A/N: Hey, this was a small cliff only. It's really great to see how you get drawn into the plot. Hugs you all :-)
But I really wonder: What would you have thought, if I had added the first two lines of this new chapter to the previous one before ending it?


... Ducky didn't hesitate to interrupt his flare-up. "Hollis is pregnant, Jethro."


Chapter Fourteen

Throwing Dr. Mallard a suspicious look, Gibbs tilted his head. "Yeah," he grinned disapprovingly. "Sure."

This was ridiculous. Didn't Ducky see that he was making a fool of himself?

"You don't believe me, do you?" Dr. Mallard wasn't really surprised at Gibbs's reaction.

"No, Duck." Gibbs nonchalantly turned his attention back to his boat.

Ducky sighed. "I can't blame you for this, Jethro. This is entirely my fault because I told Hollis about your first wife and your daughter."

"I know," Gibbs said, not even lifting his head.

"If I hadn't, then this would not have happened," Ducky didn't stop to reproach himself.

"Listen, Duck." Gibbs interrupted his work again, glaring at his Medical Examiner. "This is not your fault. And I can't blame her for moving on. Whether this is because she has fallen in love with someone less complicated than me or whether she is sick of D.C.'s unsettled weather. But stop making a fool of yourself. You don't need to invent a pregnancy to make it easier for me to let go of her. You shouldn't try to piss me off, Duck."

At this very instant, Dr. Mallard's cell phone went off. His face was full of concern as he listened to the person on the other end of the line.

-xxx-

After Hollis had entered the boathouse, she had slowly walked over to the hull of a boat, which was placed on a carriage and hidden under a big green tarpaulin. She didn't dare to touch it, at first. Holding her breath, she laid her hand on top of it -- gently, as if taking care to not hurt it.

He had told her where he kept it. They had even come here once or twice.

"Hey," she whispered, before her fingers started ghosting over the cover. When she reached the back end of the hull, she carefully lifted the tarpaulin and uncovered the painted signature. With pinched lips, she looked at it, recalling when she had first walked into his basement, and had seen it for the very first time.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she apologized, remembering how he had firmly grabbed her hand and forced her to stop scratching at the varnish with her fingernails.

Hollis leaned back against the wooden wall of the boathouse and cowered down on the footbridge. Her eyes kept tracing the signature as she started her silent conversation.

-xxx-

Before Dr. Mallard ended the call, he promised the person he was talking to, to see if he was able to help and that he would call back. Taking a deep breath, he looked up at Gibbs.

"This was Dr. Williams from Bethesda. Hollis disappeared from the hospital," Ducky told him.

"Yeah?" Gibbs didn't sound worried in the least. He had almost accepted it as a fact that Hollis must have fallen in love with someone else. And if so, then why should he -- Jethro -- worry about her any longer? "She probably is on her way back to Hawaii already. She can take care of herself pretty well. Maybe there's even someone waiting for her there. But stop looking for excuses, Doctor. Hollis can't have children."

Though Ducky had already understood that talking some reason into Gibbs was a somewhat difficult task, he hadn't thought it would be that difficult. Ducky sighed, then he tried again; his voice insistent. "That's what she was told more than 20 years ago. But there is no doubt that she is pregnant now. Hollis has left the hospital without permission. She has a concussion and due to her pregnancy she is fighting dizziness, which also is the reason why she fainted this morning and fell down the flight of stairs. Luckily the baby was unharmed, but next time she might not be that lucky."

Gibbs felt a stabbing pain. That was what she had wanted to hide? A new relationship and a baby? He should have been angry, but all he felt was sadness that Hollis hadn't been honest to him.

"Then why don't you call the father and tell him that she is missing?" Gibbs suggested resignedly, his face strained.

This was definitely too much. Incredibly pissed at his friend's stubbornness, Ducky couldn't hold back his anger any longer. He stepped closer, until he wasn't even an arm's length away from Gibbs and then Ducky glared at him. He dangerously emphasized every single word as he spoke it.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs! It is about damn time someone gives you a proper smack over the back of your head! I am telling the father! Right at this very moment! But for some stupid reason he doesn't want to see it!"

To be continued ... of course ;-)