July Unwritten Fic Meme - Call for prompts
Prompts Closed (Still some available on Dreamwidth.)
Okay, so I've been in a bit of a slump. I've been hip deep in original work (yay rent!) but lately it's been like pulling teeth to get any words out. taylorgibbs talked me into (okay, I was thinking about it after reading her latest, but she urged me to go ahead) trying this as a way to prime the pump. So ( Read more... )
Okay, so I've been in a bit of a slump. I've been hip deep in original work (yay rent!) but lately it's been like pulling teeth to get any words out. taylorgibbs talked me into (okay, I was thinking about it after reading her latest, but she urged me to go ahead) trying this as a way to prime the pump. So ( Read more... )
"Surprised?" O'Neill smiled and Gibbs watched him out of the corner of his eye. There was a wealth of meaning in his expression; grief and bitterness, but also acceptance and something that might have been joy.
"Yes," Gibbs hesitated, "I've been there Colonel, so yeah, I'm a little surprised."
"Gunny you've been some of the places I've been, but you haven't been everywhere I've been," with that cryptic comment, O'Neill started to reel in his line and nodded to the ice chest. "Have a beer. I was planning on eating later, but if you're hungry, go make yourself a sandwich."
"I'm good," Gibbs told him, hoping he'd get more from his friend now that he'd started talking. O'Neill was the kind who could talk for hours without ever actually saying anything worth hearing. But you had to listen closely because he'd drop the odd hint in when you least expected it.
"Good. Takes a while for full dark, but better to not ruin your night vision by going inside now," the Colonel gestured at the telescope as he spoke.
"Didn't know you were into that sort of thing, Colonel," Gibbs tossed his empty into the bucket with the others and got two more beers out, handing one to his friend.
"It's a new hobby, Gunny." O'Neill fell silent, sipping his beer, staring into the deepening blue of the evening sky.
Gibbs was struggling to get a handle on what was going on. He knew this man, and he knew what he'd lost, knew the empty aching hole it left in a man's soul.
"The only hobby I had," Gibbs' voice caught, he had never told a soul what he'd done and he never planned to, "was emptying as many bottles as I could, as fast as I could." Gibbs sipped his beer and tried to blank those weeks, months, years, today that his grief still stole his breath if he let it.
"Yeah, Gunny." O'Neill's voice came to him from the shadows next to him. "A couple of weeks ago, I had the same one. That and seeing how long I could hold my weapon without swallowing it."
"What changed?" Gibbs took the chance that he'd actually answer him. Silence stretched between them, only the growing darkness filling the empty spaces, until O'Neill laid his hand on Gibbs' shoulder, warming him against the cooling temperature, then finally spoke.
"I learned, Gunny, that I wasn't in a hurry to die after all." With that, the Colonel got up and picked up his chair and his radio. Gibbs grabbed his own chair and the ice chest then followed his friend to the telescope.
Whatever the Colonel had been through, it seemed to have given him back something Gibbs was still searching for. Maybe he'd find it one day, too.
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