Oh God, Another One

Disclaimer: If you recognize them, they're not mine.

Summary: Tony spills a secret.

Reviews: Yes please. Readers Rock but Reviewers RULE!

A/N: For the purposes of this fic we're pretending we can see the elevator from Abby's lab. Ok with you? This chap is a bit longer than the last one. Hope y'all like it.

I now have a new computer and as soon as I can figure out how to recover the info on the old one I'll work on updating The Demon Within and Resurrected will get its long overdue finish.

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Chapter 5

Doctor Donald 'Ducky' Mallard looked up as his peripheral vision picked up the motion of the elevator doors opening but frowned when the young man within it paused on the threshold before retreating. Watching closely, he noticed that the doors didn't close. The Medical Examiner moved enough that the automatic doors swished open. He flipped the switch to prevent them from closing behind him and ventured cautiously forward. He heard a low male voice muttering frantically and the sound of the control panel buttons being pushed harder than necessary.

"Hello? May I help you?" The elderly doctor asked as he slowly approached toward the open elevator. All noises from inside stopped as he did.

"Hello?" Ducky asked again as he neared the opening. To his surprise, the only occupant was backed into the farthest corner with his arms clenched tightly around his own waist. The young man appeared to be in his mid-thirties, slender and well dressed. The M.E. could not determine what color the man's eyes were as they were tightly closed. His delicate features were pale and covered with a sheen of sweat.

"Oh, dear me." Ducky murmured. "Are you injured?" He asked gently. The man shook his head fractionally as he began to breathe hard in fear. "Well, surely you don't want to stay in there all day." There was no reaction. "How can I help you?" There was a response but not one that eased the doctor's mind. The visitor turned away as far as he could and slid slowly down the wall until he was seated on the elevator floor. Carefully, keeping his eyes pinned on his unexpected company, Ducky raised his voice. "Mr. Palmer."

"Yes, Dr Mallard?" The assistant M.E. looked up from his desk at the summons.

"Would you call Gibbs and ask him if he's lost a visitor?" Ducky tried to get a closer look at the visitor's pass pinned to the lapel of the suit coat but the position of the thin body prevented him from reading it. As he listened to the young man's breathing, the doctor began to worry that he'd hyperventilate. "And quickly, please."

"Yes, sir." The younger doctor picked up the phone and punched the buttons as fast as he could.

Upstairs in Abby's lab...

Abby's huge blue eyes gazed steadily at Tony. "So that's Marvin." She said softly.

Tony smiled at her. "Yeah." The smile disappeared. "He's changed a lot."

"Oh, I don't think he's changed as much as you think he has. I like him." Abby assured her friend. She glanced over at the elevator, surprised that Gibbs hadn't paid a return visit. She frowned when she noticed the floor indicator.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked as he noticed the frown.

"I thought you told me that Grant wouldn't be caught dead in a morgue." The Goth mused.

"You know he wouldn't. At least, not if he can help it. Why?" Tony frowned in confusion.

"Because..." Abby said slowly as she hopped off her chair and headed for the stairs. "The elevator went down to Ducky's floor and hasn't come back up.

"Aw crap." Tony followed her through the door to the stairwell. "Next time you tell someone I'm a trouble magnet, remember this day."

"Why?" She asked as they began their descent.

"Because Grant Mars makes me look like trouble repellent by comparison." Tony flashed her a quick grin as she shot him a shocked look over her shoulder. They said nothing more as they rushed down the stairs and through the door into Autopsy.

Jimmy Palmer set the phone receiver back in its cradle as they shoved their way past his little desk. "Agent Gibbs is on his way down." He told them.

"Swell." Tony muttered as he and Abby paused at the sight of Ducky standing uncertainly next to the open elevator.

"Oh thank goodness, Anthony, Abigail. Have you misplaced someone?" The doctor asked softly as he gestured into the elevator.

Tony entered the car and knelt next to his old friend, his green eyes assessing the too-pale face, the tightly closed eyes and the 'don't see me' posture. "Ah, Mars." He sighed. "What'd I tell you about visiting cold storage?"

For long seconds it appeared that the traumatized FBI agent hadn't heard but finally he whispered. "Dino?"

Tony closed his eyes in relief for a moment. "Yeah, buddy. It's me. What happened?"

"The doors wouldn't close." Grant told him shakily.

Tony swiveled his head and assessed the control panel. "That's because you jammed the controls. We're gonna have to call maintenance to fix it." He chided gently.

Grant chuckled but the sound was slightly hysterical. "Figures."

"So." The Italian began softly. "You gonna stay in here the rest of the day or are you gonna come out and meet Ducky?"

Grant bowed his head and rested his forehead on his knees for a moment. "Are there any... um...?" He couldn't force himself to finish the question.

Tony glanced back at the kindly doctor. "Got any customers today, Ducky?"

"No, Anthony. If that is your young friend's fear, please assure him that we are lacking in... ah... customers, as you say." The M.E. answered.

"Hear that?" Tony said gently. "It's your lucky day." He studied Grant's profile and sighed. "I thought we got you over this. What set you back?"

"I didn't expect to find it. I thought I was going back up to your office." Grant shuddered. "I've been... um... under a lot of stress lately." His voice lowered even farther. "Nightmares."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, I can see where that'd do it. Come on. Up you get." He slid his hand under Grant's firm bicep, tugging as he rose.

With Tony's help, Grant struggled to his feet only to sag against the stainless steel wall as his vision blurred. "Um... Tony?" He gasped. "I'm not... feeling so... hot."

"Stay with me, Marvin." An uneasy feeling swept over Tony, settling in the pit of his stomach. "Damn, when'd you eat last?" He asked urgently. He shook Grant lightly as his head lolled backwards. "Grant! When... did ... you... eat... last?" He demanded an answer.

The shorter man's eyelashes fluttered as he attempted to raise his head and fix his hazy gaze on his friend. "Um... eat? I... think... last... night? Um... maybe... Chinese." With that, he slumped.

"You put that big-ass Red Bull in an empty stomach? How old are you again? Five? Jeeze Mars, what am I supposed to do with you?" Tony bitched as he caught his unconscious friend in a fireman's carry, the too-slender body dangled limply over one broad shoulder.

"Well, at least we can get you out of here and without tranquilizers this time but I'm not sure this is an improvement. You seriously need a keeper, pal." He continued a litany of complaints as he hauled his old friend out of the elevator, through the doors and into the main autopsy room. "Can I put him on your sofa? If he wakes up on a table we'll have a complete basket case on our hands."

"What's going on, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked. He'd come in just as Tony had entered the elevator.

"Let me put him down and I'll tell you." Tony followed Ducky to the old sofa the M.E. had placed in his office, preferring the comfortably worn cushions to the steel tables for catching quick naps during intensive investigations. Palmer fetched a blanket and Abby helped Tony settle the unconscious man comfortably. She knew some of what Tony was about to tell everyone so she stayed with Grant.

They huddled around Ducky's work table on the other side of the cavernous room. "I'm only telling you guys this so you'll understand where all that came from. But it goes no farther than this room. Are we clear?" Tony's tone brooked no argument. Gibbs frowned but nodded with the rest of them.

"Ok, most of this I got from Grant himself but I've witnessed his nightmares about it so I think there was a little more to it than he's told me." The Italian took a deep breath, leaned on Ducky's table and gazed at the unconscious form of one of the best friends he'd ever had.

"Grant's dad was a doctor and his mom a lawyer so they really didn't have much time for him. During school vacations they shuttled him from cousin to cousin, hired sitters, kept him in summer schools or, once in a great while, let him go to summer camp. His mom was supposed to take him to a cousin's house for the day but couldn't because the cousin had gotten sick with something contagious but I don't remember with what." Tony added as he saw the question forming on Ducky's face. The doctor nodded his understanding and kept quiet.

Tony closed his eyes and tried to recall the proper sequence of events as Grant had told him. "His mom had to be in court that day and was in a hurry so she dropped him off in the hospital parking lot and left. Grant was supposed to go straight to his dad's office and wait there for him. The kid hadn't been to his dad's office very many times and thought he could remember the way but pushed the wrong button in the elevator. As it happened, that particular elevator opened directly next to the morgue, just like this one does."

He opened his eyes again and scanned the listening agents around him, Gibbs, Ducky, Palmer, McGee and Ziva, the latter two had accompanied Gibbs as backup. He continued the story. "Now, Grant being a normal, inquisitive kid of ten years old decided that the morgue would be a cool place to hang out for a while. Who would know, right? His dad thought he was at the cousin's and his mom thought he was with his dad. So he checked the place out a bit, there weren't any bodies around and he knew enough to keep his hands off the instruments therefore it got boring so he settled down in an out of the way corner and decided to read a book. He dozed off while he was reading and was there for several hours when some EMTs delivered an accident victim. There'd been a serious pileup on the freeway. They were in a hurry so they dropped and ran so it was a few minutes before the M.E. came into the room. Grant just had to go over and see, you know? Ten years old and it was a dead body, of course he was gonna go look." Tony swallowed hard and gazed steadily at the floor.

Ducky got a cold shiver down his spine and suddenly knew where this story was going. "It was his mother wasn't it, Anthony?" He asked quietly. "That poor child."

Tony nodded, blinking rapidly. Memories of losing his own mother at the same age threatened to swamp him. He shuddered and collected himself. "Yeah, her airbag had failed and she'd broken her neck when her car had gotten rear-ended. It was a million in one death, you know? Apparently she didn't have any visible injuries, she looked like she was sleeping. Grant tried to wake her up but couldn't. He didn't know she was dead and it scared him when she didn't wake up. They must have been waiting for next of kin notification because he was with her for quite a while, watching her get colder and stiffer. After what felt to him to be an eternity, he heard the M.E. coming and knew he'd be in a lot of trouble if he got caught so he hid. Not the smartest thing in the world, I know, but his dad had an awful temper. The M.E. was between him and the door so he went back to his corner. He could see everything from there but for some reason no one noticed him, he was smaller than other kids his age, easier to overlook I guess." Tony's voice was quiet and sad for his friend.

"Thank god, he didn't have to watch his mother get autopsied, but he did watch the M.E. put her into one of the drawers, that's when he came out. He attacked the guy, yelling and hitting. Fortunately, the M.E. was a friend of Dr. Mars and recognized Grant and his mom from the photo on his dad's desk. The kid was completely freaked out. An assistant came in and help the M.E. subdue him. They gave him a tranquilizer shot and then called his dad. Dr Mars had just been informed of his wife's death and had called the cousin's house to tell them. They told him that they didn't have the kid with them and Dr Mars was on the verge of his own freak out when the ME called. Grant found all that out later when he heard his aunt talking to someone at the funeral." Tony kept his gaze steady on the floor since looking up would have meant meeting the sympathetic gazes of his friends.

"How did he become a cop with that sort of phobia?" McGee asked.

"Therapy, Probie, lots and lots of therapy." Tony answered seriously. "While we worked together we didn't have to visit the morgue often. Whenever we did have to, he was skittish as all hell but he did it, every time. For the longest time I gave him a lot of shit over it until once we had to go and it spooked him so much I took him out and got him drunk afterwards. That's when he told me all about it." Tony finally looked over at Abby as she sat holding Grant's lax hand. "He still has nightmares about it, especially if he's under a lot of stress."

"As he would be from this case." Ziva observed in her usual matter-of-fact manner.

"Yeah." Tony sighed. "As he would with this case. Combine that with not eating since last night and if I know Grant he didn't eat much then." Tony noticed Ducky checking his watch and frowning. "Put an extra large Red Bull in that empty stomach and there you go, out for the count." He turned his gaze back over to Abby and Grant. 'When did they start making an extra large size of that nasty crap.' He wondered to himself.

McGee flushed in consternation, he'd bought the drink after all. "But I thought Red Bull gave you a boost, kinda like Abby's Caff-Pow?" He turned the statement into a question.

Tony nodded. "They do, McGoo, but you have to eat something. Grant has a really bad habit of forgetting to eat while he's working. He also drinks too much coffee." He risked a glance at Gibbs, who raised his own coffee cup and took a gulp.

"No such thing." The Ex-Marine stated gruffly. "Ziva, how about you and McGee go and round up some lunch? We can't have Fornell complaining that we mistreated his agent, now can we?" He turned to his oldest friend. "Duck, what would you suggest we get?"

"Well," The M.E. began. "Soup would certainly be light enough..."

"No way." Tony interrupted. "Mars hates soup. Pasta salad and garlic bread." He stated confidently.

Ducky regarded him curiously. "You seem to know him quite well."

Tony flashed his famous grin. "We worked together for a year and hung out together in our spare time." The smile faded. "He was my best friend." He pulled out his wallet and handed some bills to McGee. "Get me some too." He instructed.

Tim accepted the cash hesitantly. "What kind do I get?"

"Traditional, with the green, white and red Rotini pasta, black olives, croutons, Italian dressing and parmesan cheese. Lots of cheese, McGofer. Don't forget the garlic bread." Tony instructed.

"Um... where do I get all that?" Tim asked.

"Two blocks down and three blocks over, there's a little Italian restaurant, Mangioni's. Tell them Tony sent you, tell them what I want and that you need a double order of everything." Tony frowned as he noticed Abby leaning over Grant as he shifted on the couch.

McGee and Ziva spent a couple more minutes collecting money and orders from the rest before heading up the stairs.

Ducky also noticed the young FBI agent attempting to sit up and hurried over. "Take it easy." The M.E. instructed softly, resting one hand lightly on a slender shoulder. "I think you're all right but I'd like to check you out to make sure."

Grant pulled away sharply. "Sorry, sorry. Don't touch me, ok?" He tucked himself into the corner of the old sofa trying vainly to get away from the stranger dressed in blue scrubs. "Please. Just leave me alone."

Ducky looked over his shoulder at Tony. "My goodness. This takes me back to the time I worked with a rather nervous young man in South Africa. He..."

"Not now, Ducky." Gibbs murmured quietly as Tony gently pushed his way to the side of the sofa. Ducky moved back to give him room.

"Hey, Grant. How ya doin'?" The Senior Field Agent quietly asked his old friend.

Grant began to nibble on his fingernails. "Not so great." He admitted. "Lost a bunch of cool points today, yeah?"

Tony smiled fondly. "Nah, you lost those when you got the Rocketship painted."

A tiny spark of the old Grant lit his sapphire eyes. When he spoke he sounded exactly like Marvin the Martian from Looney Toons. "But I still have the Iludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator."

Gibbs let a small smile grace his usually stern visage. He hid it behind his ever-present coffee cup. "Oh God, another one." He grumbled.

So focused was everyone on the ailing FBI agent, they didn't notice the arrival of another person until a question echoed through the lab. "Where in hell is my agent?"

TBC