Ok, so I had the best of intentions for this story. And then about a week after I posted it, I received a very, very unexpected promotion at work. Opportunity of a lifetime, awesome resume-builder...and also the death of my free time! Things have finally settled down enough to return to my happy fandom life here and there, and I had to decide what to do with this story. I was just going to delete it, but I had so much of the next few chapters already written that I decided to tweak what I've got. So, while there was supposed to be a casefic and nice emotional resolution moving past the first five chapters, now it'll just be angst and the initial aftermath from the different character's POV. I hope it still works, and at least it gets my brain back in writing mode for what I'm sure will be awesome tag-opportunities coming up in JUST TWO WEEKS! :)


Jimmy was quite certain he'd married the most amazing woman in the world. Ed had been less than thrilled with the change in plans, but most of the guests had understood and supported the abbreviated wedding. After a small lunch, he'd left Doctor Mallard strolling along the beach and returned to their room to pack, only to find Breena already there with two suitcases ready and waiting.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here with your family?" Jimmy asked yet again, patting his pockets absentmindedly as he searched for his ticket. Breena stilled his hands, holding up three boarding passes.

"You are my family now Jimmy. I go where you go, and you go where you're needed."

His worried expression was replaced momentarily with one of joy as he leaned in to capture her lips in a quick kiss. "I'm a lucky man Mrs. Palmer."

She returned the grin, tucking the tickets safely into her purse as Jimmy glanced at his watch and then back towards the lobby. "He said he was just stretching his legs before the flight. He should be here by now..."

"Ducky is the incarnation of punctuality," she assured him. "He'll be here any minute."

"But the cab is already late. Any longer and I may have to hijack that to get us to the airport." He nodded towards an ambulance parked haphazardly to their right; two young hotel valets murmuring nearby about an older patron with chest pains.

Breena chuckled. "Well the sirens would certainly help us cut through rush hour."

"But Doctor Mallard would insist on giving me directions and we'd probably end up in the Keys," Jimmy sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I'm calling him again."

He brought the phone to his ear, turning away and plugging his other ear against the sudden onslaught of noise coming from the lobby. The phone rang just three times on his end before Breena's grip turned vice-like on his arm.

"Jimmy," she whispered.

He looked at her, then followed her gaze over to the small group huddled around the stretcher, preparing to lift it up into the waiting ambulance. The telltale chords of Scotland the Brave emanated from the clear plastic bag of personal belongings that was tucked under the arm of one of the paramedics.

"Doctor Mallard!" Jimmy cried out, running over to the ambulance to see an agitated and alarmingly ashen Ducky swatting at the oxygen mask.

"Sir you know this man?" the paramedic asked, stepping aside slightly to allow Jimmy to grasp his hand.

"Yes, he's family," Jimmy panicked. "What happened?"

"He collapsed on the beach behind the hotel. Appears to have had a heart attack."

Ducky kept pawing at the mask on his face, his breathing labored as he tried to speak. "Jimmy...problem…"

"We need to get going," the paramedic urged.

"You're going to be fine Doctor Mallard. I'll go with you to the hospital."

Ducky shook his head feebly back and forth. "Explosion...Home...Dearing..."

The halting words wafted through the din of noise around them and settled in the pit of Jimmy's stomach. "What? Was anyone hurt?"

Ducky nodded, once. "Dead. See to...dead."

For the second time that day, Jimmy felt as if his loyalties would tear him in two. There was an explosion, and he couldn't help but wonder who of his friends would be among those heading for autopsy, silently awaiting his return. But neither could he leave this man, closer to him in many ways than his own flesh and blood, alone and sick so far from home.

The cab pulled up behind them, and Jimmy turned to his wife of three hours with wide eyes. "Breena, I-" he choked out before she stopped him with a hand to his cheek.

"I'll stay with Ducky, I promise. You have to go help."

She leaned in, kissing him quickly and then tucked the ticket in his jacket pocket. "Be safe and stay in touch. I'll update you as soon as I can."

She climbed into the back of the ambulance and they were off within seconds, lights and sirens blaring. He stared after the retreating vehicle for a long moment before forcefully willing himself to set aside his worry for Ducky and focusing on the task at hand. He climbed into the cab and pulled his cellphone from his pocket, scrolling down past Ducky's number to the next on his contact list. It didn't even ring once, but went straight to voicemail.

As did the next four after it.


He can't bring himself to look too long at the coffin, but instead squeezes his eyes closed and clings tighter to Breena. He tries to remember what life was like before her calm, loving presence, and he is glad that he can't picture it anymore. The first week of their marriage undoubtedly fell under the 'for worse' portion of their vows, but he had also never loved her more as she had stood beside him through it all.

She'd kept him apprised each step of the way - he'd been at airport security when she first called to inform him that Ducky had suffered a massive heart attack and required emergency surgery. By the time he'd landed at Dulles, she told him quietly that there had been complications: the doctors were working on getting a delicate graft in place, but they were worried the damage may have been too severe to repair.

It wasn't until he was standing in the hallway at Metro's Coroner's office - having just been handed a list of the deceased that were pulled from the wreckage of their own facilities - that she called again. She sounded tired, but she assured him that she was just keeping her voice low as she sat beside Ducky's bed, holding his hand. The surgery had been rough, and the recovery would take time, but the doctors were confident the older man would make it. It was a brief respite - a moment of relief that took some of the horrific sting away from the six names on the list before him, the six friends and colleagues that waited behind metal doors for his expert care. Metro's coroner offered up his personnel for the autopsies, but all Jimmy could see was Ducky's shaking head.

Not for Caitlin. Not for Jenny.

The elder Scot had always been insistent on caring for their fallen, and Jimmy wasn't about to let him down.

It was nearly dawn two days later when he finally left, all six autopsies completed and the bodies ready for funeral vans and grieving families. Yet he couldn't make himself go home. Breena was still in Florida and the thought of their apartment - dark and empty - did nothing to lessen the throbbing ache in his gut. Instead he reached the Navy Yard without making the conscious choice of destination, his eyes raking over the crippled building, his second home of more than seven years. Even at 5AM, he wasn't all that surprised to see the others were there, and he knew this was why he had come.

They hugged him and cuffed him on the back and answered his one word query with expressionless eyes. Dearing was dead, found by a hotel maid twelve hours earlier with a .45 in one hand and a picture of his son in the other. For the first time in his life, Jimmy had regretted the death - not out of sadness or senselessness - but pure fury. He may have been a madman and a deranged father, but it had been too easy an out for Harper Dearing, and now there was no one left to punish. The wooden faces around him spoke to their shared thoughts, their collective dilemma, and so there had been nothing left to say. Still, he found some solace - sitting there on burned and dewy grass as they watched the sun crawl up over the Anacostia - that at least they were all lost together.


We return to the Navy Yard and Gibbs and Abby next!