Chapter 11

April 20, 2014 Prime timeline

Washington

Navy Yard, NCIS

Secretary Porter took the remote control for the monitor in Vance's office and hit a few buttons, calling up a map of Bulgaria from the other reality.

"We found survivors outside the town of Gabrovo," she told Vance. "'We' being a task force of American and Bulgarian special forces personnel. There were casualties - a few civilians, the others being soldiers pushed to 'fight to the death' by the political officers whom had killed the colonel in charge. We've secured the facility and are bringing survivors over into our Bulgaria."

"Good to hear," Vance replied. "You'll want to know that Five-0 is preparing to cross over into the other Hawaii to bring several thousand survivors across, one hour, 15 minutes from now."

"McGarrett's going back to Five-0, from what I understand?" asked Porter; Vance nodded affirmatively. "I also understand Henrietta Lange is considering retirement."

"Janvier and Haswari hurt her bad," Vance replied. "She's a survivor; she's a fighter. If anyone can make it through it's Hetty-"

"I'm glad you took my advice on the new Operations Manager for your special operations team," Porter interjected. "Ms. Lange has served her country well over the years, and it's time for her to recover from her ordeal. I'm confident in the future she'll serve her country well in an advisory position. A new Cold War has been forced on us. The ideas your new ops manager has will help us greatly in fighting that war.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Porter said, picking up her briefcase and walking towards the door. "I don't want to be late for my briefing with SecDef. I'll touch base with you later this afternoon."

Vance nodded, hands folded behind his back, and made a mental note to have Granger quietly begin vetting candidates for the job that Hetty herself had not yet resigned from.

Candidates who saw it as a temp job - and not a stepping stone.

Los Angeles

Owen Granger and Hetty Lange had a lengthy conversation in the courtyard of the care facility that Vance had put her in. He, trying not to wear her down, she pushing herself past her limits.

"I don't want this woman doing your job," Granger confided. "I don't know her. I don't trust her. I don't like her agenda."

"Short of taking over the duties...yourself...who else do you have?" Hetty said, with a half-whisper. "You need Mr. Callen out in the field. Ms. Jones is not fully ready."

"I'd rather have Nell than...that woman," Granger replied. "I'm going to keep looking. The Secretary of the Navy can't micromanage everything this agency does. And I'm not leaving Special Ops in the hands of an outsider."

Hetty smiled, and Granger noticed that she had a glint in her eye, and that it had been quite awhile since he had seen that from her.

"I may be stepping down," she whispered. "But who said I'm going to let myself be put out to pasture."

Granger grinned, and chuckled.

Kauai Island, Hawaii

Lihue

Fourteen wormholes appeared, side by side, surrounded by machines and as many NSA and CIA techies as Red Cross workers.

The haggard survivors, crossing over from the other universe's Kauai Island through the wormholes, reacted only to the bright sunshine. It was sunny, 86 degrees, and Hawaii wasn't expected to get rain until the weekend. The survivors were led in single lines to the numerous FEMA camps ringing the town.

"One of the Special Forces guys tells me it won't be this nice when we get over to the other side," said Steve McGarrett, who had just formally retaken command of the Five-0 task force. "Cloudy, mid-50s. Coldest it's ever been."

"I guess Carl Sagan was right about nuclear winter," replied McGarrett's second, Honolulu Police detective sergeant Danny "Danno" Williams.

"I can't imagine what those people must be thinking," said officer Kona "Kono" Kalakaua. "So many people, packed on a small island."

"Honolulu's blasted off the map, you can't even get to the Big Island because of the radiation," added HPD Det. Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly.

"Someone tells me you're going through a wormhole to a better world on a good day, I'd say amen to be polite, and ask them to plug the hole in their head if they pushed it," Danno followed. "Nuclear war? Cold, cloudy, miserable, glow in the dark, and it's dark day and night because there's no sunlight. I'd get away from that too."

McGarrett noticed personnel gathering near a rear wormhole, and felt his cellphone buzz.

"Grover?" asked Danno.

"Catherine," McGarrett replied. "There's a...situation."

"A situation." Danno.

"Which isn't our concern at the moment," McGarrett said, as he sighted an Army Major jumping out of a Humvee next to the wormhole. "That's our cue. Let's go find those survivors and bring them home."

Alternate reality, Kauai Island

Na Pali Coast State Park

"Everyone's accounted for," said U.S. Army Major Stan McGraw, leading the task force assigned to rescue everyone in the park's ad hoc refugee camp.

While the task force, FEMA personnel and Red Cross rounded up the survivors, McGarrett, Danno, Chin Ho and Kono searched for a single man.

McGarrett had his team look throughout the camp, then on the edges, then in the forest. McGarrett pushed himself to search, and his teammates kept pace.

Two hours after passing through the wormhole, Five-0 finally found HPD Deputy Officer John McGarrett.

He was buried, with 82 other people, adults and children, behind the camp's chapel.

Steve McGarrett stared at the grave, in shock, then kneeled in front of it, wept, gathered himself, and stood up.

"Let's go home," Steve said, quietly, to his team.

April 21

Prime reality

Washington

Navy Yard, NCIS

Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David were rested, refreshed, and ready to start work.

Both walked off the elevator, stopped momentarily to take in their surroundings, and walked to their desks, which were already occupied.

"Holy Doppleganger, Batman," shouted the alternate Tony DiNozzo, sitting in Prime Tony's desk. "Is there enough room in the Batcave for two Batmen and Robins?"

Prime Tony looked at altTony strangely. "I don't recall Burt Ward ever saying that on the TV show, my brother."

"TV show?" altTony replied. "My brother, Batman and Robin was never a TV show. I quoted from Batman and Robin 2, 1967, Cesar Romero as the Joker, William Shatner as Harvey Dent and guest-starring George Reeves as Superman, Clark Kent AND Bizarro."

"You're not making that up," Prime Tony said; altTony shook his head. "Wish I had brought it over. Classic '60s movie. You say Batman was a TV show?"

Meanwhile, Prime Ziva noticed altKate sitting behind her desk, and the two women hugged, and Prime Ziva quickly walked over to hug her counterpart.

"I am certain you two could learn to share?" Prime Ziva asked both Tonys, as altZiva and altMcGee looked up from their own desks.

"Or my Tony could share with my McGee," altKate said to Prime Ziva, then looked at both Tonys. "Older Tony, I know you'll be a mature influence on the other Tony, but to be honest I'm not sure I could handle two Tonys sitting across from me...even with two Zivas in the same building."

"I'm sure we can handle two dead Marines in Fairfax," said the alternate Gibbs, who appeared out of nowhere holding a large coffee, walking past Kate and Ziva to his desk. "Died eating breakfast at a Taco Bell. Grab your gear...all of you."

That meant Prime Tony and Ziva, too.

"Taco Bell has breakfast?" altTony said, as the team walked to the elevator.

"Waffle tacos," Prime Tony replied.

"I was gonna ask," altTony added, "if the breakfast burrito did in the Marines-"

WHACK!

Prime Tony swore he felt something hard on the back of his own head, though Gibbs and altTony were on the other side of the elevator.

"Sorry boss," altTony said. "I'll wait for Ducky to determine cause of death."

Los Angeles

Office of Special Projects

G Callen walked into the OSP building to work, for the first time since the alternate Haswari and his goons got the drop on Callen and his team.

Strangely, coming to work this morning was just like the other mornings before the abduction, until he got to his team's bullpen.

There were Deeks and Kensi, bantering about Facebook.

And, to Callen's surprise, there was Sam Hanna, with a walking stick, listening on.

"Sam!" Callen shouted. "Didn't expect to see you here so soon...thought Michelle was benching you for another couple of weeks."

"She relented," Sam replied. "I was gonna drive her crazy. So she told me to take the morning and afternoon off, five days a week. She sent me here, G."

Then Sam glanced across his desk. "Hear you're headed to Georgia to become a federal agent, Deeks."

Deeks nodded. "Acclerated training, leave tomorrow," he replied, as Kensi looked on. "Told Kensi before we got in. I resigned from LAPD last night, filled out the paperwork and gave it to Granger when I got here. Two and a half weeks in FLET-C, if all goes well I'll be back here before you, Callen and Kensalina know it."

Callen and Sam both shook Deeks' hand, offering congratulations, interrupted by a whistle from the nearby stairs.

Eric Beale - the team's technical operator - also was back on duty. And wearing pants, instead of his usual shorts.

"Welcome back, Sam," Eric said.

"Granger finally imposing the agency dress code on you?" Callen.

"Not Granger," Eric replied. "Hetty's replacement. The new Operations Manager. We caught a case."

As Beale walked up the stairs - in khakis - the four Special Ops agents looked at each other.

Sam refused to let the others help him walk up the stairs, and all four decided to enter the Ops Center together. They walked in, and saw two familiar faces in Beale and Nate Getz and four new faces - two women, two men.

"I'm Lillian Strand," said the blonde-haired woman. "I'm the new Operations Manager for the Office of Special Projects. You know Mr. Beale, and Mr. Getz."

The other three new faces were all new-to-NCIS agents. The men, Gabriel Vaughn and John Reese, the woman, Riley Neal.

"I'm guessing all of you passed Go and collected your NCIS badges, and didn't have to get them from FLET-C," Deeks joked.

"Our new agents are fully trained and capable and are fully experienced," Strand said. "Mr. Deeks, since you will be leaving tomorrow for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, your presence is not required. And, Mr. Hanna, you have yet to be cleared for field work, so your presence is not required."

Deeks, Callen, Hanna and Kensi were speechless, momentarily. Callen held up his hand to signal the others to stay silent, then approached Strand.

"We're a team," Callen said. "Sam, Kensi, Deeks-"

"-are all a part of this team that I run, Mr. Callen," Strand shot back. "My word is final and I will not tolerate any dissention. Do I make myself clear?"

Callen said nothing.

"Mr. Callen?"

"Yes," he said a few moments later. "You've made yourself very clear."

"Good," Strand said, as Vaughn, Neal and Blake exchanged looks. "Because I need my Special Agent in Charge to take his interim partner, and integrate the three agents who are here and the one who will arrive later today on a case vital to national security. Mr. Beale."

Eric tapped on his tablet, and a large photo of Russian arms dealer Isaak Sidorov, flanked by screenshots of a meeting in a parking garage, appeared on the big screen.

"Sidorov's dead," Sam said. "I shot him myself."

"This is an alternate Sidorov," Strand said to Hanna. "And this case is for active personnel only. Which is why I need you and Mr. Deeks to step out."

Stillwater, Pennsylvania

While one Gibbs worked a case at a fast-food restaurant in northern Virginia, the other Gibbs washed dishes in his father's kitchen. He then prepared a bowl of chicken soup, and a turkey sandwich, and took it upstairs to his dad's bedroom.

Jackson Gibbs hadn't been out of bed in two days, and despite his protests, Gibbs knew something was wrong.

"Doc's coming by this afternoon," Gibbs said, "just to take a look at you."

"Son, how many times I gotta tell you I'm fine?" Jackson complained. "Let me sleep this off, tomorrow I'm as good as new."

"You've been sleeping it off for the past couple of days, dad," Gibbs replied. "Mr. Jenkins took off work to keep the store open."

"Jethro, you're way too worried about me," Jackson said, between bites of his sandwich. "I'm no spring chicken...but maybe some of this is because I was worried sick about you."

Jethro looked at his dad. His gut was nudging him, persistently: make the most of this time with him. You may not have much more left.

"I got through it, dad," Gibbs said, drinking his coffee. "Mike's helping Mr. Jenkins today, and tomorrow, and the rest of the week if necessary."

"I still don't understand that deal, son," Jackson said. "I thought Mike was dead. And what does that have to do with...your abduction?"

Gibbs looked at the floor.

"Most of it's...unbelievable, dad," Gibbs said to his dad. "Gotta start somewhere, I suppose.

"RIght before we were kidnapped, we caught a case..."

THE END