Title: A Minute and a Moment
Spoilers: 6x09 "Dagger"
Disclaimers: Neither NCIS nor any of its characters belongs to me.
"Thank you," she says, and you know she is not referring to the earwig.
Though you worked together for four months, you were never very close. This is, maybe, the first time you have truly connected with her.
After all, she is you from another life.
If you could have done anything to save Tali, you would have, no matter what the cost. Even if it meant betraying those closest to you. Even if it meant your own death.
After a minute, she says, "I'm never going to see my daughter again, am I?"
You see the desperation in her eyes. You want to lie to her. You want to tell her that everything will be okay. But that isn't who you are, and though you can't see the future, you know there will be no fairy tale ending. (She knows it, too.)
"Probably not," you say, in your own way trying to be gentle, though gentleness does not come easily to you.
She sucks in a breath, looking so devastated, so lost that you almost reach out to touch her shoulder, but you resist the impulse and turn away, and the moment is gone.
You never get another one.