The bullpen was empty, who knew where his team had gone off to. Just as well, he hoped to get out of here without any more fuss. He'd tolerated one party and the drinks with Leon, Tobias and some of the other old farts had been good. He, Jimmy and Abby had a nice lunch and the only other people he cared about weren't here. It was enough.
Gibbs looked around his desk, making sure he had everything. Not that he cared about most of it but he still had Kelly's drawings and didn't want to lose any of them after being so careful all these years. He unlocked the bottom drawer of the credenza and smiled at the boxes of medals and awards stored there.
When DiNozzo left, Tim kept them but when he left, Jethro quietly squirreled them away. Somehow in his head they'd become linked to his boys. And he guessed that made sense, he wouldn't have earned most of the damned things without his team. And no matter how many team members had come and gone since the boys left, DiNozzo and McGee were his team. He'd had DiNozzo and McGee for 15 years each, Ziva 8 years, Bishop 6 and Burley 5, the rest blurred into a mess of names except of course for Kate, not quite 2 years for her but then it hadn't been her choice to leave.
It wasn't so hard leaving now, just felt empty. He'd been ready to go when Tim finally accepted a promotion and transferred out to San Diego as Team Leader, but Leon persuaded him to stay. Vance was nearly ready to retire and asked Gibbs to postpone his own retirement for those two years. Those two rolled into four and then Secretary Porter got bumped up to Secretary of State and Leon ended up as the Secretary of the Navy, much to his chagrin. Of course he asked his senior lead agent to stay on during the transition, for the new director. Jethro had been disappointed when it wasn't Tim, but Leon told him McGee wasn't ready yet. When his former agent was appointed Assistant Director, Gibbs felt better.
He smiled thinking about Tim and his family; he and Delilah had four kids now. The two oldest, twins, were born to a gestational host and later the couple adopted two siblings. He loved them all; here he was with no living children, although after all these years he could admit that Tony, Abby and Tim were his kids, and grandfather to five, including Tony and Ziva's daughter Tali.
Thinking of Tali reminded him of some of the travels he'd shared with Tony and her. The two DiNozzos had traveled the world until Tali reached school age. Then they settled in France. Originally they planned to live in Paris but Tony did a lot of consulting with the Marseilles NCIS office and in the end he bought a small villa outside the city. During the school year they lived there, during holidays and summer vacations they traveled.
Gibbs traveled with them when he could. He'd spend at least a week, usually two weeks with Tony and Tali, wherever they were and he had to admit, it was always an adventure as they traveled to Shanghai, New Zealand, saw the temples of Cambodia, Tel Aviv and Athens, Sicily, Barcelona and of course the U.S.
The Christmas season belonged to the McGees and "Poppy" as all five of his grandchildren called him, always had a lot of fun helping the kids celebrate. There was usually another week, or at least a long weekend, in the spring or summer. Sprinkled In between visits were many video chats with both families, sometimes they'd all be together. Those were his favorites.
Year before last he'd also spent most of the winter with the McGees. In late January, Gibbs' gimpy knee was injured in a tussle with a suspect and he could no longer put off the surgery Ducky had been urging him to have for over a decade. He tried not to think of the irony of finally capitulating just three weeks after losing his old friend, who'd wished them all a good night one evening, gone home, had dinner, a nightcap and went to bed, never to wake.
When Delilah and Tim heard about his injury, thanks to a call from Jimmy, they suggested having the surgery in San Diego. That way he could stay with them while he was recuperating. He hadn't bothered arguing, grateful they were willing to help. He did think it was overkill when Tim flew to DC to escort him to the West Coast but when he made a comment, the younger man gave him his puppy dog eyes and that shut him up.
The medal boxes tucked in the last box, he closed the flaps. Done! He reached out to pick up the box when two paper airplanes drifted in to land on top of it and familiar voices said, "We'll take it, Boss."
He looked up and there in the flesh were his boys! Standing there with his mouth open like an idiot, he stared at them. Then he smiled, a face splitting happy smile; the bullpen wasn't empty anymore and now he was finally ready. Wrapping his arms around his surrogate sons, he held them close. His boys had come back to help him leave.
Finally pulling apart, he looked at them with a gleam in his eyes and trying to look fierce, barked, "Gear up!"