NCIS/Tear Jerker

• Any time on NCIS where Abby is less than sunny makes this troper sad, so seeing her almost in tears going over the late Director Shepard's possessions in the season 5 finale "Judgement Day", regretting not telling her that she always thought her a snappy dresser was pretty sad.
  • "Judgment Day" - Jenny may have had her issues, but Tony's reaction to her death, and his intense guilt over not tailing her, is absolutely heartbreaking.
  • Similarly, when Abby is upset in "Skeletons" because her boyfriend dumped her for being too tall. That in itself is sad enough, but the Reality Subtext (his dumping her was a hasty rewrite after the actor playing him died).
• On an earlier-season note, "Once A Hero" brought the tears, but for a different reason. Firstly, once it was clear what actually had happened and that the deceased Marine had been trying to save a teenaged prostitute before he was killed, and somewhat cathartic tears once they found all the other girls locked in that van.
  • This troper didn't quite cry, but did get the sniffles with Gibbs' last line:

Gibbs: His name was Brian Wright. Sergeant Brian Wright. United States Marine Corps. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. He was a hero.

• Even earlier in the series (2.07) "Call of Silence" with the Medal of Honor winner believing he had killed a fellow marine during WWII. Offering his Metropass to DiNozzo (multiple times) and dancing with Kate in the squad room...
  • This troper got a little misty-eyed when DiNozzo nudged aside the man's tie, so that the Marines coming to arrest him could see the Medal of Honor, and them immediately snapping to attention out of respect.
• Recently, the last ten minutes or so of the season 6 episode "Dagger". Lee ends up sacrificing herself so Gibbs could kill the man who was blackmailing her. Then we find out that this was probably the best outcome for her, as the alternative was life in prison and never being able to see her sister again. Then Gibbs breaks the news to Lee's sister at the end of the episode as he hands her Lee's badge.
• At the end of "Silent Night", when Gibbs convinces a man who has been absent from his daughter's life for nearly two decades to reunite by saying that he would give anything to hug his murdered daughter one more time.
  • The ending of "Corporal Punishment."
• The season four episode "Dead Man Walking," in which Ziva comes to care for a man who's dying of radiation poisoning, definitely yanks on the heartstrings, particularly with the last scene:

Roy: Would you think you'd have noticed... that I was no longer there? That I'd stopped running.
Ziva: Yes. I would've noticed... I would have missed seeing you.
Roy: But eventually you'd have forgotten me.
Ziva: I won't forget you now.

• Kate's death and the episodes following it.
• "...Shannon?" * sob*
  • Oh my God... anything that mentions Shannon and/or Kelly cues the waterworks for me. Particularly when he wakes up with amnesia, and everyone's calling him "Agent Gibbs"...

Gibbs: I don't KNOW Agent Gibbs, I don't WANNA know Agent Gibbs, I want... I want SHANNON! I want... Kelly... * sob* I miss 'em...

• • Season 5 episode 7 "Requiem".
  • When we learn Gibbs gets his "rules" not from his father, but via flashback from the first time he talked with Shannon. *sniff*
• Requiem had me in tears from the moment when the team figures out that Maddie was Kelly's best friend.
• The end of season six. When Tony's sitting in the squadroom without Ziva, trying to explain to Abby and McGee that it wasn't Gibbs or Vance who made Ziva stay in Israel...it was Ziva herself. Made much worse by how we know that Gibbs believes she's been lying to him, Tony believes she hates him and Ziva herself thinks Gibbs doesn't want her there... and then we switch to the scene of Ziva tied to a chair in Somalia, her face bruised and bloody.

Tony: Boss? One short?

• • The Season 7 premiere, as well. They saved Ziva! She's back home, on the team! ...But look at how terrible she looks...
  • Ziva shooting Ari. Gibbs' expression of shock and horror as he realises he put her in a position where she had to shoot her own brother, that light touch to her hand as he walks by, and her mourning song... Especially when straight after the scene shifts to Kate's funeral.
• The end of "Family", when Tony finally lets his dreams of a life with Jeanne go. Also a double Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, one for the series in general (the parents reunited with their child) and another for Tony and the team showing just how much of a family they've come to be.
  • "All we are we are..."
• The end of "Borderland", where Abby discovers evidence of Gibbs' shooting of the drug dealer that killed his family. She comes to Gibbs' basement, torn up over what to do. This conversation happens:

Abby: Tell me how much I've been like a daughter to you, and how much you love me...
Gibbs: Will that help?
Abby: * visibly struggling for control* No...What I really need to know, Gibbs, is if you're gonna love me, no matter what.

• grey-out* , credits.

• "Broken Bird," good Lord! Ducky is forced to face a Complete Monster who psychologically tortured him years ago while he served as a doctor in an Afghan refugee camp. But what brought it home was the very end when Ducky returns to work, quieter than ever before, and proceeds to break down in his girlfriend Jordan's arms.
• When Ziva cries after Mike Frank dies hits to close to home for This Troper
  • Just..."Swan Song" in general.
• Season 2, episode 22, SWAK. Seeing DiNozzo looking so awful as he's dying from bubonic plague. Granted he DOES live, but still...
• The end of "Honor Code", where scenes of Gibbs working on his boat with Zach are montaged with scenes of Gibbs and Kelly working on the boat.
• Pretty much all of "Life Before His Eyes". Especially when Gibbs talks to Shannon and Kelly.
• "Recruited" has a few, especially when it's revealed that the murdered petty officer was helping the boy to deal with bullying.
  • Doctor Magnus being reminded of all the people he helped.
• The ending of "Till Death Do Us Part." While the fates of Gibbs, Abby, McGee Tony, and Ziva are up in the air, the finale of the entire episode comes on a beach, where the shock of NCIS HQ's bombing and there being dead from the attack causes Ducky to suffer a seemingly fatal heart attack. The final gray-out of the season occurs with a shot of Ducky laying on his side, convulsing in pain.
  • Especially painful was the thought that "oh, Ducky's heartbroken but at least he's safe-- oh holy shit, is he having a heart attack?