Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from the show NCIS. (Although I wish I did) :D Anyways, NCIS and its characters belong to CBS.

Author's Note: hello! Welcome Back! I am soooo sorry for leaving everyone on a cliffhanger (No pun intended) last night! That wasn't my intent, but we had a black out before I could upload anything else (including Chapter 6) onto the computer. Anyways, I think that you will enjoy Chapter 6! I am very thankful for the reviews that everyone has posted. Reviews are more than welcomed, and I love to read them! You guys are the best! Thank you for reading my story, and I hope that you enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 6

Ducky's Wisdom

From the last chapter:

"What, Probie?" Tony yelled at McGee, irritated that he had been interrupted once more. As he turned around to face McGee, he felt his shoulder bump into another shoulder with a hard force.

When he had fully turned around, he was surprised to see that it was McGee that he had bumped into. But what scared him at first was seeing how close to the ledge he was, then seeing how far he had forced McGee to back up. As he paused to stare at McGee, time froze. Tony had bumped into McGee with just enough force to push him off balance. Tony froze along with the rest of the team when he saw McGee wobble back and forth twice, trying to regain his sudden loss of balance, but McGee couldn't regain what he had lost. His foot collapsed and his knees buckled as his body leaned over the ledge. He tried to stop himself, but he couldn't make it in time. A look of sheer panic flashed in his eyes as he shouted out Tony's name again, and then fell over the ledge.

And now the New chapter Begins!

A sudden deathly silence fell over the group. Then, everyone started yelling at once.

"McGee!"

"Tim!"

"Probie!"

"Timothy!"

Gibbs, Ziva, Tony, Palmer and Ducky all yelled out at once as they rushed to the end of the ledge. This couldn't be happening. Why hadn't they noticed the danger before?

Ziva rushed to the end of the ledge as fast as she could and went as far as she could without putting herself in danger. She was close enough to be able to just reach her head over the ledge and look down the hill covered in green vines and plants and trees and rocks below. She was concerned for McGee now.

The actual slope wasn't too steep, but it was completely covered with moss and rocks and leaves and small plants. The slope finally stopped after about 70 yards downhill. So while it wasn't life threatening, the hill made it nearly impossible to stop rolling down. The good thing was that the moss covered most of the rocks, making the ground safer and softer for McGee.

Gibbs swore underneath his breath as he looked down the hill and saw the obvious path that his agent had fallen down through. How could one agent get into so much trouble in one day? How could his agent, Timothy McGee, cause so many pointless delays in one morning? Cripes, it wasn't even quarter after ten yet! Still, he was somewhat worried for his agent.

Tony started kicking himself mentally. He was worried for his teammate, his partner's condition as of right now, as he heard the continuous sounds of Timothy McGee crashing into plants and rocks. It would have been almost comical if it wasn't causing another delay. Leave it to McGee to make a stupid mistake when on a case.

Ducky stared down at the bottom of the hill, scanning for any sign of McGee, until his eyes noticed something that was black and reflected in the sun. At first he didn't know what it was, but then he realized that it was McGee's camera. And if he could see McGee's camera, then McGee had to have landed somewhere close by. When he continued to search the bottom of the hill, he finally found who he was looking for.

"Aha! There he is!" Ducky yelled at the rest of the team, all who turned and looked at him. "He's down there, lying next to that tall maple tree," Ducky finished.

Everyone's eyes turned to look at where McGee lay. Ziva sharply inhaled then exhaled her breath. Tony let out a breath of relief, but it stopped when he realized just how nervous McGee had made him feel for his partner's safety moments ago. Gibbs could only look down at McGee not knowing what he felt.

When McGee had started to fall down the ledge, at first he was in too much panic to think clearly. He winced as his ribs rolled across a hidden rock, mentally noting that he was going to have a nasty bruise there later. Then his Boy Scout survival training kicked in. The first thing that he had to do was stop or slow down his fall by positioning himself in a way that would make it hard to roll down hill even further than he already was.

McGee tried to stop rolling, but he had gained too much momentum and couldn't stop his rapid descent downhill. Then he tried to dig his heels into the ground, which proved to be a wise idea. That slowed him down some, but he could still slow himself down even more by trying to grasp something that would break his fall. As he reached out with his right arm, his fingers caught a hold on a tree root. He grabbed the root even tighter and reached out with his left hand, and then he felt his body stop moving downhill. But what he wasn't expecting was the sudden jerk that the rest of his body pulled on him when he stopped his body's momentum. Pain seared through his shoulders temporarily as gravity pulled on the rest of his body, trying to bring him even further downhill. But fortunately for him, it soon faded and ebbed away.

Slowly but surely, he started to inch his way closer to the base of the tree. When he had reached the base of the tree trunk safely, he allowed his body to collapse and blacked out.

Ziva saw everything take place and was still concerned for her friend. He would be mighty sore the next morning. Although he didn't seem to be too badly wounded, she didn't want to take any chances, and carefully and cautiously started to descend down the steep hill.

Gibbs and Tony saw what Ziva was doing and soon followed in her lead. Ducky and Palmer quickly followed in pursuit. Ziva was worried that McGee might have been seriously injured but those thoughts disappeared when she saw McGee sit up.

McGee opened his eyes slowly. He felt like he had been run over by a semi truck. As his vision cleared, he started to sit up. His mind was foggy. What had happened? As he took in his current location, his memory slowly returned to him. He had been trying to warn Tony when Tony had accidentally bumped into him and knocked him off balance. Then he remembered falling down the slope and finally, he remembered where he was.

As he looked up, he saw Ziva rushing down the slope towards him. He could tell that she was very concerned. As he tried to stand up, he called out to her, "I'm okay!" and mentally added to himself, "I think."

Tony was more than relieved to hear McGee's voice. He had been worried for McGee but now he knew that if he was standing, then he must be alright. He couldn't wait to give him a hard time about this now!

As he waited for the rest of the team to meet up with him at the base of the maple tree, McGee couldn't help but notice that there was blood lying at the base of the tree. McGee started to panic, thinking that it was his own, when he realized that he wasn't bleeding. So that could only mean one thing- that it belonged to the trail of blood that he had been trying to find earlier!

By this time, the others had caught up to him. McGee could tell that Ziva and Ducky and Palmer were all concerned for him, but he couldn't tell with Tony, or especially Gibbs.

"Are you alright, McGee?" Palmer was the first person to ask, knowing that it was a stupid question.

"I think so," McGee replied, "but my shoulders are very sore and I know that I'm going to wake up with some lovely bruises tomorrow," he added, trying to relieve some of the tension that was in the air.

Ziva looked at McGee once more with concern in her eyes but then told him, "I'm glad to see that you're alright. Are you sure that you are once more as fit as a violin?"

McGee laughed gently and then replied, "Yes, I'll be fine, and it's "as fit as a fiddle", Ziva, not as fit as a violin."

Ziva smiled briefly then waited for instructions while Ducky started talking to McGee.

Ducky nodded his head after hearing McGee's response. "Why don't you let me take a look at you, Timothy, and we'll know for sure," he suggested.

McGee willingly obliged. Before he allowed Ducky to examine his body for broken bones, however, he pointed out the fact that he had found the rest of the trail.

"I was right. The trail of blood does originate from somewhere in this area down here," he pointed out. "See right here at the base of this tree? I think that it continues in a straight path down that way," he finished, pointing towards his left.

Gibbs nodded after looking into McGee's eyes and then said, "Alright. Are you sure that that's the right way to follow?"

McGee nodded his head up and down. "Yes, I'm 100 percent positive." On the inside, he was a little annoyed that Gibbs didn't ask how he was doing or even acknowledge that he was worried for him. He was also a little disappointed to hear Gibbs question his logic, or question his judgment when the answer was right before his eyes. But still, he had a case to work on, and he could focus on Gibbs' comment later.

As Tony and Gibbs and Ziva went in a separate direction following the rest of the trail, McGee stayed behind to catch his breath. What a day so far.

While McGee was catching his breath, Ducky asked Palmer, "Jimmy , would you be so kind as to head back to the van and grab my medical supplies bag for me, please?"

"Oh! Right! Umm, I can do that. I'll be back in a jiffy," Palmer stuttered, then started hiking back the way that the team had come.

"Thanks,… Ducky," McGee said slowly still trying to catch his breath. He wanted to thank Ducky for the distraction that would give him a moment in private with the elder Medical Examiner.

"It's not a problem at all," Ducky replied, "And you're more than welcome. I figured that you could use a moment's privacy with me," he finished.

"You're absolutely… right, Duck," McGee paused for a breath. "I didn't want to look as weak as I already am right now in front of the others, especially Gibbs. And Tony. I already know that Tony's going to give me one hard heck of a time teasing me about this," he finished with a lopsided sarcastic half smile on his face.

"You don't have to be brave in front of me, you know," Ducky told McGee silently when everyone completely out of sight.

"My sincere thanks again, Ducky," McGee said even more quietly that time. "Can I be honest with you, though?"

"Why most certainly. I'd prefer that you'd be straight forward honest with me now, McGee, because don't think for an instant that I don't know that you're in pain. I would know if you were lying anyways. That was quite a fall you took, and I think that we have Tony to thank for that," Ducky reassured McGee with a soft pat on his back.

"Now, why don't you start from the beginning and tell me how you feel," Ducky told Tim.

"Okay, here goes, Ducky. You're the one person that I can be honest with without making a bad impression or giving away another reason to tease me about. Anyways, if you want to know the truth, then here it is- everything hurts. I mean, my shoulders are very sore, but then again, what's not sore? Everything's sore, and my head is really giving me a hard time with a nasty headache," McGee paused when Ducky chimed in.

"Probably a migraine," Ducky said automatically while he continued to listen to McGee speak out loud.

"And on top of that, I know for certain that I'm going to have some really colorful and nasty bruises tomorrow morning," McGee concluded. "I don't mean to complain, Ducky, but everything hurts, and I'm really tired, and I just want to go back to bed."

Before Ducky could give his own opinion and diagnosis, McGee started talking again, but this time he started to speak in frustration and despair.

"But it's not like I'm going to be able to do that tonight anyways," Tim said. He watched as Ducky paused what he was doing, and then shared eye contact with him. McGee could see the encouragement in Ducky's blue eyes, but he could also see some concern. Ducky nodded his head at him encouragingly, as if beckoning him to continue with what he had to say.

"I mean, I've got three long, detailed reports that need to be written up tonight and submitted to the Director's office by tomorrow morning, and on top of that I need to find a lead for this case! No, change that, these two cases now!" McGee exclaimed out loud.

"How does he expect me to be able to type up the reports for three different departments and work on the case at the same time? How can I possibly work on two different things at once? How come Tony and Ziva don't have nearly as much work as I do this week? I mean, I'm not complaining about working, Ducky, because if this were any other week or if I was under normal circumstances rather than where I am right now, then I'd be fine! I'd stay behind in the office and work into the evening, or even the morning if I had to, just to get those assignments done on time. But I just can't do that this week!" McGee let out the last sentence with an exasperated sigh.

"Gibbs needs me to find another lead for these cases by today, and if I don't, then I might as well quit my job! Gibbs wouldn't even listen to me this morning! I'm afraid that he'd fire me on the spot, Ducky! He probably wouldn't even let me speak back to him or defend myself or at least explain to him just how hard I've been trying to find a lead. He'd yell at me once again, and then fire me on the spot! This is the longest time that it has ever taken me to find a lead, and this is the first time since I've worked on Gibbs' team that I can't find a lead! I've tried looking all week for every possible clue, for any minor suggestion or detail that seems out of place and I just can't find anything. I've searched almost every corner I can think of when it comes to cyberspace, and still! Nothing is coming up! Gibbs is furious with me, and he was right when he yelled at me this morning! I've failed! I've tried so hard, Ducky, but yet I've failed!" McGee was on the verge of going into hysterics but one look from Ducky told him that he needed to continue and let his emotions come running out from inside.

McGee calmed down a little.

"I've already inadvertently made Gibbs mad at me today, once for being late to work when I was trying to help another person in need, and twice for falling for that stupid prank that Tony pulled on me involving my computer's network cable, and now this! I don't know how I did it, and I most certainly didn't mean to do it, but somehow I've made Gibbs yell at me, twice, and even worse yet, I've disappointed him. I've failed him and the rest of the team! Oh, what can I do, Ducky, what can I do?" Tim muttered the last sentence under his breath just softly enough that it was loud enough for Ducky to hear it, but barely.

"Oh, Tim, no wonder you're so stressed out! You have every right to be tired and you have every right to want to go back to bed. I think that this case is becoming a nightmare to everyone, and that would mean Jethro in particular." Ducky reassured McGee.

"Now I need to know- have you been getting any sleep at all, this week?" Ducky asked McGee.

"Well…no, not really," McGee replied. "For the last few nights, I've been getting to bed super late."

"And would you mind specifying exactly just how late "super late" is for you, McGee?" Ducky questioned.

"Well, you see, on Monday I stayed behind at the office working on the case until twelve, and I got home around quarter after one. "

"Then, on Tuesday, I had to attack several possible leads that Abby gave to me from different angles and see if they got me anywhere, but they didn't, and so I stayed behind once more until one."

"Then, on Wednesday, Gibbs was really annoyed that I didn't have any leads for him yet, so I decided to work until I found one, or until my eyes couldn't handle the reflection from my computer screen anymore. So on Wednesday, I stayed behind after everyone else had left until 2:30. And I got home around 3:45, so I was only able to sleep for less than two hours."

"As for yesterday, Gibbs was pretty pisssed off that I still hadn't found anything, so he made me stay behind until he had finished working. That was around 11:30, I'm guessing, but I decided that I would try once more to find a lead but despite my previous attempts, I got nowhere. So last night, I went home around 2:00 and fell asleep around 3:30. And it looks like I'm going to be doing the same thing once again tonight, because I still haven't found any clues." McGee finished, with his head tucked down in shame.

Ducky was speechless. He couldn't speak for a moment; his mind was too busy trying to take in the full realization of what he'd just heard. Based on what Timothy McGee had just told him, he had stayed behind at the office in the NCIS Headquarters even after everyone had left and he hadn't left until oh-dark-thirty every single evening, or morning. There was no way that Timothy could have possibly received the necessary amount of sleep that a full grown adult male needed every week.

Still shocked, Ducky asked McGee, "Does Gibbs know about this?"

McGee shook his head. "No," he replied, "Not yet. And I think that it would be better if he didn't know," McGee added.

"Can we keep this a secret between you and me, please, Ducky? Please?" McGee pleaded.

"If that's what you want," Ducky promised to the young man who was standing in front of him. Ducky was amazed at the measures Tim was willing to take in an attempt to please his boss, Jethro.

"Thank you," McGee replied, making direct eye contact with Ducky.

"You're more than welcome, Timothy, but I highly suggest that you tell Jethro about this at some point soon," Ducky recommended. "And I also highly suggest that you go home early tonight, and get some well deserved rest. By the looks of it and from what you've told me, it would really do you some good."

McGee nodded his head in agreement. Then he spoke to Ducky in a relieved voice, "Thank you, Ducky. I didn't mean to make you listen to all of my stress and fears and worries and thoughts about my life, but it was getting to be too much for me to be able to handle. I'm sorry that I made you listen to all of that."

"Nonsense, Timothy! I won't have any of that apologizing nonsense. I know what it feels like to be overwhelmed and stressed to the point where one has to let it out. And I'm honored that you allowed me to listen to you and I'm honored to know that you trust me to keep your secret safe. So please don't be apologizing to me, Timothy. You are a very kind, hard-working, diligent, loyal, compassionate and talented young man, and don't you ever believe for one second that you are a failure! Now, I want you to rest reassured that I will have a chat with Jethro later on this evening in regards to ho he treated this morning. And also, Timothy, you are worth too much to us a team that we would ever allow you to be fired by Jethro, or anyone else for that matter." Ducky stressed the last sentences out loud, hoping that McGee would catch his drift.

"Do you really think so?" McGee asked Ducky with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"Yes, Timothy, I believe that with all of my heart. Now, let's take a good look at you so that we can find out what's wrong. Did I ever tell you about that story when I was younger and I met this wonderful yound woman who came seeking help for her dog…" Ducky trailed off as he launched into telling one of his famous stories again.

McGee smiled. He was very thankful to know Ducky as a person, as a colleague, but he was especially grateful to know him as a friend. Ducky's words encouraged him to face the rest of the day with a smile, and McGee was comforted to know that the rest of the team wouldn't allow him to be fired from his job. But above all else, he was glad to know that there was someone who cared about him.

"Thanks, Ducky," he whispered. There was something to be thankful for today after all. And who knew? Maybe things would get better as the rest of the day progressed. There was only one was to find out.

Author's note: And so we finish chapter 6! I hope that you guys liked it! I figured that McGee could use some encouragement and who else but Ducky would be just the right guy to give it to him? I might have Abby give McGee some encouragement later on in this story. Anyways, I apologize for the cloff hanger last time! And thank you for the reviews. I love to read them, and they give me inspiration!

Until the next chapter!