SquidgeWorld Archive

Most of office occupied by the NCIS Special Agents was in darkness, except for the desk belonging to Tony DiNozzo. Slumped over, his head on the keyboard of his computer, the agent didn't even hear the footsteps of Donald Mallard until there was a whispered, "Tony!"

The younger man sat up quickly, trying to orient his senses. "On it, boss. Just need to. . . .."

"Agent DiNozzo, it's me."

Tony glanced up with relief. "Oh hi, Ducky. Thought it was Gibbs
for a minute."

"Yes, so I assumed. Isn't it time you went home?"

"I, well, Gibbs has been on my tail and I thought maybe I'd stay late and. . . ."

"It is 0200, Tony, perhaps you've done enough for today?"

Tony groaned. "I was supposed to call a girl three hours ago! I forgot the time looking through these damned files."

"Looking for Ari, I assume?" Ducky removed his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.

"Who else? Probie and I have been at it non-stop." Tony glanced around. "Where is McGee? He was here, uh, he was here earlier."

"Maybe he's asleep since that's where any man should be at this hour." Ducky smiled at the obviously exhausted man.

DiNozzo looked at the physician. "So what are you doing here then?"

"Me? I couldn't sleep so I came in to do some paperwork. It does pile up you know. I thought perhaps Jethro might still be here as well."

"He went off to talk to some buddy of his from the Marines. Man's supposed to know something about Al-Qaeda. You know Gibbs. He won't leave any stone unturned. Kind of reminds me of Tommy Lee Jones in 'The Fugitive'. Sees his man leap off a dam and he still keeps on after him."

"Tony, don't you think you should go home? Jethro will expect you back here by 0800," the older man reminded him.

"Maybe I should. It's just, well, I look over there at Kate's desk and I wonder if she'd go home if it had been me with the bullet in my head. You know she stayed with me in that isolation unit when she didn't have to."

"I know, my boy, and I know you want to do everything possible to catch Ari, but a tired man makes mistakes. A tired man misses things."

DiNozzo' normally ruddy complexion paled. "Like on the roof? I keep asking myself if I hadn't insisted on going along if maybe some other agent would have picked up on Ari being there."

"Jethro didn't and he wasn't recovering from pneumonic plague."

"Yeah, there is that." Tony slumped back in the chair he felt plastered to. "If Gibbs' sixth sense didn't pick him up, what chance did I have?" Tony looked up at Ducky. "For awhile there, I was really furious at Gibbs. I kept thinking he should have known; he should have pulled out another one of his sleights of hand. Instead Kate's dead. Just doesn't make sense."

"Tony, wherever Ari is right now, you can't bring Kate back. Go home and get some sleep. Doctor's orders or do you want me to go down to the autopsy room and bring up some of my delightful equipment to persuade you?" Ducky grinned his most evil.

The younger man took to his feet, swaying just slightly as blood flowed into his nether regions. "I'll go. You know I haven't been out on a date since this happened. For me that's a record."

"I know. It doesn't take much for the sex drive to take a nose dive."

DiNozzo blinked. "You, too, Ducky? Guess, I, well, uh, I didn't think. . . ."

"It's all right, DiNozzo, I may not be as active as you, but I'm not dead yet."

"Well, sure, goes to figure, I mean. . . ." He stopped. DiNozzo hadn't been shy since first grade, but discussing Donald Mallard's sex life just wasn't on. "Uh, how's your mother?"

"Fine. C'mon, my boy. I think it's time for two virile studs like us to be in bed."

"Don't you want to leave a note or something for Gibbs?"

"Oh I think not. He must know by now what I want to say and if he doesn't, there's no point in writing it."

Tony nodded. He was too tired to figure that one out.