Sadie pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She looked at the board and down at her worksheet. She was done with her math and it was ten minutes until lunch. She looked back at her friend Ivy in the third row. Ivy was still checking the answers from the previous night's homework off the board. Sadie turned to her left where Landon was sitting. He'd just had surgery to correct an arm injury he got from pushing his wheelchair. So Mr. Tucker was writing the answers down for him. The classroom phone rang and Mrs. Tucker ran over and picked it up. Sadie perked her ears up and tried to listen but Mr. Tucker was speaking in a whisper. After a few minutes he hung up and walked over towards the front row. At first Sadie thought that Landon was getting checked out for another appointment but instead the teacher walked up to her desk.

"Sadie you need to go to the front office ready to go home." Mr. Tucker whispered.

"O...OK" Sadie stammered.

"Mr. Tucker may I go to the bathroom?" Ivy asked.

"Lunch is in five minutes." Mr. Tucker reminded.

"It's an emergency." Ivy explained.

"OK just go ahead to the cafeteria." Mr. Tucker replied.

Sadie picked up her books and backpack and walked to the front door of the classroom. Ivy grabbed her lunchbox and followed Sadie out to the hallway. Sadie expected her to turn towards the bathroom but instead she continued to follow Sadie towards the main office.

"I thought you had to pee." Sadie whispered.

"No I just said that. So I could make sure you were OK." Ivy explained.

"But you'll get in trouble." Sadie replied.

"I don't care I am worried about you. Why would you be getting checked out?" Sadie asked.

"I don't know." Sadie replied.

"Is Jack OK?" Ivy asked.

"He seemed fine when I left this morning." Sadie replied.

"Could one of your parents have been hurt on the job?" Ivy asked.

"No my mom is at a career day and my dad's team has a sexual harassment seminar today." Sadie replied.

"Car accident?" Ivy asked.

"I don't know!" Sadie snapped.

"Could it be grandpa Gibbs?" Ivy asked.

"Maybe" Sadie replied.

Sadie turned into the office. She wished that Ivy would just shut-up. Her mind was already going a million different places. Without Ivy following her around suggesting terrible things that could have happened to her family. Her parents didn't just check her out of school for no reason. The last time it happened was in fourth grade was when Dr. Pitt found something on her dad's lung x-ray and he had to be admitted to Bethesda for further testing. Luckily it was just a smudge and her dad was out of the hospital by that evening. Both her parents were sitting on the bench in the front office along with Jack and Jimmy. Emma turned into the office and walked over to Jimmy.

"Ima, Abba what's going on?" Sadie asked.

"Why did we both get called out?" Emma added.

"This morning Grandpa Gibbs went to check on Grandpa Ducky and there is no way to say this but your grandpa Ducky died in his sleep last night." Tony explained voice cracking.

"Ducky's dead?" Emma asked.

"I am afraid so sweetie but he had been sick for a long time and he was almost ninety." Jimmy explained fighting back tears.

"I'm not ready for this." Emma whimpered.

Sadie could not speak. She had been trying to form word ever since she got the news that her grandpa Ducky was dead. He was the first person she had ever lost. Jimmy's wife Breena had died when she was two but she couldn't remember that. Apparently it had greatly upset her but now she couldn't recall anything from before she was three. Her earliest memory was Gibbs holding her up to see Jack in the NICU. She couldn't remember leaving the school one minute she was in the front office and the next she was in the backseat of the van. Her mom was driving slowly by Ima standard's anyway and her dad was in the front seat talking about funeral plans. They arrived at Gibbs's house. Amira who was now in high school opened the door and ushered them in. Johnny McGee and Tyler Scuito were sitting on the floor talking about a second grade class project. Tony wheeled Jack over to them and Emma and Sadie walked over to the other side of the room. The Amira closed the door to her room and Tony and Ziva joined the other adults in the kitchen after a while Emma and Sadie got bored of listening to the little kids talk and walked into the kitchen. Delilah was sitting in her wheelchair sadly rubbing her stomach. Sadie knew that she was pregnant. It was pretty obvious. Aside from the huge stomach and the way she and McGee would whisper and then rush out. She had thrown up every day for months and when Sadie was over at their house the last time. The spare bedroom had been cleared out and a bunch of baby stuff was all over the house. McGee was leaning against the counter behind Delilah, Abby and her husband Neil were on one side of the table and Sadie's parents were on the other. With Gibbs and Jimmy sitting at the ends. Jimmy was wailing loudly and Gibbs was softly crying.

"I guess now is as good time as any but Timmy and I are expecting. It is a son and we are going to name him Donald." Delilah explained.

"We were going to use that name anyway but after today it is just perfect." McGee added.

"There were some complications early on. We didn't want to tell everybody that we were expecting and then have to say we lost the baby but I am thirty-five weeks now and we could probably have a healthy baby." Delilah explained.

"I am sorry if we seem like we are trying to make today about us but we just thought maybe we all needed to hear good news." McGee explained.

"No that's great Probie." Tony sniffed.

"Oh Sadie, Emma are you guys OK?" Jimmy asked.

"I miss Ducky already." Emma admitted.

"What about you Sadie how do you feel?" Ziva asked.

"I can't believe it's real. I miss him." Sadie cracked.

"I know Sadie. I do too." Ziva added with tears in her eyes.

Three days later Sadie was sitting between her parents in the front row of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church. Staring at Ducky's casket. It was a fine mahogany that Gibbs had built. A Scottish Flag was carved into the top. Gibbs had started building it two years ago. That's how long Ducky had been sick. He had his first heart attack years ago either when Sadie was just a tiny baby or before she was born but had bounced back in a matter of months. The second happened two years prior and he never fully came back. He had been on oxygen and unable to do even basic tasks without getting winded. He was eighty eight when that happened and he died two weeks from his ninetieth birthday. Sadie looked at the casket and then at her family that lined the front two rows. Ducky was gone and Gibbs and her parents were getting older. Gibbs was just pushing the cusp of elderly and her dad was middle aged. All were healthy though. Even her dad with his scarred lungs. Then there was Jack who was only seven and already had faced death several times. Ducky had been bound to a wheelchair in the final year of his life but as he said he had been an active young man and appreciated movement and being free every day. Delilah had become paralyzed in a tragedy. The event was tragic but Delilah's disability was not. She still worked for the Depart of Defense for almost two years post her injury. Only leaving her job because she wanted one parent to be available for John at all times and when McGee got offered the job of assistant director which could make him director of the agency one day and she was tiring of her position. She became a stay at home mom. Landon was a baby when he became paralyzed. He had known no different but he never let it get him down. His parents refused to allow him. Then there was Jack his disability had happened either at or not long after birth and due to the extent a normal life was impossible for him. Still he went to school but mainly to get physical therapy and offer his parents respite during the days. Allowing them to both work full time jobs. He may not be able to run, play, or even talk but he was loved and he always seemed happy. She shifted her eyes back to the casket. Ducky had been a doctor in his life and even though his patients were dead he provided answers for families enduring tragedy. All kids dreamed of being a doctor at some point but Sadie meant it. She would be a doctor but she wouldn't study the dead. She would study people like Delilah, Landon, and Jack. There was nothing wrong with being disabled but she hated how Johnny cried every year at the mother/son dance because he had to go with Aunt Abby and everybody else danced with their mom. She hated how Landon had to have somebody run for him when he played Little League. Most of all she hated watching other kids play with their siblings and get annoyed by their pesky young siblings. Meanwhile Jack could just sit and listen. The funeral came to an end and everybody stood and walked past the casket to say one last goodbye before they closed the casket and took Ducky to the graveyard. When Sadie got to the casket she stroked Ducky's cold, limp arm.

"Goodbye Ducky and thank you for being my inspiration." Sadie said softly.

A/N: Did I handle Ducky's death well? I am thinking that Sadie will learn the truth about her mother and early life in the next chapter. New chapter will be up soon. Please review and thanks for reading.