Lullaby
Author: Fly Casual
Summary: Sometimes the strangest things can be called a lullaby.
A/N: Yes I know that many of you are waiting patiently for the riveting conclusion of my fic A Woman's Place and I do intend on finishing it, but it will have to wait until I have time. I hope that summer break will give me a chance to get into writing again.
When had first come home after Desert Storm what little sleep he had gotten was filled with nightmares because of the noise. He had finally resorted to wearing earplugs to bed to block out the sounds. It was months later when he realized with a start that the noise no longer bothered him. In fact the steady rhythm had relaxed him to the point that he fell asleep easily.
No one knew the reason he really hated hospital stays was because he couldn't sleep. Sure he hated being jabbed with needles, being babied by the nurses, or forced to eat green jello, but it was the noises that bothered him the most. The steady beep of a heart monitor, the rasp of a ventilator, and the low murmur or doctors and nurses conversing in the corridor were not the noises that allowed him to relax; to sleep.
It's ironic, he thought as he stared blankly at the shadows on the ceiling of his bedroom. He couldn't sleep because it was too quiet. Suddenly gun fire rang out far enough away to sound more like fire crackers than loud threatening shots. With a sleepy sigh he burrowed under the blankets and glanced at the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock beside his bed. 1:23. The local LEO's were late starting their firearms training at the shooting range tonight, he thought mussily as he fell asleep.
A/N 2: This is just a little something I came up with when I couldn't sleep and I lay listening to the gunfire from the Illinois State Police shooting range, which is about a mile from my dorm. I thought it was very Gibbs like that I found the sounds of gunfire kind of soothing and this drabble was born.