A/N: Finally I'm happy with Ducky's. I hope his essence comes through. I've never been great at writing Ducky but I couldn't leave him out. Next up will be Tony's. I have to go over it a few more times to make sure it's right before I post, but that one has been written for a while.

I want to thank everyone who has reviewed and added this to their alerts and favorited. You all make my day so wonderful! I am hugging you all in my mind and sending you virtual Caf-Pows. =]

Down in autopsy, Ducky carefully brought his teapot over to the middle table, which was unoccupied. He poured himself a cup of Earl Grey and sat with his eyes closed, breathing in the warm aroma for a moment. When he opened them again, what he knew to be a daydream of Ziva sat in front of him with her own cup of tea. She offered up a small smile as she took a sip. The medical examiner sighed before gathering himself up to speak with the figment of his imagination.

"You know we all miss you, my dear," he said plainly.

A ghost of a smirk passed over her lips so quickly that Ducky was only half sure it had actually been there. "I miss you all as well," Ziva replied, carefully taking a small sip of tea and savoring it as if she had not had anything to drink in days. "Promise me Ducky, that you will take care of them and make sure they are alright. I mean Abby is lonely and upset and McGee is at a loss with how to manage the new dynamic and Gibbs is beating himself up and Tony is…" she rambled on like she was wont to do when she was nervous or embarrassed.

"Ziva," Ducky interrupted. She looked up at him, blinking her wide eyes and looking, if only for a moment, like a lost, innocent child who had not seen the horrors of the world they all knew Ziva had seen. And then the moment was gone and she was simply pausing, waiting for him to finish his thought. "I will take care of them. You just need to keep your strength up for when they come to bring you home. I know Tony is thinking it, and until we can no longer hold onto hope that you will be able to return we will keep searching. You know that. I remember a time back at Edinburgh when my friend Clarence disappeared for days…"

Her image only nodded along with the story and sipped some more at her tea. "I want to be mad at him, Ducky," she murmured out of the blue, a minute after he'd finished the retelling of Clarence's rescue. "But I know now that he was right and I should never have doubted him and I am still angry, but not at him. It is just, he was there and I need to be mad at someone." Understanding inherently what she was referring to, Ducky patted her knee lightly and let her calm herself.

"You can not stay mad at him forever, my dear. One day you will have to face him and see that he has been beating himself up, too. He just tries to think of the good things to keep his mind off of it. You know how he is," the older man replied, quietly refilling his teacup.

"Yes, I know exactly how he is. Funnily enough, I think I even miss him throwing paper balls at my head when he thinks I am not paying attention," Ziva said with a soft laugh. It was sincere and nostalgic as he imagined she would be remembering those times.

The corners of him mouth turned up ever so slightly as he regarded her once more. "From what I can tell of his moods lately and Abigail's incessant talk on the subject, he even misses you threatening to kill or maim him with office supplies." She chuckled and sipped the remainder of her tea. "Don't give up on him just yet."

"I would never, Ducky," she replied, pecking him lightly on the cheek before slipping out the double doors and disappearing from his vision only a few steps beyond them. When he looked back at his teapot and cup, there was no second cup that had been in her hand only moments before and the doctor was brought back to the painful reality that she could really be gone. But Gibbs had yet to give her permission to die, and she wouldn't dare disappoint him. Ducky smiled to himself at that thought as he set about cleaning up after his tea break. Who knew when the next poor soul would arrive and need this table…

So leave me a review if you feel so inclined, it would really make me very happy. And maybe you could let me know if you'd like to see another Gibbs mini-vision or two like he had in Twilight or just to go on and do the extra one or two of Tony's or to do neither or to do both. I'm open to suggestions. Thank you all so much for reading. 3