When McGee returned to the NCIS office the next day he felt as if he'd been stepped on repeatedly by a Legion of Stormtroopers. Bits of him ached that he hadn't known even existed. Especially his brain. The bump on his head had gone down – in fact gone down remarkably quickly – but his brain felt as if it was overloaded with too much information.

His dreams had been very strange as well.

When he arrived he wasn't at all surprised to see that it was still very much just himself and Callen. Even the mysterious technical flunkey who used to wander in and out holding bits of paper had fallen ill and McGee wondered if this was what the Mary Celeste had felt like.

As he sat down at his desk he groaned slightly and Callen looked over at him and grinned. "How're you this morning?"

"In pain," McGee replied. Then he looked over his desk. "Ok, where are we at with this smuggling case? If it is smuggling that is."

"It's not," Callen sighed as he clicked on the remote and brought up a series of images of a rather cute blonde girl in denims and a 'Wiccans do it together' T-shirt picking up the bag from the locker. "Facial analysis identified the girl who picked up the bag as one Jennifer Ramage, who owns a magic shop called Wiccafriends, and no I'm not joking. She was arrested briefly on a public nudity charge about six months ago when a group of wiccans tried to do a blessing ceremony in a park not too far away from here. Claimed that they were trying to save some endangered pixies or something."

McGee just looked at him. "Pixies?"

"That's what they told the LAPD." Callen shrugged. "Anyway, the problem is that this stuff they're bringing in from Hawaii isn't drugs, it isn't contraband, it isn't anything that can really be described as illegal. I've asked the NCIS office at Pearl to look into it. We'll put it on the backburner until then."

"Fine with me," McGee sighed. "Any words from the ranks of the sick?"

"Talked to Sam last night. He might be in tomorrow. From the way he sounded I doubt it, but that's what he said. Kensi just groaned down the phone at me and asked me to make arrangements for her funeral, so she's improving a bit. Marty might be in the day after and I've got the doctor making regular checks on Hetty to make sure that she stays in bed. Luckily our case load is still light."

"Great," McGee sighed.

Callen looked over at him again. "Something wrong?"

This was a good question, but one that could only be answered with either a rant or a lie down on the floor until the universe returned to a more even keel. "Long story," he said wryly. Then: "Are you familiar with a place called Sunnydale?"

"Sunnydale," Callen said with a sigh of his own. "Jesus, I don't know where to start with that place. It's gotten a lot better, but it's still a place to be avoided. Why do you ask?"

"That's where my cousin's based. And… some other people. People that I don't think you'd believe me if I told you about them. Only met one so far. There are more. But what they can do…"

Callen furrowed his brow. "McGee, you're not making any sense."

This was a good point and he reined his thoughts in and tried to make them point roughly the same way. "Ok. You said that Sunnydale has improved. Why is it so bad and what changed it?"

Callen looked around and then visibly remembered that they were in a deserted office. But he still moved closer and lowered his voice. "Place is on a Hellmouth McGee. Bad things happen on those places. As for the improvement, well…. You ever heard of the Vampire Slayer?"

"Um… no."

"Girls with power. Girls with abilities to kill vampires. Rumour has it that the latest one's in Sunnydale." He scratched the back of his head. "Of course rumour also has it that there's a Vampire Slayer here in LA, so that's a bit confusing. And there are the really nutty rumours about Sunnydale."

McGee waited, but Callen appeared reluctant to talk. "Such as?" he urged eventually.

Callen looked embarrassed. "Met a contact from Sunnydale a month or two ago who talked about, um, Jedi. Which is nuts."

There was a long moment of silence whilst McGee thought very hard with a furrowed brow. "What if," he said quietly, "It wasn't nuts. What if… there were Jedi out there?"

Callen stared at him. Then he frowned at McGee, but his eyes were focussed on something else. "That's insane… except the wounds to that demon were. unusual." He refocused on McGee. "What did you see?"

There was a long and singing moment of silence and then McGee tilted his head. "I saw a man with a lightsabre," he said simply. "That guy Oz."

"Ah," said Callen eventually. "Interesting." He pondered some more. "I think you should call your cousin. Ask some questions."

McGee nodded slowly. "Yes. I think I will." He tapped his finger on his desk a few times and then he stood up and pulled out his cell phone. "I'll keep you posted."

It was midday by the time that he could get through to Graham. The first time he rang his cousin it went straight to voicemail, but he hadn't left a message as he didn't really know what to say. The second time, an hour later, he simply said: "Graham, it's Tim, can you call me on my cellphone please?"

And then finally, at 12.14, Graham rang back. "Hey Tim," he yawned audibly, what's up? How did it go?"

"Yesterday was… interesting," McGee replied wryly. "Arrived at Angel investigations just time to discover them protecting a witness for a federal court case from the tender ministrations of a company called Wolfram & Hart."

"Oh shit," Graham said, suddenly sounding very much awake. "What happened?"

"Well, thanks to someone called Faith, who seems to know you we fought the first wave off. Then the second wave arrived and it was a lot nastier. Luckily we had some help from someone I believe that you know. Called Oz. And his… interesting sword."

Silence fell for a long moment. Then Graham laughed softly. "Oh crap. You know what Oz is then?"

"Oh yes. Vivid demonstration."

"Tim, I couldn't tell you about Oz and the people around him. Firstly because it wasn't my secret to tell and secondly because I didn't think that you'd believe me."

"I know – on both counts. Still having a bit of trouble processing it though."

"Yeah, been there and done that. I thought I was going mad the first time I saw evidence about them. I notice that we're being cautious in our conversation?"

"That's because I'm having trouble processing everything, but I'll get better eventually. Besides, there's a… complication."

"What kind of complication?"

"Oz says that the Force is with me."

A much longer silence fell, a rather stunned one. "Ah," Graham said eventually. "Interesting. Are you… considering it?"

McGee took a deep gulp of air into his lungs. "Yes," he said firmly. "Yes I am."

"Tim," his cousin told him in a firm voice, "This is a no-brainer. Do it."

Various things clicked into place in his brain. "I will."