"This is very, very not good," The Doctor said pacing around the lab and ruffling his own hair.
"How is this bad?" Tony asked throwing his hands in the air, "What good is a screwdriver anyway?"
The Doctor paused in front of Tony, "What did you say your name was again?"
"Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo," Tony answered, with a tiny smile.
"Well, Anthony," The Doctor started, "I'm not sure if you were paying attention earlier because I did not say I lost my screwdriver. No, no, no, no, no. I said I lost my sonic screwdriver. Completely different."
Ziva rolled her eyes as The Doctor continued his pace around the room.
"Are you telling me you don't have anything," Gibbs asked, crossing his arms over his chest, "Because if that's the case, I don't need you wasting my time."
The Doctor rubbed his forehead, "No, no. We have something, just… not as much as I hoped."
"And what is it we have?" Donna asked from behind her alien friend.
"I'm… working on it."
Donna rolled her eyes and went to go stand in the corner right before the Doctor almost jumped five feet in the air in exclamation.
"What? What it is?" Donna asked standing up straighter.
"I am so… stupid!" The Doctor said, throwing his hands up in the air.
"You don't have to tell me twice, pal," Tony said.
"No, shut up. You…" The Doctor ran up to McGee, "We're in a federal building."
McGee looked around, "Yeah. I… happen to have known that."
"No, that's not the point," The Doctor turned to everyone, looking them each in the eye, "We're in a federal building. What does every federal building have?"
Donna perked up a bit, "Cameras."
"Exactly," The Doctor said pointing to Donna before turning back to McGee, "Now, what's your name? You look… techy."
"Tim," McGee answered, feeling an unusual sense of importance.
"Right, Tim," The Doctor continued, "I need to get a look at the video feed from twenty minutes ago."
"You got it," McGee answered, turning to the door and heading for his desk, "This way."
Abby hit the ground with a bang, landing face first on the unpaved earth of… wherever she was. She slowly lifted her head from the road, observing her surroundings.
She was in an abandoned alley, in the middle of two old looking buildings. Very old buildings.
Abby got to her feet, slowly heading for a dirt street at the end of the long, open hall. The minute she stepped out of the gloomy space, she stopped in her tracks, her mouth hung open in a giant O.
All around her, people were scurrying down the street, carrying baskets or pulling children by the hand. But the clothes they were wearing… they were… old. Not old as in, you know, old, but clothes from old times. Peasant's clothes. Shops were set up along the road… but they were wood… and selling pots. Clay pots.
Several people on the street stopped to stare at Abby, checking her out with confused eyes.
Abby looked down at herself, realizing that she stood out like a sore thumb. Not only were her clothes clean and modern, but they were pitch black with hints of wine red. Everyone else was wearing… tan.
Abby smiled weakly, backing back up into the alley and closing her eyes, wishing herself to wake up from this crazy dream.
A rustling of paper sounded from nearby and Abby slowly opened her eyelids to see a discarded newspaper sail by her feet, riding on the wind.
She bent down and picked it up, studying it and then almost fainting.
The title clearly read THE VENICE NEWS. But that wasn't the weirdest part. No, no, no. It was the year. The year was wrong.
Abby threw the paper to the ground kicking it away. There was no way that what it was saying was true. No way in any universe that ever existed. Abby certainly was not in Venice… and it certainly was not 1580.
Abby stepped back out of the alley, wrapping her arms around herself to hide her clothes as best as possible. Keeping her head down, she headed North down the road, making eye contact with nobody.
Abby walked for around five minutes, full of dread, unsure of what she was going to do or if what she was even experiencing was real. Then, a voice attracted her attention.
"Come along, Pond!" it said, making Abby turned to her right. She hadn't realized it, but it seemed she had hit some sort of crossroad. More peasant-like people were walking down it but it was only three of them that caught her eye. A woman in a red scarf, a young man with a navy blue vest, and some guy in a bow tie. They were heading in her direction and Abby practically ran to them.
"Oh, my god," she said when they were in hearing range, "I thought I was going crazy but I'm not. What is this some sort of Renaissance Fair?"
The man in the bow tie stopped, followed by his two friends.
"Hello," he said after a short pause, "Who are you?"
"My name is Abby," Abby answered, "I don't know what happened… I just appeared here."
The man in the bow tie looked between his two friends in confusion as Abby went on, "I mean, was I drugged? Is this some kinda joke? It looks so… real."
The man in the bow tie looked like he wanted to say something but the words weren't coming out, "H-how… did you get here?"
"I don't know," Abby answered, "That's what I was trying to figure out. But, it's not real, right? Just some sort of event?"
"No," the man in the bow tie answered, "This is real."
"But… the newspapers are wrong, right?"
"What are you going on about newspapers?" The bow tie man asked.
"The newspapers said it was 1580 in Venice. That can't be right."
The man looked speechless, "M-maybe we should take this conversation somewhere else… I mean… somewhere where we can sit down."
"Why do we need to sit down?" Abby asked, "I have a job to get to. I have a boss. A boss that is probably looking for me."
"Listen," bow tie man went on, "I can't explain this easily. We need to get somewhere… less crowded."
Abby said nothing, thinking about it, "I'm not sure what you mean by that, exactly," she finally said, "But whatever. Where do you want to go?"
The Doctor smacked the computer making McGee cringe.
"What is wrong with this computer?" The Doctor asked, frustrated.
"Nothing is wrong with the computer," McGee answered with a sigh, "It's the camera feed from twenty minutes ago, like you wanted."
"But it's nothing," the Doctor argued, "The lab is empty. There's no one inside."
"Maybe Abby just hasn't come in yet," McGee suggested, impatiently.
"The video feed is in fast forward and look," The Doctor pointed to the screen, "This is the end of it."
McGee frowned, bending over the screen and restarting the video. The whole thing played out without anything happening.
"But, that's not right," McGee commented to himself.
"Is it possible that the camera was tampered with," Ziva asked, looking over McGee's shoulder.
Tim typed in several computer codes into some sort of server.
"Nope, nothing," McGee said, his frown growing, "Nobody has touched it. This is the feed."
"But Abby was in there," Gibbs stated, "And I was there, too. And we were there. Why isn't anything showing up?!"
"It's like… memory deterioration… but for a camera." The Doctor commented, "There's no trace, there's no nothing. Just a camera that doesn't pick up anything."
"But that's not possible!" McGee exclaimed, typing in some more codes, "Nobody has touched this! Nobody!"
"Maybe someone did, but just didn't leave a trace," Ziva suggested.
"Who has the power to do that?" McGee asked.
"Or what," The Doctor added, looking to the agents.
"I may be able to help with that," a voice said from across the room.
Everyone looked up to see a man in a bow tie and tweed jacket standing in the middle of the room.
"Who are you?" Tony asked, looking the man up and down.
"I'm the Doctor," the strange man answered, "And I'm the only hope you have if you want to get your friend back."
