Demons of the past

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: Have you ever wondered why Gibbs is never called Leroy? On a boring day, some people start to wonder about it, but they will get more than they were ready to find...

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9- Final battle

Ducky was already up and made breakfast when he walked into the kitchen. "Good morning, Jethro. I took the freedom to prepare some breakfast. You should wake up Caitlin, the eggs will be done in just a few minutes." The doctor said and continued to stir in a large pan.

Gibbs smiled and walked into the livingroom. "Kate? It´s time to get up." He said and put his hand onto her shoulder. She stirred and opened her eyes after a moment. She seemed a bit startled when she found herself on the couch.

"What the...oh no...did I fall asleep again?" She asked as she sat up and grimaced when he nodded. "I´m sorry...I´m bothering you again."

"You´re not bothering me at all, Kate. If you want to get refreshed, you better hurry. Ducky made breakfast and it´s almost done." He told her and walked back towards the kitchen, leaving her puzzled.

"When did Ducky come over? Are you sure there wasn´t anything in that wine? I think I got a major blank here." She replied and disappeared into the bathroom. A few minutes later she had fixed her hair and walked into the kitchen where the two men were sitting at the table already. "Hi, Ducky." She greeted the medical examiner, who smiled back at her.

"Good morning, Caitlin. I did not have the chance to talk to you last night as you were asleep when I arrived." He said and put some eggs onto his fork. They talked about this and that during breakfast before getting ready to go to work.

Kate drove with Gibbs again. She wasn´t really sure if she should bring the topic on what happened the day before and just didn´t say anything. "Are you mad at me for something?" He suddenly asked and looked at her while they were waiting for the light to change to green.

"Me? No. What makes you think that?" She asked and returned the look.

"You´re not saying anything. I...uhm...well, thank you for being there last night. I don´t know what I would have done if I had been alone. Ducky is always coming over on that specific day because he is worried. He keeps telling me that one day I´ll get myself killed somehow." He said and tried to make it sound like a joke, but both knew it wasn´t.

"You´re my friend. If you need someone to talk to, just let me know, but you shouldn´t go into hiding from all of us. Tony, Abby and even McGee are your friends as well, you just have to give them a chance." She told him and he nodded. "If you feel ready, you should tell them before they come to any conclusions that will get them into trouble. Abby tried hacking into the computer network of the pentagon a couple of days ago, just to find out more."

He raised an eyebrow. "She´ll get into major trouble if they catch her doing that. I will tell them when I´m ready." Again, it sounded honest and not like something he just made up to get her off his back.

Kate thought for a moment, pondering whether she should tell him about the little demon of her past. "I know that´s not easy." She finally said and he looked at her with a puzzled expression. "That´s a different story, not today, okay?" She got out when he parked the car in the garage and headed into the office.

Shortly before noon, Gibbs sighed. He knew he had to face this and he had put it off from one hour to the next one, but he felt that he had to do it. "Dinozzo, Kate, McGee, meet me in the morgue. Kate, you get Abby." He said and strode into the elevator, leaving two of his three agents puzzled.

"Wow...what did we do wrong?" Tony asked as he got up from his desk.

"Nothing, Tony. I think this is about something else." Kate said as she got into the elevator.

"How do you know?" Tony looked at her, but she didn´t answer. Abby was busy on some analysis when Kate called her to come and soon they had all gathered in the morgue. The plasma on the wall showed a picture of three people.

Kate knew this picture and bit her lip when she realized what was going to happen next. She stood next to Tony, who seemed oblivious of what was going to happen. Gibbs leaned against an autopsy table, obviously nervous and maybe even a bit scared. His eyes didn´t give it away, but Kate could take and educated guess about it, which would be accurate enough.

When all looked at him, he took a deep breath and turned towards the picture. "I guess you´re wondering about that picture up there. Red-head there is Flora, my first wife. She was a wonderful woman, amazing she took me back then." He said, his voice sounding soft. Tony looked at Kate, but she just motioned him to listen. From the way he talked, she knew that Gibbs wasn´t actually talking to them, but to himself or rather to his demons. "That was 12 years ago. The little chap there was our boy and almost my namesake as well. It was his 5th birthday that day. Leroy Jonas was pretty much the kid I have never been. Curious, bright, always a smile on his lips."

Kate felt tears in her eyes again as she listened to him. Even without seeing his face, she knew that he was crying now as well, but didn´t want them to see it. He had to do this. She had done something like this before and knew how hard it could be to talk about it.

"We went to the Air Show in Norfolk a few days later. Leroy got lost when we were heading to the exhibition. It was the last time we saw him alive." His voice broke, but this was far from being over, so he pulled himself together. It was obvious now how much this hurt him, but none of them moved. "The man he turned to for help was a marine. I had told him that he could trust marines as they were good man. The man he turned to was an exception as it turned out. He had already killed two children and Leroy was his third victim. They found him two weeks later in that little forest just north of the base."

It was so silent one could have heard a pin dropping. Kate had her hand over her mouth to keep herself from crying. Tony had his arm around her, but she could see that he too was wrestling with his emotions. Abby leaned onto Ducky´s shoulder, crying softly, while McGee just stood there as if lightning had struck him. Gibbs turned around, looking at them for a moment before he left the morgue. The look in his eyes still didn´t give away what was going on inside him, but the wet streaks on his face told more than just a story.Nobody spoke or moved for at least two full minutes.

"I had no idea." Tony finally said, his voice calm, but shocked.

Kate looked at him. "I did." She said and Ducky nodded as well. She told them how she had found out, but left out that she stayed at his house. "I´m not sure if I want to go investigate someone´s name ever again. Not if there´s something like this behind it."

Abby had calmed down and just nodded. "I got to get my analysis done. See you later." She simply said and walked out of the morgue. McGee muttered something about helping her and left as well.

Tony looked at Ducky and Kate. "I guess that explains a lot then. He can be a bastard, but somehow I feel sorry for him." He said, which was so unlike Tony that both looked at him in surprise. Without another word, he walked out of the morgue.

"You think he´ll be okay?" Kate asked Mallard after a moment. She had regained her composture, but this whole thing still weighed heavy on her shoulders somehow. It had torn open old wounds, which she had almost forgotten already.

"Jethro has faced his demons and I believe he has won that final battle. Now it is not just him carrying that burden. All of us can take a share of it and make it easier on him." Ducky said and smiled. No matter what first name he would go by, he was Gibbs and it would always stay that way.

END

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I hope you liked it -as for the hint on Kate´s personal demons, I´m going to write that story soon.