Chapter 11
Tim wasn't sure how he felt as his father swam away. Somehow, nothing really felt finished.
"Well, that was good. Right?" Tony said.
"Yeah," Tim said.
"That was not very convincing, McGee," Ziva said. "What is wrong?"
"I don't know. Something. Nothing. I don't know."
"You ready to go, McGee?" Gibbs asked.
"No. I think I'm going to stay here for a while longer," Tim said.
"And do what?" Tony asked.
"Sit and try to figure out why this doesn't really feel over. I think my father felt the same way."
"But he left."
"Yeah."
"Maybe you could try emulating him in that," Tony said.
Tim smiled and shook his head.
"No. I need to stay right here. I don't know why, but I do. You guys can go, though. I'm glad you were here."
Tim sat down, facing the ocean, thinking about the feeling and wondering how long it would take for him to decide it was okay.
There was a silence and then Tim heard the others settling down on the sand beside him. He smiled a little and just sat in place, not speaking, but glad they were there with him, whether they could do anything about it or not.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Gibbs watched as the others drooped and fell asleep on the beach. Tim was curled up with his skin in his hands. Tony and Ziva both had finally fallen asleep as well. Gibbs was very awake. He wasn't sure why. Maybe it was just that with everything feeling still up in the air, he couldn't relax enough to sleep.
Something was still not right. He sat there, thinking about it. They hadn't arrived on the beach as soon as he had wanted and he knew they'd missed part of the confrontation. Things had been starting to calm down a little by the time they'd got there. But there was just something going on, simmering under the surface.
Gibbs sat there, silent and unmoving until just before four a.m.
Tim suddenly sat up. Then, he stood, skin in hand, and headed for the water.
Gibbs jumped to his feet and grabbed Tim just before he reached the water's edge.
"Tim, what's going on?"
Tim looked at him, and Gibbs felt like he was looking at someone alien for the first time in all the years he'd known him. Tim was all selkie. There was nothing human in his gaze.
"Tim, talk to me."
Then, Tim blinked and something changed in his countenance. He looked more like a human being again. Gibbs couldn't have said what was different, but something was.
"Another selkie is fighting my father. I won't let him die for me."
"Tim..."
"You can't come this time, Boss," Tim said. "You can't go where I'm going. And I can't let you stop me. I won't have his death on my head."
Gibbs wanted to stop him. He wanted to tell Tim that his father could likely take care of himself. He wanted to say that Tim wasn't really the right person to leap into a fight that could be to the death.
But he could still see that hint of otherness in Tim's stance. That otherness that told Gibbs he was lucky Tim was giving him even a moment of his time. Tim wouldn't listen, not now.
"Be careful," Gibbs said and reluctantly let Tim go.
Tim nodded once, but then, he swung his skin around him and a seal was waddling into the water. As soon as he was deep enough to swim, he took off at a speed that took Gibbs by surprise. Tim was gone beneath the surface.
As a seal.
He knew it. He had known it for over a year. He'd even seen Tim do that twice in the last day or so. But it was still shocking to see it.
Tim was a selkie.
And right now, he'd disappeared into a world that Gibbs couldn't touch, and all Gibbs could do at this moment was hope that Tim came back.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Tim swam as fast as he could toward the fight he could feel happening. It was the same selkie who had attacked his father before, and his father had been taken by surprise this time. This was happening because of Tim himself and he wouldn't allow his father to fight for him, even if his father was able to do it.
He swam, feeling his body moving faster through the water than he had thought possible. It seemed as though there was no limit to how fast he could swim.
He surfaced briefly to take a breath and then plunged back into the water. He was almost there.
As he reached the herd, he could see the churning water as the two selkies fought. This was not merely a fight for prey or even simply a disagreement. This was a fight to the death, and Tim knew it.
He didn't even hesitate. He surged forward into the fight, giving no one a chance to stop him, ramming into the two fighting selkies, forcing them apart.
Stop this! It is unnecessary!
The other selkie didn't respond. Instead, he changed his target from Tim's father to Tim himself. Tim wasn't ready for how quickly he shifted his attack. The selkie leapt up into the air and came down on top of Tim, forcing the air out of his lungs and driving him deep into the water.
Tim struggled to free himself from the grip of the selkie, but he wasn't as agile in the water as the other was. He knew it.
Then, the other selkie was violently pushed away from him and Tim surged to the surface to take a breath. He breathed once, filling his lungs and then dove back down to the fight. His father was fighting and now, that made the fight two on one. The human part of him felt that this was a little bit unfair, but the extremely-practical selkie part of him saw it as an advantage that should be used.
He and his father came at the other selkie from both sides, forcing him, not down to the ocean floor, but up to the surface. They continued to lunge at each other, each of them trying to get a hold of the other selkie, but he moved so quickly that it seemed impossible.
Tim was so focused on the selkie that he didn't realize what was going on until he heard waves crashing on rocks. Their fight had taken them back toward the coast. He was distracted enough by the nearness of the rocks that when the other selkie suddenly lunged at him, he wasn't ready for it and he didn't have the chance to defend himself. The selkie bit down on his back. Tim arched backward in pain and then tried to pull away from the grip, but he felt the teeth tearing at him and blood running down his back.
A large wave picked him and the selkie up and threw them both against the rocks. It dazed them enough that the selkie let go, but Tim was dazed as well and he tried to lumber away from the selkie, but he was injured as well as dazed and he couldn't focus.
Then, he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He forced himself to turn around and saw his father leap at the other selkie, knocking him backward against the rocks. The two selkies tumbled back down into the water, subsumed beneath another wave that beat against them all. Tim lay on the rocks, water raining down on him, but he couldn't yet move. He was weak from the fight and from his injury. He could no longer see the other two fighting selkies, but he also couldn't bring himself to try and find out what was happening.
After an unknown period of time, there was a seal nuzzling at him. Tim roused himself to confirm that, yes, it was a seal, not a selkie. It was trying to get him to move, but he didn't want to. Walking around was hard enough to do in his seal form. Right now? No.
Then, there were other seals also nuzzling at him, urging him up. Finally, he couldn't resist their prodding. He painfully levered himself up on his flippers and slowly tried to navigate his way off the rocks and to the sand. Wave after wave broke over them as the tide came in. It only made everything harder, but the seals persisted and eventually, Tim managed to get back to the sandy shore. He collapsed in the sand, mustered enough energy to remove his skin and then, his eyes closed.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
The selkie got a grip on his adversary and held on tightly, resisting any attempt to make him let go. He could sense that the one called his son still lived, but his life was in danger and the selkie had no choice but to fight until he was certain that this one could not endanger the other again. He knew that the one called his son did not want any to die for him, human or selkie or even seal, but this one had lied in his claim of accepting the new law. He had not begun the fight in the right way. His attack had been done while the selkie was sleeping. Most of the herd had been sleeping when the attack had begun. He had to admit that the one called his son had intervened at a time when he was beginning to falter.
Now, however, the selkie had the upper hand. He had a hold on the selkie and he was not letting him go. The struggles weakened as the other selkie tired and bled. Still, he held on until the other selkie was still.
The selkie let go. Whether he was alive or dead didn't really matter. He had lost, and so thoroughly that, even if he lived, he would have no place in the herd.
The selkie reached out to find the other. He sensed him on the shore. He could feel the concern of the seals who had helped him.
Quickly, he swam to the shore and saw the one called his son in his human form, bleeding from deep wounds on his back. The selkie removed his skin and knelt down beside him. He probed the wounds and was satisfied when that got a reaction. This one lived. He had not broken his promise.
Not yet.
The wounds were serious, and they were not on the same beach as the humans who had been with them before. He was loath to leave this one in his current state without protection.
He needed others to help him. Silently, he called to the one who had been born on land and the one who had returned, asking them to come and help. He heard their acknowledgment and then returned his attention to the one called his son.
Selkies were wounded at times, but usually, the wounds were either minor or so serious that the selkie died. Because the herd was small, they were careful about injuries and the young were always protected.
Quite frankly, the selkie didn't really know how to deal with an injury. A minor wound would heal on its own. A serious one... maybe it would and maybe it wouldn't.
But the humans dealt with wounds. He had seen hospitals and he knew that injuries were common enough among humans, and he knew that they didn't just hope that injuries would heal on their own..
The two selkies he had called came out of the water, shed their skins and joined him.
"He lives?" asked the one who had returned.
"He lives."
"What do you want from us?" asked the one born on land.
"Protect this one while I go to the humans who are his friends. They will help him."
"You won?"
"I won."
"Death?"
"I do not know or care. He lost."
They both nodded. The selkie got to his feet and listened intently for how far the humans were. He had been in their company enough that their minds were familiar to him.
Then, he began to run toward the beach. It was not far away, but far enough that they would not know where the one called his son was.
It took some time, but he could see the one who led the humans awake. He looked over and saw the selkie and got to his feet.
"What happened? Where's McGee?"
"He is injured. He is in need of your help. We do not heal wounds."
"What kind of wounds?"
The selkie merely raised an eyebrow.
"We do not have weapons."
The man nodded and turned to the other two who were sleeping.
"Tony, Ziva. Wake up!"
The other two humans awakened and sat up.
"What is it? Time to go?" the man asked.
"No. McGee is hurt. Let's go."
They both leapt to their feet and ran for the car. The selkie followed and got into the car with the humans. The drive would be very short.
"How did it happen?" the human who led asked.
"He tried to stop the fight, not wishing any to be hurt. The other attacked him and he fought back, but he does not have enough experience fighting as a seal and when the waves drove us against the rocks, the other was able to grab hold. He bleeds."
There was a brief silence.
"Did he help you?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
"I thought that everything had been agreed," the woman said.
"I shared your thought. This one did not. He attacked as all slept. He lost."
"He's dead?" the other man asked.
"I do not know whether he lives or not. That does not matter. He lost. To all, he is now as dead. None will help him if he lives."
They reached the beach and the humans got out and ran over to where Tim lay in the sand, still bleeding. The selkie who had returned was trying to stop the blood from flowing, but he also did not know what to do.
As soon as the humans approached, the other selkies backed away. The distrust of humans was deeply ingrained, even though they knew that these were likely safe.
The one who led knelt down.
"McGee, can you hear me?"
No words from the one called his son, only a groan of pain.
The selkie watched in quiet fascination as they began to work to stop the blood from coming out of the wounds. They pressed on the wounds with strips of cloth. The one called his son groaned again, but they did not stop.
"Will this one live?" the selkie asked.
The one who led looked up at him.
"I don't know. We need to get him to a hospital."
"What will we tell the staff?"
The one who led smiled a little bit.
"That he got attacked by a seal."
"The blood is slowing, Gibbs," the woman said. "We should move him now."
The one who led nodded.
"We will help," the selkie who returned said.
The two selkies helped the two humans lift the other one and carry him gently to the car. The one who led looked at him.
"Will this happen again?"
"Not for this reason. Who can see what comes? The one who attacked will not. He may be dead or not, but he is as dead."
The one who led nodded and began to walk away.
"You have forgotten his skin," the selkie said. He reached down and picked it up. "After all he has gone through, he should not lose it again."
The man nodded, but he hesitated before taking it in his hands.
"He is the same as he was. This does not change him. He was always a selkie, even without his skin," the selkie said.
The man nodded and then walked away.
The selkie watched him and waited for the others to return. They came back quickly.
"We will return to the herd," the selkie said.
"What of this one?"
"I will return again to see him, but we must return to the herd."
They nodded and the three of them put on their seal skins and swam out to sea.