Epilogue: Explaining the disappearance and reappearance of Gibbs.

It's a dream that wakens Leroy Jethro Gibbs…a dream that someone special needs him, needs to love him, and be loved by him. Yet that someone was in pain; a pain that Gibbs can't heal, as he is still in the Alaskan wilderness, but that doesn't mean he won't try.

His eyes open and he looks at the luminary display on his watch…October 31 still has a few hours left in it...that bridge between worlds is still open.

He concentrates on sending a healing touch to the person who needs it, can tell when the other person falls asleep, thanks to the healing he's able to give. Not many people know of Gibbs particular gift; he's only told one other person, and that person is the same one who gifted Gibbs with training to control the gift shortly before crossing into the world beyond.

He can tell just by the dream that it isn't anyone that he knows. He knows it's not his dad, or Abby or even Ducky Mallard. He knows damn good and well it's not Mike Franks, or Tobias Fornell; neither of them have green eyes. Then again, he'd seen those features somewhere, but at the moment he can't place from where.

Gibbs lips twitch as he imagines his friend Ducky getting the note he'd left behind. The two simple words Gone Fishing should remind any and all that he's been planning this trip for almost six months now. He'd won it shortly after he'd finished building the bed and breakfast…after he'd finished reading Thom E Gemcity's first book. The author had sponsored the trip and was supposed to join them on the last week of it but had fallen ill according to the ship's captain.

Another two nights pass; two nights of shy green eyes, filled with wonder and joy and a bit of embarrassment. Gibbs for his own part is wondering just who this person is; why is he so fascinated by them. He wants to caress and cuddle and kiss the individual in his dreams. He shifts in his sleeping bag and his eyes light on the book he'd brought with him.

A young man with short, sandy-blonde hair stares at him from the back cover. Gibbs turns the book over and reads the name Thom E. Gemcity. Gibbs has been reading the current book since his arrival in the wilderness, having read the previous books prior to leaving Dover. He opens the cover and reads a quick word about the author.

Thom E. Gemcity is the nom de plume, the pseudonym for Timothy McGee, four time award winning author of the LJ Tibbs series of books about a rough and tumble agent with three equally rough diamonds working to bring justice to the world. Migraines, according to the ship's captain, had taken the man out of action…migraines would definitely feel similar to what Gibbs had been feeling, and not from Thom E. Gemcity but…Tim…Timothy McGee.

But why would he feel this man's pain from so far away? Gibbs isn't sure, until he remembers the last conversation he'd had with his trainer. Gibbs had questioned the woman, asking her why he needed to learn the long distance training. After all, he hadn't planned at that particular time to go anywhere, let alone spend three weeks in Alaska.

"There is still someone out there for you Gibbs. Don't despair, you will find love again. Your soulmate is still out there looking for you, as much as you are looking for them. And don't shake your head at me; I can see how lonely you are Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

"But Andromeda, I've searched for so long to find her." He'd hated the pleading sound in his voice, but his mentor just shook her head as she replied.

"Don't be so sure that your soulmate is a female. Sometimes, our hearts need what our heads don't immediately accept."

Gibbs had shaken his head again, but the young goddess had persisted. "Listen to me, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. You do have a special someone out there, and that person is not female. I cannot see just who it is, but he is looking for you, and he is just as lonely as you are."

That conversation is what had led him into buying the lighthouse, and refurbishing it into the bed and breakfast. Ducky had come in first. A doctor, with the ability to sense when others needed help, or a break from the outside world, he'd helped Gibbs design most of the rooms in the sanctuary for any who wanted to come and heal from wounds be they physical, mental or emotional.

Abby had come next. A gifted psychic with Gothic tendencies, she'd helped with meal planning and artistic design. It had been her idea to keep a dining room that all the guests to the bed and breakfast could eat at, as a tribute to the old tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. All the rooms would connect only to the dining room much like the knights of old.

The balcony had been a suggestion from Jackson Gibbs. Guests could get out to the balcony either from their rooms or through the kitchen. Jack was also the one who suggested that the rooms be almost but not quite kitchenettes. They all had full bedrooms and bathrooms but none of them had connecting doors and there was only the one kitchen.

One floor down is the laundry rooms. Gibbs decided not to charge his guests for doing laundry, if they are so inclined. While there are dryers in the room, Gibbs did install two small clothes lines on the balcony just outside the laundry room for those who wished to have a more natural drying process.

The lighthouse is still functional too. More than once the coastal guardians have been thankful that Gibbs keeps it functioning, and in well working order. Ships that might have been otherwise lost in a fog, have made safe passage, thanks to Gibbs and his friends.

But now Gibbs is pondering cutting his trip short. There's only a few days left anyway, and he can tell that Tim needs him. That Tim and some others are searching for him. He doesn't immediately know who the others are, but he can tell that the older man has a bullet wound, while the female has a knife wound; more than that he's beginning to sense not just Ducky's worry but that of Abby and Jackson too.

But why? He'd left that note, telling them that…Gibbs smacks himself in the head with Tim's book. Jackson Gibbs has been getting absent-minded lately, and if Ducky misplaced his note, then Gibbs will be lucky if the entire lighthouse isn't filled with guests when he gets back. Nodding to himself, sure about what is going on back home, Gibbs goes and talks to the captain who makes a phone call.

While waiting for the next helicopter ride out, Gibbs tries one more time to communicate with Tim; to send him some sort of image of where he is so that the others will be able to figure it out too. He's been attempting this for three nights in a row now…to convey the peace of the Alaskan mountains, as well as the quiet sanctuary in an attempt to help the other man get to sleep at night.

When the captain next calls out to him, Gibbs is ready to go and almost anticipating his welcome home. He's confused though when no one is there. Entering his private suite of rooms, he almost finds what he's been looking for; Tim's luggage is beside his neatly made bed. A look out over the balcony, and he can see Tim walking along the beach with Jimmy Palmer, quietly talking to the young doctor.

The two men sit down and Gibbs walks down the beach towards them, just in time to hear Tim confess, "I could almost feel him kissing me last night."

If Gibbs still had the ability to blush he might have at that time. He'd been on the red-eye home and had the entire section to himself. Knowing that the steward was on the other side of the plane, he'd gently caressed the book in his lap, tracing Tim's lips with his fingertips.

Then Jimmy asks Tim if it would bother him to be in a relationship with a man, making Gibbs wonder if Jimmy was interested in Tim. The bashfulness and hope is back on Tim's face as he replies, "Not if it was the right man."

Tim buries his head back in his knees. Then Gibbs hears, "But I'm too bookish, and he'd never be interested in me."

That's when Gibbs knows he has to step in, or lose this man forever. Before Jimmy can do more than clear his throat, Gibbs has a hand on his shoulder and is motioning for the other man to leave them alone. Jimmy exchanges smiles with Gibbs before standing up and Gibbs squats down to caress a nearly buried cheek as he says, "He might be, given the right incentive."

Oh yeah, he'd said the right thing as that blushing face turns up to him, a tremulous smile crossing those sensuous lips as Gibbs finally sits down and cautiously places an arm around Tim's shoulders. He can feel Tim tense for a few seconds before shyly leaning closer.

"I dreamed about you…while I was four thousand miles away. I could feel your pain and I didn't understand it, I just knew that I had to help you."

"You made the pain go away that first night; when I tried to sleep anyway, without the drugs."

Gibbs shrugs, "I couldn't figure it out; who you were, why you affected me in a way that no one else has been able to. At least, no one aside from Thom E. Gemcity."

"I almost hate that name." Tim confesses and Gibbs gives him a small smile.

"I don't, it could have brought us together that much sooner."

It doesn't take more than a few seconds for Tim to realize what that means and he ducks his head again, "You were the one who won the trip! I was going to be there, but the migraines got too bad. I could barely see when I dialed Ducky's phone number."

The shame in his voice and the sheen of tears in those eyes has Gibbs pulling him close as he says, "I didn't go to meet an author. I went to get away from life. I needed you to be apart from me, so that I could understand just what you mean to me. I might not have been able to find you on that boat. Not the way I found you, when your pain reached out across the miles to me."

"Two ships that pass through the night; and ne'er the twain shall meet?"

"Something like that. We could have gone for years and never found each other. Instead, I win a trip that through some twist of fate you can't participate in, and come back to find a soulmate waiting for me."

"I like the sound of that, being someone's soul mate."

His soft admission brings a smile to Gibbs face as he tips Tim's face up to his and they exchange their first kiss.

Up on the balcony, sighs aren't heard, so much as felt. Tony and Ziva smile at their new friend, the one introduced only a few days ago as Tim McGee. Ziva snuggles closer to Tony as she watches Gibbs pull Tim into his embrace.

"They will suit each other very well I think." She states, smiling up at her new found lover.

"Yep, I think you're right on that one at least." Tony agrees with her as he leads her back to their room.

On a higher balcony, Ducky sits in his chair, sighing in relief. He'd begun to despair for Jethro Gibbs' soul. The younger man had been morose for months before he'd mentioned the trip, and now he wonders if it wasn't the excitement of meeting Tim even then, that had started to bring Jethro out of his funk.

"He'll be fine Ducky, they both will." Abby's soft statement brings his gaze to her lovely face.

"A psychic prediction my dear?"

"Not this time, Ducky. All anyone has to do is look at them; they were truly made for each other."

Jimmy clears his throat and the others look at him. "Let's give them a little privacy, guys. After all, he just got home."

Down on the beach Leroy Jethro Gibbs falls asleep, with his head in the lap of the man he'd fallen in love with many months ago, when he'd closed the last page of a book, and seen a fellow lost soul reflected in green eyes. Timothy McGee tenderly brushes the hair out of Gibbs face, thanking the fates that gave him a headache leading him into this man's embrace. Soon he too is asleep, content for the first time in weeks.

Fini-