Well Hell!!! How have I managed to miss this gem for so long? I’m sitting in my living room at 4:30am clutching a yogurt, wishing it would give me a hug… damn useless yogurt.

I was barely managing to keep together my precious facade of calm after Gibbs final words, when I read the line “Got it boss, protect Abby” and I lost it, hence the yogurt clutching. I had just started to pull myself together when I read Maddie’s last line, and it went right through me; like a knife to the heart… a really well written, perfectly timed knife… with sawdust, coffee, and love sprinkled all over it (love comes in sprinkles now, they’re wonderful on cupcakes). Your choice of who to have in the scene was also beautiful: his two “children” and the young woman Kelly could have been.

I never thought a story in which L.J. Gibbs died could be so good. His line in the letter about how “if they were reading this and he wasn’t dead they’d wish they were” was, as Abby later said, so Gibbs. And when he told Tony that an order not to die wasn’t going to work on him… I can’t express the grief that came over me at reading his words.

This story has left me shaken and sad, but moreover it’s left me with hope. The belief that Tony and Abby will get through this together; and the knowledge that Gibbs is never wrong, if he says they’ll meet again then they will, in time.

You weren't supposed to make me want to cry tonight! Damn it. I've had one of those days anyway. I finished reading My Sister's Keeper this morning and it brought me to tears. I was the dumb one that tried to finish reading it at my office. I had to keep setting it down and walking away, trying really, really hard not to cry.

Aww, poor Tony, having Gibbs die in his place. That must be completely awful! As much as I love my friends, and I know they love me, I would hope they would never do something like that. It would hurt too much!!

Great job with the voices of Gibbs, Tony and Abby. You managed to get them all right :)

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful little fic :) Even if you did make me wanna cry! :(

*goes and buys a brand new box of tissues to replace the empty one, then hands you several*

It spawned off of the timecapsule box Gibbs' daughter Kelly and her friend Maddie buried. When Gibbs reburied it, I wondered what would happen to it when he was gone. Enter Tony and Abby. I *almost* had Gibbs leave the house to both of them. I had this vision of the two talking about timesharing the house and Abby slapping him saying that they could live together, that they were big kids. But that idea died somewhere along the way.

Sorry for the tears, but glad you liked!

Nicely done! Thanks

Thanks for reviewing!

It was so good i cried :)

All my tissues are gone....

But thanks for the review!

Good one!

Thanks!

A sad and beautiful fic.

@>-,-`-,---

:-)

Thank you for the rose! It's so pretty and Abby would like it because it's black.

Thanks for reviewing!

Beautiful, you made me cry you you!

Tony and Abby and awww! My coherency is gone because of you!

I ran out of tissues to hand out for this fic... sorry... :-(

Glad you loved the Tony and Abby -ness in the fic. I think they would have to be there for each other if/when Gibbs died. Kinda like how they were when Kate died, or how Gibbs and Abby have been with Tony's death brushes.

Good story, even if you did kill off Gibbs. I liked the conversation between Tony and Abby. And that was a nice good-bye letter Gibbs left. It's kinda funny (in a not funny way) how one of Gibbs' last orders to Tony was to finish his boat properly.

Thanks. On killing Gibbs... the reason I wrote the story was I wanted to know what would happen to the box after Gibbs died, therefore, he had to die.

I almost had Gibbs leave the house to both Tony and Abby and let them have a discussion over timesharing.

Glad you liked!