Chapter 13:

Tandel can hear when the cars leave, and she knows also that Corellon has left not just Gibbs' house but the realm as well. She keeps her focus however on the man in front of her. Gibbs is in a slight state of shock and she can sense it's due in part to the conversation that occurred after she and Tim had left. His blue eyes are unfocused as he tries to assimilate what he's been told.

Tandel lightly runs her hand over his face. He blinks at her touch and she offers a shy smile.

"You really are here?"

"You needed me." Her simple and truthful answer has him raising a hand to her face.

"How?" How did she know? How did she get back so fast? How or maybe why would she come back when he'd rejected her?

"I've tried to get to you before. I couldn't find you. You weren't in any realm that I knew and I have never seen your face prior to this day."

"You knew?" About Shannon and Kelly, about the others he's lost over the years.

"I felt your heart break. There's no easier way to explain it." She puts a hand over his heart, feels the steady heartbeat under her palm.

"You…how?" The confusion in those blue eyes almost breaks her heart.

"I don't know of an easy way to explain it Gibbs."

She releases a heavy sigh. "I just…I just know."

He thinks about that gut instinct he's always had, especially since Shannon and Kelly. He looks at her and she shakes her head.

"No, I'm…I haven't given you that instinct that they were talking about. That's one of your innate abilities Gibbs."

"You read minds?" he asks wryly. She looks straight into his eyes

"No, but it would be a natural assumption considering everything you've learned."

She thinks back and asks him, "What happened three or maybe closer to four years ago? I could tell that you'd felt like you lost your family again. Only the pain was fresh, almost new?"

He stares at her in surprise. "You knew? I-there was an explosion it put me in a coma for a few days. When I woke up I only remembered Shannon and Kelly not my team."

She tentatively leans against him, "Then it was just as if you'd lost them again."

He puts an arm around her and pulls her close, enjoying the warmth of her body against his as he nods, "Yeah, I just-they were there and then they weren't and I couldn't go back and save them. I couldn't get revenge this time."

"I could feel that…that sense of loss, the love you had for them and have for them still. The desire to get revenge and then there was nothing for several days. It was as if you closed up."

She'd felt his confusion and pain?

"I went down to Mexico. It's a country south of here and tried to figure out what or why or just why I think."

"Why did they die? Why are you still alone? Why can't anyone understand the loss that you feel when you think about them?"

Gibbs pulls back slightly and she waits. Minutes pass and then ever so slowly his hand slides over hers. She cautiously moves closer and sighs when he enfolds her in his embrace. He rubs his cheek against her head, still questioning their unique bond.

"Why do you, a stranger know what I feel when no one else can?" His fingers are tracing her palm, and she quivers at his touch. "Why do you respond like this when no one else ever has?"

Tandel puts her hand over his. "No one, or no one aside from Shannon?"

He closes his eyes, only to open them again when her hand touches his palm. The teasing caresses mirror the ones he's just used on her. He inhales sharply as she lightly runs a fingernail from the middle of his palm to his wrist.

"How?" No one aside from Shannon has known about the sensitivity he has in his hands. It is one reason he works or as Shannon once said, plays with wood. Wood sings to him in a way no other medium can.

"Soulmates, Gibbs. We feel when the other is in pain. For you it may have been more of a dream or perhaps a nightmare. For me, I just knew when you were hurting. I do not speak of physical pain, but the mental, emotional heart-breaking pain when your losses took place."

Nightmares? She knows about his nightmares. No one knows about his nightmares. Her hand closes around his wrist. He looks at her, sees the knowledge in her eyes as well as affirmation. She has the nightmares too.