Tony looks at his boss, his green eyes wide.
The words coming from his boss' mouth "you're done as my Senior Field Agent, you're done in law enforcement, you're done at NCIS" keep echoing through his head.
"You're… you're threatening my job?!" Tony yells, his voice almost hysterical. He stands up and starts pacing, throwing angry glances at his boss who is sitting on his couch watching his SFA.
"Yes, I am Tony, because nothing else is getting through to you that you need to grieve instead of bottling your feelings in a bottle, I've been there and done that and you know what? It doesn't help, no matter how you drink, you can only bury your emotions up for so long before they explode, so if threatening your job is the way to get you to stop drinking and start grieving, I should've done this weeks ago!" Gibbs's shouts, now on his feet and in his son's face. Gibbs's watches tears spring to his son's eyes as he slides down the wall, sobbing. He lets out a sigh of relief and joins his son on the floor, wrapping his arms around the crying younger man.
Finally, Gibbs thinks as he kisses his son's hair.
"I didn't want it to be real, I thought that if I kept drinking, I'd wake up and she'd call me and it'd be a horrible nightmare, but every morning I woke up and it hit me: I'd never see her again, never hold her in my arms, never hear her laugh, never hearing her tell me how proud of she was of me and vice versa, I'd never get to tell her I love her again, never hear feel her lips as she kissed me, I thought it was a dream, until just now: you never would've threatened my job if you weren't serious." Tony sobs, his hands going to Gibbs's t-shirt, keeping himself grounded.
"I don't know what to do now, Isabelle was my life, now she's gone!" Tony cries, his head falling on his surrogate father's shoulder as the older man rubs his arm soothingly.
"Tony, who is Isabelle?" Tony hears Gibbs ask. Tony allows a small smile to slip onto his face.
"Isabelle is, was, my wife." Tony says softly.
Gibbs's blue eyes are wide as he hears Tony telling him that the deceased woman that the team had told Tony was dead, was indeed the young man's wife.
"Your wife?!" The Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant asks his son in shock.
"Yeah, Isabelle Katherine DiNozzo was my wife for 8 years, we met my second to last year in college, the night I proposed to her, it was right after I won the winning shot, I ran up to her, pulled her into a kiss, got the mic and asked her to marry me in front of the entire gym. Then a month later I blew my knee, two weeks after we returned home from our honeymoon." Tony explains as he gets a wedding band from his trouser pocket, it's a simple ring: silver with an inscription on the inside:
Toujours et à jamais.
"What does that say?" Gibbs asks.
"It's French, means Forever and Always." Tony translates the inscription.
"This is mine, on hers it says: Il mio lieto fine: Italian for my Happily Ever After.
Gibbs sighs softly as he tightens his grip on his son.
"I'm so sorry, son." Tony nods against his shoulder.
"I'm gonna get sober, boss, Issy would hate that I've been drinking like I have, I'm not gonna dishonour her memory by becoming like my mother." Tony vows. Gibbs gently head slaps his son and smiles.
"Attaboy, DiNozzo." The leader says.
"Has Ducky completed her autopsy yet? I wanna say goodbye to her in person." Gibbs nods. "He's completed it, DiNozzo, but I don't think you should see her like that." Tony lifts his head. "Please, boss?"
The team: Gibbs, Kate, Tim, Ziva, Jenny, Abby, Ducky and Palmer all watch as Tony opens the draw and uncovers the white sheet that's covering his wife, a sob escaping his throat as he looks at his wife. The team can hear Tony's words to his wife.
"Oh, Issy, you always said I'd outlive you and I suppose that's true, but it's not the way I'd imagine you'd go, I'd always imagine you laying in our bed, gray in your beautiful hair, a smile on your face, holding my hand as I lay next to you, surrounded by our kids, grandkids and maybe, just maybe, our great grandkids. I promise I'll love you for all eternity, Toujours et à jamais, remember? I promise I'll hunt down the bastard who ended your life and both our lives way too short and I won't stop until he's dead, sent down the deepest darkest pits of hell, maybe he'll meet my father, hey, babe?
Oh my Issy, you were the best thing that's ever happened to me, I'll always love you, please watch over me and tell Shannon and Kelly that Gibbs loves them. Toujours et à jamais, Il mio lieto fine."
With that Tony kisses her cold lips, pulls away her, covers her back up and closes the door, his hand lingering on the handle before he turns back to the team.
Kate, Abby, Ziva and Jenny have tears falling down their faces at Tony's heartbreak and as soon as he's near them, all four of them hug him, holding him.
"We're so sorry, Tony." Kate says through her tears.
"Thanks girls." DiNozzo replies as he looks at the guys over their shoulders.
"I'm going to miss her but I can't do anything except catch this bastard who ruined our lives: will you help me?" Tony asks his team who all nod vigorously.
"You don't even have to ask. You've got the entire NCIS behind you, Tony." Jenny says as the girls pull away from the heartbroken SFA.
5 months later:
Tony sits a few rows behind the man who took his wife's life, with the team around him.
"Mr Johnson, you've been accused of killing a young woman, Isabelle DiNozzo, is this true?" Micah Johnson looks at Tony from the stand and shakes his head, a smirk on his face.
"No, I didn't even know the bitch." The murderer says, Tony grits his teeth, a snarl slipping through his curled back lips and feels Kate take his hand and Gibbs's hand on his arm, both restraining him to his seat so he doesn't go up to the stand and potentially kill the man who killed his wife.
"Don't, DiNozzo, I know it's tempting, but don't." Gibbs tells him quietly.
The JAG lawyer, a friend of Jenny's who's on the prosecution, stands up and starts talking to the killer, Tony tunes her out and relives memories of his wife.
A gavel bangs, echoing throughout the courtroom.
"Jury deliberation will start now." The judge says, startling Tony out of his memories of Isabelle.
"I hope they find him guilty!" Tony growls as he glares at his wife's murderer who is led away to the holding cells in the courthouse.
"They will, Tony, don't worry, the evidence against him is overwhelming." Tim reassures his friend who smiles in return.
"Let's get outta here before Tony kills the guy." Abby says, looping her arm through her friends.
Two hours later:
"We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and sentence him to life in prisonment without the possibility of parole." Juror number 1 says. A gavel bangs as Johnson is led away in handcuffs. Tony smiles at his team.
"It's over, Issy." He tells his dead wife who he sees outside of the courthouse.
His wife has justice and he has his family to help him through his grief.