It's a very unusual situation when you're worried about a bomb going off but you're talking about a comic strip. But that's what happened.
It went like this.
"Do you think there will be jet packs in the future?"
As NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee asked this question with great enthusiasm, his fellow agents, and friends, Anthony DiNizzo and Ziva David quietly groaned, no doubt expecting a long rehearsed presentation about the history of jet packs along with tons of trivia on the subject.
At the center of the group was David Dayan, who responded in a casual manner.
"Here's the thing, Tim: Whatever you imagine about the future is probably better than the real thing."
McGee grinned. "You're probably right, David." He laughed a little.
"Is there something funny, McGee?" Ziva asked.
"It's just that I remember that comic strip 'Calvin and Hobbes,'" McGee said.
"You would, McGeek." Tony was able to say this without sounding entirely mean-spirited.
McGee ignored Tony's trivial taunt. Despite what his father the admiral might say, McGee was perfectly capable of standing up for himself. But it was better to do that with dangerous female inmates than someone relatively harmless like Tony.
So McGee said what he had to say.
"This one time Calvin is complaining he lives in the future, and it's not very exciting. And he's waving his fist and shouting at the sky. 'Where are the domed cities? Where are the flying cars? Where are the robot servants? I mean, look at this: we still have weather? Give me a break!'"
"Nice performance, McGeek. Can you also do Garfield and Odie? Maybe Cathy?"
Ziva frowned a little but was still lovely and adorable, unusual for a former (and lethal) Mossad agent.
"And this Calvin is some kind of great philosopher or perhaps a physicist?"
"I think you mean 'futurist,'" Tony said. Tony had become quite adept at interpreting when Ziva was confused about an English word or phrase.
"Actually, Calvin is a little boy with his talking tiger," David said. "I loved that strip. Especially while I was out on missions."
Ziva rose from her desk with a sincere look on her face, accented by her tiny dark eyes.
"Do you think in the future more people will know about N-C-I-S, about us?"
As David looked genuinely grim, Tony wore a fake-grim look on his face. "I can't believe there are people who don't know about us."
McGee nodded then spoke on a trivial subject in an authoritative way. "I remember there was that ZNN reporter who referred to us as 'Navy N-C-I-S.'"
"Ah, yes," Ziva said. "The bubble-headed bleach blonde."
"She was very articulate and informative," Tony said in a weak insistent way.
As Ziva laughed, McGee held up an index finger. "Hey, remember that TV executive who wanted to do a show about us? He wanted to call it 'Navy N-C-I-S.' At least in the first season."
"Sounds silly," Tony agreed. "But he felt it would help people understand what we did, who we were."
"It seems unlikely that would be helpful," Ziva said.
David casually placed a foot on one knee as he spoke in a casual voice. "It seems a bit redundant. After all, N-C-I-S stands for 'Navy Criminal Investigative Services.' You don't need the word 'Navy' in front of all that."
A slight smirk from Tony. "Thank you, probie, for that unnecessary explanation. But then you are the new guy here."
It was a typical day in the squad room of NCIS or "Navy NCIS." As part of that typical day, the NCIS agents talked about the future with a new coworker.
What they didn't realize was David was from the future, a time traveler. He'd used technology from his time to pass himself off as a new NCIS agent and infiltrate the organization.
If he could stop the explosion, the other agents would continue to be happy. Just like they were now.
Except, none of this was real.
As Tony, Ziva and McGee faded away, along with the squad room, David realized this was just another hallucination.
There was some truth in it. Sam had at one point proposed the idea of David posing as an NCIS agent but it was decided that it would be easier if instead David posed as a terrorist.
Ever since he arrived in this time period, David had suffered from hallucinations. He could not always tell what was real and what was not.
That worried him. Because what if he only thought that earlier he had warned NCIS about the bomb? What if he had only hallucinated it? What if that conversation wasn't actually real?
In that case, all of this had been for nothing. The terrible tragedy would still take place.
He banged on the door of his cell for a long time. When no one answered, he sat down. That was when his mind wandered to other times and other places.
For a moment, he stood in front of the Memorial with all its pictures of the deceased families as well as the photo portrait of NCIS Senior Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Then David was back in his cell in Central Detention. There he paced nervously as he waited. And waited.
Picture a black-and-white image of the NCIS squad room in a freeze-frame.
Three agents sit at their keyboards. Two are NCIS Special Agents Timothy McGee and Ziva David. The other is (as he calls himself) Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. Or as Agent Fornell calls him, "Dee-Natso."
While DiNozzo is normally smiling and laughing and joking, even he looks unusually serious as he stares into a computer monitor.
In the middle of the squad room is an image of Rod Serling. But he is more than an image. Because while the three agents remain frozen, the representation of Rod Serling can move and speak.
"Good evening," he says. "I am not actually Rod Serling but a hologram designed to look and talk like Mr. Serling. I am similar to a time-traveling hologram named Al who assisted Dr. Sam Becket on his quantum leaps. All very appropriate to an 'NCIS'-themed tale of time travel here on 'The Twilight Zone.'"
Finally, for David Dayan, the waiting was over.
After days of anxious worry and nights of fitful sleep, David paced even more frantically in his tiny cell.
Ever since he told the two agents about the bomb (or thought he did), he had been full of nervous energy. It only got worse while he waited in the cell.
On this particular day that nervous energy reached such a zenith that it was almost unbearable.
Because it was The Day. 6/11.
He banged on the door, demanding to see someone. No answer.
As he thought of all that was at stake, David marched back and forth at a very brisk pace, his heart pounding and racing.
He asked himself: Was this the right way to do it?
Had it been done at all?
Finally, there was a noise at the door. David stopped and composed himself; he didn't want to look like a threat or a crazy person. But as he stood at attention he still shook and trembled.
In walked FBI Agent Tobias Fornell along with a guard.
"Is everyone all right?" David blurted out. "Is everyone still alive? What about Gibbs? Did he make it?"
Tobias just stood there with a grim look on his face; he looked haunted.
"How did you know?" the agent asked.
David feared the worst.
"Were we able to stop the attack?" he asked. His voice was louder than he would have liked.
Tobias sighed and shook his head.
"I was so hoping you were just crazy," he said.
David's heart leaped. It seemed like he had actually talked to Tobias and Gibbs. Unless what he was experiencing right now was a hallucination.
But it also sounded like Tobias thought he was crazy. What if they had dismissed his claims? What if the bomb still actually went off?
David spoke in a weak whisper.
"Did we save them?"
Tobias just looked at him.
Was it really Tobias?
What was real and what was not?
As he asked himself these questions, David felt a sudden wave of weakness, and he collapsed. Fortunately, the guard caught him in his arms then gently lowered him to the ground. As he lay on the floor in a half-conscious state, David thought about all the events that had brought him to this point in time.
When David first arrived, everything went according to plan. At first.
David arrived safely in the House. Once he recovered from the violent jitters and extreme cold, David used the tech he got from Ellie to create a solid online identity. Once that was done, David headed for the abandoned warehouse that housed the terrorist cell. Using the correct password, he easily infiltrated the cell.
Things then got less easy, even uneasy. While waiting for instructions from the terrorists, David suddenly had what seemed like a very vivid daydream. He was with McGee and Gibbs somewhere in Alaska, and Gibbs announced he was going to stay there.
The silver-haired NCIS leader practically beamed as he told McGee, "I couldn't have asked for a better person to watch my back for the last nineteen years than you, Tim." As the two men embraced, Gibbs still had a grin on his face as he spoke gently.
"I love you, Tim."
McGee responded in a tearful voice. "I love you, too."
David was jolted out of the strange vision when a terrorist yelled at him. David responded in the speaker's native language; tech from the future allowed him to understand and respond. But then another man yelled at him in German. When David responded in perfect German, the two men eyed him suspiciously.
Possibly they were wondering how many languages he knew and why he spoke them so well.
Other men approached and talked to him in other languages. David wisely remained silent. Unfortunately, this got some of the men irate.
David responded as best he could.
"Death to America!" he shouted.
This wasn't the best response because some of the terrorists actually were Americans. So now they were glaring at him.
Fortunately, the raid took place shortly thereafter.
Agents from NCIS and the FBI stormed into the place. As David surrendered to the agents, he worked to hide his smile. Now all he had to was tell NCIS and the FBI about the bomb and how a little boy would trick Gibbs.
It would have to wait until after the arrest. Armed government agents weren't going to listen to someone who was a plausible threat. David nodded even as he placed his hands on his head. It was all right. He could wait until the interrogation. He had plenty of time. Two weeks. More than enough time to be processed for interrogation.
As David was taken away, he thought how so far, besides recovering from the effects of time travel and a little uneasiness with the terrorists, his biggest challenge had been waiting for the raid to happen. Plus some need to use the bathroom.
But this was the plan: be there for the raid, get arrested, warn the agents about the attack. Then let NCIS and the FBI handle the rest. Very simple and low-key.
It was when he was in the interrogation room of NCIS that a serious problem began. For a moment, his eyes bugged, and he felt like his brain might explode.
He heard himself shouting, "I'm a time traveler!" He struggled to stop himself but he continued to yell. "I'm from the future!"
The two men in the room just stared at him.
"Really?" the shorter more casual one said.
As David gasped and panted, he realized what most likely had happened. Something about the combination of stress along with the time-travel-Quantum-forces and the drugs he took for his mind had caused mental damage. So now, in addition to his earlier hallucination, he suffered from something similar to Tourette's syndrome. Something that caused him to blurt things out without meaning to.
As his eyes darted back and forth, David wondered.
How am I going to undo this?
Before he could think of a way to respond, he suddenly passed out.