Summary: Episode tag to Truth or Consequences. Ducky and Gibbs have a little chat.....
Categories: Gen Characters: Donald Mallard, Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Genre: Episode Related
Pairing: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 1
Completed: Yes
Word count: 755
Read: 1878
Published: 04/01/2010
Updated: 04/01/2010
1. Light The Way by wildecate
Light The Way by wildecate
Author's Notes:
Episode tag to Truth or Consequences. Ducky and Gibbs have a little chat.....
“Tell me.”
Ducky did not turn to face Gibbs but flicked the light behind the X ray screen. He talked steadily, unemotionally, listing the injuries, the broken fingers, the bruises, the starvation, the drugs that had been inflicted, the trauma to the skin of the back, the burn marks. His voice began to tremble a little as he enumerated the consequences of each injury but when he turned away from the X rays he was back under control.
“The hair sample showed a systematic and methodical use of drugs, injected with all manner of drugs including the truth serum that was used on Tony, she may go into withdrawal, I don’t know. Her fingers have healed well and she has the use of them again, she was obviously sensible enough to not let the muscles atrophy while she was in captivity. The burns are small in number, I would hypothesise that they began with physical torture before moving on to using the drugs. The burns were probably caused by a cigarette. The trauma to the back is also healed although again she will always have scars. A whip I believe. I noted severe bruising and inflammation around the shoulders, probably from being tied up with her hands over her head and hung from a hook of some kind perhaps.”
“Will she recover?”
Ducky switched off the X ray screen, went to his desk and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of whiskey from the drawer. He poured a finger into each glass and sat down heavily, taking a deep sip before he answered.
“She’s young and strong. The majority of the physical injuries are actually healed and have done so cleanly. I’d be concerned about the type of drugs which were used on her and the regularity " I don’t know enough about it to know whether there are any addictive qualities. Abby is trying to establish that for me.”
“How?”
“She’s trying to reverse engineer the drug. Once she’s done that she’ll have a better idea of what we’re dealing with and how to treat withdrawal if necessary.”
“She’s been OK ever since we found her.”
“And that’s been what, 24 hours? I wouldn’t count my chickens Gibbs.”
Gibbs took the seat next to Ducky’s desk and sipped his whiskey. “What you are really concerned about Duck?”
Ducky regarded Gibbs in the half light of the room. “Emotional trauma. Ziva is....different. You can’t expect her to react as Tony or Tim would. She’s military, with all the training that comes with it. She’s killed in the line of duty " she’s killed as duty. She’s experienced at torture, inflicting and receiving. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how she will deal with this.”
Ducky could see from Gibbs’ expression that this wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “She’s human Jethro, which means there will be some kind of emotional fallout from this. How it will manifest itself I have no idea. There is something going on here, with Mossad, something is wrong but I can’t quite put my finger on what. She will need support. Care. Love.”
“Coddling her won’t help her deal.”
“No, and she wouldn’t take it from you anyway. She’ll receive plenty of that from the rest of us. Except from Tony of course but then they always did have their own special relationship. Just like the two of you do. In time Ziva will find her way back to us, but we need to...” Ducky hesitated. “Light the way.”
“What about DiNozzo and McGee?”
“Both fine. Bumps and bruises obviously, Tim has a cracked rib but it’s been taped up and he’s taking painkillers. The drug Tony was injected with seems to have left his system with no ill effects, his blood tests were nearly normal.”
“And emotionally?”
Ducky shrugged. “Tim will probably deal by writing elements into his next book. Tony won’t talk about it nor would I expect him to. He had his reasons for going after Ziva and once the two of them sort themselves out I believe he’ll be back on an even keel. They’re both big boys Jethro, you haven’t anything to worry about there.”
Gibbs knocked the rest of his whiskey back and rose to leave. “Thanks Ducky.”
“I would say anytime but I truly hope we never have to have a conversation like this again.”
“You and me both.”
“Gibbs?”
Gibbs turned in the doorway.
“Go home. Get some sleep. That would be my prescription to you.”
Gibbs half grinned and nodded to show he understood. “See you later Ducks.”
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