Breena Palmer was in the business of death. Just as the average person wouldn't think twice about staples and copy paper, embalming fluids and caskets were a part of her everyday life (The one before her now was the sunset bronze model, $4995 wholesale).
Even so, she was lucky enough to have lost only two people in her own life thus far. Her grandmother Pearl had gone peacefully in her sleep at the ripe old age of 95, but her cousin Lucas had been another matter. Nineteen - two years older than Breena at the time - he had wrapped his motorcycle around a tree in a horrific accident. She'd grown up at the funeral home and was already working alongside her father when he died, but she would never forget how he had sent her home while their employees prepared Lucas' body. He'd told her never to work on someone she knew; warned her she'd never get that image out of her head.
It was a curse her husband would now carry for the rest of his life.
She leans closer into Jimmy's side and laces her fingers tightly through his. She has no idea how he had been able to perform this autopsy, or the five others that had come from that horrible day. He is such a deeply compassionate man; at their wedding just seven days ago he had gone through at least a pack and a half of Kleenex, handed to him by a blessedly discreet Ducky. Others may see it as a vulnerability or weakness, but it is the part of him that she loves most - his tender heart. And that is why hers is breaking for him now. She knows that this isn't just a funeral for a co-worker. NCIS is her husband's other family, and they have lost one of their own.
Jimmy leans down then, pressing a kiss to her cheek, and turns his head into her neck so he can let out one soft, strangled sob. "I should have been there," he mumbles into her hair, and she shakes her head slightly, knowing he can feel it.
"There's nothing you could have done sweetheart," she responds quietly, squeezing his hand. "Nothing anyone could have done."
He takes a shuddering breath and nods, his cheek rubbing against hers and leaving a streak of tears behind. "I love you," he whispers fervently, releasing her fingers only to wrap an arm tightly around her waist. "Don't ever leave me."
Breena turns into the embrace and tucks her head under his chin. Her eyes trail down the line of people standing next to them; a team - a family - battered and mourning.
"I'm not going anywhere Jimmy."
You'll learn the fate of everyone a chapter at a time, the POV shifting with each. Next up, well, Lord love a Duck!