A Heads or Tails fic for Chocobell1212
Title: Perception is Reality
Genre: NCIS
Rating: G
Prompt: Perception is Reality
Requester:
chocobell1212
I hope that you enjoy your little tale. Thanks for the prompt and also my thanks to my beta, Sparky.
“Well, that was an enormous waste of time.” Tony DiNozzo dropped into his chair and rested his head on the desk.
Tim McGee trudged in his wake. “I want two buckets of ice for my hands. I’ve haven’t done that much keyboarding since I left college.
Gibbs followed them, but said nothing. Like his colleagues, he felt the time they had spent purging the abandoned house was a massive waste of time, but Tony and some other techs had dug through all the trash the hoarder had left behind and McGee had input all of the items discovered. If there was a clue to be had, they had it.… somewhere.
“Boss, anything else before I go consign my clothes to my building’s incinerator? How could anyone live like that?” Tony managed to get upright.
“It is said that hoarding can result from painful feelings of rejection to a need to deal with a difficult situation.” Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard entered onto the floor from the elevators. “These victims, because that’s what they are, might be suffering from OCPD or OCD. They can’t help it.”
“Ducky, the toilet was plugged solid with clothes and the bathtub full of dishes. What difficult situation was that solving?” McGee asked.
“You have to remember that their perception of reality and yours, young Timothy, is very different. You see the world as a well ordered place and they may see it as chaos and terror. By hoarding, they are, in effect, sheltering themselves against perceived threats.”
“Still, you have to be pretty depressed to even slip into such a state,” Tony said, lifting a lapel of his jacket to sniff it.
“It might have started as a concern about running out of a hard-to-find item, but it escalated to a full-blown paranoia. There’s no really clear line when it comes to such things. They can see their behavior as normal, although most report feelings of embarrassment of anyone seeing the results of their hoarding.”
“So, you’re saying that their perceptions have become their reality, even when they have hit rock bottom and their hoarding cost them everything.”
“Sadly, yes.”
Gibbs had been listening to all of this with a sad heart. He remembered two older women back in Stillwater, Pennsylvania. They were the town kooks, as his father referred to them. Miss Lavern and Miss Hanna, they lived alone, and they collected everything, from old newspapers to plastic flowers from the cemetery. However, Gibbs knew something else. When his mother had passed, they were constant visitors to their house. They brought food, gifts, and a sense of peace to the young Jethro’s life. They asked for nothing in return and the town rewarded them by making them outcasts. All they wanted to do was to love and be loved. Their reward was the opposite. Inside, he mourned the person whose house they had taken apart, but outwardly, he just looked tired.
“A penny for your thoughts, Jethro?” Except perhaps to one of his oldest friends.
“Nothing but tired, Duck.” The phone cut him off. “Gibbs.” He listened for a moment and then sighed. “Suit up, we have a body.”
“Where?”
“Guess.” He started towards the elevator.
“Well, apparently “rock bottom” has a basement,” McGee murmured. He and DiNozzo raced after their boss, leaving behind their chief medical examiner.
“Apparently,” Ducky whispered and then he followed.
Genre: NCIS
Rating: G
Prompt: Perception is Reality
Requester:
chocobell1212I hope that you enjoy your little tale. Thanks for the prompt and also my thanks to my beta, Sparky.
“Well, that was an enormous waste of time.” Tony DiNozzo dropped into his chair and rested his head on the desk.
Tim McGee trudged in his wake. “I want two buckets of ice for my hands. I’ve haven’t done that much keyboarding since I left college.
Gibbs followed them, but said nothing. Like his colleagues, he felt the time they had spent purging the abandoned house was a massive waste of time, but Tony and some other techs had dug through all the trash the hoarder had left behind and McGee had input all of the items discovered. If there was a clue to be had, they had it.… somewhere.
“Boss, anything else before I go consign my clothes to my building’s incinerator? How could anyone live like that?” Tony managed to get upright.
“It is said that hoarding can result from painful feelings of rejection to a need to deal with a difficult situation.” Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard entered onto the floor from the elevators. “These victims, because that’s what they are, might be suffering from OCPD or OCD. They can’t help it.”
“Ducky, the toilet was plugged solid with clothes and the bathtub full of dishes. What difficult situation was that solving?” McGee asked.
“You have to remember that their perception of reality and yours, young Timothy, is very different. You see the world as a well ordered place and they may see it as chaos and terror. By hoarding, they are, in effect, sheltering themselves against perceived threats.”
“Still, you have to be pretty depressed to even slip into such a state,” Tony said, lifting a lapel of his jacket to sniff it.
“It might have started as a concern about running out of a hard-to-find item, but it escalated to a full-blown paranoia. There’s no really clear line when it comes to such things. They can see their behavior as normal, although most report feelings of embarrassment of anyone seeing the results of their hoarding.”
“So, you’re saying that their perceptions have become their reality, even when they have hit rock bottom and their hoarding cost them everything.”
“Sadly, yes.”
Gibbs had been listening to all of this with a sad heart. He remembered two older women back in Stillwater, Pennsylvania. They were the town kooks, as his father referred to them. Miss Lavern and Miss Hanna, they lived alone, and they collected everything, from old newspapers to plastic flowers from the cemetery. However, Gibbs knew something else. When his mother had passed, they were constant visitors to their house. They brought food, gifts, and a sense of peace to the young Jethro’s life. They asked for nothing in return and the town rewarded them by making them outcasts. All they wanted to do was to love and be loved. Their reward was the opposite. Inside, he mourned the person whose house they had taken apart, but outwardly, he just looked tired.
“A penny for your thoughts, Jethro?” Except perhaps to one of his oldest friends.
“Nothing but tired, Duck.” The phone cut him off. “Gibbs.” He listened for a moment and then sighed. “Suit up, we have a body.”
“Where?”
“Guess.” He started towards the elevator.
“Well, apparently “rock bottom” has a basement,” McGee murmured. He and DiNozzo raced after their boss, leaving behind their chief medical examiner.
“Apparently,” Ducky whispered and then he followed.