6th Best Fanfic of All Time- In Transit by Sequitur

6. In Transit by Sequitur

Section: NCIS
Genre: Tragedy, Angst
Rating: Everyone, although you have to pay attention to feel the full impact
Type: Oneshot, 2000 words
Status: Completed
Completed: October 20, 2005

Starring Characters: Tony DiNozzo, Kate Todd

This is simply one of the smartest, most incredible oneshots I’ve ever read, especially for a section I don’t often read from an author I’ve never met and a story 5 years before my time. I don’t exactly know or remember how I got to this story, but it’s simply an achievement in writing.


There’s not much to the story- DiNozzo is on a plane leaving the Midwest and a passenger on the plane notices his erratic behavior and strikes a conversation with him. But if you’re a fan of the show, the unspoken impact hits you like a train made out of bricks carrying the weight of a world.

Even if you haven’t seen the show, the structure of the story, the wisdom and the words will still be just as remarkable. First off, the story is entirely in second person narrative. It’s not some random passenger on an airplane, it’s you. And second person narrative rarely works right but here it makes the story so much more personal than a third person or a first person would have.

"What I always loved about airplanes is the meaningful relationship you form with the person sitting next to you." He seems to have forgotten his tea and the glass is sweating into his hand. You watch the water droplet squirm down his wrist. "You can tell them anything. You can lie, if you want, the way you're lying to me, or you can tell the truth. Whatever." He fixes you with a sharp glance. "Your name isn't Kathy."

You find the magazine at your side. "Sure it is," you say, not looking at him.

"Right," he says, softly, patronizing you. "I was just kidding." Except he wasn't, not even a little. "But. You can say anything. So if you were lying, it wouldn't matter. Because we're never going to see each other again."

The story is poetry in motion without following a poetic structure. You can build up everything that’s going on as if you are the one listening and following along, and here you actually are. That makes it subtly interactive without you doing anything.

Still, the hard impact of the story comes from knowing the show’s storyline and what lead Tony and his companions to the plane in the first place. If you’re really attentive, though, you’ll be able to figure it out yourself. It’s stories like these that are the reason you read, and the reason you become attached to the art of storytelling on a personal level.