Title: Goodbyes from the Silent Land

Rating: T for language

Disclaimer: Gibbs, McGee, Tony, Kate, Abby, Ducky, Palmer, and Ari are not my characters.

Summary: Kate returns after Twilight to say goodbye. Each member of the team is featured.

Author's note: This was written the summer of 2005, before Kill Ari (either part) aired. At this point, many details about how post-Twilight episodes would proceed were not yet known. Consider this to be a sort've alternate universe then! The opening poem, "Remember," is not mine, and was gorgeously and eloquently written by Christina Rossetti.

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me: you understand

It will be too late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far that you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

... Christina Rossetti

Kate stood in the shadows. Her funeral was scheduled two days hence, and she wanted to make sure that they were all ready to say goodbye to her.

Her first visit. The youngest, the most sensitive.

One might think, with a description like that, that she was saying goodbye to Timothy McGee. But no, she wanted to pay a visit to one of theirs whose last memory of her would be the most corrupted.

She watched, smiling sadly, as Jimmy Palmer put her to bed. She had been there earlier that evening, when he had sadly looked at Ducky, and said, "At the risk of getting myself fired, Dr. Mallard… please, go home. I can take it from here." Ducky had looked at him, indescribable sadness in his eyes, and nodded. He at first seemed about to protest, but then thought better of it. He could admit when Mr. Palmer was right about something. "Thank you Jimmy, my boy." He had then reached out and clasped the young assistant's shoulder briefly, then turned, and slowly walked out of autopsy.

She had never seen Ducky look so old and tired.

Jimmy had watched him leave, then sighed heavily, and sat himself down. She watched as he leaned over, pulling off his glasses and putting his face in his hands, and cried a river over a woman that he had known for only a short time. After a few moments of allowing himself the luxury of falling apart, he pulled himself together, slowly got up, and moved over to the drawer where her body lay.

"I'm so so sorry… I tried, Agent Todd, I really did. I tried to treat you with as much dignity as I could. But there just isn't much dignity to be had in this place." Kate appreciated the gesture more than she could say, but she tried anyway.

"Jimmy?" she said softly. Jimmy looked up and shook his head. "Jimmy?" she repeated, this time with a bit more determination.

Slowly, he turned around, and the colour drained from his face as his jaw dropped open. "Agent Todd?" he stammered.

"It's okay, Jimmy. I'm just here to say goodbye. And thank you. I've been watching you, how you've been treating me. I want you to know how much I've appreciated it."

"Autopsy is the most invasive thing we can do. Thank God we didn't have to do a full post-mortem. Dr. Mallard wouldn't have been able to handle that." Kate reached out and placed her hand on his face, and he felt something akin to a wispy feather, gently brushing across his skin. It gave him chills and warmed his heart, all at the same time.

"I know we didn't know each other very well, Jimmy. But I'll miss you too. I'm sorry I didn't make a better effort to get to know you better. Ducky is like an Uncle to me, you know. I guess that would have made us like cousins, huh?" she said, grinning at him. Jimmy smiled weakly.

"Keep doing what you're doing. You have a heart full of compassion. You know how to treat a lady when she's found herself in the unfortunate position to be on one of these tables." Jimmy looked at her, and sighed. "Death doesn't nullify a person's right to be treated with respect. And when that person is someone we knew and cared about…" Kate smiled and nodded. "I understand. Take care of yourself, Jimmy. And would you do me a favour?" Jimmy cocked his head at her curiously. "Of course, Agent Todd." Kate smiled, satisfied. "Would you take care of Ducky for me?"

"Consider it done," Jimmy said, nodding. "But you realize, I'm gonna have to be really really sneaky about it." Kate laughed, then said, "Goodbye Jimmy. Stay safe," as she slowly started to fade away.