Mostly Harmless

Written for the What Planet Are You From? Challenge

Genre: Sci-Fi/Suspense/AU (well, as far as we know ;) )

Rating: FR 15/T

Characters: Tim, Jimmy, and the rest of the MCRT

Summary: Peace. Quiet. Safety. Those are the things he had hoped to have when he made this world his home. It was the perfect existence, until the conflict he escaped years ago raised its ugly head again.

Disclaimer: don't own, at all, ever. *sigh*

Prologue

Tim McGee guided his vehicle along the rough dirt road towards his destination, a scenic overlook about a mile off Skyline Drive, far away from the noise and light pollution of the city. Soon he reached the end of the road and pulled off onto a flat area before putting his car in park and turning off the engine. There were no other cars present and Tim smiled. He would be able to enjoy the night sky in peace.

He climbed out of his car and grabbed a blanket from the trunk before he carefully made his way to a large, flat-topped boulder. He spread the thick coverlet over the rock and climbed up on top where he lay down on his back, gazing at the vastness above him. The night was clear and surprisingly cool for late summer, providing much needed relief from the heat and humidity he had experienced earlier that day.

Tim started to relax as his eyes became adjusted to the darkness and he let out a soft sigh of pleasure. Quiet moments like these were rare indeed. Normally he would still be at work, delving into an array of computer-based searches and ignoring the prattle of his teammates, but tonight luck had been with him: the case that had occupied them for the past two weeks had finally been closed and Gibbs had sent them all home at a reasonable hour. Tony and Ziva had asked him to join them for drinks but he had declined. He had really needed to get away, to decompress after a tough case, and he had simply told them he was going home to sleep. Tony made a few comments about his need to get out more, and Ziva had gently urged him to try and have some fun with them, but he had begged off and managed to leave without further questions. He expected some teasing in the morning but he didn't mind. It was worth it for a few hours of solitude and his real favorite activity – stargazing. He chuckled softly to himself as he imagined what his teammate's reaction would be to the truth.

As he became accustomed to the lack of artificial light, Tim scanned the sky for a particular arrangement of stars and soon found the familiar grouping known as the Summer Triangle. In the city, if he had been able to see the stars at all, he would have only been able to discern the three brightest: Deneb, Vega, and Altair, which formed the three points of the Triangle. Out here, however, he could see the other constellations from which the brightest stars in each formed the simpler shape: Cygnus the Swan, Lyra the Lyre, and the formation that always drew his interest, Aquila the Eagle.

It was not the particular shape, nor the symbol behind the constellation itself that captured Tim's interest, but the section of the sky in which it was found. While most would have focused on the closest and brightest in the group, Tim looked beyond to an almost invisible star, much further away. It was a object of which most astronomers were unaware, and hadn't even given a proper name. Tim knew of it, and also knew of the small planet which circled that star.

A place he had once called home.

It had been nearly twenty years since he had been forced to flee his birthplace, to escape through a portal which brought him to this planet, so similar to his home world and yet so different. Despite the fact that he had made a new home here, a good home, and a good life in place that offered what he and his family had been seeking, he still felt the occasional tug of homesickness. His grandmother told him it was whimsy, that he was attached to the good memories and conveniently forgot the horror he had left behind, but still Tim clung to those memories as a remind of who…of what he was.

His family had blended in here well. No one suspected that the green-eyed, lanky youth, his young curly-haired sister, and their rather eccentric grandmother were not of this world. He had done enough background research to know what would have happened if they had not been able to blend in, part of the reason he often kept people at arm's length. Finally, after several years of being with a team that practically lived in each other's pockets, he had started to relax a little. He could keep up the illusion of relatively normalcy almost effortlessly. The worries that had colored his early years had faded, and now, for the most part, he would be comfortable in admitting that he felt safe and content.

If only he could be certain that contentment would last…

XXX

Seventy-five miles away, in a rather non-descript section of the nation's capital, Marine Sergeant Aloysius "Al" Gannon stumbled along the broken sidewalk towards the spot where he had parked his car. He had spent the evening out drinking with two of his buddies, and after pouring them both into a cab and paying the cabbie to take them back to their respective apartments, he had decided to sleep off some of his own indulgence before driving home himself.

He reached the vehicle and fumbled with his keys for a moment before they slipped from his fingers and hit the pavement. Muttering a few colorful phrases he had learned from his first drill sergeant, he bent down to retrieve them. As he did so, he noticed a strange glow reflected in the side of his car and turned to find its source. An eerie blue-white light emanated from the alley in front of him and he blinked, wondering if he'd had more to drink than he remembered.

As he cautiously approached the alley he thought he heard someone speaking, but the words were unlike any language he had heard before. He paused and listened, noting that the voice sounded almost mechanical, similar to what had heard over coms while in the field during his most recent tour in Afghanistan. Wondering if this was some strange alcohol-induced dream, he moved closer to the alley and finally caught sight of the speaker. He had just enough time to let out a cry of surprise before a searing pain burned through his chest and the world around him vanished in a flash of brilliant white light.

TBC…