SquidgeWorld Archive

Dr. Donald Mallard sat on a bench not far from NCIS headquarters. For once the city wasn't hot, humid and filled with the fumes from innumerable cars. Reaching down he picked up a scrap of green that lay at his feet. For a moment he studied it then tossed it under a bush nearby before glancing at his watch. Jethro Gibbs, his friend and occasional lover, was late again.

"Ducky?"

The blue eyes peered up through spectacles. "Agent McGee! How nice to see you. Sit down."

"I...well, sure. I just stopped by. Gibbs said...well, he said you'd be here and I...he wanted me to tell you that the Director called him in." McGee gulped audibly.

"Oh dear. I hope that he isn't in trouble."

"Oh no, no. I mean at least I don't think so." McGee almost snickered. The thought of Special Agent Jethro Gibbs in trouble was mind-boggling. "I think it's something to do with...Ari."

Mallard removed his glasses, wiped his eyes and then returned them to their normal place. "You need say no more. I understand."

The younger man heard the sorrow in that admission. "You know Gibbs is going to get him, don't you? For Kate, for all of us," he announced with pride.

"Yes, I know. It can end in only one way: either Ari will be dead or Gibbs will be." Ducky looked down at the sidewalk. An ant was attempting to carry a small piece of bread away.

McGee sucked in his breath. "You don't think...I mean Gibbs is the best. He and Tony are determined to get the bastard."

"And what about you?" Ducky turned to look squarely into the other man's round face. "Don't you want to catch him?"

"Of course but well, I'm not sure Tony and Gibbs think I'm up to it. I'm still a probie. Good at computers, good at tracking down details, but out on the streets...I'm not sure they think I can hack it."

"I understand. It's difficult to live in a shadow. Gibbs is Gibbs. Being the best is his life's blood. He doesn't take to being thwarted by Ari or anyone, particularly when the one to suffer is a colleague."

"Do you think he'd be so obsessed if it had been me on that roof with a bullet in my forehead?" McGee flushed guiltily.

"He wouldn't want to lose you if that's what you're asking. Jethro doesn't like failure. He's not like you and me. We know we make mistakes. He may know he does too, but admitting them is another thing."

McGee grinned at the older physician. "You've known him a long time, haven't you?"

"Are you hinting I'm in my dotage, young man?"

"No, Ducky, you're in the prime of life."

Ducky smiled gently. "That's very nice of you to say, McGee, but I'm not ashamed of my age. I come from a long line of ancestors who live into their 80s and 90s. Would you believe that one was still active sexually when he was 105?"

McGee glanced over at Mallard, his dark eyes narrowed.

"Yes, you're very right. He wasn't quite that old," Ducky admitted, "but my people are not the type to lie down and die from just a few aches and pains. I've seen too many people on my table who've had their lives cut short. I intend to make my life meaningful until the very end."

McGee cleared his throat. "How...how's your mother?"

Ducky's shoulders slumped slightly. "Much the same. Thank you for asking. It's difficult for both of us. She's such a fighter and yet there are times when I see this look in her eyes." Ducky clenched his fingers together. "It was terrible what happened to Kate, but how much worse is it to see someone you love become. . . Sorry, I didn't mean. . . ."

McGee patted Ducky's shoulder. "You're doing your best. She seems happy."

"I think she is for the most part, but it's not how I imagined my life. I suppose I thought by this time of my life, I'd be a proud grandparent with family and friends all around me. Instead I have the bodies of strangers, who want me to find some kind of answer to why they're dead."

"You've got Gibbs, Tony, Abby and me too," McGee assured him.

"That's very nice of you to say that. You like Abby, don't you?" His eyes appeared large through the lenses of the glasses.

McGee's head dropped. "Yeah but I never know where I'm at with her."

Ducky chuckled. "That's true for most men. Look at Jethro," he reminded his young friend.

"For some reason I can't imagine Gibbs ever being marriedâ€"unless it was to the Corps or NCIS." McGee glanced over at Ducky to see his reaction.

"I've had the same idea myself," the doctor confided. "I think he believed he could just order a wife to obey and she would." The two men smiled at each other, the image of Gibbs as a marital D.I. tickling their fancies. "But he is a good friend and a caring man," he added.

McGee nodded. "Nobody I'd rather have with me in a fight."

This time Ducky patted the McGee's shoulder. "You're a very perceptive young man, but I'm tired of talking about Gibbs. I don't have to be home for another forty-five minutes; what do you say we find a congenial bar and I'll treat you to a glass of Scotland's finest?"

McGee grinned. "It would be my pleasure, Ducky. And maybe you can tell me about this relative of yours who was still virile at 105?"

"I shall be delighted. Shall we go?"

The two men sauntered off to find a watering hole in the early evening sunlight.