The next morning, Gibbs sat in the squad room with Ziva, going over the Bell disappearance file and awaiting Watts' arrival. Gibbs wished she'd just decide not to come, but he knew that wasn't going to happen.

The elevator dinged and Gibbs steeled himself to face the annoying, incompetent woman. He was caught entirely by surprise when a pale-faced McGee and a hobbling-on-crutches Tony stepped out of the car.

Tony grinned even though his knee was throbbing. "You didn't think we'd leave you two all alone with her, did you?"

Ziva stood and rushed to McGee's side, putting a supportive hand under his elbow and steering him to his desk. "Sit down before you fall down," she said, looking into his slightly unfocused eyes.

Gibbs watched Tony hobble to his desk and lean the crutches against the partition. Gibbs commandeered a chair from another pod and pushed it in front of Tony.

"Thanks, Boss," Tony said, still smiling—until he used both hands to lift his braced leg onto the chair. He grimaced, but said, "Ugh. Nothing like pain to make you feel really alive."

Gibbs couldn't tell if it was drugs talking or Tony trying to keep up the façade in front of his teammates, but he was glad that he was smiling.

"Did they find what is wrong with your knee?" Ziva asked, concern in her deep brown eyes as she made her way back to her desk.

"Mmmm," Tony nodded, looking annoyed. Ziva knew the annoyance was not directed at her. "Not good. Shredded ligaments, torn meniscus." He paused. "Need surgery to fix it all," he said quietly, almost embarrassed to admit it.

Gibbs noticed his tone. "Then why are you here and not there?"

"No way in hell I'm letting anyone near this knee but the doctor who did my last surgery. But he's in Europe on vacation for another week, the lucky bastard."

"Why him?" Ziva asked.

Tony gave her a look that said he was tired of talking about it. "The first doctor I saw back then told me I'd always have a limp. Then I got a second opinion. And do I have a limp, Ziva?"

She eyed the crutches behind him and raised an eyebrow.

He sighed. "Well, did I yesterday?"

She smiled. "I see your point."

Gibbs listened to the banter, but his eyes were on McGee, who didn't look so good. He was pale and there were beads of sweat on his forehead. He looked green.

"McGee?" Gibbs tried, and mostly failed, to control his bark. "Should you be here?"

The young agent looked over at his boss, and Gibbs noticed how slowly McGee turned his head.

"I'm good, Boss."

"You've been hanging out with DiNozzo too much," Gibbs said, but he decided to let it go.

"Besides," McGee said, a little strength returning to his voice, "I need to see if I can find Bell's cell records. Like I said, it's going to take some time since they're so old."

McGee began typing away, only slightly less furiously than normal, Gibbs noted. He looked at Tony, who was on the phone with someone. Ziva appeared to be looking through police records of some kind, and Gibbs felt a flash of pride in his team. For all their bickering and deeply nuanced relationships, they were nothing if not dedicated. Gibbs thought about Cpl. Langworthy and thought the Marine would be proud of this team, too, working so hard to catch his killer.

"Boss, I got something," Tony said, hanging up the phone. "Or maybe nothing. I'm not really sure."

"And?" Gibbs asked, surprised to find himself toning down his response. No need to yell and aggravate McGee's headache. Those cell records could prove very useful, if they could be found.

"I remembered that right around the time Bell ran off, Abby had told me that some drugs had gone missing from the evidence locker. And it wasn't the first time."

"But it was the last time?" Gibbs asked, following Tony's thoughts.

"Yeah," DiNozzo nodded, absently rubbing his aching leg. "There was a pattern of missing drug evidence that stopped after Bell's disappearance. No one was ever caught in the investigation that followed."

"Maybe Bell was taking the drug evidence and selling it," Ziva posited. "Langworthy could either have caught him or been a buyer in a deal gone bad."

"There were no drugs on Langworthy's tox screen," Gibbs said. "That would seem to support the former theory."

"Or they were in on it together and it went bad," Tony said. "Not all dealers are users."

"They could have met when Bell took Langworthy's DNA in that rape case. Perhaps they made a connection," Ziva said.

"I'd put my money on that," a voice said from near the elevator. The team turned and watched ex-Special Agent Taryn Watts make her way over to them.

Gibbs made terse introductions while Tony looked the woman over. She was dressed expensively, her clothing well-made and well-tailored to her shapely body. She was good-looking for sure, but he found himself not attracted to her in the least. Incompetence sure is a turn-off, he thought. And she's married with a kid. I wonder why she didn't take his last name?

Tony saw her eye his obviously injured leg, but he just said, "And why would you bet on that theory?"

"I was there when Bell did the corporal's DNA swab for the rape case," she said, setting her Prada bag on McGee's desk.

McGee barely looked up then or during the introductions since he was still madly typing away.

"I got the feeling they already knew each other," the tall, slender brunette continued.

"And why was that?" Gibbs asked.

Watts looked surprised at the question. She could tell from the way Gibbs looked at her that he didn't like her. Apparently her word wasn't going to be good enough. She just hoped she wouldn't have to explain her every single thought to the man. "Because," she said slowly, "Bell made some crude comment about DNA, and Langworthy laughed and gave him this buddy-buddy punch on the arm."

Gibbs just nodded and turned to McGee, who flinched when a phone buzzed loudly in Watts' bag. The woman fished the phone from the bag, ignoring the dirty look Gibbs gave her as he asked, "How likely is it that you'll be able to get those records?"

McGee looked a bit disheartened, but he said, "I found the carrier Bell used, and that's a good start. It's a smaller, regional carrier so they may be able to hold on to more records than a national carrier like Verizon, which handles a thousand times the amount of accounts."

"But?" Gibbs asked, trying to figure out whether McGee's tone was beleaguered by the difficulty of the search or pained because of his concussion.

"But there's something weird here," McGee said, rubbing his eyes with his palms to try to clear the massive headache. He stopped when he saw the guilty look on Tony's face. He knew he needed to thank the agent for saving his life, but it could wait. The case couldn't.

"McGee?" Gibbs prompted—gently, it seemed to McGee and he realized he had spaced out.

"Sorry, Boss. It's weird because the carrier went out of business, but I think I can still get access to their records. Someone is keeping them up, for some reason, which I'm trying to find out now so I'll know if the records are complete and if it's even worth searching."

Gibbs nodded, glad that McGee had cut the geek-speak. He looked over at Watts and heard her hang up the phone with an "I love you, too, sweetie."

"Sorry," she said, her cheeks reddened. "My husband doesn't like that I used to be an agent, and he doesn't want me doing anything dangerous. He works for a large computer firm and the only danger he faces is getting carpal tunnel."

Gibbs nodded again, not caring what the woman's husband thought or did. He saw the same annoyance on Tony's face at the woman's rambling. Gibbs saw Tony roll his eyes when Watts set her phone on his desk and propped a shapely hip there, too. To his credit, Tony didn't even pay attention to her. He was too busy watching McGee intently and feeling guilty about giving the kid a concussion.

"So?" Gibbs asked, giving Watts his best Marine stare.

The woman looked slightly uncomfortable, unsure what the man wanted from her.

"So do you remember anything else that might help us?" Ziva asked, realizing it was going to be a long day.

"Oh, well," Watts started, "Agent Mason took the lead on Langworthy so I don't know much about that. But I did interview Bell's family and—"

"So did we," Gibbs said. "What was your feel on the brothers? Were both users or was it just Ricky?"

"Definitely both," she said.

"The parents wouldn't agree with you," Tony said, fighting the urge to play with the neck of his sweater, this one a deep crimson red. He had noticed while shaving that morning that the bruises had reached their peak in color and stood out in stark relief against his pale-ish skin.

"I know," she said slowly. "But they're parents. No one wants to think badly of one child, let alone both. I mean, I could never imagine my little Lizzie doing drugs."

"Do you remember that evidence was going missing from the locker right around the time Bell disappeared?" Ziva asked.

"Oh, of course," Watts nodded enthusiastically. "Did they ever find out who did it? They hadn't by the time I left, but that was so shortly after Pacci was killed." She looked at the floor, a sad look on her face.

"No," Ziva answered. "We believe Bell may have been stealing the drugs to sell on the street."

"And Langworthy was his partner in crime," Watts said, thinking back to what they had been discussing when she arrived. She pushed off from Tony's desk and leaned on the partition beside Ziva's desk. She smiled and said, "My legs are so cramped from the plane ride. It took forever, it seemed."

"Boss," McGee said suddenly. "This is interesting. I found the reason why the carrier's records are still up. Apparently the records are part of lawsuit, the trial for which is ongoing. The records should be complete so I should be able to find Bell's old calls."

Gibbs nodded approvingly while Watts looked shocked. "Wow. That is amazing, Agent McGee." She shook her head. "You must be good."

McGee gave her an awkward little nod, and Tony covered a grin with his hand.

Watts continued, "But then, my husband does all kinds of things with computers that are unimaginable to me, but I never would have thought you could call up something so old."

"Well," McGee said, annoyed at her rambling. Her voice was bothering his headache. "I still have to find his actual records. It's not like I can Google his name and come up with them."

"And I thought you could Google anything these days," Tony said, drawing a grin from Ziva and a glare from Gibbs.

"You know," Watts said suddenly, "I never could figure out the money angle and where that fit in. Have you gotten anywhere on that?"

Gibbs bit back a remark that she hadn't gotten anywhere with anything. He said, "Going theory is it financed his escape. We don't think he was killed for it."

"Family doesn't seem to have it," Tony said. "He had no girlfriends at the time."

"There's another reason I don't think he was killed for the money," Gibbs said.

Ziva was quiet, as was Watts.

Tony said, "No body. If he was killed for the money, then the killer did a damned good job hiding the remains."

Gibbs nodded, proud of his agent for following his thinking. He looked at McGee's pale face and saw Tony trying to open a pill bottle without making noise. He said, "Grab some lunch. I'm going to see Ducky and ask if he knows of any cases where identification of a body was impossible or in question."

The team, plus Watts and minus Gibbs, ate the squad room. Tony wanted to eat quickly and get back to work, but Watts obviously wanted to reminisce. He almost cut her off, but she seemed to want to talk about Pacci so he let her and even joined in at times. He thought of Kate and realized that maybe they shouldn't be so hard on her. She had lost her boss, her mentor—and a friend, it seemed.

They were all laughing over Tony's impression of Pacci lining up sheets of paper perfectly to staple them all together so none of the edges were even slightly misaligned when Watts' cell rang on Tony's desk.

Watts was sitting at Gibbs' desk so Tony caught her eye and tossed the phone.

"Local number," Tony said as she caught the phone deftly.

Watts checked the caller ID and answered, "Hey sweetie! Oh, no, I'm sorry baby. Mommy can't come home yet. I know, love, but I'm busy here in Washington. Remember how we put the map on the fridge? You see Washington? Good, sweetie. That's where I am right now, but I'll be home soon. Okay, I love you, too. Bye-bye!"

Watts blushed as she saw everyone watching her. "I'm sorry about that."

"Do not be sorry," Ziva said. "She sounds adorable."

Watts caught the question in Tony's eyes and said, "My husband refuses to get a new cell number local to our home. He's so lazy about things like that. Drives our friends nuts. And thank you, Ziva. She is adorable."

"How old is she?" Tony asked, trying to be polite.

"Three. A lovely age," Watts said, "when she's not coloring on the walls."

Gibbs returned in time to hear Watts' last statement, and her simple words stabbed a knife of pain through his heart. He shook his head, clearing away the memories, and said, "Nothing. All the John Does were the wrong heights, weights, ages, ethnicities, etc."

The rest of the afternoon was spent tossing ideas back and forth, everyone trying desperately to find the one new angle that would break the case. McGee didn't join in, though; he was too busy trying to find the cell records that could open up a world of new leads. He also was trying not to puke his guts out. His head still spun crazily any time he looked away from the screen in front of him, and what little of his lunch he had managed to get down threatened to come back up every five minutes or so. He closed his eyes, breathing through the latest bout of nausea and wondering how Tony always managed to seem so normal after a concussion, if this was what one actually felt like. McGee wanted to go home and sleep for days.

"Probie."

McGee opened his eyes and realized Tony was standing beside him and everyone was looking at him with concern. McGee knew he must be in bad shape if Tony had managed to crutch over to him without his hearing a thing.

"I'm okay, Tony," McGee said, trying to focus on the swimming lines of data in front of him. He glanced at his watch. 5 p.m. How the hell did that happen?

Tony smiled and said softly, "That's my line, McGee, and you're not fine. I called Abby, and she's going to take you home once you show me how to look for what we're looking for."

McGee took in the lines of pain around his partner's mouth and the whiteness of his knuckles on the crutches. "No. I'm fine."

Ziva hadn't missed the pain in Tony's voice either. She said, "I think both of you should go home." She looked at Gibbs, who nodded. "I will continue searching, and we can call you if I find something."

McGee sighed while Tony gave Ziva a mutinous look. McGee said, "Well, at this point, I'm really just scrolling and looking for a name and number."

Ziva smiled brightly, giving Tony a Get over it look. "Good."

Tony heard the elevator ding and moved away from McGee for his own safety. Abby-hugs and crutches didn't mix well, he'd learned long ago. The scientist barely acknowledged Watts as she swept in the room and straight over to McGee. She hugged him with a gentleness Tony didn't think possible. He smiled at her. "Take good care of him, Abbs."

"Of course," she said, eyeing the brace on Tony's leg. "Don't forget to take care of yourself, too."

Abby gathered McGee's things as Tony gathered his own, wondering how he was going to get home.

"Watts," Gibbs said. "You're leaving, too. There's nothing for you do here."

The woman bristled.

Ziva said, "But thank you for your help. We appreciate it."

Watts smiled tightly. "Of course." She turned to Tony, her smile brightening. "Agent DiNozzo? Would you like me to drop you off at home? I doubt you can drive in your condition, and I've got nothing to do tonight."

Gibbs didn't miss her pointed look when she said that. He didn't care though; he was glad that once she got in the elevator, he'd be rid of her and never see her again. He was sure she would insist on coming back the next day if the cell records didn't pan out, but Gibbs had no intentions on letting that happen. He had played her and Vance's game, but now it was game over.

Gibbs was glad when DiNozzo reluctantly agreed to the ride home. First, it got rid of Watts; and second, he would be free to go have a chat with the director about Watts.

Ziva took McGee's seat and continued his search while Abby helped the shaky agent to the elevator.

"Every hour, Abbs," Tony called, and she gave him a thumbs-up. He turned to Gibbs. "Call me if you get anything?"

"Call me if you need anything?" Gibbs returned, enjoying the easy understanding he had with his senior agent.

Gibbs watched Watts walk slowly beside Tony to the elevator, feeling an odd sense of pride that Tony had ignored the married woman's flirting. But if he was honest with himself, it wasn't all that odd, considering his almost father/son relationship with the agent.

"Ziva, you going to be okay with those?" Gibbs asked.

"Sure, Gibbs. I will do fine."

"I'm going for coffee. Can I get you anything?"

Ziva recognized the disguised "thank you" she was receiving for taking over the search and she smiled. "No thank you."