a/n - Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, you guys are the best.
McGee winced as he rolled over and reached for his watch. He rubbed his eyes as the numbers came into focus. As he stared at the time and date shown on the watch face, Sacks came in with pills and a glass of water. "Wednesday? You let me sleep an entire day?" He forced himself to sit up as he glared at the white tablets in Ron's hand. "What the hell is in those pills?"
"Muscle relaxants and pain killers, if they put you to sleep that hard, you probably needed it." Sacks continued to hold out his hand, waiting for McGee to take the pills. "Come on, man, you need them."
"No, what I need is to get to work. We've lost an entire day." McGee swung his legs over the edge of the bed as he struggled to stand up. Sacks dropped the pills on the nightstand and pushed him back down.
"No, we haven't. Just because you're the one with the computer brains, doesn't mean you're the only one working on this. The lab is knee deep in samples and we're still charting the results like you started. This isn't the kind of case that gets solved in a few days or by one person. That's why we work in teams." When McGee stopped trying to stand up and just sat on the edge of the bed, Sacks slumped down beside him. "I know we're not your team, but…"
"But you guys have had my back ever since this has started. I appreciate it, I really do, but I want my life back and that's not going to happen until Edmund Moore and his group of crackpots are put away. My sister turns twenty-one next week. She's in a strange town, somewhere, and I'm not there to make sure she doesn't do something stupid. I'm not there, do you have any idea what that's like?"
Ron didn't answer right away. Being an only child made some things harder to understand, but then he thought about earlier in the week and realized he understood, if just a little bit. "It would be like sitting a couple of blocks away when a junior agent goes in for a simple interview and shots are fired. You don't know if the kid you're worried about is dead or alive. At least Gibbs and DiNozzo were with you and knew the vest stopped the bullets."
"I'm sorry, man." As close as he had worked with Fornell's team over the last week, he never considered that they would care about him. "I guess that would have been rough, but I'm okay now and it's time to get back to work."
Sacks sighed as he shook his head. "What do you need?"
McGee carefully straightened and felt the twinges across his chest. "How about some aspirin, some coffee and some help getting upright?"
---NCIS---
Fornell arrived after briefing the director to find McGee engrossed in the code scrolling across two computer screens and blocks of color on two more. Myers and Thompson walked through the door right behind him. Sacks nodded at them as he handed McGee several aspirins and some water. The interruption didn't even cause him to break stride as he worked the keyboard while Fornell observed. "What's he doing?"
"Haven't a clue." As Sacks watched, the colored blocks dissolved into text on first one screen and then the other. McGee gave a sub-vocal cheer and kept working. "Whatever it is, he's successful at it." After a few more keystrokes he gave a louder cheer and turned around.
"Ron, can you call and have… oh, Fornell, you're here already." The four FBI agents snickered at his surprise before they got serious again. Tobias moved closer to see what was on the screen and realized he left his glasses in the car.
"What have you got, kid?"
McGee winced slightly as he moved, but he leaned back with his fingers interlaced behind his head and a satisfied smirk on his face. "What do you think would happen if one of Moore's lieutenants were more scared of him than of us?"
Fornell narrowed his eyes as he thought about the question. "What did you find?"
"Raymond Lacy, name ring a bell?" McGee waited for recognition; it didn't take long.
"He's one of Moore's right hand men. What about him?" Fornell accepted a coffee mug from Thompson while he listened.
"Raymond's been a naughty boy; I can prove he's been embezzling money from Moore. I don't think Moore's going to like that very much, what do you think?"
"Embezzling, are you sure?" Fornell shouldn't have been surprised, but he was. Myers was just humored.
"That's rich; the accountant is stealing from the terrorist. Welcome to the modern world. How much money are we talking about?"
"Half a million and some change, and it gets better." McGee's calm announcement had Fornell spraying coffee across the room.
While Fornell coughed and Thompson mopped up coffee, Sacks asked the obvious question. "How does it get better than that?"
"Instead of taking the money out of Moore's personal funds or one of the shell companies we're tracking, he stole it from one of the charities he bankrolls. We can go after Lacy and never touch anything regarding our real investigation." McGee waited while the rest of the group processed what he said.
"You mean…"
McGee nodded, pretty sure where Fornell was headed. "The discovery can be made during a pretty routine check of their non-profit status by the IRS, and they in turn…"
"Would hand the investigation over to the FBI. It's brilliant." Fornell already had his phone out. "Time to call my buddy in their enforcement division, we can have Lacy in custody this afternoon."
---NCIS---
"Hey, it's pretty quiet in here." Tony set the Caf-Pow on the bench next to Abby's elbow. "Where's the music?" He pretended not to notice as she wiped her face before taking the drink.
"Didn't feel like it." She took a small sip and set the cup aside. Tony knew that it wouldn't take long; the one thing Abby could not do was keep quiet when something was upsetting her. "Why didn't he trust us, Tony? Why didn't he trust Gibbs? I mean Gibbs is Gibbs, you know, and not trusting Gibbs is like not trusting that the sun will come up tomorrow because it has to come up, because it's the sun. If he can't trust us anymore, then how can we trust him and if we can't trust each other then there can't be a team and then what's going to happen if we're not a team anymore?" Sniffing, she leaned her head against DiNozzo's shoulder.
"Abby, when you found out about my undercover assignment with Jeanne, did you stop trusting me?"
"What? No, of course not." She straightened up and punched him in the arm. "How could you even ask me something like that?"
He continued, hoping she would see the similarity. "But I lied to you and I kept things from you."
"You were undercover, you didn't have a choice."
"Are you sure McGee has a choice?" When his question silenced the Goth, he pressed his point home. "Whatever he's caught up in, I think he's in trouble and he's scared, even if he won't admit it. Trust isn't about telling us what's going on, it's about knowing the people you depend on are going to have your back when things go bad. I don't know what's going on, but I still trust McGee and I hope he trusts me." Tony rapped his knuckles on the table twice before walking out of the lab. He wasn't sure he'd gotten through to her, but he hoped she had something to think about now.
---NCIS---
A warrant for the arrest of Raymond Lacy was issued quickly and quietly by a federal judge and handed over to Thompson and Sacks who took great pleasure in arresting Lacy at his office in front of dozens of employees. They expected the murmurs of questions and protests. They expected Moore to be furious at being robbed by someone he trusted. They expected Moore to turn his back on the man who had served by his side for over twenty years. What they did not expect was the sniper shot that sent their car careening down the steep embankment to land upside down in the river.