Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, if I did next week's episode would end that damn cliffhanger!

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen the season 8 finale 'Pyramid' then read no further!

oOo

The casket was light, durable, strong, elaborate and simple all at once. It was the most effort he had put into anything since Kelly and Shannon's deaths.

The letter had been a goodbye and a promise and an apology...

And this casket was his way of thanking a friend he had treasured for years. For guiding him to become the agent he was today. To helping him back onto steady feet in Mexico.

For coming when he was called, for going outside the call of duty.

Gibbs built boats. Great beasts to drift with the currents and ride the waves. Pieces of architecture that took people beyond the horizon and into that fabled sunset. Boats that would rest in the dark folds of the ocean while you laid down staring at the endless stars, putting you in a world that was something you had to see to believe.

Gibbs used boats to symbolize how he built up a relationship, made it strong, stable, yet somehow it always crumbled into nothingness; so he burned them.

But his relationship with Mike Franks hadn't crumbled, it had been strong to the very last moment of his life.

So this boat, this beautiful, elegant, strong carrying casket was not to be burnt. Like boats, this casket was carrying Mike to his final destination. Hopefully, into a place where the liquor was strong and the women were beautiful. To the place where his own son was waiting, to the place he'd wait for Gibbs.

This casket, this boat that he had carved, measured, stained and finally carried to burial, was one of the greatest pieces of work he'd ever done. He was proud...and sad.

The casket was lowered, the flag handed off, and gun shots split the air and words of condolence spoken. Yet Gibbs smiled just a tiny bit, not even enough to be called a smile really.

The first boat he'd never burned or allow to be chopped up as evidence.

The first boat that ever truly made it to its final voyage.

oOo

A/N: Again, no play by play of the episode in reviews please and thank you. If I'm writing this and you've read it, I can safely say that we have both seen the episode.