Abby stared at the screen, surprised at what she saw. The bullet the surgeon had fished out of MacGyver's gut was... Well, it wasn't supposed to be possible. First, the composition of the bullet itself was unlike anything she'd ever seen. Secondly, it was a really big slug... She didn't know how it was possible for him to survive getting shot with one of those. For something that size to hit him and not kill him, and for it to be in the shape that it was, meant that it had to have been fired from a considerable distance, or from a weapon not designed for this particular ammo. Thirdly, the bullet itself also looked like it had survived a lightning storm; it was scored all over with electricity, and since Abby was an expert, she could tell that the bullet had already been embedded in MacGyver's body when this scoring happened…

She hugged her arms tightly around herself as she tried to imagine how that had happened. The thought of someone she revered as much as MacGyver experiencing something so traumatic made her a little queasy. She hated when people close to her got hurt. She remembered how groggy he was when she'd finally managed to slip away from her Lab to visit him. He'd woken up as she'd arranged the bouquet of flowers she'd made for him, and the smile he'd flashed her made her heart sing. He'd done his best to reassure her that he was going to be fine, and knowing that her beloved mentor seemed to have more lives than a box of cats, she'd believed him…until Gibbs had slipped the evidence jar into her hand as he hugged her, and his whispered orders had been for her to find out as much as she could about this before anyone realized it was gone. When she'd glanced at the jar as Gibbs pushed her gently from the room, the sheer size of the bullet had nearly paralyzed her.

Abby rubbed her hands briskly up her arms as she continued to hug herself. "Time to do a little more digging," she resolved, resorting to some of her Dark Web contacts to get more information about the bullet. Apparently, there was a rumor that surfaced two or three years ago of a new kind of ammo being made in the Middle East that matched the description of the thing in her specimen jar, but no one had confirmed its actual existence.

Wondering how on Earth MacGyver would have gotten one of these lodged in his gut, Abby searched her information at hand for more on the man himself. If she hadn't been keeping close tabs on her team since the case started, she would have had a hard time reconciling the adventurous mentor she'd met while in school with the well-traveled daredevil he'd turned out to be. She found a reference in one of McGee's emails about the binders of mission files they'd printed on this mystery man, so she followed his lead and burrowed into the Phoenix Foundation's system to see for herself. She cross referenced the Middle Eastern connection and the rumors of the ammo, and waited in disbelief as the fastest computer in her lab actually took a few minutes to process the information. When a likely mission file finally did come up, the file itself was encrypted with some of the most powerful code Abby had ever seen. The vague and redacted synopsis only created more questions than it answered. It was an interesting read in and of itself, but there were a lot of holes in the story, judging by the evidence staring at her from the jar on her table.

"The electrical scoring on the slug is the only thing that makes sense!" Abby announced to the empty room. "I need to access the encrypted part; I need to find out what else is there!" She picked up the evidence jar and squinted at the contents as she sent her mind spinning to find questions to answer. "What was so important that the Director of the Phoenix Foundation insisted on being sent in alone on this mission? Why not someone else? He has to have agents that are as competent as he is, and they have to be younger and in better condition than he is… although he did keep himself in great shape for the age he is…" She read the file again, and a cold shiver danced down her spine. "And who is this mystery 'former agent'? She sounds a little familiar."

"You think so?" Tony asked from the doorway.

She turned, planting her feet and resting her fists on her hips. "Yes, I do! And judging by that look on your face, you do too."

Tony had to nod as he tried to avoid looking guilty. "Yeah, you got me." He pushed himself away from the doorjamb he had been leaning against. "So, if I'm not the only one thinking it, what do we do next?"

"I need to get McGee down here and we'll tackle this code together. I want to find out…" She paused as she read Tony's sudden frown. "You don't like that idea?"

"I want to see what kind of story I can get out of MacGyver first, before I get McGee involved," he admitted. "And I really don't want Gibbs getting wind of this."

She nodded. "Good point. I agree." She watched him for a second as he stared at the bullet in the jar that sat on her desk. "What are you thinking?"

Rare vulnerability showed on his face as he looked down. "I miss my friend."

She threw her arms around him and crushed him with a hug. "I do too!"

"If it really was Ziva that MacGyver worked with, then he's seen her more recently than any of us. He knows how she's doing right now, and he hasn't chosen to share that information with us. According to his mission files, it's classified at the highest levels, so it could be that he'd love to tell us, but can't. But if it is Ziva and he's not telling us… It's hard not to be frustrated at that."

She watched his face for a moment. "What are you going to do?"

"Mac's gonna be in the hospital for another day or two. I think I'm going to go talk to him." He grinned, but it didn't look particularly happy. "If he's stuck in a hospital bed, he'll have a hard time evading me. Besides, he's so medicated right now, he might not know what he's saying."

Abby looked back at her computer screens. "Tony, I…I don't know how I feel about this," she admitted. His silence was uncharacteristic, so she soldiered on. "On one hand, I desperately wanted to know about our friend. On the other, I still…" She broke off as an embarrassed flush pinked her cheeks.

"What is it, Abs?" Tony asked, stepping closer and encouraging her to look up at him.

"MacGyver was the first person to believe in me, to show me that I could achieve my life-long dream of becoming a Forensic Scientist. He's one of my heroes, and now we're talking about him like he's just another suspect that we need to break." She expected Tony to interrupt her, but he didn't. "I need to to know how Ziva is as badly as you do, Tony… But I don't want to take down one of my heroes to do it."