Epilogue

"Hey, Boss? Boss?" DiNozzo prodded.

Gibbs opened his eyes, expecting to see the walls of Elsinore around him and the bustle of the new Monarch setting up shop. What he saw instead was Tony DiNozzo standing over him, rattling kernels in the bottom of a butter-smeared bowl. "Did you want more popcorn?"

Gibbs sat upright, his arms tingling with the pins and needles he expected to feel from the deadweight of the Prince that had been draped across him. "What?"

"We took a vote, and we're gonna put in the next film," Tony told him, starting to look amused at the Boss' confusion. "We decided on 'Much Ado About Nothing'. You seemed to enjoy 'Hamlet' so much, after all…"

Gibbs looked around. He was on his couch, in his living room. McGee and Ziva were curled up on the floor on beanbag chairs that one of them had brought over, arguing over possession of the last slice of pizza in the cardboard box before them. Tony was collecting empty cans and bottles as he waited for Gibbs to reorient himself and answer the popcorn question.

It had been a dream. The whole thing had been nothing but a dream. How is that possible? Gibbs wondered to himself. It felt like he and his team had lived the whole thing… they'd been there.

"Boss, I have to admit," McGee started, looking over his shoulder and grinning up at him. "I never would have taken you for a Shakespeare aficionado. Your insights into the characters were amazing!"

"Indeed, Jethro," Ducky asserted from the kitchen. The ME poked his head around the corner, and Gibbs could tell by the apron he was wearing that Ducky was whipping up one of his favorite desserts. "You had me surprised as well! I never knew you were a closet thespian!"

"Let's not get carried away," Gibbs warned.

Abby's husky giggle drowned him out. "I think it would have been amazing to live back there, just for a day or two… How did they handle forensics? What did they do at crime scenes? How would they have handled a renegade Prince bent on murdering his step-father / uncle?"

" 'I said 'patricide', not 'uncle-cide'!" Palmer quoted from his spot by the recliner.

That earned him a shout of approval from DiNozzo. "Murder by Death! Great movie reference, Autopsy-Gremlin!"

Gibbs scrubbed a hand over his eyes. "Tony!" he barked, and the room fell silent. "An all night Shakespeare movie marathon? I'm glad I let you talk me into this."

The team grinned as they filtered back to their seats in the living room and settled in for the next installment. Gibbs accepted the bowl of popcorn that Tony held out to him and the bottle of beer that Abby handed over, firmly resolving to stay awake for the duration of the next movie.

Thank you for taking the time to read my first ever published fan fic. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it.