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It happened so quickly, Tim didn’t have time to turn around let alone react or defend himself. He was so absorbed with tracking the lost Navy lieutenant that he hadn’t noticed that the M.T.A.C doors hadn’t fully shut, and he certainly didn’t notice the all too familiar face slip in behind him.
His training had taught him to be aware of his surroundings at all times, and yet he had failed. The most wanted man in the country was lying dead in front of him, bullets lodged in his chest, but more importantly, so was (Y/N).
The piercing sounds of firearms shooting had alerted him to invader but by then the bullets had been fired. It was clear from where his body fell that the perpetrator wanted Tim dead. Maybe he was getting close to busting his operation, or discovering something he wanted hidden; he would never know now.
He could also tell from the way that (Y/N)’s body fell that she had died protecting him. Her reflexes were sharp enough that she could dive in between Tim and the shooter, taking the shrapnel intended for him, whilst also firing her own shot. The observation of this took him a fraction of a second but the ramifications and the realisations of what she had done for him, what she had given up for him took days to set in.
Tim had loved her with all of his being. He didn't know that he could love like that. It was almost ethereal. In his eyes she lit thw sun and hung the stars in the sky. She was the reason that he had so much faith in the world; if she could find the good in something than maybe, just maybe, there would be good in the word for him any anybody else.
But despite how much he loved her, he knew that she would never go for a guy like him. She was pretty, and popular, and kind; girls like that never went for him. Tony, yes. Tim had long accepted that fact, he was happy to love her from a distance. He acknowledged her flirting as friendly and not recurred. Tony and Ziva often teased them about their relationship but Tim defended it as strictly platonic.
He wished he had told her how he felt. Watching her die for him broke his heart, there was nothing that he could do for her at that point. IT was a quick death, merciful even. It still ripped him apart inside. The salt in the wound was that now he could never tell her how he felt. She died thinking that he biggest admirer and the person that arguably loved her most thought of her as another face, another friend.
She would never know the love and companionship that Tim had to offer, and now Tim would never be able to give it to her either. He didnt know if he would ever feel love for anyone else as intensely as he did for her, but he didn't allow himself to ponder that for long. For now he would grieve, then he would move on.
Eventually.