A/N Well here is the Epilogue which has been written from numerous POV. Sometimes when I close out these stories I end up depressing myself, knowing that Tony's team are not going change- will not see him as someone who is flawed and easily hurt despite appearances. His team mates don't get that he is much smarter than they give him credit for (if he was as dumb as they think, he could never retain the sheer volume of information about movies that he does and be able to access and apply it to analogous situations. I just can't write fluffy heartwarming scenes where his team mates see the error of their ways and treat him with the respect he deserves. Not when I know that even in Season 11 McGee is arguing still about why he needs to follow Tony's orders or that Gibbs rewards that insubordinate behaviour by letting McGee take point because he doesn't want to follow Tony's orders. That isn't how the COC works. You don't like following orders then you are free to leave or request a transfer but you follow the orders of your superiors or you get you ass kicked. So in good conscience if I attempted to write a fluffy ending it wouldn't feel real and would leave me feeling even more depressed. So, no earth shattering changes in the the way that the team treat my favourite flawed character, I'm afraid. But hey, at least he has Ernie and the LOLs to watch his six!

This chapter isn' beta read. I'm trying to clean up the files and stories I have cluttering up my hard drive so I decided to post this as is. I have a bad habit of tinkering with unposted chapters and I really wanted to focus my energy on the two stories I am still writing as well as a couple of others that I want to begin. So I'll apologise in advance for mistakes that I have missed. If you notice anything huge let me know and I'll fix it. I do love Victoria, Ernie and the LOLs but Sister Rosita manages to get the last word when it comes to the moral highground in this chapter and it is something that should have been said by Gibbs, Ducky or the director. At least the bowling nun had the courage to speak up though :D Hope you enjoy this :)

Who's Been Cooking in my Kitchen? Part 5.

Epilogue:

Later than night after everyone went home following the mammoth feast there had been a feeling of quiet reflection, which was probably due at least in part, to Sister Rosita's challenge to everyone to identify what they wanted to give thanks for. But it was also because of several conversations that had taken place too.

Gibbs:

Gibbs replaced the final screws into the hinges of his basement door which they'd used as a makeshift table during dinner. Although he'd never wanted to spend Thanksgiving with a houseful of people, he had to admit that parts of the holiday hadn't sucked too badly. Shooting Barney had felt good, damned good. Reuniting Courtney-Jayne had been good and it had been nice to eat some great home cooking again. Those old women were pains in the ass but damn it could they cook!

Apart from the holidays that he'd been forced to spend with his ex-wives under extreme sufferance, this was the first time in many years that he had chosen even if it had been grudgingly, to spend a Thanksgiving with real people. Spending the day with Jack Daniels didn't count. And it kinda felt nice to be going to bed with a gut full of food rather than bourbon. Make a change waking up without a hangover tomorrow.

Other bits of the day had been less enjoyable, the 'chat' with Ernie who, without lecturing had managed to make him feel like a self-absorbed jackass who was using his grief to avoid living. Made him admit, even if it was only to himself that what he did was little more than going through the motions and reveling in being a judgemental fool for insisting that his grief was more deeply intense than anyone else's. He chose to wallow in his pain like a coward while others chose to make the best of the rest of their lives and had the courage to move on. Sure, he'd never actually pulled the trigger but he hadn't had the courage to do what he needed to either.

So he'd been marking time, feeling noble just because he'd resisted the compulsion to eat his gun. He knew, unlike Ernie, he wouldn't be able to look Shannon in the eyes and swear to her that he'd really tried to live his life, not spent it in flounder in his own grief. He knew that she would have been more courageous. So would she forgive him for wasting such a precious gift, would she and Kelly even want to share eternity with him? Did he deserve to? Deep thoughts indeed!

And it wasn't as if he could point to what a bang-up job he was doing at work as mitigation for his failure to move on either, not after today anyway. Ari was driving him crazy, Cate was convinced she'd been vindicated in not taking out that psychopath when she had the chance and that freaked him out because he really didn't like the relationship they seemed to have going on. No good would come of it – his gut was certain of that if nothing else.

And his team was in a mess if the conversation he was privy to had been anything to go by. If any agent should have juniors well trained in in COC issues it should be a former Marine gunnery sergeant yet clearly, he didn't. So no, he didn't think that Shannon would approve of his half-assed efforts and he knew deep down that neither of his girls would approve of his act of revenge, taken after their death. So that added up to a whole lot of him having to lift his game one Hell of a lot.

Finally, he had to concede that Ernie was right about one thing. Abby and Tony seem to have adopted him along with Ducky over the years as a surrogate family and he really would hate to be without either of them now but unless he did something different he just might. DiNozzo who had always looked up to him, Hell he put him on a pedestal ten foot high but now the kid had another idol. Clearly his SFA was extremely fond of Ernie and frankly Gibbs had to ask why wouldn't he hero-worship the guy? Not only was he a genuine hero, he obviously needed someone to love as much as DiNozzo. But damn it, DiNozzo was supposed to think HE walked on water, trust HIM to have his six, to trust GIBBS with his secrets. And Ernie had stolen him away!

And those damned interfering old women with their mother- henning of Tony were helping to drive him away from his team, too. DiNozzo belonged to him, he'd found him and brought him back to DC from Baltimore. That had to count for something, surely. Tony was his. Everyone else could just butt out.

Abby:

Abby was preparing for bed, well actually preparing for coffin might actually be more accurate since she slept in a coffin instead of a bed when she was home alone. And what a fine one it was too with its shiny ebony exterior with a blood red interior of bed linen she'd had custom made and it was snug and comforting and made Abby feel safe. And tonight she really needed to feel safe.

Sister Rosita was mad at her… no worse she was mad and disappointed in her in equal measures and seemed impervious to Abby's time honoured method of making amends. She'd found from an early age that tears were an effective strategy to diffusing her family's anger at her. As she got older, it didn't work so well with her friends and teachers but after starting at NCIS which was a male dominated workplace, she found that she could twist the guys around her little finger fairly easily. Moreover they all turned to mush when she cried or got upset but females were usually a harder nut to crack and tears weren't nearly as effective.

Feeling agitated she decided to make herself a cup of cocoa before settling down in her coffin. Growing up in a family with two deaf parents, Abby had never had to deal with verbal censure and she found it surprisingly difficult to deal with. And Gibbs never criticised her, she was his favourite after all, so she was more than a little unsettled by Sister Rosita's denunciation. Also if truth be told she was disappointed that her Silver Fox hadn't leapt to her defence.

Okay, she had done something bad but no one had been hurt after all. Abby ignored a tiny voice inside her head that said 'no, that's not true – you know that Tony would have been really hurt by your actions and he could have been physically hurt if anyone else had seen it. It was stupid and childish and you broke the law. If Tony wasn't such a nice guy you could have been in big trouble.'

It was really, really ironic, like irony of the highest order. She'd been sort of hoping to see Lil whack Cate with her handbag – and she did but Abby hadn't bargained on getting her own butt kicked either. It was always pretty funny watching Gibbs head slap his agents but she had to say it wasn't nearly as much fun being on the other end of a dressing down and damn the usually mild-mannered nun was too damned good at it.

And she suspected that Cate had been on the end of another ass whooping courtesy of Sister Rosita too, since when they had returned to the table after making tea and coffee for everyone Cate looked like she'd been sucking on a lemon. Her friend was down- right ornery but she wouldn't discuss it in the car going home. She'd been spitting nails about Rae jabbing her in the solar plexus though!

Tony:

As he snuggled down on Ernie's couch he thought about the impromptu team dinner tonight. It was certainly not what he'd envisaged when the LOLs had informed him several weeks before that he was invited to dinner and expect to be 'spoilt.' But then again the LOLs had long ago sensed his discomfort with all things connected to family and holidays. His memories of holidays as a child were generally not happy ones. They generally fell into three categories.

There were the holidays spent with people his father was attempting to impress who were so-called business 'friends' and Tony would be dressed up in ridiculous costumes by his mother and like a performing poodle, expected to entertain everyone. But worse was that his parents would also put on a show too, pretending that they were normal loving parents when both had been alcoholics, who barely acknowledged his existence unless it was to point out all the ways they regretted it. But when everybody had gone home, that was when the monsters would re-emerge from their self-imposed exile once again with messages of how worthless and weak he was.

Then there were the holidays that were spent alone with his parents where alcohol fuelled the verbal arguments about his father's infidelity and obsession with his business and his mother's family's refusal to invest in his father's business. As they consumed copious quantities of alcohol, (even more than they did normally) because they hadn't been invited to spend the holiday with the glitterati for some social 'event' of the season. Then the insults became more and more personal and malicious and inevitably he was drawn into the fray too. Apparently he was the cause of all the ills that behest the DiNozzos, he was weak, stupid, the reason why his parents drank, he would end up in the gutter and hurt everyone that cared for him or tried to help him. He'd never understood that maxim about words never hurting or perhaps he really was just weak.

Then there were a few holidays that had been spent with family before his mother died. His father's parents and his uncle, aunt and cousins were occasionally invited to spend Christmas at the DiNozzo mansion and there had been one vague memory of a Christmas spent in England with his mother's family. But even those special memories were bittersweet because it illustrated to him that normal families didn't drink themselves into a stupor or argue with words that hurt just as much as the abnormally harsh punishments he earned for being bad… laughing or talking too much or running through the house with muddy shoes. And those rare family holidays had taught him that ordinary parents laughed and hugged their kids, told them how great they were and didn't argue with each other constantly.

Tony guessed that once he realised what he was missing out on… what other kids took for granted, it was even harder to spend time with the either of his extended families. And then of course, there was the undercurrent of disapproval that ran between the two sides of the family. His Nonno and Nona thought that Senior should have married a nice Italian girl and had lots of bambinos and raised them up Catholic of course. Instead his father had fallen in love with a rich blue-blood English rose, one that had proved to be a rather a handful. Yes she'd allowed her husband to name him since he was his heir and with the difficulty she'd had in carrying him to full term, was more than likely to be the only son.

What she had remained firm about though, was that he was going to be raised protestant and she duly had Tony Christened Church of England, trying to regain favour with her family who were appalled at her decision to marry an American of Italian descent, one who came from peasant stock no less. The problem was that while he wasn't raised Catholic like his DiNozzo cousins, Tony's Paddington family curled their lip at his mongrel blood too. His Uncle Clive had been the only one that had treated him as if he wasn't flawed or second rate but it seemed that neither set of grandparents could love him unconditionally. So time that he spent with extended families always served to reinforce that he wasn't good enough for either family and would never fit in properly anywhere.

Tony figured that that was why his time at college had been such an incredibly happy experience for him. He was accepted for simply being Tony who was great at basketball and football primarily and all sports, really. Who loved to play piano and guitar and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of movies especially old black and whites and loved English Lit classes and acting too. Finally, at OSU he was accepted unconditionally and made lifelong friends who didn't care about his DNA, bloodline or religion.

Even at College though, holidays weren't the happiest of occasions since his friends would worry that he had no family to share his with since his father had disowned him when he was twelve and his frat brothers would try to drag him home with them. But while he appreciated the gesture, it reinforced what was missing from his life and reminded him how flawed he was. Even back then he preferred to spend holidays alone curled up with some good movies or working shifts instead so people who actually enjoyed the holidays, could.

Since he'd moved to D.C and his LOLs had adopted him, they had insisted on inviting him to spend the holidays with them if they weren't off with their own kids. And as much as he appreciated their kindness just like he did when he'd been in college, spending holidays alone was simpler than having to pretend when he was with normal people. The only other person that he ever thought about spending the holidays with was Gibbs. Something about misery loving company because his boss appeared to hate the holidays as much as Tony did, so they could just pretend it was a normal day.

From the time when that mess with Suzanne O'Neill occurred and his Boss let him know how he really felt about him hanging out at his house, he'd stopped going over. And Gibbs always refused his invitation to come to his. So he tried to work the holidays to have a legitimate excuse to refuse his adopted grans without seeming like an ungrateful brat or just plain antisocial.

This year, he'd been hanging out with Ernie when he had free time and he knew how much the old guy was dreading the holidays…could relate, so he'd decided to accept the LOLs invitation since Tom Morrow had given the MCRT the holiday off much to Gibbs disgust. Tony figured he could do Thanksgiving with Ernie, Rae, Carla and Lil and they would excuse him if he was morose. But he'd never envisaged have to spend dinner with the whole team bar Palmer, plus Victoria and a bowling nun. It meant that he would have to put on his happy face and act like a perfect guest and that was a little too like the dinners that his parents had held with business partners and society types and he'd been expected to play his part like Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Then when he got there – late which his father would have killed him for, it was clear that there had been arguments. The tension was so thick that you could cut the air with a knife when he walked in and clearly they'd been talking him. No doubt complaining about him slacking off, talking too much or going on about movies but whatever it was, he was pretty sure he was better off not knowing. It was bad enough being there when Lil lit into Abby and Cate about that stupid damned photo and god only knows how the LOLs found out about it. Sometimes he thought that they had their very own informant in the building. Initially he thought it was Chris Pacci, but now that Chris was dead Tony suspected that Ducky might be the leaky tap. The ME and Victoria were as thick as thieves with the trio.

Snuggling down under the hand-made quilt that had been made with love by Ernie's beloved Dorothy he was glad he was spending the night with the old Marine. Neither of them had felt like being alone tonight and much as he loved his grans and appreciated their spoiling, Ernie's matter-of-fact treatment was balm to his troubled soul. And Ernie was lonely too so he didn't feel like he was being quite so needy as he otherwise might. So all in all Tony guessed that he had a lot to be thankful for.

Cate:

After Abby dropped them back at NCIS collect their cars she'd gone back into the office and headed down to the gym to punch the poop out of a bag for an hour. It hadn't really done the trick but there was no one around that she could persuade to someone to grapple on the mats with her and burn off her frustrations. If it hadn't been a holiday she would have stopped off at her local kendo dojo but sadly it was closed today. So she had to settle for taking her frustrations out on an inanimate object instead. And now she was luxuriating in a soothing hot bubble bath since today had been a real shocker.

She couldn't believe that Gibbs had made her wear that objectionable and highly offensive Barbie doll costume when they were undercover in the Macy's Parade today. And somehow it had added insult to injury that it was a female cop who had set her up for that little humiliation although she still suspected that Tony had pulled the Thin Blue Line card and convinced the Sergeant to go with the most demeaning get-up possible. She really had difficulty crediting a woman who had had to fight her way to a position of authority in a male patriarchal structured organisation could be so blind to the tyranny of males over females in traditionally male dominated roles like law enforcement. If anyone had any doubts about it they only had to look at the composition of her team – while representing half of the population she was only twenty five per cent of Gibbs' team.

Then as if the disrespect she encountered at the hands of the NYPD wasn't enough along with their snotty attitude because they were federal agents – all except DiNozzo who they'd fawned over sickeningly like some sort of tin god– Abby had tricked her. Her friends knew darned well how much she despised those horrible LOLs, especially LiL who was much too free with her handbag and her ill-informed opinions. And now she'd decided that Carla as Lil's understudy as a handbag whacker, was pretty dang annoying too. While that bony whippet-like Rae person, had really pointy elbows and they truly hurt. She already had bruises on her abs. No way she would have gone to Gibbs place tonight if she'd been expecting the Trolls to be there and Victoria Mallard's presence- well that had just been icing on the cake, hadn't it?

Abby was so darned determined, obsessed really for them to play happy families she'd plotted to get Cate there come hook or by crook. The evidence was clear with her insisting on them all going in Abby's vehicle so Cate couldn't leave when she discovered the four old crones after they got to Gibbs house. And DiNozzo's adoptive grans were deluded, no make that delusional about their precious Tony and had the hide to take her to task for trying to teach him a lesson. They had no idea how incredibly obnoxious he could be at times although he sure could charm females. But she wasn't affected by his cheesiness.

Yet it was the little 'talk' that she'd had with Sister Rosita no less, had managed to get under her skin worse than everything else all day. She'd grown up around nuns since she'd had a parochial school education so when the nun volunteered them to go out to the kitchen to make coffee and tea for everyone and drain-cleaner strength coffee for Gibbs, she'd never sensed the ambush. Sure she was a bit disgruntled about being thrust into a stereotypical gender role of making the coffee because her reproductive organs were internal rather than external and she resented that the good Sister hadn't singled out Tony or McGee. She hadn't suspected for a minute though that she had an ulterior motive. Sighing as she recalled the conversation Cate felt the muscles in her shoulders and neck tense painfully as she tried to breathe deeply and relax.

Flashback:

As they bustled around the kitchen Sister Rosita mentioned that Abby had told her that her friend was a former Secret Service Agent and had protected the President. Cate had nodded and smiled, glad to see that someone was able to acknowledge her worth.

"So that's a pretty dangerous job, isn't it?" The nun asked knowingly.

Cate nodded. "Potentially it can be, since you could be called on to take a bullet for the POTUS or the dignitary you've been assigned to protect."

"Ever have a good friend that has been killed on the job, Cate?"

"No Sister Rosita, I can't say that I have. I've know people who were wounded but not someone close. I had a good friend though who joined the Service with me. She went into the Investigative branch and I joined the Protective branch. When she got married and decided to start a family she was head-hunted by a Financial Consultancy firm and left the agency because she thought it would be safer for the baby. The irony was she was killed in a workplace mass shooting by a disgruntled former employee having an affair with one of the partners. She threatened to tell his wife so he fired her and she came back with an automatic rifle and mowed everyone down. My friend Cherie was five months pregnant at the time."

The nun bowed her head and spoke a brief prayer. "How tragic; I'm sorry for your loss my dear. So have you ever wondered how you would feel if you encountered those responsible?"

"I would relish the opportunity to hold them accountable, Sister." Cate spoke fervently.

"Yes, I'm sure you would. Anyone would but I imagine as a federal agent you would be driven to find her killer if you had the chance to be involved in the investigation. You probably would be keen to move the investigation on as rapidly as possible. Perhaps that is why like doctors, it isn't considered prudent to be assigned to the case when you have a close personal involvement."

Cate shrugged, "Maybe."

"So perhaps you could understand why a colleague who had a woman in their sights they believed to be connected in some way to a case where another agent – a good friend who had been murdered – might choose to get close to the woman to find the killer. To ignore orders to keep their distance? "

"I guess I could make that mistake, knowing how much I wanted to make Cherie's killer pay. The killer was a former private in the USAF and she disappeared unfortunately and the case went cold. Obviously she had help to evade arrest." Cate growled.

"So if you found someone who appeared to have a connection to your friend's killer, a highly attractive looking young man you might be tempted to befriend them? What if they tried to kiss you? Would you play along, hoping that they'd tell you something or that you could get access to their personal information - would you do it?"

Cate shrugged a second time not sure where this was going. "I guess I would. You do things that get the job done, pretend to be friendly with dirtbags to find out what you need to know but when it's a friend, you go the extra mile. What's with all the questions?"

"Nearly there! So just after you've exchanged saliva with the man, you find out he isn't a he, he is really a she and she is the killer of your friend hiding in plain sight all this time. How would you feel?"

Cate scowled at the nun, knowing she'd sucker punched her. "I'd want to disinfect my mouth for a month."

"Because why?"

"Because I was kissing a killer; more importantly the scum who killed my friend and her workmates, "She said grudgingly.

"And how would you feel if your teammates took every opportunity to taunt you unmercifully about kissing a woman instead of a man? Who never seemed to realise the reason you were upset wasn't because you were homophobic but because you were sickened that you kissed your friend's killer?" The nun asked seriously.

"I'm not homophobic, Sister Rosita!" Cate declared, irritably.

"Perhaps not dear but people could be forgiven for making that assumption with your behaviour. Perhaps you might grant Tony the same benefit of the doubt too when it comes to his playboy reputation. Don't you think that continually taunting him about unknowingly kissing Agent Pacci's killer and trivialising it by making it about the killer's sex is unusually cruel and unfeeling behaviour, Cate? Would you stand for it if someone did it to you or would you make a formal complaint against your workmates? You don't strike me as the type to tolerate such behaviour I have to say."

The nun had placed all the cups of coffee, tea and drain cleaner um Marine strength coffee on a tray to carry back inside, but paused.

"And despite your seemingly low opinion of him, I don't believe he would do the same thing if the shoe was on the other foot." She held up her hand to forestall any objection. "Oh I know about the teasing and the pranks… Abby tells me about what you all get up to…well obviously not fabricating an illegal photograph. But I'm a pretty decent judge of character and having met him I think he has a great capacity for empathy and I suspect that he is far more sensitive than you could imagine."

The nun stared intently at her. "Just think about what we've discussed before you decide to tease him yet again over kissing that man. You really aren't in Kindergarten anymore, Agent Todd. Grow up!"

And with that she stepped out into the living room effectively ensuring she had the last word on the subject, interfering old busy body. Just who the heck did she think she was anyway? The only one that had the right to call her on it was Gibbs, he was her superior. Although an annoying little voice inside her head spoke to her – and DiNozzo is too – which peeved her no end.

End of Flashback:

Feeling irritation tense her muscles again, she realised that the water had cooled noticeably. Cate expertly toed on the hot water tap with her foot, topping up the bath since she needed to relax her stressed muscles so she would sleep. Cate decided that she'd give her sister a quick call before bed to find out how the family dinner had gone off. Her younger brother had been bringing his girlfriend home to meet the family and she had been curious to meet her. Apparently she was a left wing daughter of a Baptist Minister which she suspected would doom her forever in her parent's eyes. But she was most upset to have missed spending time with her brand new nephew.

As she climbed into bed a little while later, she scowled. The thing that really annoyed Cate about Sister Rosita's tirade was that what she said was eminently reasonable and made her seem like an obnoxious brat!

Tim:

Timothy McGee arrived home after attending dinner at his Boss' house which they'd been invited to at the last minute. After they caught the kidnapping case of the Admiral's granddaughter he knew that he wasn't going to be heading home this year. As if missing Thanksgiving with his family wasn't bad enough he'd been relegated to the office while the others got to go to New York and go undercover in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. But he got the last laugh since he'd been on Balboa's team for the rescue of Courtney-Jayne and Cate and DiNozzo would have been spitting nails.

It had been a really out there Thanksgiving Dinner and it had fired him up and when he got fired up it always inspired him to write. As he sat banging away at his antique typewriter he realised that he hadn't finished the case of the 'eyeballs in the mail killer spy and the transvestite' yet. The problem had been that trying to write the whole scene that had gone on in Paraguay when he wasn't there was difficult so he was working from the case notes and reports filed by Agents Tommy and Taitlyn Codd.

Deciding to leave that chapter for now he set to writing down some of the pure gold from the Thanksgiving Dinner tonight. Those LOLs were amazing characters the way they kicked ass. Reminded him of his grandmother who was a real kick-ass gran, the only one prepared to take on the Admiral and win. He knew that the family dinner he'd missed would have been full of tension with Penny and the Admiral disagreeing on just about every topic imaginable and he could see that his sister Sarah was going to be a strong opinionated firecracker, just like his grandmother. But then again she had bossed him around for years.

As his fingers flew across the keys, the chapter seemed to practically write itself. After all, Ernie Yost was such a truly honourably and decent person although of course he would be…Bernie Most. And a bowling nun who was almost as over- the- top- out- there as Abby, he just wouldn't have been able to come up with these people if he'd tried. He wondered what she and Cate had been talking about when they came in from the kitchen 'cause Cate sure looked mad. Mind you it had been pretty funny her getting whacked over the head with Lillian… er Gillian's handbag. Her expression when Rae - make that Fae- jabbed her elbow into her gut had been utterly priceless.

Being the probie on the team he'd taken a degree of sadistic pleasure in seeing Special Agent I-guarded-the- POTUS brought down a peg or two although he didn't appreciated them attacking him. Still he'd been mocked his entire life because he so much smarter than everyone else. These people were just jealous of his achievements although he was hurt that Abby was so jealous of his high intelligence. He pushed down the doubts that said that Abby had a PhD in Forensic Science so it was unlikely that she was jealous of his master's degree. What other reason would she have for insisting he shouldn't talk about his prestigious alma maters?

He was also trying very hard to ignore the conversation he'd shared with Raelene over coffee when she'd informed him that they had a mutual friend in Special Agent Jim Nelson.* She was a friend of the family; specifically his grandparents and she'd even minded Jim as a child on numerous occasions, apparently. McGee tried to brush her off, downplaying their friendship since she was so close to DiNozzo he didn't want him to ferret out his secret.

He'd bragged to Tony when he was trying to boss him around that he'd graduated first in his FLETC class but that hadn't been entirely accurate. Three other grads had in fact received the same mark as him and Jim had in fact helped him with some of the more practical aspects of the course, coaching him, cajoling, challenging him and plain getting in his face when he'd mention dropping out.

Frankly, he wouldn't have graduated let alone gotten such good marks without Special Agent Nelson's help. While he aced the more academic subjects, the physical aspects of the course were what he'd struggled with and if DiNozzo found out he'd never hear the end of it. The guy was a total jerk and he couldn't understand why everyone was so enamoured by him, he was way smarter than the former cop.

It never occurred to him that both Gibbs and Tony had made it their business to make enquiries before he joined the team and knew full well where his strengths and weaknesses lay, including his performance at FLETC, before he joined the MCRT.

Ducky:

Driving back home he noted his mother was animated, chattering away and he was glad that she seemed to have enjoyed herself. Concentrating on the road he let most of his mother's prattle wash over him but some of it penetrated his consciousness:

"You know Donald, Americans are oddest creatures. I don't understand why people of a certain persuasion would want to live in a closet…"

"…Do you think that Antonio might come over for dinner soon? I have that Edwardian armoire that needs moving to the other end of the room…"

"… and dear Contessa was quite taken with my Italian Gigolo, do you think he would bathe her for me again. She has rather a testy disposition but he knew just how to handle her…"

"…Antonio promised that he would dance the tango with me…"

"…Matthew was rather quiet tonight. I think that he was upset to learn that he has competition for my affections, you know…"

"…I don't think that Julian was very happy about people telling him to be more circumspect and less boastful. I blame the parents; mark my words they will have given him a big head instead of teaching him that intelligence was a gift from God. One that could be just as easily taken away…"

"…Donald, is the Medal of Honour a Decoration in America?"

He responded to that particular question. "Yes Mother, their highest military honour… awarded only for personal acts of valour above and beyond the call of duty. It's the equivalent to our Victoria Cross which is given for valour in the face of the enemy."

"Goodness me, Donald; he's a real hero! What a self-effacing individual he is. Julian could do worse than take a leaf out of his book. I like Mr Yost."

"Timothy Mother, his name is Timothy… not Julian. And I like Ernest too. Perhaps we could have him over for a meal sometimes. He's a widower you know."

"Are you sure Donald? He looks like Julian to me, sulky and smug. Not Mr Yost…"

Ducky zoned out again, thinking about the dinner and how things had played out. Tony had seemed very downcast and he didn't think that the senior field agent had enjoyed himself all that much. At least he was glad to see he'd found himself a positive male role model in Ernest Yost. They filled a mutual need in each other and unlike Jethro, the man was not afraid to show his emotions to Anthony which was sorely lacking in the relationship Anthony shared with his mentor who had all the emotional warmth of a constipated boa constrictor. Well with the exception of emotions that didn't involve anger of course – there Gibbs was a champion emoter.

Still, between the LOLs and Ernest, they were giving the lad some long needed emotional support that was sorely lacking and his Grans sure had his six. Ducky wondered how they were obtaining their Intel. Before Christopher's unfortunate passing Ducky had suspected that he had been leaking info to the LOLs. Since that appalling case of the faked photo had occurred after Pacci's death…well it would seem that he wasn't the leak or that they had an additional source. And as much as Anthony was distressed when Lillian raised the matter, he decided that it was important for the culprits to be publicly admonished and for Tony to know that he had support.

Returning to the dinner earlier, he decided Cate most definitely hadn't enjoyed herself either but he hoped when she took time to reflect she might change her attitude to Anthony. He also had to agree with Lillian the fact that she and Abigail didn't seem to understand the seriousness of fabricating that photo of Anthony was rather a concern. It was disturbing that a federal agent who was a profiler and had guarded the President and a top class forensic scientist could not see how wrong their behaviour had been.

Ducky was also surprised that Ernest had managed to coax Jethro up out of the basement where he'd taken refuge. He had no idea what the elder Marine had said to him… he figured it must be a Marine thing. Perhaps to use a Gibbs' vernacular he'd told him to pull his head out of his ass... chuckling as he thought how colourful the Americans could be at times. Nonetheless whatever Mr Yost had said it had worked and he'd returned, albeit in a rare contemplative mood. Well until he realised that Anthony had adopted the war veteran or he had adopted the lad and then Ducky had seen the stirring of Gibb's green-eyed monster. He was so used to being the recipient of his protégé's unwavering admiration that he'd taken him for granted for far too long.

"…such an usual combination of pecans and pumpkin. Mr Yost promised to give me his wife's secret pie recipe…"

"…looked like she could curdle milk when she came back…"

"I do hope that the Prohibitioners won't come after us… that elderberry wine was exceptional... tasted any as good since my Aunt Edwina died. .."

"…Do you think that the bootlegger will get away from the G Man…what did the young witch say his name was…Porsmell?"

"…Donald when do I get to meet my grand babies..."

Ducky smiled. It had certainly been an interesting day. The team had caught some dirtbags in Gibbs' parlance, reunited a little girl with her family which in a child kidnapping case was a rare but welcome outcome and they'd come together to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner as a team. And hopefully some people had their eyes opened a little. Ducky wasn't such a hopeless romantic that he believed in sudden overwhelming epiphanies and grand gestures but a little realisation, a change of attitude – that he would settle for. And to top off the day, his mother had been unexpectedly lucid and with the bad days rapidly outweighing the good ones it had been a precious gift to have Victoria Mallard even a slightly muddled one back again.

Little did he know what fate had in store for them all but later he looked back in horror.

In the next few weeks a crazy woman with an inoperable brain tumour would imperil the sanctity of their workplace and compromise Tony's life. Ari would come roaring back into DC threatening everyone's life once again, manipulating them all with the fallout costing lives. His actions would also set up a chain of consequences that would reverberate through the team and the agency for the next decade.

Perhaps it was a good thing that it was impossible to tell the future but in looking back over the months and years to come, Ducky couldn't help but wonder. If they'd been able to see into the future would it have been possible to change what came to pass?

End Notes: * Jim Wilson was on Paula Cassidy's NCIS Pentagon team who was blown up by the terrorists in the season 4 episode Grace Period. In the Lab with Abby Tim tells her that he never would have graduated from FLETC if it hadn't been for Jim Nelson's help and Abby replies that then they would never have met. Tim then says that Maybe Jim would still be alive.