SOMEWHAT FITTING
By
Ashleigh Anpilova
A sequel to, set thirty years after, Abby's Surprise.
Abby and Tim are at the wedding of their twin boys.
An established relationship story.
Written: October 2007. Word count: 670.
As she stood with Tim watching her twin sons waiting for their life-partners to arrive, Abby thought how fitting it was that one of them, Thomas Jethro was marrying a girl, whereas the other, Benjamin Donald, was to marry young man.
After all with Gibbs and Ducky as the twins godfathers and honorary grandparents, it seemed right that one of her sons should be gay. It seemed natural, it was as though nature herself had reached out and touched their family.
She shook her head, tugged herself out of her reverie and once again looked at Thomas and Benjamin. She was so proud of both of her boys; as she knew was Tim; as she knew Gibbs and Ducky had been. Thomas had followed Ducky into medicine, albeit it was the living that he cut into; whereas following an injury that had ended his career in the Marines, Benjamin had chosen to go into law, he was already a junior partner in the same law firm as Charlie Patterson.
Although both her dear Gibbs and Ducky had been dead for several years, she still missed them; every day she missed them. She wished they could have lived long enough to see 'their' boys happily married. But nature had intervened again; just not in the right way.
A serious bout of influenza had taken Ducky from them, and after that Gibbs had just seemed to give up. Not even Abby herself had been able to comfort him, had been able to keep him with them, had been able to save him. A few months after they'd buried Ducky, once again the McGees had stood, all four of them shedding tears, along with other old friends and family past and present, around the grave, watching as Gibbs rejoined Ducky.
She swallowed hard. She wouldn't cry, at least not because of her great loss. Today was for being happy; today, if tears came, they should be tears of happiness. Gibbs and Ducky wouldn't want her to grieve for them; they'd want her to remember them with joy, with happiness. They'd want –
Something touched her shoulder and she turned quickly, but Tim still had his hands in front of him; besides the touch hadn't been the touch of her beloved husband.
As she mentally shook herself, Tim jumped slightly and turned towards her. He looked startled. "Abby?" he said softly. "Did you just touch me?" His tone answered his own question; like Abby, he too would know the touch of his life-partner from that of anyone else.
Abby shook her head. "No, Tim," she whispered.
"Then who . . . ?" Tim stopped speaking, as the music pre-empting the arrival of Sarah and Sebastian began to play.
Abby didn't answer him. But she knew. This time she didn't stop the tears from welling up in her eyes; this time they were of happiness.
As the minister, the same one who over thirty years ago had joined first Gibbs and Ducky and then Tim and Abby together, joined Thomas and Sarah, and Benjamin and Sebastian, Tim leaned closer to her and whispered, "Gibbs and Ducky would have been so happy today."
Abby paused for a moment and waited for the triumphant music to begin before turning to face Tim. Reaching into his jacket pocket to pull out his handkerchief, she wiped her eyes and said, "Oh, they were, Tim. They were."
The smile that lit up her husband's face made him look like the young man she'd fallen passionately in love with all those decades ago. As with Gibbs and Ducky her and Tim's love had lasted a lifetime, and with luck, her sons' relationships would last as long too.
She firmly believed they would. After all they were products of both nature and nurture; they had known nothing other than long-lasting, stable relationships by those who loved them most. They would love forever; of that she had no doubt. No doubt at all.
She took Tim's hand and both smiling they followed their sons and their partners.
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