"How do you get the boat out of your basement? What is your favourite memory of Shannon and Kelly?" veryspxcialagentdinozzo with much love. <3
Everyone's so hyped up about the damn boat. A small part of him even wants to laugh about it, a short bark of laughter that comes from his own personal amusement [ if not mildly sadistic. ] He's got a right to keep his secrets ---- only, he's also got a past, and that's got secrets too, so where's that leave him? In a dimly-lit basement, coated in sawdust, and with a bottle of bourbon. On most days.
So, he doesn't wanna answer that first question.
Instead, he smiles, the ghost of one [ like the ghosts that fill that same damn basement ] and turns his gaze out into the distance.
Crystal clear, like it happened yesterday, memories of his first wife and daughter flash before his eyes -- it starts with the day his little girl was born, and sure as hell doesn't stop there. He remembers first words and first steps and messy morning breakfasts [ Kelly sure did love her food-fights. ] He remembers late night movies on the living room sofa, telling Kelly to cover her eyes because Mommy and Daddy were gonna do some of that scary kissing. He remembers camping trips, and riding horses down the beach.
He remembers building a bird house, how he and Kelly [ who painted it herself ] surprised Shannon with it on Mother's Day. He remembers hugging both his girls, real close and real tight, just like he remembers how much it hurt to let 'em go.
[ Don't go, Daddy, please don't go. ]
”My favorite?“ He asks, and if his throat's tight, if he's gotta swallow back a couple things, Jethro won't tell a soul. ”Everything -- every last one.“
