Author's Note: I don't own NCIS, not any part of it (if I did, Jenny would still be alive, McAbby would be in full swing, as would Tiva! And that hideous monster M. Alison Hart would have died an painful and horrible death!)

Dawn was beginning to break as Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard arrived at the Navy Yard. The sky was becoming brighter as the sun poked above the horizon, promising a pleasantly warm and sunny day. As he made his way up in the lift from reception, he decided that perhaps he would take a stroll in the park over lunch, to enjoy a little of the day away from the confines of Autopsy. He had taken to leaving the Navy Yard for lunch when he'd been involved with the young real estate agent who had been helping him sell his mother's house after her death. Even though they had stopped seeing each other some months ago, he had kept up the lunchtime routine, often accompanied by one or more members of "team Gibbs". Abby and Ziva had been relieved when his trademark bow-ties had reappeared, although both had also been saddened to learn that his newly fledged relationship had not flourished into the deep and lasting love they would have liked for him. However much he had enjoyed the brief relationship, he was under no illusion that it would ever have developed into anything more serious. Ducky had always been a firm believer in the fact that you only had one true love in life, the one person you were soul mates with whom you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with.

He had already found, and lost, his one true love.

He'd lost her when he chose to move to the USA to progress his career, rather than staying in England with her and taking a cushy job with The Met as their Medical Examiner. The doors of the lift opened with a 'ding', the sound echoing slightly around the empty office. Ducky made his way slowly towards the bullpen where "team Gibbs" were to be found during their working hours, pausing briefly by Jethro's desk to place a holiday request form onto the smooth, uncluttered surface. Relationships were the last thing on his mind at that moment though, for he had been called in early to perform the autopsy of several marines who had been caputured, tortured and then murdered whilst in a warzone overseas. The only autopsies worse than those of serving soldiers, were those of children or people personally known. To know that the person or persons on his autospy table had suffered and died whilst serving their country was always something which affected Ducky, perhaps due to the things he had seen during his time as a doctor overseas. With a shake of his head, to clear his mind of such negative thoughts, he entered the lift that would take him down to Autopsy to start what would prove to be a very long day.

Upon entering Autopsy, a strange shiver ran down Ducky's spine and he stopped just inside the door, a feeling of unease beginning to form in his gut. He hadn't felt this way since he had been injured in the field, at the crime scene of a naval seaman who's ex-fiance had stabbed him to death in the street. Shrugging off his coat, he hung the garment up on the coat stand just inside the door and removed his trilby hat, placing it onto a hook next to his coat. Grabbing a clean set of scrubs, he told himself not to be silly as he stepped into the small changing room at the back of the area and quickly changed, placing his clothing into his small locker before re-entering the main Autopsy room. He gathered up the files he had been sent on the dead marines and flicked through them briefly, before placing them back on his desk and moving to the first of the four body bags on the the cold metals tables...

Leroy Jethro Gibbs walked into the quiet squad room and moved to his desk, carefully placing his gun and badge into the drawer on the right hand side of his desk. Closing the drawer, he slipped his mobile phone out of his pocket and put it on the desk next to the holiday request form Ducky had placed there when he arrived. Gibbs picked up the thin sheet of paper, smiling as he read the elegant caligraphy that was Ducky's handwriting, explaining why he wanted to have a few days off in a couple of weeks time. Although he would never admit it, Jethro liked listening to Ducky's stories, rambling as they were at times, and there were many times when he would have loved to allow the doctor to finish his story but time was always at a premium on a case. He'd often caught up with the doctor at a later date and asked him to finish some of the more intriguing stories, finding hidden meanings or life lessons within many of them. Signing his usual scawl across the page to authorise the time off, he jumped slightly when the phone on the desk started to ring.
"Ducky?" he asked, surprised at getting a call this early from the doctor.
"Ah, Jethro. Just the person." Ducky sounded a little distracted to Gibbs as he noticed the rest of the team heading to their desks.
"What is it Ducky?"
"Could you possibly come down to Autopsy please?" Ducky asked, his voice strained.
"Sure, anything wrong?" Jethro was immediately alert to his friend's tone, his infamous gut telling him there was something very wrong in autopsy at that moment.
"Yes, we appear to have an extra body down here," the doctor advised. Jethro turned to look at his team members, who had gathered around his desk after hearing his conversation, and was about to brief them on the situatuion when the lights in building went out....