Ecce
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
- Oscar Wilde
It was only much later, years after they'd put Tony in the ground, that Gibbs realised his entire life lay there.
From that point he hadn't lived, even though he'd even been happy in these last ten years, but survived. All through a promotion, a new team, a new wife and yet another divorce, he knew now that really, for him, time had stopped the day he threw a handful of dirt on Tony's casket.
Strange, how he'd managed. He'd practically ignored the fact that one Anthony DiNozzo had ever worked for him, that he had cared for him, that he'd fallen in love with him, that he'd lost him before anything could come from it. Strange, how Kate's death had affected him more.
Strange that grief should almost choke him now.
TBC…