Gibbs
Episode: Hiatus 1 & 2

Based on the 80’s song by Jackson Brown: Lives in the Balance
Which is as relevant today as the day it opened. Which was the day before the Iran/Contra Affair broke open.

Lives in the Balance

Gibbs had been told/asked by his old “partner” Jen, to go aboard the ship to make contact with a man who had information for them. Why not the docks, she never said, just aboard the ship, so he prepared himself. Earwig in, so he could stay in contact with his backup close by on the docks, he went in.

The ship almost empty with only a skeleton crew on hand, he saw a man who might be his contact, slipping into a laundry room. He quietly gave his report as he went in, and the next thing he knew, he was back hearing about his girls being killed all over again as though it happened that day in the dream. Or a nightmare of forgotten times.
An old warhorse claiming there was nothing he and his people could do, the sniper got away. A government agency had betrayed him, which was something he had long since forgotten he thought about. The government face went by the name of an old warhorse Franks.

He might wonder what it takes when a government sets out to lie to its people.
Then he awakens to a new world, and the government moves further into a new war by betraying its people all the more.
Something he sees on the news as the reports claim a win for freedom and justice. Those people were under the gun and under fire. That the deaths by explosion were righteous. Instead of a government killing its own people. Just like they allowed to happen to his girls not that long ago by his memories.

He saw the shadowed faces on the screen making noises of apology, men who later who were on the news screens fanning patriotism. These men and women died for a just cause as the President said…. Oorah.
A President that was sold to the people the same way cars and clothes were sold, as they now sell us youth and religion. The same way they were selling the war they were losing. He wanted so badly to ask the shadowed people on those shadowed screens if THEY served on the front lines like the people they call to arms. Or if they refuse to fight the wars, they drum up fire for others to fight.

His stomach hurt for the lies he could see now that the veil had been drawn, his heart ached for the loss of his girls so recently to him.
He turned in his badge and guns to one he knew was still carrying on the war he had fought for so long, turned his back on the lies.
And said no more before he left.

Forever More.

Fin
7/14/2026