Five.
A little red-head rabbit and a brown and silver fox… happily singing, happily playing.
'One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Once I caught a fish alive.' He sang
'Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten. Then I let it go again.' She chimed back.
'Why did you let it go?'
'Because it bit my finger so.'
'Which finger did it bite?'
'This little finger on my right.'
The fox darted forward and the rabbit fled, the fox caught the rabbit in his strong hands and spun her around before attacking her with his tickling fingers. She squealed and tried to wriggle away.
The memory wriggled away, leaving Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the dreary present.
'One, Two, Three, Four, Five.' He hummed out of tune.
Five lovers. All red-heads.
Three divorced, two dead.
Shannon
Diane
Ginger
Stephanie
Jenny…
Shannon was his first wife. She had meant the most to him. When she died he had married again… and again… and again. Just to try to dull the pain but it never worked and neither did his marriages. They didn't want to be a replacement they wanted to be the One. The one that he would love with a single minded passion… he couldn't do it. (They really hated it when he accidentally called them Shannon).
Then he had met Jen… she didn't remind him of Shannon but she was fun and passionate. They say you have two possible soul-mates, he felt he had found both. She loved him and he loved her back… but she made a choice and disappeared. He thought he would never see her again… how wrong he was. Seven years later she was back but she wasn't the same. Her work had taken the fun, the life out of her but slowly, bit by bit, he had restored it. Now she was the Jen he knew… the Jen he remembered… the Jen he loved. She began to think if she had made the right choice all those years ago.
They had been so close, so close to making it work again but… then she died. Just like Shannon had died… had left the world… had left him.
The two he loved the most… he would never see again.
…yet.
