Work Text:
Approach 4,000
by Julie A. Richards
Gibbs sat at his desk, alone in the dark bullpen of NCIS headquarters. It was after midnight and he knew he should go home or he'd still be sitting there when the rest of his team returned in the morning.
He'd been about to shut his computer off when the headline had caught his attention and hours later, he was still looking at the monitor, trying to come to grips with the information.
"BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers north of Baghdad on Saturday, pushing the U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict to nearly 4,000.
Also Saturday, Iraqi authorities reported that a U.S. airstrike north of the capital killed six members of a U.S.-backed Sunni group - straining relations with America's new allies in the fight against al-Qaida.
Two Iraqi civilians also died in the roadside bombing, which occurred as the Americans were patrolling an area northwest of the capital..."
[ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080322/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq ]
He'd been a Marine; he was *still* a Marine. Just because he wasn't a solider, following orders and in the war *there* didn't mean that he wasn't doing what he could to turn the tide.
But it all seemed so... overwhelming... impossible... When was it going to stop?
Heaving a big sigh, Gibbs shut his system down, grabbed his coat and headed for the elevator and the parking garage, resolving to work harder at doing his job - keeping those families of the soldiers away from home as safe as possible and bringing the ones who harmed them in any way, to justice. It was the least he could do for them.
Semper Fi