Dr. Rachel Cranston: You've been better at letting go than I have.
Special Agent Jethro Gibbs: You don't forget. You just move on.
AU snippet, sometime, Season 11 of NCIS
"It was very hard on us all when Kate died," said Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Special Agent, NCIS, nursing a still-warm black coffee.
Gibbs sat across from Jane Rizzoli, Detective, Boston P.D., at a coffee shop near the Navy Yard in Washington, where NCIS's headquarters were located.
The rest of Gibbs' team was back at HQ, spending time with Jane's friend Dr. Maura Isles.
Maura, the Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, needed the expertise of NCIS M.E. Donald "Ducky" Mallard's on a dead Marine discovered a few days before near Boston Harbor.
Every member of Gibbs' team commented that Maura could be the twin sister of their former teammate, Special Agent Caitlin "Kate" Todd.
Maura and Ducky ended up trading stories, trivia and observations over one of Ducky's "bodies" in his autopsy room; Tony DiNozzo, Tim McGee, and especially Abby Sciuto observed, trying not to stare and be noticed although obviously staring and definitely being noticed.
Gibbs took Det. Rizzoli to a coffee shop near the Navy Yard, to talk about friends and colleagues both lost in the line of duty.
Special Agent Kate Todd.
And, Detective Barry Frost.
"I can't…I still can't believe he's gone," Jane quietly told Gibbs. "The worst part? There's nothing I could have done to stop it."
"Sounds like you did everything you could," Gibbs told her, "and you would have done more if you could have."
"How did you…handle it when Agent Todd was murdered?"
"I threw myself into finding the bastard who took her from us. When he died, I went on. Led my team, took care of my people, worked on my boat."
"That's it?"
"Jane…that's never 'it'. You never get over the death of someone you love. We never really got over Kate, those of us who knew and loved her. That's the real reason Dr. Isles is getting all that attention."
"Yeah. That….Gibbs, Cavanaugh told me that if he had been aware of that before we left he would have recommended the guy from NYPD instead….maybe the attention will do her some good. She can't help thinking about Barry herself."
Jane drank the last of her latte, and declined Gibbs' offer to get her a refill. She pulled up a picture of Frost on her smartphone, and showed it to Gibbs.
"What did Agent DiNozzo say? Frost and Kate were the same age?"
"29," Gibbs replied.
"What a waste…both taken before their times," Jane continued. "So much to offer, so much to give…we both see death all the time but this…this...was different…"
Gibbs reached over, lightly putting his hand on Jane's wrist.
"It should be different," he said. "We wouldn't be able to do our jobs if we got upset over every body, every crime scene we encountered. When it's one of our own, it's okay to get upset. It's okay to hurt."
"So you move on, put it behind you? Is that what you're saying?"
"You never forget them," Gibbs said to Jane. "You do move forward. You continue on. But there's nothing wrong with remembering them. That's what I told Rachel. And that's what I'm telling you."
Jane looked down at the table, then up at Gibbs, and smiled.
"Tell me more about Detective Frost," Gibbs said, sensing that Jane needed a reminder of happier times. "Tell me something good, something funny about him."
"Ha-ha funny?"
"Yeah."
"Well," Jane said, "Frost hated blood and guts. Hated them. Maura and Frankie both tried to help him get over it but it never took. There was this one time, he was in Maura's autopsy room, there was this body and Frost bent over like he was going to tie his shoe. But he didn't have laces on his shoes, and he fainted!…I'm sorry, Gibbs, but I laughed my ass off—"
Jane, laughing, told Gibbs the rest of that story, and more, about Barry Frost.
Later that week, she found herself thankful that Gibbs had provided her the opportunity to remember her fellow detective, and friend.
And there were, as Gibbs said, nothing wrong with memories.
Lee Thompson Young R.I.P. 1984-2013