Chapter 5 – Collateral Duckage
"Okay, now we've got him. What are we gonna do with him?" one of the women said.
The first one shrugged. "Dunno. As I recall, the wine didn't last long enough for us to figure that out."
"Mmmmmmm… slow torture comes to mind," the third one said, dreamily."
"What did he DO to you, anyway?" one of them asked, eyes wide.
"It's not what he DID, it's what he DIDN'T do. He wasn't married to me, so much as his damned job."
"Ditto, sister," the other two said, not quite in unison.
"We still need to figure out what to do with Ducky. He never did anything to us, in fact, I seem to remember he was very supportive of me." The other two glanced at her and nodded in agreement. "I feel kinda bad about involving Ducky in this. If anything, he was on OUR side when Jethro was being a bastard."
"Ducky always was a gentleman," one of them said, smiling. "Maybe we can find some way of letting him go? I'm pretty sure he doesn't know where he is. If we can, you know, knock him out again, we can get him out of here and he'd be none the wiser."
"Oh, honey, Ducky has ALWAYS been wise. But no doubt his assistant is missing him. What was his name? Gerald?" The first one took on a thoughtful look as she thought a moment. "No, I seem to remember reading in the papers that Gerald was shot in some kind of hostage taking in the morgue at NCIS. Some terrorist was behind it, I think. I don't even know if Ducky has an assistant now."
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"Damn."
Ziva rolled her eyes and swung her head again. "Since when does Gibbs leave his cell phone behind?" She and Tony were confused, and frustrated.
"Gibbs never was a fan of technology. But even he wouldn't do that," Tony said. They looked around hopefully. "I don't see either of them, Tony," Ziva said, frowning. "Perhaps you should check the men's room."
Tony sighed with resignation as he turned towards the bathrooms. Ziva looked around, going from table to table, trying to appear inconspicuous as she searched for clues. She stopped suddenly as she thought she saw something. She waited for Tony to return, studying that which had just caught her eye.
Was that dried foam on Gibbs' cellphone?
Gibbs drank his coffee black - he did not abide by fluffy coffee. And Ducky drank tea. She waited for Tony to return, giving him a few extra minutes, in case he'd had to use the facilities, and only when a few too extra minutes had passed without his return, did she realize that something was definitely wrong.