A/N: The review function is screwed up again, so if I didn't reply to your review (if you were logged in, of course), thank you for your comments.

Siren Call

Epilogue

News of Worley's disappearance had given them another answer to at least one of the remaining questions. PO Bailey had brought one of his crewmates, a young, stammering electrician's mate named Mark Low, to talk to the agents. Low had revealed that Worley had blackmailed him into screwing up the video feed on those nights when the sailors and McGee had disappeared.

Low claimed he hadn't known why Worley wanted the feed turned off, not at first, but as his suspicions had grown he had confronted Worley. The doctor had reminded him of his power to end the young sailor's career and Low had remained silent until he had heard that Worley was no longer a threat. He refused to confess to altering the feed at the time of Worley's disappearance, however, claiming he had nothing to do with it. His statement was backed up by his rack-mates who said Low had been asleep at the time.

While Low's confession had allowed him to escape an accessory charge,he had been forced to join the agents on the trip back to Norfolk, where he spent a week in the brig before he was bumped down in rank and assigned to menial maintenance on the base.

McGee had slept through the rest of his time aboard ship and through the flight back to Norfolk. After being checked over at the base hospital and ordered to stay overnight for observation, he had made the trip home the next day, ready to help finish the case. Gibbs had confined him to his desk, watched over by Tony. After a day's worth of work, he had finally found the link between all of Worley's suspected victims: they had all been treated by Worley before they disappeared for the same ailment.

"Seasickness?" Tony asked incredulously when McGee announced his finding. "Why would he want to get rid of sailors who got seasick?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Tony."

"But that's just...weird."

"Stranger things have happened," Gibbs added with a significant look at McGee, who refused to meet Gibbs' gaze and tried to give the appearance he was concentrating on his work. Gibbs had a suspicion as to why McGee claimed he didn't remember anything about the time he had been missing, but it wasn't something he was going to discuss in public.

By the end of the day Abby had the results from the patches she had tested. The main supply from the ship contained a small amount of one of the foreign compounds, and the patch they had removed from McGee in sick bay contained none, but Tony's patch and the rest from the other box contained high doses of the drug mixture Johnson had discovered. She speculated that Worley had altered the drug tests so no one would know the sailors were being treated for their condition and thus eliminating a connection between them.

After Aherns reported back that, despite their extensive searches Worley was being considered lost at sea Vance declared the case closed and gave Gibbs and Tony the next few days off.

He recommended that McGee take more time to recover from his experience but the younger man refused, claiming he didn't need more time off than the rest of his team.

"I'm fine, Director. The doctors cleared me to be here."

"They did, but our psychologist hasn't. What you experienced was stressful, correct?"

"Well, yes, a little, but-"

"Which means you'll need some time to decompress. Take the time, Agent McGee. This is not an indictment of your mental state, I assure you. I am simply looking out for a valued asset to this agency. Understood?"

McGee glanced at Gibbs, who gave him a slight nod. "Yes, Director."

"Good. Anything to add, Agent Gibbs?"

"Nope."

"Good. Dismissed."

McGee followed Gibbs out of the office and headed for the stairs, but Gibbs quickly guided him to the elevator. Once they were inside he turned to his agent but McGee spoke first.

"Boss, I'm fine, I don't need-"

"I think you do. My house, 1900. We haven't had a game for awhile."

McGee looked like he was going to argue but after a brief hesitation he relaxed and nodded. "OK, Boss." He winced. "Tony will probably invite himself over, too. He's been...clingy."

Gibbs chuckled. "That's fine. You OK with him being there?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because he wasn't there on the last trip."

McGee sighed. "You want me to talk about what happened."

"Yep."

"Boss, I… I really don't think you'd believe me."

"I was there last time, Tim."

McGee's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Is there something you're not telling me, Boss?"

"I expect I'll be telling you tonight."

McGee sighed again. "OK."

A few hours later Gibbs and McGee were sitting across from each other in Gibbs' living room, the game board between them and a game of checkers in progress. Tony watched from his seat in the armchair, a look of worry on his face. After the game was completed McGee pulled out his chess men and started to set up the board.

"OK, I can't take it anymore," Tony declared. Both men turned to him, eyebrows raised. "Something happened to Tim while he was missing, and you-" He turned to Gibbs. "-know more about it than you're telling."

Gibbs looked at McGee, who nodded and set the box of chessmen on the table before he started to speak.

"It all started with our first trip, when the Raptor went down. We told you we were rescued by a civilian sailing vessel that was later lost in a storm, right?"

"Yeah, I remember, but what does that have to do with-?"

McGee held up his hand and Tony fell silent. "I checked with the missing vessel reports after we… After we got home. I found a report for the boat and people that rescued us. They had been missing for five years."

Tony's eyes widened. "Five years? But that's…"

"Impossible. Trust me, I know, but I can't...we can't think of any other way we could have wound up on that island."

"OK, but what does that have to do with what happened to you this time?"

"After someone...Worley threw me overboard, I, well, I guess I woke up the next morning and... I was rescued again by those very same people, on that very same boat. Their side of the story was that after the storm where they disappeared from the boat that Gibbs and I were on, we had disappeared and they thought we had been lost in the storm, along with the dinghy. I told them we had been on it and were stranded, found supplies and survived for a few months before we were rescued."

"Supplies from their boat, that was wrecked."

"Yeah."

"Then what happened?"

"They took me to a port in the middle of nowhere and said I'd be able to contact home, but by the time I got there...I knew there was no way to get home again."

"Why not?"

"The name of the place: Fiddler's Green."

"Is that...isn't that an officer's club somewhere?"

Gibbs chuckled softly. "I don't think that's what worried Tim. It's also the name for sailor's heaven."

"Yeah."

Tony glanced back and forth between the two men several times before he was able to form a question. "Wait. You thought you were...dead?" McGee nodded. "But you're not. We found you. How did you get back to where we found you?"

"That's...where things get really weird."

"Hate to break it to you, Tim, but they're already really weird."

"Right…"

"What happened?" Gibbs asked and McGee gave him a weak smile.

"The Captain showed up. That's what they called him, no last name, just The Captain. While I was sitting by myself, trying to figure out what I was going to do, he approached me and... he told me I didn't belong there. He asked how I wound up...where I was, and I told him about the case, and about Worley. The Captain said that a lot of sailors had been...had met their end at the hands of the same person." He looked up at Gibbs. "The three sailors from the Cerberus were there, too. I saw them, and… Anyway, he said he'd been looking for whoever was sending sailors there and he thanked me for providing a name. Then he offered to take me home. He took me to his ship and...that's how I got back to the Cerberus."

"What did his ship look like?" Tony asked, his face paling.

"It was an old sailing ship, looked like something from the 17th century. The ship itself was almost black, with dark red sails."

"Oh my God...I saw it. Right before we spotted you. I thought… I thought I was seeing things. Johnson mentioned seeing it, too."

"Did the ship have a name?" McGee nodded reluctantly. "What was it?"

"The Flying Dutchman."

"You...you're serious? The Flying Dutchman?" McGee nodded again. "That means The Captain was…" McGee nodded again, a flush of red creeping up his cheeks. "Holy…"

"So now you see why I think the whole thing was just some weird dream. I mean...that's just crazy, right? It's impossible..."

"Not necessarily."

"What do you mean?"

Gibbs rose from his seat and went to the basement, returning a minute later with a large, flat object covered with canvas.

"When you were rescued, you were in a life-ring. This life-ring." Gibbs removed the cover to reveal the name of the vessel painted on the ring in faded blue.

Whirlwind

McGee and Tony stared at the ring for several minutes, neither knowing what to say. Finally Gibbs spoke.

"Too bad you don't remember anything, right, Tim?"

McGee looked up at Gibbs and gave him a relieved smile. "Yeah, too bad." He glanced at Tony, who nodded.

"Yeah. Guess it was too traumatic to remember. Good thing there won't be a trial. For Worley, I mean.

Gibbs chuckled softly, remembering what he had seen in Worley's cell. "I think it's been handled."

"Good."

"What now, Boss?"

"Chess?"

McGee smiled. "I think I can handle that."

They played for another hour, with the game ending in a draw. Stifling a yawn, McGee claimed he was ready to head home and Tony admitted he was tired as well. The two younger men left, with Tony making a few goofy comments and McGee good-naturedly rolling his eyes in response.

After the sounds of their cars faded in the distance, Gibbs went to the refrigerator to grab himself a beer. He walked back into the living room and stared at the one piece of evidence that showed there was more to the story than anyone else would have believed. He thought about the people who had rescued his agent-twice-and wondered if, by some remote chance, they would all see each other again.

Someday.

Finally he raised his bottle in a solitary gesture of appreciation. "Fair winds and following seas...wherever you are."

The End