A/N: This is my first entry in the NFA Myths and Legends Challenge. It is definitely supernatural/fantasy, although it may not seem to be at first. The legend I'm using is that of the selkies. For those who don't know, a selkie is a seal which can shed its skin and take on the form of a human being. Then, the skin can be donned once more and the selkie can return to the sea. If the skin is stolen, the selkie is trapped in human form until the skin is recovered. This is a oneshot. My other story (which I haven't yet written) will be longer and completely separate from this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS and I don't make money off my writing. Not any of it, but definitely not my fanfiction. :)

Call of the Sea
by Enthusiastic Fish

Another day on a boat, and Tim McGee was feeling ill again. It was a joke and he could almost always laugh at it...once he was on dry land again. He could not fathom how it was that people could walk on the ships without feeling the disorientation that afflicted him every time he stepped aboard.

At least this wasn't a boat on the sea. The seas were the worst. Usually, he could tolerate the boats on the rivers...tolerate them. Still...the awful, awful rocking. He would dream tonight...as he always did.

"Hey, McGee, you're still looking a little green around the gills," Tony said with a grin.

Ziva laughed as well and then looked more closely at him.

"It is not green you look, McGee...it is almost...gray. Are you all right?"

Tim forced a laugh. "Green...gray...either way, my stomach will be much happier when we get ashore."

"Didn't you take your Dramamine, McGreenie?" Tony asked.

"No. Forgot to. I think...I'm done, right?" Tim looked hopefully at Gibbs who gave him a look...and a sigh.

"Go, McGee."

"Thanks, Boss," Tim said quickly and hurried off the boat, to the relative security of the land. Once he reached solid ground, his eyes were drawn eastward...to the sea that was out of sight for the time being. He could feel it surging through his veins, almost as if the sea itself had taken the place of his blood. A deep breath and Tim closed his eyes, rocking back and forth in time with that distant rhythm.

"McGee? Probie?"

Tim opened his eyes and saw Tony looking at him strangely.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"What were you doing?"

"Celebrating being on land again," Tim said with a smile.

"By swaying?"

"Got a song in my head."

"What song?"

"It's not one that you'd know, Tony," Tim replied and walked off the dock back to the land.

A song. Yes, a song...the song of the waves crashing onto the shore.

For the rest of the day, Tim couldn't focus on his work. All he could do was try not to hear the sound of the waves. The investigation progressed...there was a suspect. He was arrested. By late in the evening, they were set free.

"McGee, we're heading out. You want to come with us?"

Tim knew where they'd be going, the local bar, and tonight was not a night for that.

"No. You go on. I'll see you next week...or sooner if we get another case." He smiled and gathered his things.

As he walked out of NCIS, the slow-flowing Anacostia drew his eyes...and from the Anacostia down to where it met the Potomac...and then downstream again...where it reached the bay...and then the sea.

Shaking his head, Tim walked to his car and drove to his apartment, knowing what would come, but hoping it wouldn't. He was restless throughout the evening, but eventually, he lay down on his bed and slept.

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

Visions...snatches of images...memories.

Surging through the waters, frolicking happily along the shoreline, watching for the pretty ladies who came to swim.

Down...down to the sea floor...and then back up to leap into the sun.

Rolling lazily through the waters on warmer days, twirling...twirling...no need to stop.

Laying out on the warm sands or the cooler rocks in the sun.

...and pulled from the sea by the irresistible call...only to be separated from it forever...

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

Tim opened his eyes and pulled himself up to a sitting position, arching his back and turning his face to the ceiling. The sea was calling to him and he could no longer resist the painful call.

He threw off his blankets, pulled on some clothes and ran out of his apartment.

He drove, drove all the way to the sea, not stopping until he could drive no further. It was dark all around. It was late in the night. Quickly, he got out of his car, pulling off his clothes, his shoes and running into the waves.

Yes. Yes. This was more like how one should travel in the sea...in it, not atop it. Letting the waves carry you as they would. He swam in the waves, letting them carry him far out into the ocean and then swimming back to the shore. Yes.

...but still, it wasn't enough. He couldn't touch that life...couldn't have it back.

Then, he heard them, heard his kith and kin as they arrived and began to swim toward shore. He joined them, confidently keeping pace with some of them until he was in shallow enough water that he could walk.

He didn't. He crawled through the waves, not raising himself higher than his companions. As the waves crashed over him, Tim found himself unable to keep pace. He couldn't swim any longer. He was too large...his limbs were too long. He was being left behind as his companions continued to swim.

Then, they reached the beach and they began milling around as Tim joined them, tired and worn.

The seals.

He looked at them as they spoke to each other with soft grunts and flicks of their flippers.

An ache grew in his heart...as it did every time he could no longer resist the call of the sea.

He looked up at the night sky and then out at the sea and lay himself among the seals, feeling their bodies shifting back and forth. He lay there, tired, a little cold, but feeling at home. They knew him for what he was. They sensed his true self, the self he had lost forever.

They knew him...but they also knew, as he did, that he could not come with them.

After an hour or two of rest, they began moving once more, heading back out to sea...and Tim knew he could not go with them. As the waves crashed on the shore, the seals headed back out, leaving Tim behind.

His heart ached to go and without knowing he was doing it, he lifted his head.

"Let me go!" he cried. "Give it back! Set me free!"

The ache grew until hot tears spilled down his cheeks. It had been so long since he'd had his skin. He still remembered the pain of its loss, the thief who had taken it from him. He had followed her and begged and begged for its return, but she had refused. He had searched for it to no avail...and he had lost her, not knowing where she was or where she had hidden his skin.

For a time, he had accepted the loss and had embraced his adopted family, the kind folk who had found him despairing and little understanding the truth of what he was, had taken him home, making him a part of their family, giving him a name where before he'd had none. They had given him love, but it could not be enough. It could never be enough to permanently remove the pain.

"Let me go!" he shouted once more through his tears.

But there was no answer, no reply to his plea.

Then, he heard voices. Human voices...and saw the dim beam of a flashlight.

"He must have come ashore over here!"

Tim leapt to his feet and ran, not waiting to find out whether he was the subject of the discussion. He reached his car, pulled back on his clothes and drove away before he could be discovered.

He drove away from his true home, away from the sea...back to his human life.

When he got back to his apartment, Tim was tired, very tired. Knowing that he didn't have to work the next day, he pulled off his sandy clothes, dropped them on the floor and threw himself onto his bed. He slept...and dreamed of his place in the sea.

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

Monday morning...

"Hey, McGee, did you see the news?"

"What news?" Tim asked. He was back to his usual...human self, having taken Sunday to readjust to dry land.

"Some people say they saw someone swimming with a bunch of seals on Friday night."

"Really?"

"Yeah...haven't you watched any news? I swear it was on every station."

Tim smiled. "No. I haven't. I just took the weekend for myself."

Tony pointed to ZNN which was on its weird news of the day segment.

The headline read A selkie off the Maryland coast?.

Tim laughed. "A selkie?"

"Yeah. They said the guy was as agile as one of the seals, swimming around with them...and it's the largest sighting of seals in years."

"Wow. Interesting. I doubt he was a selkie."

"Well, of course, he wasn't...but some guy? Swimming with seals? Pretty hinky."

"Definitely," Tim said.

Then, Tony left the bullpen and for a moment, Tim was alone. A selkie. He smiled sadly and sighed.

Again, his eyes moved eastward. He could still hear it.

The call of the sea.

FINIS!