"Belated Congratulations, It's a Girl"
May 10, 2000, Washington D.C.
For the most part, doing blood work for the agents that were returning from missions overseas was a usually uneventful task. Sure you got the occasional dangerous illness that the agent had contracted, but that was really uncommon, considering that the agents that were going abroad had to get many shots in order to go. But this time, blood work for a female agent was somewhat off. He looked at the name of the agent: Jenny Shepard. He'd worked with her while in France along with another agent. She'd actually stolen a boat that would get them out of the country quickly. Dr. Mallard than ordered the tests be run again, just to make sure that the tests weren't messed up. When he got the second tests back, he sat back in his chair and simply thought,
"Oh my!"
Ducky was giving his preliminary report on the blood tests to Director Morrow. For the most part, he did not seem to be too surprised. Until he came to Agent Shepard's results that was.
"Doctor what are the explanations for these elevated hormone levels?" he asked.
"Well sir, there is one main explanation, but I have to talk with her myself".
"I'll send her down to you tomorrow, Doctor."
"I'd be guessing, but I'll ask her tomorrow to confirm my suspicions, sir."
The next morning in Autopsy…
Well one thing could be said for Agent Shepard. She was always on time. Today was a close shave with being late. She looked a little peaked and was rather pale. In fact she looked like she could vomit at the least provocation. What further confirmed his suspicions was when she noticed the body that he was preparing to do an autopsy on. It had been a sailor that had died in a car accident, but under weird circumstances. Her face than turned green and he simply pointed to the sink, which she made a mad dash to. After she finished, he decided that now was the time to talk with her.
"So Agent Shepard, do you have any idea why you were ordered to visit me down here?"
"Um, not really just that Director Morrow said that you wanted to talk to me about my blood work", she replied.
"Your blood work came back a little off; you want to hazard a guess as to why it was like that?"
"I've been feeling a little ill for the past two weeks, but I can't think what that could possibly be."
Ducky was getting tired of the beating around the bush, so he decided to stop it himself with saying:
"You know it's only a matter of time before people will start to notice, Agent Shepard"
"I still have no idea what you are talking about, and now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do before I go to Great Lakes"
Ducky in an attempt to get her attention for one last time said the final blow:
"You're about three months along, Agent Shepard and I believe that you know that".
That stopped Jen in her tracks. She then turned to Ducky with a sad smile on her face.
"I knew it was only a matter of time before they would ask for the blood work, and the elevated hormone levels would be noticed, but I'm glad it was noticed by you" "Have you told anyone else?"
"You know that I have to tell the Director, and just out of curiosity who is the father of the child?"
"I think that you know the answer to your question Doctor"
"Does he know", Ducky then asked but he answered his own question, "If he knew he'd be here".
"Don't tell him" she said urgently.
"He's going to find out sooner or later"
"I'd prefer later rather than sooner, Doctor Mallard and I'm going to need some leave time from late October through December and maybe some of January"
"Okay, I will arrange it with the Director"
As Ducky started the paperwork, he stopped for a moment. He knew Jethro would want to know that he had a child on the way. But he was bound by his oath to keep secret what his patients wanted secret.
Two days later, when he went to the Director, he had a few questions that were to be asked of him. They were of the basic nature given the situation.
"Do you know who the father is, Doctor Mallard?"
"Yes, I do but I was asked not to say anything".
"Its agent Gibbs isn't it?" Director Morrow asked.
"Yes sir, it is".
September 2005
"I just want to kill the bastard!" exclaimed Agent Gibbs. Ducky assumed that the "bastard" was Ari Haswari: A rogue Mossad officer and a suspected terrorist who'd once taken Autopsy hostage, blown his assistant Gerald Jackson's shoulder out, shot Jethro in the shoulder, kidnapped Agent Todd, then Gibbs shot him in return, and his most recent crimes were murdering Agent Todd and shooting into the forensics lab. There was one problem however: Lack of proof. One thing that he had to grudgingly admit that Haswari was good at his job.
"Well, Jethro you and I are a pair of chauvinists, women will never be equal in our eyes until equal in death".
"One has to wonder what made him such a sadist." Ducky asked of his old friend.
"I don't give a damn; I just want to shoot the bastard!" Jethro said as he left.
Ducky sat down and finished his drink. There was one more surprise in store for Jethro this day. His old lover (and mother of his child) was now his boss. He wished he could be in MTAC to see the look on his friend's face. He also remembered the secret that he'd been keeping from him for five years now. There was someone that he was completely unaware of. He really wanted to tell Jethro, but he was bound by doctor-patient privilege until the patient gave the go ahead. But he knew that the patient was not ready to tell Jethro.
"As much as I like you Jethro, I would not shoot NCIS in the head" said Director Morrow as he left.
"He's your problem now Director" were his final words before he left MTAC.
Gibbs was sitting wondering who his new boss would be. He was thinking of the people that were in line for the job. But the last person he expected to see as his new boss turned around and simply said:
"Hello Jethro"
Many memories began to come unbidden to his mind. Rare memories of happiness, joy, and comfort were what came to his mind first. Than the last and worst memory resurfaced; this was one of the memories that he tried to suppress. His new boss was his ex-girlfriend Jenny Shepard.
"Shall we skip you haven't changed a bit bull?"
"Why should we start lying to each other now Jen?" was his reply.
He got up and stood across from her. He looked her up and down. She really hadn't changed a bit. Except for one thing; even though she was the director of NCIS now, she still looked like she carried a secret weight that was completely unrelated to the job.
"You were a good agent Jen, especially undercover"
The look in her eyes at that statement said, "Don't go there". She than simply said:
"Jethro"
"Madame Director"
Ducky had done Caitlin's autopsy mechanically; trying not to think about the fact that unlike so many other bodies, he knew who this person was. He'd also been called by Gerald, only to be interrupted by Ari, who'd talked him into meeting him. He went to the elevator to go upstairs. On his way up, the elevator stopped. It was Director Shepard. They exchanged some pleasantries before the doors shut and once they shut, Ducky began to ask the question that had been bugging him all day.
"Did you tell him?"
"No I did not; he's had enough to deal with in the past 48 hours".
His question apparently answered, they stood in silence for the next few minutes. Just before she left for her car he asked:
"How is Alexandra doing?" "Does she like it here in DC?"
"She's doing fine and she's getting used to it".
Ducky decided that his next question could wait until tomorrow, if he lived through the night.
The next morning, after a night of excitement he read the newspaper. He then got the answer to his final question that he did not ask. The newspaper article about Director Shepard said that she also had her five year old "cousin" with her in Washington, of whom she was her legal guardian. He smiled to himself.
"If only they knew the truth"
Two years later…
Again he was doing blood work. Again it was for the now Director Shepard. And, unlike the first time, this time the news was not good. There were elevated levels of creatine kinase in her blood. It was a marker of a muscular disease that was usually terminal. When he told her the news, she asked him to do one more thing.
"I need you to do another set of blood work, for Alex"
"If I may ask, why?"
"I want to make sure that she also does not have any hallmarks for the illness that I have".
"That would require genetic work as she has no apparent symptoms, and that would require you to tell the people doing the work about Alex's father," was his response.
"Okay, but tell them that if they reveal anything at all, they will lose their jobs, and that will be the least of their worries".
Ducky was impatiently waiting the results of Alex's genetic markers. He was worried that she, like her mother had "won" the genetic lottery, by being another female with muscular dystrophy. But from what he knew of her father's background, she stood a pretty good chance of not getting it. Muscular dystrophy was rare in women, but not unknown.
After about two hours…
This was taking too long. Something bad must have happened and... Then Ducky saw the geneticist walking towards him and stood up. The doctor then said:
"Whoever her father is, he kept her from getting muscular dystrophy".
Ducky breathed a sigh of relief. Alex got more from her dad than her mom.
"Thank you for doing this on such short notice, Doctor Riesman, I owe you one."
"It was no problem, we weren't busy anyway"
As Ducky left, his friend Doctor Riesman said to himself:
"I've never seen him this worried before, who is it that needed that work done for their child?"
Ducky was almost jubilant. The secret that he'd kept to himself for over 8 years would now have to come out. He got to NCIS headquarters in record time. He nearly broke the elevator's button in order to get up there fast. Unfortunately, he ran into Gibbs on his way up.
"Where are you going in such a hurry Duck?" he asked of him.
"Just need to share something with the Director".