Chapter 10: The Great Gate of Kiev

Just as the skittering sounds indicated the strange house closing in on them, there was a strange flickering.

The sounds behind them vanished and they all skidded to a stop, somehow knowing the pursuit was over.

"Now what?" Tony asked, sounding a little breathless.

"We keep going and try to get out," Gibbs said.

"What direction to we go now?" Kate asked, out of the darkness.

"What direction were we going before?" Tim asked. "I don't know how much it matters."

"Forward," Gibbs said.

They started walking again, although they didn't feel the need to run. They kept hold of each other. Who knew how long they walked in complete darkness but then, there was a light ahead of them, leading off the to the left.

"Do we go toward the light?" Kate asked.

"Don't say it like that," Tony said.

"It's going to be another painting," Tim said.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Probie."

"I'm not. Every other time we've had light suddenly appear, it's been another painting."

"It's the only thing we can see," Gibbs said. "Let's go."

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Boss," Tony said. "They haven't turned out so great."

"But nothing has hurt us," Kate said, suddenly. "It's been scary, but we're not hurt."

"That chicken house didn't seem very friendly and it had you running," Tony said.

"I didn't like it. It scared me, but we didn't get hurt, either."

"Let's go," Gibbs said, cutting into the argument.

He strode ahead of the other three, forcing them to stop bickering and catch up.

"Wait up, Boss!" Tony said.

"Yeah, let's not get split up again, okay?" Kate said, grabbing his arm.

Gibbs stopped and looked at Kate with a raised eyebrow. There was just enough light that her blush was visible, but her expression was still determined. He smiled just a little and waited for Tim and Tony to join them.

Then, they continued on to the door and peeked inside (without going in). There was a painting on the wall as Tim had guessed.

The painting was of a large, grand gate, perhaps as part of the wall of a great city. It was actually quite beautiful.

"A gate," Tony said. "I wouldn't mind if that one became real. We could go through it and get out of here."

As if something had been waiting for Tony to say that, there was the sound of chiming bells and then, the painting burst into life before them. The painting was still hanging on the wall, but the gate itself loomed up above them.

"We haven't really been able to interact with the stuff in the paintings, though," Tony added.

"There were real feathers," Kate said. "And Tim spoke to his paintings."

"And the dead people spoke to us in the catacombs," Tim added.

"And the nutcracker was really there...and so was whatever that thing was," Kate said.

"So you think we could go through the gate and get out?"

"Where would we be going to?" Gibbs asked. "Out of the castle or out of wherever that gate is?"

Tony seemed to deflate a little.

"Oh. I don't know."

"But really, what's the worst case scenario?" Kate asked. "That nothing happens or that we get transported somewhere else?"

"I guess so."

"We have no idea where we are anyway," Tim said. "Nothing we've done seems to have got us any closer to getting out. Maybe this is our best chance."

Gibbs listened to all the discussion, letting his team put forth ideas and get to the details of what was good or bad about the ideas. This was serious enough, though, that it might be best to actually put it to a vote.

"You all agree to try it?" he asked.

The three of them looked at each other for a moment and then nodded at the same time.

"Okay. Let's go."

"But stay together," Kate said. "We're not getting separated again."

They stood close together, in physical contact and stepped through the doorway. They were in the room holding the painting, but they deliberately tried to walk toward the life-size version of the gate that they could see.

To Gibbs' surprise, it actually seemed to be working. They were getting closer to it. The gate loomed up above them. It definitely had a Russian look to it. It was beautiful, but there was a feeling of anticipation that was almost painful in its intensity as they got closer and closer to it.

Would this work?

Could they get out?

What would be on the other side if they did?

They reached the gate and suddenly, someone addressed them directly.

From behind, of course.

"Spasibo, chto prishli. Vozvrashchaysya v lyuboye vremya!"

They turned around, and a man was standing there, smiling pleasantly at them. He waved. Tim hesitantly waved back and Tony pushed his hand down. However, the man handed Tim a piece of paper. Tim took it.

"Anyone catch what he said?" Kate asked.

"Come back anytime," Gibbs said.

"Not likely," Tony muttered. "Let's just go."

They turned again and walked through the gate.

...and into the storm that still raged all around them.

They were in the woods.

Quickly, they all turned around to see the castle, to see the gate, to see something.

Trees. That was all they saw.

There was no castle, no grand gate, no friendly man telling them to come again.

Just trees and rain.

They all looked at each other, and Kate reached into her pocket and silently pulled out a single chicken feather. She held it up without speaking. Tony took it from her and swallowed. He handed it back.

Still without speaking, they turned as one and started to make their way through the forest, hopefully back to the road.

"What if we're lost?" Tony asked.

"If you have to ask that, doesn't it mean that we are?" Kate asked.

"Nope. If the road doesn't show up soon, then, we're lost. I'm expecting the road. If I'm right, then, we're not lost."

They pushed on through the trees.

...and then, suddenly stumbled out onto the road, not far from the car.

There was a bright flash of lightning that momentarily blinded them and...

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Jethro, are you all right? Mr. Palmer, are you getting any response at all?"

"Not yet, Dr. Mallard."

Gibbs struggled to open his eyes.

"Oh, I think he's awakening now. Jethro, can you hear me?"

"What's going on?" Gibbs asked, wondering why he felt so foggy.

That was Tony. Gibbs turned his head slightly and saw Tony, with blood running down the side of his head, just lifting himself up from the steering wheel. Quickly, Gibbs started to turn to the back seat.

"Calm down, Jethro. You've had a very bad knock. I only just got you to respond."

"Kate? McGee?" he asked.

"I'm here, Gibbs," Kate said, sounding groggy. "Tim?"

There was no response. This time, Gibbs did turn, ignoring Ducky's caution.

Tim was completely unconscious, covered in glass from the shattered passenger window. His head was resting on the door frame.

"Mr. Palmer, can you get to him?" Ducky asked.

"Not without climbing over Agent Todd."

"Climb over me," Kate said urgently.

Awkwardly, Jimmy did as he was told and got to Tim, checking his breathing, checking for bleeding, trying to bring him around.

Then, suddenly, Tim came awake with a start and seemed a little panicked.

"Tim, it's okay," Kate said, soothingly. "We're back in the car. You're okay."

"Back?" Jimmy repeated. "You got out of the car?"

"Didn't we?" Tony asked, blearily.

"I highly doubt it," Ducky said. "You're all soaked from the storm since the windows and windshield are all broken. You were all unconscious when Mr. Palmer and I arrived."

"What's... happening?" Tim asked.

"We're in the car, Tim. There was an accident," Kate said.

"Yeah, I'm amazed you weren't all killed," Jimmy said. "The car is absolutely totaled."

"Any sign of broken bones, Mr. Palmer?" Ducky asked.

"No. McGee, do you have anywhere that feels numb? Can you feel your hands, your feet?"

Tim nodded vaguely. "Yeah."

"I think he has a concussion, Dr. Mallard."

"Unsurprising. If that's all he has, he'll be lucky."

"An ambulance should be here soon," Jimmy said.

"Don't need ambulance. Just don't want to see any more pictures," Tim mumbled.

"What?"

"No more pictures, Tim," Kate said. She met Gibbs' gaze for just a second.

"Let's get you out of the car and out of the rain as much as possible," Ducky said. "Now, I don't want any of you to try to move on your own. Allow Mr. Palmer and myself to assist you. Understood?"

Gibbs nodded, still feeling very foggy, but unsure of what had just happened. How had they got back to the car? Why were they all injured when they hadn't been before?

Had it all been a dream?

...that they had all experienced together?

Ducky got Tony out of the car and led him over to the truck, while Jimmy did the same with Kate. Then, Ducky and Jimmy both came over to help Gibbs, but he insisted that they take Tim out first.

They did, and Tim was pretty much out of it, having hit his head very hard against the tree that had broken the window. He kept talking about talking paintings.

Then, Ducky came back to help Gibbs out. He managed to climb over to the driver's side on his own, but he had to lean on Ducky more than he wanted to admit.

In spite of their protests (even Tim's disjointed ones), all of them were transported to a local hospital for examination. Tim was admitted overnight, and to his chagrin, so was Gibbs. Both of them were diagnosed with a concussion from bearing the brunt of the impact when the car had spun. Tony and Kate stayed in their room (they were sharing). All of them were exhausted and all of them fell asleep quickly.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Two days later...

They'd had to wait until Tim was released and now, while he wouldn't be back to work yet, he was at least home. They were all in their right minds. They were all able to talk about what they had experienced, something they hadn't mentioned to anyone after waking up the morning after the accident. Ducky had asked about the paintings Tim had mentioned but Tim had claimed not to remember.

Now, they were at Gibbs' house. Now, they could talk about it.

And now, they were sitting together in silence, no one wanting to address the gargantuan elephant in the room.

Then, finally, with not a word spoken, Kate reached into her pocket, as she had once before, and pulled out a single chicken feather. She set it on the table. They looked at it silently.

Then, they all looked at Tim. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a brochure. It had been in the car. It was the paper that the man at the gate had given him, advertising an exhibition of paintings by Viktor Hartmann who had died in the 19th century.

"They're real," he said, softly.

"Yep," Gibbs said.

Tony reached out and picked up the brochure.

"'Join us for pictures at an exhibition,'" he read in a monotone.

"It really happened," Kate said. "But why?"

"Who knows?" Gibbs said.

"Okay...then, what was it?"

"An exhibition," Tim said. "We even got to see the paintings up close to get better looks at the details."

"Too close, Probie," Tony said.

"Yeah."

"What now?" Kate asked. "What do we do about this?"

"Nothing," Gibbs said.

"Yeah, the castle doesn't exist. No one will believe us anyway," Tony said. "Let's just leave it."

"I think we almost died in the accident," Tim whispered. "And that was like intermission. Will we go on or go back? We went back."

None of them could come up with a valid reason for rejecting that idea, although it was obvious that Tony wanted to. It wasn't said, but everyone was thinking it without saying it: Gibbs had been urging them onward. Tony had been urging them back. No one said it. Instead, Kate took back her feather. Tim took back the brochure.

"Now what?" Kate asked again.

"Now? ...we get back to work," Gibbs said. "If we almost died, then, we have a second chance. Let's use it."

They all nodded.

"And we just try to forget what happened."

"I won't," Tim said, looking at the brochure.

No one else said anything. They just left and tried to forget what had happened.

But none of them could ever forget.

FINIS!