(A/N and Disclaimer: If we owned NCIS, Abby and McGee would be together and Twilight wouldn't have turned out as it did. But we don't, so that actually happened. Sadly. Nightmares affect everyone and they're so hard to get rid of or forget. This will eventually be a six chapter story, a chapter each for the bete noire of Gibbs, Ducky, Tony, Ziva, McGee and Abby. Post-Twilight so Kate isn't around -sniffle, sniffle- and I decided to stick my fingers in my ears, sing loudly and pretend the Director didn't exist for now. Alright, here I go)

Gibbs

'Daddy!'
Gibbs looked up. A little girl of around eight years old with long, strawberry-blonde hair was running towards him. Her blue eyes were alight with childish happiness and she was smiling in the sunlight as she came nearer to him. An older woman was walking behind her, smiling at her daughter - and at him, her husband. He stood up as the little girl reached him, hugging him tightly around his waist.

'Hello, Kelly' he said softly.
'I've missed you, Daddy, while you were away' Kelly removed her face from the front of his jacket and blinked up at him. Then, she smiled. He loved it when she smiled. She was so innocent, so young and so carefree it made him smile to see her.
'Are you staying with us, now?'
'Of course' Gibbs replied, stroking Kelly's long hair. How could he refuse? The woman had reached them by now, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder and smiling with eyes full of love at the pair of them.
'Hello, Shannon'
She smiled, slipping her hand into his and kissing his cheek so softly the contact was feather-light. Kelly linked her soft, warm fingers with his and they began to walk. He recognized the place now. It was the garden of their old house. Gibbs recalled the memories of playing games on the green lawn with Kelly, sitting with Shannon in the evening watching the sun set and listening to the crickets chirp. The memories swam in his head, feeling warm and as comforting as Shannon's hand in his. They walked along the gravel path down to the bottom of the garden. The gate. He remembered painting it just before Kelly's sixth birthday, using the precious time with his family wisely. Kelly ran to it and pushed it open, and the three of them walked through it together.

They were in the woods, where he and Shannon had come and walked hand-in-hand for miles when they were younger. How did they get there from their old house in the suburbs, he wondered to himself. But he forced himself not to question too much, even though that was what he had had bored into him as a Marine and gone on to drill into his agents. The sun was shining through the trees above them, and the air smelled sweet and fresh of outdoors. Kelly skipped along beside them, talking and laughing. Shannon's hand was still firm and soft in his and she spoke softly to him in his ear. That voice...he smiled slightly. Listening to them both talking, having them both there, his girls, made him feel warm and light with happiness. Then, Kelly stopped and turned to him.

'Will you play with me, Daddy?'
'Of course' he replied, smiling at her. 'What do you want to play?'
'Hide and seek, Daddy' she said, after a moments thought. It always had been her favourite game.
'Is Mommy playing too?' she asked.
'Sure, I am' Shannon replied. 'I'll go on your team to make it fair, Kelly'
'You'll have to count to twenty and then you'll come and find us, right?' Kelly said, tugging gently at his sleeve. 'You'll have to find us, Daddy. Promise me you'll find us'
'I promise' he told her, kissing her temple. 'You go on, I'm counting now. One...two...three...'
He heard them tiptoe away, both stifling laughter. By the time he reached ten he couldn't hear them anymore. He couldn't hear anything. Total silence enveloped him. But he knew they couldn't have gone far, and Kelly could never stay silent for long.
'...eighteen...nineteen...twenty' he finished eventually. 'Coming, ready or not'
He took his hands from his eyes and turned round. They were nowhere to be seen. He began to search, looking around trees and through undergrowth. There was no sight of Shannon's' red hair or Kelly's lilac jumper, which Shannon had made for her at Christmas. He couldn't her Shannon hushing her daughter, or Kelly's youthful giggling. Nothing.
Then, he heard a scream. Kelly's scream.

Gibbs began to run, trying to find the source of the noise; but the screaming was coming from all directions, an ear-splitting, terrified scream. Shannon was screaming now, screaming his name. The sound made his blood run cold.
'Jethro, please...where are you?'
'Daddy, you said you were coming...'
'Jethro, help us!'
'Daddy...!'
'I'm coming!' he bellowed, hoping they heard him, praying he'd find them in time. They were nowhere to be found. The woods were spinning, the light from the sun shining through the leaves above his head blotted out. It was dark now, and the air was colder than he remembered. And the screaming was getting louder, ringing in his ears. He felt like a terrified child on a horrific fairground ride. He was terrified. It was starting all over again.

He stumbled blindly around, tripping over roots of trees and flailing his arms in front of him, desperately trying to find his girls and hold them, protect them save them from whatever was causing them such terrible pain. He could smell gasoline, for some reason. The smell of gasoline in an overgrown forest. His heart was pounding, choking him from the inside out. But he had to keep going. He had to find them.

Suddenly, the forest cleared. He was no longer surrounded by trees, but in the old NIS evidence yard. The garish, red and yellow sign on barbed wire fencing jolted his memory, and brought a sick stab of fear to the pit of his stomach. He had never been able to come near that place, not since...He shook his head, trying to shake the all-consuming fear and foreboding away. It was clearer and quieter than he remembered, and there was nobody else there. The only object to be seen was a single car, the black outer contrasting with the white inside. And there was something else...a splash of colour on the windshield. Gibbs moved closer, though all he wanted to do was run until his lungs imploded and his legs gave out and his heart stopped beating to get as far away as he possibly could.

He walked nearer to the vehicle until he could have reached out to touch it. His shaking hand moved closer, but he moved it away sharply; as if the car would bite or burn him. He could smell dust and exhaust fumes; and there was the metallic smell of blood in the air.
Blood. Blood on the windshield. Shannon's blood. Kelly's blood, splattered across the dashboard. The blood that had seeped from their wounds as their lives slipped away from them; and they slipped away from him. The memory was choking him, constricting him. He had lost them. He hadn't been able to find them - but they were here. His stomach twisted in horror as he saw Shannon, her head bent forwards in death; still strapped into the drivers seat in which she had died. There too was Kelly, so sweet and pure and so irrevocably deceased, the blood from the gaping wound in her head all over her clothes and the dashboard in front of her.

'No...' he whispered, the single word echoing around him.
'Yes, Jethro' Shannon's voice was cold and full of the closest thing to hatred he could ever imagine from her lips. She raised her head to look at him, her eyes narrow and so, so empty and cold. The bullet wound in her forehead was still raw and fresh; it made him want to scream and vomit simultaneously.
'We are dead. And it's your fault. You said you'd protect us. 'Til death us do part, remember? What a joke'
'Daddy, you promised you'd come and find me' Kelly's voice was full of hurt and resentment. It was almost more than Gibbs could take to see the mark in his beautiful little girl's head where that bastard had sent a slug ripping through her. 'You didn't get here in time. You didn't save me.'
'Kelly...Shannon...no...' His voice was shaking like the rest of him, and his cheeks were wet but not just with perspiration.
'You failed us' Shannon said harshly. 'You didn't come when we really needed you. You weren't there to take the slug for us - for me, your wife. For your little girl' He gestured sharply to Kelly, whose tears were mingling with the blood on her face.
'I didn't...I never...'
'You broke your promise, Daddy' Kelly sobbed. 'You let me die'
'Kelly, no...'
'You should have died. You should have died rather than let us die. Now, we're safe. We can never feel pain again. You have to live your life knowing that you killed us, your two girls. You killed me, Jethro'
Gibbs broke down, slamming his palms into the car door. He looked up, his vision blurred; but he saw Kelly's young face, bloodied and tear-stained and so full of pain it made his heart break, lean over to look at him.
'You killed me, Daddy...'

'NO!' Gibbs shot up, sitting upright in his bed. His covers had been tossed around and thrown off int he grip of his nightmare. Sweat was pouring down his face, his heart was pounding and his old NIS shirt was sticking to him. And the image of Kelly's bloodstained face wouldn't stop swimming before his eyes.
'No...Kelly...Shannon...no...' he choked, his teeth gritted and his back shaking with sobs. He looked at the other side of his bed; wishing himself back to the days when he would wake up to Shannon's sleeping form beside him. Her words from his nightmare rang in his ears:
'You killed me, Jethro...'
'I'm sorry' he whispered into the darkness and quiet of his bedroom, his voice strangled. 'I'm so, so sorry'
Jethro Gibbs sank back onto his pillows; tears coursing down his face in the knowledge that his nightmares - the dreams that held him deep in darkness and haunted him even when he was awake - were the only place he would ever see Shannon and Kelly again.

So I try to hold on to a time when
Nothing mattered
And I can't explain what happened
And I can't erase the things that I've done
No I can't...
How could this happen to me?
I've made my mistakes, got nowhere to run
The night goes on as I'm fading away...
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me?...

(A/N: I got the details of the car from the episode Hiatus in Gibbs' recollections focusing on Shannon and Kelly's death. The song I used was a segment of a Simple Plan song (and yes, I do dislike the band with a passion but I think this song fitted the scenario) I think the title is How Could This Happen to Me? I saw in in a fan video about Gibbs, Shannon and Kelly and it suited it so well I decided to use it. I'm planning on using a different song for each character and nightmare, so ideas would be appreciated. Next chapter: Ducky's bete noire)