Title: Requiem for a friend
Rating: FR18
Parings: none
Characters: McGee, Gibbs, the team.
Genres: Character Study, Drama,
Warnings: Death of original character/huge drama queen
Summary: A death of a marine unveils a huge secret a member of team would have preferred to keep hidden from curious eyes. Now Gibbs has to man up and be up to the task of helping to collect the pieces left behind the storm. Set in season 2, with our darling Agent Todd in the team.

Written for the SESA 2012 for ChannelD (Pam)

A/N: NFA community forums lost a dear friend and admin this year. Pam was a constant figure in the site and a good chap. I truly appreciated her wit and her stories and picking her up as a SESA 2012 was as a delightful pleasure which soon became a challenge when she passed away.

Here is ChannelD's request. I've adapted it, but … well. I hope she likes it, wherever she is.

Name: channeld (Pam)
Spoilers or Season Setting: See the prompt notes.
Gen, Het, Slash, Mixed: Prefer gen; if need be I'll take het
Pairings: (If you picked het, slash or mixed, what are your favorite pairings?) McAbby
Must Haves: Tim! Anyone else is secondary but welcome.
Don't Wants: No OC lovers.
Request or Prompt: (If any, or multiple if you choose) I'd like to see the Tim of old, when he was still an unsure rookie. Yes, a story set somewhere in seasons 1-3. Prompt: Tim had some failures in his early seasons on the show. Write me a story of an action he took as an agent at the time that…unlike in Probie or Witness…turned out right. It might have been a life he saved, a case he cracked, or an intricate problem he solved…even if it turns out he didn't get much (if any) recognition for it. He's not very sure of himself at this time, and wrapping it up isn't easy. How does he handle it? You can have his team find out, or have Tim keep it to himself. In any event, it's a chance for him to grow…if he takes the right steps.
A holiday (Christmas, New Year's, or Thanksgiving) setting would be nice, but is not required.
Rating Cap: (If any – please indicate if you are under 18!) FR18 at the most

Chapter 1: Learning how to bend

I once heard a story. I don't remember when or who told me it, but it struck a chord and it was kept forever hidden in the dark corners of my mind, appearing in moments of weakness and doubt.

There was a tree in middle of the woods which had absolutely no leaves beneath it. Despite the wind, the weather, the autumn that colored the woods in copper, yellow and red tones, that specific tree for some strange reason did not accumulate leaves like its peers, standing proud and with its bare trunk stretching towards the sky and with its roots firmly planted in the ground.

A wise man once walked through the woods and noticed the bizarre situation, so he sat down a couple of feet away and observed it in order to figure out the reason why that specific tree was the only one without decaying leaves at its feet.

Finally the wind came, strong and bold, wiping the trees of its leaves and making a whirlwind between the trunks. The wise man was surprised to notice that that specific tree did not break under the pressure like its peers, its trunk crackling and splintering, its branches flying away under the strength of nature.

That specific tree bended like a string, its branches nearly touching the ground, its few leaves fanning the earth and brushing away the dead twigs and leaves until none was left at is feet.

Bending, not breaking. That's the secret.

Once the ravishing winds were over, it would spring back to its original position, like it never happened.

So the wise man smiled and understood the wisdom nature was trying to teach him. It is better to bend and be malleable to disagreeable times in our lives. It's so easy to break and crack under the pressure of our pain and despair of losses that strike us unexpectedly, suddenly and inevitably.

Bending is better. But no one has ever told me how difficult it would be.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Cold.

Cold was all around him and yet he could barely felt it.

Snowflakes floated and swirled in the wind surrounding the lonely figure standing in the cemetery, his head down, chin supported on his chest, shoulders hunched as if he was trying to hide inside of himself, effectively disguising his real size from the world to see.

No words escape his lips as his eyes stared at the simple white washed stone slab which marked the final resting place of a poor soul stolen in the brink of its life. Words had been said, curses and cries of pain and despair uttered a long time ago, but that particular well had emptied several years back.

In its place, only a void which would never be filled again, an eternal companion of that lonely man standing by himself in the cemetery. The gray skies did not help to improve his mood, as if the low hanging stratocumulus stratiformis were there just to increase the feeling of despair and loneliness which permeated his very being.

Yet he stood, unwilling to leave and let more years go by unchecked. The years had been kind to him. He had grown up, filled out, found a job, had friends and colleagues who cared for him and for whom he also cared.

Yet time hadn't been able to heal the soaring pain in his chest, hidden from the eyes of his family, friends and colleagues.

For them, he had moved on, the past long forgotten where it should be.

Yet he knew that he was just one step away from the brink of the abyss. Just one step.

And the final push had finally happened.