Summary: Gibbs is obsessed with a terrifying recurring nightmare, and his team quickly begins to question his sanity. Is he losing his mind, or is there another force behind his nightmares?

Warnings: There will be disturbing imagery present in this story. The dream Gibbs has is based off a dream I had the other night (I guess my subconscious is quite twisted). The image in the dream scared the hell out of me, and it wouldn't leave me alone all day the next day, so I had to get the idea out there.

"NCIS!"

Gibbs burst through the front door of the old house, gun out in front of him. There was a layer of dust on everything, that indicated that the home had been abandoned some years ago.

He made his way slowly through the living room, stepping around old boxes and broken objects. He entered the kitchen next. No one was there. That was when he saw the basement door. It was open a crack, and light spilled out into the darkened kitchen. Curious, Gibbs pushed the door open with the toe of his boot, and started to make his way downstairs, gun at the ready. At the bottom, he turned right, following the source of the light, and walked through the doorway.

In the middle of the room, hanging from the rafters, was a woman, almost the size of a child. She'd clearly hung herself, Gibbs thought to himself as he inched closer. Suddenly, the woman's head snapped up, eyes open, and looked straight at him. Her face was sewn on, like a Raggedy-Ann doll.

"Leroy," she pleaded softly "help me…"

Gibbs shot up in bed, sweating profusely. His heart was beating out of his chest, and he was struggling to control his breathing. He threw the covers off him and quickly made his way across the hall to the bathroom. He splashed water on his face, and willed the disturbing image to leave his mind. He lifted his head to look in the mirror, and nearly jumped out of his skin. The girl was right behind him.

He whirled around to face the phantom image, and found nothing in the room with him.

Convinced there was an intruder in the house, Gibbs raced to his bedroom and grabbed his gun from under his pillow. He went from room to room, until he'd checked the entire house. He ended his search in the kitchen. He headed for the basement door, and stopped short. The dream flooded his mind again as he stared at the closed basement door.

Shaking, Gibbs backed away from his basement door, until he bumped into the kitchen table. He fell into a chair, dropping his gun on the table next to him. What the hell was happening to him? Was any of this real?

I can't be in this house. I have to get out of here.

He picked up his gun, grabbed his keys from the hook by the phone, and left his house.

~*~*~*~*~

NCIS was deserted when Gibbs arrived. It was to be expected at three in the morning. The night guard was surprised to see him, but let him through, and Gibbs got into the elevator to head up to the squad room.

"Leroy!"

Gibbs reached over and stopped the elevator.

"Who's there? Who are you?" Gibbs asked the phantom voice.

"Help me, Leroy!"

"Leave me alone!" he shouted, jamming his hand into the emergency button. The elevator lurched to life, and seconds later opened at the squad room. He bolted out and made for his desk. Quickly he pulled up his music player and clicked on one of the songs McGee put on there for him. An old country song started to play, and Gibbs sank tiredly into his desk chair.

Why is this happening to me?

The music played softly for a while, and eventually lulled him to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The girl stared into his eyes, mesmerizing him.

"Leroy! Help me!" she pleaded. "Help me!"

"Who are you?" Gibbs asked.

"Leroy!"

"Boss!"

Gibbs jolted awake, pointing his gun straight ahead.

Tony was standing over his chair, looking concerned.

"Jesus, DiNozzo, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Are you all right, Boss?"

"I'm fine," he said, opening his desk drawer and dropping his gun into it.

"You looked like you were having a nightmare," Tony said.

"I'm fine, DiNozzo. Get back to work."

"Boss, it's 5:30 in the morning."

Gibbs looked at his watch. So it was.

"Why are you here so early, DiNozzo?"

"I got a call from the night guard. Apparently you ran into the building like a bat out of hell at three in the morning. Is everything all right?"

"I'm fine, Tony."

"You're lying to me, Gibbs."

"Just leave me alone!" Gibbs suddenly shouted, and flew out of his chair.

"Where are you going?" Tony asked as Gibbs headed for the elevator.

"Going to get coffee. Get your ass to work on those cold cases, DiNozzo!"

Tony watched Gibbs as he stepped into the elevator. If Gibbs thought Tony was going to let this go, he obviously didn't know his SFA very well. Tony sat down at his desk and started writing down things to check. He wouldn't rest until he found out what was going on.

TBC...