Chapter 16

Quickly, Tim removed his skin and tried to do something that would remove that shocked expression from Vance's face. He had reacted in the worst possible way, and Tim was terrified that everything would be ruined.

"Please, Director. I know it's weird. I know it's nothing that you expected, but if you could please hear me out!"

"What... just... What did I just see?" Vance asked.

"Director... sir... I... I'm a selkie."

"And what is that?"

"I... I can turn into a seal, sir. This is my seal skin." Tim held it out, but Vance didn't seem inclined to touch it, so Tim lowered it.

"You can turn into a seal," Vance said carefully. His tone of voice made it sound like it was about the most ridiculous or insane thing he'd ever heard...which it probably was.

"Yes."

"If this isn't some kind of trick, Agent McGee..."

"It's not."

"How did this happen?"

"I was born like this," Tim said. "I've been this way since I was born. I started growing my seal skin when I was a baby."

"So...your parents?"

"My birth mother is human. My birth father is a selkie. My adoptive parents are both human," Tim said.

Vance didn't appear to be any happier.

"And how does all this relate to what happened last year?"

Tim swallowed.

"It has everything to do with it. Do you want the whole story?"

"I'd better have the highlights," Vance said.

Tim couldn't tell what Vance was thinking, but he knew that there was no other option than to keep going until the end of this and hope that his life on land wasn't ruined by this. Gibbs was giving him no help, but he was there.

"The woman who was killed stole my seal skin when I was young. It's how come I ended up living on land. I had never been able to find her. My birth father did...and he killed her."

"What?" He looked at Gibbs for a moment. "You knew this, Gibbs?" Vance asked.

"Do you honestly think there was any other option, Leon?" Gibbs asked. "Did you want to tell SecNav that she was killed by a selkie?"

Vance sighed.

"Go on, Agent McGee."

"She had done this to other selkies, too."

"How many other selkies are there?"

"There's a herd here. It's not huge, but there are herds other places. I've never been to any of them. Selkies aren't common, Director. There really aren't very many of us."

Vance nodded and gestured.

"One of the selkies died from it. I stole another of the skins and gave it back to the selkie who had survived, but I didn't want to leave here and the law of the selkies is that you have to once you get your skin back. You can't go back to your human connections because it might reveal our existence to the world and that would be dangerous. But I couldn't give up what I had. So Abby got permission to destroy my seal skin."

"Then, what are you holding?"

"My skin...that grew back a few months ago," Tim said. "It's never happened before. No one knew it was possible."

"And your injury?"

"One of the selkies wanted me dead because I was asking the herd to change. I didn't want to have to go back, but destroying my skin before almost killed me. I couldn't go through it again. My father saved my life."

Tim took a deep breath and waited. Vance still didn't seem all that enthused. Tim couldn't blame him, but he was terrified that this was going to blow up in his face, and then, all the pain, all the struggle...it would be for nothing.

Vance sank down onto a stool and then looked at Gibbs.

"How long have you known about this?"

"That Tim is a selkie, for over a year. That he actually had his skin back, for about two weeks longer than you have. Tim was trying to keep it to himself."

"Seems like you haven't had much success at doing that, Agent McGee," Vance said.

Tim winced.

"I know, but I really have tried."

There was a long pause wherein Vance appeared to be staring hard at Tim's seal skin. Tim didn't know what he was thinking about and he really wished he did. Then, Vance looked at him again.

"What are you expecting to come from this revelation, Agent McGee?"

"I'm hoping that I won't lose my job, sir," Tim said. "NCIS is one of the things that saved me when I was trying to find a reason to hang on in the human world. It means so much to me, Director. I don't want to lose it."

"Why tell me this?"

"Because you needed the truth. Any lie we came up with would only make things worse at this point," Tim said. "I've had a lot of things go wrong, and some of my problems as a selkie have spilled over into NCIS, making things harder for people here. You gave me a chance, knowing that I wasn't telling you everything. I'm grateful for that. ...but everyone has their breaking point and, with what happened this last time..."

Vance nodded slowly.

"So you're telling me that you're literally a different species but that you want to keep working for NCIS."

"Yes, sir."

"And you expect me not to tell anyone else."

"I shouldn't even be telling you," Tim said, earnestly. "The selkies have killed to keep their secret. My father managed to persuade them to let me stay on land with certain restrictions, but even at that, one didn't agree and still tried to kill me and my father. If you make this public, sir, I'll be killed, and the selkies will likely be exposed and then experimented on."

"You did promise, Leon," Gibbs said.

"Yes, I did. Anything else you need to tell me, Agent McGee? Do I have to worry about the selkies making an assault on NCIS?"

Tim actually felt like he could laugh.

"No, Director. The selkies don't work like that. They don't have weapons. They don't have an army. Just the herd. All they want is to be left alone."

Vance nodded slowly.

"How long will it be until you're ready to come back to work?"

Tim felt a glimmer of hope.

"My doctor says that I should give myself one more week since it's pretty much impossible not to move my back no matter what I'm doing. Then... I'll be back?" Tim turned it into a question, not wanting to assume.

Vance raised an eyebrow and then stood up.

"I can't make a final decision at this point, Agent McGee. I need to think about this."

"I understand, sir," Tim said, trying not to sound disappointed.

"All right. You've told me, and all things being equal, I have no intention of revealing your secret."

"Thank you, sir."

Then, Vance left the basement. Gibbs followed him out. Tim walked over to the stool Vance had been sitting on and sat down, staring morosely at his seal skin. This had been such a wonderful thing. How had everything started falling apart? Was it just some kind of selkie curse? All the stories about the selkies were essentially tragedies. Was it just inevitable?

After a couple of minutes, Tim heard Gibbs coming back.

Then, there was a light hand on his shoulder.

"Give him a chance, McGee."

"I'm still the same person, Boss," Tim said. "Just because he knows doesn't mean that I'm any different."

"This is a big thing, Tim. Give him a chance to get used to the idea."

"Maybe it's just not meant to be. Maybe I can't have what I want. Maybe..."

"Don't, Tim. You told Vance something that he didn't even think was possible. Let him work through it. Don't expect more than people can give right away."

Tim nodded. He still was afraid that this was the end of his life on land. Never mind that he could find another job and that it wouldn't mean that he couldn't be friends. His life on land was so bound up in NCIS at this point that losing it would feel like losing it all.

"You've done your part. Just give it some time."

Tim nodded again, but he didn't look up.

"Go to bed."

Another nod and Tim got up, feeling the pull in his back. Then, he trudged up the stairs, walked to the spare room, lay down without changing his clothes and stared up at the ceiling.

Sleep didn't come for a long time.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

For the next couple of days, things seemed to be in limbo. Vance said nothing more about Tim's return or not. Tim said nothing more about what might or might not happen. The team didn't dare talk about it, although they wanted to. It almost felt like talking about it might jinx them.

Then, one evening, Gibbs saw Vance standing by the river, staring out at the water. He changed his trajectory and walked over.

"Thought you weren't allowed outside alone," he said.

Vance smiled slightly.

"Even I can be trusted to be alone occasionally," he said.

"Tim needs to know what's going to happen. You can't just leave it hanging."

"I know. It's not fair to him," Vance said. "Be honest, Gibbs. How long did it take you to come to terms with it?"

"Which part? Just knowing or seeing?"

"Just knowing."

"A few months."

"And seeing?"

"Not yet."

Vance nodded.

"The world made sense a few days ago."

"Still does. Just not the sense you're used to."

Vance smiled and nodded.

"Yeah."

"McGee is still the same person."

"Only he's not a person."

"Yeah, he is. Even when he's...a seal, he's not an animal. He can think and react and plan just like when he's...human."

Vance turned away from the river.

"You tell me, Gibbs. Would you be able to make this decision as fast as you want me to make this decision?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said, but then relented. "But I'd be questioning it all along the way."

"I realize that, logically, knowing more about Agent McGee shouldn't make any difference. Logically, I know that. But..."

"...but it's not logical."

"No. And it makes a difference." Vance turned back to the river for another minute or two. Then, he turned back to Gibbs again. "Do you trust him?"

"Yes."

"No doubts?"

"None."

Vance shook his head and looked around the Yard and then back out at the river.

"I'm living in a world where there are people who can turn into seals."

"You always were."

"Yeah, I know. Now."

A deep breath.

"Tell Agent McGee that he can plan on coming back when his doctor clears him."

Gibbs smiled and nodded, knowing that this wasn't an easy decision.

"It gets easier," he said.

"Does it?"

"Yeah. Takes a while, but it gets easier."

"His father?"

"If you look him in the eye, you'd never mistake him for a human being."

"His mother?"

"I haven't met her, but McGee has. She's human."

"Who also knew about selkies...or did she?"

"From what McGee has said, she did."

Another slow nod.

"If it helps, Abby ran Tim's DNA and it's mostly human."

"It doesn't help. I assume she used NCIS resources to run that test?"

"Yep."

Yet another nod.

"He'll be on desk duty?"

"Probably. He nearly died."

"Okay. Maybe by the time he's ready for full duty, this won't seem so bizarre to me."

Gibbs couldn't help scoffing a little. "Maybe."

Vance actually rolled his eyes a little.

"You don't have to tell me that's ridiculous."

"Good."

Vance turned back to Gibbs.

"You've seen other selkies?"

"Yeah."

"You've seen them change?"

"Yeah. A couple of times."

"Is it the same as when you see Agent McGee change?"

Gibbs smiled and shook his head. "No."

"Where do they even come from?"

"Don't know. Maybe they've just always been here."

One more unsatisfied nod and Vance began to walk back to the building.

"Next week?" Gibbs asked.

Vance paused.

"Next week."

Then, he left. Gibbs knew that he couldn't blame Vance for being so shocked and so unsure of what to do about this, but he also sympathized with Tim's fear of losing what he had come to rely on so heavily. However, Gibbs had already promised himself that he wasn't going to let Tim lose what he had. It was nice that he didn't have to fight for it.

Then, he smiled to himself. He might have to take it a bit easier on Vance for the next little while. As he struggled to wrap his mind around the existence of selkies, he wouldn't be quite so accepting of Gibbs' usual aggravation. Really, Tim's dire circumstances when they had initially found out who and what he was probably had been helpful in getting them to accept it. Everything depended on their believing him and helping him and so they'd had the beginning in a very rushed manner without time to properly analyze and wonder about it. That had come later, but after they'd already acted like it was true.

Regardless, Tim would be coming back, and eventually, things would get back to normal.

...or at least whatever now passed for normal.