Fic: "We're Not the X-Men: Hiatus"
Title: No, We're Not the X-Men: Hiatus
Author: skellig8
Fandom: NCIS
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Gibbs/DiNozzo (sorta), past Gibbs/Shannon
Warnings: none, rating only for slash reference
A/N: Finally got this done! :D It was specifically requested...
Disclaimer: I own naught but the plot.
All he was aware of was a cacophony of sound in his head. Shouts and whispers over the top of his brain. People would come closer and it became more intense. He usually felt heavier afterwards, sinking down back towards the blackness. He didn't want to think anymore. He was just so tired.
~*~
Retrograde amnesia is what they called it, the reason he was feeling the loss of Shannon and Kelly so keenly. He didn't want to believe it, but there was an empty house. It was almost surreal, he must have lived in here for some time without them. There was also the influence of another person, but try as he might, he couldn't get a read on anything. He might just be imagining it, it might explain the boat in his basement.
~*~
He regarded the man in front of him, he was most likely an illusion since he couldn't sense a thing about him. This man called him Jethro, seemed so familiar being in his personal space. No one else here could come that close. He couldn't be real, just couldn't. Even if he wanted him to be.
"You're not real," he told the illusion and didn't look back at the hurt face. You couldn't hurt figments of your own imagination.
~*~
"You'll do," he put his badge and gun into the illusion's hands, since it had nothing better to do than follow him around. He was too tired and grieving to give them to anyone else. As long as he put these people into responsible hands, one that would obviously be part of him. He just didn't care anymore.
"Jethro, wait! Please!" the man spoke to him. "At least say goodbye before you let me go."
They moved into the elevator together, the man hit the emergency stop. "Please," the man implored.
"Please don't leave me," Tony (apparently that was his name) asked quietly.
"I have to leave. I can't think anyore."
Tony eyed him sadly, seemingly finding the information in his face, reading him so well as he did other people. "Okay."
Tony seemed resigned. "At least let me do something for you." He reached up and cupped his face gently, with hands that obviously held great power. And the noise was gone from the back of his mind, all of it was gone. The blessed silence was a relief. Tony removed his hands, but the silence remained.
"What did you do?" he asked, opening his eyes to see Tony's scrunched in pain.
"There's the silence you've been looking for, so you can think all you want."
"But you took it away!"
"Only for a little while," Tony smiled at him. "Come get it back when you're ready."
Tony reached out and resumed the elevator's decent. Tony turned to look back at him, with eyes that shone bright with tears. Why was he so sad?
"You should go," Tony said quietly when they reached the garage.
He paused on the elevator's threshold. "Why would you do this for me?"
"Because, you're Gibbs."
"I don't understand, don't you have someone to do this for you?"
"Not anymore," Tony smiled sadly. "Goodbye, Leroy Jethro Gibbs."