Title: It ain't over until the fat lady sings
Author: WriterKos
Rating: FR18
Parings: none
Characters: Ducky, McGee, the team.
Genres: Character Study, Drama, Crime, Crossover.
Warnings: Music overdose
Summary: Opera. Wagner. Drama. Murder. Do we need more?
A crime is committed during an opera night and all members of the team are witnesses. Gibbs's and Mac Taylor's teams must figure out how to get to the final act before the fat lady sings.
Slight Crossover with CSI:NY
Written for the WEE 2012 for SondheimmcGeek (Colleen)
An opera in four parts. In order to enhance the experience, listen the music while you read.
Youtube Der Ring des Nibelungen, Das Rheingold Act 1: Prelude-Part I
FIRST PART: DAS RHEINGOLD
Albericht:
Fear ye not yet?
Then wanton in darkness, watery brood!
My hand quenches your light,
I wrestle from the rock the gold,
Fashion the ring of revenge;
For hear me floods:
Love henceforth be accursed!
After the second ring the crowds silently take their places and become absolute quiet as the lights deem and the sound of the first accords start to sound, here and there interrupted by a cough from one of the theatre goers.
The trumpets and horns start a soft undulating symphony. The strings add a soft melodic line mixing with the accords still played by the brass, announcing soft images of playful mermaids swimming freely in the bottom of the sea, floating, dancing and swirling in the water, free to go and to do as they pleased. No responsibilities or worries, just the endless toil of swimming, swirling, feeling the water on their moist skin as they're doing exactly what they've done since they were created.
The music enters a crescendo, the strings becoming more intense as it arrives to an apex and the strident sound of a female voice pierces the air, announcing the beginning of the opera Das Rheingold by Wagner.
As three women started to jump and swirl on the podium fitted as the sea bottom, McGee tries to sit more comfortably on the chair, aware that there were still several hours until the opera is over.
As the Rhinemaidens sing about how they frolic joyfully in the bottom of the Rhine river, McGee chances a glance at his side where Ducky is sitting with the rest of the team. He is watching the performance with tears in his eyes, his lips silently moving with the song – the man probably has memorized the lyrics in German – while Abby looks fascinated at the singers and the stage set for the production, probably calculating the possibilities of one of those singers slipping in the intricate and dangerous looking stage of this Metropolitan Opera production.
After Abby, Gibbs looks at the singers unimpressed, his eyes glazed as he probably was thinking of anything but the opera.
Poor Gibbs, he was sucked in to attend this evening of stuffy music just because it was Ducky's birthday and the whole team had pitched in to buy the so coveted tickets for the grand production that Ducky had been talking about for months.
Only a very good friend would do such sacrifice, but Gibbs was nothing but loyal to his old delicate colleague, whose spirit has been in a deep funk during the last months and that had soared as soon as the marine deposited the very coveted – and expensive - tickets in the old Scott's trembling hands.
And Gibbs was implacable: if his ass was going to be stuck on a chair of a pompous theatre for hours, so would all the team's asses share the same fate. That meant that Tony and Ziva are sitting with huge pouts by his side, each trying to not kill each other while they bickered like small children stuck in a car for too many hours.
Ziva pinches Tony as he starts to speak during a particularly loud part of the song of the Rhinemaidens, making him yelp and earn a scorching glare from the Marine sitting by their side. Tony, aggravated, points to Ziva with his most innocent face silently mouthing it was her fault.
Gibbs simply rolls his eyes and turns his attention to the stage, not without hitting Tony and Ziva with headslaps. As the Rhinemaidens were singing particularly loud, their yelps of pain were not noticed as they mixed with the song. Finally they settle down for at least the next five minutes.
McGee turns his gaze back to the stage where poor Alberich is trying to woe at least one of the Rhinemaidens but the gnome is mocked and taunted by the beautiful sirens. The way they mock him strike a chord in his soul, as he might not be a swarthy, spotted and sulfury dwarf but he understood quite clearly the aching of an unrequited love to a soul, of the burning madness of seeking and desiring the love and attention of a beautiful maiden just to have his hopes and dreams dashed to the floor.
As the Rhinemaidens reveal the secret of the Rheingold and Alberich, in a moment of madness – or extreme lucidity – of his part, decides to forsake love and take revenge of those wenches who had mocked, humiliated and hurt him without even batting the eye, McGee feels a strange burning in his chest.
He understands the motivations behind Alberich's actions, as only someone who had loved and not being loved in return too many times could chose to forsake love and seek retribution on such a terrible deed: creating a ring made out of the Gold of Gods in order to seek revenge against all those who fooled him.
As Alberich climbs towards his goal, he curses and mocks the Rhine-daughters, his gaze filled with such hatred that could only come from love unfulfilled, bringing a small startled revelation to McGee.
Bangt euch noch nicht?
McGee shivers as Alberich sings the lines that seal his fate – and everyone else's fate - forever.
schmiede den rachenden Ring;
den hor'es die Fluh:
so verfluch' ich die Liebe!
NCIS NCIS NCIS
The endless toil of the gods and giants on the stage, all seeking the power of the ring created by the gold of the Rhine goes on and on, and McGee's mind wanders with the songs, thoughts skimming at the surface of his consciousness as Wotan tries to break the contract with the giants who had built his palace and now seek the promised payment.
As each person who comes close to the ring slowly lose their sanity in a mindless quest for power, he sees images of people from his past flashing past his mind's eye, each first in their own clothes which slowly dissolve into the flashy and strange costumes of those on the stage of the Met.
As people of his past started to sing demanding power and money, he blinks, trying to dispel the image and breathing deeply when he finally sees only the strange makeup of the professional singers on the stage, none of the ghosts of his past.
As the giants sink into madness and fight for the ring, one killing the other, the king of the Gods realizes how serious the situation is and swears to solve the problem, unaware that he can do nothing.
The Gods are dammed.
It's just a matter of time until he realizes that his actions are for nothing.
-TBC -
