Hello. It's been awhile. How are you? I've been pretty well, but lacking inspiration for this baby. Then, however, I found Eyes Only/Informantnet on Twitter and we've been talking. Like, legit talking. It's been fun. So I have inspiration now. Kinda. We'll see where that leads. I've also been reading the Dark Angel book-series. Freaking amazing, that one. Max Allen Collins is a genius. And then, of course, I got my hands on Eyes Only's dossier… D.A. Stern is pretty damn incredible that way. ::smiles:: So, here it goes; I hope you enjoy it.

Note: I think this may be the last chapter, unfortunately. I hope you can forgive me. I finished the entire series, as you've seen, and since I started this when I was halfway through…the series has been summed up for me, and therefore I have to wait and see if I can think up any new material. I lost steam and I'm sorry. That might seem like a copout, and I sincerely apologize. It was a good idea, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who had this brainchild. I hope you enjoyed it…I love you all, you were amazing fans, and I'm far from being done writing. It's my major! Who knows? I might even continue this after all. But this is my disclaimer. Xx.

Running back to D.C., back to the safety that the NCIS Headquarters Building had always provided and always would, was tempting. Tensions were rising within Terminal City. The Reptilians were starting to resent the Felines, and the X5's and other Human-Transgenics had a growing sense of Restless Leg Syndrome, what with the lack of any kind of sufficient electricity to power a few treadmills (or at least a stationary bike or two). McGee and Abby communicated regularly in an effort to figure out a way to convert energy exerted on exercise equipment into power for Terminal City, but nothing had been able to come into play yet.

And then there was the unsettling fact that if Tony, Ziva, and Abby went back to D.C., there was no guessing how quickly Gibbs would kick them out on their asses. They'd broken the majority of their boss's rules and now they'd have to suffer the consequences. Several nights a week, Tony sat at a rickety desk, pouring his heart and soul into letters he knew he'd never send to the older agent, but always willing to try. A night like tonight was no exception. Tony kept to himself, in the bedroom he shared with Ziva (and supposedly Abby, but she mysteriously never spent the night with them), working in the light of a flashlight in an effort to get a letter done that he might be able to send to Gibbs someday. The man had become a father figure to him and the memories of all that had been done for him made Tony's heart ache.

A familiar voice rang out in the silence, breaking him from his thoughts. "Tony?" Max murmured, knocking twice softly on the wooden door-jam. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" The special agent nodded, shifting over a foot or so on his bed to make room for her. "Things're getting kinda tense out there. Wasn't sure I could handle it anymore."

Tony knew that feeling well; he rarely liked to be the leader—not the complete leader, that is—and often felt the pressure to have all the answers in moments of chaos. He simply smiled, nodded again, and fought off the urge to pat her arm. He had gloves in his pocket but there he didn't want to waste them. "I understand…hey, you look a little flushed. You feeling okay?" Tony asked. "Abby could take a look…"

"Nah, I just need a glass of milk or somethin'." The young woman smiled softly. Tony felt like he knew her personally; it had been a nagging feeling in his gut since the moment he'd arrived. "Anyway, what's that?" Max gestured toward the letter on the desk.

The field agent snorted bitterly. "Oh, just my letter of resignation." Said tongue-in-cheek, Tony figured anyone would be able to guess it wasn't actually a letter of resignation, but Max still stared at him in confusion. "Um…it's a letter to my boss, explaining why I'm here instead of there. No big deal. I'll write another one tomorrow." Crumpling the paper, he launched it into the trashcan—and made it.

"Nice shot." Max stood and made her way to the door. "Well, Logan wants to talk to you about holdin' another meeting. His Eyes Only guy found some info we might be able to use." And with that, she walked out, leaving Tony to finish his letter and wonder why she seemed so familiar.

"Mole! Stop it!" Abby giggled, elbowing the Reptilian man gently. "I don't like being tickled! Hey!"

Puffing on his cigar, Mole poked the Goth in the side again. "I'm keeping you on your toes, little lady. Keep working through the distraction; it shows perseverance, dedication. All that good shit."

The forensic scientist looked up at him. "Mole, why are you nice to me and no one else?" She thought she caught a faint glow to his cheeks but associated it more with dehydration than embarrassment. "I mean, you're kind of a jerk to everyone and then with me, you're all soft and vulnerable."

"I'm not vulnerable!" Mole choked out. "I'm just…taking it easy on you `cause you're new here." Abby nodded, not believing him. "And you know guns, and I know guns, so I can trust you with my gun." Shocked that the words had just come out of his mouth, the lizard gagged and spluttered like a rusted out engine. "A gun. I trust you with a gun. Around rifles. Ma'am!"

Abby was too enthralled with what was through the eye-piece of her microscope to worry about Mole's faux-pas. "Oh my God, I've got it!" she squealed, jumping up and hugging the lizard-man. "They can finally—"

The happy forensic scientist was cut off as Alec made his way into the makeshift lab and glared. "Oh, let me guess," he drawled, hopping up onto the counter. "You found some way to kill the virus so our good friends, Max and Logan, can finally do the dirty?" Abby nodded slowly, mirroring his rude expression. "Sickening."

"Alec, I don't know why you're being such a meanie about this," she snapped, her eyes flashing from behind their rim of black. "If I've heard the stories correctly, you're the one who messed everything up in the first place. You know, not telling them about Max's mutations and all of that." Abby planted a hand in the middle of Mole's bulletproof vest and shoved him out of the way, surprising the two men with her strength, and walked up to Alec. Although he tried to hop down from his perch and leave, she stayed rooted to the floor, preventing any escape.

"Now, you listen here, Mister Poopy-Pants," she began. "First of all, you're being a jerk for no reason. I don't understand why you can't be happy for Max and Logan, especially if you feel as bad as you seem to be about screwing stuff up." Her powerful stare appeared to have its wanted effect over Alec as he opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

"Second, you're hot, but I never want you to sit on my freakin' counters ever again. This is my lab, and no one sits on my counters in my lab. Got it?" Alec nodded, half-scared of what she would do if he did otherwise.

"Third…You are an X-5, therefore you're technically her brother, and that's just messed up. So you need to drop whatever feelings you have for her because it's not gonna happen anytime soon." She thought for a moment. "Well, unless you wanna have some sort of kinky threesome with them, but I don't think you do, even if they're both smokin'." Mole and Alec exchanged looks, and seconds later Joshua came bounding in. "Joshua! Hey, boy!" Abby scratched his head and the Dog-Man whimpered. "What's up?"

"Found it!" he cheered. "Heard from upstairs." He bared his front teeth, but not viciously. It was in pure glee. "Max…Logan…Getting busy!"

The Goth shook her head, laughing. "Not yet, buddy. I have to share the news with the couple in question before they do anything. It'll take some getting used to, that's for sure." Joshua's ears sagged in disappointment. "But, hey, Joshua…why don't you go find `em so I can tell them, okay?" As any dog would when given a task, he broke into another wide grin and scampered off to find the X-5 and cyber-journalist.

Alec gently lowered himself from the counter, wrapping his left arm around Abby so he could slip around her. "Sorry, sweetheart, but I've gotta get back—OW!" Abby's chunky heel came down hard on his foot. "What the fuck!"

Mole chuckled. "His foot's F-U-B-A-R. Good work, Abs."

And just like that, Abby collapsed into both of the men in a fit of tears.

`Cause she missed Gibbs.

"Tony?" Ziva murmured, slipping quickly through his bedroom door. She closed it behind her, making sure it latched. "Tony, have you seen Max or Logan?" Tony looked up from his letter briefly, shook his head, and went back to writing. "When was the last time you saw them?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, noon?" He froze. "Wasn't that when Abby…" Ziva nodded, a smirk on her face. "And it's eight now…Oh, my God, they've been going at it for eight hours…"

Ziva smiled softly. "Well, they love each other. I would imagine it would be stressful to be in love with someone but likewise be unable to show it."

The Senior Field Agent turned to her, eyes sparkling with mischief. "Are you hinting at something, Ms. Davíd?"

Without saying a word, Ziva grinned and jumped on him, the letter on the desk forgotten as Tony's desk chair tipped backward against the bed.

"Everyone's having sex but me," Alec muttered, plopping onto a couch. "Oh, Jesus, guys, get a room." A stranger couple—both of them containing DNA derived from earthworms, it seemed—walked away together, attached—literally—at the hip. The X-5 had to hold back from barfing where he lay.

"Joshua isn't," a rumbly voice said from the corner. Curled up in the shadows, his head resting against the wall, sat the shaggy-haired Dog-Man who terrified many but was loved by those who mattered. "Joshua isn't special. Joshua is first, but not special." He let out a sigh that sounded like a woof, and pawed his right ear.

Alec actually sympathized with him for once. "Nah, dog, that isn't what it is," he murmured, watching the TV with wide eyes. "We're just misunderstood." For the first time in his life, Alec was considering settling down and trying to live a good, "normal" life. Were there any relatively "normal", good-looking, nice, female Transgenics left in Terminal City? Max was really the last one that he had ever considered for himself—he had been paired with her for breeding, after all—but since she was taken by the ever-handsome, ever-mysterious Logan Cale…his hopes for that were dashed considerably.

So he was stuck. He could only get by on looks, on money, on charm…on his sex drive for so long before it was all shot to hell anyway. He'd might as well choose the easy way, right?

Alec snorted and glanced at Joshua. Fuck that, he thought. "Yup, Joshua. We're just misunderstood."

"Sweetheart?" Logan murmured, rolling over toward his X-5 partner. "Max, wake up."

"What?" she snapped, an eye popping open. "This is the first sleep I've had in months, and you gotta go and get all lovey-dovey sicko on me…" Logan could tell she was joking from the expression on her face, but otherwise, the words would've stung. "Anyway, what's the sitch?"

He hesitated before saying, "Max, now that we can touch…"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"You've got wedding rings…You've got an engagement ring…"

"You askin' me to marry you or something?" Max asked, laughing.

Logan cringed, expecting the worst. "Yes."

"You stole the word outta my mouth, jerk." The cat-woman leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips before falling asleep sprawled across his chest.

All of Terminal City seemed different now. Hopeful. Now that Tony had secured some safety for them outside of the gates, via McGee, they were able to take bus-rides to the store. While they were chaperoned (by Tony and Ziva, of course), they felt they could spread their wings a bit. That was discouraged, though, after the one time a transgenic actually tried spreading her wings and tipped over a display case of tomato sauce, consequently postponing the bus-rides for awhile until Tony could persuade the mayor to forgive the mistake.

Abby held weekly web-cam meetings with Ducky, who had retired shortly after the three NCIS employees had left. He hadn't retired because he was growing senile, however, but because he needed more time to garden, tend to his mother's Corgis, and date. Nevertheless, he saved enough time out of his day to help Abby treat any ill transgenics—of the human variety—and put them in contact with a veterinarian who could assist them with the animal transgenics. (Such as Mole, who had taken a liking to stopping into her office almost daily complaining of a nasty cough. She deduced it was from all of the cigars he smoked, but suggested he come back later so she could give him something for it.)

Ziva ran a babysitting company for the younger transgenics, inspired by the story of Gem. She kept it free of charge…she was already expecting one of her own, so she figured it would be good practice for her life with Tony and Anthony DiNozzo III.

Max and Logan, of course, were expecting a life filled with happiness and joy, but were sadly mistaken when Ames White showed up and threatened both of their lives. Joshua promptly took care of him, but the threats had really jarred Max's swag, and she and Logan took a bit of a break while she figured some things out. Three weeks later, they were right back to planning their joint Spring wedding with Ziva and Tony.

Joshua met a lovely human transgenic who loved him regardless of his looks. Abby separated his human DNA from his canine DNA, and held it in her cooler until they decided when they wanted to have children of their own. She is still holding it.

Gibbs forgave his employees, judging them by their good deeds rather than the fact they skipped town without telling him. He closely worked with the CIA and FBI to ensure the safety of the transgenics. Many of them have taken up havens in his basement…Tony's idea.

McGee pined after Abby for years until he fell for the new forensic scientist…her cousin.

And Terminal City lived happily ever after…or did it?