a/n - Formatting is fixed, baby is asleep, toddler is on a time-out, so I'm slipping online to post another chapter for you guys. Enjoy the "double-dip" day.
Fornell was careful to call out to the dog as he unlocked the apartment door. Jethro stood growling at him until he was apparently satisfied and then bounded over to sit on Tobias' foot. He winced at the weight before shaking his head and laughing. "Come on, mutt; let's get your dad packed up. Clothes and toiletries were packed into the suitcase he found on the closet floor while a box sufficed for the many doggie items in the apartment. When he informed the large dog that he was spoiled, all he got in response was a doggie grin.
His last stop was the mailbox for the apartment. Using the small key attached to the ring Tim had given him he pulled out a large stack of envelopes, catalogs and magazines. Tobias couldn't help but notice one of the envelopes had the return address of a lawyer in Tim's hometown. Making a mental note to give it to McGee in private, he wedged the entire stack in the box and headed out to the car.
---NCIS---
The rain had stopped by the time Gibbs and Ziva were ready to return to headquarters. He'd called McGee twice with details he wanted researched and Ziva had used the internet connection at the recruiter's office to email photos of the crime scene to him. Gibbs felt confident that the information would keep McGee deskbound for the rest of the week. Over the phone the young man had sounded tired and distracted, but had insisted he was fine. Frustrated, Gibbs decided to explore other avenues in getting McGee to open up.
"Has McGee confided in you?"
"What?" That was the last question Ziva was expecting while she read the text from DiNozzo.
Gibbs knew he wasn't good at the touchy feely stuff, and a trained Mossad officer probably wasn't much better, but he was running out of options. "I'm not asking you to break a confidence. I just want to know if he's letting anyone help him besides…"
"Besides Fornell?" Apparently his spy knew more than he was expecting.
"You know about Fornell?"
She wasn't quite sure how to say it. "They have become close of late. I do not know when it started, but McGee has been acting strangely since the Kale case. I believe…"
They were stopped at a red light, so Gibbs turned to give her his full attention. "You believe what?"
Ziva thought back to that night and the moment when McGee's mood suddenly changed. "I believe he tried to tell us what was wrong the night we broke the case, before the dinner break."
That matched up with what his gut had been telling him for the last two days. "He hasn't given you any indication of what the problem is?"
"No, he has barely spoken at all to myself or to Tony. Perhaps Abby?"
Gibbs winced at the thought as Ziva continued. "Could there be a problem with Sarah?
"Sarah's fine." When she gave him a questioning look he clarified his statement. "I asked, and he said she was fine. McGee won't lie to me, Ziva."
That was one thing she knew for sure about McGee too. "You just need to be able to ask him the right question."
Once they were parked at NCIS, Gibbs sent Ziva upstairs to start working on the case while he took the box of evidence to Abby.
"What have you got for me, Gibbs?" She bounced over and tried to take the box, but Gibbs hung onto it.
"First off, what do you have for me, Abby?" When she stared at him, blankly, he reminded her. "You were supposed to call and find out about that blood test McGee had done, and have you finished analyzing that substance Sacks brought for him?"
She looked embarrassed to be caught, but had an excuse at the ready. "I've been busy, Gibbs. Both Balboa's team and Jacob's had a lot of evidence come in this week."
"If you were that backlogged, you should have asked for help." He gave her a hard look. "Or was it just McGee you couldn't get to? He's always been a friend to you, I thought you were a friend to him." The gentle rebuke hung in the air as Gibbs set the box on the table and left the lab.
---NCIS---
Fornell met up with the FBI's members of the task force after dropping Jethro off at his house. Hank Thompson smirked while Sacks and Myers openly laughed at the dog hair on his black wool overcoat and the suitcases in his arms.
"Apparently you talked him into moving in here." Sacks was still grinning as he took the luggage from his boss and tossed it into the bedroom. Behind him Thompson held out his hand while Myers dug for his wallet. "Where is the dog?"
"My place, he knows me but I wasn't sure how he'd react to you bozos without McGee around." Quickly he caught the rest of them up on the possible threat to McGee and his family and how it was being handled. "I'm not losing another agent to Moore and his army of lunatics, especially not this kid. Now, what have you three found?"
Jason Myers and Hank Thompson were the first to give their report. It had been slow and tedious, but Myers had linked the shell company Moore used to an additional five nursing home chains. So far he'd been able to track the spread over fourteen states. Thompson took over the report to show the time frame of Moore's acquisition of the homes. It showed an aggressive move that started picking up speed about a year earlier. Fornell interrupted him with a question.
"Have we looked at the death rates of these home since Moore bought them out, compared them to before?"
"We were only able to get the data from the ones he's had controlling interest in for over a year." Sacks started to explain why his results were so limited. "Anything more recent than that isn't in the system yet."
Fornell made a mental note to get McGee on that. "From the data you were able to get, what did you find?"
"The death rates have doubled." When he saw the shocked expression, he rushed to give the rest of his discoveries. "They've also shifted their primary focus to more severely ill patients, more welfare cases and more patients with no family to speak of."
"In other words, more patients whose deaths wouldn't attract suspicions."
Jason nodded at Fornell's statement. "It looks like your kid is really onto something here."
---NCIS---
McGee was buried in his computer when Gibbs entered the squad room, while Tony and Ziva hovered nearby. "What have you got for me so far, McGee?"
"I'm trying to match up some of the bomb components you photographed, but nothing yet." His voice was rougher than it was before the rest of the team left and the congestion seemed worse.
"Keep at it, McGee." Gibbs glared at the two bookends at each end of McGee's desk. "What are you two doing?"
It was almost comical how they scurried back to their desks, but neither Gibbs nor McGee were in a mood for humor. Ziva reached her desk first as she announced that she would be going over witness statements while DiNozzo stated his intentions to review surveillance videos from nearby stores. Gibbs gave them one more glare for good measure before turning his attention to the history of that particular recruiter's office.
Less than an hour later Gibbs looked up to find McGee standing in front of his desk. "Boss, I need to use one of the terminals down in cybercrimes to run the financials on Sergeant O'Dell."
"Is there a problem with your computer?" He remembered a few times McGee had needed the larger capacity computers in MTAC, but never the ones down in cybercrimes.
McGee shook his head as he tried to explain in non-geek terms to his boss. "I've got seven search patterns running on my computer right now, tracing the bomb parts. It doesn't have the capacity for another search, and none of the other computers up here have the program I need."
Gibbs' expression changed from curious to questioning. "What program?"
"It's one I wrote to more efficiently look for anomalies in a person's financials. They started to beta test it a few months ago for me. Since the sergeant was driving a car that costs more than his annual salary…"
"Follow the money. Good thinking, McGee." He waited until Tim was walking away before continuing. "After we finish the case, show me this program of yours and what it can do, all right?" McGee almost stumbled in shock and Gibbs realized how seldom he acknowledged the young man's contributions to the team.
"Umm, sure Boss, I'm supposed to give a demonstration to the Director pretty soon. Would you like to sit in on that?" When Gibbs gave a nod, he continued to the elevator. "Somebody will need to prompt my computer once in a while when it asks if you want the next search to start. Just click on the yes when it chimes."
"I think even I can handle that, McGee." Gibbs was glad to see a glimmer of a smile cross his agent's face as he walked away.
When McGee's computer chirped at him less than ten minutes later he wasn't so sure, but eventually he figured out which mouse went to which monitor. Before he could return to his own desk, McGee's phone rang and Gibbs answered it automatically.
"McGee's desk."
~Is Tim McGee available?~
"He's away from his desk, can I give him a message?" Gibbs refused to think about why he was playing secretary to one of his agents or why he wasn't just transferring the call downstairs.
~Tell him this is Marcie from Dr. Charbonneau's office and the file he requested has been sent, but Dr. Charbonneau still expects to see him at our office. He has the number if he has any other questions.~
McGee may or may not have any questions, but Gibbs certainly did. However, he knew he wasn't going to get them from Marcie. He checked the caller ID for the number and wrote it down for himself before leaving a note for McGee.
Marcie called, said you had the number.
Once that was done, he headed down to autopsy, determined to know what was going on.