Jimmy Palmer smiles as he exits the elevator and walks towards 213B. He lets the nurse on duty, Joan know that he's there before heading down the hallway. The nurse follows him down the hall, temporarily blocking his path as he prepares to enter.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Normally my boss, Dr. Mallard, would be here to read to our friend Agent Gibbs, but he had to finish up something with our team leader before he could make it in tonight. He should be here in the next hour or so. He just said that he always checks in with the night nurse before he starts reading. I'm at a standstill on my thesis so I told him I'd read to Agent Gibbs until he could get here and then finish up my other work."

If the nurse's eyes flash with anger at the name Gibbs, or a slight panic at the name Mallard, Jimmy Palmer doesn't see it; he's too busy juggling his thesis paperwork along with the notebook that Ducky Mallard normally reads out of. Instead he continues on down the hallway and into the still comatose agent's room.

"Hey there Agent Gibbs, Dr. Mallard's going to be a bit late tonight but he wanted to make sure that you knew he's still on his way. We had a bit of a break through in your case and the team is following up on it."

Jimmy puts his thesis down first and then turns to the man on the bed. Thanks to his new found degree in medicine he can tell that Gibbs is still responding well to treatments, but there is still no new changes in his EEG or anything to indicate why the oldest member of the MCRT hasn't regained consciousness yet.

"I wanted to tell you that Agent Fornell and your ex-wife have been cleared of all charges. Dr. Mallard said to tell you that before I start on the story. Tim and the others found the evidence proving their innocence."

Chapter 5 - The Turning Point.

Terence McGregor could tell that the evidence just wasn't adding up right. He didn't know why, he couldn't begin to tell anyone how, he just knew that Conal F Lorebits was innocent and so was Dana; the infamous ex-wife of both Lorebits and L.J. Tibbs.

He couldn't keep pressuring Amy either. It wasn't fair to the forensic scientist or the rest of his team. No this was something that McGregor could do. So he started at the one place he should have in the first place; Tibbs house and the original crime scene.

On his way there he places three phone calls letting Tommy and Lisa as well as Plucky know what he's doing. Tommy and Lisa immediately head out to join him and Plucky calls out to Pimmy to fuel up the truck.

Pimmy stares at the M.E. for a moment before following order and Plucky sighs as he finally enters the INCS truck and waits for the inevitable questions.

"Plucky? Why are we coming here?"

"Well, if I'm right Mr. Jalmer, our esteemed friend Agent McGregor has found a clue."

"Dr. Fowler? I-I don't mean to be rude or anything but why haven't any of us been out here? I mean, it's Agent Tibbs. I would have expected that we'd have been out here months ago."

"And if we hadn't had an extreme amount of cases thrown at us all at once, I'm sure that we would have been here immediately. As it was—,"

"They tried to throw McGregor under the bus but he managed to take the caseload and overcome it. He's built the team again, and now they can investigate the crime like they would have if they hadn't been steamrollered into other cases."

"Precisely Mr. Jalmer. Now then, shall we go see if there is anything that we can do to assist or shall we stay here in the motor pool?"

"Do we have a body to retrieve Plucky?"

"Not necessarily a human one, if you catch my drift." Plucky is referring to Pimmy's veterinarian skills.

"Ahh…"

"Indeed Mr. Jalmer, shall we proceed then?"

"Aye, Plucky, we shall."

When the two M.E.'s arrive they find the RCMT already there. McGregor is in Tibbs house, while Lisa is taking photographs and Tommy is out talking to the neighbors getting their input on what happened the night in question.

One neighbor arrived home just after it happened and ran over to assist the fallen agent. He immediately picked up the agent's phone and spoke into it, telling the operator what he'd happened upon. Then the neighbor started applying pressure to Tibbs wounds in desperate attempt to save Tibbs' life.

Then the ambulance had come and taken Tibbs away. The neighbor in question looks at Tommy and bluntly asks him why it has taken so long for INCS to investigate.

"We knew that the local law would be here; we just figured that you guys would have been out here first."

Tommy says nothing as he knows that part of the reason is the shock they'd all had upon hearing about Tibbs. The other was McGregor getting command of the team and then the caseload thrust upon them immediately afterwards.

"The fault is mine sir. We—I'm the one who should have had a team out investigating and I dropped the ball. It won't happen again."

Tommy stops and stares at his friend, his teammate and now his leader. This is a new side of McGregor that Tommy hasn't seen before. pride flows through the senior agent as he watches the team leader settle into his role and talk to the neighbor, getting all the information he can before turning back to Tommy who busies himself sketching the area. The neighbor does one more thing before heading back inside the house; he hands McGregor a Ziploc baggie full of grass clippings.

"The local officers never came back after taking our statements. I knew that Tibbs would either come back or send one of you guys. I used to be an MP; I made sure to wear gloves and kept it in a cool place but not frozen."

McGregor thanks him and takes the baggie, then bags and tags it for evidence. Tommy stares at McGregor as they finish their investigation.

"What is it Tommy?"

"I just wanted to say how glad I am to be on your team. Not to mention how proud I am and how proud Tibbs will be. None of the rest of us thought to come back here, Ter. Not once in the past six months did I even think of coming back here and checking for evidence."

"Yes, good job Terence."

"Dr. Fowler? We found something else as well."

Pimmy had asked the neighbors if any animals had died the night of the shooting. While no one remembered an animal dying on that particular night, there had been several small animals that had died in subsequent weeks.

"You might want to go ask Dr. Lamont if she still has any of them. She was a bit suspicious that we'd lost so many pets within such a short time period. She never did tell us if anything came of it though."

Jimmy looks up just as Ducky comes through the door. He smiles broadly at the M.E. and tells him that he'd just gotten to the part about the neighbors telling Pimmy about the veterinarian.

"Ahh, excellent Jimmy and Jethro, I do apologize but as I'm sure Mr. Palmer has said, we had a significant breakthrough in your case. Well, that and I ran across someone when I was entering the hospital tonight."

Just then the night nurse enters, and apologizes to Ducky for not being there when he arrived.

"Oh but I just arrived my dear. I do believe that Jimmy here talked to one of your contemporaries but he's been taking care of Jethro's reading until now."

"That must be the new day nurse. She was a bit put out, but I had a flat tire and couldn't get anyone to come fix it this late naturally. Thankfully my husband works an alternate shift and drove me here as soon as he got home. I'll go fetch your tea while you all catch up."

The nurse leaves and Jimmy stares after her. Ducky gives him a smack on the head and Jimmy smiles.

"Nice lady."

"Mmm…always with a cup of tea ready too."

Just then a voice growls from the doorway, "Damn, Probie, what'd you do to yourself this time?"