Gibbs rubbed a hand over his eyes while he waited for the elevator to reach its destination. After a ten-hour day of bureaucratic crap, the last thing he wanted was to deal with a new case. He was genuinely worried about Jenny, but right this moment he wanted her to stop taking unexpected time off mainly so that he wouldn't have to deal with things like today's security briefing.
At least from the sounds of things, the new case was open and shut. Pretty much literally.
Although, if the scuttlebutt was right that Ducky had already declared the death a suicide, it didn't make sense that his message was so adamant about Gibbs going to see him the moment he got in. DiNozzo should have already signed off on the report. Something didn't add up, and he had an unwelcome suspicion that whatever it was would mean he couldn't go home to his boat and a bottle of bourbon nearly as soon as he wanted to.
The elevator finally dinged, and he strode briskly towards Autopsy.
As the doors swished open, his eyes fell immediately on the far-too-familiar sight of his senior agent sitting on one of Ducky's steel tables. A quick scan revealed a brace on his wrist to be the only visible sign of injury, and he forced himself to relax, telling himself that Ducky would have sent Tony to the hospital if there were anything too serious wrong with him.
'What happened?'
Tony just stared at his feet. Gibbs wasn't surprised. He'd learned long ago that Tony would carry on for hours about a paper cut, but it was next to impossible to get him to talk about more serious injuries.
He was surprised, however, when Ducky grabbed Tony by his elbow and hauled him off the table, then practically marched him over to stand in front of him.
'Tell him.'
When Tony still didn't say anything, Ducky reached up and seized him by the ear.
'Yeaooowwww!'
'Tell him!'
'Duck?'
'Tony has something he wants to tell you, Jethro.'
'No, I don... OK!'
Tony rubbed at his ear.
'Tim threw me to the floor and stepped on my wrist after I'd already landed funny on it.'
Gibbs blinked, astonished and more than a little confused.
His surprise increased when the ME reached for his agent's ear again.
'OK! Enough with the ear! You're worse than my grandmother! Uh... because I... uh... jumped out of a closet and grabbed him... uh... from behind. At... uh... the crime scene.'
There was a long moment during which Tony shuffled his feet, Ducky continued to glower at him, and Gibbs looked back and forth between the two other men in stunned silence.
'Is he ok, Ducky?'
'Oh, he's fine, Jethro. His wrist is sprained, and I'd like to keep an eye on it for the next few days, but aside from that the only thing injured was his pride, at being thrown by young Timothy.'
'Good,' Gibbs growled before turning to glare at Tony.