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Abby had confessed her precognitive dream to the NCIS shrink who had encouraged her to share that with her friends. None of them had really known how to respond to that piece of information and it had quickly been swept under the proverbial rug.
Ducky had taken a leave of absence immediately after Kate�s death, partially to grieve, but mostly because he knew that if he stayed he would have to perform her autopsy and, even though he had done them on other people he knew, Kate was special. She was the daughter he never had and losing her cut Ducky to the core. He had come back to work after a month and had joined the rest of the team in their search for revenge.
McGee had been crushed by Kate�s murder. She had been the only person on the team that he could usually understand and, other than the one time when he was first made a Probie, she had never hit him, even though he was pretty sure she had wanted to a few times. He also felt incredibly guilty because he felt that, since he wasn�t on the roof, he should have been able to see Ari on the other rooftop and that he should have done something to stop the trigger from being pulled.
But Tony took it hardest of them all.
Kate had been there for him, not just during the day-in-day-out stuff, but during the big stuff as well. She had risked being infected with the plague just so that he wouldn�t be alone in the isolation chamber. He didn�t even think he was worth the risk, especially the way he treated her a lot of the time, yet she had stayed by his side, bantering with him when he had the strength, just sitting with him and holding his hand when he grew too weak to do anything but cough and rest and groan between doses of painkillers.
Tony had never been a big believer in soul mates, but one day, about two months after Kate�s funeral, he realized that he and Kate had been soul mates. Even when they were fighting like cats and dogs or when they were racing to beat each other to impress Gibbs, they were still a team. Partners to the end. Best friends who loved each other even if they had never found the opportunity to say the words. They were there for each other, even if it wasn�t in the most palpable of ways, through thick and thin� in sickness and in health� �til death did them part.
Soul mates.
The day Tony realized that was the day he tendered his resignation and left DC for good.