The ensuing couple of months, Jethro and his team were still working hard to put all the pieces back together from everything that had happened. Most of his team had, thankfully, adjusted rather well, although, he'd still been getting woken up by Abby in the middle of the night until recently.

The last week of September was a bit of a whirlwind for his team. They'd finally caught a lead on the disappearance of Midge Watkins, an NCIS Weapons Administrator. Midge and her car had been found in a lake and the poor woman had been shot. Meanwhile, his team had to finally undergo mandatory psych evaluations. Jethro, who had been rather worried about Abby, tipped the psychiatrist, Dr. Miles Wolf, off about the goth's frequent nightmares and talked to her himself. Connecting with her biological brother, Kyle, had been what really helped, however. Jethro was just glad that Abby was back to acting like herself and was finally moving on. He hated seeing her hurting.

Tuesday morning, Jethro woke up and went about his usual morning routine, chatting with his wife over breakfast. "So, Dad confirmed his flight for this weekend."

"Great," Shannon said. "It'll be good to see him."

Jethro gave a little snort at that. "I think we're gonna have to physically pry Dad away from Paisley. Pretty sure that we're just going along for the ride as my old man spoils his great-granddaughter."

Shannon barked out a laugh in response. "Oh, don't I know it, Babe. Still can't believe that the tyke's nine months old already."

"I know," he agreed. "And she just keeps looking more and more like Kellz."

"P's definitely her mini-me," his wife agreed. "Mike'll be on liberty, so Kel was thinking we should all go to that Halloween treasure hunt."

"The one at the Mansion on O Street?" he clarified. It wouldn't be his first choice but it didn't sound horrible either. "Could be fun."

She leaned over their kitchen table slightly and smirked. "And we'll have a professional investigator on hand to help find all of the secrets rooms."

He took a sip of his coffee and then smiled at his wife. "Unfair advantage."

She raised a brow. "Small perks of marrying a LEO. I'm cashing in."

Jethro chuckled, shaking his head. "Okay then."

Eventually, it was time for him to go and, throwing an overcoat on, he hopped into his old pick-up and headed to the Navy Yard.

As it turned out, the person he actually had to be worried about was Ducky. That, well, Jethro just hadn't seen coming. Health-wise, his friend was fine, all things considered, but he got to NCIS and immediately met with the director to discuss the latest Middle Eastern threat assessments. Jethro then spoke with dispatch, his team having caught a case. Right after talking with dispatch, he got a phone call regarding something that the slightly older man had done first thing that morning.

Palmer was noticeably uncomfortable with the whole situation when Jethro walked into autopsy. "W-when Agent Gibbs finds out that you exhumed a body without..."

Jethro eyed the pair as he made his way over to them. "He found out."

"Agent Gibbs," Palmer greeted him, clearly more than a bit nervous. The kid didn't like any conflict whatsoever. Remnants of the much younger man having grown up with an abusive father, he supposed. "Um, as acting coroner, I take full responsibility."

He decided to take pity on the young man. "Go, Jimmy."

Palmer didn't need to be asked twice. "Leaving."

As the autopsy doors closed behind Palmer, Jethro turned back towards his long-time friend. "What are you doing, Duck? Who the hell is this guy?"

"Commander Bruce Roberts," Ducky said matter-of-factly. "I presided over his autopsy twelve years ago." I can take a good guess at where this is going. "Some things never sat right with me, and I want to take another look.

"I get it, you're bored." Jethro shot his friend a look of concern and more than a bit of frustration. "But you cannot go around digging up bodies whenever you like!"

Ducky got defensive. "Well, technically, as medical examiner, I have that authority."

"Technically, you're not the medical examiner right now!" Jethro immediately retorted. His friend was still on medical leave. "Palmer's in charge."

"Well," Ducky said, "technically, that's true."

"You had a heart attack, Ducky!" he snapped. Yes, Ducky was doing well, but his friend was still recovering. "Your own doctor told you to take a break!"

"Why just a break?!" Ducky fired right back. "Why not just make it permanent?" The older man gave him a pointed look. "After all, the world has managed to get along just fine without me these past several months."

Jethro turned around, trying to decide how to best handle this. "Alright." His long-time friend was obviously looking for a sense of purpose and struggling. He understood it to a point. "Alright, let me hear it."

"Well," Ducky said as Jethro turned back around, "when I conducted the commander's autopsy, I concluded that his end was accidental. I mean, the man literally drank himself to death one night. It seemed very straightforward." Ducky gestured to a page from a local paper. "But then I read this two days ago."

"Since when did you start reading the obits?" he asked.

Ducky shot him a pointed look. "Well, your day will come. In any case, I saw that the commander's father had passed away of a rare genetic liver condition that most certainly would have been passed on to the commander."

The Medical Examiner definitely had his attention now.

"Had I known about his condition," his long-time friend stated, "I would have done my autopsy differently." Several questions came to mind. "There is a class of poisons that would mimic fatal alcohol intoxication in someone with Roberts' defect. In other words, his death may not have been an accident. It might just have been a murder."

Jethro retroactively approved Ducky's exhumation order even though he was still not happy because Ducky should've been at home resting and not digging up bodies. On the other hand, he too wanted to get to the truth.

He then sent his team to finally start the investigation into the recent death of Marine Sergeant Raymond Hill, who'd seemingly died of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, despite having several alarms. Hill also had a large amount of cash stashed away, which was always a major red flag in these types of cases.

This was going to be a really long day by the look of things. He just hoped that Ducky would come out the other side of this okay.