Under the Sea
The Seaweed is Always Greener
In Somebody Else's Lake
You Dream About Going Up There
But That is a Big Mistake
Tony woke sputtering. He found himself in a tiny little cabin on board a ship. For a split second, he thought that he'd made it back. Then, he left the cabin to find himself standing on the desk of a wooden, sail-driven ship. And it was raining. Hard.
"Aw shit." Tony kicked the rail. "This is not an improvement!"
"Well…" Gibbs groaned as he leaned against the rail beside him. "At least I don't have to worry about you running off again."
"Boss!" Tony grinned. "Have you seen Ziva? Or Abby or McGee?"
"Well, no. But they're safer than we are, anyway. According to the Captain, Abby and McGee work in the kitchen back at the castle." Gibbs laughed. "And I'm your damn butler."
"What?" Tony yelled over the storm.
"You're a prince, Tony. A God damn prince!"
Ziva screamed. There wasn't much time to do anything else. There was a shark snapping at her through a hole in a sunken ship. She tried to kick her legs only to find a silvery, dolphin-like tail instead. Without pondering over her body mutilation, she kicked her tail and used her arms to navigate her way out of a narrow hatch opposite the shark. She swam as fast as she could, learning how to maneuver with the new tail on the fly. Eventually, she reached a gigantic underwater castle and took shelter inside. A heavily armored merman launched himself at the shark and beat at it with a spear until the giant fish thought better of eating any merpeople and retreated.
Is that what she was? She looked herself over now, absolutely delighted. She loved the water, and had always had a certain fascination with mermaids. Now…she was one! Thrilled, she began dancing about through the castle, reveling in this new experience. Then, suddenly, another merman appeared that terrified her beyond words. This one looked exactly like her father. But rather than act callously toward her as he had lately, he drew her deeper into the castle where her long dead siblings had come back to life and greeted her with a flurry of hugs and chatter. She was beside herself, tearing up with joy. She spoke with Tali about her time at NCIS, especially Tony because she knew the stories would amuse her. And they did. Then, Ari interrupted the excited girl talk to send Ziva his sideways smile.
"So, Ziva…why don't you tell our father why he's really missing a son?" Ari raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think he'd want to know the truth?"
Indeed, her father was looking at her with great interest. Horrified, Ziva did the only thing she could think of, she fled the castle and swam as hard and fast as she could to the surface. She had to get away, to another world entirely. Somehow!