A/N: Well, it's here, the last chapter. It picks up at the ending of the actual episode S5 Requiem and references events from my story 'All in the Same Day' which is of course where all this started. Hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. THANKS HUGELY for the great reviews, they have kept me going. Enjoy Season X everyone who gets to see it! And think of poor me having to wait until January lol (sorry to those who haven't even seen 9 yet *gasp*) TTFN ;)

EPILOGUE:

Gibbs finished reburying the tin box in his garden and walked back inside in time to hear the knock at his front door. Glancing into the living room to confirm everything was as he left it Gibbs cautiously opened the door.

"Director," He greeted her coolly on his doorstep.

"Jethro," she responded in kind.

Jen let herself into his home and headed straight for the living area. The house was in near darkness, aside from a small table lamp casting a comforting, soft yellow glow over the room and there was a faint tinny sound emanating from somewhere low near the sofa. As she rounded the corner she caught sight of the I-Pod laying discarded on the floor, headphones next to it signalling the source of the noise. Its owner flat out, wearing baggy sweat pants and an old UMC shirt, face down on the sofa, his legs splayed out at all angles, one arm folded supporting his head, the other hanging limply to the floor.

"He's had a rough few days." Gibbs commented from behind her, leaning against the wall while Jen hid her surprise at finding him there.

Gibbs stared at her, impassive.

"Shouldn't he still be in hospital?" She asked.

"Nope," Gibbs tipped his head indicating they were to take their conversation into the other room.

He hadn't told her Tony had been in the office only hours earlier, he didn't want him being debriefed until he was sure Tony's head was clear. Reliving his kidnapping could wait. Jen followed him into the kitchen, where Gibbs grabbed a mug neglecting to offer his guest anything.

"Jethro I spoke to Ducky."

"And?"

"And?" She snapped. "DiNozzo has pneumonia! Not to mention the fact he was kidnapped and held hostage by a serial killer."

Gibbs shrugged, unwilling to even discuss his decision making with her.

"Is that what this is about?" Jen waved his leave request in his face.

Gibbs had filled it out and left it with Cynthia before leaving that afternoon.

"I'm allowed time off."

"You don't take time off."

He shrugged again, seeing how annoyed she was getting and not caring one bit.

"You're not a doctor, you can't look after him."

Internally Gibbs resented that statement, even though he knew that's not exactly how she meant it. He wanted to state quite plainly that he had and always would look after DiNozzo. Gibbs was about to express his thoughts on that when the front door opened and promptly closed once again, the mysterious visitor silently making their way into his house.

…

When Ducky walked into the kitchen he found Jethro and the Director in a silent standoff staring intently at each other.

"Am I interrupting?" He asked, removing his wet hat and placing it on the sideboard, swiftly followed by his coat.

"Still raining Duck?" Gibbs asked without breaking his staring contest with the Director, the hurricane may be behind them, but DC was still suffering the lesser effects of bad weather.

Ducky internally chuckled at the games his friend played and merely decided to play along until told otherwise. He knew without a doubt this little Mexican standoff had something to do with Anthony and he wasn't about to put himself in Gibbs' firing line.

"Indeed." Ducky affirmed. "Perfect time to take a vacation."

"What?" The Director broke away first.

"The request is left on your desk Director," Ducky smiled disarmingly. "I hope you don't mind but our little excursion took it out of me I'm afraid."

"He should be in hospital." Jen stood her ground. "Why are we even having this discussion?"

Ducky sighed. They had been through this time and time again over the last few days. At the docks he had taken one look at the stark fear on the boy's face, taken a leaf out of Gibbs book and gone with his gut, supporting the decision for neither to be admitted to hospital. He told Ziva in the motel room that he agreed with her and right now he also agreed with the Director. Under normal circumstances anyone as sick as Anthony would be better off in hospital so he could be monitored, rest and get the official care he needed. But the one factor that overlooked was the unofficial care. Anthony will physically pull through regardless of where he is, the incident on the way home had been an isolated circumstance brought on by the Doxycycline in his system. Now that had been treated all they had to deal with was plain old pneumonia.

Ducky would never support this course of action if he thought Tony's life was in danger. What they were trying to accomplish here was keeping his mental health stable. Gibbs had shared with Ducky that he now knew about how badly Anthony's experience with the plague affected him and why he ran from the hospital that day so many years ago now. However it was the conversation that Ducky had with Tony himself, when he'd asked why someone caring for him scared him so much, which made his decision so much easier to make.

"He was eight." Ducky said in answer and he could see he'd only confused her more, but catching Gibbs' tight lipped gaze, Ducky knew he at least understood, probably had from the very beginning.

"What?" The Director snapped, patience not being her virtue.

"When he learnt that nobody gave a crap about him," Gibbs clarified distastefully, barging between them and heading into the living room.

"Ducky, what?" The Director turned to him.

Ducky did feel for her, she was trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately he knew Jethro was still reeling over the undercover assignment that had nearly claimed Anthony's life and Ducky knew it would be a long time, if ever that he forgave her for putting others at risk for her own personal vendetta. Despite that, he felt if she understood the situation now, then the next week would go a lot smoother for all concerned.

"Anthony was eight when his mother died." Ducky started the story, "although the motives for his father's actions remain a mystery to us all the fact remains that he abandoned the boy, leaving him to think not a soul in the world would care if he lived or died. A belief he has grown up with I'm afraid." Ducky paused, letting the weight of his words settle in. "It has taken Jethro a very long time to show him how untrue that is and sending Tony to hospital to be looked after by strangers instead of his family will be abandoning him again. I'm afraid there is no way I can or would want to convince Jethro to do that to the lad."

"What if his condition deteriorates?" The director spoke harshly, but Ducky could see she was beginning to get it.

"Then I won't hesitate to take him there myself."

"You better." The smile took the sting out of her words and Ducky felt compelled to smile back.

"I'll grant you your leave request Doctor. Unless there's a major incident I'll put the entire MCRT on stand down for seven days."

"Thank you director I'm sure they could all do with a rest."

She gave Ducky a brief hug which he returned before leaving the kitchen for the living room. Tony was still fast asleep on the sofa, something Ducky was grateful for since he hated to break confidence. Though knowing it was sometimes necessary, he trusted the director not to say anything. Gibbs however was nowhere to be seen.

"Tell Jethro I said goodbye." The Director said, showing herself out.

"I will" Ducky said settling himself in the arm chair next to Tony and picking a paper up from the coffee table.

As soon as the front door was pulled closed he heard Jethro open the basement door.

"She gone?"

"Indeed." Ducky lowered the paper and watched his friend's cautious movements. "You know you may have to forgive her one day."

Gibbs grunted in response and Ducky knew better than to comment further. Gibbs grabbed a book off his shelf and walked over to the sofa. None too gently he picked up Tony's socked feet and slid to sit underneath settling the feet on his lap without waking him. Ducky grinned.

"Something amusing Duck?"

He continued to smile as Gibbs placed his glasses on and began reading his book.

"Nothing out of the ordinary Jethro," he said cheerily and returned to his own paper.

…

Gibbs looked at the sleeping figure next him and couldn't help but remember the other question he'd been asked while in that motel. About wishing he was never born. Truth was, Gibbs had been cursing his senior field agent since the day they met. For years they had co-existed together, worked together in sync. When Tony was at the top of his game and focused that was when people saw the reason Gibbs had hired him. But other times, when maybe there wasn't imminent danger that's when Gibbs would discover the insecure side of the boy he was finding it a long road to make into a man. For all his playfulness, under the light hearted attitude was a very fragile human being, one Gibbs had rarely seen, but yet was very aware existed. Gibbs remembered the case with the corrupt ATF agent. He'd walked in on Kate giving Tony grief, which was nothing unusual, but when Tony had stormed out the bullpen, passing him without so much as a 'goodnight boss' Gibbs had been expecting the late night visit that followed.

He always left his front door open because he had no time for inconveniences, if someone wanted him then they could bloody well come find him. Not like it was hard. If he wasn't at the office doing his job he was in his basement. Girlfriend's, friends, these people he didn't usually have a problem with. His agents were different. He was harder on his agent's because, mainly since Paris, Gibbs had believed in maintaining that divide between boss and subordinate. Burley, Langer, Blackadder he managed to keep at a distance.

It wasn't hard with Blackadder she was on the team a matter of months before Gibbs transferred her. Langer was tempted over to the FBI and Burley jumped at the chance for promotion and reassignment when the time came. None of them had been to his home for anything other than business in their entire time with him. DiNozzo on the other hand, well… his first week at NCIS Tony got himself into an incident that landed him as a guest in Gibbs' home.

Usually probie's where too on alert to mess up in their first few months. They didn't tend to take risks, always hid behind someone else. McGee, Ziva they're probie mistakes happened once they got into the swing of things and felt confident enough to take chances. Not DiNozzo. No, DiNozzo was never a probie. He was professional from the start, if a little cocky, but that's what Gibbs liked about him. He wasn't afraid to speak or take action. Gibbs later learned why when he got the full picture on the DiNozzo family history, but that information only endeared him to him more.

Gibbs supposed knowing the boy had no one to turn to that would actually give a rats ass made him step up and take Tony home with him that first week after he got injured. The incident was a stupid one that Ducky had spoken a bit of to Ziva and McGee while Tony slept in the motel. The truth he had left out, however, was that Tony's probie mistake could have ended his life. The suspect ended up dead and to this day they still didn't know if they had the right man, the truth going with him to the grave. That was when the cocky cop act was dropped and replaced with the lost little boy Ducky had insisted was in there. Gibbs got to see it first-hand that night, one look at Tony's sad face and he knew he couldn't send the kid off alone. He hadn't a place to live yet, having upped stakes from Baltimore only weeks before. So Gibbs gathered him up and took him to his place. Diane had moved out most of her stuff by this point and Gibbs had just burnt his boat so the basement was empty. His tools were locked away and at the time Gibbs was all for giving up the wood working.

The next time Tony stayed with him was the summer of '02. The sty Tony had been renting for nearly the whole 18 months since he'd made the move from Baltimore to D.C was being torn down. Tony had moved his stuff into storage and was sleeping in Abby's lab, as Abby often did thinking he didn't know. The pair were rumbled when a late night session had them sleeping in. Gibbs had found them passed out on the Saturday morning, several red bulls, Caf-Pows and one empty bottle of vodka evidence of their antics. The music blaring from the lab could be heard in the elevator so when Gibbs strolled in and slapped it off it was the silence that woke the semi-comatose pair.

Gibbs had had to rein in his amusement at their terrified faces. Abby often managed to stay in his good books, mainly because as the only forensic tech at NCIS it didn't pay to tick her off, but also he technically wasn't her boss. He wasn't training her. The other one though, his ass belonged to him.

"DiNozzo!"

"On it Boss!" Tony shot up, answering on auto pilot before it clicked where he was and in what state. "I can explain."

Gibbs glared, super angry.

"Gibbs before you kill Tony you need to listen ok?" Abby stood, blocking Gibbs view of Tony and thus saving him from the glare. It was tantamount to taking a bullet for him. "It's Saturday! We may be at work but we are not AT work. So you can't be mad." Abby stopped for a breath then in sneaky Abby fashion quickly said what she had clearly been told to keep to herself. "Plus Tony's apartment has been condemned and he's got no place else to go."

Gibbs glared them both down. Abby remained strong. Tony looking like he wanted to run and hid, but his pride refused to allow it.

"I know." Gibbs finally said. "Abby get this mess cleaned up before the director has your head. DiNozzo!"

"Yes Boss?"

Gibbs took a minute to smile his amusement at the mixture of fear and trepidation on his protégé's face.

"Grab your gear, you're with me."

"We're not on call are we?" DiNozzo said jumping to his feet, not wasting a second to follow instructions.

"Nope," Gibbs said cryptically, pressing the button for the elevator.

Gibbs made DiNozzo follow him all the way to the garage and got him in the car and drove him all the way to his place before Tony managed to get an answer out of him. Gibbs led the way into his living room, after indicating Tony to stow his stuff in the spare room, and sat down.

"I know DiNozzo."

"You know?"

Gibbs glared.

"You're Gibbs. Of course you do." The way Tony smiled seemed watery and Gibbs was surprised. "You don't have to put me up though."

"I know that too." Gibbs nodded.

The smile brightened and at the time Gibbs over looked the gratitude. Even he didn't know everything at this point. What he learned later would have made him a little more understanding of that reaction maybe. But not everything could be found, not even in one of his background checks, sometimes you had to hear the truth. And Gibbs thought what he did know was bad enough.

At first Tony tried to be the perfect house guest. Had they caught a case that week maybe things would have been different, but as it was they were getting it easy. Anyone would have thought being at boarding school and a military academy that DiNozzo would have learnt to at least pick up after himself. But no. It seemed the freedom of college knocked all that drilled in knowledge right out of his head. DiNozzo didn't only act like a frat boy – he lived like one. It was the ladies lace pants in his laundry hamper that signalled to Gibbs what he'd let himself in for. By the end of the week the apartment Tony had managed to secure was move-in-able and Gibbs sent him on his way, vowing never again. When he visited his agent not long after he wasn't surprised that the new place looked just as lived in as the last. That was when Gibbs had made the comment and DiNozzo had gotten the maid.

Of course in-between then and the second time DiNozzo needed somewhere to stay they had built a better understanding of each other. It seemed that simple gesture and display of tolerance had proven something to Tony, that Gibbs would love him for who he was, and never turn him away no matter what crap he pulled. As annoying and messy as DiNozzo was Gibbs would never turn him away so when night came and the case closed Gibbs finally let DiNozzo know he could stay with him. He wasn't at all surprised when instead of profound gratefulness and surprise like the last time the kid had walked away with a smile and an 'I know' on his lips, as if he was trying to be Gibbs, like he knew all along where he would be staying for the month while his heating was out.

Tony had stayed many times since then, after the plague, concussions, even a few months ago when his car blew up. No way was Tony going home that night or the following five, especially since they still didn't know who had planted the bomb. Gibbs had kept him at his place, not even telling the others where he was when they asked. And here he was again, staying with Gibbs as if it were his own home. Tony was and still is the only Agent ever to be allowed that privilege.

…

"What are you thinking Jethro?" Ducky spoke after several minutes of watching Gibbs stare at Tony.

"Nothing Duck." Gibbs quickly turned back to his book.

"Don't give me that. You were completely lost for a while there. Is something still bothering you?"

"Not really." Gibbs took a drink of his coffee.

Ducky wasn't buying any of it, he knew something was still on his friends mind and knew they needed to get to the bottom of it before any of them could move on from this.

"Did you ever talk to Tony about what happened at the docks?" He queried lightly.

Ziva had spoken to him about what occurred while they were apart in the storm and it warmed his heart that Jethro was finally letting himself relax a little around others. Though he knew the change had to be down to something more profound than Tony catching pneumonia.

"He told me he was scared." Gibbs said simply.

"Understandable." When Gibbs didn't continue, Ducky filled in the blanks. "You don't mean during the storm do you."

Ducky thought back to the catalyst for all of this, Gibbs driving his car into the river and Tony risking his life to save him.

"He was scared he'd lost me." Gibbs clarified.

Ducky nodded in understanding.

"I take it you were scared too."

Ducky took the glare he received as acknowledgment of the double meaning. Gibbs had been scared not just for Tony, but for himself too.

"I'm not ready Duck." He said quietly.

The confession shocked Ducky. Never in a million years did he believe it to be this easy. Their last case truly had altered his friend's perceptions.

"I thought I would be," Gibbs looked over at him, "ready to be with them again, but…"

It didn't take a mastermind to work out who them was and Ducky didn't see the need to dissect the subject.

"You realise you're needed." Ducky surmised and noted the way Jethro looked at Anthony when he said that.

"They all need me." Gibbs sighed. "But he keeps me going."

Ducky could see from his expression Gibbs had even surprised himself with that confession.

"He's your impetus." Ducky smiled. "What drives you, gives you the boost we all need now and again."

"Drives me up the wall more like." Gibbs grinned behind his mug, then sobered, "but I do still have plenty I want to teach him."

"And I dare say not just about being a Very special agent."

Ducky left it at that. The genuine smile on his friends face was enough.

FIN.

…

…

A/N: AHHHHH! Done. Thanks everyone! No sequel (this was a sequel lol) but I have started a brand spanking new long-ish story featuring Kate this time, so tune into that if you like when I get enough to start posting, ciao for now xxx