I had gone to bed with him, slept for a few hours and then woke up again in the middle of the night. I wasn’t much of a sleeper and I decided to work on my boat before I headed off to the office. My lover was thinking of going into early retirement. He had been before but he didn’t like to travel that long to his work and being away from me for days in succession. I didn’t exactly know what he was doing but it sure was interesting stuff. His young archaeologist friend sometimes came over and cooked something absolutely delicious that was according to him "out of this world" which was probably an in-joke. Jack probably wouldn’t understand the in-jokes at my job either…
Jack really wasn’t a scientist. Sometimes you’d even wonder if he was military at all because of his disinclination and being unsympathetic sometimes. But he explained to me that because of a freak accident at work he had a clone. And that clone came to visit us regularly. Mini Jack was terrible, about 15 and with the brains and memories of my Jack. It was weird, also because Mini Jack loved me too, but he knew he couldn’t and I didn’t want that to happen. Kids…
Jack and I knew each other since we were marines. Like Ducky, Jack had been at all 3 of my weddings, although he crashed the last one telling me that he made a big mistake and was throwing accusations at Ducky for introducing me to wife #3 and making me marry her. It was true though, but I didn’t see it at the time. I didn’t blame Ducky, he was only trying to help me out, but I figured that I needed Jack more than I needed a woman, and he wasn’t even a red-head.

When I was close to the office, Jack called me on my cell-phone. "Gibbs." That didn’t sound like me. That sounded like Jack. I sounded like Jack! I chuckled. "You know Jack, the more I spend time with you, the more I start to sound like you."
"That’s because you ARE ME right now!" I recognised my own voice coming from Jack, but the tone was definitely his and he was obviously frustrated. "Come to Cheyenne Mountain right now."
"Jack, what’s going on?"
"Have you looked into the mirror today?"
"No."
"Good… come to Cheyenne Mountain. Don’t look in your rear view mirror." Jack hung up which left me to wonder what the hell was going on and why he was earlier at his job than I was at mine. I looked into my rear-view mirror and saw Jack’s eyes. Jack’s… not mine. My reaction was to hit the breaks and turn around immediately and follow Jack’s orders. Something wasn’t quite right and I was freaking out, and since I almost never do that, I tried to remain calm and made it a goal for me to arrive in one piece at Cheyenne Mountain.
I had to call someone. But I couldn’t. I could have called Ducky, but I didn’t. I just knew that I had to figure out what was going on first.
This would mean that Jack was letting me to come to his work. Secret stuff, and there probably would be things that I didn’t even want to know about. But Jack’s work…that’s a first… Jack…all day… good.

"Thank God you’re here!" Daniel Jackson came rushing towards me.
"I think there’s something wrong with your security Daniel, I could walk right through." I said and looked at him. The young archaeologist looked a bit distracted and confused. He patted my back.
"Yeah… that’s because you’re not really you at the moment…" he put his hand on my back and escorted me to what looked like a conference room. Big leather chairs, big shiny table, and big windows that were shielded off for some unknown reason.
"Mr. Gibbs, thank you for coming so quickly." A short bald man walked towards me and extended his hand. "I’m General Hammond."
"What’s going on, General?" I shook his hand but stayed sharp. I was wondering where Jack was, he *did* call me and I was starting to believe this was all a setup.
"We don’t know yet, sir." A short female doctor walked in with a bunch of medical files in her hands and she was followed by Sam, Samantha Carter - good friend of Jack’s, who was carrying more. "I’m Dr. Janet Frasier."
"Wow." Sam said in awe while she looked at me. "They really messed up this time."
"What?" I started to get aggravated.
"Just a theory." Sam sat down.
"Where’s Jack?"
"Eh... Sit down Gibbs… please." Daniel motioned to a chair and waited for me to sit down.
"Don’t try to fool him. It won’t work." That was *my* voice and that was *me* walking in the room. I was stunned. This wasn’t what I quite expected; to see myself walk in the room, hear my own voice and I was actually flabbergasted. "Hey Gibbs." He smiled at me.
"What the he---"
He walked towards me and leaned over to whisper in my ear. "I know what it’s like to be inside of you… but to actually be you is weirder."
"Jack?" I felt my face start to glow red.
"Yup." He held a mirror in front of me and what I saw just blew me away.
"But…" I still wasn’t able to complete my sentences. I was surprised, scared even, and it all felt like just one hell of a bad dream.
"Yep, you’re me." Jack sat down next to me. "Don’t get me started; I don’t know what’s going on either… though I have my suspicions…"
"It can’t be Loki, we’ve handed him over, sir." Sam said.
"Yeah well he could have escaped!" Jack sneered at her.
So that’s how I sound like when I snap at Tony or McGee…
"Late night sleepwalking towards Area 51 perhaps? Did you touch the mind transfer device?"
"Daniel!" Jack growled. "I sleepwalk, Gibbs doesn’t."
"Could someone please explain to me what the hell you’re talking about?" I said a little aggrieved. I tried to hold myself back, to respect the general, after all he was Jack’s C.O "I’d really like to know what’s going on here and I’ve got a gut feeling that it isn’t about deep space telemetry."

What was explained to me seemed like a science fiction television show like "Wormhole X-treme." Travelling to other planets by means of a portal called the Stargate. Visit ancient cultures, meet cultures far advanced than ours. Stop wars, battle the bad guys. Time travel. Time loops. Little grey men - The Asgard - messing around with Jack creating mini-me. So it wasn’t a freak accident after all…
And now they thought that there was another alien behind the body switch of me and Jack. Right!
"Aliens don’t exist." I muttered.
Sam chuckled. "I think you remember Murray?"
"Yes?"
"He’s an alien. His name is Teal’c." Jack said. "Teal’c! Where are you?"
"I am here O’Neill." Then Murray/Teal’c walked into the office. No hat, showing a gold-ish emblem on his forehead. "Agent Gibbs, good to see you again."
"Don’t joke." I said disbelieving.
"I am not. I am Jaffa."
"An orange?"
"I am from the planet Chulak. There are more of my kind serving false Gods known as the Goa’uld. I have been first prime of Apophis."
"Hold that thought Teal’c." Jack interrupted him. "I think Gibbs is getting brain freeze. Coffee?"
"Yes. Very strong coffee…" I nodded.
"I suggest you let our doctor take a look at you, see if there’s anything wrong with you, Agent Gibbs." General Hammond suggested.
"Ah no thanks. I’m fine."
"It’s not a suggestion."
"Look, I have a thing against physical examinations. I didn’t show up at my last scheduled one at the NCIS headquarters. I’m not taking one now."
"Jethro, I really think you should." Jack said. He never called me by my first name unless he wanted to get something done from me.
"No."
"General, permission to call civilian Doctor Donald Mallard to perform the physical examination on Agent Gibbs?"
"Jaaaaaaack!" I nagged.
"Granted." General Hammond smiled widely.
"What? Ducky would love to run after you with a rubber glove." Jack grinned.
I took a huge sip of my coffee, almost burning my mouth, as Jack dialled Ducky’s number on the speaker phone. "Autopsy." Ducky’s voice sounded.
"Hey Duck it’s Gibbs." Jack said, repressing a giggle.
"Jethro? Where are you?"
"Something has come up; I want you to come to Cheyenne Mountain, alone. Jack will wait for you there."
"Jack?"
"Yes?" Jack replied, then realising that he had blown his cover.
"Where’s Jethro?"
"I’m here Duck." I replied. "Something’s messed up. They want me to have a physical but I don’t want to."
"Ducky to the rescue!" I heard Abby on the background.
"You don’t sound like yourself Jethro."
"Because I’m not." I said annoyed. "Just get over here and take Abs with you, she’ll be fascinated."
"FIELD TRIP!" Abby yelled. "Coming right away boss!"
"Just YOU and Abby, Ducky, no one else." Jack said. "Otherwise my General will go crazy with Tony here."

Jack and I waited both outside for the NCIS truck to arrive with Ducky and Abby in it. "How are you feeling?" Jack asked me.
"You’ve been lying to me Jack."
"This place is top secret Gibbs. We’re not allowed to tell anyone what we’re doing." He put his hand around my waist to pull me closer towards him. "I’m sorry."
"You’d better be."
"I’m sorry that you got involved."
"Yeah…"
"Are you angry?"
"Pissed." I nodded. "Because you’re forcing me to take a physical…"

The truck stopped a few meters away from us. Abby got out carrying a huge - and probably empty - container of caf-pow. She had been driving and Ducky didn’t look all too pleased by Abby’s drinking and driving manner. "Jethro, what is going on?" Ducky looked at Jack, thinking it was me.
"Nothing Duck. Just that you’re talking to Jack now." I replied.
"Wow." Abby said in awe. "That is hinky."
"Or kinky." Jack grinned.
"You know Jack, if you were Tony, I would have hit you in the head." I looked at him angrily.
"I am glad that I’m not Tony." Jack nodded.
"Oh dear…" Ducky said pondering. "What happened?"
"We don’t know. Our doc wants Gibbs’ test results to see if they’re the same as they turned out with me and … " Jack sighed. "I don’t know Ducky."
"So you plan to wait? Sit this out?" Abby asked, chewing on the straw of the caf-pow container.
"No, of course not… You’re a scientist, right Abby?" Jack asked.
"Yep."
"Talk to our scientists." He shot at her.
"Jaaack." I nagged. "Behave."
"What? You verbally attacked one of my colleagues as well."

Dr. Frasier left Ducky and me alone while he examined me. It was weird because it wasn’t really me he was checking out, but Jack’s body. The idea of another man touching Jack’s body was weird. Jack was mine. Even if Ducky touched his body. Ducky would see Jack’s scars, Jack’s bruises, Jack’s mole on his back and Jack’s fresh knife wound in his side.
"This is weird Duck."
"Yes, it is." Ducky replied. "Considering that you are you and this is not your body. I remember that you buried yourself in a lot of work and various cases just to escape your last physical exam."
"I’d rather do that now too… what I meant is…"
"I know." Ducky gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Another man is touching your lover’s body."
"Technically…"
"But you’re inside of it, so I’m examining you."
"True…"
"You know, when I worked for Scotland Yard, I had a similar case to this." Ducky paused for a moment. "Yes, yes it was. Two females, sisters, claimed to have been transported into each others bodies by a blue beam and little grey men. They were highly spiritual and the daughters of a well placed man and I had to examine them."
"Is this story going anywhere Duck?"
"No… I couldn’t understand what was going on and couldn’t help them. I believe that Scotland Yard put them into a mental hospital."
"You’re not helping Ducky." I smacked my head against the palm of my hand. "I just want to get back to work."
"So what is this place anyway Jethro?" Ducky asked me while he put a needle in my arm to draw blood from me.
"I can’t really tell you."
"Because it’s classified? Jethro, I’ve worked for Scotland Yard… I’ve worked for …"
"Yeah I know Ducky. But it is classified and I can’t explain it anyway." I interrupted him. I was vexed and Ducky was an easy target who would forgive me anyway.
"I know you’re peeved Jethro." Ducky put a band aid on the little puncture wound. "But you’re also a former marine and an NCIS agent. So pull yourself together."

Ducky and I went to the conference room after Ducky had finished. I still hated Jack for calling in Ducky, but Ducky was a great support for me. Jack had his friends, beside me and now I had two of my best friends with me to support me in addition to Jack. They were like me oblivious to anything Jack’s team was talking about. And an Abby on a caffeine bounce was always uplifting.
"Gibbs!" Abby ran to me and hugged me. "I think I’ve found a solution for what happened to you and Jack!"
"Really?"
"It’s actually not that complicated Gibbs." Sam beamed. "I don’t understand why I didn’t think of this myself."
"They let me read up on that mind transfer machine they found on a planet."
"Yeah but I can’t use that anymore." Jack said. "It has my DNA in it."
"Would you just listen for a second Jack?" Abby put her hand on Jack’s mouth. "Sure, it doesn’t solve the mystery of how you ended up in each others body in the first place, but I think that mind transfer machine can actually get you back in your own body."
"Abs, English." I took a mug and filled it up with coffee. Sure, it would be old but that didn’t matter somehow. "I’ve been here almost all day and I want to go home."
"I won’t explain it even further. We’ll just have to try." Abby smiled and almost danced a bit.
"Lab tests show nothing out of the ordinary." Dr. Frasier came into the room. The petite woman was very intelligent, I saw her talk to Ducky and she didn’t even get bored and even laughed because of his stories. "But I’m not sure about using the mind transfer device again." Doctor Frasier continued.
"I know it might be a bit of a stretch. But the machine works one way." Sam explained. "We can always try. It’s not like Jack’s mind hasn’t gone through this before."
"Yeah, but I’d like to have my brain in tact thank you." Jack said.

As they debated on about using the machine or not. I just sat down and enjoyed my coffee. Ducky and Abby were with me, they would know what was right. Sam even got the schedules and the blue print of the machine for Duck and Abby to see and the discussion went on for an hour or so before they decided to give it a shot anyway.
The machine had to be brought in from Area 51 in several pieces. It took 2 hours to put it back together. Two very long hours and all I could do was talk to Ducky, Jack and Abby and drink lots of coffee.
"Jack?" I asked him after a while.
"Yes?"
"Teach me how to juggle."
"When you’re asking that to kill the time, don’t bother. The machine is ready. Are you guys ready?" Daniel walked in smiling. "I’m sure this is going to work."
"What does Janet say?" Jack asked as he got up.
"She’s still not sure." Daniel hesitated to reply. "But we can always try."

It was back to sick bay. They set up the machine there, so that they could intervene if something was going wrong. Not that anything would go wrong, Dr. Frasier assured me that it was safe, Daniel informed me that a small cold surge would go through my body to transfer me back to my own body and if Jack didn’t screw up it could be done in one try. I knew that Jack was going to get a hard time when we got home. IF we could go home anyway. I would let him feel how pissed off I was, for him lying to me, for him getting me in this awkward situation, for not letting me go to work and torture DiNozzo. I would ignore him for one whole night. He wasn’t going to get any. Heck, he wasn’t going to get any for a whole week. I’d ground him.
Lucky for me handling the machine was easy. I would just need to put my hands on the handle. Jack would do the same at the opposite direction and it would work. It would then place us both back in our original bodies.
And it did. It felt weird. It was exactly how Daniel described it to me. A cold surge through my body. When I opened my eyes I looked at Jack, not at myself.
"Yes, it worked. Let’s go home." Jack said quickly and both of us got up from the sick bay beds. He pulled me along through the corridors, elevators and dragged me to my car. "I drive."

When we got home, Jack looked at me as I was descending the stairs to go to my boat. "Gibbs, are you feeling okay?"
"No. Let me deal with this." I closed the door by throwing a piece of wood against it and poured a mug of Jack Daniels for myself.
"Gibbs…" Jack opened the door. "What’s wrong?"
"I don’t know about you Jack, but I saw your world today, and it scares the hell out of me. Now leave me alone."
"Don’t you want to talk about it?"
"NO!"
Jack did leave me alone after that. I knew I had been hard on him, but I didn’t want to talk about it. I would rather forget about today, what happened, what I had seen. I would rather forget that Ducky had touched Jack’s body, even though I was in it. Considering that, I knew I had a primal urge to get Ducky’s scent off Jack. Right now! I quickly put my mug down and ran after Jack who was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. He was standing there in his underwear and was humming to himself. "Jack?"
"Yes?"
I smiled wily and dragged him out of the bathroom towards the bedroom. "Say no if you don’t want to." I said while I tackled him onto the bed.
"I’m not saying anything." He grinned.
"You’re a bastard." I said while kissing him passionately.
"So are you."