Silence and sawdust filled the air of Jethro Gibbs' dark basement. He lay on his boat, staring wide eyed at the ceiling, having not slept a wink the entire night. A nearly empty bottle of bourbon sat on his workbench with all of his tools, having been depleted for the most part from that night.

This gets harder every time.. Every year that goes by..

He squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could. These next few days were going to be rough, for all involved. And he wanted to involve as few people as he could.

The buzz of his cell phone brought him out of his reverie. "DiNozzo" was displayed on the screen.

"... Yeah... Gibbs.."

His senior field agents tired voice yawned through the phone. "Uh sorry boss did I wake you?."

"No DiNozzo, what do you want," he snapped.

"Uh petty officer was found dead. They want us at the scene."

Gibbs looked over at the clock: 5am. "Be right there." And Gibbs hung up the phone.

Tony back at his desk looked at the receiver (now buzzing with the dial tone) and hung up. "Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the boat this morning," he grumbled.

--

Gibbs rode the silver elevator up to the squad room, black coffee in hand, and dark circles under his eyes betraying the lack of sleep from the previous night. It dinged and he strode in, not bothering to greet Tony who already was seated at his desk waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. He sat down and ran his hands through his normally neat silver hair. A sigh of fatigue escaped him.

Trying to be discreet, Tony tossed several concerned glances at his boss. He didn't want to admit it, but his fearless leader looked like hell. Something was amiss in the life of Jethro Gibbs, and Tony really needed to find out what.

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of McGee and Ziva.

"Gear up," muttered Gibbs, without his usual urgency. As he headed for the elevator, the three agents shared a look at each other. Each of them had felt it.

Something wasn't right.

--

When they arrived on scene Ducky was already there with Palmer which was a bit of a change of pace.

A knowing look appeared in his eyes as he took in the sight of his close friend. Almost as if he understood exactly what was going on. This did not go unnoticed by the team, who had been watching Gibbs like a hawk the entire ride over.

"Ah hope you don't mind Jethro, but Mr. Palmer decided today would be a good day to actually make it to the crime scene without any incidents. Seems to be a pretty basic shooting, but as always I'll know more when we get him back.."

"Got it Duck.. DiNozzo, David, shoot and sketch. McGee, take statements from the guy that found him.." And with that he just walked off.

As soon as he had left their sight, the trio turned to look at the medical examiner, their eyes asking the question that had burned in their minds all day.

"Ah I see where this is going.. Mr. Palmer would you please fetch the gurney for me I do believe we are done here."

As Palmer scurried off to do what he was told, Ducky walked over to McGee, Tony and Ziva. A somewhat grave shadow was cast across his expression.

"You three don't know what tomorrow is.. do you?"

"No," they all replied in unison.

"Well it would be best if I weren't the one to reveal it. It's Jethro's business.. But I would advise you all to not cross him for the time being."

They nodded as Palmer returned with the gurney and went to do their respective duties. None of them, however, had their minds on anything but the mystery that was their boss.

A/N: So yeah I'm back, sorta. No applause really I know how much you all missed me (haha kidding kidding). Yeah I just got the idea and felt like writing. I know this chapter was short but I guess there will be more to come.

So what's going on with Gibbs?...