I DO NOT own NCIS. I mean no infringement rights, blah blah blah, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I, in no means, plan on having something happen to Tim. This popped in my mind and I had to write it. Think of this as an Alternate Reality piece. Bella's suffered enough to not get put through it again.

~*~

It was raining and overcast, the weather seeming to fit the mood of the person currently standing in the Georgetown cemetery. People have always said that losing a loved one is hard but the pain that comes after losing your second half; the one that makes your heart and soul complete is a completely different matter. Nothing could have prepared them for the empty hole and screaming pain that filled their soul when they had been told the news.

Laying the bouquet of dark red roses along the tombstone, tears softly fell on the dirt as a soft prayer lifts towards the sky. It was supposed to be a simple assignment: go undercover, receive information of a gun running organization, bust them and come back home but something had gone horribly wrong. Another gun running business had placed a bomb unknown to the NCIS team and it went off right after they walked into the building. Everyone but him had come home alive, or at least that's what the Director has said. The truth is, his body was never recovered. They searched for days but with no leads and no evidence proving that her husband was still alive, the search was called off and he was declared dead. The gut wrenching pain that had filled her was nothing compared to when she went home and their children looking at her, knowing something was wrong but not what until their daughter asked when Daddy was coming home.

They both knew that by being active Federal Agents this could happen, but nothing could have prepared her for this. She made it half-way through the story, explaining that he was missing until the urge to scream in pain overcame her and she stopped. Their children were smart enough to know that something had happened, wrapped their arms around their mother as she slid to the ground, sobbing for her missing half.

Having taken the following few days off, she rarely left their…her bedroom only to make the children their breakfast and lunches before returning to and laying on the bed staring at the photographs of them together. The first few days passed with the team coming to check on her, but after every attempt being a failure since they rarely made it past the front door, the callers became fewer and fewer. Almost a week after the news of his death, she managed to pull herself together because the kids needed their mother as much as she needed them.

A ghost of a smile graces her lips as she thinks of her three sweet children. The youngest was going to be two and a-half in a few months, and although she had never seen him directly, she made sure that their daughter knew who her father was in pictures. Then again, her father didn't know that she existed. He was away on the mission when she found out she was pregnant and then he was gone, torn from their lives.

Life became a blur after his death. She never went out always claiming that the children needed her for dinner or a project of some sort. The spark in her eyes has long since died, her eyes only reflecting what she wanted them too. Although none would say it, they all worried for her. She had become almost distant although she never took it out on the children-they could see them whenever they wanted but never her.

It has been three years since his passing but she still holds hope that he will return. The fact that his body was never is the only thing that has kept her sane. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she lays her hand over his name, her wedding band shining amid the pouring rain. Running her fingers over his name, "Tim" she whispers. Standing as she brushes hair from her face, she turns to go as she sees a person standing by a tree. Paying them no attention, she turns away, heading for her car.

"Bella."

Stopping suddenly, that voice belonging to one person. The man who had haunted her dreams for the past three years, telling her not to give up on him. Turning sharply, her eyes search the cemetery before landing on the person by the tree. Watching them step forward, her heart almost stops as she sees his face.

Before she realizes what she's doing, she is already half-way across the cemetery, launching herself into his open arms. Pressing her face into his chest, the sound of his heartbeat proves that he is real and she is not hallucinating. Pulling away, her fingers brush his face as his does the same before their lips meet; the kiss sweet, needing and familiar. "I knew you were alive, I just knew it" she whispers as he holds her close.

"I know love. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get home."

She shakes her head, "No. You're home that's all the matters. That's all that ever mattered," she whispers.

That day in the cemetery, a prayer said by a grieving woman was answered. A missing agent was no longer Missing In Action and the previous statements of his death erased. A father was returned to three children and the loving husband, her soul was restored.

~*~

Well, what did you think? Good? Bad? Well, I hope not bad….bit angsty which is different from my other writings.

Later!