Here, But Now They're Gone

Written as a hangman prize for IMSLES

One-shot

Prompt: One of the team discovers that the rest are missing. What happened?

Genre: Supernatural/Angst, slight crossover, but nothing major.

Rating: FR13/T

Warnings: none

Characters: Jimmy, the rest of the team, and a special guest

Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing, yadda yadda

Summary: Jimmy wakes up and finds that his team has apparently abandoned him at a crime scene.

Jimmy opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times as he tried to clear away the cobwebs of unconsciousness from his brain.

What happened?

He sat up and looked around, surprised to find himself in a ravine with trees lining either side. He struggled to his feet, allowing a clearer view of the area and he was shocked when he recognized where he was: the crime scene. He and Dr. Mallard had been called out along with the rest of the MCRT to this remote section of the Shenandoah National Forest to retrieve a dead Marine. A routine job in a less-than usual location, it was true, but nothing had appeared out of the ordinary when they had arrived.

The scene he was viewing now was definitely not ordinary. He had expected the rest of the team to be there, engaged in expected activities: Tony razzing him for his recent apparent clumsiness, Ziva smirking at his disheveled appearance, McGee shaking his head at Tony's antics, which would soon be stopped by a head slap from Gibbs, and finally Dr. Mallard's stern admonition to 'hurry, Mr. Palmer, we have work to do'.

Instead, the area was completely silent. No sign of the team, their equipment, or the dead Marine they had come to retrieve.

They wouldn't have just left me here, would they?

Jimmy started to take a closer look. He could see where the body had been, and even the faint impressions where at least two people had squatted and knelt down by the body. He scanned the area and could see where footprints had been cast and samples had been taken, but the people what had performed those tasks had vanished. He began to entertain the possibility, however unlikely, that the entire team had been abducted. He checked himself over and saw that he was uninjured. It didn't make sense that, whatever had happened, it hadn't happened to him as well.

Maybe this is just a dream…

He pinched himself and let out a soft yelp before shaking his head. If this wasn't a dream, what had happened?

Suddenly he caught a flash of movement in the woods to his right and turned, ready to call out to his wayward teammates, but the silent stand of trees was just as empty as it had been moments before. He scanned the area again, waiting for a repeat of what he thought he had seen and after a few moments he turned and started walking towards the road. He had gone about a hundred yards when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark shape flit past. He stopped and looked around.

"Hello?"

Silence.

"Is someone there?"

He saw nothing but was hit with the sensation of being watched.

"OK, guys? Tony, Tim, this isn't funny!" He listened for tell-tale expressions of mirth, but the forest remained deathly quiet. "Joke's over, guys, come on…"

The hairs on the back of his neck started to rise, prickling his skin where it rubbed against the collar of his jump suit. Slowly he turned and finally laid eyes on his pursuer, a shadowy figure dressed in a shapeless black garment, its face well hidden beneath the oversized hood. Jimmy stared in shock as the figure approached, and when it was just a few yards away, his paralysis broke as he turned and ran.

Heart pounding, he made it to the road and started to run along the blacktop, fear and panic turning his movements into an all-out sprint. He didn't dare to look back.

He was reaching the end of his endurance when he heard the sound of a vehicle behind him. Breathing heavily, he turned the look just as it pulled up alongside of him and slowed to keep pace. The car was a vintage Cadillac, black, and obviously well cared for. It stopped when he did and when he bent down slightly to look at the driver he saw that it was a woman, perhaps his own age. She smiled when she noticed his shocked expression.

"You don't look like you belong out here. Need a ride?"

He was surprised by her accent: British, but not like Dr. Mallard. She looked fairly normal and non-threatening, but still…

"Uh…" He looked back and when he saw no sign of his previous pursuer, he made a decision. "Yes. Thank you."

He opened the door and climbed in. The interior of the car was black as well, but scrupulously clean, and smelled faintly of lavender.

"Where to?"

"I…I need to get to the Navy Yard. It's in southeast D.C. I think…the team, I think something must have happened to them, but I need to make sure."

"No worries. I'll make sure you get where you need to go."

She pressed down on the accelerator and the car moved forward. Jimmy took one last look over his shoulder but the road behind them was empty. He breathed a sigh of relief and settled back into the soft leather seat. After a few minutes of silence, he turned to his companion.

"I'm Jimmy. Thanks for the lift." He held out his hand and she grasped it gently before shaking it.

"Susan. Nice to meet you, Jimmy. We're a quite a ways from your destination, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, it took us about three hours to get here from NCIS." His brow creased with worry. "I hope everyone is OK, but I can't imagine why they would have left me out here."

"Perhaps they didn't intend to."

"Maybe…but I don't understand how I was missed."

"Well, you have plenty of time to think on it. Sit back, relax, and we'll be there as soon as I can get us there."

"OK." He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the seat. The exhaustion prompted by his frantic escape overwhelmed him and, soothed by the rumble of the powerful engine, he finally fell into a fitful sleep.

Jimmy awoke with a start, surprised to find the sound that had lulled him to sleep missing. He sat up and turned to the driver, only to find her missing as well. He opened the door and stepped out.

"Susan?"

He looked around and noticed that he was in a parking garage, but it didn't look like the one near NCIS. Had Susan misunderstood him and taken him to the wrong place? He spied the elevator and headed towards it. Once inside, he pressed the button for the Lobby, but instead of stopping at that level the elevator continued to rise. He hit the L button again, but the metal box continues to ascend, finally stopping on the fourth floor. When the doors opened, he saw a familiar figure and his eyed widened in surprise.

"Susan, what's going on? I need to get to NCIS, and…" He noticed someone in scrubs and a lab coat walk by and finally stepped out of the elevator to get a better look around. "Why are we in a hospital?"

"I told you, Jimmy, I'd take you where you need to go."

"What? You mean…the team is here? Are they…?"

"Come with me." She started to walk down the corridor and Jimmy followed.

"H-how did you know I needed to be here?"

"It's my job, I suppose."

"Your job?"

She didn't reply, and before he could ask another question, she had stopped next to an open door. "Take a look."

Jimmy peeked in the room and let out a sigh of relief. "Dr. Mallard, Agent Gibbs, I'm sorry, I…" He paused when he noticed they hadn't even looked at him. "Dr. Mallard?" He noticed the anguished expression on his mentor's face and took a step into the room. He saw the rest of the team, Tony and Tim leaning against the far wall and Ziva sitting in one of the chairs, all with similar worried expressions on their faces as they stared at the bed in the center of the room. Jimmy looked down at the focus of everyone's attention and froze.

He was staring at himself.

"W-what…?" He turned, his mind screaming in denial, and he saw the black-robed figure from the woods. "No…"

The figure reached up, lowered its hood, and smiled.

"S-susan?" He glanced back at the bed before quickly returning his attention to her. "W-what's going on?"

"I told you Jimmy, this is where you need to be."

"I…I'm dead?"

She tilted her head toward the monitors which still showed a steady heartbeat. "Survey says…no."

"Then what-?"

"You had a little accident, back at the scene. Knocked a few things loose. It happens. Rare, but it happens."

"So why...why didn't I come here with…my body?"

"Well, I guess…you got lost."

Jimmy closed his eyes and groaned. "Perfect. Dr. Mallard will never let me hear the end of this." His eyes snapped open. "Unless…"

Susan smiled and removed a small object from the folds of her robe, holding it up for him to see. It was a tiny hourglass, with the top portion slightly over half full.

"Not your time yet, Jimmy Palmer. Trust me. It's—"

"Your job?"

"Not full time, but I fill in when I'm needed. But right now," she fixed him with an amused gaze. "You need to go back where you belong. With them."

"Uh, right…OK. But how…?"

She raised one hand and moved it towards his forehead. "Good luck, Jimmy. I'll see you later…much later."

The world went black, and suddenly every ache and pain that had been only a minor annoyance before arose full force, causing Jimmy to groan.

"Jimmy? Can you hear me?"

He opened his eyes and blinked. Everything was blurry, but he could just make out the familiar face leaning over him.

"D-Dr. Mallard?"

The look of relief that crossed the older man's face was greater than Jimmy had expected, and soon the M.E. was joined by the rest of the team, also looking quite relieved.

"Welcome back, Palmer," said Gibbs.

"You had us worried there, Jimmy," said Tony and glanced at his teammates. "What I mean is—"

"We are glad you are alright," said Ziva, and Tim nodded in agreement.

"Thanks…" He blinked a few more times. "Does anyone have my glasses?"

He heard a soft chuckle and soon the eyewear was placed on his face. He looked around at the team, his team, and gave them a weak grin.

"Thanks for sticking around for me."

"No problem, Palmer. Do you remember what happened?"

Jimmy tried to concentrate, but everything was still muddled in his head. Finally he sighed. "No, not really. Just...it's nothing."

"It's OK, Jimmy. You can tell us."

"Well, you see…I had the strangest dream..."

From the corner of the room a dark-robed figure, silent and invisible, watched the joyful reunion before turning and making her way back to where she belonged. As she walked through the corridors of a place in which her mission was not usually so pleasant, a satisfied smile spread across her face and soon she was grinning, a rare occurrence indeed.

Sometimes this job had its perks, after all.

THE END

A/N: The title is from Don'tFeartheReaper, by the Blue Oyster Cult

In case you didn't recognize her, the character "Susan" is from the Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett. She is Death's granddaughter and fills in for him from time to time.

This story was also written for the Stalked by Death Challenge ;)