Chapter 52
AN: This is more of a little introspection-type chapter. Tony and Ducky talk about what it means to be a doctor. I have made up some general work history for Ducky and Tony. I don't think anything has ever been said about what Ducky did (doctor-wise) before coming to NCIS. So I took a great many liberties. Enjoy!
The two doctors sat outside on the bench in front of NCIS. It was one of the rare moments they got to spend time together that didn't involve a case.
Tony looked at Ducky. "Why do you do it?" He asked.
"Do what, dear boy?"
"Be an M.E. I thought being a doctor was about preserving life." Tony replied.
Ducky smiled. He then nodded. "It is, dear boy, it is. What you do in the E.R. allows someone to live, to enjoy life, at least one more day. What I do, it…it makes that life mean something. It, in a way, helps preserve a good memory of that person. If I find something that helps you solve a case, it helps the family deal with the death. It gives them closure."
Tony shook his head. "I hated dissecting the cadavers in med school. That was truly one of the worst things I had to do." Tony grimaced at the memory. "I would have nightmares about the corpses coming to life. It was like a really, really bad, low-budget version of 'Night of the Living Dead.'"
Ducky smiled at his movie reference. "I started out as a surgeon, Anthony, fresh out of med school. I worked in a hospital for many years, performing a variety of surgeries. I enjoyed the work. The human body, its inner workings are quite spectacular. But it never gave me the satisfaction that being an M.E. does."
Tony continued to look at Ducky, but didn't speak.
"No one cares about the dead, Anthony. We treat a dead body as just something that must be disposed of. No one takes the time to realize that a person, a living being once resided in the shell that is now left behind. And to me, the shell can tell a most compelling story about how the person lived, as well as how he, or she, died."
Tony nodded. He really had a much better understanding.
"So, Anthony, why did you choose the E.R.?"
Tony smiled. "The energy, the pace, I have no idea as to what will walk through the door next. I love the challenge. I leave a room where I treat a 6 year-old girl of a cut on her arm, and I enter the next where there is a 50 year-old with a gunshot wound."
"You spend so little time with each patient." Ducky said. He remembered his time working in the ER and had not been too fond of the experience.
Tony shook his head. "I don't need to spend a lot. I get them through what is probably, for some, one of the worst moments of their lives. It's…I see when the pain is relieved, when the crisis has passed. That's all I need."
Ducky nodded. He looked at his watch. Their lunch break was almost up. "Well, Anthony, I think we should have discussions like this more often."
Tony agreed. "I would like that."
TBC
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