a/n: Sorry for the long wait, I kind've had a little trouble on how to keep going, but here it is. Enjoy and I hope that you'll tell me your thoughts.

Damselfly: Chapter IX

"McGee," Gibbs said as he walked into the bullpen, finding DiNozzo gone.

"Boss?" Tim looked up from his computer screen.

"Find anything in Reynolds' and Shelby's lockers?"

Tim's eyes widened as he stared up at Gibbs, frozen. They didn't search the lockers at the Yard! Now he was scared as Gibbs looked down at him through a narrowed gaze.

"McGee..." Gibbs started slowly, his voice flowing with anger that his team had made suck a rookie mistake. "Did you search the lockers?"

Tim was pale as a ghost as his mouth opened and closed, trying to get words out. Ones that were blocked by fear. With this case being so important to Gibbs, he didn't understand how they had over-looked something so simple, yet something that could be very vital to their case.

"Of course we did, boss!" Tony spoke up behind Gibbs, a little breathless.

Gibbs turned from Tim, who had a small heart-attack, to Tony, looking his Senior Agent up and down. It looked like he had been running. "Tony?"

"Boss..." Tony said trying to even his breath. Gibbs' inpatient gaze kick-started him into action. "Right." he swallowed before he spoke. "In Reynolds' locker, it was almost exactly like his apartment. It was crazy. He must have just kept his field uniform in there because the only personal thing that was in there, was an old picture of his daughter. And by the looks of it, boss, he must've kept it in his pocket or something before he taped it to the door."

Gibbs nodded. He found that somewhat suspicious. Someone who had been on base as long as Reynolds had, was sure to have a few more personal things in his locker. "And Shelby?"

"His was a completely different picture. For ten months it looked pretty lived in. There was an extra uniform, civilian clothes, jacket and shoes, toiletries. He had a couple of creams and a few photos on the door." Tony listed off. "I sent it all down to Abby."

"Boss?" Tim asked, drawing the man's attention back to him. "Ducky just called, he said that he had something."

Gibbs gave him a look before he headed to the back elevator.

"You owe me big time, McForget." Tony told the other Agent.

Tim glowered back. "What didn't you tell me?"

Tony just grinned back at him.

"Ducky, McGee said you found something?" Gibbs asked as he walked through the autopsy doors.

"You are very much correct, Jethro." Ducky told him happily. "You realize, this reminds me..."

Gibbs looked at him.

"As I was about to explain," Ducky jumped trains. "I was about to put the body in storage when I noticed an odd discolouration at the tips of our Commanders fingers and under his nails."

"That it, Duck?"

"Yes, Jethro. I believe it is." Ducky told him. "I sent the sample to Abby."

Now they were finally getting somewhere.

"What'da ya got, Abs?" Gibbs questioned the Goth over the music, it was finally getting back to normal in the lab.

"Gibbs!" Abby cheered, clapping her hands together as she turned her radio down to background noise

He gave her a half-smile. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"Of course not!" she protested, playing hurt. "You're the only one for me."

Gibbs sighed. "What do you have for me?"

"Business as usual," Abby agreed. "What do you want first, Gibbs? The trace that Ducky found or what Tony brought me?"

"Ducky's trace," Gibbs told her.

"Alright." she spun around to her table and picked up a small specimen jar, she held it out to Gibbs. "This was the trace Ducky found under victims nails."

Gibbs squinted at it.

Abby smiled. "It doesn't look like much, but it was enough. I ran it through Major Mass Spec. and the results that I got were very interesting."

"Are you going to tell me or do I have to guess, Abs?" Gibbs raised a brow.

She giggled. "Of course not, Gibbs!" she put the jar down and showed him a piece of paper with the result. "The trace under Reynolds nails were consistent with the trace of clay that was recovered from the scene."

"What are you saying, Abby?"

She sighed. "I'm telling you, Gibbs, that Reynolds was the one that made the bomb."

Gibbs was quiet. And it wasn't his usual quiet. His lips were in a hard line and his eyes were colder than dry ice. Abigail knew that this was personal to the bossman, but she was a little scared looking at him now.

"There's more." she told him, almost with reluctance.

He looked at her with his piercing gaze when she didn't say anything further. "More what?"

"Well... I went through the stuff that Tony brought back from the base. There was nothing of interest in Commander Reynolds locker because it seems that he cleared it out of all personal things except for the one photo of his daughter." she paused for a moment, bighting her lip in her nervousness. "It was what I found in PO Gibbs'..." she waited for his reaction and she wasn't sure what she was really expecting.

Gibbs took a very deep breath. It was looking more and more like Reynolds was the one that was doing this, but now Abby was saying that she found something in Shelby's locker. His gut churned as he wondered what it could possibly mean. Was his son involved? How could he have not known that. Gibbs realized now that him heading this case was not the ideal thing for it. But it was too late now.

"Go on." he told her, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Right," Abby nodded, taking her own breath. "So, his locker has all the usual stuff that you'd expect to see: extra uniform and clothes, jacket, toiletries... um, he had a few muscle creams and a bottle of Advil. There was also a few photos," she handed the evidence bag to Gibbs.

He took it and looked down at them. There were three in total, two rather old and one more resent. The newer one was of Shelby and Jackson, smiling, Jackson's arm around his shoulder; a photo taken in from of the store with Shelby in his Service uniform. One of the older ones was a school picture, taken of Kelly the same year that she died; and it brought up a lot of things. And the last picture was a family one, of himself, Shelby, Shannon and Kelly. It was one of the last that was taken of them all together- as a family. Things were happy back then, but then he got deployed and the shit hit the fan. Gibbs didn't think he had a picture of Shelby since then and a few days ago he could have lost his son.

He closed his eyes for a second before he handed them back to Abby, who gave him a soft smile.

"What was it that you found?" he finally asked.

"I don't even think that Tony noticed it, and it wasn't until I combed through everything that I found it. His jacket, on the inside of the breast pocket. I found this." she held up another evidence bag and Gibbs looked at the content.

"An envelope, Abs?"

"Not just an envelope, Gibbs." she signed. "An envelope addressed to Shelby."

"And what was in it, Abby?" he questioned, his voice hard; knowing that she was beating around the bush, and hated the reason his gut was telling him.

"It looks like a suicide note, Gibbs." she told him softly.

"Suicide..." he held out his hand and Abby quickly placed the bagged letter in it. Gibbs read through the plastic and wasn't quite sure that how he felt about what he was reading. He looked back up to Abby, a question on his lips, but she already knew what it was.

"Commander Reynolds wrote this letter Gibbs, I compared the writing style with a sample that I was able to find in his Service file. As well as his prints… and no one else's. "

"You did good work, Abby." he told her and as he handed her back the letter, he leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek before he left.

Case closed.

He walked into the bullpen to find both McGee and DiNozzo at their desks'. They both looked up at him.

"Case closed." Gibbs told them. "Reynolds committed suicide."

"You found proof?" Tony asked, sitting up in his chair, his brows raised.

"Reynolds had evidence underneath his finger nails to prove that he built the device, and Abby found a suicide note that he left for Shelby." Gibbs said as he sat down behind his desk. "We finished for the day, hand in your case reports in the morning." he told them.

Tony started to gather his things, but Tim stayed behind his desk.

Gibbs looked at him. "Problem, McGee?" he asked and Tony stopped, looking at the youngest Agent.

"I found something," he said.

"Didn't you hear him, Probie?" Tony said. "Case closed, the guy committed suicide."

"Yeah, but I think I found out why." Tim told them.

"And why, Tim, did this man nearly blow-up my son?" Gibbs questioned harshly.

"Well," Tim said a little nervously. "I went back to his last deployment and traced his payments, it seemed that he was paying an outside psychiatrist for treatment. Depression. It seemed like it had been going on for months. But I found no record of it in his service file."

"O.K., so he was depressed enough to kill himself." Tony recapped. "But why would he kill himself that way? To make it not look like suicide?"

But Tim shook his head. "I went over his life insurance and it states that if Reynolds committed suicide as a result of a mental health issues, his benefactor- his daughter- would still get the money when she turned eighteen. So if he had committed suicide openly, the result would have been the same except for the fact of Shelby not getting hurt."

Gibbs was silent and both Agent looked to their leader. Slowly his coldness started to thaw and turned to a silent burning anger that came off of his still from, his hard expression.

"Boss?" Tony asked in concern.

Gibbs' eyes narrowed. The words in Reynolds' note were starting to make sense. He stood up suddenly, his chair hitting the small cabinet behind him. He went into his drawer and pulled out his things, clipping them to his belt as he came out from around his desk.

"Boss!" Tony repeated.

"Go home," he told them and went to the front elevator.

Tim and Tony watched the doors close on him before looking at each other.

"What do we do?" Tim asked.

Tony sighed. "We go home, Probie."

chapter IX end-