Chapter 11
"Tim! Wake up!"
Tim heard the voice, and it wasn't Sani's voice anymore. And he couldn't hear that other voice telling him to be afraid anymore. It was all silent inside his head. So...where was the sound coming from?
"Tim! Can you hear me?"
He suddenly realized he was being shaken. He opened his eyes. Tony was leaning over him, looking concerned.
...and he wasn't outside. He was on his cot inside the house.
"How did I get here?" he asked.
"Get where?" Tony asked. "Please, McGee, don't start acting crazy again. I'm just adjusting to one part of the world making no sense."
Tim managed to smile a bit and sat up. Yes, he was inside the house.
"I thought I was outside."
Tony sighed in relief. "You must have fallen asleep and had a dream."
"Yeah...must have."
Tim agreed, but he didn't think so. He had no idea how Sani had got him back into the house, but he had no doubt that he'd managed it. He wouldn't put anything past the old man.
"Don't start that again, McGee," Tony said.
"Not starting anything," Tim said. "I promise."
"Good. Let's just get everything wrapped up here so we can get back to the real world and forget about all this."
Tim shook his head. "I'm not going to forget, Tony. ...and really, I don't think I should."
"Feel free. I can't wait to put all this behind me. I'm not ready to believe in werewolves...and if you correct me again, I'm going to smack you."
Tim laughed. "Okay, I won't, but this happened whether you believe it or not."
"You're acting pretty chipper for someone who was almost eaten by a...coyote."
Tim realized that he was feeling better. He felt free, light... The darkness inside his mind was gone. The darkness that had been there from the first time he'd seen the skinwalker.
"I'm feeling a lot better...by the light of day."
"Ah, I see. Let's get ready to go."
"Okay."
Tim could very easily admit that he wouldn't mind leaving, that he would be glad to get back to a hot shower and electricity and the Internet and his computers.
He could admit to all that, but there was a part of him that had changed. Sani's desire to give him something more to think about had worked.
For now, however, they had to think about getting everything ready for their departure. After breakfast, they called Gibbs, gave him an abbreviated account of what had happened, promising a fuller account when they got back. They also met with the council one last time and then went out with Officer Lapahie and a few others to search the caves north where Tim had said the witch had indicated Robbie Natani's body might be.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"This is the only other cave that I know of in this area," Officer Lapahie said softly as they approached it.
There was an oppressive feeling in the air. Tim would swear that this was the place even before they went in. It felt like he had felt when in the presence of Natani's brother the night before. He thought that Officer Lapahie and Tony felt the same. They both seemed reluctant to step into the cave.
Finally, though, Officer Lapahie took the first step, turning on his flashlight as he did so. Tony and Tim followed behind. It wasn't a large space, but big enough that they could split up to search it.
"Over here," Tony said after only about a minute of searching. He sounded a bit ill.
Officer Lapahie and Tim walked over.
Lying on the floor of the cave, beginning to decompose, lay PFC Robbie Natani. His throat had a long, gaping wound, similar to PFC Miller's. There was another large wound on the back of his head and bone from the skull was missing. There were other wounds that Tim tried not to think about.
"That's him," Officer Lapahie said in a low voice. "We'll take him from this evil place and bury him as he should be." He looked at Tony and Tim. "I know you have to document this for your records, but could you make it fast?"
"Yeah. We will," Tony said.
Suiting actions to words, they took photos of the space, of the body, and Tim tried not to think about the fact that he had likely ingested some part of Natani's body.
Another body, or rather the bones of another body, were found in a corner of the cave. Officer Lapahie said he would take care of that part of the investigation, but he thought they could possibly be Natani's grandfather who had disappeared years before.
After an hour, they were finished and Natani was taken from the place of his desecration.
Tony and Tim went back to the house. It was too late to leave that night, but they would be leaving in the morning. Their transportation had been arranged. PFC Miller's family had come to claim his body. They met with Tony, Tim and Officer Lapahie.
The night was uneventful, thank goodness.
Officer Lapahie came to the house early the next morning to take them to the airport.
"Case closed?" Tony asked as they headed away from the Navajo Nation.
"As far as the Navy is concerned," Officer Lapahie said. "We have more to do."
"What more?"
"Making sure that he was truly alone, that he had not gathered others to the same Way."
"Can you do that?" Tim asked.
"We have to try."
"I guess so."
They pulled into the airport parking lot and got out of the truck. Tim looked at Officer Lapahie one last time.
"Thank you for letting us come," he said.
Officer Lapahie smiled. "I didn't let you, but I don't think I mind that you did."
Tim laughed a little and shook his hand. Tony did as well.
"Good luck."
"Thanks."
Then, they flew back to DC.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"Are you ready for this, Probie?" Tony asked as they walked to the entrance to NCIS.
"No, but it won't go away if we put it off."
"It would if we put it off for long enough."
"I'm not willing to wait that long to go to work," Tim said.
"Me, neither."
They went in and rode the elevator up to the bullpen. The doors opened and they walked into the bullpen. Gibbs and Ellie were at their desks.
Ellie looked up.
"Welcome back!" she said and then, added in a low voice, "I'm so glad you're back, Tim. How do you manage the computer stuff with Gibbs? I feel like he was resenting me just for trying to tell him how things worked."
"Years of practice," Tim said with a smile.
Ellie gave an exaggerated sigh.
"I'll bet you appreciate us a lot more now, don't you, Probie," Tony said.
"I appreciated the quiet," Gibbs said. "Your reports?"
Tim and Tony both walked over and handed them to Gibbs. They had decided to wait and see if Gibbs would ask for more information. As it was, he looked at Tim with a raised eyebrow. Tim raised his eyebrows in reply.
"How are you feeling, McGee?" he asked.
"Feeling fine, Boss," Tim said. "I got a bit of a scratch from Natani's brother."
"What?" Ellie asked.
Tim held up his arm.
"He was a little whacked out. He jumped at me and scratched me before Officer Lapahie managed to shoot him."
"From like half a mile away," Tony said. "It was an amazing shot."
Gibbs didn't say anything else, but the expression on his face said that there was more coming.
...but for the moment, it was over.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"McGee, DiNozzo, my office."
Tony and Tim exchanged glances and then got up to follow Gibbs to the elevator. They had known this was coming even after giving a report to Vance and having him accept it. Gibbs wouldn't accept the obvious hand-waving they'd done.
The elevator jolted to a halt.
"What happened out there?" Gibbs asked with no preamble.
Tony looked at Tim who looked back. Now that the moment was here, Tim was worried about actually doing this.
"You called me and told me you were worried about McGee," he said. "And now..."
"He's not crazy, Boss," Tony said.
"Then, what's going on?"
"It was all true, Boss," Tim said. "As unbelievable as it is...it's true."
Both eyebrows went up.
"All what is true?"
Tim took a breath, looked at Tony one more time and then launched into his explanation.
"PFC Natani and Miller were killed by Natani's brother just like our reports said, but... Natani's brother... had become a...a witch. He had learned how to transform himself into a coyote at will." Saying the words aloud in an elevator in DC, as opposed to out in the desert of the Navajo Nation, made it seem more ridiculous, more insane. "He killed PFC Miller to get him out of the way. He killed PFC Natani...to use his body."
"Meaning?" Gibbs asked.
"He tried to kill McGee using something called corpse dust," Tony said, almost reluctantly joining the conversation. "I saw it myself, Boss. ...and the way that...they fixed him..."
A brief silence.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Well...a ghost was involved."
"A ghost."
"Yeah."
Gibbs looked back and forth between the two of them, as if he was waiting for the joke to end...and it wasn't.
"So...both of you are saying that you were dealing with witches and ghosts."
"Just one of each, Boss," Tony said.
Gibbs skewered them both with looks, searching for any sign of falsity.
"You both believe this?" he asked.
"Yes," Tony said.
"Yes, Boss," Tim said.
"And...were any of the Navajo involved in this?"
"Mostly Officer Lapahie. He knows all about it and asked that we not publicize this part."
Another period of silence as Gibbs looked at them.
"It's true, Boss," Tim said. "I know it seems impossible. I know it's incredible. ...but it's still true."
"Are there any lies in your reports?"
"No. We've not told everything, but what we put in there is true."
"And you won't spread this around?"
"Are you kidding?" Tony said. "If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it and I don't think anyone else will believe it, either."
Gibbs looked at Tim.
"Never, Boss."
"Okay. Then, whether I believe you or not...doesn't really matter."
"Because you don't," Tony said.
Gibbs, typically, didn't answer. He just turned the elevator back on and returned to the bullpen. Ellie looked a bit confused, but didn't ask any questions.
They worked for the rest of the day and then left.
As they walked out of NCIS, Tony looked at Tim.
"Well?" he asked.
"Could have been worse," Tim said.
"Yeah. Could have been better."
"Yeah."
"What now?"
"Now...we go home...and sleep in a place where we don't have to worry about witches."
"Sounds good to me. Will you be sleeping?"
"Yeah. I will."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
Tony gave him a thump on the shoulder.
"I'm glad it was you out there and not me."
"Yeah, I'm sure you are," Tim said.
"No, really. You dealt with it better than I would have. ...and both of us would be better than Ellie. Maybe in another year we can trust her that far."
Tim grinned.
"You trusted me after only a few months."
"No. I just pretended I did."
They both chuckled and then went their separate ways. Back home, back to reality.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Late that night, Tim sat on his bed, in his room, thinking.
Not about Natani's brother. Not about the yee naaldlooshii. Not even about his brush with death.
No, he was thinking about what he had seen, what he had experienced with Sani in that strange alcove.
He wasn't the same. He knew that. More than Tony, he had changed with all that had happened to him, all that he had learned.
Gibbs might prefer to dismiss it as ridiculous or unbelievable. Tony might want to forget that it had happened.
Tim couldn't dismiss it. He couldn't forget it. ...and most of him didn't want to. This was a culture, a world he hadn't even known existed and now, he had seen something more, something new.
"It did happen," he said softly to himself.
That was what mattered.
He lay down and went to sleep.
...and he dreamed..
