"Umm…Doctor Mallard?"

Tim felt nervous but she had given this some deep thought. She liked the Doctor and trusted him to make the right decision for her if he ever had to be called upon. She knew that Tony had badgered Kate to be her emergency contact and Kate had ended up choosing Abby after Tony had put his foot in it. But who did she have chosen – if anyone – to make the big decisions?

And Gibbs…well she wouldn't be surprised if it was the Doctor or even Fornell he had for his contacts. Gibbs and the FBI agent had a strange relationship and though they antagonised each other in the work environment she knew they trusted each other deep down. She could tell…you learned a lot when you stay quiet and just watched.

And Tony…maybe Gibbs? Or maybe he had a police buddy somewhere who held the responsibility.

Tim had tried to think of someone else, not wanting to add anything else onto what must already be a full plate that the doctor lived with.

But the only other people she could think of would not be any good.

Penny travelled too far and too often to be a reliable person – there would be no guarantee that she would be available or even in the country if called upon.

She did not want to place her little sister in such a situation. It wouldn't be fair. And she didn't want her to have to live with a difficult decision is she was forced to make one. But then with Sarah's age would they even accept a decision from her?

There were her parents… But as things weren't exactly amicable between herself and her father she couldn't put him down. There was her mom, but she had always had the habit of allowing her husband to overrule her on things – usually after a fair amount of arguing - and Tim did not want to risk her health being one of those things they stood and argued about when she needed a decision to be made.

Doctor Mallard would understand the pros and cons of all avenues and she hoped he would make a clinical decision – free of emotion.

There was of course the team. But then chances would be that they would all be in the same situation as she was in a worst case scenario. And if it was just her? Well, she couldn't bring herself to trust any of them that much. She trusted them with her life in the field – it was their jobs after all – but not with something as personal as this.

"My dear Tim, it had been a while since you have addressed me so formally," he smiled at her.

She gulped. He was cleaning down one of the examination tables and although she had missed the autopsy her mind could fill in what she had missed. She was still getting used to seeing people…not alive.

"I…I…have something to ask you,"

The doctor looked at her, concern deep in his eyes.

"I will just pop the kettle on my dear. It is time for a break I think,"

"I didn't mean to disturb you," Tim stood in the door a little lost for what to do. She had hoped that she would find Ducky not doing anything as things had been a bit slow for most of the teams over the past couple of days but it looked like she had been wrong.

The doctor shook his head with a smiled as he peeled of his rubber gloves, binned them and went to wash his hands.

"You aren't disturbing me at all my dear, just keeping the dust from the tables. It is a blessing that things have been so quiet of late,"

She nodded at this.

While a bit dull, as it meant there was no excuse to continue putting of the filing and paperwork, it also meant that no bodies were coming their way which meant someone was alive and someone wasn't killing someone else.

She watched as Ducky filled the kettle and measures out the tealeaves. He was so precise and practised in his movements that Tim couldn't imagine him doing something so uncouth as throwing a teabag in a mug and letting it stew for longer than necessary because he had forgotten about it as she often did when she felt like something not so strong as coffee.

She remained silent, listening to him as he told her some obscure fact about the tea industry and the history of the teapot – just how did the man keep so much information in his head?

"There we are," Tim accepted the delicate cup and saucer and sat down when he gestured towards one of the two chairs at his desk.

"Now my dear," he took the seat opposite her and sighed after taking a sip from his own steaming cup, "What can I do for you?"

Tim sat the cup and saucer onto the table, not trusting herself with the delicate crockery while she was speaking. She was getting better with her nervousness around so many new people but there was no use in chancing things.

"I have to fill in some personal stuff again after transferring from Norfolk," she began.

"Yes," Ducky nodded, "Standard procedure I believe,"

"Some things didn't really matter when I was in an office at Norfolk but now that I am going to be out in the field there are some things I have had to put some thought into,"

Ducky nodded his head in understanding.

"You see I need an emergency contact and someone to act as my medical proxy if it was necessary," she rushed ahead now, gaining speed with each word, "I don't want to be asking more than you can handle, Ducky, but you see all of my family are out of town and the only one I would trust to make the decisions travels a lot and I could pick a member of the team but I don't feel like-"

"Tim, my dear girl, breath,"

Ducky had placed his tea to the side and was leaning forward to take her hands.

Tim did as she was told and took a breath.

"Now, if I understand you, you are asking that I be your contact and proxy?"

She nodded her head slowly.

"Surely there is someone closer to you that you could have on file?"

Tim shook her head.

"No. I've thought about it and there is no one, Ducky,"

She had. She had thought about it until her head had nearly popped. She had friends – despite what Tony mumbled about her social life – but this was not something she could bring herself to trust them with and the one…'friend' she thought she could, travelled almost as much as Penny.

"Timothy, you do realise that your emergency contact does not necessarily need to be the same person who is your medical proxy. Is there no one in your family you would want to have contacted first?"

"My little sister is still in school and I would rather she not be contacted in what would be a heat of the moment phone call,"

"I understand," Ducky leaned closer to her and smiled gently, "My dear, I do not wish to come across as…denying your wishes but you do realise that as a member of Jethro's team it would be natural for him to be your Proxy. Also should there be any unfortunate events it is almost a certainty that I would be informed and present at the hospital anyway,"

That answered that question. At least one of her teammates had chosen Gibbs. Well, this teammate wasn't going to be one of them.

The door sliding open put a stop to any thoughts she was about to make heard and Palmer walked in. His smile faded to a worried frown when he realised he was interrupting something.

"Oh, I'm sorry Doctor Mallard, Agent McGee…I'll ah…I'll just ah…" he turned around.

"It is quite al-" before Ducky could even finish his sentence Palmer was back out of the door and it had slid shut once again.

Ducky shook his head and Tim giggled.

"A good lad that," Ducky told her, "A bit of a worrier in some respects though, but the makings of a fine Medical Examiner,"

He reached for his tea that had been sitting safely on the table and took a sip.

"Now, Timothy. I will happily serve as your medical proxy should you wish it. But perhaps we should have a longer conversation, hm?"

"Of course, Ducky,"

"Wonderful. How would you like to come for dinner this Saturday?"

Hello my dears :)

I love Ducky so I suppose you could say that a few of these are going to be PapaBearDucky/Tim related. After all there is a fair amount of rubbish – dog bites, poison ivy (although in all fairness no one can be blamed for that), mosquito infested hot tubs – that show-Tim has to put up with.

Anyway, I really hope you are enjoying this FemTim short.

Please let me know what you think.

Take care and have a lovely day/evening.

:)