Epilogue
Tim woke up.
He was afraid to open his eyes. Would he be back there again?
He was afraid.
"McGee? Tim? You awake?"
Tim cracked open his eyes...and then opened them up more.
"I'm back in the hospital," he said, with a bit of wonder.
Tony nodded.
"Yeah. We got you back here. You left a lot of chaos when you left."
"Did I?"
"Yeah, your EEG was nuts. When you came back, it was like you were in a coma."
"EEG?" Tim felt his head. Yes, there were the sensors. He could feel them. The monitor readout looked normal.
"Yeah."
"There was that...woman. With...blue...eyes...or no eyes at all."
"Yeah."
"You saw her?"
"Yeah."
Tim looked around. She wasn't there.
"Who was she?"
"We're not sure, but there was a woman who was buried right there by that statue. Died after being...abandoned by her husband."
Tim nodded.
"She danced."
"We don't know that."
"She danced. She was beautiful."
"She was going to kill you. If she was doing to you what she did to me...she was sucking your life away."
"Yeah," Tim said. "She was beautiful, though."
"Maybe."
"I almost died."
"Yeah, you did."
Tim nodded. For some reason...that wasn't... There was that music...
"Why me?"
"I don't know."
"Why there?"
"I don't know that, either, but..."
Tim blinked. "But what?"
"Ducky told us. He hadn't even thought of it before. The name of the town."
"Yeah...Rincan Bhais...or something. Ducky said it must be Irish."
"Yeah. It's Irish, or it used to be Irish before two hundred years of corruption. Means...dance of death."
Tim's eyes widened.
"That's the name of the town?"
Tony nodded.
Tim leaned back and thought about it.
"You think that happens every night there?"
"I don't know."
"What about–?"
"We don't know that, either...but both of the bodies were in the same place as you were." Tony paused for a moment. "Gibbs and I saw it, the dance, for what it's worth."
Tim thought about it some more.
"The music was beautiful. Strange but...but beautiful. I've never heard anything like it before."
Tony cleared his throat but said nothing.
"Tony?"
"Yeah?"
"When my time comes, when it's my turn to die...do you think I'll hear the music again?"
"I don't know, Tim. Do you want to?"
Tim took a deep breath and let it out.
"It was the dance of the dead, the music of the dead."
"Then, wait until you're dead to hear it again."
Tim nodded.
"I'm okay with that."
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
The sun went down.
The music began.
The dead danced in the dark.
FINIS!