Ducky stared at Jimmy in disbelief but decided to defer commenting until he had attended to Tony.

"Anthony! What happened?"

Tony looked up into the anxious faces of Ducky and Palmer and shook his head, "Don't know … I just felt dizzy and the next thing I knew I was nearly faceplanting the ground. Good thing I didn't, don't think Boss would appreciate me getting blood on his decking."

"Can you get up?" asked Ducky, "I think you would be more comfortable situated on Jethro's couch."

"No arguments from me," said Tony, "But … er … I might need a hand up."

Jimmy and Ducky hastened to lift Tony to his feet and then shepherded him to Gibbs' living room where Faith and Jerome were still in discussion. Gibbs heard the additional noise and emerged from his basement.

"Tony? What's the matter?" asked Jerome.

"He fainted," said Jimmy.

"No, I didn't," protested Tony, "I …"

"Merely decided to take a closer look at the ground?" suggested Ducky.

Tony had recovered enough to glare at Ducky but, wisely, decided not to argue.

"What happened?" asked Gibbs, "Palmer, you tell me," he said gesturing to Tony to keep silent.

"I'm not sure, Agent Gibbs. Tony got up to come back in and the next thing I knew he was on the ground."

"How you feeling, DiNozzo?" asked Gibbs. The others looked at Tony attentively, somehow knowing that Tony would tell Gibbs the truth.

"Everything went black and I found myself on the ground. And I feel fine now … or I will in a moment or two."

"Has your medical guy come up with anything?" asked Gibbs of Faith and Jerome.

"No, he's still working on it," said Faith.

"Is he sure it's something specific to do with the spell?"

"No," admitted Jerome, "And he's an animal doctor, not a human one but he thinks the blood test looks odd and he can't find anything in his medical books that helps."

"Could I perhaps be of assistance?" said Ducky, "As I do have medical experience on humans," he added pointedly.

"Might as well," said Tony in a resigned tone, "Prod away, everyone else has."

Jimmy went to collect Ducky's medical bag from his car and the ME proceeded to examine Tony. "Well," he announced, "I would say that you are run down, if not exhausted and I find that surprising as you seemed to be in the pink of health just a few days ago. Your breathing is a little ragged and I think, from looking at your skin tone, that you may be anaemic. There may be other conditions which would become apparent with blood and urine tests."

"How serious is it?" asked Gibbs.

Tony muttered something about being talked over rather than to, but this was ignored.

"If this condition had built up over a number of weeks or was due to an identifiable underlying condition, I would say that it was of concern but would respond to treatment but, as I say, this situation appears to be different." Ducky saw the despondent faces of his companions and continued, "Mr Palmer, why did you say this was my fault?"

Jimmy looked a little embarrassed but also defiant, "We think Tony's condition may have been caused by Azaria's spell," he said.

"I see … I may have been inadvertently to blame," said Ducky, "And I am most sorry about that …"

"And it's possible that some of the documents you have might give us a clue," continued Jimmy, "We don't know much about illnesses which may affect people with Additional Powers and we hoped that you would let us look at them. But you've refused."

Ducky turned to Tony in astonishment, "Anthony, why didn't you tell me! You must know that I would not withhold any medical help …"

Tony shuffled awkwardly, "Seemed you were refusing us access to your papers on principle. I didn't want to make it look as if we were trying to get around it."

Ducky tutted, "Jethro, you know where my safe is at home. Please go and get the papers and return here so we can examine them to see if they contain any useful information."

"On medical matters?" asked Faith.

"We will work that out later," said Ducky, "Our first priority must be Anthony's health. We can work on the finer details of access later."

"You want to come too, Duck?" asked Gibbs.

"I will remain here and monitor Anthony's condition: assuming I am forgiven to some extent at least?" he asked pointedly of Jimmy.

"I'll come with you," said Jerome. "The journey time might be shorter that way."

Gibbs nodded, wondering what the journey would be like … it would be a change for him to be on the passenger end of a scary ride.

NCISNCIS

Ducky and Jimmy discussed the details of Tony's condition to such effect that he dozed off with boredom. Jimmy apologised for his outburst and Ducky graciously forgave him; not least because he suspected that anyone else would have been far ruder to him.

Bruce arrived and jumped on Tony's tummy which awoke him from a restless dream. Stroking the cat reminded Tony about Azaria,

"What made you give Azaria a spell in Esperanto?" he asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Faith and Jerome listened to the spell being cast and said it sounded as if it was a mix of voodoo and Esperanto."

"And pidgin English," added Faith.

"I don't understand," said Ducky, "And while I applaud the aspirations behind the creation of the Esperanto language, I fear I have never obtained any degree of fluency in it. And my knowledge of voodoo is similarly limited … I have a working knowledge of pidgin but …"

"So you didn't give her a spell in another language?" asked Faith.

"Well," said Ducky looking embarrassed, "I confess that I did translate it into Latin. I thought it would give the affair a little gravitas … add some ceremony and mystique."

"You sure it wasn't Latin?" Tony asked Faith. "You didn't make a mistake?"

"No, I'd recognise Latin. And you're forgetting Jerome's Esperanto lessons," she replied.

"I didn't know that the Deputy Director was a student of Esperanto," said Ducky, "I must talk to him about it … I have sometimes considered studying another language. I feel I do have a natural proficiency for other tongues and it would be interesting to discover if that extends to what is, after all, something of a constructed language rather than one which has developed naturally. But, of course," he said hastily, "That is a matter for another time."

"Then why did Azaria change the words?" asked Tony. "Could we get a copy of the recording, Faith? And a translation? We can check what she did?"

"I find it extraordinary," said Ducky, "That my spell had any effect on you, Anthony." He lifted his hands pacifically, "It is not that I do not believe in the possibility of spells but that one I provided should have had an effect … and especially that one."

"What do you mean, 'that one'?" asked Faith.

"Well, I probably should not have said it was a spell. It was in a book acquired by my grandmother and was almost like a commonplace book of old wives' tales, superstitions, songs and so on. There were also a number of … charms, I suppose you would call them."

"Charms?" asked Tony.

"Yes, you know, little songs or rhymes to accompany a particular task. Almost asking a blessing on the work at hand … some of them have a strong rhythm which can help with the task – serving as a beat to which to perform tasks such as rowing a boat or kneading dough."

"And it was one of those which you gave Azaria?" asked Faith.

"Indeed. As far as I recall it was a chant to accompany the stirring of the porridge cauldron."

"The porridge cauldron?" asked Tony faintly.

"Yes, oh – you might prefer to call it oatmeal."

"You gave Azaria a chant to prosper the work of making oatmeal?" said Faith.

"Yes."

"But didn't you tell Gibbs that you altered it, just to be safe?" asked Tony.

"I did."

"But why?"

"Cooking oatmeal takes a long time … or it did in the time when the incantation was written down. And accordingly, its incantation needed to be long. There are parts of it which talk about the possibility of dearth, famine and holes in the cauldron … I chose to leave those out although my grandmother would have said that their omission would render the chant ineffective."

"You gave Azaria a recipe to make oatmeal?" said Tony.

"I wouldn't term it as a recipe but, essentially, yes."

"Not a recipe to make blue parakeets?" asked Tony, wanting to be sure.

"By no means. Why, is that what happened?"

"Yes. I guess … Ducky, are you sure your translation was right?"

"It is some time since I came top of my class in ancient languages in the Upper Fifth," said Ducky stiffly, "So it possible that I am a little rusty but I do not believe that I would be able to confuse the Latin for porridge with that for blue parakeet … always assuming such a word exists in Latin."

"I guess we'll have to wait to check what was actually said again," sighed Tony. "My head hurts."

"Is that a new symptom?" asked Jimmy anxiously.

"No," said Tony, "Well yes, but only a symptom of trying to work out what went on in Abby's lab!"

At that moment, the front door to Gibbs' house burst open and a somersaulting Gibbs came rolling through. Jerome walked through more sedately, "I told you it would be better if I held the books," he said to Gibbs who was lying on his back, trying to look in control.

Tony laughed, "Now you know what driving with you feels like!"

Gibbs sat up, tried to straighten his hair and decided not to comment directly. "We got the books," he announced. "What's the plan?"

"We'll divide them up between us," decided Faith. "Dr Mallard, do you know if any of these documents relate specifically to ailments?"

"It is some time since I looked at them," said Ducky, "I don't remember that they do; my recollection is that they are almost like diaries or journals, so their content is random. Some of them are in a language I could not read and, I fear, I was not inclined to investigate too closely."

Jerome lay his bundle on the coffee table and unwrapped the documents from the paper Ducky had kept them in. Gibbs and Ducky took one each and retreated to the kitchen table to read them. Bruce, noticing them going nearer kitchen cabinets, opportunistically followed them in the hope that food might be produced.

"Cupboard love," muttered Tony as he saw her go. He stretched across and selected an old book and, as he picked it up, said, "Wow!"

"Tony?" asked Jimmy.

"It feels … good," said Tony in an awestruck voice. "Try one."

Faith, Jerome and Jimmy picked up a book each and smiled. "There's power of some sort around these," announced Faith.

"And they're in beautiful condition," observed Jimmy.

"They don't look hundreds of years old," said Jerome. "Something's happened to them to keep them like this."

"I guess they're even more important than we realised," said Tony. He opened his book, "Ducky, is this one of the ones you couldn't read?"

Ducky walked over and picked up the book, "I don't feel anything," he commented.

"Nor me," said Gibbs.

"I think it must be something else we don't understand about Additional Powers," said Jerome, "And something else only someone with APs can recognise."

"More protection," said Tony. "But you said you didn't feel able to destroy them, Ducky?"

"That's right."

"I don't think that's accidental. So, they were having an impact on you in some way, Ducky. Maybe you've absorbed something over the years."

"You think that might be why Dr Mallard's 'spell' worked?" asked Jimmy.

"Could be," said Tony, "And it's odd that I picked this one up."

"How so?" asked Gibbs.

"'Cos it's in Italian … well, old Italian but I can make it out."

"I'm beginning to think this isn't all coincidence," said Gibbs.

"Huh, who'd have thunk it?" said Tony.

"Thunk what?" asked Faith.

"That Additional Powers are governed by Gibbs' rules … or more specifically, Rule 39?"

"Rule 39?" asked Faith and Jerome in unison.

"No such thing as coincidence," chorused Tony, Jimmy and Ducky.