Shattered
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything
Summary: Twilight left them shattered. When Ari is killed 6 months later, the team learns surprising news, but will those news come soon enough to keep one of them from breaking?
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1- 7 West
Anthony Dinozzo walked down a hallway until he stood in front of a wooden door. He sighed as he looked at the sign next to it. Every door had such a sign, giving away the name of the person who was living inside those walls. It still hurt him to see that name here, but he felt that he owned him as much as a visit every week. 7 West was not a very pleasant place. It was the closed psychatric ward of Bethesda Naval Hospital, a place where broken souls were gathered. Tony still hated coming here, but he had done so every Wednesday for the last six months after getting off from work.
A nurse unlocked the door for him and he knocked, but there was no answer. He walked inside and looked around. The room was plain, white walls, grey floor, bars in front of the window, no curtains. He felt a chill run down his back when he saw him sitting at the window again. Every time Tony came, he was sitting there. Doctors called it PSD -posttraumatic stress disorder, but nobody knew if it was going to go away any time soon. It seemed like he had resigned from life. He would eat, sleep, dress himself when someone put out fresh clothes for him, but besides that, he just stared out of the window. He had not spoken a single word ever since Kate had died in his arms on that rooftop. Once a month, Tony and Ducky took him out for a few hours, but he didn´t seem to realize it.
"Hi, Boss." Tony finally said as he put his hand on the older man´s shoulder. "I heard they got you some of Starbuck´s homeblend last week and you didn´t touch it." He added and then went on to tell him about the recent events at NCIS. Morrow had put him in charge ever since Gibbs had been admitted to 7 West, but Tony still refused to call it anything but temporary. He still hoped for some miracle that would give them the old Gibbs back, the one with two b in his name.
"Abby will come to see you tomorrow. Just don´t jump on her for not coming last week -she caught the flu and was out for four days in a row. Oh, and McGee passed shooting evaluation with perfect marks again -he really turned out great." Tony told him and looked for any sign of reaction, but those blue eyes still stared out of the window. He wasn´t even sure if Gibbs sensed his presence at all. Doctors still didn´t know if he was interacting with the world around him at all or if he was just responding to the basic instincts, like hunger and sleep. He seemed withdrawn and passive, something everyone had thought could never happen to him, but it had.
After half an hour, the door was opened again and Tony got up from the windowsill. "I´ve got to go now. See you next week." He told Gibbs and walked out. Everytime he came here, he hoped for some sign of improvement, but there was none. Ducky kept checking on him as well, but he too didn´t see any change. Kate´s spot on the team had been taken by a young woman who actually worked for the mossad. Her name was Ziva David and even Tony had to admit that she was good at her job. The team just wasn´t the same anymore though.
McGee had learned a lot over the last half year, mostly because he was forced to do more work now. He did good, eventhough Tony would still call him Probie. That nickname just kinda stuck on him for the time being. It was a reminder of those times everything had been all right, a reminder of life before that fatal day on the rooftop. Abby had been more subdued as well, mainly noticable because she hardly ever listened to any music in her lab anymore. Only Ducky seemed to be the same man as before those events. He still talked to the bodies that came to the morgue, he still had tons of stories to tell on every occasion.
Tony got into his car and sighed. As he looked out of the window, he watched the rain falling onto the ground. "Screw you, Ari. If I ever get my hands on you, I´m going to kill you as slowly as possible. You took my partner from me, the only girl who would toss the ball back instead of taking it. You broke my boss by killing her and you shattered the best team I´ve ever seen." He growled and then started the car. These words had become some kind of a mantra for him by now. He repeated them almost daily when he was forced to watch how their lives had changed.