Where did that come from? Surely, he was old and wise enough not to let this happen to him. Even though his eye sight was weakening, he should have seen this. Gibbs sighed when he pulled off his shoes in front of his house. He put them neatly beside the door and went inside to get a bucket of hot water and soap. He didn't forget the sponge and old knife to get it off. He would throw out the sponge and knife when he was done. Ducky wouldn't approve if Gibbs used a knife that was used to… clean that. He sighed as he put the water on his veranda and sat down next to it and his shoes, and just hoped that no one would see him getting rid of the dog poop on his shoes.

Ducky approached the house of his Jethro, and was surprised to see his lover sitting on his veranda, cleaning his shoes. "Jethro?" Ducky asked and the sight of Gibbs looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a car amused him. "What are you doing?"
"Duck, what are you doing here?" Jethro nagged, not looking up from his job.
"I was…" Ducky grinned. "Never mind." He sat down next to his lover and kissed him tenderly on his lips. "You know, having dog poop on your shoes is not as bad as having dog poop on your bare feet."
"Ducky, I didn't need that mental image in my head right now!"
"Well it's the truth dearest, Contessa, one of mother's Corgis, has a slight problem sometimes." Ducky said amused. "Particularly when I am not wearing my glasses, I don't see it coming."
"Duck." Jethro stared at his lover in a manner of "shut up now".
"I'm sorry, Jethro." Ducky grinned. "It's just…"
"Stop it."
Ducky took the other shoe, selected a stray twig and started to clean it. "As long as you're throwing that knife away after you're done, dear."
"Duck."

He pulled his lover up when the shoes were clean again and gently pushed him inside. "I don't want to hear a word about poop." Gibbs warned him. "Other wise…"
"What?" Ducky looked at him, his eyes were sparkling with laughter, love and joy.
"Nothing." Gibbs sighed. Ducky could always melt his heart away, no matter how hard he tried to raise shields. Not that he needed any around Ducky, but he was in a foul mood all day long, and his lover ending on his veranda with a story about poop wasn't his idea of getting rid of the frustration.
He had been avoiding Ducky all day, and only went down to autopsy if he needed to, he didn't want his bad mood getting rubbed on Ducky. He didn't want to get the chance to take it out on him either. Ducky didn't deserve that, and he wasn't the reason why Gibbs was in a bad mood. DiNozzo had been a complete pain in the ass today. Not only was he talking back at him, he also didn't listen. Gibbs' hand still hurt from the head slaps he had to give DiNozzo to make him pay attention. Maybe he hit him too hard, and rattled DiNozzo's brain even more. McGee had been avoiding Gibbs as much as possible today, as if he had a sixth sense for detecting bad moods. McGee was all right, and he had done a lot of work today, especially in the lab with Abby. Thanks to the complicated case, Abby was swamped in items to process, including half a dozen of computers.
He did know the reason for his foul mood, and usually he couldn't really be bothered with what she did, but this time she had gone too far. Jen Shepard had called him to her office to discuss the case. She had lunch there for the two of them, and had lit a candle to make it 'cosy'. He informed her about the case, ate some, and then it happened, Jen started to give him not so subtle hints about wanting to have sex with him. She started to come on to him, unbuttoning her blouse, trying to spell 'sex' with her eyes. He had pushed her off him, hissing that the next time he was going to file a sexual harassment complaint about her, but he wasn't sure if that would work, as well, Jen was the director after all, and her word was better than his. 
Gibbs disappeared into his basement, and he knew that Ducky would know better than just follow him. When he heard Ducky cleaning up Gibbs' mess in the kitchen, he knew he was safe to work on his boat and get rid of his frustration.

Ducky wasn't surprised to see the mess in Jethro's kitchen. As Jethro hadn't come over to Ducky's to eat with him in the past week, Jethro had ordered in. Ducky knew that cooking for one person wasn't really a fun thing to do, and to Ducky's standards, Jethro was a so-and-so cook. He threw all the cartons and Styrofoam holders into the dust bin and looked into the refrigerator to make up an inventory. Ducky was going to make sure that his lover had some healthy food in it. He quietly left the house after cleaning the whole kitchen and stepped into his Morgan to do groceries shopping for his lover. 

Gibbs turned on the TV when he didn't hear any noise coming from upstairs and watched the news. It was the usual crap the news had to tell. There was a report about a shooting, and a lady who had fallen from 3 stories high and had survived. There was a robbery that caught his eye, it was at a bank near his home and there was a familiar Morgan standing in front of the building. "Hey Duck!" he called. He waited a few moments to hear some movement upstairs but when he didn't hear anything he ran upstairs and looked around. Ducky was gone.
He ran back downstairs to get his Sig and called DiNozzo. "Tony, get McGee and Ziva, Ducky's in trouble."
"What?" DiNozzo's sleepy voice sounded over the phone.
"On your feet!" Gibbs barked. "There's a robbery in town."
"So?"
"Ducky." Gibbs paused. "is in that bank."
"On it boss!" Gibbs heard some sheets falling on the floor before DiNozzo hung up. Gibbs didn't really like to know what DiNozzo had been doing, but at least he was on his way. 

Of course, he should have known that he wasn't allowed to do anything. The local police was taking care of it all, and all Gibbs could do was wait. No matter how often he flashed his badge. No matter what look he threw at the officer in charge. No matter how many cups of coffee he had. He was actually close to being taken away himself because he kept bugging the officer. He had already sent DiNozzo, Ziva and McGee home, but they stuck with him. They didn't leave unless he left, and Gibbs didn't leave until Ducky was safe in his arms. In fact, Gibbs had given DiNozzo and Ziva the order to find out if the local police indeed had covered every option, every entrance and every exit, without the knowledge of the police. If he wasn't allowed to help, to do anything, at least he wanted to be sure that they were doing their job the way they should be doing it, and not hanging around.
He kept an eye on the building and the officer from his place on the curb. He had a huge Styrofoam cup in his hands filled with extra strong coffee and observed the man. The man was obviously younger than Gibbs, his hair wasn't greying yet, and he fiddled with his sunglasses the entire time. Gibbs was very tempted to ask the man why he was nervous, but then again, Gibbs might already know the answer. It was one of the first robbery's the man had. He relied on his senior agents, older, wiser, and Gibbs wondered if the man, officer Valera, had paid his way into becoming the officer in charge.
He hated to wait. He kept thinking of his Ducky, and he swore that if Ducky got hurt due to the incompetence of that officer, that officer wouldn't live to make a report. He almost felt sorry for his Ducky, because of Gibbs' foul mood the entire day. He was going to kill Jen if anything happened to Ducky. Ducky had a thing over him that got him into trouble easily. When Ducky was younger, Ducky always managed to fight or talk himself out of it, but now he was older, and his talking usually were considered as being the rant of an old man. Ducky wasn't agile, not that much anyway, and even though Ducky could drop to the floor in an instant if he had to, it wasn't good for his health. Nowadays, Ducky had Gibbs to keep him out of trouble, to protect him, and currently, Gibbs was doing a bad job.

Ducky didn't understand why someone would rob a bank when there were so many people inside, security camera's and security officers. Not that those officers could do anything, the robbers were using their guns. Ducky was sitting on the benches near the window with senior citizens, and it made him realize even more that the only reason he stayed working at NCIS was because of his Jethro, because he enjoyed the work he did, and that kept him young. 
The robbers had taken money right before the police had arrived, but were too slow to actually leave the bank again and get away with it. The robbers, there were 4 of them, all wore ski-masks, were slender built, and as far as Ducky could see, they were tanned or Hispanics. He and the fellow hostages weren't in immediate danger, as the robbers only wanted a way out of the bank, and the bench he was sitting on was better than sitting on the ground. Ducky knew, that the robbers were obviously young, somewhere around their mid twenties, and hadn't thought their plan through. 
Ducky kept silent, but in his head he thought about the statistics he knew about bank robberies. The first bank robbery was in 1831 in New York City. The odds of a bank robbery being successful was very slim, due to dye packs in the money, security camera's and highly trained snipers. Ducky knew, that the young men had little chance to get away now. In 1991, 1 out of 3 banks in the USA were targets of a robbery. In 2004, there had been 7595 robberies in total. Not all robbers survived, not all robbers were caught either. 
He hoped that his Jethro would behave. He knew that his lover would be worried, as Ducky hadn't returned home yet. Jethro would have called to his house, but no one would have answered the phone as Mother was out on a sleep over. Maybe Jethro was standing outside, trying to get the authority to lead the police with this robbery, maybe Anthony was finding out if the police did cover any entrance and exit, because Jethro would have told him to. He missed his Jethro, but he hoped that his Jethro would allow himself to take a step or two back.
He had to admit, he was frightened, but he knew, that after Ari had taken him and Gerald hostage in his Autopsy room, and after what happened when he had a meat puzzle in his jurisdiction, a bank robbery was like a walk in the park.

It seemed as if the robbery in the bank lasted forever. Officer Valera was certain that things could easily be handled without snipers, and even though Gibbs knew it was a safe bet, because of his lover inside the building, he thought that the young officer was an ass. The minute Ducky walked out of the building, seemingly unharmed, Gibbs felt relieved. He didn't care for all the people on that street, including for the people he worked with and embraced his lover. "Oh Duck." Gibbs muttered.
"I'm fine, Jethro dear." Ducky softly patted his lover on his back. 
"I'm sorry, it's my fault…" 
"No it isn't."
"It is Duck, I pushed you away today only because of that bitch and if I hadn't done that, if I hadn't worked on my boat…"
"Jethro." Ducky looked at him sternly. "Shush."
As if Ducky woke him up, and made him realize what he did, Gibbs nodded and let go of his lover. "Go to that officer… talk to him… and I'll wait."
"Get yourself a cup of tea, dear, you seem to be on edge."
"I'm fine." Gibbs assured him. "We'll talk about this later."

Gibbs drove with Ducky back to his house in Ducky's Morgan, and left his own car at the parking space. They dropped by the Chinese to get food and then headed home. Both didn't speak until they were safe among the four walls of Gibbs' home. He had been tempted to buy a pack of cigarettes as well, but Ducky shot one look at him that could have made water burn so he didn't.
"Stop feeling guilty, dear." Ducky set the bag with the Chinese on the table and softly pulled Gibbs towards him. "I am fine. Nothing happened."
"Robberies and hostage situations DO go wrong, Duck." Gibbs sulked. "And I couldn't have forgiven myself if something had happened to you."
"Sorry for making your day even worse." Ducky slowly moved his head towards Gibbs' and kissed him tenderly.
"It's not your fault." Gibbs muttered. "I'm just glad that I have you back in one piece."
"Now, let's enjoy our dinner, dearest." 
After dinner, they both settled on the couch with a glass of Scotch, legs up on the table and Ducky's head resting against Gibbs' shoulder. "Did Jennifer ruin your day?" Ducky asked after a while.
"She poisoned my day." Gibbs took a sip of his Scotch. "I can file many sexual harassment forms against her but it won't work."
"That is not your way of working things out either, Jethro."
"I know."
"What did she do, dear?" Ducky started to caress Gibbs' leg innocently.
"She tried to seduce me." Gibbs swallowed and downed what was left of his Scotch. "But you're doing a much better job." Gibbs put his glass down and looked at his lover, sparkles in his eyes, a wide smile on his face.
"I'm not doing anything, dear." Ducky grinned and kissed Gibbs softly on his lips, his hand sliding to his inner thigh, causing Gibbs' blood to start rushing around in his body. Ducky didn't have to do that much to cause a rise out of Gibbs' body. Certainly not now, while he was still high strung, almost near the edge, and Ducky knew how to take advantage of that.
"That's dangerous." Gibbs warned him and answered Ducky's kiss, putting more passion into it. Ducky tasted of Chinese and Scotch, Gibbs could still taste the shrimps Ducky had had, as he himself choose chicken this round of Chinese. 
"I seem to get into the habit of getting into danger." Ducky gently broke off the kiss. "Let's go upstairs." He smiled widely.
"What do you have in mind?" Gibbs traced the jaw line of his lover with his index finger. 
"I'm not telling." Ducky chuckled and managed to get up. He held out his hand towards Gibbs and took him upstairs.

Ducky softly pushed his lover onto the bed and started to get rid of Jethro's shoes and socks. "Duck, I can…" Jethro started, but Ducky shot a look at him telling him to shut his mouth and let Ducky do what he wanted. Jethro was spread out on the bed, laying on his back, and in Ducky's eyes, that was perfect. He caressed his lover everywhere with his surgical hands while undressing Jethro, just to make sure that his Jethro knew that Ducky was still with him, that he was still able to love him, that everything was all right, he knew that Jethro thought all those things, and Ducky didn't mind giving him what he wanted. 
When Jethro was undressed, Ducky undressed himself. Jethro was already nearly there, nearly, almost giving in to Ducky's touch, and that while, in Ducky's eyes, he hadn't done much to make Jethro so far gone already. Ducky was pleased though, Jethro knew how to make him feel like a young boy, not like all the seniors he had been sitting on a bench with for a few hours.
Despite the scars Jethro had managed to get over the years, Jethro's body was perfect. His younger lover had big hands, long, strong and muscled limbs, and Ducky liked teasing his lover by slowly caressing every part of his body, lingering at every tender spot Jethro had.
"Duck." Gibbs warned him. "I'm…"
"I know, dear." Ducky shushed him. "I know…" he whispered.
"But…" 
Ducky silenced him with a deep and passionate kiss, and at that moment Jethro took over.

Gibbs rolled his lover over, so he was laying on the bed and Gibbs was on top. It was no fun that Ducky was getting all the fun, arousing Gibbs like that, and he wanted to do the same for his Ducky. He needed to taste Ducky, to feel him, absorb every little bit of Ducky, which he did. Gibbs might not have the most smoothest of all hands, certainly not like the tender hands of his lover, but he had a mouth.
"Jethro!" Ducky exclaimed.
"Yes?" Gibbs grinned and looked up to Ducky.
"Even slower and…"
"What?" Gibbs moved his lips towards Ducky's rising erection.
"Jethro…" Ducky moaned.

Whatever would happen, whenever it would happen, no matter what would happen, Gibbs knew, that his Ducky would always be there for him, and he'd be there for Ducky. Gibbs was glad that his ME was unharmed. It seemed almost like magic, how his lover could turn his mood around, how he could make him forget about things, how he showed that there were better ways than being a bastard. Gibbs knew he had been a bastard that day, not that he was going to apologize to all the people involved, but he knew. And he thought it was amazing how Ducky seemed to put up with him being a bastard. Gibbs knew, that he had one amazing, solid constant in his life, a constant that loved him for whom he was, for what he did, for what he could do, a constant that seemed to get the best out of him at the worst of times, a constant that needed to be cared for, but most importantly, a constant of which Gibbs couldn't do without anymore; his Ducky.