a/n: Last chapter!
Dragonfly: Epilogue
The silence stretched.
The day that Shelby was to ship off was closing in, and he wanted to spend his last days in Washington with the people that he loved. He'd already taken the weekend to visit Jackson back in Stillwater. And now he was having an apparently quiet meal with his dad and Kate.
He sat at the end of the table with Gibbs to his right and Kate on his left, silently glaring at each other, still. It had been four days since the Friday that Shelby had confronted Gibbs with the news of both Kate and himself, and going back on tour. Nothing had changed-except for their existing friendly and trusting relationship-which now seemed to be a rivalry of sorts. Shelby had no idea what their problem was-he loved them both and they loved him back.
Shelby wanted this dinner to be a special one. Their first family dinner-the three of them. One that he knew would be the first of many whether they liked it or not. One that would continue when he got back from Israel. He had cooked, and maybe it wasn't the most special of meal, but he had worked hard. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, steamed vegetables, buns. And, from the bakery downtown, a pecan pie-for which he knew they both favoured, whether both knew it or not.
He inserted the fork into his mouth, accompanied with the three food groups, and chewed, his gaze darting between the two. He had let this silence and tension go on for long enough. He swallowed, took a drink from his glass of water, and snapped with frustration.
"That's enough already!" They both looked at him with brows raised with different angels. He took a breath; anger wouldn't solve anything, calmness would. "This is ridiculous. Dad… Kate and I are together, and just because you're not comfortable with that, doesn't mean we're going to break-up." He looked his father in the eye as he held Kate's hand on the corner of the table, where Gibbs glimpsed it. Shelby looked at Kate. "Kate, I know that you're upset, but we're here and that has to mean something." Shelby looked pointedly between the two of them. "Now, when I'm gone the only thing you both have is each other-whether you like it or not."
Slowly, they looked at each other across their meal. Kate was the one who nodded first; though she wasn't one to admit her mistakes first, she was never the last one either. Gibbs, after a moment, nodded as well; it was a rare occasion when he made mistakes, but he did make them-in this case exactly.
"Good." Shelby beamed at them both. Mission accomplished. When he was overseas, they'd have each other-and that one piece of knowledge would pull him through the hell he had volunteered for the second time around.
"It's good to see you talking again, Shelby." Gibbs said.
Shelby looked at him in surprise, but nodded. He liked to chat, about nothing and everything, whether you were really listening or not. That had stopped when he was twelve, when his mother and sister were killed, and his father might as well have been too. But when he met Kate, sometimes he just couldn't stay quiet. Though he didn't do it as much as he did when he was a kid, it was there, in the shadows. It made him wonder why he was going back to a place where he might as well be alone even though he technically was going to be virtually surrounded by people.
chapter X end-y
Check out the next sequel to this trilogy: FIREFLY!