a/n - since you guys asked so nicely.........

It was after midnight before Abby returned to her lab. She had grabbed a quick bite of food and driven around for hours, going to every place McGee had ever taken her or mentioned to her, and nowhere had she seen his car. He was not answering his phone and she had left over a dozen voice mails, none of which had been returned. Frustrated, she wandered around the lab, hoping for an inspiration. In all the years she had known him, McGee had never acted this way before. Acting more on instinct than thought, she turned to her computer.

Upstairs, Ziva finished with her last contact. Every person she knew from DC to Panama to Moscow, all the way to Seoul, Korea and not one of them could tell her anything concrete. Only a vague sense of uneasiness, not even a solid rumor was threading through the network of contacts she had developed since her first days of training with the Mossad. Discouraged, she shut down her computer and prepared to leave. In the nearly empty parking lot she spotted Abby's car and became suspicious. This late at night, the elevator bell was loud and jarring, so Ziva ignored the luxury and slipped down the back stairs.

"Don't." A hissed voice and a hand grabbing her wrist almost sent Abby to her knees. Before she could yell or defend herself, Abby was pulled away from the computer and the search canceled. Her wrist still gripped tightly, she was frog marched into her office and shoved into the chair with enough force to force it back against the desk.

"Are you crazy or are you really trying to kill McGee?" Ziva pulled out her weapon and slammed it onto the desk. "If you're so determined to kill him, at least do it quickly and with some mercy."

Abby blinked at the venom in Ziva's tone. "That's a terrible thing to say to me, Ziva. Everyone keeps telling me that McGee's in trouble and I just want to find out what's wrong. Why is that a bad thing?"

Ziva retrieved her gun and started pacing in the small room. "Because you are meddling in things you do not understand. Because you are not a field agent and you do not know what has happened." She stopped suddenly and clutched the armrests of the chair, leaning into Abby's face. Because you were told specifically not to do it."

"So you know what is going on." Even Abby didn't know why she couldn't let go.

"What I know is that McGee is working on something that has brought him to the attention of some very dangerous people. People who have a way to find out details about the investigation. Think about it Abby. Those FBI agents hadn't even left the courthouse before their case was compromised. If they wanted to find McGee, they didn't have to search for him, all they had to do was follow your computer trail." When Abby's face started to crumple into tears, Ziva backed off and sat on the edge of the desk.

"Why didn't he go to Gibbs? When we're in trouble, we're supposed to go to Gibbs." Spent, Abby sagged back in her chair. "We're supposed to go to Gibbs."

That question had haunted Ziva since the first moment she realized McGee was in trouble. "I think… I think something happened to McGee when we were after Kale. The rest of us were too focused on hunting Kale to see what was it was. One thing I learned in Mossad," Ziva waited until Abby was looking at her. "Often you only have a moment to make a decision and once it is made, you have to keep going with it. When McGee can tell us, he will. Until then, we must have faith."

"Tony said we just have to trust McGee."

"Tony is only half right. It is more important that we do not do anything that would threaten his trust in us." When the Goth didn't have anything else to say, Ziva held out her hand. "Come, Abby, I will walk you out to your car."

---NCIS---

Fornell arrived back at the apartment to find Jason slumped on the sofa, snoring as Tim sat in the dark at the computer. "When I talked to Myers, he said you were sleeping."

"Tried." McGee shrugged as he rubbed his chest. "Figured I might as well work as stare at the ceiling." To prove his point, he leaned forward and hit a few keys on the keyboard, starting another search. Fornell leaned over his shoulder to see what he was doing, and Tim took pity on him and explained the new searches. "I'm running financials on Lacy and on Moore's other lieutenants on this computer."

"And on that one?"

McGee rubbed at his chest again. "I've been reviewing Moore's speeches, looking for more incidents where he uses specific phrases repeatedly, and…"

"And what, kid?" Tobias could see the tension in the younger man's posture

"I thought if I could get a better understanding of the way he thinks, maybe all these files and findings would start to make better sense. Maybe I could figure out what he's going to try to do; maybe stop somebody else from getting hurt." Now, Tobias realized, they were getting to the heart of the matter.

He pulled another chair up and sat next to McGee. "It wasn't your fault. We all agreed that arresting Lacy was worth the risk. He had to know something we could use."

"For all the good it did. Now two good men are in the hospital and Lacy is brain dead. Have you heard, when are they removing him from life support?" The reflected light from the monitor made Tim's skin an unhealthy color.

Fornell sighed. "They're not, his family refused to allow it."

"That's not right."

Another sigh. "It's their choice, Tim. We may not agree with it, but his family has the right to…"

"No, that's not what I meant." McGee sat up straight, quickly scrolling back through what he had been reading. Finding it, he pointed it out to Fornell as he explained. "Moore's group is very anti-modern medicine. He and Lacy both have even lectured about the evils of life support. Listen to this from a speech he gave two months ago. 'No doctor has the right to hold on to a soul that has been called home by God.' Why would they change their minds like that?"

Fornell wasn't comfortable with the subject under the best of circumstances. "Theory is one thing, kid, but when it's the reality of your own family…"

"No. Moore doesn't do anything without a reason… so, what was his reason?" McGee sounded so sure of himself at first. It took a few seconds for Fornell to realize that it wasn't doubt, but deep thought that caused McGee's words to fade off.

"Kid, tell me what you're thinking."

Distracted, McGee repeated himself. "Moore doesn't do anything without a reason."

"Yeah…" Tobias knew McGee was headed somewhere with this, but he was too tired to see where yet.

"Once Lacy is declared dead, the family loses control of the body, right? He was murdered while in custody, so there has to be an investigation, an autopsy. The family can't stop it from happening except by not turning off the machines."

Fornell hated the reminder that someone had died in his team's custody; or at least would die as soon as the machines were shut off. "Yeah…"

"Why doesn't he want us to examine the body?"

"Crap." Fornell shook his head. He really was tired if McGee had to spoon feed him facts for him to see them. McGee wasn't finished either.

"Lacy had grown children, right?" As he asked, McGee scooted over to another computer and started another search. "Didn't I see somewhere that they work in the organization?"

Fornell had been after this group for most of his career, he'd seen those two boys grow up. "One of them is Moore's driver, but I don't know about the other one."

By now, McGee had found him in the files. "Other one is Kevin. Moore put him through college for a degree in…" He quickly scrolled through the data, "oh, God."

"What?"

"Kevin Lacy has his doctorate in Biological Sciences, specializing in infectious diseases. Now he works for a small research firm owned by one of Moore's shell companies. They send weekly updates to Moore with heavier encryption than any of the other files he receives."

That was troublesome on many levels, but Fornell filed it away for later. "Until we have access to the body, there's not much we can do. I can ask the doctors to take some blood samples for our lab, but even that might be tricky."

"The body…" McGee stood up, a look of horror on his face. "The body, that's not the only body. Phone, I need your phone." Fornell had barely pulled it out of his pocket before McGee took it from him and started dialing.

~Gibbs.~

"Boss, it's me. I need you to listen very carefully. We need guards on the body from today."

~Guards? I guarantee you she's dead, McGee.~

"I know, Gibbs, but they want her back." In the background McGee could hear the squeal of tires as Gibbs pulled a tight u-turn and he knew his boss wasn't wasting time as he asked questions.

~Why?~

"When we know the answer to that, we'll know the answer to a lot of our questions." He heard Gibbs disconnect and nodded to Fornell, relieved but still worried that they weren't in time.

---NCIS---

Gibbs didn't toss the phone on the seat as he was known to do; instead he immediately started dialing and barking orders the second the phone was picked up, not waiting for a hello.

"DiNozzo, where are you?"

~Home, Boss, what's up?~

"Get back to the Yard now. I'll meet you there." He disconnected and went straight to the next number.

"David, where are you?"

~Just leaving the Yard, Gibbs.~

"Turn around. They're going to make a run at the body from today. Notify security to shut down the building. I'm fifteen minutes out."