A/N: First NCIS story and of course it's Tibbs (Dibbs for JasmineDB). Nothing explicit but this idea got stuck in my head after listening to Blake Shelton's "I'm Sorry" (lyrics at bottom of page). Hope I kept them in character but it's so hard to do with my first story and it being about their relationship so please tell me the honest truth on how it worked! Slight spoilers for the end of season 8.

"Dinozzo!"

"Yeah boss?"

"What are you doing?"

"Talking with Abby," Very Special Agent Anthony Dinozzo answered as he pointed to the goth sitting next to him. They were both sitting at her desk down in her lab, laughing at something on the computer screen.

"Yeah, I can see that. Why aren't you upstairs doing background on Corporal Harold?"

"Can't,"

"What do you mean you can't? We don't have a suspect yet or anything to go on!" Gibbs hollered, frustrated by his second in command slacking on the job.

"Corporal Harold's files were classified so McHacker is trying to get into his records."

Gibbs just stared back at Tony.

Tony nodded. "I'll go see how he's doing with that."

Tony smiled at Abby over his shoulder before leaving her lab. After she heard the elevator ding, Abby looked over at her silver haired fox with a look of anger suddenly on her face.

"What did you call me down for Abs?"

"You know what!"

"Abby…"

"No Gibbs! You have to talk to Tony."

"Why?"

"Don't play dumb with me! You guys aren't talking."

"I thought we just had a conversation."

"You did, about work, where you talked more than he did. I'm not blind; I can see the difference in you two. I don't know whose fault it is and I don't care. The only relationship you have had the past two weeks has been professional."

"Our relationship has always been professional."

"And what about the last five months?"

Gibbs didn't answer her, just took a sip of his coffee.

"Tony was the only one able to get you out of your headspace after Mike's funeral. I've never seen you two happier than I have these past few months. Please fix it Gibbs. You guys need each other."

Gibbs sighed before waving his finger at Abby. She obliged and walked into his arms for the comforting hug.

With his lips next to her ear Gibbs quietly whispered a promise to her, "I'll talk to him."

xXxXx

Ducky was sitting at his computer typing up his autopsy report when he heard the door swish open behind him.

"Ah Jethro. I'm sorry I don't have anything for you yet, Corporal Harold had to wait in the freezer for a little bit longer as a high priority case came in from Agent Martinez."

"Not here about the case Duck."

"What is it?"

Gibbs pulled himself up onto the closest autopsy table and looked at his friend. "Tony."

"What has young Anthony done now that you need to discuss with me?"

"Abby thinks I need to talk to him because 'we need each other' and not talking apparently doesn't help with that."

"So I take it she doesn't know what has happened between you two?"

"No. I only told you and I don't think Tony has talked about it to anyone. How am I supposed to fix this?"

"That depends. Do you want to fix your friendship or your relationship?"

"Both but I really screwed it up this time. I thought I was doing the right thing but the truth is I freaked and did what I always do…treated Tony like the uncaring bastard that I am."

"I believe that in order for you to straighten out this whole ordeal you will need to break one of your own rules my friend."

Jethro looked into the eyes of his longtime confidante and nodded his head in agreement. He knew it would be difficult but as soon as he got the chance to talk to Tony, he would apologize.

xXxXx

Gibbs didn't get the chance to talk to Tony that day…or the next…or the one after that.

The Harold case took them the rest of the week to solve and had taken a toll on all of them, especially with the Corporal leaving behind a widow and young daughter.

By the end of Friday, Gibbs was down in the basement sanding the frame of his new boat, trying to release the tension in his body from both the case and his relationship with Tony. Before he could completely relax the epitome of his thoughts walked down the stairs and sat on the landing at the bottom.

After ten minutes of complete silence had passed, Tony stood up and walked over to the bench, filling an empty jar with the open bourbon bottle sitting there. Once the jar was full he put the bottle of whiskey back and walked back to his seat on the stairs. Never once did he look over at Gibbs.

A few more minutes passed before Jethro broke the silence, "Did you just come here to get a free drink?"

Tony looked up but Gibbs was still looking at his boat as he worked. "You know that's not why I'm here."

Gibbs sighed before putting the sander on the bench and finally turning to look at Tony. "And what exactly are you here for?"

"We need to talk."

"Abby?"

"No. Did she say something to you about this?"

"Yeah, told me we need to fix this."

"Well it isn't my fault its broke." Tony whispered as he stared at his hands.

Gibbs rubbed his hand down his face. "Yeah."

"Yeah? That's all you're going to say?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"How about you start with an explanation?"

"I told you why."

"No, you made up some lame excuse about us just not working anymore and hoped I would just accept that. I tried to accept and move on to give you some time but I can't do it anymore. If we're over then I need to know why. I love you Jethro and you told me you loved me. Was that a lie too?"

Gibbs just stood there looking at Tony, not giving any answer.

"Yeah that's what I thought," Tony set his empty glass on the floor before walking up the stairs and through the door. It took Jethro exactly three seconds before he jumped into action. He caught up to the younger man in the living room, Tony having one hand on the doorknob.

"Tony, I'm sorry!"

Tony froze. Gibbs just broke Rule 6, one of the most important rules he had.

"Don't leave, I'm sorry."

There it was again.

Tony turned around to face his ex-lover, tears shining in his green eyes.

"Is that supposed to make it all okay? Make me forget the hell you put me through?" Tony's feelings were all over the place but he was going to hold onto the anger for the moment.

"Of course not but it is my fault and I made a mistake. The truth is I really do love you and the more time we spent together the stronger my feelings were. That scared me. The last time I loved someone this much was Shannon and I couldn't handle it if my feelings grew deeper and then you were taken from me. So I did what I always do, pushed you away like the bastard I am and decided not to take the risk anymore, ending it before I was in too deep."

"Jethro, that is ridiculous even for you."

"Maybe so but it's the truth."

Tony looked into the steely blue eyes he fell in love with and saw the honesty shining back at him.

"Did you ever think that you wouldn't lose me and we could actually be happy? Is there a reason you feel you can't be happy?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Tony that's not it. You knew before anything happened with us that I was quite possibly the worst person in the world at relationships but you still wanted to try. I never wanted to hurt you…
"Too late for that," Tony cut him off, having heard enough. "It's nice to hear these things but it's too little too late. You didn't trust me enough to tell me you were worried about us, if you had then we could've worked through it. That's the part that hurts the most, you didn't trust me!"

Tony tried to ignore the way his voice hitched at the end.

Gibbs took a step toward Tony, his mind working fast trying to find a way to savage the relationship that was quickly spiraling out of his grasp. Looking right into Tony's eyes Gibbs tried again, "I really am sorry for everything. Do we have any chance?"

Tony was starting to get a headache. "Not right now. I need time to think about all of this but as of right now I can't be with you when you don't trust me. I will still work on our friendship though; I never want to lose that! Maybe we can get back to good but as of right now sorry just isn't good enough."

Before Gibbs could respond Tony had already turned around and walked out the door. All Gibbs could do as he heard the car pull away was stand there motionless, feeling the despair he was worried about in the first place creep up on him.

"Fuck!"

A/N: Believe me I did not want to end it like this but I wanted to see if I could write a story that didn't end up a happy ending. I definitely plan on writing more Tibbs stories that will be explicit and involve happy endings. Please leave feedback!

xXxXx

I'm Sorry

Blake Shelton

You say you don't know what you were thinkin'

Well neither do I

And after all the time we spent together

You think you deserve another try

Girl, I don't know what it is that you're expecting

Just because you look me in the eye and say

You're sorry, oh you're sorry

You want it back the way it was

Well I'm sorry but sometimes sorry

Just aint good enough

You say you never meant to hurt me

Well that might be true

But do you really think I should forgive you

For what you put me through

Oh, I remember every time you said you love me

But I know now your love is just a lie and you say

You're sorry, oh you're sorry

You want it back the way it was

Well I'm sorry but sometimes sorry

Just aint good enough

Oh girl I don't know what it is that you're expecting

Just because you look me in the eye and say you're sorry

Oh you're sorry, so sorry, and you want it back the way it was

Well I'm sorry but sometimes sorry just aint good enough