~Birthday Regrets~
It was a slightly chilled November, the wind rustling trees that were already losing their leaves. The sun was setting, bathing the man who was walking down one of worn out dirt paths in the cemetery that he walks through every single year in shades of reds and oranges. The man was called Lerory Jethro Gibbs, supervisor/senior NCIS agent and a former Gunnery Sergeant. He had on a black suit with the jacket undone, a light gray dress shirt, a loose gravel gray scarf wrapped around his neck, a black fedora, and black dress shoes. In his leather glove covered hands were two bundles of flowers; one of red roses and the other of yellow daisies.
Gibbs walked up the familiar grass hill till he reached the top where two angel gravestones stood under a wilting willow tree. He knelt down to brush away vines that were covering up the two names on the little stone people; Shannon and Kelly Gibbs. Gently lowering the roses to Shannon and then the daisies to Kelly, Gibbs spoke, "Bit cold out here."
He stood tall as his blue eyes still remained on the graves. Gibbs paused for a moment to listen to the rustling of dead leaves and blowing on icy wind. The start of a funeral song soon got mixed into the wind. Gibbs glanced off to his left and saw a burial beginning. A crowd of people dressed in all black had their heads bowed and most were crying, only known from Gibbs's distance from the heavy shaking of their shoulders. The only one whose head was up high and shoulders weren't shaking as much was a small, twelve year old boy. Gibbs shook his head. "That boy is sure acting stronger than I was when you two died."
The agent turned his attention back to his family's graves and continued, "That day, the day I lost you two, I cried. I cried and cried till there weren't any tears left to cry. Maybe I cried my lifetime's worth of tears. All I knew was that I failed. I was trying to protect you from outside forces, when I should have been protecting you from things closer to home." Gibbs's hands were tightly closed against his sides. "That's why I joined NCIS. To protect others. But I have still lost two people dear. I still lost Kate and Jenny. If I was only more aware, faster, then maybe…."
Gibbs shook his head to clear away those thoughts. "I must be getting soft if I'm now rethinking my past mistakes. Or maybe," Gibbs tilted his head upwards as rain started to drizzle down, "I just wanted to tell someone my regrets." The graying haired man pulled the brim of the wet fedora lower to cover his eyes as he turned and started to walk away. "Happy birthday to me….I love you, Shannon. I love you, Kelly. I love you, Kate. I love you, Jenny."
If the man had look back as soon as those words left his mouth, he would have seen the ghosts of the woman and girl who still has a hold on his heart, even after their deaths, sitting on the shoulders of their stone sisters. Both held sad smiles and the words they spoke were "I love you, Jethro" and "I love you, Daddy". The winds slightly blew and two more angels appeared; Kate and Jennifer. They smiled and also said "I love you" to the retreating man before all four disappeared back up to the clouds to watch over Gibbs and his loved ones that he still had by his side.