50 Sentences Expanded
19. Soul – Laying underneath his boat, Gibbs could swear he felt a gentle hand glide across his cheek.
Sometimes, he got lonely.
Not the kind of lonely where you can go to a bar, drink yourself sick, and then pass out on the cab ride home kind of lonely. The kind where you know the alcohol won't help. The kind where there is no one to stop the memories from pouring in; nothing to stop the endless reel of emotions that flood every waking thought.
Bourbon helped.
But some nights, after a particularly harrowing case, when the line between life and death stretched so very thin, nothing was soothing.
Those kinds of nights seemed to happen more and more often.
The boat helped. There was something in the repetitive motions involved in the construction that dulled the senses, allowed a person to drift into oblivion where there was no trouble, or pain to speak of.
This was his third boat, and it was almost finished. He supposed that he should find a comfort in the completion, but in fact it merely left him feeling even more empty inside.
The daunting task of creating another boat, built by hand from scratch, did not help the loss he felt. Each vessel symbolized a piece of him that he was losing by giving it away. The first boat he had been proud to sell to a friend. The second he had set fire to and toasted the finalization of his divorce. But this boat had no special meaning attached other than the one he assigned to it. And by painting her name on the side, he had officially made the boat a physical representation of his loss, his mortality, his loneliness.
Tonight was yet another night where the bourbon had gone sour after the first glass. The taste no longer held appeal. So he lay down underneath the nearly finished boat, waiting for the darkness to set in.
But the boat, being the symbol it was, could not leave him alone with his loneliness. Laying underneath his boat, Gibbs could swear he felt a gentle hand glide across his cheek.
And for a moment, the loneliness lifted.
A/N: This expansion was requested by Silver Ardor Dragon.
So many apologies for my very long absence. For those who want a detailed explanation as to why I was gone so long, please see my profile. If you're just here to read, please, continue. And thank you!
I have another expansion written and I'll probably post in in a few days. So the update is coming.
I hope you enjoyed. I found this one a little difficult to write. I struggled a bit because how I started the story didn't fit with the exact sentence I had used. I didn't want to change the original sentence so I had to change the story.
Please let me know what you think! And if there is a sentence you would like to see expanded, please let me know. If you have already requested one that has not yet been completed, never fear, it's on the way.
Thanks!
sl
Disclaimer: NCIS is the property of Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill.