Disclaimer – I don't own NCIS

Author's note – YEY! This is it! I can't say I've enjoyed writing this one as much in all honesty, it has been a bit of a drag for me. But I hoped you all have enjoyed it, and that you like the ending. Sorry it is not what you all wanted, but when I set out to write this I had the ending in mind anyway.

Thanks for all of your support and enjoy!

"Last time I saw you I was fuelling up at our old favourite coffee shop, then you walked up, I tried to hide behind my cup, when you said 'how you been doing?' I gave you the typical line, 'I've been fine', but I was lying, and dying, yeah, I was a kid in love, you rocked me then and it still does…" – Nothin' like the first time by Lady Antebellum ( this song spawned the whole story, especially this verse.)

When something happens that leaves you dumbstruck, baffled, or confused, when that something leaves you with a broken heart, a fear of the world and a feeling of simple and utter disbelief, we all think things we stop. That because we think we can't go on the world will stop spinning. That nothing will ever be the same and that the whole world will know that. But the truth of the situation is that that could not be further from the truth. No matter what happens, whether it be some worldwide disaster or just a breaking of one person's heart, nothing will change. The sun will still set and the moon will still rise. Tomorrow will still come around, and we still have to get up and get on with our lives.

Mia and tony broke each other's hearts'. They caused so many tears to be shed and an entire family to be shocked to the core. But still every weekday and every other weekend that whole family got up in the morning and went to work. They moved on and got on with their lives, in the knowledge that whilst things had changed, some things never would. With that mentality, weeks turned into months, and months to years. So much so that the day came when he reverted back to almost his playboy self. Yet what only his family saw was that slight dullness to his eye. The way he was scared because he didn't know if the woman he loved was still alive or not.

But not everyone lost touch with the blonde, Jenny still spoke to her and when they turned out be in the same city they met up It was some mad fluke of nature, a miracle of science or some act of God, that five years on Mia Harris was still living a healthy life. She still had treatment, and lived with the fear of love. But she was alive. When Jenny would see her she would see the same fear and sadness in her eyes that she saw in Tony's.

On the other side of the coin however, if you were to flip the coin and look into the eyes of Jenny Sheppard of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, you would see pure happiness. They were still together and going strong, they'd agreed that with his track record they were happiest to not get married; however that was not saying that they did not wish to spend the rest of their lives together. She loved him and he loved her. And Gibbs was pretty sure that following Kate's death he would not have managed if it were no for Jenny. Whilst they argued every week at work, work stayed at NCIS and home stayed at home. They had two separate lives.

Tony, Abby and Ducky were more than happy that their Madame Director and silver haired for were happy. That the past five years had treated them well. It was this pair that the rest of the family looked up to in awe, because they were the example that love could be found at some point in live even if you had had turmoil and upset in your life.

Xxx

Mia stood in a small café in DC. The same café she and Tony had visited hundreds of times over those months they were seeing each other. IT held so many memories. In fact the whole city did. She'd tried so hard not to come here; she'd avoided it at all costs. The only time she came was with Waddy to see Rayna Jaymes play.

It turned out that taking that job had been the best decision. She'd finished university a whole year early after swapping around her courses so she was majoring in journalism and minor-ing in law. Mia had always thought that when she finished Uni she would go and get a job as a prosecutor. But working for with Waddy White, finding talent, producing demo's, working for Rayna Jaymes and her becoming one of her best friends was too much to give up. So she stayed, and now she was no longer Waddy's apprentice so to speak, she was respected and admired.

All those years ago she had promised herself she would never fall in love again, and to some degree she had kept that. She'd never loved another man in the same way, never dated or kissed someone else. But she had a family now; she loved Rayna like a sister and her kids like they were her niece. But she knew that one day that would come a day when Mia would just leave, when she would walk out and they wouldn't see her again. Because whilst by some miracle of science she was still alive. She would still die alone, and whilst the world thought she was healthy, she and Rayna knew differently.

She sat in the coffee shop, drinking the warm liquid. Rayna was back in DC performing, and Mia was there to see her. But for now, she needed Dutch courage. Jenny had told her they'd have lunch, but was supposedly running late so Mia had to go to NCIS to meet her. The blonde was pretty sure that something else was in the worked but for the moment decided to leave it be.

Mia thought back a couple of years in that moment. She'd been in DC before she flew over to Europe for a year or so. She'd stopped by here to get one last good cup of coffee before she went across the Atlantic. And there he had been. Stood there at the till as she picked up her coffee. She'd stupidly tried to hide behind her coffee cup, but he'd seen her, and with an almost cold and detached look he'd walked over.

He'd gotten musclier since last time. His hair was longer and he looked healthy. But his eyes were cold; there was worry and sadness in him. His shirt looked creased as though he had slept in it – which by the bags under his eyes he had done. All tell tale signed he was working a hard case. When he asked her "How have you been?" She looked at him and gave that typical line, because in truth things had changed and she was oaky.

"I've been fine." But it was a lie, because inside she was hurting at the sight of him, she just wanted to hug him and love him. Yet she had been the one to leave and put an end to it. So she knew she had had not right being the one feeling sorry for her. After that there had been and awkward silence and she'd made her excises and left.

Other than that brief encounter two years ago, she had heard nothing from him since the day she left him. And now she just hoped that my some fluke he would not be there, but she knew he would be.

Xxx

Up in Jenny's office she was trying to work, but Jethro was bored and didn't have a case. Tony and Ziva had been driving him mad so he'd taken refuge in her office. She was sat at her dust trying desperately hard to work, but he was stood behind her, lips trailing across her neck and kissing their way up and down. "Jethro!" She said laughing, because as much as she was currently enjoying the attention there were too many reasons why not:

They were at work.

She had to work.

Mia was on her way.

Cynthia was only outside

His team were downstairs.

So she tried to ignore him. "Stop!" She said, as forcefully as she would manage.

"You really want me to?" he questioned smirking.

"Yes!" She said, "I do." As she spun around to face him. She leant up and kissed him fully on the lips, soft and sweetly.

"That you saying no Jen?" He questioned.

"No, this is me showing you what you can have . . . when we get home." She said before standing up and pushing him to the door, both laughing hysterically the whole way. She opened the door and put on her directors tone. "Agent Gibbs get out of my office this instance."

"You gonna to make me Madame Director?" He asked with a smirk, watching as she tried to conceal the one that was threatening to cover her face.

"Yes actually I am!" She said before Cynthia appeared and he left. Jenny closed the door, a massive smile on her face.

xxx

Mia walked into NCIS feeling more nervous than she had done in a long time. She had her hair in waves, and was wearing a pretty white lace dress with brown mid calf cow girl boots that Rayna and Waddy had bought her for her birthday last year. She had on a denim jacket and light make up. She'd made an effort once she knew she was coming here. But what made her smile was the fact that the place had not changed a bit. She began walking to the stairs that would take her up to the director's office when she saw Tony, and he saw her.

They both stopped dead in their tracks, and Gibbs ho was on his way down the stairs stopped dead too. They all stared at her. Gibbs was the first to move, walking down the stairs to see her. The former marine was well aware that his girlfriend had been staying in touch with Mia, and after talking to Jenny he'd realised her had a lot less of a grudge against her.

"Hey." HE said coming down the stairs, she smiled at him.

"Hi Gibbs." She replied, smiling softly.

"Mia?" Said Tony, slightly questioningly.

"I'm sorry about Kate, both of you. I really am I know what she meant to you all." Said Mia, sadly remembering the funeral where she had hidden at the back as not to get noticed and take away the limelight. Tony and Gibbs just nodded, accepting her concerns but neither saying a word. Yet Mia was not offended, she knew all too well what it was like to lose someone who you cared about and that sometimes silence spoke louder than any words ever could.

"You know her?" Said Ziva. "What was she another of your one night stands?" Questioned Ziva, feeling slightly jealous of the obvious chemistry.

"Bit more than that." Said tony.

"Just a bit more." Said Mia, neither looking away from the others' eyes.

"Hi! I'm Ziva, Tony's partner." Said the Israeli with a bright smile that seemed a little fake in Mia's opinion.

"Mia, Tony's . . . ex." Replied the blonde with a slight smile.

"May I ask what is with the erm . . . ox woman look?" She asked getting her idiom wrong. Mia looked at her with raised eyebrows and a slightly shocked and offended look on her face.

"I think you mean cow girl Ziva." Mumbled Tony as he tried to tear his eyes away from the blonde in front of him as his heart constricted with the muddle of confused and conflicted emotions.

"Ah, yes sorry! The caw girl look?" She rephrased.

"Oh, well I live in Nashville and ya know, home of country and all." Said the blonde. Over the years her English accent had changed, and whilst you could plainly tell she was from England, there were the odd few words that she said which now sounded slightly American.

Tony stood up, he had had enough. He grabbed her arm and pulled her around behind the steps which lead up to the catwalk. "We need to talk." He muttered as she followed him, glaring at the back of his head in discontent as he forcefully dragged her around. When he let her go she looked at him, and she realised that she was still in love with the man in front of her. But what she also realised was that she had no right to be. She had no right what so ever to be wishing they could get back together because after all she was the one who had left him in a breeze.

"You look well Tony." She said as she leant back against the wall. And it was true; he looked happier and healthier than he had when she last saw him the coffee shop. The brunette wanted to say the same to her, but she wasn't the same girl. Her long hair was wavy and would be beautiful, but it had become ever so slightly thinner. Her cheekbones stood pronounced, and whilst thy suited her, they just showed how much weight she had lost. As he looked at her, she was well kept, but because he had known the older her, he saw the toll the treatment had taken.

"I thought you said you would be dead Mia!" He almost spat out. It wasn't him saying that he wished she we dead, in fact it was his pleasure she was alive. But when she had left telling him she could die and then turned up five years later alive. All he could think was that by now they could have had five years together, spent happily, and possibly even married.

"Yeah, so did everyone." She stated, looking away from his questioning eyes. "Turns out I'm a miracle of science. I'm on three different treatments, turned out the first managed to keep the cancer from spreading. The other two are to try and shrink it. Only thing is in months, weeks I could die. All it takes is for one to cause it to grow rather than shrink."

"You left Mia! I was planning on asking you to move in, hell I was gonna ask you to marry me!" HE shouted, but it was a quiet shout so no one could hear.

2You think I don't know that?! I loved you Tony, more than I have ever loved anyone, more than I ever will!" She shouted back. "But what you don't get is that I couldn't have you watch me die! I know what it is like to lose the one person you thought that you could rely on. I was not going to let you have the same thing. If I broke up with you then you'd get over me, if I died you'd spend your whole life feeling guilty!"

"I knew that! Hell Mia that is what I signed up for!"

"NO! You signed up for a healthy blonde, the one you met on the first night. When you found out you thought it would pass, that I could beat it. Tony's your faith was admirable, but I could die knowing I had left you behind all alone!"

"That is my choice!"

"But it is my life!"

"And you broke my heart!" HE shouted back. She just looked at him.

"I broke my own." She replied quietly before looking down at the ground. A few moments passed in silence, he leant back against the wall opposite her and sighed.

"I still love you Mia."

"No, you don't." she replied with a bittersweet smile. "You think you do, you love the idea of being with me, of having what we had. You don't love me. Once you did, I know that. But now . . . we've both changed Tony."

"So what happens now?"

"You forget me; I go back to Nashville, or Europe or where ever my job takes me. But you . . . you move on. Give it weeks, or months, but I've seen the way Ziva looks at you. Take her out Tony, and to hell with rule 12! Jenny said that rule was only to stop people getting hurt, and if you are happy then so will Gibbs be."

"I'm not losing you again Mia."

"No, you're letting me go." She walked over and kissed his cheek. "Forget me." She whispered before walking around the stairs to where Jenny was stood waiting for her, and partially ear wigging.

xxx

That evening, Tony and Ziva went out to the bar. They sat there laughing and drinking for what would be the first of many times. Give it a couple of months and he'd take her out for dinner, kiss her, and in a couple of years marry her. Mia Harris would just be a distant memory, and a friend. They'd have children, twins, a boy and a girl. A little boy with olive skin and his father's hair called Anthony Eli DiNozzo, and a little girl. She'd have her mother's hair and her father's eyes, and be called Mia Tali DiNozzo. It would be no fairytale though; they'd face their demons, get hurt along the way. But neither would ever forget the woman who brought them together.

Mia however, that night she stood and watched Rayna Jaymes perform. Her life would be shorter, she'd never love again, but it would not be all sad. She'd be hospitalised many more times, and have plenty of experimental treatments. Yet Rayna's daughters and the girls she thought of as nieces would never see their 'aunt' as anything but healthy. And when the time did come for her to finally leave the world, she stuck to her plan. She left Nashville, and went back to England, and in a country cottage in the middle of the North Yorkshire Moors, she would leave the world – alone. Just as she had wanted.

Jenny and Gibbs wound up that night in her bed. Smiling and happy. They were the ones in this story who would get the fairy tale. They would end up getting married in Paris, months before Mia would pass away. And whilst they would never have their own children, the two mini-DiNozzo would see them as grandparents and be spoilt rotten.

Life had played its course. Mia and Jenny's lives had from the onset looked so distant. But over time they had intertwined, and become friends. They had lived in the same city, walked the same streets, but most of all become near enough family. On the day of Mia's funeral, Jenny would stand next to the country Queen Rayna Jaymes, and that evening they would share stories and tales.

This stories ending may not be a happy one, but it was never going to be a fairytale. Because when one of the leading ladies is fighting a losing battle, only one of them will ever get their prince charming forever.

The End

I'm considering doing a series of one-shots based around Rayna and Mia's relationship. Would anyone be interested? It would be in the Nashville fandom most likely, but I could twist in some jibbs? And Tiva? What d'ya think? xx