Once again, for those whose reading experience isn't complete without the disclaimer, it's in the first chapter. Also, since I'm familiar with southern Florida but not the area I've set this story let's chalk up any geographical booboos to artistic license, shall we? Thanks. Jeanne

X

"My name is Shawn Marner. I have a confession to make. James Liptak murdered Erich Weiss and I helped. I have proof. It's behind the picture of..."

"C'mon buddy. Quit turning your head and let me read your lips. Behind a picture of what?" Abby replayed the recording.

The doors to the lab opened with a whoosh. "Where's my sandwich McGee?"

"McGee's still on the phone with the local LEO's in Maine." Ducky said. He handed her the requested sandwich before shedding his coat and hat. "Sorry it took so long dear. Grilled cheese with chicken is apparently special order at the café."

"Thanks Ducky." She bit into it with a happy little sigh. "You're quite welcome. Any luck on the recording?"

She swallowed. "He turns his head right at that last moment. I can't be positive but I think he's saying 'behind the picture of us.'"

"Well. That's a start."

She bit off another chunk of sandwich and tears welled up in her eyes. She choked down the bite. "Uh." She grunted. She pitched forward and grabbed her stomach.

She heard footsteps behind her. "Abby?" McGee spun her around. "You okay?"

"Uh." She wheezed.

"Are you in labor? Is the baby coming now? They're just Braxton Hicks, right? Right? You can't have the kid now. It's too early."

"Technically gestation takes anywhere from thirty-eight to forty two weeks, so she'd be right on time if the baby came now. It's not coming now, is it?" Ducky checked his pocket for his car keys.

"Relax." Abby blinked the tears out of her eyes as she reached for her sandwich. "Just Braxton Hicks." If that's a practice contraction I so never want to feel a real one. So not ready to push an entire human being out a very small hole. "Did you have fun on the phone today Timmy?"

"No." The look he sent her said he wasn't entirely convinced what she was okay. "But I did have some luck." McGee bent over her keyboard and called up a newspaper article 'Town Mourns the Loss of Young Lobsterman' to the plasma. "I have a lead on Marner's Erich Weiss. Local from Booth Bay Harbor, presumed drowned ten years ago when his body washed up on Monhegan Island three days after he went into the drink. No autopsy. And the best part? He was buddies with Liptak and Marner."

"Ah. The plot thickens." Said Ducky.

The mass spectrometer let a ding! Abby pushed off hard with her feet and zoomed across the floor to look at the read out.

"Duckman. You were right about Lutz. He didn't drown in the tub. The water sample from his lungs is constant with rain water sprinkled with a liberal amount of silt and fertilizer, I'm thinking a drainage ditch or canal."

"Plenty of those in Florida." McGee said. "I'll call Gibbs."

Abby grabbed onto his arm and hauled herself up. "I'll do it. He's not going to mess with me."

X

"If anyone asks." Camie said as she wiggled through the open window at the Liptaks. "We didn't break we just entered." She turned around and opened the back door for Gibbs.

"I could have picked the lock." He said.

"I'm sure. But they have this little alarm gizmo on the door and seeing as how we have no warrant forcing the window seems like a better choice."

"Murders tend to be untrusting."

"This is a long shot you know." Camie said as they crept along the hall to the living room. "If Liptak even knew that Marner had evidence on him and happened to find it, why hide it here and not destroy it?

"Be thorough. Always double check." Gibbs scanned the pictures lining the hall.

"I know I know." Camie let out a low whistle as they entered the living room. "Holy Moly. It's a yard sale waiting to happen." Pictures laid out frame to frame covered the walls, tabletops, sideboard, and bookshelves. "This is going to take a while."

"We can narrow it down to a photo with Marner in it." Gibbs said.

Camie lifted a framed photo from the top of the sideboard and turned it over. "He says, 'It's behind the picture of us.' Maybe it's something written on the back? Or hidden in a frame?"

"Gee. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Wise guy." Camie set the photo back. "Cripes. Will you look at this? She's got at least twenty photo albums here. This is going to take time. Let's hope Tony and Ziva can waylay him long enough for us to get done."

Gibbs smiled. "They can create one hell of a distraction."

X

Ziva reached for her water bottle and immediately recoiled. She'd only have to pee again and squatting by the side of the road while Tony and her mother tried not to lose sight of Liptak's car was unappealing. She checked the dashboard clock. It had been six hours since Liptak had dropped Meg and Mary off at the Mall and sped off without a backwards glance. Since then they'd steadily wound their way north on congested roads.

She shielded her eyes against the orangey pink twilight as she fixated on the back of Liptak's car. "Where the hell are we going?"

"I have no idea. But we're heading towards route 95. And route 95 goes all the way to Canada." Tony said.

"Fantastic. We get to drive all the way to Maine."

A sharp snore brought his attention to the back seat where Sarah Chevral slept, head tipped back against the headrest. Her snores made Ziva's sound dainty.

"You two seem to get along pretty well."

"Yes and no." She smoothed her dress over her stomach. She'd thrown the green cotton piece into her luggage knowing full well the day would soon come when nothing would fit and she'd be tempted to strangle Tony with a pair of pregnant lady panties.

Tony reached out to knead the back of her neck. "You look good."

"I feel like crap. My pants didn't fit this morning." She stared down at her stomach. While it was no longer flat, she had yet to look noticeably pregnant.

"You're still beautiful." She tilted her neck from side to side as he rubbed it. "Have you thought of a name yet?"

"No."

Liptak hooked a right and pulled on to a narrow one-lane highway flanked on each side by low-lying scrub and muddy drainage ditches. Tony hung back. "We need a nickname at least. We can't keep calling it 'it'"

Sarah's snores broke off. "I used to call Ziva-"

"Mother."

Tony's eyes met Sarah's in the rearview mirror. She smiled her lopsided smile at him. "You know." She said. "Love, sex, and jealousy are highly underrated as motivators."

Tony's panicked gaze swiveled between mother and daughter.

Ziva gave his thigh a squeeze. "She's talking about Liptak. Not you."

"Right." Smart move DiNozzo. You had to fall in love with an assassin whose mother, by the way, just happens to rub people out for a living too. Good going.

Tony thumped the steering wheel in frustration as the traffic crept along at sloth speed. Three cars ahead of them Liptak was apparently going insane. He swerved left and right as he rode the bumper of a boat like Oldsmobile piloted by a blue haired old lady. "We're really going to have to baby proof."

"It's going to be a while before the baby's crawling around. Then we'll get those little plastic outlet covers and the baby gates."

"I was talking about the fact that guns, knives and babies don't mix. You can't sleep with a gun under your pillow with a kid in the house."

She rubbed her hardened stomach. He's right. I am so not ready for this. What am I thinking? I'm not cut out for this. He's not cut out for this. I'm going to be sick. She leaned her head against the cool glass of the window and willed the feeling to pass.

"Speaking of houses, what do you want to do about that? We need to move in together. Two bedrooms though. No way are we sleeping with the baby in our room."

Baby in our room. Our baby. Our room. Baby means no sex. No life. Not being able to work as much as I do now. I'm not meant to be a mom. Maybe we should just give it up for adoption. "Three bedrooms." She said hesitantly.

Tony moved his hand as he shifted and went back to rubbing her neck. "You want us to have separate bedrooms?"

"No."

"Thank God. Wait, you're not having twins are you?"

"No twins. Please don't throw up again."

Ahead of them, Liptak zoomed left into oncoming traffic in attempt to pass the Oldsmobile only to cut hard back into their lane to avoid an oncoming dump truck. Undeterred, he swung right and sped along the narrow gravel berm that separated the road from the drainage ditch.

Ziva reached for the wheel. "What are you doing? Follow him."

"No way. You're pregnant."

"You think I haven't noticed that detail?"

The squeal of worn out breaks pierced the air. They looked up in time to see Liptak's car roll over twice, tear through the underbrush and plummet into a drainage ditch.

Tony pulled over to the shoulder, kicking up gravel as he mashed the brakes to the floor. The Jeep came to rest on an angle. Ziva eased gingerly out of the passenger door and picked her way through the scrub to stand with Tony at the top of the ditch.

"He's not coming up." Tony said, pointing to Liptak's sedan that now floated butt up in the swampy water.

"I can see that."

Neither of them heard Sarah approach. "We're sure he's the bad guy?"

"Positive." Ziva said.

"Good." She pointed to a large bumpy log. "Because I think that's an Alligator."

The log blinked and submerged.

"I'd say so." Tony said.

"What do you say we just stay here and show the divers where to look for the body?" Ziva rubbed her arms briskly. The night had turned cool.

"You want to wait in the car?" Tony asked.

She turned on her heel. "You read my mind."

X

Sorry it took so long to update. I gave my wrist a pretty good whack, so it's been slow going here. Thank you for reading, and as always, reviews make me smile. So make me smile. Thanks, Jeanne.