"Ducky."

The older man started as he was hanging up his overcoat and hat at the sound of the voice. Spinning around on his heels, he held a hand over his heart and looked at the cause of his surprise with mild consternation.

"Anthony! You know how much I dislike being surprised in my own autopsy! Especially at…" he glanced at his watch." Five in the morning. What on earth do you think you are playing at?"

Tony had the good grace to look a trifle embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Ducky. But I needed to talk to you and I needed to do it before anyone else came in."

Taking his first proper look at the young agent, Ducky shepherded him in to his small office and onto a chair as he switched on his tea kettle. There was a look in Tony's eyes that he'd never seen before – a mixture of regret and resignation. Waiting until the tea was prepared and brewing, he took his own seat.

"I assume that this conversation is a result of the events surrounding Jethro's recent head injury and the strained atmosphere that has followed in its wake?"

Tony nodded slowly and took the time to sip at his tea as he formulated in his head exactly what he wanted to say.

"There are a few things I need to tell you. Obviously I wanted to do it in person and I'm sorry it's taken this long to come to you, but if I'm honest, this is a difficult conversation and I've been more than a little bit of a coward. I guess the first thing I need to tell you… Danny and I are getting married."

The words had barely left his mouth when the doctor was exclaiming his joy.

"Why, Anthony! How can you possibly be afraid of giving me such wonderful news? Oh, my dear boy, I am so pleased for you! This is so exciting. Have you started with making plans yet?"

Tony waited, allowing the older man to run out of steam before he continued on.

"Thank you, Ducky. Yes we're both very excited. But that's not all I need to tell you. You see, we've also decided to adopt. But with the jobs we both have, that's just not a viable option for us right now. So we talked a lot and we came to a decision. I went to Tobias Fornell and he's offered me a desk job over at the FBI. I'm sorry to land this all on you on such short notice, but the other reason I came in early today was to pick up my personal belongings."

Ducky slumped further down into his chair. If he were to be perfectly honest with himself, none of this came as a surprise to him and in fact, he was rather pleased that Anthony's life was taking this direction. A family of his own was all the young man had ever wanted, a fact often displayed as he dried his damndest to pull his teammates closer together. Now Danny Sportelli had given him this opportunity – it seemed without doubt or reservation – and Ducky couldn't be happier. Danny was a good man and obviously loved Tony unconditionally; something the younger man had been searching for his entire life. But of course he wouldn't be able to let him go without a few – should he say grandfatherly – words of advice.

"I can tell you without reservation that I am so very happy for you and Danny both, but I feel I would be remiss if I let you leave without giving you my uncalled for opinion. Now, I can only assume that you have already discussed this matter with both Jethro and Abigail?"

Taking off his glasses, Ducky waited for Tony to nod before he carried on.

"Believe it or not, I am fully aware that things have been strained between your entire little family recently and I wish that there was something I can do to make things right. But I also know that it is something you are going to have to work out for yourself. I just hope you realise that just because you may no longer work here, to all intents and purposes, we are still family."

Tony couldn't help the beaming smile that lit his face. After Gibbs and Abby, the elderly ME was the one person he was terrified of disappointing. He couldn't help but feel like a weight had been lifted as soon as he knew he had the man's acceptance.

The two men sat for a while afterward, casually sipping their tea and discussing the finer details of the changes to Tony's life and his upcoming nuptials. Ducky's only regret being that he no longer owned the house out at Reston, as it would have been the perfect setting for his pseudo-grandson's wedding.

Draining the last of his tea, Tony glanced at his watch and sighed deeply. It was time he went upstairs before anyone else came in.

As he expected, the bullpen was empty when he got up there. Toting the cardboard box he'd carried up from the car, Tony took a moment to look around. For a fleeting moment, the room was no longer empty. He could see Mike Franks leaning one hip on Gibbs' desk. Funny, really. He hated the guy when he was alive, but seeing the devastation, no matter how fleeting, in Gibbs' eyes made him re-evaluate everything he had known so far.

In the corner of his eye, he saw glimpses of Chris Pacci, an image that was familiar as they were the only times he ever really saw the guy. Momentarily, a pang of guilt flashed through him. He'd worked with the guy for nearly three years and knew so very little about him. Well, nothing except the many times he happened to be working late and saw the guy sneak into Tom Morrow's office. Sometimes he wondered if he was really the only one who knew and if Morrow had had someone to talk to after his murder. A handful of times he'd caught himself with his hand raised to knock on the director's door, when he thought better of it. Morrow was nothing if not proud and although Tony had noticed the pain in his eyes, nothing the man had done had shown that he wasn't coping. Tony figured he probably would have been embarrassed to realise they hadn't been as discreet as they'd thought.

Emptying his drawer, his eye caught on a stack of movie magazines and his mind was instantly drawn to Cade and Levin. He didn't want to take the time to dwell on EJ. In hindsight, she was maybe one smokescreen too far. But Simon and Gayne? They were great guys, great agents and they would be missed, in Cade's case, Tony could guess, especially by Abby.

Then there was Cait. There wasn't a single part of the entire building that didn't hold some memory of his first partner for Tony. True, to begin with they hadn't had the greatest of relationships but he thought that maybe he was mostly to blame for that. He had allowed her to only see the very shallowest parts of himself, the parts he showed to the world in general. Subconsciously maybe she had seen deeper than he assumed she had let on – she was a profiler after all – but honestly, he wasn't too sure. He knew himself how dangerous it could be to look too closely at something you shouldn't. And for Cait, he was definitely a 'shouldn't'.

Heaving the now full box into his arms, he paused at the elevator and took one last look around. Smiling at the many ghost he saw there now, he knew he had made the right decision. Not just for the sake of Danny and any future children they may have, but for himself too. This may be the end of one particular era but it was the beginning of something new and Tony couldn't help but feel that no matter where life took him now, with the love of Danny, it was going to be perfect.