Prompt: Photograph
Gibbs looked down at the photo in his hands and sighed. He couldn't believe she was gone. It was just yesterday he was holding her in his arms, laughing as they made plans for the future. And now none of it had happened. None of the big dreams they had laid in bed talking about, their last night together, had come true.
He was surprised that he was still alive. He'd wanted to kill himself. He'd lost so many people in his life, it just didn't seem right for him to go on, and at one point he didn't think he would. He thought he couldn't live without her bright smile and warm laugh. Her soft curves and even softer hair. He couldn't live without any of it, could he?
He had several photos of her, but none were displayed where anyone else could see them. One in his nightstand, face down in the drawer, one in the basement where she'd spent so much time watching him work on various projects and a few inside books where no one would find them. But all that matter was that she was there, with him, even if no one else knew it.
Today would've been their anniversary of when they met. A day etched into his mind forever, more so than any other holiday. He smiled at the thought – how she had started flirting first and how he couldn't help himself but flirt back.
But he was moving on with his life, sure it's what she'd want him to do. Her bright eyes smiling at him through the photo telling him it was okay for him to live his life. It was the same he saw every time he looked at the photo. She was dead, yet she was always reassuring her. It didn't matter what picture he had of her, she always seemed to be telling him the same thing. "Abbs..?" He sighed softly.
"Yeah?" Abby replied sleepily from her side of the bed.
"I think… I think I'd like to put her picture up. Think you could help me choose a frame?"
Abby reached out and smoothed her hand across his bare back as he sat on the edge of the bed facing away from her. "I would love too."
Gibbs put the photo of Shannon back inside the nightstand and slipped back under the sheets. "You sure you're okay with having her photo up in the house. Maybe on the bookshelf? Or the mantle over the fireplace?"
"I wouldn't suggested it if I wasn't okay with it," she said as she snuggled into his arms. "In fact, I think the one of the three of you should go on the mantle, and the one you were just looking at on the bookshelf."
"You think?"
"Mmhmm, I've already got the perfect frames envisioned in my mind. But it's early, go back to sleep. The shops don't even open for another couple of hours."
Gibbs chuckled at what ideas Abby may have envisioned for his photos. "Nothing with bats."
"S'okay. I've got second and third choices lined up."