Thom E. Gemcity may have been an alternate identity but for his fans he was very much real. When fantail becomes increasingly fanatical and many escalate rapidly through the three stages, Timothy McGee is in danger from a stalker who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. And what he wants, is Tim. McGee-Centric. Casefile.
By Captain Harley Quinn
Part One of Obsession;
The First Letter
"...there is a fine line serendipity and stalking..."
- David Coleman
There are three consecutive stages to obsession, each with their own trademarks and subtypes. Sometimes, their wording makes them easily distinguishable, but it can sometimes make them more difficult to spot, owing to the sometimes delicate nature and wording of the subjects way of integrating contact with the chosen spectator.
Stage One is attraction, the pinnacle of the obsession; when the first see the person, where they first begin to feel the stirrings of - something inside of them. They may feel an instant attraction to their target.
They could become controlling and possessive over what they perceive as theirs, sometimes seeing the person they are attracted to as someone who is 'perfect' assigning unrealistic qualities to them in a bid to make them see flawless.
Stage Two, obsession. The start of the land slide into controlling traits and neurotic, sometimes even psychotic behaviour towards something the perceive as theirs and will do anything to keep them as theirs.
Generally, this is when the person under scrutiny will begin to severe the relationship by pulling back, which can sometimes result on the person under the Second Stage to become tunnel-visioned, their controlling and possessive behavioural traits reaching critical levels.
Which leads onto Stage Three; destruction. The most critical state where the person currently expediting the Obsessive Relation Progression will reach critical levels, leaving both subjects are extreme risk.
The person suffering from the stages will sink into a deep depression, sometimes resulting in psychotic-like behavioural tendencies that should be monitored at all costs as it can result in the person experiencing the Obsessive Relation Progression to cause harm either to themselves or the person they are currently lusting after. This is when anger sets in, and can lead to a breakdown of mental functions leaving nothing but a thriving mass of depression, loathing, anger and low-self- esteem leaving both subjects at progressive risk.
However, there has also been known to be another stage, the anxiety stage in which the person currently expediting the Obsessive Relation Progression will suffer mental breakdowns of the psyche, experiencing thoughts of infidelity and casting the person being lusted after in a dark light as the person will try everything they can to make that aforementioned person stay with them, whether through controlling means or otherwise, both persons are at risk.
"Here you go, Tim!"
Timothy McGee smiled widely at the man behind the bar, thanking him profusely as he was handed his coffee even as he kept one eye on his watch, making sure to thank Andrew by his name.
Luckily - or, unluckily even - it was just paperwork or cold cases to work on since Director Vance has kindly given them approximately two weeks off, though Tim was under the impression that the agency psychologists had given him a firm talking to about how if they weren't given enough time off, they would all start going batshit insane and go on a killing spree.
God knows how many times former director Jenny Sheppard had ranted and raved to Gibbs after a psychologist had miraculously entered her office. Seems like Director Vance had the same aversion as Director Sheppard.
As Tim pulled into the NCIS parking lot, he couldn't help but wonder whether it was a trait shared by all Directors or whether it was coincidental. But he flinched, almost feeling the head slap as Gibbs voice rang through his head; 'I don't believe in coincidences, McGee'.
"And here's McTardy!" Tony crowed from behind his desk as Tim hurried from the elevator. He tossed a glower at his team mate, watching warily as Ziva fingered a dismantled paper clip threateningly, as she was wont to do.
"Shut it Tony," he muttered as he past the Senior Agents desk. He sprang down in his computer chair, feeling despair wanting to swallow him as he saw the truly enormous piles of casefiles that had just been dumped onto his desk. How on earth could he work with this?
Over the otherside of the bullpen, Tony made a sound of faux-sympathy. Leaping up, he sauntered over to McTardy, ready to try and coax at least some of his Probies night or something from the youngest member of Team Gibbs.
"C'mon McGoo, tell Uncle Tony all about it," he lent against McGees desk, jarring a pile of casefiles that the other agent had just organised, Tony steadily ignored the impressive glower Tim aimed towards him. "Did your date not turn up again? No wonder really, with the kind of luck you have with the women, McVirgi-
Tony stopped suddenly, cringing. When nothing happened, he popped his head back up, looking around on completely bewilderment. He and just relaxed and opened his mouth when-
THWACK
"Back to work, DiNozzo," Gibbs said as he swanned past a cringing Tony whose strained 'thanks boss' was pure comedic relief for both Ziva and Tim. Pouting, though he wouldn't admit it even under pain of dismantlement from paper clip - here, he eyed Ziva wearily - Tony slunk away to his desk where his own considerably large pile of cold cases and casefiles awaited him.
Tim, sharp eyed from the coffee he had just ingested,watched as Gibbs plonked down heavily in his own computer chair, swallowing the last of his own coffee before Gibbs' head turned upwards and Tim was pinned by Gibbs glacial eyes.
"What, McGee?" He questioned brusquely.
Tim refused to believe he was pouting. "No cases?"
Gibbs smirked. He knew how much his team hated paper work and cold cases and they would rather be working out in the file than stuck in the bullpen with nothing but dusty casefiles for company but they would have to make do. "Nope,"
Tim studied the elder man, wanting to see any sign of deception, however minute, but he knew that Gibbs would be telling the truth. The man hated paperwork just as much as his team.
"What, McGee!" Gibbs snapped, as his youngest agent continued to study him. He turned away from Tim when the younger agent just smiled and shrugged, pivoting to his own computer.
Staring mournfully a the ginormous casefiles load stacked unevenly upon his once immaculately tidied desk, Tim felt his eye beginning to twitch. Trying to stall just a little longer, Tim stubbornly turned away from the pile that he knew would just drown him toward his computer, checking everything to his recycling bin and his emails.
But things turned- hinky when he turned to the email folder where he set everything to go that was connected to his writing. He had a lot of fantail, both praising ad critical and he sometimes got a little funny reading his fantail because his mind kept flashing back to Landon who had been a crazed fan a couple of years ago, who had killed two marines and had then attempted to kill Abby -who he had thought to be Amy Sutton - when he had read Tims book, Deep Six.
Clicking on the email that had only the sender address of Amiller, his eyes turned wide and his face turns ashy as he read the words printed across the screen. Opposite him, Gibbs turned and stared at his youngest agent, worried.
The message, which had been written at least three weeks ago according to the time thread, read;
Thom,
I cannot express my gratitude for the fantastic piece of literal genius that you have gifted me with. Your flowing way with words and sensual twisting of sentences brings to light something which I have never once though about and i sincerely hope that your work of genuine genius will continue to thrive and grow.
Your writing is something I have never simply laid eyes upon before and I do sincerely want to continue reading your books ad manuscripts that may be in the works, because surely your wonderful mind must be put to use again.
How can I ever express my gratitude for this piece of genius literal writing that I have been gifted with?
A. Miller.
Tim raised an eyebrow even as a shiver went down his spine. Perhaps it was just him, but he was forcibly reminded of the letters that had been sent before, though luckily those had turned out to be a completely farce sent to him by his own publisher, which he had been completely baffled about to be sincerely honest.
These, though. These seemed worryingly genuine.
Across from him, Tony and Ziva had approached him and were standing by Gibbs desk all wearing the same look of confusion and concern upon their faces.
"McGee?" Ziva questioned, approaching Tim with a weary sort of caution that he had never seen before. White faced and utterly perplexed as well as feeling his gut churning uncomfortably, he raised his head to meet the concerned eyes of Tony, Ziva and a frowning Gibbs. "Are you alright? You look like you have seen a...a goose! Yes, that is it! A goose,"
Successfully distracted from the decidedly hinky message, Tim smiled politely at Ziva though his face remained pale even as Tony broke down into hysterical laughter and even Gibbs had to look away from a moment. "It's ghost, Zeevah. Not goose,"
"But," Ziva frowned as she leaned against Tims desk. "That does not make any sense?"
Tim only shook his head fondly as his friend continued to mix up American idioms, trying to ignore the of his gut which signalled that something was off with this email. But as he set to work on the ginormous pile of cold cases they had to work with, he decided he would hold off on telling the team anything.
Perhaps it was nothing like Landon, just a somewhat stars truck fan that had a bit of a flare for dramatics and liked using big words to impress an author who had used numerous elongate words within his own book, god knows Sarah had berated him for the amount of words she hadn't known or understood and even recognised when they got back to his apartment the after thy had first found out about his book. But there couldn't be anything hinky with.
There just couldn't.
Authors Note:
Th topic that I am dealing with can be seen as sensitive so I apologise in advance for any occurrences that may or may not take place during the duration of this fic. I have researched it thoroughly, through uses of Internet, psychology classes and through the use of the NCIS Episode of Cover Story which is where the character Landon comes in, if you remember.
The episode tags to this is Cover Story and some for Twisted Sister, which is only really mentioned. Also, the time frame isn't really mentioned within this fic however it is set within season nine and after Penelope Papers.
This is also a Work-In-Progress a long with my other one of Said The Spider To The Fly.
Feedback is both welcome and appreciated.