Thanks to literatefool again for giving Ducky some very wise words.

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Ducky was not expecting anyone at this late hour. However, he had a pretty good idea of who had been knocking on his door and as he opened it he could see that he had been right. "Jethro."

Gibbs gave the other man a grim smile. "Hey, Duck. I know it's late but…."

"Nonsense, come on in." He gestured for his friend to enter and as the other man did Ducky couldn't help but see just how awful Jethro looked. "What brings you here?" He asked but he already knew.

Gibbs walked into the living room and sat down. "Tony came to visit me yesterday. He wanted to talk about Tim."

Ducky poured a drink for the other man but did not say anything. He simply waited.

"Told me some things Tim had said. Why he has such problems with my relationship with Hannah." Gibbs accepted the glass that Ducky handed him but settled it between his hands.

Ducky sat down but still did not say anything. He knew Jethro had more to say.

"I knew he had problems with the relationship but now that I know just what he is thinking I don't know how to change his mind." Gibbs raised the glass and swallowed the liquid. It tasted more like medicine. Maybe it was because of how he felt. He was sad, angry, lost, alone and so many more emotions that fought each other in his body.

Ducky wasn't sure if he was hearing this right so he had to ask. "Are you giving up?" He doubted that the answer to that question was yes.

Now Gibbs looked up at him. "What?"

Ducky drank some of his drink. "You and Hannah, Are you giving up on that?"

"No, never." He realized the way he said it that it must have sounded like he was. "I'm not." There was no way he was giving up. He loved Hannah. He just wished there was some way he could be on good terms with Tim again.

Ducky nodded and again waited.

"Tim has so many reasons as to why me being with Hannah is a bad idea and I still think there is more he is not saying." He placed the empty glass on the table.

Ducky put down his own glass. "Why don't you tell me some of those reasons?"

Gibbs sighed as he remembered what Tony had told him. "That I have three ex-wives who basically now despise me, I have always tried to find a substitute for Shannon and if I have more kids will I compare a future daughter to Kelly. I build boats in my basements while drinking bourbon; have almost no friends except those who worship me?" Gibbs looked at Ducky at this point.

"I like you but I don't worship you." He tried to make a joke out of it and as Gibbs smiled at him albeit a small one it told him he had succeeded.

"And as Tim's supervisor I caused his career to take a nosedive." Gibbs really regretted that.

"Well you did. You cannot deny that." Ducky watched as the other man looked up at him again.

Gibbs sighed. He had not meant to. "I didn't mean to Duck I.."

Ducky interrupted him as he leaned forward in his chair. "Jethro! Did you mean to begin a relationship with Hannah? Did you choose to?"

"Yes. I chose to but..."

Ducky interrupted him once again as he continued to push. "You chose to not tell her the full ramifications of your choices?"

"Yes Ducky but.."

God the man was stubborn. It was like talking to a brick walls at times. "You both knew that this could cause problems with Tim? You talked about it?"

"Well, yes but.."

Ok, now they were getting somewhere. "So you chose, and I suspect supported her choice, to lie by omission to Tim?"

"I didn't lie! I.."

Oh dear, here we go again. It was time to take out the heavy artillery. "You took her phone calls secretly. You spent time with her, involving her lying to her brother about why she wasn't with him or were canceling plans. You climbed in and out of her bed in the mornings, and looked Tim in the eye knowing this. Knowing that every lie, every secret, was going to blow up his career when it came to light. And this isn't a lie of omission?"

"I..I.."

That fact that his friend seemed speechless was something that Ducky took as a good sign. That meant that he was finally starting to get it. "Thank Goodness that nothing happened in the field when he would have needed your support and back up in an investigation. Can you see what IA or a defense attorney would have done when they found out his supervisor was sleeping with his sister? Do you even realize the jeopardy you put that man in?"

"I didn't think about it."

Ducky did not believe that for one moment. "Don't lie to me Jethro. You thought about it. You just decided to deal with it later. Or that it wouldn't happen."

"Ducky I..."

Now for the final touch. "You screwed up royally. Why don't you own up to it? YOU made the choices and the decisions. YOU did it with full knowledge of the consequences. YOU threw away your team, and YOU threw away the respect of a young man that will likely someday be director. YOU may have managed to permanently damage Tim and Hannah's relationship. Not to mention a lot of others. So OWN UP TO IT!" Ducky relaxed back into his chair while waiting for a reply that he knew would come.

Gibbs was stunned. Oh God this was so fucked up and it was his fault. When he spoke his voice was eerily calm. "I know this is my fault and I know I screwed up but I can't go back and fix it."

"No you cannot fix what has been done. However, maybe now you will think before you do next time." Ducky took a sip of his drink while he figured that might not actually happen. Jehtro had a way of doing and then thinking. He did know though that he had gotten the younger man to think and that was a start. "About young Timothy's other concerns let's talk about them. Let's start With Kelly? Would you?"

Gibbs ran a hand through his hair not quite used to the quick switch in Ducky's behavior. "If I have another daughter someday then I am sure it would stir up memories of Kelly and I might even compare them at some point." He replied honestly.

Ducky understood what was being said but he knew he had to push Jethro a little more. "Of course but the more important question is would you keep comparing this new child to Kelly? That you would see Kelly in this new child once and again would no doubt happen BUT would you keep molding this child after Kelly?"

Gibbs shook his head. "No, Kelly was… special. Heck Duck, every child is special. There is no way I could mold someone to be like Kelly. That wouldn't be fair to anyone. No, I could never do that and I wouldn't want to either."

Ducky smiled a little. "And what is this about Shannon?"

"Well, that I would compare Hannah to Shannon. You know, I may have only married red heads after Shannon but I have never really compared them to her. Shannon was one of a kind. Just like Hannah is one of a kind. Hell, even my ex's were one of a kind's although not necessary in a good way." He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.

Ducky let out a small laugh himself. "But you do see where Timothy is coming from don't you?"

Gibbs sighed as he nodded. "Yeah, I do. I just screwed up this so badly with him I don't know if I can make it right."

"You really should talk to him about this. Tell him how you feel." Ducky took his glass and another sip of his drink.

Gibbs got up and walked over to the window. It was dark out. Just as the dark mood he felt he was in now. "I will but I've been told that Tim will believe my actions rather than my words."

Ducky nodded to himself. "Well, it appears you have that in common Jethro."

Gibbs turned away from the window wondering if he had actually heard what he thought he heard. "What?"

There was no way Gibbs had not seen that at some point. "I have known you for far too many years to know that you follow that rule yourself. Pretty strictly too."

Gibbs didn't know what to say.

Ducky had to chuckle a bit at the somewhat dumfounded look on his friend. "Not much fun being held to your own standards and your own rules is it?"

"I.."

Ducky interrupted him right away. "Don't embarrass yourself. You know as well as I do this is the truth. Tim is going by your actions, the same way you did when you decided to draft him onto your team. You didn't let his stuttering and inexperienced ramblings form your judgment. You went by his actions when he stayed in the heat to get the computers working or stayed at the crime scene all night. You two are alike in a lot of ways."

Gibbs shook his head. "I doubt that."

Ducky shook his head at that. "I don't. I talk to both of you a lot. You're a matched pair of mules really."

Gibbs hung his head slightly. Were they really? "So my actions told him a lot. And now my actions have to get me back in his life."

"That is if he wants you in his life. Neither of you exactly rolled out the red carpet to each other before. I doubt he is going to now."

That Gibbs agreed on. He had always been closer to the others on the team. Still, he wasn't sure why. "Damn. So what do I do?"

He gave it a moment before answering. "Start with talking and taking responsibility. And then.. don't screw it up. Act in a way that a brother who has fought tooth and nail to keep his family together would want his sister's partner to act. And hope that at some point, he decides you can have a spot in his life."

Gibbs was in for an uphill battle he knew it. "God, this is going to be hard."

"Indeed." Ducky now stood up and walked over to the window as well.

Gibbs turned back to watch the darkness. "I don't know what to say to him. It feels like it's a lost cause."

Ducky shook his head suspecting that Jethro saw him in the window reflection. "No, you have to talk to him. All you can do is speak from the heart. If he believes you or not that you have no power over."

Gibbs knew Ducky was right. And Tony was right. He needed to talk to Tim but the question was when? The only thing he knew was that he had to do it before he saw Hannah again.

"I honestly don't know. I fell for Hannah so fast I got caught up in it. I'm not used to that." He smiled at the memory. "I really do not know but I never meant for Tim to get hurt like this." He honestly meant that. "You know seeing Hannah break down like that, I felt so utterly hopeless. Now she wants to be alone. She called Tony and he told me." He sighed once again. "Tim told me not to contact her and I already want to." He felt another squeeze on his shoulder. "I will wait but it's difficult. Difficult to know she wants to be away from me but at the same time I can understand. This has not been easy on her and I didn't see just how hard it became for her until it was too late."

"You cannot beat yourself to much on that. Timothy did not see it either and he knows her better than anyone. At least now you know and you can make sure it does not happen again." Ducky walked back to his chair and seated himself once again. "Just make sure you and Timothy talk before you see Hannah again. You need to work something out."

"I know." Gibbs whispered knowing Ducky would probably not hear him. "I know."