A/N: So I actually started writing this before I ever saw Hiatus and was trying to find an explanation for Gibbs' inability to carry a marriage. Then of course I saw Hiatus and had to change a few details in order to keep it canon. This is my interpretation of what Gibbs and Shannon's life was like although I gave up on staying completely canon when they kept adding details of their relationship, so I am aware that it's not entirely accurate. It's pretty darn close, and I hope people will read, review, and enjoy.

I watch him from behind a wall of shadows and

Though he knows it not, I love him for all he is and can be.

He spends his life here, fishing in an empty pond

For the wisdom of the past when he cannot find it elsewhere.

Nothing greets him

Grants him Her thoughts and all the while

I stand watch to keep the bites at bay.

He cannot know the way they laugh, finding him an easy mark

For the bait they throw. He stands tall in a losing fight.

There is nothing here for him to catch and he well knows it

But again he tries.

She thinks I don't know but

Her shadow differs from the others by the wings it carries.

The pond is a mirror before me, unbroken

By life and by growth, I would love but for her sake.

Meantime I search for answers in the stillness

And search for her in trees unseen.

There is peace here with Nothing to ease my thoughts.

But Nothing exists only for others.

One day when I come here,

Something will break the glass and the silence

And my time will be rewarded by the sight of silver scales.

Until then I will wait for I come only to catch her.

Caught like doves, free like human heart,

They lay together for the first time beside the glass-water.

It's broken by silvery scales as they sleep,

Peace in their souls, soon to be shattered,

But it is not my place to tell them so.

Cannot the child be spared such pain?

This we all ask and asking begets no answers

But those we ourselves provide.

A happy decade later sees them together but held apart

By distance and war and love.

The crash rocks his world and destroys hers,

Leaving twin stones above the blades.

Satin dresses and golden rings mean nothing to six feet

But everything in heaven and more on Earth.

Broken like the looking glass that lapped at their fingertips,

Broken like a baby's old toy,

Broken like bones by bombs,

Broken like a man who has loved and lost his treasures.

A/N: For the record, the poem is sort of like a summary of the rest of their lives. It'll make more sense as you read. Thanks!