Jimmy never thought that it would ever happen to him, that he could ever be murdered like the people he autopsied everyday. He wasn't ever going to be laying on that table. It would never ever happen to him. Until it did...when he was only twenty two years old, he was murdered. Life doesn't always protect the young M.E assistant walking down the street in the dead of night from a long day at Autopsy. Life doesn't care if he only stopped to help that older man with his groceries. He hadn't expected the next thing he knew, was the hilt of a knife sticking out of his stomach.

Hot and wet blood bubbled on his lips and he vomited it up on the pavement, only for the knife to be roughly ripped out of him and thrust into him over and over again. He had only wanted to help, he hadn't wanted to offer himself up to be murdered. Jimmy tried to run, but the older man was younger than he had first thought and he was much bigger than the lanky young man. He grabbed Jimmy by his shoulders and wrapped his hands around the bleeding young man's throat.

The hands were rough, calloused and large as they closed around Jimmy's windpipe. Slowly crushing the young man who was already dying from the blood loss from his stab wounds. Jimmy's warm brown eyes slowly began losing their sheen and the older man leapt backwards, ripping his hands off Jimmy's neck so he could brandish his knife once again. Jimmy managed to let out one last choking screech as the older man slit his neck, letting more blood gush forth.

When the man had determined that Jimmy was nearly dead, he slung the young man's limp body over one shoulder and dragged the young man's body into his apartment. Intending to hide the body in his freezer. That was where Jimmy's sight bled into pure crimson and...he died, right there in the arms of his murderer.

-TimeSkip-

When Jimmy woke up, he knew that something was horribly wrong. He remembered the attack, he remembered what had happened...he remembered his death. But he knew that he should be in heaven or whatever, he shouldn't have been lying in the alleyway where it had taken place. The young man staggered to his feet and looked around the alley, searching for something that was amiss, something that symbolized that he was murdered there. But the only things left, were a few dark stains on the pavement, his own blood. But other than that, the alley was empty of murder weapons and a murderer. Even his own body was gone.

That's when he realized that something else was wrong, there was something in the air...it was everywhere, translucent, vaguely fog-like, and it was everywhere he looked. Even when he looked at the buildings, the vapors seemed to be floating through the walls. He blinked his eyes a few times but the odd stuff did not go away. But it did fade slightly until it was very fine, almost invisible.

The first thing he registered when he managed to blink away the odd stuff, was that he had to run. He wasn't sure where and he wasn't sure why, but he had to run. He had to get away and Jimmy couldn't fight it, he just bolted. Running as fast as he could, rushing past people walking in the street, going to work but where was he going?

When Jimmy finally felt the urge to stop running, he was in front of the NCIS building, Jimmy hurried inside. He didn't have a clue as to why but he needed to be in there, the young M.E wandered into the bullpen when he noticed the Team, minus Ducky, Gibbs and Abby were talking from their desks. That was where Jimmy noticed that there was one thing wrong with their voices, they were slightly muffled and seemed to be coming though a tunnel. But it wasn't like he couldn't understand them, because he could and he wondered if they could see him.

"Where's the Autopsy Gremlin? Ducky was up here a while ago looking for him and he still hasn't come in yet."

Tony asked, leaning backwards and resting his feet on his desk, arms behind his head in a relaxed pose. It was Ziva who answered him, shifting papers on her desk as he did so.

"I am not sure, perhaps he is running late this morning."

Jimmy looked down in sadness, he wasn't going to be coming in this morning, not ever again. He'd been murdered. How long had it been, was he a missing person yet?

"Has anybody called him?"

That was McGee but Tony nodded from his desk.

"Yeah, Ducky's been trying to call him for a while."

Jimmy tried to reach for his phone in his pocket, before realizing it wasn't there. His killer must've had it, then who had Dr. Mallard been calling? Jimmy's chest clenched painfully, he didn't want to be dead! How could he be dead? Jimmy moaned collapsing to his knees and covered his ears with his hands, trying to curl into a ball.

You always hear about how to accept the death of a loved one, but what about how to accept your own death? It is much harder to accept your own death. We are taught, beginning as children that death is an ending, death is being gone, frozen or lost, but he wasn't lost he was still here, and he had the lingering feeling that he wasn't supposed to be.

Suddenly Gibbs entered the bullpen and walked right through Jimmy, sending a cold shooting feeling through both his body and that of Agent Gibbs. Jimmy openly gaped at the older man as he whipped his head around and almost seemed to focus on Jimmy before shaking his head and brushing the thought away. Just as Gibbs opened his mouth to say something Vance appeared overhead.

"Gibbs, your Team, my office, now. Get Abby and Ducky too."

Vance sighed and walked back into his office. Gibbs looked at McGee and Tony, motioning for them to follow him as Ziva went to get Ducky and Abby. Jimmy just trailed after them into Vance's office.

-TimeSkip-

Once they were all sitting around in Vance's office is when he pulled out an evidence bag, from where Jimmy was standing, he couldn't see what was inside and from the various confused looks from other members of the Team, they couldn't either. That was when Vance started to talk.

"This morning, officers found several items of blood-stained clothing in an alleyway, about four miles from here. Almost all of them bearing NCIS' insignia on them."

Jimmy froze, Vance was telling them. Telling them that he wasn't going to come back, that he was dead...that he had been murdered in cold blood in an alleyway.

"So what does that mean for us?"

That was McGee asking and that was when Vance pushed the evidence bag closer to them, inside of it...was his tie. The tie that he had been wearing the night of the murder. It was white and black piano keys, a gift from Abby with his name sewed into the back. He wouldn't expect the Team to recognize it, he never took his jacket off so they could see his tie. But Abby knew, she had been the one to give it to him. Slowly the young goth reached for the bag and gently turned it over, letting out a low moan when she saw Jimmy's name.

"Oh God...no...not Jimmy..."

She cried, and McGee pulled her over to cry on his shoulder, Gibbs leaned forwards and slammed his fist on Vance's desk.

"What are you trying to tell us? That Palmer is missing? Hurt? Dead?"

Gibbs snapped and when he said the word 'dead' both Abby and Ducky let out a low moan. But Vance just looked at the Agent with sadness in his usually emotionless eyes.

"I mean that we found this and a lot of his blood...too much for him to still be alive."