This story was written for the NCIS Ficathon. Each participant was given several quotes to use as inspiration. For whatever reason, my quotes didn't prove to be very inspirational to my Muse. The one I eventually chose to work with was: "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walks 1000 (miles)**." I had a heck of a time coming up with a workable Ducky storyline that wasn't somehow sad or dark or...well, tedious. I also had to resist turning it into an MFU x-over, since that was the idea that hit me first. As it is, the quote's influence in my piece is rather small. :( So, I guess I failed in my appointed task, but I hope you enjoy my offering anyway.

** The quote I was given ended at '1000,' but it seemed logical that the word 'miles' was supposed to come after that.

Many thanks to Bluster and Carol for their insightful beta comments! I've done some additional tweaking, so any mistakes in the final draft are entirely my own.