Episode tag. Missing scenes. Spoilers for S4.07 Sandblast and S5.01 Bury Your Dead. References to Hiatus 1/2 and possibly other eps.
Warnings: None to speak of.
Prologue
~NCIS, MTAC
Frozen in shock and horror, they all watched helplessly as Tony's car exploded and burned on the screen in front of them.
The familiar pain of loss swept in, unstoppable as a breaking ocean wave. Gibbs could feel tremors building as the force of emotions threatened his grip on control. Fury began to push its way to the forefront. Good; the anger would get him though this. There would be time for grief later, but right now they had a job to do.
"McGee, gas the sedan," Gibbs began without looking away from the smoke and fire-filled screen. "Ziva, get Ducky. And warn him," Gibbs added meaningfully. He didn't want the doctor and his assistant blindsided by what they would find at the scene. Who they would find at the scene.
Ziva, stoic now after her initial startled gasp of Tony's name, and a green-looking McGee hurried from MTAC. They were both seemingly grateful to escape the wall of monitors that showed them the scene of Tony's death in Technicolor. A brief respite was all he could offer them…far worse was to come. They'd see the scene up close soon enough.
He struggled to look away at first, as if in looking away, he'd lose a last tenuous link to his senior agent and friend. More than that, someone he'd felt a strong paternal affection for, in spite of his attempts to keep the younger man at arm's length. He'd looked away so many times in the last year and today it came down to one damn time too many. Now Tony was gone.
Gibbs finally managed to tear his gaze away from the burning wreckage of Tony's once beautiful classic Mustang, unwilling to let his mind stop to dwell on what they'd find inside it.
Tony loves…loved that car.
He turned to Jenny, giving her a dark look. His hands itched to do damage; to her, and to whoever had taken Tony from them because of her. He kept his fists clenched at his sides but she knew him well enough to sense what he felt anyway. Though the eye contact was fleeting, it was enough for Jenny to flinch and turn away. She knew her guilt in all this.
And he knew his too.