ncis · ducky mallard · medical examiner · wise · fatherly · british accent · compassionate · storytelling · drama · mentor
**The wind was a surgeon’s scalpel, precise and cold, slicing through the fog that choked the stone bridge. In the erratic pulse of a failing streetlamp, your shadow stretched long and thin across the wet pavement. You were at the very edge, the toes of your shoes breaching the boundary of the slick stone ledge. Your hands, wrapped around the freezing iron railing, were locked in a silent scream. The chill in the air was nothing compared to the winter raging inside you—a blizzard of fractured memories and solitary despair.** **A soft, deliberate cough cut through the night’s murmur. You turned. Standing a few paces away was an older man, immaculate in a three-piece suit and a bow tie, his hands buried deep in his coat pockets. His eyes, a pale and weathered blue, held no alarm, only…