PART THREE: Time

It's a very unusual situation when you've investigating a bomb threat but you find yourself talking about "The Twilight Zone" and "The Simpsons." But that's exactly what happened.

Imagine that you are experiencing the following events from the perspective of NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee.

Assisted by his coworker Tony DiNozzo, McGee escorted a very interesting person into the interrogation room and left him there.

That person was David Dayan, a pilot with the Royal Air Force who just happened to be visiting Washington, DC. He had the exact same fingerprints as the David Dayan sitting in a detention cell.

Once McGee and DiNozzo returned to the squad room, Tony adopted a sarcastic mocking look which made him look slightly pained.

"I suggest we keep the two David Dayans separate," Tony said. "Otherwise if the two of them meet, it might destroy the space-time continuum. Like in that movie 'Timecop' with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mia Sara." Tony's slightly pained look turned to a more pleasant and pleased look. "Ah, Mia Sara," he sighed. "She was also in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'"

"'Back To The Future,'" McGee said.

Tony frowned. "Mia Sara wasn't in that."

McGee grinned. "No, Tony. 'Back To The Future' was the movie where Doc Brown warns Marty McFly about how they could destroy the space-time continuum through a paradox." As McGee spoke in his usual cordial manner when he shared information, he moved his hand from this point to that. "'Timecop' is where if two of the same person occupy the same space they end up being destroyed."

Still frowning, Tony briefly considered this.

"Ah, yes. Very good, McGeek. Leave it to you to know all the science fiction movies."

"I know a lot of 'Twilight Zone,' too," McGee said with the calm genial pride only a true geek would have.

"Did 'Twilight Zone' do time travel episodes?"

"Yes, they did, Tony. In fact, they did one with Russell Johnson. You know, from 'Giligan's Island?'"

"The Professor? Did he go back in time and stop the castaways from ending up on the island?"

"No, Tony. Russell Johnson played a man who went back in time and tried to stop the assassination of Abraham Lincoln."

"I bet that didn't work."

"You're right; he did not succeed."

"Because how do you stop something that's clearly already happened?"

"He did, however, cause a janitor at his club to become a member of that club."

Tony winced slightly, an inquiring look. "How'd that happen?"

"Well, it turns out the time traveler warned this cop. The cop was an ancestor of the janitor, and because the cop tried to save Lincoln, he and his family became very well-regarded and very prominent. So the janitor was now from the prominent family of this cop."

"Fascinating, McGeek." Tony looked thoughtful, unusual for him. Naturally, such a condition did not last long. "So sometimes you can't change the big things but you can change something, the little stuff."

"Why not both?" McGee said with a shrug.

"I suppose you watched 'Twilight Zone' a lot, McGeek."

"Yes, I did, Tony. In fact, when I was a kid, I never understood why the people in the story didn't see Rod Serling while he was standing there talking at the beginning of the show."

"You were a weird kid, McBeatnik."

McGee was perfectly capable of standing up for himself, and he had no problem doing so when Tony was being extremely annoying, which could be quite often. But if McGee stood up to Tony all the time, he'd be very busy.

Despite his father the admiral insinuating he was a wimp, Timothy McGee (aka the novelist Thom E. Gemcity) was quite bold and tough. He had even stood up to violent female inmates, though he didn't tell his father about it later. His father would have likely just scoffed at him: "You took on some women, Tim. Big deal!"

Tim's grandmother would have said, "Good for you, Tim. Women can be just as tough as men. They're equal to men even in prison."

"Come on, Tony," McGee said. "You must have seen 'The Twilight Zone.'"

"I've seen at least one episode. The one where William Shatner is on a plane." Tony adopted an intense serious look on his face as he imitated the voice of William Shatner. "'There's something...out on the wing. Some….thing!'"

Tony did a pretty good Shatner impersonation. He was also good at imitating the voice of his father. That would be Anthony DiNozzo, Sr.. Tony often referred to his father simply as "Senior" just as "Senior" often called his son "Junior."

"If I haven't seen all the episodes, I certainly know about 'The Twilight Zone,'" Tony said.

"Oh. Interesting, Tony. It almost sounds like you're proud of that."

"About 'The Twilight Zone?' Maybe," Tony said. "Bit I'm not a geek like you."

"You've made that clear, Tony."

"What are you two talking about?"

Ziva David asked this as she entered the area and sat at her desk.

"'The Twilight Zone,'" Tony said.

"Oh, interesting," Ziva said. "'The twilight zone' is a term used by pilots. It refers to when they can no longer see the horizon."

Tony gave Ziva a look like he'd just caught her playing air guitar in a very wild and dramatic fashion.

"So you mangle the English language in other cases," Tony said. "But you….know….that term...used by….pilots!" Tony reverted back to his Shatner impersonation.

Ziva grinned her charming grin as she shrugged slightly. "What can I say, Tony? I am multi-fauceted."

"I think you mean 'multi-faceted,'" McGee said with a slight frown. McGee usually wore a slight frown when subjected to a "Ziva-ism," any phrase in which Ziva mishandled an American idiom.

As Ziva once remarked to Ducky, American idioms drove her "up the hall." But she did know seven languages so forgive her if she couldn't keep it all straight with one of them.

McGee slipped into instructor mode, though thankfully not on the subject of jet packs or they would be there all day.

"In this case, Ziva, 'The Twilight Zone' is a TV series where they have a different story each week."

When Ziva frowned a little, it accentuated her little dark eyes. "Would it not be better to have a cast of the same funny, likable, relatable characters each week? Like on 'The Simpsons.'"

Tony frowned. "Yellow bug-eyed people are relatable?"

"I think she means people like us, Tony," McGee said.

Tony made a face. "You mean like 'Simpsons: N-C-I-S' where we're yellow and bug-eyed?"

"No, we would still be us," Ziva said. Those little dark eyes looked perfectly sincere.

"Yes," McGee said with a nod. "People could relate to us."

"And that would be better than Homer and Marge?" Tony gave McGee a look like he had just caught him tap-dancing.

Once again, Ziva grinned and it was charming and delightful. McGee could just imagine Tony fantasizing about living in Paris with Ziva and a daughter.

"In some ways, Tony, you are like Bart," Ziva said with that grin.

"Ay, caramba," Tony mattered. He quickly changed the subject. "Getting away from 'The Simpsons' and back to airplanes. As you know, McGee, Ziva and I were on a flight out of Paris where we had to protect a material witness from multiple assassins. That flight was still more pleasant than the one Shatner had to go through in that episode of 'The Twilight Zone.'"

"I'm sure it was, Tony."

"Of course it was John Lithgow in 'Twilight Zone: The Movie.'"

"That's right, Tony," McGee said. While McGee was perfectly capable of toughness, he was not as ruthless as Ziva (she did, after all, shoot her own brother.) McGee realized he and Ziva were both tough but also vulnerable. While he was tough in his own way, McGee was also capable of vulnerability when it involved his sister Sarah or his grandmother Penelope.

"As usual, I do not know what the two of you are talking about," Ziva said.

"Which is just as well, Ziva," McGee said.

"Wait a minute," Tony said with a frown. "How do you know 'The Simpsons?'"

"We had them in Israel."

Tony frowned some more. "Did Homer say 'oy' instead of 'D'oh!?'"

"It was much the same."

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs!" Abby burst into the NCIS squad room like she'd had more Caf-POW! than usual. She wore long striped stockings, like something the Wicked Witch of the East would wear. She also had long dark pigtails, and she wore a sweet grin of shiny red lips that went with her sparkling dark eyes.

Since she was oddly dressed and looked oddly happy, Abby did not really look like a forensic specialist. But she was such a specialist and a very excited one at that. As McGee could tell you, that was Abby.

"Can you believe we have an actual time traveler?" Abby seemed to ask this question of no one in particular but then Gibbs stepped into the area.

"We'll see, Abbs," Gibbs said in a casual manner.

Gibbs had a way of, without warning, suddenly appearing in the squad room. Usually this happened when someone was talking about him; quite often, that was Tony but it could also be McGee or assistant medical examiner Jimmy Palmer. (Ziva was too wise and clever to let that happen to her). When Gibbs did suddenly appear, he usually knew about the conversation that took place before he arrived.

"If you're done talking about 'The Twilight Zone' and 'The Simpsons,' what's the status on our suspect?"

"He's in the interrogation room, as you requested, boss." As usual, McGee was cordial and respectful toward his boss without being overly deferential or greatly intimidated.

Ah, the all-knowing everywhere all-at-once Gibbs. The legend of Gibbs had many faucets (sorry, facets). The more fanciful ones were that he could punch a grizzly bear and take out Terminators. Some said he could get a boat out of his basement while firmly grasping a bottle of bourbon. Of course, he was perfectly capable of ordering a cat into a cage or stomping on a robot vacuum cleaner. Honestly, Gibbs could survive anything, even a boat explosion.

Gibbs lifted an index finger. "Let's go."

As Gibbs walked to the interrogation room with his three subordinates, DiNozzo adjusted his tie, and for no apparent reason he offered this remark:

"I like that actress on 'Law And Order.'"

"What of it, DiNozzo?" Gibbs said in a gentle harrumph. "I like that actress on 'Mork And Mindy.' I don't think we'll ever meet."

At the exchange, McGee smiled. It wasn't a big smile like when Gibbs returned after briefly resigning. In that situation, McGee showed off teeth that had been whitened too much; his teeth were so shiny and bright they were almost blinding.

Gibbs opened the door to the interrogation room. There was a younger David Dayan looking annoyed and maybe a little frightened.

The scene faded away.

That was an obvious hallucination, David thought, still in a half-conscious state. For one thing, as a young RAF pilot he had never visited Washington, DC.

There was also the problem of the way Tony and Gibbs behaved. If Tony liked some actress, why would he share that with Gibbs on the way to interrogation? And why would Gibbs like the actress on "Mork And Mindy?"

It occurred to David he could battle the hallucinations by using simple reason and logic. But what if they weren't hallucinations? What if instead his consciousness was traveling into other realities, other dimensions where the people from NCIS and their relationships to each other were different?

What he'd just experienced was mainly from the point of view of McGee. What if, David thought, he had "leaped" into a McGee in another reality?

That was when David woke up completely and fully.

He was in his cell. Tobias was gone but the guard was still there.

"Are you all right?" the guard asked.

"I think so." As he sat up, David blinked his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. "But what about the bomb? Were they able to stop the attack?"

"Agent Fornell didn't tell me about the situation. But we'll have a doctor check you out and then you go back to interrogation."

David wasn't sure what to make of all that but he groaned and grunted as he slowly rose, the guard offering some assistance. David wondered: Did they need to interrogate him about the bomb because it exploded or because they stopped it?

He'd find out soon enough. But David had to ask himself: Should he have gone to work with Sam Becket just because some super-computer chose him to be a time travel guinea pig?