The Dream
He's home. But not his current home. His home at Lejeune. In the comfortable living room, filled with furniture he had made for them. He was sitting in the rocking chair he had made for Shannon after Kelly was born and it became clear how handy a rocking chair would be. Then Shannon is sitting in his lap. And, because this is a dream he knows why she is here, and what he needs to ask.
"Was I a good husband to you?"
Shannon smiled warmly at him. "To me. You were a good father too."
"I was gone a lot."
"You were an active duty Marine. It comes with the package."
"So what happened with the other three?"
Shannon looked sadly at him. Then she gave him a gentle smack on the back of the head. "Have you ever looked at pictures of all four of us at once? Laid them down next to each other?"
"No." He looked confused, why would he do something like that? Hell, did he even have any pictures of Stephanie? They were only married fourteen months, seven of which he was on a battleship in the Med.
"You should. I think you'd see it if you just looked."
"See what?"
"Jethro, you married me, and we had a great eleven years. Maybe not an easy eleven years, but they were great. Then you married three women who looked and sounded as much like me as you could find. But they weren't me, and you weren't going to get our marriage back by trying to find clones of me."
He didn't say anything, but his dream self was surprised to see that what she said was true, and shocked that he had never seen it before.
"Honey, you aren't going to get me again. You won't get Kelly back either. But if you'd stop trying to get the impossible, you might have a good chance at a lasting marriage. At least this one gets it. She understands the need to solve the crimes, and the late hours, and the fact that this is something you just can't let slide. She gets it because she feels it too. That'll save you more grief than anything else. I don't think the last three got it, not really. Plus this one knew you as Gibbs first, without your traditional Mr. Charm dating approach. She won't be shocked when you're grumpy and pre-occupied."