Tim looked at Abby curiously the next day in the lab
"Are you ok McGee? You don't look that great'
"Just tired Abby. I haven't been sleeping very well. I keep having these vivid dreams and I wake up like I haven't slept at all."
Abby gave him a comforting hug. She hadn't felt fear from him while she slept so they couldn't be nightmares.
"Maybe you shouldn't eat dinosaur cereal so close to beddy byes then"
Tim shot her a dirty look and she laughed before skipping over to her Mass Spec.
Tim returned to his work and thought carefully. He wanted to ask someone about his dreams. They seemed so vivid and they had been going on for weeks now. The scenery was always different. Bright Mardi Gras festivities in Venice, ancient Greek ruins, standing at the docks beside a tall timber sailing ship, chasing snorting prancing ponies through fields of golden wheat. It was the when that seemed wrong. They were all from times long past. It was all in a detail he never knew he had in his head so how could he be dreaming it?
And that wasn't the strangest thing. Always he was accompanied by the man he met, just that once at the Halloween Party.
Dante.
It was almost as if they were close friends now and when night fell and he showed up at his bedside Tim had stopped questioning his appearance knowing an evening of wonders awaited him.
But wasn't that a little weird that he was dreaming about some guy he had met just the once? Over and over again?
His piercing blue eyes, his strength, his hands cool to the touch, the way he seemed to know just what Tim was thinking, his speed, his incredible vision across distance…so many things. It was almost as if he was a……
Tim looked across at Abby and was going to ask her. She wouldn't laugh at him would she? There were just dreams….. right?
Tim bit his lip and kept silent. He would ask Dante tonight. A dream creation surely couldn't survive the questioning of its own existence.
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Tony sighed and pulled Ziva close to him and buried his face in her hair. For so long he had tried to fight his attraction to her knowing the risks would be too much for the team to bare if it didn't work.
But the loneliness and the pain had become too much. When she arrived at his door late at night just as he was contemplating a pre emptive sleeping tablet along with his bourbon to enable him to get through the night he knew he was damned.
There had been no turning back and he had no regrets. One look into her eyes and she had known the pain he tried to hide from the world. The pain he had hidden under the false bravado and jokes.
One look from her eyes and he had seen her fear. The fear she tried to hide everyday that anything she cared for would be lost. The fear she had for him as he slowly started to loose the spark of delight that made him Tony DiNozzo. The fear she had as she watched him slowly walk towards the precipice and prepare to throw himself off.
And so here they were again. Lost together.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Abby smiled to herself as she felt her two friends dream together. The dreams were gentle and softer than she had felt from either of them in a long time. They would keep each other safe.
Dante released Tony as he felt his agitation settle into relief. He wasn't meant to be Dante's companion. The more Dante had watched Tony the more he knew he could never drag him from his world and have him be happy.
Tony couldn't discuss the creation of Greek democracy, he wouldn't wonder at the beauty and the terror of Mount Vesuvius as it destroyed itself, he wouldn't want to watch the Gladiators of ancient Rome as they willingly gave their lives for glory, spilling their blood into the sawdust of the arena.
He would want to go home. And eat pizza.
Dante's attraction to Tony had been how he had made Dante feel. The sheer intensity of it. The passion. The despair.
But another had come to soothe Tony and his dreams now were simple and still and restful. Each day he awoke more rested and less despairing of what he had made of his world.
Dante stretched out in his ancient coffin and reached his mind out towards another. Another who had taken Tony's place. And this one had an enquiring mind. He wanted to discuss books and history. He wanted to understand everything. He was a man of science who understood this new world but he had the vision and imagination to be able to grasp the idea that there was more to the world than mere mortals.
Timothy McGee.
Tonight was the night. Tonight Dante wanted to meet with Timothy in real life and not through his dreams. He knew he was beginning to wonder. The brief touches Dante had allowed of his mind had shown him that. But he hadn't wanted the wonders to cease so he had been hesitant to question it.
Tonight Dante would show him there were more wonders in the real world than there ever could be in dreams.
(Don't worry Tony and Abby and the rest will still play big parts in the story.Its going to get a bit rough and pretty dark at times for the team. Thank you to those reviewing. Precious)