Chapter 22: The end where I begin.

In the morning after the nuptials, the maids silently entered the bridal chamber, expecting to find only the Lindorm lazily sleeping by the window surrounded by ripped clothing and body parts of the dead bride.

However, they were greatly surprised to find that the bedroom indeed was a mess, but instead of finding a pile of human bones by the door they've found a pile of bloody dragon skins gathered in a corner of the room. There was blood drops and gore on the curtains and floor as far as the eye could see.

Expecting the worse, they ran further into the room and found the Bride of the Lindorm King sleeping on the floor, her last white nightshirt still over her body, holding in her arms a handsome young man wrapped into nine nightshirts.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

She was standing wrapped in a blanket outside the garage, being checked by one of the paramedics as the local M.E. took the body away and the Metro C.S.I. went over the garage just to finish processing the crime scene.

I observed as she looked sadly at Norman's body being taken away, her compassion for the poor man evident in her gaze, despite the fact that he had brutally killed people in a horrible way, and he would have killed me or her if given a chance.

I felt someone's presence by my side but I still couldn't move my gaze away from her, aware that something was changing, something magnificent and at the same time terrifying, as the whole world axis shifted and a new order settled in my mind.

"Case is closed." Gibbs muttered by my side, his eyes also on the young woman as one of the paramedics cleaned a scratch on her neck where Norman had made a nick on the white freckled skin.

"Yes, it is."

"She's going back to the FBI."

"Yeah, I know."

"Unless..." Gibbs left the word hanging in the air, making me turn to stare at my Boss's face.

As always, his gaze gave me no hint of what was going behind those blue eyes, but there was a faint smile on his lips as he watched me carefully.

"Unless what?"

Blue eyes studied green, "What do you want, Tim?"

I opened my mouth to answer me, but he beat me to the punch, "Choose your next words very carefully, as they might be the mark of a beginning... or of an end."

I stared at him for a moment, incapable of giving him an answer at that moment. Finally I looked again at her and found her gaze on me, her eyes firmly watching me with fear and uncertainty. I merely felt my legs taking me towards her, my mind barely acknowledging that I left Gibbs alone behind me as I crossed the street to speak to her.

Her eyes were still filled with fear, but she refused to look away as I approached her and finally stood before her, feeling the wind against my skin and hair, my body feeling heavy as if I was standing at the edge of a ravine.

And I was eager to jump without any safety equipment.

"Hi. I think we should start again." I offered her my hand, as if to be shaken. "My name is Timothy McGee. No middle name. I'm a Federal Agent for NCIS and I'm also a computer expert. I'm a geek, I admit it. And a very nerdy type of guy. I don't go out much, I don't have a girlfriend and I …" She blinked at me so I of course lost my train of thought, "I … really would love to have one... girlfriend, I mean."

She looked at my hand for a moment before taking it into hers, her soft fingers squeezing mine reminding me of satin skin and loud moans and whispers, coupled with freckles. Freckles everywhere I had touched, "I'm... Laura Mackenzie, but my real name was Laura Tyler. I had to change names after my brother died. Ah... my... my brother had… schizophrenia and in one of his mania attacks he… murdered… both my mom and… my dad. I have been on my own since then and I don't have a boyfriend too … most probably because … I know I might still …"

"That's not going to happen."

"But Timothy, I carry the genes, I …."

"That's not going to happen. You won't develop schizophrenia. You won't." I refuse to let that happen. Nope, that's not going to happen. Not on my watch.

"There's a 40% chance that I ..."

"Your numbers are wrong. They're not that high and you're past the dangerous age when the symptoms usually appear. It's not going to happen to you."

She studied me with limpid green eyes and I was once again swept by the depth of the emotions swirling in them, fascinated at how she had carefully protected herself for so many years truly believing that her future had been doomed from the start, thanks to a curse imprinted in her very own DNA.

"It's not going to happen to you." I repeated, seeing her face crunch as fresh tears started rolling down her face, her gaze going to the floor as she hiccupped and I couldn't take it anymore, so I gently hugged her, ignoring her weak attempts to get away from my arms, "And even in the unlikely hypothesis it might happen, you wouldn't end up alone."

She looked up at me and I smiled lightly, raising a hand to dry her cheeks, "If you start having hallucinations, we'll simply play cards or have tea with your visions."

"Don't..." hiccup "joke" sob "with this." She moaned, her hands firmly holding my arm, not fighting my embrace anymore.

"I'm not joking and I wasn't lying before. It wasn't a mistake then. It's not a mistake now." She gave in and leaned her head against my chest, her body finally sagging against me as the burden of her secrets were finally removed, setting her free for the first time in years. I snaked a hand around her waist and brought her closer to my body, closing my eyes with the contact and imagining how weary and beaten down she must be feeling.

And despite it all, she had still negotiated with an assassin to spare my life and, given the chance, she might have been able to convince Norman to surrender himself.

She sighed deeply and I chanced to open my eyes and I found Tony and Ziva just a few steps away, smiling at us. Gibbs had his arms folded and he had a satisfied smirk on his face, as if he had been the one to see that one coming and he had been the one responsible for getting us together.

That's how the curse was lifted, the ending of a dark time and the beginning of a bright new day for all of us.

Ah... with Tony making obscene gestures at me, congratulating for getting the girl at the end and with Ziva hitting him with a headslap.

But that's just who we are and I wouldn't have them in any different way.