Toronto Genetic Research Conference 2009
Conference speech of Dr. D. Sandstrom
Who could have anticipated that Mackenzie would find a dormant exotic gene sequence in the welter of junk DNA catalogued by the Human Genome Project. Ever wonder for instance, why men have nipples? At some point in the past, man's early mammalian ancestors are believed to have experimented with hermaphroditism. Such ideas were relegated to the lunatic fringe, until the recent Partner Virus debacle proved this hypothesis irrefutably.
******
Gibbs was having a bad week, in the aftermath of the New York terrorist attack. Being Gibbs, he took care to spread the misery, so that everyone else was having a bad week too. Despite their fairly happy home life, Tony knew that something was bothering his partner, but he couldn't think what it was. They had caught two terrorists. Their sex life was great. He glanced at his ring and grinned. It was all good. So why was Jethro so down on everyone?
Maybe this case was getting to him?
The NCIS was responsible for all murders of Navy and Marine personnel, as well as all financial crimes in excess of fifty thousand dollars - which is how they came to be embroiled in the present case. Marines wielding guns; murderous wives; serial killers... All of these, Jethro Gibbs took in his stride. But the Silverville mess was something else.
Despite catching the two terrorists, they still hadn't found out who had used a chainsaw on the third member of the terrorist cell - the other two claimed that they were innocent, and both Tony and Gibbs (his famous gut) believed them. There was evidence that the Silverville armoury was a hotbed of fraud and corruption, and Gibbs believed that the terrorists had accidentally gotten in the way of some other crime. Murder was covering up fraud, and arms dealing and who knows what else.
Tony sighed and stretched, trying to work that nagging ache out of his back. He really wanted to be out of here. He really hated paperwork. But Gibbs cut him no slack at work, not that he would have asked.
And nobody dared to mention a certain sheriff.
*****
Gibbs sighed. This case was a great steaming pile of something nasty. Still, at least McGee had made progress in the case while they were away. The terrorist/murder victim had been identified as a sergeant from the nearby artillery range. McGee was trying to follow the money, and Tony, the paper trail. Their most promising lead had pointed them back towards the armoury. And there, they had gotten bogged down in a trail of paperwork of labyrinthine complexity
Trying to track down the financial irregularities of a group of sergeants in the supply division of the Silverville complex was Gibbs own personal nightmare, and one he had gladly relinquished to DiNozzo, on the principle that a week buried in paperwork would keep DiNozzo safe and away from trouble. They had seen enough of that lately.
In some ways, it was a lousy assignment. McGee thought that corruption among the armaments supply division went back years. Fraud totalling least a hundred grand a year, back to the early nineties, before those corrupt idiots had diversified into selling arms as a sideline.
Marine Corps sends stuff to Armoury. Armoury sends stuff to Range to be used in exercises. Straightforward. Except that someone in the system was siphoning off arms and faking the paperwork. The question was, whether this was a purely financial scam or were vast amounts of munitions being siphoned off? McGee thought the latter. Proving McGee's hypothesis meant going through reams of dusty paper records in the bowels of the sub-basement from before the days of computerisation...
DiNozzo was there right now with McGee, in the place Marine Corps records went to die - the basement of the supply division building at the Marine corps headquarters in Quantico. He was looking for discrepancies between the Silverville records and the records of munitions sent to the armoury, trying to find out how many weapons had been stolen. Definitely way out of trouble. Which meant that Gibbs could finally go and see Ducky, to try and put a rest to his obsessive thoughts about his lover's possible... condition.
He took the stairs down to autopsy, needing to get rid of some of that nervous energy that had built up since he had got back from New York - and the whole new set of problems that had brought. Instead of diminishing his fears, New York had only intensified them. The fact that Tony and the pregnant secret service agent had reacted so similarly to renewed exposure to the virus. The fact that he had somehow sensed a difference in his partner's scent - which only the heightened senses of virus exposure had revealed to him. Yeah, and the pickles...
He scowled. He was definitely skirting along the edges of craziness with this one. But the thought just wasn't going away. Which is why he found himself headed down to Ducky's autopsy room that morning, while Tony was out of the way.
Ducky was sitting, peering down a microscope in his lab. When he heard Jethro come into the room, he turned with a smile.
"Jethro! What can I do for you?"
"I'm worried about Tony." Gibbs said. "The way he kept getting sick every morning. Other things..."
"Yes, yes, he told me when I checked him out. I've given him some Zofran to help him with that, should it recur"
Gibbs frowned.
"I've heard of that stuff, Ducky. Isn't it mainly used by women for morning sickness?" The older man's head jerked upwards and he stared at Gibbs, oddly like a wild animal caught in a spotlight. Gibbs felt a churning begin in his gut. "And I've been noticing a lot of other things lately, that add up to something really crazy." He shook his head. "If I didn't know it was impossible, I'd think Tony was... But that's impossible. Men don't get pregnant." Ducky had gone pale. He wasn't laughing. Surely he should be laughing at Gibbs' ridiculous idea. The agent felt his worry increase. "Tell me I'm crazy. Please." He felt himself flush in embarrassment.
He had known Ducky for years, and even if his gut hadn't been telling him something was hinky, he would have known the old doctor was trying to hide something. The special agent stared coolly at his friend. Ducky couldn't quite meet his eyes. Gibbs felt a chill, which only increased as the silence between them lengthened.
"Tell me!" Gibbs growled finally, anger and worry getting the better of him. He clenched his fists to stop himself grabbing hold of Ducky's collar.
"Oh Jethro.... I'm sorry. I wish I could have told you before... The government wanted it kept quiet, and at the time, I agreed. You know how it was. People were so afraid after the attack... The last thing we wanted was to panic them further..." Ducky faltered.
"You're telling me I'm not crazy! He's really..." Gibbs felt dizzy. He leaned against the wall, staring at the doctor.
"I'm so sorry." The old man's voice dropped to a whisper. "The bastards who made the virus had an agenda we could never have anticipated. By the time we realised, it was far too late. It's not just Tony, you see. There are at least a hundred other young men in a similar condition..." His eyes shone with compassion.
Gibbs found himself sliding down the wall and he somehow ended up sitting in an untidy sprawl on the floor.. Dizzily, he leaned his head back for a moment, trying to take it in. Pregnant! DiNozzo! He was going to be a father again!
Ducky knelt next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Breathe Jethro. That's it..." Gibbs concentrated on breathing, trying not to pass out. The shock of waking up for the first time with DiNozzo was nothing compared to this! He felt torn between punching Ducky and running to Tony so that he could wrap him up in protection for the duration of his pregnancy. Finally he felt his head clearing.
"So you just stuck your heads in the sand and hoped it would go away!"
"I suppose it amounts to that in the end. Some provision was being made for extra medical services; a new maternity hospital is being built with the most advanced facilities. Some advisors suggested termination would be preferable, but the president vetoed that - his son is in the same unhappy condition as Tony..."
He faltered. Something dark had flared in Jethro Gibbs' eyes at the mention of a threat to his lover and their child. Gibbs clenched his fists, struggling to contain his anger. His next words were snarled.
"I came here, wanting you to tell me I was imagining it. That I was crazy. But instead, I find out that it's all true..." He slammed his fist into the wall, heedless of his own discomfort. "How the hell do I tell him that I've got him pregnant?"
"Don't tell him. Not yet. Give me time to prepare some things." Gibbs scowled.
"We've only just begun to trust each other! Now you want me to deliberately deceive him?"
"He'll notice soon enough, Jethro. Let him keep his peace of mind for a little longer. You have to realise, Jethro, this is unknown territory for all of us. We don't know how hazardous this is going to be; the stresses it's going to place on the body..."
"You're saying it's dangerous for him..." Gibbs had gone deathly pale.
"Childbirth always holds some risks - especially in a case like this, when a caesarean section is going to be necessary. Physically, male hips aren't wide enough to permit the passage of a child, for instance. In fact, in the later stages of pregnancy, when the baby normally moves into position for the birth, he's probably going to have to be bedridden, for his own safety."
"How far along is he?" Gibbs said softly.
"About five and a half months is my best estimate." Ducky sighed.
"I need to tell him." Gibbs said. "I'm not going to keep secrets from him."
"Give me till the end of the week," Ducky said. "Please."
"No longer!" Gibbs scowled at him, for the first time ever, angry at his old friend. "Not one minute longer!"
Anything else he might have said was fortunately curtailed by his cellphone ringing.
"Gibbs!" He snapped into the phone.
"Ziva here. You need to come to this location - I'm at a warehouse filled with stolen ordnance. But that's not all. I think we've found a lab setup. McGee was right! Whatever these people were into, it wasn't just guns and bombs. Maybe they were into bioterrorism…"
"On my way!" Gibbs flipped his phone closed and headed for the door. Well, at least Tony was safely out of the way.
******
Hunting through miles of dusty shelving for old records with McGee was not Tony's idea of fun. Of course the documents he was looking for were from the early nineties, before the computer revolution, as far as the Navy was concerned.
Tiredly he sighed and rubbed at his lower back. Lately he just seemed to be filled with aches and pains. Backache - probably due to overenthusiastic sex - and just when his morning puking fits seemed to be easing. Damn. Life was so unfair.
Well at least he seemed to be putting on weight, rather than losing it all, due to his regular morning vomiting sessions. Jethro probably thought he was bulimic or something.
He suppressed a groan at the twinge in his back, as he stretched up high for a box file. Hopefully this would be the right one. He wanted to be out of this dusty place, with its long aisles of paper records, dimly lit and musty smelling. Tony was sure he could hear rats in the walls. He hated rats - plague survivor's privilege.
"Oh!" He dropped the file with a clatter and pressed his hand to his belly, not understanding what it was he had felt. The strangest sensation, like nothing in his experience. He frowned. Maybe something was wrong with his stomach. Were all the pickles coming back to haunt him?
Something moved under his hand.
Tony jerked his fingers away, startled, then hesitantly touched his belly again. Again, that strange, small flutter. Something unmistakably moving inside him.
Tony whimpered softly. This was something so far outside his experience that the only analogy he could come up with was the film "Alien."
"Tony?" McGee rounded the corner and looked concerned. "You okay? You look pale."
"No...," Tony faltered, looking vulnerable for the first time in McGee's experience. "I think I need to see Ducky! Right now!"
"What's wrong Tony" Immediately McGee was at his side, his eyes filled with concern. With shaking fingers, Tony clutched at the younger agent's hand and pressed it to his belly, his fingers covering McGee's.
Again that small flutter. McGee yanked his hand away and stumbled backwards, his eyes wide.
"That isn't normal!" he blurted out.
"Tell me about it!" Tony snapped. "Oh god!" His trembling hand pressed over his belly again. "What the hell is that?"
******
"Hey boss!"
Gibbs turned from his contemplation of the lab and sent a withering look in Ziva's direction. Not a bioterrorist setup, as they had first feared. Something much more mundane, though still illegal. Ziva didn't have a lot of experience with meth labs though, so she had pressed the panic button. Still, it explained a lot, like the fact that a certain navy quartermaster and his associates were as dirty as hell. It was a gut feeling though; he couldn't substantiate his suspicions, despite the fact that he had spent most of the week collecting evidence and conducting interviews.
In truth, he thrived on the sort of case that involved a cat and mouse game - the challenge of it - and at least it made a change from all of the partner rage cases. And the drug connection opened up a world of possibilities as to who murdered their chainsawed corpse.
A hand brushed against his arm and he turned to scowl at Ziva.
"What is it? Have you run the prints yet?
"McGee just called me. You need to talk to him!" She proffered her cell-phone.
"McGee?"
"Boss you need to get back here right now! It's Tony... There's something wrong with him!"
"What?" Gibbs forced himself to focus; to ignore the sudden hammering of his heart.
"We don't know. Ducky's with him now..."
Ziva picked up the cell-phone from where Gibbs had dropped it.
"What did you say to him Tim? I've never seen him move so fast..."
******
When Gibbs burst through the doors of Autopsy, less than forty minutes after McGee had called him, all Tony could think of was that he must have broken all the speed limits on the roads between here and Silverville. Why it had taken them an hour and a half to drive up there last time. Time enough for Tony to pull himself together a little bit, mainly because Ducky didn't seem worried. He had patted Tony on the shoulder at one point and told him it was something natural, not a disease or an alien...
Still, he hadn't exactly said what it was either. In fact, he hadn't said a whole lot, which was why Tony felt so relieved to see Jethro. He had suspected that Ducky was waiting for the boss to be there before he gave Tony the bad news. Hypothesis confirmed. Tony shivered and reached out for his partner. Gibbs' arms around him felt good; strong and secure like nowhere else in the world.
"What happened?" Gibbs said.
"Something weird," Tony said. "Really weird." With a shiver, he took Gibbs' hand and pressed it against his abdomen. Again that small flutter.
It was then that Tony realised something was going on here that everyone seemed to know about except him. Gibbs had a really odd expression on his face, halfway between hope and anxiety, with a good deal of awe mixed in for good measure. Like a man who had just discovered something precious, with a bomb attached. Ducky was watching him, smiling.
"What's going on?"Tony said, pulling away from his partner. "What do you know that I don't?"
"The virus," Gibbs said softly. "It did something to you. It changed you..." A sigh, then he glanced at Ducky.
"It's going to take years of research to understand how they did it." Ducky said. "Genetic engineering. The government didn't know it was possible until we started finding anomalies in the bodies that crossed our autopsy tables. Biological changes Extra organs being grown..."
"Ducky!" Gibbs growled at him. Tony frowned as he sensed an underlying current of anger from Gibbs, directed towards the older man.
"Organs? What organs?" Tony said. This conversation was getting scary.
"About thirty percent of young men exposed to the virus have developed uterine tissues..."
"Huh?" Tony still didn't get it.
"They can get pregnant," Gibbs said softly.
"You're about five months pregnant,” Ducky said. “A girl, I think."
"Oh my god!" Tony stared down at his belly as the penny finally dropped. The sickness, the cravings, the aches and pains... The feel of a child kicking inside him... This wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible! He felt dizzy, like there wasn't enough air left in the room.
"Tony." Gibbs arms around him, holding him. He leaned gratefully into his partner's strong embrace. He felt faint, but he knew Jethro would always look after him. Look how protective he had been lately...
Almost as if...
"You knew! You knew and you didn't tell me!" Tony shoved Gibbs away, and stared accusingly at him, his shock at Gibbs' apparent betrayal overwhelming. "I thought you cared about me. I trusted you!" His voice rose. "How could you keep something like that a secret from me? Damn you, Jethro!"
"It wasn't like that!" Gibbs said. "I've only known for a short time. I was told that the stress of knowing would be bad for you... I was trying to protect you..."
"I have a right to know something that important about my own body!" Tony said with simple dignity. "I trusted you!" He repeated the words with increased emphasis. Gibbs reached out his hand towards his partner, but Tony pulled away from him.
"Leave me alone!" he snarled, the attempt at aggression spoiled somewhat by the tears that were somehow running down his face. "I need some time to think."
He didn't exactly run out of the room, but only because he could barely see past the tears. Out of the NCIS building and into the cold, clear morning.
*****
An hour later, Tony stared silently out across the Potomac. He came here sometimes, when he needed to be alone, and just sat on the wooden bench, watching the grey water flow past. It was peaceful, and the soft sounds of the water lapping along the shoreline had a calming effect. Usually. Right now though, Tony's thoughts were racing and he barely noticed his surroundings. He had just needed to be alone, to think.
Then again, alone was a relative term when you were pregnant.
He stared down at his belly dazedly, a new awareness making him notice the slight roundness - at five months gone, he was just starting to show.
Too late to do anything about it...
No!
Oddly enough, it was that thought that shook him out of his stupor. Though he had left much of his Italian catholic upbringing behind when he broke the ties linking him to his family, some part of him believed - with an utter certainty that surprise him - that it would be wrong to harm his child.
His and Jethro's child. He felt a stinging in his eyes and the cool trickle of tears down his cheeks, though strangely, there was also wonder. He had always intended to become a father, one day. Hell, he had donated sperm to a sperm bank! But he hadn't really thought about the consequences of being a parent. A mother, surely, rather than a father. The problem of what to call himself was a knotty problem that would keep philosophers busy for years. The simple reality was that a new life was beginning to stir inside him. It was something he had never dreamed of, but still, all life was miraculous...
What was it Ducky had said? That it was a girl.
His hand only shook slightly as he laid it across his belly, fingers splayed wide.
Protectively.
"Hi, princess..." His voice was little more than a whisper. "Nice to meet you."
A hand, strong and warm, squeezed his shoulder. He knew, even without turning, who it was. He leaned back into Jethro's warmth and felt his lover's arms go round him. He caught hold of Jethro's hand and drew it down so that it rested protectively over his belly, beneath his own hand. Twin gold bands gleamed on the fingers of both men.
"And this is your daddy..." he said. Jethro didn't speak, but his fingers tangled with Tony's. Tony felt lips brush against the top of his head. He leaned back further, letting the warmth of his lover's body seep into him; it was getting cold out here. He knew that Jethro would support him, whatever he decided to do. Not that there had ever been any doubt.
"So...," he said softly. "Wonder if you've got your daddy's beautiful blue eyes..?"
*****
End of Partners 3
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