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Chapter 10
It was late in the day before Tony had the opportunity to sneak down to autopsy and talk to Ducky. The Director called for Gibbs to sit in on a meeting with him that was going to take quite a while, and there were still no new leads as to the location of Paloma Reynosa to follow. The time was there before him.

Tony glanced across the squad room at Ziva, giving her a small nod, knowing she understood what he meant.

“Well, I’m gonna hit the vending machines. Gettin’ the afternoon munchies,” he declared as he stood up from his desk, stretched, made his way around the cubicle wall, and down the hall toward the break room where they were located, all for the benefit of McGee.

Once he was out of sight, he veered off in the opposite direction, heading instead to the elevator, and pressed the button to take him down to autopsy.

Inside the autopsy suite he found Ducky hunched over his desk studying some book, and Jimmy Palmer shuffling around the room putting away some new supplies that seemed to have just arrived.

Palmer greeted Tony happily, “Hey there, Tony. What are you doing down here?”

“I’m not here to stay Autopsy Gremlin. Now scram, I need to talk to Ducky alone,” Tony said in his threatening, yet good-natured manner that Palmer was never sure how to take.

Looking between Tony and the floor and then at the doctor, unsure what to say or do, Palmer finally stammered out, “I’ll just go be somewhere else,” and made a hasty escape.

Ducky cleared his throat, causing Tony to turn around and face him. “Is there some reason in particular you chose to scare off Mr. Palmer this afternoon, Anthony?”

Tony had the overwhelming sensation of being in the headmaster’s office in boarding school, about to tell on a friend for some misdeed he should possibly have kept his nose out of in the first place. He paced the floor for a second, leaned forward with both hands on the nearest stainless steel table, then turned around and hopped up to take a seat on it, facing Ducky.

“I really need to talk to you about something, Ducky. I need advice. I need to figure something out, and there’s only so many people I can trust to talk to.”

Eyeing his young friend for a moment, Ducky pursed his lips together, inhaled a small breath, then spoke. “Anthony, if this is about your romantic relationship with Ziva, I already know and have for several months now. Your secret is safe with me, and I’m…”

“Um, Ducky. As glad as I am to hear that you won’t say anything about that and surprised that you know, that’s not what I need to talk to you about. It’s Gibbs,” Tony interrupted.

The serious expression on Tony’s face worried Ducky. “Is something wrong with Jethro that I should know about? What’s going on?”

Tony’s stomach churned and twisted in knots, anxiety building at broaching the subject with the kindly elder gentleman. He felt sure Ducky would insist it was all nonsense, that his longtime friend Jethro Gibbs was not a man who would consort with prostitutes, or even high-class escorts.

“This is probably going to sound preposterous, I know, but Ziva and I were out the other night at a very nice restaurant we like, really romantic place. Anyway, after our dinner, while we were enjoying some wine, we saw Gibbs come in with a significantly younger woman. I mean, no offense to older men who date younger women, there’s nothing wrong with that. I know you’ve enjoyed the company of a few attractive younger women yourself, Ducky,” Tony backtracked, trying not to sound bad. “But she looked like she was maybe in her late twenties, and she was a totally smokin’ hot redhead in this really sexy little dress. Right off that just didn’t seem like Gibbs, I mean, you know, except for the redhead part.”

“Anthony, Jethro may be a man of a certain mature age, but he is still a man nonetheless, quite capable of desiring a woman, and a woman in her late twenties is still a woman mature enough to make the decision for herself to become involved with a man his age. This is perhaps something you should try to stay out of. If Jethro did not see you and Ziva together; therefore, did not find out your own secret, it is probably for the best that you just pretend that you don’t know anything about this woman he apparently wishes to keep secret from us.”

Ducky seemed to be quite calm in the idea that that was all it was, Gibbs was just involved with a younger woman. Tony still had more to tell though, and it just seemed this was getting harder.

He struggled for the right words to describe what he saw in the woman that triggered his initial gut instinct to suspect something ‘hinky’, as Abby would say, about her. “It’s not just that she was young and really hot, Ducky. Not that I have a degree in psychology or anything, but I’ve been a cop for years now and can read people pretty well, body language and all that. I can tell you she was the high maintenance type, used to money. Either she grew up with a lot of it or is used to high powered men willing to flash it around for her. She wasn’t Gibbs’ type at all, not the type of woman he’d actually date.”

Giving him a hard look, Ducky asked a simple question of Tony. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that I think, and Ziva agreed after watching them, that Gibbs was with an escort, Ducky. And a high dollar one at that.” He held his breath in silence, waiting for Ducky’s reaction.

It took what seemed like an eternity for the good doctor to show any recognition of Tony’s words on his face. He was no longer looking at Tony, rather staring off at nothing in particular, seeming to be lost in his own thoughts, possibly torn between believing Tony’s instincts as a cop and believing in the good character of his friend of many years.

What Tony didn’t know was that Ducky was thinking back to just a couple of weeks before to the strange conversation he had with Jethro about a woman he met, something about unusual circumstances, not the sort of thing he’d expect of him, and the cost associated with it. Then there was the question regarding the morality of his choice. It was all making sense now with this new information.

Slowly, Ducky’s gaze rose back to meet the younger man’s. “I believe you, Anthony. Not that I want to, of course, but I do,” and he then proceeded to explain that conversation he’d had with Jethro as Tony listened intently, shocked at what he was hearing.

“So didn’t you question what that was all about at the time?” asked Tony when he had heard the whole story.

“Well, I did, but I really had no idea what to make of it. The entire conversation was so vague and perplexing. It wasn’t until you just came in and told me this that all the pieces fit and the conversation made sense,” Ducky answered honestly.

Tony raised his hands to his face, leaning into them for a second before running them through his hair and taking in a deep breath. “Oh, man, Ducky. What are we going to do? We can’t let him ruin himself like this. If he gets busted he’ll lose everything, his career, his reputation. How could he risk it all so stupidly? I mean, this is Gibbs. He’s smarter than that.”

Years of knowing Gibbs did little to help answer Tony’s questions. “I don’t know, Anthony. Jethro must be incredibly lonely to go to such extremes to fill the void in his life. I agree we must find a way to intervene and stop this self-destructive path he’s taking. The risk to him is far too great. However, we should be considerate of the deep pain that would lead him to take such desperate measures.”

“Well, Ziva and I are in. I talked to Abby this morning. She was the one who insisted I talk to you since she took it really hard and really didn’t want to believe it was possible. The only one who doesn’t know is McGee. You think we should let him in on what’s happening?”

“We all love Jethro as part of the family this team has grown to become. I believe it would be best that we try a group intervention approach to let him know we do love him and are here for him, that he’s not alone. That would entail the whole ‘family’ being involved, so yes, I do think Timothy should be clued in regarding the matter. You do realize, however, Anthony, that telling him what you saw will also likely reveal where you were, what you were doing, and most importantly who you were with at the time don’t you? That means he will find out about your relationship with Ziva,” Ducky reminded him.

Tony laughed. “I suppose that will just leave Palmer, Gibbs, and Director Vance out of the loop regarding our romantic entanglement.” The look he was receiving from the doctor had him rethinking that statement for a moment. “Oh, crap. Ducky, that’s not fair.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s the way things go. It can’t be helped.”

“But we’ve been so careful all this time and kept it from him for so long.”

“Given the circumstances, there’s no way around it.”

Tony’s shoulders slumped forward in defeat. “I can’t believe this. All the hard work keeping our relationship secret from Gibbs and now we’re gonna have to go and spill it to him anyway when we tell him we saw him out with a prostitute. Oh, this just sucks!”

He could just imagine Ziva swearing at him colorfully in one or more of the several foreign languages she knew and throwing him out to sleep on the couch for insisting on sticking his nose in Gibbs’ business when she finds out they have to do an intervention and tell him they saw him out with the escort.

“No one ever said helping a friend in need was easy, Anthony, but it will all be for the best, and I’m sure Jethro will forgive the two of you for breaking his precious rule. As they say, ‘rules are meant to be broken’.” Ducky paused to see if Tony’s expression showed any sign of relief, seeing none, he just went on. “We should make plans to meet outside of the office, with McGee included, and discuss this matter further. Do you and Ziva have any plans for tonight?”

Turning his attention back to Ducky, he answered, “No, why? What are you thinking?”

“I was thinking an impromptu poker game at Abigail’s place as we’ve done before, only with poker as a pretense to get McGee there.” Before Tony could reply, Ducky was calling up Abby in her lab on the two-way video phone. “Abigail, are you there?”

“Hey Duck-man. What can I do for you?” came Abby’s voice as her face popped up on the small screen.

Knowing there was a NCIS agent posted in her lab on Gibbs’ orders, Ducky kept the conversation cryptic, but clear to Abby. “I’ve Anthony down here with me right now. He was just telling me about the poker game the two of you were discussing this morning, and I agreed it sounded like a great idea. We both think McGee should be invited too. Would you like to call him or should one of us?”

Abby caught on right away. “Yeah, the poker game. I forgot all about McGee. Sure, he can come. I’ll call him myself. Are we still talking about tonight? I was thinking eight o’clock? We should be able to get out of here plenty early since we’re not busy.”

“Eight sounds wonderful. See you then, Abigail.”

The video feed cut off, leaving it back to Tony and Ducky again sitting alone in autopsy. “Boy, Ducky, you’re pretty slick there. I’m sure Darren never picked up on anything.” He glanced down at his watch. “If you’ll excuse me, I should get back upstairs. Ziva and I will see you tonight at Abby’s. We’ll talk more then.” He hopped off the table to leave but turned back to Ducky once again. “And thanks, Ducky. I’m glad I could talk to you.”

“You’re welcome, Anthony, anytime. I just hope it’s not always about such terrible things as this.”

With that, he left autopsy and returned to the squad room, stopping off at the vending machine to grab the snack he supposedly left to get in the first place. McGee probably figured the machine ate him by now. Tony laughed at the thought as he walked down the hall toward his desk, trying to think of anything other than the rather disappointing conversation he’d just had with Ducky.

He had really hoped that Abby was right, that Ducky would set him straight with some deep insight into the situation and how he couldn’t possibly be correct, how he’d misread the whole thing. Confirming Tony’s suspicions by telling him of the vague and strange conversation he himself had with Gibbs just weeks before was not what the senior agent expected at all.

As he reached his desk, Ziva was watching him carefully. Knowing he couldn’t say anything in front of McGee just yet and not wanting to use interoffice email to discuss the matter, he pulled out his cell phone to send her a brief text.

“Bad news. Ducky confirmed. Poker 2nite @ Abby’s. 8pm. McGee invited. ILY” he typed and pressed ‘send’.

In a moment, Ziva’s phone chimed, indicating a text message received. She checked it and glanced across the squad room at him, a somber expression across her face. Looking back down he could tell she was texting something back and in a few seconds his phone beeped.

“I hope there will be liquor.  ILY2”

Tony agreed. They would all need a drink tonight.
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