Chapter 3: Lunch and speeches
Friday 13th
11:49 am
Is there some meaning to this life?
What purpose lies behind the strife?
Whence do we come, where are we bound?
These cold questions echo and resound
through each day, each lonely night.
We long to find the splendid light
that will cast a revelatory beam
upon the meaning of the human dream.
On Friday, it is a merry bunch of people who go towards the cozy little restaurant in a walking distance from the Navy Yard. There were people from HR, Counterintelligence, several teams who were off duty and, of course, MCRT and Ducky and his faithful assistant, Jimmy Palmer.
Gibbs decides to stay back, as he had some other appointment which he had no wish to explain to his agents, so he takes off shortly before the agents go to the restaurant to meet Jardine's fiancé.
Abby is in her finest Goth attire, a beautiful white shirt with tiny cute skulls carefully embroidered on the sleeves matching with her plaid green skirt while Ziva has taken the chance of wearing a more feminine look for the party. She smiles saucily as she notices DiNozzo's leer filled gaze on her figure in a beautiful green dress, coupled with delicate green sandals that Abby had helped her to buy. However, she is actually deeply surprised with the flash of lust and appreciation in McGee's soft eyes before he carefully hides it behind his usual friendly face.
She feels an unfamiliar fluttering in her chest and decides to investigate it further, but when she approaches him and engages him in a light conversation he looks at her with the same old green eyes, no hint of the emotion she had briefly glimpsed when she entered the restaurant.
The team takes the time to observe the happy couple and none could put a fault on the bride's choice. Joshua Roberts, Jardine's fiancé, was a liason at the Pentagon, a tall marine with softly tanned skin, almond shaped eyes in a vivid hazel color, gentle manners and obviously terribly in love with the Intel specialist. She also had a deeply in love look on her face whenever she would look up at him, blushing now and them at some jokes her colleagues would throw at them. Josh would simply smile and take them in his stride, without getting angry at their comments of her usual ticks of cleanliness and total horror to germs.
Close to the end of the lunch party, as they had to go back the office, Ducky stands up, takes a glass in his hands and hits it lightly with a coffee spoon, asking for attention of all attendees.
"My dears, we're here today to celebrate a great event in our dear Nikki's life. A celebration of hope and love between two young people who have decided to share the path of their lives as one, in their ups and downs, in sickness and health, in happiness and sorrow."
He raised his glass in the air, saluting the couple, "I would like to honor both Nikki and Josh, who have dared to leave the huge ocean of singlehood and embrace the journey to married life. I have to admit that I was never brave enough to walk that path," his admission brings laughter to the people in the party, but he continues, "but I have to say that I'm not only happy for you, but also a little bit envious. I've reached a stage in my life that I have much to consider of my past choices and I ask myself why wasn't I brave enough to try this institution, which I deeply respect, but I've never felt the irresistible pull towards it. Oh… opportunities were plenty… but I was never brave enough to leave my ways and face my fear of rejection to dare to ask the ones I've loved if they would like to share their lives with me. So I admire you, Nikki, for your courage, because life without meaning cannot be borne. Life without love is not meant to be lived, only endured. That reminds me of a certain passage in the book of the preacher. In Ecclesiastes chapter seven the preacher says:
A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.
Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
We're here celebrating but let's for a moment count our blessings and remember those who couldn't be here, either by disease, war or untimely death. Let's make a conscious choice of living our lives at its fullest. Our lives are feeble and can be taken in a mere second. So let's remember how fragile is human life and how foolish are humanity's struggles and simply love. Let's love deeply, sing loudly and dance as if nobody is watching. Because when the end comes it comes swiftly and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Only enjoy every moment as if they were our last."
He looks to the couple, his glass high in the air, "To Nikki and Josh, may their days be always fully lived!"
"To Nikki and Josh!" Everyone salutes and drinks merrily in honor of the couple.
