*6 Months Later*
It was the first warm night of the spring, one of those evenings when the sting of winter was overruled by the hint of a warm breeze that suggested summer was coming.
It was the perfect night for flying.
With the modern buildings and traffic below, Tim found that flying over Washington D.C. was a whole different experience, but not unpleasant. He didn't go out as much as he would have liked, but it was more dangerous in such a populated area. Besides, flying during the winter, he quickly realized, was like flinging oneself into an ice bath, and his sensitive wings, still healing from the events that took place in Italy, were not quite up to it. Sure, flying through the night while a light powder of snow fell around him was fun, but cutting his snow coat to accommodate his wings was not, and that meant that he had to fly through the wintry air with just a long-sleeved t-shirt on his back. No, he'd decided to wait to really start flying again until spring time. And anyway, he'd been a bit too busy to worry about his flight apparel over the past few months….
Tony, Ziva and Gibbs helped him settle back into regular life, visiting him every day and assisting him in finding a place to live. They were by his side while he took the NCIS agent evaluations and welcomed him back with joy when he passed with flying colors.
Tim had been torn in many directions, trying to find balance between the old and new versions of himself and the people and places that went with them. But the moment he stepped into the bullpen, the moment he sat at his desk and turned on his computer, all of the stress and confusion melted away. Sure, Valero Notte was his home. Sure, Washington DC was his home. But never had he felt more at ease, and more like he belonged, than at his wonderful little desk. Those horrid orange walls never looked more beautiful. With Tony, Ziva and Gibbs in the bullpen with him, he felt stronger than ever.
However, he was afraid to touch other people for a long time after that. When he first returned to NCIS and Abby tearfully threw herself into his arms, Tim panicked and froze, afraid that he might activate another flightling. (Because, of everyone on the team, didn't Abby seem like the most likely person to be non-human?) When nothing happened, he was so distracted by his relief that he had to remind himself to return her embrace before she noticed his odd behavior.
In Italy he'd met lots of people, human and flightlings alike, but he never ran the risk of changing anyone. In certain parts of Europe where old flightling families stuck together, a higher percent of the population was flightling, and lots of people came into contact with them, whether they knew it or not. But in America things were different. There were no large groups of old families here. Flightlings often existed in small, otherwise-normal families who kept their genetic differences a secret from the rest of the world. Many people could carry the gene but never marry or reproduce with another carrier... or they might unwittingly reproduce with another carrier, and that resulting child would be a sitting duck, just waiting to accidentally come into contact with another flightling.
McGee didn't want to be responsible for that. Sure, he loved his genes, but they came with a difficult life: one full of self-doubt and danger and heartbreak. Not everyone could deal with such an existence, and he didn't want to force them to live that way, even if by accident.
So, physical contact became a complicated thing. Shaking hands with colleagues, grabbing suspects during arrests, bumping into strangers on the street…he hadn't ever realized just how many people he touched until now. And he would have lived with this fear forever until Tony and Ziva noticed just how jumpy the simplest touch made him. It took weeks to assure him that even if he did activate a flightling, it wouldn't be his fault. Ziva even challenged him to try and calculate the likelihood that someone would carry the genetic code necessary to become a flightling. This was a great idea; when he realized just how small the odds were that he would ever come into contact with an unchanged flightling, he began to relax. And they had been right so far; all these months and no accidental transformations yet.
Of course, his little family at NCIS was rocked by his supposed-death and sudden "rescue." Vance was in on it, of course, but it was weird for him to have spent most of his life hunting flightlings, only to find himself welcoming back one of his best agents, who just happened to be a flightling. Abby had noticed the changes in Tim and was at first concerned, though he had an answer for every question. The beautiful, inhuman color of his eyes? Oh, the medication that he took to stave off infections during his recovery messed with the melanin in his eyes. The extra muscles in his chest and arms? He'd spent months fighting for his life while captured. That's all he would say, and Tony helped his friend out by later hinting to the goth that McGee had been through unspeakable horrors and didn't want to talk about it. That much wasn't a lie, at least. So, wanting to respect her best friend's privacy, Abby left it alone.
Ducky was overjoyed by the fact that Tim was alive, and expressed fascination at his new physique, and invited McGee (and the rest of Team Gibbs) over to his house for tea and to discuss everything. The elderly ME knew that not all flightlings were evil, but he'd never given it much thought, since he'd only ever encountered soul-stealing monsters. But now that he personally knew one who was nothing but good, he took the opportunity to learn as much as he could about flightling life. Tim sat with him for hours, poring over the Darwin book, and at one point, he called Victoria so that she and the good doctor could meet and converse. Ducky took it upon himself to become a doctor experienced in flightling first aid. After all, he was McGee's physician, and if Tim had new medical needs, he was determined to meet them. He and Victoria explained to the older man the existence of the hospital in Africa, and Ducky was already looking for a good time to take off so that he might visit it with Tim. McGee was touched by the effort, feeling more accepted than ever.
McGee now used most of his free time to borrow Abby's lab, where he ran tests on his own blood, searching for a component in his DNA that might explain why it burst into flame when contacted with holy water. The instinct vs choice debate was one that had no real conclusion, and the question of why flightlings gained powers when they stole souls went along with it. Tim realized that he would never find the answer from a philosophical standpoint, so he went at the problem from the side of science. His comprehensive research hadn't gotten him very far as of yet, but he wasn't worried. As he'd realized back in Venice, his potential to be evil was a choice, and he wouldn't choose wrong, he was sure of it.
He flew between two structures, wishing that there were more skyscrapers in D.C. When he'd gone to visit Victoria, they were able to fly over and through New York, even with all of its light, without a hitch. But here, in this place full of high-security buildings and people always on high alert, he had to be more careful. Still, this only added to the excitement that coursed through him as he slipped through an open parking garage, empty at this time of night, and flew out the other side. He loved flying with Victoria, but there was something so free and wonderful about flying on his own.
It had taken Victoria longer than she anticipated to put all of Apollo's affairs in order, but she had just called him earlier that day with the news that she was finished, and would be coming to visit for a few weeks while she considered her next step. DiNozzo, as much as he tried to hide it, perked up at the news, and hadn't stopped thinking about it for the rest of the workday. Tim didn't notice back when they were in Italy, but now he wondered how he ever missed the way Tony reacted whenever his surrogate sister was mentioned. McGee and Ziva now had a bet going over how long it would take Tony to ask out Victoria when she came to town.
Apollo weighed on Tim's mind, but as the months passed and he stopped grieving, the memory of their departed patriarch became less of a source of pain and more a legacy he carried with him always. But as for his birth family…McGee still hadn't contacted them yet. They had no idea he was alive.
He'd put off the decision of whether or not to call them as much as possible, and now that six months had passed, he doubted he ever would. Tony and Ziva, as a favor to him, checked up on his relatives every once in a while, allowing their friend to listen in on their phone calls. Sarah was doing fine, his mother was healing from the experience of losing her son, and Penny, though probably the most affected, was keeping busy. His dad, well…any time either of his friends called, the Admiral hung up at the first mention of his firstborn. It hurt McGee deeply, but it helped confirm in his mind that keeping his distance was the right idea. Of course there was a good chance that he would one day run into them. Penny lived not too far from the capital and the admiral worked in the same branch of the military as his supposedly deceased son. Sarah had graduated college and was always traveling, but she came back to the area enough that there was a chance she might one day run into her brother. But Tim put those concerns out of his head, electing to cross that bridge if and when he came to it.
He flew over the cherry blossom trees and past the Jefferson memorial, delighting in the warm breeze that carried him higher up into the night sky. Being a flightling in America was a weird thing. Everything was so ancient in Italy, including the flightling bloodlines that made him what he was today. But in the States, everything felt much more modern, turning everything he did into some sort of neo-noir adventure. DiNozzo noticed this first, and teased him about it constantly. Still, Tim's powers made some cases much more fun. Because of his fear of being found out, McGee was careful not to use his abilities unless they were absolutely necessary. But sometimes chasing a suspect required him to run faster than what should have been possible, using the strength in his legs to push him forward. Or he would scale a fire escape to catch someone trying to get away, moving like a spider through its web. Even better, was the fact that baseball bats and most pipes were crushed under his hand when swung at his face. Car tires popped under his fingers and locked doors were broken open without requiring Tony to kick them down. Once, a suspect tried to evade capture by running from Gibbs and DiNozzo down a dark alley. Imagine the perp's face when McGee came out of nowhere, swooping in and catching the man before folding his wings away. Tony delighted in these moments, enjoying the look of horror that crossed a criminal's face when they realized that McGee wasn't quite human. The revelation of his wings only happened once, and while the man was shellshocked to see it, Tim was comforted by the fact that it was his word over the criminal's- no one would believe him.
Still, there were some downsides to the whole thing. The effects of Thaddeus' torture were long-lasting and horrific. There were times when McGee would wake in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat as he'd been forced to relive the pain through another nightmare. On bad days, the very jingling of chains was enough to give him flashbacks and momentarily put him out of commission. Ziva noticed this and insisted he talk to Ducky about it. McGee had gone over some healthy coping methods with the doctor, but he had yet to discuss it with anyone.
And yet, on good days, he was so happy. He'd never known contentment like this before. He felt healthy and powerful and most of all, loved. It was a shame that he had to go through so much to get there, but it made him a stronger man. The wisdom and courage he now had was enough to make it all worth it, not to mention the family he'd found in Victoria and Apollo and the acceptance he'd received from his family at NCIS.
The wind picked up and he flapped his wings until he was at the right altitude, at which point he stilled, closing his eyes and letting himself fall backwards. Sure, the backflip was Victoria's signature move, but he could see the appeal. The not-unpleasant flip of his stomach, the flutter of his heart, and the wind running through his wings…it gave him more joy than he could handle.
Spiraling between two trees, McGee turned and headed back in the direction of his apartment, a quiet laugh escaping his lips, happy that the moonlight was bright enough to light his way home.
A/N: Wow. I just can't describe the emotions I'm feeling posting the last chapter to this story.
This project took me more than two years to finish. So much has happened since then, both in the show, in this work, and in my writing style. This story means so much to me, and I want to thank each and every person who reviewed, especially those handful of you that reviewed every chapter. You all kept me going and for that I thank you. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it. Now that the story is done, please let me know what you think of the finished product. Love to you all.