The ICU was abuzz with monitors, alarms, and cries. Patients crying in pain, doctors and nurses barking orders and stats, loved ones crying from grief or fear. From within his ex-wife's hospital room Jimmy was heavily sobbing. Breena remained silent and motionless. The buzzes and beeps of her machines were the only proof of life. The news was not good severe Traumatic Brain Injury, shattered right leg, severed spinal chord. If she lived it would be a long road and she would never be who she had been. If Breena made it through the critical period her right leg would be amputated. As of her last check she was far too critical to go back into the Operating Room. She'd already suffered two strokes and multiple seizures. Ed was a mess and Tori was too small for the ICU. It was up to Jimmy to keep vigil by his ex-wife's bed. Breena and him were no longer married and they were not on the best terms as of late, but he did not want her to die. No matter his feelings of her sweet little Victoria needed her mother.

"Breena I know that you are hurting and I know that the road is going to be long but you have to recover. We have our problems but Tori needs you. Hell I need you. I still love you. Even if it is not the romantic love. It is the love of having a child in common and years together. Please Breena I so desperately need you." Jimmy begged.

During the night Breena suffered a third stroke and was rushed off to the OR to repair swelling. She crashed twice on the operating table. Finally the doctors decided that it was not worth the risk, closed her up and sent her back to her room. She promptly suffered a fourth stroke and crashed a third time. She aspirated and by morning she had developed aspiration pneumonia. She had a severe infection in her leg but was far too weak for surgery. She was hanging on by a thread and the odds were in no way in her favor.

By the next afternoon Ed had composed himself enough to spend time with his daughter. Breena was in terrible shape and the doctors advised her loved ones to say their goodbyes. While Ed was saying his goodbye. Jimmy returned home to collect Victoria. He hated that at three years old she would endure the goodbye ritual twice.

"The thing is Tori. Well you probably don't remember but you had an older brother. He got sick before you were born. He was sick for years and he never had time to get better. He finally died last year. He was just too sick. He was sicker than you have ever been, sicker than you ever will be. At least I hope so. After he died your mom got sick. In her head and I did too. We wanted to stay a family for you but we were too sad. Well your mom just couldn't get better. Yesterday she was in an accident because she was so sad and scared. Now she is really sick, like Eddie and we have to say goodbye." Jimmy explained, fearing that he was rambling.

Ed watched Victoria while Jimmy said his goodbye. His heart was broken knowing that this may be their final moments together. Jimmy had not even called Ducky to inform him of the circumstances. Nobody from NCIS knew where he was. Part of him wanted them there but the other part could not deal with their presence. He could not deal with Abby's big reactions. He could not deal with Gibbs' stoic compassion, He could not deal with McGee's nervousness or Bishop's stress eating. He could not deal with Tony's over concern or Ducky's rambles. He could not deal with anything. He was not ready to say this goodbye, but he had no choice.

"God Breena, I do not want to be here. I do not want to be saying goodbye to you. I never wanted it to end like this. You deserved so much more time. You deserved to find happiness. God I am going to miss you. I will do my best to care for our girl." Jimmy promised.

Forty-eight hours in and somehow Breena was still hanging on. In that time she had crashed a fourth time, suffered two more strokes, and endured dozens of seizures. She had been running a high fever for over twelve hours and the swelling on her brain could not be repaired. The brain damage was going to be severe and irreversible. She would require round the clock care for the rest of her life.

"What did they say, this time?" Ed asked Jimmy.

"She still has brain activity but it is minimal. She loses anymore and she will be classified as legally brain dead." Jimmy explained.

"If that happens. What do you want to do?" Ed asked.

"If she is brain dead we will take her off of life support and send her back to Eddie. If she does not go on her own first." Jimmy explained.

"Can't they try anything? Isn't there any hope?" Ed questioned.

"No" Jimmy croaked.

At two thirty in the morning on her third day in the hospital, Breena Palmer died peacefully in her sleep. The suffering had finally ended. Over the course of sixty hours she had suffered ten strokes four of which were massive, she crashed five times, and suffered over a hundred seizures. Before Jimmy could convince Ed that turning off life-support was in Breena's best interest. It was a devastating blow but it also meant that Breena was finally free. She was out of the excruciating physical pain she had suffered in the past two days and the excruciating emotional pain she had suffered in the past year. She was finally reunited with her son.

With a heavy heart Jimmy walked out of the hospital. He wondered how he would break it to Tori that her mother was gone. He wondered how he would pick up after another tragedy. He desperately wished that things were different but he was relieved to know that Breena was finally free.

"You are finally with Eddie again. I will take care Tori. Til we meet again." Jimmy promised.

A/N: It was not easy to kill Breena but I didn't know how else to write her character. New and final chapter will be up soon. Thanks for reading and please review.