hi. long story today, but it is the climax. definite action in here, which could explain the length, but i can't promise about how well it's written. not gonna bother you anymore, just read on:

disclaimer~ chalk another one up. i no own this. well, i own this, as in the story, but not the characters or the shows they come from. we clear? good.

The light of the round, yellow, full moon glinted on the rounded edges of the Beretta Dani was holding in her hand, positioned just so over the edge of her, Abby's, and Sarah's hole. It was all very dramatic, like something from an old black-and-white cop movie.

The 4 SIG Sauers that were aimed over the edge of the other hole didn't reflect the moon's light, but simply knowing they were there, lined up like a regiment of Civil War soldiers, was good enough for everyone there.

"Don't' shoot until we're sure she knows we're here," Gibbs hissed.

"She knows," McGee replied in a whisper, despite his words. "She can tell."

"Booooooooooook!" Winifred sang, lowering her vacuum until she was in sight of the team. "What is this, another graveyard?" she wondered, looking around. "Dost thee possess any shred of imagination?"

No one answered her, clutching to the final hope that she hadn't seen or heard them yet. Any idea that thought would keep disappeared as a yellow light exploded from the hole containing the girls and the book.

"$#!^, they couldn't keep the book shut!" McGee swore. "Shoot the cleaner!"

More than 15 bullets embedded themselves into the vacuum, the trees nearby, and the witch herself. The trees had very little damage done to them—they were surprised that some of the bullets had actually not hit the targets, the shooters were experienced agents, after all—but the vacuum whined dangerously as the bits of metal rattled around inside.

"'Tis thy voice I hear, Binx?" she called aloud, agitated. She didn't want to waste her last night on the Earth chasing after some kid. "Come from thy hole and fight like a man, if thee dare, not like the kitty thou art!"

To the team's surprise, the jibe made McGee clutch his gun tighter in anger. "Mew, mew, mew," she teased. "Here kitty! Here cat, cat, cat!"

"Better a cat than a cowardly, boil-ridden pox-covered hag like thee!"

McGee dropped his gun and covered his mouth, his eyes wide. What the #3!! had happened to his voice? He sounded like he had at age 16—from the 1600s. He even had his accent back.

"McGee?" Ziva asked, surprised. "Are you feeling alright?" He bit his lip, confused, picking his gun back up.

"Ah, reverting back to thy natural dialect, art thou scared, ye mangy feline?"

"Scared of you? No!" he shouted back in his normal voice, his face turning red. "Scared of the shards that fly when thee lookst into a glass, yes!" He froze, horrified. "Oh God. What's happening?" he asked, more to himself than the others.

"Maybe she's putting a spell on you," Ziva suggested.

"So he talks like some kid from her time?" Tony asked in reply. "What kind of lame comeback is that?"

Gibbs just raised an eyebrow at his agent. "Sh-shutting up now, boss," he said carefully. The ex-Marine nodded.

"My time here is limited," the witch preached, "return my book to me and I shall consider leaving thee to live!"

"While you use it to kill thousands of children?" Ziva shouted back. "Not going to happen!"

"All for a good cause, I assure thee," she said to the side, "after all, I simply cannot watch as my face crumples with age. 'Tis a small price to pay, for youth."

"Just get some face cream and get on with life, lady!" Tony called.

"Enough of this," she huffed. "Booooooooooook!"

Both Sarah and Abby screamed as the book literally lifted them from the hole. Dani grabbed at their ankles but missed by a quarter of an inch.

"Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiim!"

"Giiiiiiiiiiiibbs!"

"Abby!" Gibbs and Tony yell, jumping from their hole.

"Emily!" Tim hollered, in his other voice, hot on their heels. Gibbs and Tony gave him cover fire, hitting her in the chest several times. She went back an inch with ever hit, like something in an action movie.

McGee dove and took hold of the disgusting spellbook, swinging in the air between two out of the three women in his life. It sank with the added weight, not stopping until they touched the safety of the ground again.

"Aaaaaah!" the oldest Sanderson shrieked, clutching at the holes in her robes. "Thou hast shot me! I am dying, I die…!"

Dani lowered Gibbs' gun and climbed from the hole as she grew closer and closer to the ground. Ziva clambered out of the other one, her own never leaving the witch's head, just like the rest of the teams'. The first lesson in combat: it's never over until the fat lady sings.

And she was silent.

Just an inch before touching the soil, Winifred Sanderson looked up, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Psych!" she screeched, gripping the handle and flying back upwards, higher than the tallest branch on the trees nearby. "Book, come to me!"

Abby let go of the thing in surprise as it was yanked towards the witch; The McGee siblings didn't and went for a ride into the air. The book stopped at her open hand.

Winifred put the volume under her arm and lifted both McGee and Sarah by the neck.

"Oh," she crooned, ignoring their gasps for breath, "My two last, incomplete masterpieces. Thackery and Emily Binx. My first victim and her elder brother… thou hast been un-transformed, Thackery. There is a distinct lack of black fur on thy back."

"I… found it," he managed through her chokehold, glaring at her. "It grows, just there, on thy upper lip." Sarah would've laughed if she could; all she could manage was a snicker and a grin.

She screeched at the insult, throwing him onto the ground below. "Thy insolence shall be thy downfall, Thackery Binx, just as 'twas 300 years ago!" she bellowed at him.

The team froze. What?

"Let's show thy friends what thy really are!"

McGee went back a step, but this time, there was no lightning. Her hand motioned toward him, and he fell to the ground in pain.

Abby screamed, trying to run to her friend, but Dani held her back. McGee's only recently cut hair doubled in length, sweeping back from his head. His bones cracked aloud as they compacted and grew smaller, shrinking him from his 6'2" original height to 5'11". There was a flash of light, and his work clothes disappeared, changed into a loose cotton shirt and breeches… matching Tony's outfit.

He stopped howling, gasping for breath on the grass. Thackery Binx groaned, getting to his feet slowly. Everyone was staring at him.

Binx looked down at himself, then back up at the witch, glaring. "Dost thee think this changes anything?" he demanded. "Simply because thee have made me 16 for the third time in my life, and that thee have put me in nightclothes, thou assume I shall give up? Put Emily down, or I shall…"

"Or thou shall what?" she barked, screeching in laughter. "Shake thy rattle at me? Oh, I quake in my boots!"

Thackery turned a surprising shade of red and lifted the SIG Sauer he still held, barely aiming when he shot her between the eyes.

The hit should have killed the woman, but this was a witch on Halloween—she couldn't die by mortal means. Even if it was a perfectly aimed shot to the forehead.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt like all #3!!.

Winifred Sanderson shrieked in pain, reeling backwards. The vacuum moved further and further over the woods, towards the old double grave and oak overlooking the city.

Thackery ran after his sister without hesitation; the team stared for a second before going after him, the thought still ringing in their minds: McGee is Binx?

High above the graves of their parents, Sarah hung from the witch's grasp. Thackery stood on the grave, glaring up at the woman, who was far out of his reach. Winifred had her book out, frantically looking for… something.

"Give it up, you old spinster!" Thackery yelled. "The sun shall rise in but minutes, thy have no chance of being able to live past it!"

"If I must return to hell, I shall not leave without knowing that thee were punished for thy insolence!" she spat. "How would thy and thy sister like to spend eternity, as frogs, toads, mice? I am not picky. Cats art a classic, and I think that Emily would make a beautiful tortoiseshell, as thy once made a black!"

He couldn't do anything from the ground. His gun was out of bullets and they were literally hundreds of feet above his head. "Thee challenged me to fight like a man, art thou so cowardly as not to do so thyself?"

"Nay," she returned, "I am a woman, not a man, imbecile!"

"Thee fooled me and fooled Billy Bones! Art thou sure?" Winifred growled and aimed a hand at Thackery again. He dove, using his parents' graves as a shield from her magic.

"No…!" Sarah gasped, using the last of her strength. She raised one fist and managed to punch her captor hard enough to send them both flying off the makeshift broom. The book went flying… and the women started falling.

"Thackeryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" she screamed, clawing at the air, that one word being drowned out by Winifred's own shriek.

The Sanderson sister hit the ground with a thud more than worthy of Abby's platform boots. For a moment, all was still, until the team and Dani appeared at the edge of the treeline.

The witch growled and stood, looking murderous. Her beady little eyes scanned the cliff for Binx, so she could exact her revenge, until they found… the book.

It was lying inches from the edge of the crag, the human eye wide and searching for her. She lifted her skirts and ran for it, cackling in laughter as she lifted it over her head.

"Yes!" she said. "I have succeeded! You have failed!" she cried, pointing at the group.

Instead of answering, Dani pointed at the headstone in front of her. Winifred looked down with an "Eh?" that made her smile. Her cry of victory quickly turned into one of horror as a stone curse made its way up her feet.

"Biiiiiiiiinx!" she yelled, still clutching her book. A ray of orange light hit the cliff as the sun rose… on November 1st.

The audience shielded their eyes as the statue of Winifred Sanderson exploded in a shower of green sparks that belonged in a 4th of July show.

"She's gone!" Dani squealed. "She's dead, she's gone, and she took the book with her, there's no way she can come…!"

Abby put a hand on her shoulder. "What?" she asked, looking up at the grieving face of the Goth. "What's wrong?"

The forensic scientist silently pointed to their left, toward the gravesite where the Binxes were buried, and where…

Thackery was kneeling over the still body of his little sister.

The joy on Dani's face slid off so quickly it would've been funny—had anyone been in a laughing mood. Gibbs went up to his oldest/youngest agent, kneeling next to him at Sarah's side. Thackery was crying, holding his sister's face on one hand and her's to his chest with the other.

"Please, Emily, don't leave me," he prayed quietly, "It isn't thy time, thou have so much of thy life to live yet… don't leave me here alone, Emily, you promised…"

The others came up behind him just in time t hear the rest of his pleas. "You promised, Emily, right here, just hours ago," he cried, as if trying to remind her. "You said that thou wouldn't… wouldn't leave Earth without me again. That thy wouldn't cry in heaven. 'Tis unnatural, you said. Why art thou not keeping thy promise?"

Gibbs put a hand on his shoulder, startling the boy—man, he reminded himself. The same green eyes that had once looked at him with nothing but respect and sometimes awe now stared at him like he was an alien.

"Tim…"

The green orbs turned murderous. "No!" he yelled, standing. "Do not call me that lie, Gibbs! My name is Thackery Binx, Thackery William Binx, not that… Timothy McGee!" He backed away from their shocked faces, tears running down his own. "Just—just as hers was not Sarah, 'twas Emily! Emily, from the Latin word for 'eager', her middle name Theresa, after our mother, who is buried there, with out father!" He backed up again, pushing himself against the tree and sliding down it. "Why dost she continue leaving me?" he begged. "Why do I continue failing to protect her? First the cottage—now here, again! I can't keep life on, like this!"

"McGee…" Tony began.

"Why do thy never listen?" he roared. "What did I just say? My name is not Timothy McGee! It is Thackery Binx! Thackery Binx! I was born November 15th, 1677 to William Isaac Binx and Theresa Vivienne Binx! My best friend is—was, Elijah Thomas Smith, who took over his father's smith when he became of age!" He angrily wiped his tears away. "I never became of age! I could only watch as my friends grew old, had children and died, then continue as the cycle repeated itself for 300 years! The fifteenth will be my 333rdbirthday! Dost that sound akin to something Timothy McGee would do, akin to Timothy McGee's life?" Thackery buried his head in his arms. "O God, Emily, not again!"

Abby tried this time, walking carefully around Sarah's body to him. She sat down next to the boy, her own tears making black mascara lines down her face. "Ti—I mean, Thackery?" she asked quietly, "Thackery, could I… give you a hug?"

He looked up, his eyes wide, red, and still full of tears. "I…" He cleared his throat, "I would like that, Abby."

She opened her arms and let the 16-year-old version of her ex-boyfriend and current best friend collapse into them.

"Thackery!" a young girl's voice sang from the woods beside them. "Thackery Bi-inx! Where art thou?"

Thackery's head shot up, looking around frantically. He stood faster than the others could see, his head turning around several times. "Emily?" he demanded. "Emily, where art thou?"

A girl about 6 years old, semi-transparent in a light cotton nightgown, giggled from behind a tree. "Stop crying, Thackery, else thy friends discover the wimp thy really are!"

"Emily!" he yelped, running and picking her up. She shrieked in laughter as he spun her around in the air several times, finally pulling her tight.

"O God, Emily, I had thought I'd lost thee!"

She stopped smiling and pulled away a fraction. Looking at him sternly. "Thackery," she said, "look at me. I am not here to stay, only to say a final farewell." Her older brother's face dropped. "I am sorry, Thackery, I wish I could stay, but…"

"Once we're brought back once, we don't get a second chance," he nodded sadly. "Yes, I remember, You told me the first week thou returned, after the Commander adopted us." He smiled, pulling her into another hug. "Thank you for coming back, if for a while."

"Well, of course. I couldn't just leave and not tell thee why I had to break my promise," she assured him. "But," she added, "if I hear of thee blaming thyself again for this, I shall return only to slap thee silly, got it?" Emily held up a hand as he opened his mouth. "I do not want to hear it, Thackery Binx. Remember, apologies are signs of weakness, and thou art a federal agent. Thee cannot afford to appear weak." She winked. "Rule number four, yes?"

He smiled. "Yes… rule four." Thackery looked over his shoulder at his friends, who were standing up, looking at him. "Oh, crap. I'm done for."

"What?"

"I yelled at Gibbs," he winced. "I yelled at Tony and I told them my real age. I am dead."

Emily rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. "No, thou art not dead, thou art in for a barrage of questions no mortal has ever had to endure in their life," she corrected. "Now listen, Thack, I don't have much time before…"

"When?" he asked, straightening.

Emily pointed to the still-rising sun. "When it's clear of the horizon, I'm gone," she replied.

Thackery bit his lip. Slowly, he pulled the cross he wore around his neck off, collecting the gold chain in a thread and handing it to his little sister. "Consider this a promise," he told her, "that sooner or later, someday, I will go and meet thee and everyone else up there."

Emily looked down at the dented, bent, misshaped gold bar, with a piece of splintered cherry wood inlaid at the top, forming the cross. He'd had it since he was 10, when he and his friend Elijah had…"Thackery," she whispered. "I can't take this, this is…"

"I know," he interrupted. "But it will be in safer hands with thou then with me."

Emily eyed her brother for a moment, then shook her head. She dropped the cross, holding it by the chain, and put it back around his neck. "I shall take the promise," she told him, "and hold it to thee, but I don't require thee to give up the only thing thy will have left of thy former life." She looked up at the sun. "My time is running out," she said sadly. "I love thee, thou big wimp."

"I—I love thee too."

She looked up at her brother, smiling. "It shall be hard playing Pocahontas without John Smith."

Thackery smiled, kneeling into a hug again. "Thou shall have to dig thyself out from under the tree this time."

Emily pulled back and wiped a stray tear off her brother's face. "Thackery?"

"Yes, Emily?"

"If thy wanted to know the truth…" She grinned. "I have always hated thy name. 'Thackery' is just so 1620s. Thou really art a Timothy to me, and to all these people."

Thackery smiled. "Thou never seemed like an Emily to I either," he replied. "Just don't tell mother and father."

"Art thou kidding? They would somehow manage to kill me in heaven!" She pulled away from her brother for the last time. "Goodbye, Tim. Tell Mom and Dad I love them."

"Will do, Sarah," he said, shamelessly brushing a final tear out of the way as she disappeared into the risen sun.

"Agent Gibbs!" she called from the light. The team looked up at her, surprised. "Take care of my brother!"

He nodded curtly.

Just before the gates started swinging, the team all swore they saw a certain familiar dark-haired woman smile and wave, before taking Emily's hand and walking off.

There was a massive flash of light, and the gates disappeared.

no, this is not the end. there are still a few more chapters left. i'm going to milk this idea for all its worth, until its bone dry.

tell me whatcha think!

PEACE~ Tibki