did. He parked outside the house, let himself in as everyone always did, and made his way to the basement where Gibbs was working away on his boat.

"You asked to see me, Agent Gibbs?" Jimmy asked. Gibbs looked up, then turned back to his boat. "Sir, Dr Mallard told me you had all been watching me speak to Danny, and I know I said some things - some very personally things - about you and your personal life. Things I shouldn't have said to Danny." Still, Gibbs gave no reply, but he did stop working on the boat and move to the desk to pick something up. "Sir, those things I said about your wife and daughter, I just couldn't stop when I started and I-" Gibbs held something out to Jimmy, something Jimmy cautiously took. "What's this?" He asked, but soon found he didn't need an answer.

It was a bright blue envelope.

Before anything could be said, Gibbs pulled Jimmy into a hug. A hug Jimmy remembered all too well.

"Y-You're..."

"Yeah. Yeah, I am." Gibbs said, pulling away from the hug slightly. He held up a paintbrush, and Jimmy took it. The two got to work on the boat, finishing painting the 'y' on the name 'Kelly'.