Hi, at first hesitant at the premises, I came to love the developing picture.
My personal favorite is Gibbs in chapter 2, but you did great with McGee, Jimmy, et al.
I agree with you on likening Tony to Mike Francks rather than Gibbs.
Doesn't that just beg the question what was Mike's hang-up?
I'm okay with ending this story here. Not that I wouldn't avidly read more ;)
Thanks and cheers!

I can't believe I missed this part! It was sheer perfection and I'm a bit emotional now because I never saw a Tiva baby coming. :)

Great story, sad but sweet.

Awwww...*sniff sniff*

Wow. You know, I was expecting this chapter to be well-done and emotional, and it was. As usual, you've done a great job getting inside the characters' heads and translating them from the screen to the page - not only in their thoughts and words, but also their physical tendencies, such as Tony's exaggerated shiver. I also like the description of the house as a protective person.

I didn't expect the dual promotions/changes, but as the characters pointed out, this change suits them. Gibbs will still be molding future agents and Tony will still be putting two and two together and taking charge. You DEFINITELY took me by surprise with the twist at the end. I'm sitting here melting at the thought of Tony & Ziva with a daughter, and Gibbs as grandpa. It's good that Tony & Gibbs had the chance to express their pride, admiration, and affection for each other. I think you chose the best happy ending for this story and I love it.

Thanks for all your work on this fic as a whole; I really enjoyed it. I'll be replying to your email soon. :)

I'm not sure how much I've reviewed on this story, but I come back and read it often and thought that I should at least leave a message for this really great chapter.

While the characters are what drives this show and makes it so successful, you've made them even more complex and interesting yet accessible. You've given them a maturity that is just now starting to be seen on screen.

There are so many beautiful phrases that other reviewers have picked out, so I won't go through everything I love, but I did want to leave my note, too.

As I said, I love the quiet wistfulness of this and the setting in the warmth of Gibbs basement. And love the peek into a future when everything has settled down for a good while and the relationship between Tony and Gibbs has matured into something more like partnership, with Tony being more sure of himself, less (over-)eager to please. And in the way Tony's blindness has become normalcy almost not worthy of mentioning, this feels like a future fitting for far more than just this specific AU.

"Yeah, but what are you gonna do without your office, Boss? I'm pretty sure Vance isn't gonna let you take it with you," DiNozzo joked. "Budget's a little too tight to have to replace an elevator that, against all odds, is still actually working."

Ha! :D Now there's a Christmas present. Might help with getting those boats out of his basement too...

"My tendency?" Gibbs griped, affectionately. "Ya want to compare how many concussions we've each had on the job? Or broken noses?"

There probably is some website for this.

"Both of them had entered law enforcement with young men's minds, never thinking too far into the future and both lasting on the job long after many local LEOs would, having first retirement available at age thirty-five or forty. Now, both of them were heading down paths in just a couple days that they hadn't given serious thought until recent years, when they found that no matter the cases or the dirtbags or the danger, they'd managed to survive fieldwork, largely intact."

I really like the feeling of something of coming to a close and moving on in this chapter. And it's great to have fic for that, where they don't have to stay in their positions for forever just so that the show can go on. It's a great point that this isn't a job many people do for life (though yet not thinking about that when they start), and even if they're around long enough to still be in a physical condition to do it, there might be other reasons to move on to less dangerous, demanding and less psychologically taxing positions. And as in Gibbs case, to pass on his knowledge and experience. Wonder whether his reputation has already foreshadowed him there, but he'll sure have one soon:-D Also really like the reminder of his weariness after Mexico, hanging out more out of sense of duty towards his team.

"Mike and I, we were made for field work and, maybe, passing on some of the know-how we picked up along the way. You were too, Tony, but there was always the potential for more, with you. Maybe the way you got there wasn't what any of us would have chosen for you, but next week, you're moving upstairs, someplace neither Mike nor I could ever go."

I can very well imagine Tony as a vice-director, he has the smoothness and adaptability, the ability to act and play along with people's expectations, unlike Gibbs and Mike's rough unyieldingness. And the liking for elegant clothing along with the knowledge how to use it...

"Gibbs again appreciated how much he loved this house, its voice, and how safe and comfortable he felt here, its familiarity like having another partner at his back. Like a living thing, he mused, full of memories and assurances.

Gibbs stood again to blow the sawdust off his plane, and as he went to lock it in his tool cabinet, once again made child-proof for the unlikely event that little hands found their way downstairs without adult supervision, Gibbs heard the sweet, comic sounds filtering though his house, so much like those of decades ago..."

Apart from Ducky (and more so than even him), his place is the only one regularly shown and the one considered a home for a longer time, with memories and everything attached to it, going with him through his life phases, with some things like kid voices (my guess is stilly Tony and Ziva's) bringing up old memories...

A very satisfying ending, though I'd love to see in-between (or after) scenes...

This was surprisingly dull and very boring chapter, I had thought it would be one of the best ones. Really disspointed in this one.

Very nice - a little bit "happy ending" meets "real world". But no name for Gibbs' little guest (other than munchkin)?

Plus if I hadn't said it before I liked the "Tony and Palmer" chapter and the "Tony and McGee" chapter.

Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, this made me smile:-) Love the peek into future:-)

Ooooh. First to review this chapter! ...although I should really be going to bed and not staying up anymore.

Satisfying quasi-ending, Shy, although I would love to read any other installments you want to tuck in between the chapters we already have. The feel of the basement, complete with sawdusty smell and the sting of bourbon on the tongue, give the Gibbs's words the weight they deserve, even if all the words that are actually exchanged hardly fill even one Mason jar. But then, to a man who rarely says more than 3 words together, a few sentences is a whole speech.

So...are you implying that the little one coming down the stairs belongs to McGee? Abby? DiNozzo and Ziva? Is it Mike Franks' granddaughter? Someone whose connection to the team is more complicated than that?

I guess we'll have to wait for more installments to fill in the blanks.

g'night,

LNR

Late again, but I'm still with you. ;) I expected that Palmer would be nervous around Tony, and I like how you found a way to fix them.

Awww, poor Timmy. But it was good that Tony was there for him. :)

My mother used her foot (which went under surgery about a month ago) to present my laptop's monitor in a way that models would with their hands presenting a brand new car.

She had no idea what I was reading, but I thought I'd tell you anyway because her little presentation was fitting for how awesome this was. It's like being presented with a chance to win a brand new car, but the car is words and I've already won. :D

Very nice story. I just started it today but finished all 10 chapters because the story was different and interesting. I hope you will do a Tony/Ziva chapter soon.

I think this is the first Tony and Palmer buddy fic I've read, it's a scenario we rarely get to see in the show, but one I'd like to have more often... and just in the way you did it here, going beyond the obvious dividing lines and behavior patterns of good-looking yet shallow agent and brainy awkward (well, awkward yes in this case) scientist. Not to mention that I like Palmer and wish they'd let him develop in the way they did with McGee.

It made me smile that Tony is getting some Ducky care first thing in the morning... and I laughed at the idea of the paper. Sounds far more like one of those reporting on curious cases than of the 'learn for the future' kind. I really want to see Ducky giving the paper, diverging into stories about the team and whichever arbitrary fact coming to his mind.

. "Uh – ah – no, Tony; i...it's Jimmy. Palmer. Jimmy Palmer. Dr. Mallard isn't here; the Director called him upstairs to MTAC for a consult..."

Very smooth:-) Or in other words, it does sound like quintessential squirming Palmer, suddenly trapped with the person he's been trying to avoid.

"It wasn't like Jimmy was ever all that socially graceful. As he waited for the cuff to be fastened around his bicep, Tony drew a breath, hoping he didn't sound forced, and spoke around the thermometer in his mouth, "so how've you been, Jimmy?"

Very true about Palmer's slightly awkward social skills, making him not the most likely candidate to react smoothly in first I'm not up to canon-detail on Jimmy, but considering how long he's been with Ducky we probably can assume pathology is not merely a training rotation station for him and that there's a reason why he's training to be pathologists and not a pediatrist...

Tony on the other hand, I like to see his intuitive people skills at work, his easy-going ability to make the ones around him feel comfortable.

And like the thermometer detail (though it does make me wonder for what it was used before), Ducky would probably prefer them over the modern two-second digital ones that probably don't work too well on dead bodies.

"He supposed he should be glad that only one of his former colleagues seemed to be so awkward around him, no doubt uncomfortable around him as he was now, but it still nettled Tony that of anyone he'd known, it was the medical student, the guy who rooted around in dead bodies as gleefully as Ducky did, who was too freaked out by his injury and resulting blindness to even call, once he'd awakened, or to visit or stop by in his new department."

Yeah, I guess somebody had to react awkward and I can definitely see Palmer being the one, for all the reasons mentioned here. The young, unexperienced) doctor who so far probably probably adopted professional detachment as a coping mechanism (even thought that might be just slightly skewed by trying to take over Ducky's talking to the death habit;-) suddenly faced with the shock of seeing a colleague suffer this serious an injury. I also really like the fresh-out-of-school fixing mentality, faced with being unable to offer any help in his perceived field of expertise. It's a great contrast with Ducky's experienced, almost laconic empathy.

Thanks for the read and opportunity to indulge in this universe.