It had been a running joke between them for years. So, after the body in the drum had been removed from the Mallard's front porch, leaving him standing with Kate, the line had just snuck out. She had asked him what Ducky looked like when he was young and he had automatically said "Illya Kuryakin." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted it, knowing that Ducky hated having anyone know anything about his past life. In fact, he was almost phobic about it. Fortunately Kate didn't press for more information, and now that he thought about it, she probably had no idea who Illya Kuryakin was. For that matter, he wasn't even sure if she knew what the U.N.C.L.E. was – it had been a product of the sixties and the Cold War and she was young.

He knew Tony was waiting for him. Tony had been begging all day to be released from taking care of Mrs. Mallard. He wandered into the house, heading for the room where Tony was combing a corgi's hair, when his eye was caught by some of the Mallard family photos. One of them was of Ducky and his father. He took a moment to look at it, then looked at it more closely, then picked it up. It was unbelievable; Ducky did indeed look like Illya Kuryakin. He'd always thought Ducky had been joking whenever he compared himself to Illya. He idly wondered to himself whatever had happened to the U.N.C.L.E. agents anyway? It was like they had fallen off the face of the earth sometime after the mid-eighties.

Ducky couldn't be, could he? Nyah, his imagination was probably running away with him. Unfortunately, a little voice in his head couldn't stop saying "But, still...."