COULD IT BE?
By
Ashleigh Anpilova
Jethro is in the shower and thinking about Ducky's New Year's Resolution.
A Gibbs-centric gen story.
Written: March 2009. Word count: 300.
Jethro barely noticed the cascade of water falling over his body.
Instead his mind returned to Ducky's 'revelation' from the night before.
It wasn't just that Ducky was returning to the UK or even his cut off 'at least not . . .' that was at the forefront of his mind. That position was occupied by the fact Ducky had made such a decision without telling him.
Why would Ducky do that? Weren't they close, intimate friends? Didn't they share things?
The water continued to fall, Jethro automatically soaped and washed himself, and his mind went into darker places.
Did they share things?
Hadn't many things arisen over the last few years proving they didn't? That they hadn't for some time? Could they have fallen out of their close intimacy?
"Damn it," Jethro cursed, as the soap slipped onto the floor. But the curse wasn't due to the soap, but because of his answer to the question: they had.
Somehow, somewhere down the line, they'd drifted apart. Not far apart by most standards. But by theirs, they'd certainly fallen out of intimacy.
He tried to remember when it'd started. After Afghanistan? Columbia? No, it went back further.
Suddenly he realized it went back to his hiatus. But they'd made up, hadn't they? Had they? He'd still refused to acknowledge knowing Ducky for decades. Maybe Ducky'd expected once Shannon and Kelly were out in the open they could stop 'pretending'.
Could it be it went back as far as that?
Suddenly Jethro realized it didn't matter how far it went back. What mattered was patching things up. What mattered was getting their intimacy back.
Maybe he should - but Ducky wouldn't want that.
However, as he turned off the shower and began to dry himself, Jethro decided he could lose nothing by making the suggestion.
LINKS TO THE ENTIRE VACATION SERIES
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