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Her boss visited. Well the boss of her boss, the Director himself. He only stayed a few minutes but promised her that she would always have a place at the agency. He told her to concentrate on getting well and he would handle everything else. She didn't speak to him but acknowledged him with a nod.
She and her confidant talked about the future and where she saw herself. She wanted to chase the monsters in the dark. Chase them so they couldn't hurt anyone else. But she needed to find her own pieces first. Put herself back together. And she had to do it on her own.
Her confidant helped her find a place to go to heal. Away from here. Away from Him. So far away.
It had always been her choice to be His. But loving Him was never part of that choice, it was something bigger than both of them. Her heart would always be His. And it was the one part of her million shattered pieces that she wouldn't bring with her to Seattle.
The night before she left she sat with a pen in hand trying to find the words to tell Him why she was leaving. But none would come. She finally settled on two and left the note for Him with her confidant.
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Evie said her goodbyes to Danny and caught a cab back to her hotel. She decided as she sunk up to her ears into a hot tub that she was very glad the day was over, it just couldn't have gotten any worse.
When she finally crawled into bed, with most of the lights on because she still couldn't bear to be alone in the dark, she thought about the man she had hurt so badly so long ago and cried. Cried for what they had. Cried for what they could have had. Cried for obviously causing Him so much pain earlier. And cried because she still ached to have Him hold her.
When sleep finally took her off to dreamland she found herself on a sailboat with Him holding her in the warm sun as the waves gently rocked them. And in her sleep, Evie smiled.
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They ate their pasta in relative silence. Tony could see Gibbs trying to put together the rest of the story. He looked tired to Tony's trained eye, bone tired. Tony couldn't even begin to imagine the weight of all this that Gibbs had carried for so many years. Tony thought about Abby and how he would feel if any of this had happened to her, the thought made his stomach flip and he dropped his fork with a clunk.
"She and her little partner in crime, Matthew found this private clinic out in Seattle that specialized in treating people with alternative lifestyles. He made the arrangements to have her treated there. The little weasel even got her a first-class plane ticket courtesy of her Director. I had gone home to shower and catch a few hours sleep and when I got back her room was empty. Just empty, Tony. I didn't know what to think." Gibbs stood and brought His plate to the sink and went through the motions of rinsing it on auto-pilot.
"They didn't talk to You about it?" Tony asked in disbelief.
"No. Nobody said a word. They paged Matthew for me and when he got there he explained where she was and that she was safe. And he gave me this damn note that she left…" His voice trailed off as He again got lost in His memories. He stood there for a long moment staring out the window over the sink, gripping the sink with white knuckles.
Tony stood and closed the distance between them to stand beside Him at the sink. He placed a loving hand on His back and gently rubbed and quietly asked, "What did the note say?"
He let himself be comforted by Tony, His body so hungry for something, anything that would ease the pain that coursing through Him.
He turned to face Tony and with fresh tears rimming his eyes he whispered, "All it said was ‘I'm sorry.' That was all she left me, Tony."
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Tbc…feedback adored :)
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