Journey Series: Ellick

Some Authors Regret Their Work. So They Burn It.

Gibbs was down in his basement. Drinking bourbon. Building a boat. Just about the only two things that hadn't changed over the past eighteen years. He saw faces too. Kate, Tony, Ziva, McGee. Ducky, Palmer, Jenny, Leon. Shannon and Kelly. Jack, Bishop, Torres. They swirled and spiraled in his field of vision.

He put down his tools and opened the box. The box was filled with things that had been part of his constants.

#1. Never let suspects sit together. ALSO: Never screw over your partner

#2. Always wear gloves at a crime scene.

#3. Never believe what you are told. Double-check. ALSO: Never be unreachable

#4. Best way to keep a secret. Keep it to yourself. Second best, tell one other person-- if you must. There is no third best.

#5. You don't waste good.

#6. Never say you're sorry.

#7. Always be specific when you lie.

#8. Never take anything for granted.

#9. Always carry a knife.

#10. Never get personally involved in a case (86'd on the Morgan Burke case)

#11. When the job is done, walk away.

#12. Never date a coworker.

#13. Never involve lawyers.

#14. Bend the line, don't break it.

#15. Always work as a team.

#16. If someone thinks he has the upper hand, break it.

#18. It's better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.

#20. Always look under.

#22. Never, ever bother Gibbs in interrogation.

#23. Never mess with a marine's coffee, if you want to live.

#27. Two ways to follow someone. First way, they never notice you. Second way, they only notice you.

#28. When you need help, ask.

#35. Always watch the watchers.

#36. If it feels like you are being played, you probably are.

#38. Your case, your lead.

#39. There is no such thing as coincidence.

#40. If it seems like someone's out to get you, they are.

#42. Never accept an apology from someone who just sucker-punched you.

#44. First things first, hide the women and children.

#45. Left a mess I gotta clean up.

#51. Sometimes you're wrong.

#62. Always give people space when they get off an elevator.

#69. Never trust a woman who doesn't trust her man.

#91. When you decide to walk away, don't look back.

For years they had kept him grounded. Many of them were logical. Many were appropriate. Each one had its place. Keeping Rule 12 in place had been for everyone's best interest at one point in time. But, #51, sometimes you're wrong. He acknowledged that Rule 12 had caused more harm than good in the long run. What he had meant to protect him, and protect the people he oversaw and cared for, had nearly torn them apart. Tony and Ziva. And really, they were family now. All of them. So, they wouldn't have broken Rule 12 anyway.

But, to make it tangibly official, he took a small glass bottle and put Rule 12 into it. He lit a match, dropped it inside, and watched as the small flame consumed the paper and reduced it to ashes. He corked the bottle and set it aside.

It would wait there until Torres was ready.