A/N: This was written for the NFA Arcane Challenge. Arcane is strange or weird, supernatural. The following story is my interpretation. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: As will be patently obvious by the way this story goes, I am not the owner of NCIS, real or fictional... and I'm sure Tim is glad of it.
Infinite Futures
Chapter 1
It had been a long, boring day thus far. They had worked frantically on a case round the clock for about a week and then...nothing. They still had to come to work though. Tim stared dully at his computer screen, not even seeing what was there. Tony was actually dozing and Ziva looked as bored as he did. Tim turned his head as a small movement caught his eye. There was... someone walking toward the hallway... someone very familiar... very familiar. So familiar that... Tim stood and followed the shadowed figure. No one else was there and the man, all dressed in black, turned around.
Tim stopped dead in his tracks, his mind struggling to come to grips with what his eyes were telling him. "This... no... this... it's impossible," he said. "You... you're..."
"Stop babbling," came the voice which exactly mirrored his own. Tim was hearing his own voice coming from his own lips... from the man who was also Timothy McGee standing across the hallway from him. "What do they call you here?"
"Tim... well, actually, they call... me McGee most of the time or sometimes Probie or..."
"Too much information," Tim heard himself say. He was staring dumbfounded at the harshly-lined face of a man who looked just like him... who was him. He didn't know how he knew that so firmly, but it was true. Only this Timothy McGee had experienced things Tim never had. His eyes bore more similarity to Gibbs' sharp blue eyes than Tim's own soft green. "They call me Mac. You can think of me that way. I've done my part and now it's your turn."
"My... turn? For what?" Tim stammered.
The eyes softened. "I don't blame you. I felt the same way when Timothy came to me. I'm just passing on the responsibility. You have to save your team. It's more important than anything else. Your team needs to survive."
"Survive... what?" Tim asked, mentally cataloging this interaction as the weirdest he'd ever had... if he was really having it, of course.
"You'll see. Then, you'll have to pass it off... but only if you succeed."
"When? How? I don't understand."
"You will."
"When?"
"Now." Mac's face became set with determination and he took a step toward Tim with his hands coming up.
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"Where's McGee?" Gibbs asked as he came down from Jenny's office.
"Huh?" Tony came out of his doze with a slight jump and Ziva looked up dumbly from her computer screen. Obviously, they'd been burned out and now were bored out of their minds. A bad combination.
"McGee, Tony. You know, usually sits at that desk over there?" Gibbs asked.
"Oh, right. McGee... uh..." he looked around. "I... uh... don't see him, Boss."
Gibbs rolled his eyes, gave Tony a quick headslap, and walked over to the hallway to see if Tim had gone over there. He had. Tim was standing in the hallway, apparently staring at the wall.
"McGee!" No response. In fact, Tim said nothing so firmly that Gibbs was actually a little worried. "McGee?" He reached the seemingly frozen agent and caught a glimpse of his face. He was white as a sheet, his eyes open nearly as wide as his mouth, through which air was circulating loudly. "McGee!"
Finally, Tim's mouth closed and very slowly, he formed a single word. "Boss?" Then, his eyes rolled back in his head and he slowly toppled to the ground before Gibbs could do more than gape.