Chapter 10: Nightmares

G was walking through the Master's lair. Suddenly, the Master came up to him and grabbed him, leaning in to bite him.

"NO! NO!"

"No…"

"Yes."

"NO…"

"G!" Mason shook him awake. "You're gonna be late for work."

G opened his eyes. "Mason?"

"Come on, bud, we gotta go."

G turned over in his bed.

"Don't make me get the water bucket."

G's eyes snapped open. He looked at him. "You wouldn't."

Eric showed up at the door, drenched in water. "Oh, yes, he would." He ran off.

G quickly got up and started to get ready to go.

"Works every time," Mason said to himself.

"Now I don't want you to feel pressured or uncomfortable or anything," Kensi told G as they sat down in the squad room, "but what happened to your family again?"

"They died when I was young," G explained, "I never knew my dad but my mum was shot on the beach."

"Aw…" Kensi hugged her best friend. "You know, my parents got divorced a few years ago my Dad died and my mum's living an hour away."

"Kensi, that's terrible!"

"Not necessarily. My dad died and that's it. You never grew up with your parents."

"Well, why did your parents split up?"

"I don't know. They never told me. I never asked."

Kensi looked at her watch. "Oh no, we're gonna be late for a Hetty lecture!" She ran off.

"Yeah, that'd be tragic." G followed her.

Kyle was in this lecture, but Tor wasn't. Kyle was checking his hair with a compact mirror when the girl in front of him moved her work into the light to examine it. "Hey, doofus! You're in my light!"

Sam gasped. "Wendell!" he scolded, sarcastically, "Don't you know that Tor and Kyle are the center of the universe and that the rest of us merely revolve around them?"

"Well, why don't you revolve yourselves out of my light?" Kyle suggested.

G and Kensi rushed in at that moment.

"What'd we miss?" Kensi asked.

"Oh, Wendell was in Kyle's light," Sam explained.

"I'm so ashamed," Wendell said, sarcastically.

Kensi sat down, G sitting next to her. "Man, why is he so Miss Piggy-like? And Tor, too."

"I think it's the hair," G answered, "It weighs heavy on the cerebral cortex." Sam laughed.

"Hey, guys," Kensi whispered, "did Hetty give us a quiz yesterday?"

"We're doing active listening," Sam said.

"Right, great." 3…2…1… "What's that?"

"You know, where you put on your big ears and really listen to the other person?" Sam explained.

"Yeah, Hetty demonstrated it yesterday!" G added.

"With you!"

"She was wearing that fuzzy sweater?"

"Oh, the midnight blue angora! See? I was listening!" Sam and G both gave her looks.

Hetty came in. "Alright, take your seats and settle down. In a few minutes, we'll go over what we read about in chapter 5." Kensi cupped her hands over her ears. "Good, Kensi, that's the spirit!" G and Sam gave each other amused looks and then G noticed a little boy standing in the doorway, looking in at her. "OK, Wendell, will you please read the first 2 paragraphs on page 78?"

Wendell opened his book and then suddenly screamed and dropped it on the desk. There were tarantulas crawling out of it! Hetty and the agents closest to him all screamed.

"Sorry about that," the little boy whispered before walking off.

G, Sam, and Kensi met in Owen's office later.

"Granger?" G looked around for him.

Finally, he emerged from the stacks. "Sorry, I got lost in the stacks."

"Did you find anything on spiders coming out of books?" Kensi asked. She turned to Sam. "Big, hairy, crawly…" She started tickling his arm. Sam pulled away. "It's funny if you're me."

G turned to Owen. "Wendell had a…incident in class."

"Well, I didn't notice anything weird. Maybe you should talk to Wendell himself."

The boys and Kensi approached Wendell in the quad.

"Hey, Wendell," G said. He looked at him. "You OK?"

"Good talking to you, man," Kensi said. She turned to leave, but Sam pulled her back.

"Do you guys want something?" asked Wendell.

"We just wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier…with the spiders," Sam said, "I mean, has anything like it happened before?" Wendell nodded. "When?"

"For a long time actually."

"Ew!" Sam said, "You must hate spiders more than we do."

"I don't hate spiders, I love 'em. They hate me."

Kyle came up to them. "Hope you studied for the Evidence test, G." He walked off

"There's an evidence test?" G ran after him.

"What do you mean you love spiders?" asked Sam.

"I had the best collection in the tri-county area. Then my parents shipped me off to wilderness camp for a week. My brother was just supposed to maintain their habitats. Instead, he left their heat lamp on for the whole week. When I got back, they were all dead. That's when the nightmares started."

"Nightmares?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Hetty would ask me to read something and then I'd open the book and they'd all come crawling out."

"That's exactly what happened yesterday," Kensi said.

"I know."

G ran up to Kyle in the hall just outside the evidence locker. "Nobody said anything about a test!"

"Well, maybe if you'd attend a lesson once in a while, you would have known! Good luck." Kyle walked in.

G groaned desperately and reluctantly followed him. He walked around the locker and looked at the test. "At least I know my name." He put down his signature and then glanced at the clock. 11:20. He looked back at the test, but every word seemed like gibberish. He glanced back at the clock and stared at in disbelief. 12:10? He hurriedly started guessing the multiple choice answers but only put down 3 before the bell rang. 20 minutes had passed in what was really only 10 seconds! G groaned again and, before getting up, saw the little boy in the doorway again.

The little boy walked down the hall and came across 2 girls, who didn't seem to notice him.

"Well, good luck with this case," said one girl, "I'm gonna go take a…" She looked around and pointed to the door to the basement. "…break." She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her purse and went down the stairs.

"You shouldn't go down there," the little boy said.

The girl closed the door behind her and came into the basement. It was weakly lit. She took out one of the cigarettes and tried to light it, when…

"Lucky 19!"

She twirled around to see a badly scarred man standing behind her with a huge club.

"I think they said room 3016," G told Owen as they walked down the hall of the hospital.

"Do you know the girl?" Owen asked him.

"Laura's nice enough," G answered, "Nobody saw who attacked her, though." Finally, he found the room they were looking for and walked in. "Hey, Laura."

Laura, who was badly wounded, looked at them and smiled. "Hey."

"I hope we're not intruding" Owen said, laying a bouquet of flowers on the table next to the bed.

"That's OK," Laura said, "I don't wanna be left alone."

G sat down next to her. "Can you tell us what happened? We wanna make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I went down to the basement for a smoke and there was someone there."

"Who?" Owen asked, "Can you describe them?"

Laura didn't say anything.

"It's OK," G said, "If you remember anything, you can tell us. Even if it may seem weird."

A nurse came in. "Hi, Laura." She then noticed G and Owen. "She needs her rest now." The 2 started to leave.

"'Lucky 19.'"

G whirled around. "What?"

"That's what he said before he attacked me," Laura explained.

"That's weird…uh, take care." With that, G left and Owen followed her. She met a doctor in the hall. "Is she gonna be OK?"

"She has a few shattered bones and some internal bleeding, but she'll recover," the doctor explained, "She got off easy. The first one's still in a coma."

"'First one'?" G asked.

"The first victim," the doctor said, walking over to another room, "They found him a week ago in even worse shape than the girl. If he doesn't wake up soon…" He trailed off. "Somebody's gotta stop this guy."

G crossed his arms. "Somebody will."

"Listen, I'm not afraid of him," a punk in the work hallway said, "If he wants to fight, I'm taking him down!"

"I'm just saying," Sam told Kensi, "Wendell had a nightmare and then it came true."

"It's weird, I'll admit," Kensi said, "but do you think that ties with Laura?"

"I don't know, maybe she dreamed about getting beat up. We can ask G when he gets back."

Just then, the punk's mother came into the hall. "Oh, there's my little baby!"

"Mom?" The punk tried to pull himself away from her as she pulled him in for a hug. "Mom, stop it!"

Sam quickly walked away, Kensi following him.

"It could be a coincidence," said Kensi, "You know, Wendell finds a spider nest or something and we all make a deal out of it because he had dreamt about it."

Kensi walked into the Ops Room first and the students inside immediately started laughing. She was confused and then turned around and saw Sam standing there in his underwear. "Sam! What happened to your clothes?"

"I-I don't know! I was dressed a minute ago! It's gotta be a dream." Sam pinched himself. "Ow! Wake up!" He pinched himself again. "Ow! Gotta wake up!" He then realized it wasn't a dream and ran from the room, screaming. Kensi, of course, chased after him.

Owen, meanwhile, was jumbling through some newspapers his office. "No, this can't be happening!"

G came into the office. "What's the word?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know if you found anything?"

"G, I…I can't read."

"What?" G ran over to him. "What are you talking about? You can read…like, 3 languages!"

"5, actually. But these words don't make any sense! It's gibberish!" He tossed the newspapers onto the table and started to walk off.

G then caught sight of a picture of the little boy he'd seen in one of the papers. "That's him."

Owen turned around. "Who?"

"The boy I was seeing around here." G picked up the paper and started to read it. "'12-year-old Billy Palmer was found beaten and unconscious after his kiddy league game this past Saturday. Doctors describe his situation as critical.' When was this published?" He looked at the date. "Last week! This is the kid from the hospital! The first victim!"

"And you've seen him around NCIS?"

"Yeah, after the spiders got Wendell and then when I didn't know a thing on the Evidence test. I thought it was weird seeing this kid around, but I forgot about it."

"This boy's been in a coma for a week! How can this be possible? Let me think, uh…there's astral projection! The theory that while one sleeps, they have an incorporeal body which can travel through time and space."

"Do you think that's what I'm seeing? His asteroid body?"

"Astral body, and I don't know."

Kensi ran into the Office. "Have you guys seen Sam?"

"No," G said.

"Good, I was worried there for a minute." Just then, someone came in through the office doors. Kensi turned to look at them. "Dad?"

"There you are!" said Kensi's dad, "I've been looking all over for you."

"What are you doing here?" Kensi asked.

"I just thought I'd come talk to you."

"Oh, right." She looked at G and Owen. "Oh, uh, Dad, this is G Callen, my best friend, and Owen Granger, the Director. G, Owen, this is my dad, Donald Blye. He's a marine."

"Hi," said G.

"Uh, likewise," Owen said.

"Uh, I'll be right back." Kensi followed her dad out.

G handed Owen one of the papers. "Try to keep going, I'm gonna follow them." He ran out after his best friend. He kept to the shadows before finally coming to the perfect spot where he could stay out of sight of Kensi and Mr Blye and still hear what they were saying."

"Why are you here," Kensi said, "You're dead, you died" Her dad just looked at her for a second. "How are you here?"

"The reason I died, It was you." Kensi stared at him, wide-eyed, as he continued. "Having you, raising you, seeing you everyday. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"What?" Kensi and G both said (G almost silently).

"You don't even see what's right in front of you, do you? Well, big surprise there, all you ever think of is yourself." It was then that Kensi started crying. "Now I don't think it's very mature, you crying when I'm just trying to be honest. Speaking of which, I don't really get anything out of these weekends with you, so what do you say we don't do them anymore?" He wrapped his arm around her and then walked off.

Kensi curled up in a ball and started to sob into her skirt.

G stared at his best friend, who looked like her dad had just died, and then noticed Billy standing not too far away.

"Red alert!" Sam yelled, running into the Office in his spare change of clothes, "Where's G?"

"Uh, he just stepped out," Owen said, " Kensi's father came by and wanted to talk to her."

Kensi then came in, blowing her nose in a tissue.

"Are you OK?" asked Sam.

"I-I'm fine. Did you tell him about how you got caught in Ops in your underwear yet?"

"I was getting to that!" Sam groaned. "It was a total nightmare."

DING! "Yeah, your nightmare. Wendell had his incident with the spiders. G probably dreamt the evidence test. My dad just made my nightmare come true-"

"And I dreamt," Owen added, "that I got lost in the stacks and couldn't read. Of course!"

"Our dreams are coming true?" Sam asked.

"'Dreams'?" Owen quoted, "That would be a musical comedy version of this. Our nightmares are coming true."

"Why is this happening?" asked Sam.

"Billy."

"Well, that explanation was shorter than usual," said Kensi, "It's Billy! Who's Billy?"

"A boy in the local hospital," Owen explained, "He was beaten and he's in a coma. Somehow, I think he crossed over from the nightmare world he's trapped in."

"And he took a piece of the nightmare world with him," Kensi reasoned, "Thanks a lot, Billy!"

"How'd he do this?" Sam asked.

"Things like this are easy when you live on the Hell-Mouth," Owen said, "We have to stop it soon or everyone in LA is going to be facing their worst nightmares."

Heidi opened her locker door and looked at the mirror inside. She gasped when she saw that her hair was suddenly freakishly frizzy (like she had been struck by lightning, but tuned down a little). "This can't be happening! I was just at the salon!" She tried to run a comb through her hair to pull it down but it got stuck. She screamed, slammed the door shut, and ran off.

G walked into the empty gym and saw Billy sitting on one of the bleachers. He walked over to him and sat down next to him. "Are you Billy Palmer?" Billy nodded. "Why are you here? Did something bad happen to you after your last game?"

"I don't remember."

"Do you remember playing baseball?"

"Yeah. I was second base."

"Are you 'lucky 19'?"

Billy looked at him. "That's what he calls me. The Ugly Man. He wants to kill me. He hurt that girl."

"Why would he want to kill you?"

Billy looked behind him. "He's…"

"Billy, it's OK. Just tell me!"

"He's here!"

G spun around and saw the Ugly Man behind him with his club. He pushed Billy out of the way before he could hit either of them. Billy ran off and the Ugly Man pulled G's legs out from under him. He punched him in the face, knocking him back enough to give G time to limp out after Billy.

Owen, Kensi, and Sam were all looking for Miley together.

"G doesn't know this is happening," Owen said, "And given the sort of thing he tends to dream about, it's imperative that we find him."

"Let's split up," Kensi suggested, "It'll cover more ground and it'll be faster."

"Good idea," Owen said. He and Kensi went off in opposite directions.

"Faster, but not really safer," Sam said to himself once they were gone.

G slid a hockey stick through the handles of the gym doors to keep the Ugly Man from getting out and then pulled Billy away. "Who is he?"

"He's the Ugly Man."

"He's too strong! I can't fight him! We have to find my friends, they can help us." He ran off, Billy following him.

Sam came into Ops in time to see Tor being dragged off by some nerds.

"No, I'm not even on the chess team! And I don't wanna join!"

Sam giggled.

"Sam!"

Sam turned to where the voice was coming from. It was the basement. He reluctantly went over there, opened the door and walked down the stairs. "Hello? G? This isn't funny! I'm not scared!" Suddenly, a hand grabbed him and pulled him away.

Meanwhile, Kensi came to a vandalized alleyway. She looked at the floor below a flickering ceiling light and saw a chocolate bar. "Alright!" She picked it up. "Someone else's loss is my chocolate-y goodness!" She started to open the wrapper and then saw a Hershey's bar not too far away. "This is my lucky day!" She grabbed it and kept going.

G led Billy to a baseball diamond. "What? I was sure this led to Owen's office!" Billy looked at the other side of the fence. "They're just playing. What's wrong?"

"Baseball. When you lose, it's bad."

G was starting to put the pieces together. "Did you lose your game last week?"

"It was all my fault. I missed the last ball. I should've caught it."

"You missed one ball and the whole game was your fault? What, were you the only one playing? There wasn't 8 other people on the team that messed up with you?"

"He said it was my fault."

"Who? Billy, did he hurt you?"

"Let's just go find your friends."

"OK, I think we can go around the cafeteria." The Ugly Man then came in their direction and punched an agent out of the way. "Bad idea! Come on!" He pushed Billy through some bushes…and they emerged in a cemetery at night time on the other side. "What just happened?"

"Is this where your friends are?"

"No."

Sam came to a backstage area. "What?" He looked to see who'd pulled him and saw a show director. He looked down and saw that his clothes had changed to basketball uniform. He looked in the nearest mirror and saw that his hair had grown. He was dressed like Troy Bolton from High School Musical!

"Man, I thought you weren't gonna show!" said the director, "Vanessa is beside herself. I hope you're warmed up, it's a tough crowd out there. All the reviewers showed up." He pushed him onto the auditorium stage, just behind the curtain.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present, 2 of the world's greatest singers," said the emcee, "Vanessa Hudgens and Sam Hanna!"

"I'm singing with Vanessa Hudgens?" Sam asked, panicking, "But I don't know which song we're singing and I…I never remember all the words anyway!"

"Too late now," said the director, "Good luck!" He ran off, then came back, pushed him through the curtain, and ran off again.

Sam bumped into Vanessa, who gave him a look. She smiled and then turned away. "Oh, god!" he said under his breath. Finally, the applause died down, and the song started.

" We're soaring, flying, there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach…"

Sam just stared out at the audience and didn't say anything.

Vanessa realized he wasn't going to sing and moved on. "You know the world can see us, in a way that's different than who we are. " She looked at Sam again.

"My turn?" Vanessa nodded. He looked back at the audience and felt the nervousness boiling up inside him. He started singing, but his voice was screeching again. " Creating space between us- "

"BOO!" The audience started throwing stuff at him and he ran off the stage, hurriedly taking off the uniform and leaving on the floor.

Kensi came to a section of the hall where sheets of plastic were hanging from the ceiling. She then noticed the last one on the ground. "A Chocolate Hurricane!" She bent over just enough to pick it up. "These are the best!" She dropped her stash and started to eat it. "I haven't had one of these since my…" She started hearing an incessant giggling coming toward her. "…sixth…" She turned around. "…birthday!"

A shadow emerged on the plastic and a clown slashed through it with a knife.

Kensi screamed like a girl and ran away as fast as she could.

G looked around the cemetery. "I don't see the Ugly Man. Of course, I also don't know where the sun and the rest of the world went."

"Look at this." Miley turned to see what Billy was looking at and saw an empty grave. "I wonder who died."

"Nobody died." G whirled around and saw the Master. "What's the point of burying someone if they're already dead?"

"No…" G started backing up.

"So this is the Slayer. You're prettier than the last one."

"This isn't real! You can't be free!"

"You still don't understand, do you? I am free because you fear it. Because you fear it, the world is crumbling. Your nightmares become flesh. You have young Billy to thank for that."

G turned around but Billy was gone. He turned back to the Master. "No, this is a dream."

"A dream is a wish your heart makes." He sped over to him and grabbed him by the neck. "This is real life." He pulled G around so that his back was facing the empty grave. "Come on, Slayer, what are you afraid of?" He bared his teeth and dropped G into the empty grave. "How about being buried alive?"

Sam and Kensi met in the hall.

"Did you find G?" asked Kensi.

"No, but I had to sing. I'm a terrible singer under pressure!" He then noticed her traumatized condition. "What happened to you?"

"Remember my 6th birthday party?"

Sam smiled. "Oh, yeah. When the clown chased you and you got scared that you had to—oh."

"Come on!" Kensi dragged him away, but they started to hear the giggling and turned around to see the clown slicing through another sheet of plastic. They ran, right into Owen.

"No sign of G?" Owen assumed. He then noticed the clown and ran off with them.

When they reached the end of the hall, Kensi finally got tired of it and stopped, turning around and punching the clown (no rhyme intended). "You are a lousy clown! Your balloon animals were pathetic! Everyone can make a giraffe!" With that, she walked off with Sam and Owen close behind her. They went outside. "I feel good. I feel liberated!" Some kids ran past them.

"You seem to be the only one," said Owen, "Things are getting worse. In a few hours, reality will fold completely into the realm of nightmares. All we have to do to stop it is wake Billy, though."

"Well, we can't go without G," said Kensi.

"Agreed," Owen said, "But who knows where he might be?"

"Uh, allow me to point that…since when is there a cemetery across the street?"

They all looked up to see a portal to the cemetery G was in.

"And since when is it night over there?" asked Kensi.

They looked at each other and ran in.

"Whose nightmare is this?" asked Sam.

Owen came to the empty grave, which was now completely covered in dirt, and stopped running upon seeing the headstone.

Sam and Kensi stopped running and read the headstone, too:

G Callen
1970-2000

"It's mine." Owen knelt down on G's grave. "I've failed in my duty to protect you. I should've been more cautious, taken more time to train you. But you were so gifted. However, the evil was so great…I'm sorry."

Suddenly, a hand punched through the dirt. Sam screamed, but it was G digging himself out.

G started brushing the dirt off his clothes and sighed with relief. "I thought I was dead."

"G," Sam said, "Your face…"

G felt his face and realized what had happened…he was a Vampire! "But, I…no…"

"G…" Kensi reached out for him.

"Don't look at me!" G said, whirling around.

"You never told me you dreamt of becoming a Vampire," Owen said.

"This isn't a dream."

"No, it's not. But we can turn it into one. This all comes from Billy. If we can make him wake up, all the nightmares will go away and reality will shift back into place. But we must do it now!"

G looked back at them. "Alright. Let's get going. I'm getting hungry." He walked off.

Kensi looked at him. "That's a joke, right?"

The group ran through the halls of the hospital, where pandemonium was reigning.

Owen stopped the first doctor he saw. "Is Billy still here?"

"My hands…" The doctor showed them his crippled hands, screamed, and ran off.

Kensi ran into Billy's room first. "What now?"

Owen bent over Billy's bed. "BILLY!" He started shaking the little boy. "BILLY!"

"That's not going to work." They all turned to see Billy's astral body in the doorway. "I can't wake up, I have to hide."

"Why?" Owen asked, "From what?"

"From him!" G said, noticing the Ugly Man coming down the hall. "I'll deal with him." He took off his jacket and walked down the hall. "Glad you showed up. I'm having a really bad day!"

"Lucky 19!"

"Ooh, scary! Face it, buddy. There are scarier things in life than you." He walked forward into the light to show him his Vamp face. "And I'm one of them." He jumped at him and kicked him in the face, knocking him back. He knocked G back and he slammed into the wall. G got up, kicked him in the gut, and punched him in the face, which made him fall backward into the wall just next to the door that led to Billy's room. He pushed him around the door and head-butted him into the wall, knocking him out. G turned to Billy. "He's not dead. You have to finish it." Billy looked at him and then slowly walked to the Ugly Man's unconscious body. "No more hiding." Billy looked at him again and then pulled the guy's face off, making a blinding light stream out.

Suddenly, Sam was back in his clothes, and G was human again. They looked around and noticed that the Ugly Man and Billy's astral body were gone, too.

Sam looked at Billy's coma body and saw him stirring. "Hey, he's waking up!" They all gathered around.

Billy woke up. "I had the strangest dream." He looked at them. "And you were in it. Who are you people?" They all smiled.

Just then, a guy came in, wearing a baseball cap and coaching uniform. "Oh! Billy's got visitors. I'm his kiddy league coach. I've been coming by everyday to see if he's gonna wake up soon. He's my lucky 19." Owen and G looked at each other and realized what was going on. "So how is he?"

"Awake," G answered, scooting out of the way to reveal Billy to his coach, "You blamed him for losing the game. So you caught up with him afterwards, didn't you?"

"What are you talking a-"

"You said it was my fault we lost." Billy sat up. "It wasn't my fault. There's 8 other players on the team who messed up with me. You know that." The coach started to leave, but Kensi and Owen blocked the door to the hall.

G looked at Billy. "Nice going, kid." Billy smiled at him.

"I still can't believe a kiddy league coach would do something like that," G told Sam and Kensi later that day as they were leaving work.

"Well then you obviously never played kiddy league," Kensi said, "I'm surprised it wasn't one of his parents."

"I'm just glad the guy's behind bars, where he belongs," said Sam.

"That was pretty heroic, Kensi," G said, "Blocking him and all."

"Oh, I just did what any girl would do," said Kensi, "But if you wanna label it heroic…" She was interrupted by a car honk.

G turned to see Mason waving at him not far away. "That's mason. I gotta go." He ran over to him and hugged him.

"Hey, how was your day?" asked Mason.

"Oh, you know, usual." They drove off.

Sam then pulled Kensi aside. "Personal question: when G was a Vampire, you weren't still attracted to him, right?"

"What? Sam, how can you say that? That's really bent! I mean-"

"Still dug him, huh?"

"I'm sick. I need help."

"Don't I know it," Sam said, walking off.

G looked back at Sam and then looked away, not noticing Kensi gazing at him as he walked off.

END EPISODE