So I asked V for some ideas to get my muse started again. and this was one of the three. I'm sorry that it turned out to be a bit depressing and I'm not completely sure I stayed in character, but this is what my fingers typed and it just feels wrong to change anything about it.
Jenny kissed me
Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in:
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old, but add
Jenny kissed me.
Leigh Hunt
---
Who would've thought right Duck? That I'd be the one to leave this place before you? I can only imagine what you'd say at my funeral. You were always the one who had the words. Not me.
"Leroy Jethro Gibbs, I remember when we first met" and then you'd tell our history. Talking about our friendship, the team, Shannon, Kelly, the ex-wives, even if I rather had that you left them out of it.
It was time Ducky, I have visited death's door too often not to pass the threshold now. There is nothing left for me in this world. The kids are grown up, have lives of their own and all of my loved ones are waiting for me at the end of the tunnel.
Shannon, Kelly and Jenny.
The three women that stole my heart. And I'm afraid I never got it back from them. If this really is my last letter, there is no reason for me not to mention this now, I miss them. So much that it hurts. Everything around me seems to remind me of them. Staying at home reminds me of them, Kelly sanding the boat with me, falling asleep with her on the couch when she was just a tiny baby, Shannon in every single room of the house and Jenny in the basement, bantering with me like we did all those years ago. Being at work, it keeps me occupied but every single time I look up at the railing I imagine that Jenny is leaning over it, watching her agency with a smile on her face.
Don't think that I gave up fighting. Marines never do. But I know that the time has come for my goodbye from this world. Time and age has caught up with me. Be glad you're still in the lead. And before I say farewell, I have one last confession to make.
Remember that night I got out of my coma, back when I'd lost my memory? When I opened my eyes, Jenny almost sprung up from her chair and kissed me.
Jenny kissed me.
And in secret, she supported me through the recovery, and for a while, things seemed like they used to be. This time we were older and wiser. We kept it all under the radar. Until the very day she died. She wanted it that way, not some kind of long difficult road with a long stay in the hospital. No, she wanted it to end it on her terms. And she did.
You can tell the team that.. and tell Abbs that Mommy and Daddy are finally together at last.
We'll be watching all of you.
Until we meet again.
Fair winds and following seas my friend.
--
Ducky folded the letter they'd found in Jethro's bedroom after he died. He safely put it away, somewhere in his dark coat as he left the house. Today he'd pay his final respects to his old friend. He smiled sadly as he watched the two cars in which Jethro's team had come to pick him up. Tony seemed lost, McGee and Ziva tried to stay strong and Abby, Jethro's favourite, was in tears. Ducky put his arm around her shoulder as he lead her back to the car.
It was time.
