a/n - It's great to hear how much you guys are liking this one. BTW, there are 34 chapters in all, and it should be a wild ride right to the end.
It was a somber group that left Bethesda and returned to the Navy Yard. Once they were in Vance's office, he started barking out orders. "Dr. Mallard, Mr. Palmer, McGee's three bodies downstairs are your top priority. Every other case needs to be either put on hold or transferred."
"Director, may I suggest issuing a Zulu five."
The FBI agents, Ziva and Palmer looked at each other blankly. For Palmer's sake, Ducky explained his suggestion. "It's a security protocol that was established after our first run in with Ari. Once we have autopsy locked down, only the Director or Agent Gibbs will be able to over-ride the system and gain access to us."
Instead of responding to the request, Vance next turned to Gibbs. "We still have to make a decision about Miss Sciuto, but in the meantime, I do not want her to handle the lab work for this case. Do you have anyone in mind that you trust?"
"May I make a suggestion?" Fornell moved closer as he spoke. When Vance nodded, he continued. "Mildred Novak runs the secure lab at Quantico and has been in charge of all our lab work until now. She's qualified, already been vetted, and is up to speed on the case."
"Get her here now." Vance opened the wall safe and removed a lockbox. Inside the box was an elevator key. Gibbs raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as they all filed out of the office and into the back elevator. Vance used the key instead of the down button and turned to face the back wall of the elevator. Gibbs shrugged at the rest of the group and faced the same direction with the rest of them following suit. They stopped and the back opened up to a dimly lit corridor.
"This part of NCIS was built during the cold war and redesigned after 9-11. Other than emergency drills, it's never been used… until now. Dr. Mallard, I am afraid we are well beyond a Zulu five." At the end of the corridor Vance stopped for both an eye and hand scan. Once those both responded with a green light, the voice activated panel lit up, waiting for him.
Entry gained, Vance led the group on a near silent tour of the hidden wing of their building. North of the elevator, a second autopsy room was next to a medical unit and across from a well equipped lab. Austere, but adequate sleeping quarters and a small kitchen rounded out that side of the facility. The south side consisted of several small conference rooms and a much larger version of MTAC, with double the number of computer stations covering the back wall. The explanation, when it came, was simple. "This was designed for a worst case scenario of possible chemical, nuclear, or biological attack."
Fornell's answer was just as simple. "I'm afraid we may be at that point, sir."
It took almost two more hours before all the members of the group present were fully authorized to access the system, including Mildred Novak who arrived just as Vance and Gibbs were headed upstairs. Ducky and Palmer began conducting autopsies on the three bodies while Fornell and David started to sort out the data brought from the safe house that morning.
---NCIS---
"How is he?" Ron Sacks entered the CICU at almost a run, much to the displeasure of the nurses on duty. Myers pushed away from the wall to greet him, while DiNozzo didn't look away from the window into McGee's room
"He's going to be okay." Myers and Sacks moved further away from the window while Jason brought his partner up to speed on the events of the day. Tony kept glancing at his watch and stepped through the door the second his ten minute visit could start.
Tony smiled at the nurse checking McGee's EKG. It looked reasonably normal to him and she seemed pleased, so he stepped closer to the bed without stopping to question her. "Hey, Tim," he leaned over and spoke quietly in the resting man's ear. "I'm so sorry you had to go through this alone, buddy, but no more. We're going to be with you every step of the way from now on, you have my word."
"He wasn't alone." Sacks' voice behind him made DiNozzo stiffen up. "The guys and I made sure he wasn't ever alone." Even though it should have, somehow that did not make Tony feel any better.
---NCIS---
"What do you want done with her?" Vance and Gibbs stood in the observation room, watching Abby sleeping on the other side of the mirror. Gibbs was a little surprised at the question.
"I have a say in this?"
Vance had found his hidden stash of toothpicks, much to his relief as he chewed on one. "She's attached more to your team than any other team here. You're the one that will have to deal with the results on a daily basis, so yes, you get a say in this."
Mentally reviewing the last few weeks, Gibbs knew he had to find some middle ground for everybody's sake. "McGee's been though enough and lost enough people since all this started. As angry as I am at her behavior, I don't want him to take on any misplaced guilt about Abby. Let me talk to her first." Vance watched as he walked out the door and then into the interrogation room.
Gibbs looked up at the mirror once before sitting at the table. Instead of yelling and slamming something on the table, he just whispered her name.
"Abby?" It was enough as she slowly raised her head, blinking at him as she wiped her face.
"Is McGee all right?" For once, her first thoughts were about him and not her. Something inside Gibbs relaxed just a bit at that.
"He's stable and in the cardiac intensive care surrounded by guards to keep him safe." He waited to see how she would react.
"Is it our guys or the FBI protecting him? Are we going to lose him to the FBI, Gibbs?"
"I don't know yet, Abby. Right now we have to focus on the case, on his case. We owe that to him." Gibbs stared at her until she started squirming in her chair.
"I really screwed up this time didn't I? How do I fix it, Gibbs? How do I make it right with McGee?"
Instead of answering, he turned back to the mirror and nodded. After a moment, the door opened and Vance stepped through, carrying a thick file from Fornell. He sat down next to Gibbs as the other man finally answered her.
Gibbs leaned back in his chair to watch her reaction as he spoke. "I'm not sure you can fix it Abby, at least not until you understand why you did it." Instead of saying anything, she just shrugged her shoulders without looking him in the eye. Vance stepped in to start asking the hard questions.
"Why were you so mad at him when you found out he used another lab, or were you angry with him before that?"
She didn't answer the Director either, so Gibbs also pushed her. "What was it Abs? What did he do to piss you off during the Kale case?" He could see the answer simmering right below the surface, so he slammed his hands down on the table and yelled at her. "What was it, Abby? What got you so riled up at him?"
"He didn't come see me. Everyone went on a dinner break and he didn't come get me." Even Abby was surprised at her yelled response and threw her hands over her mouth. Vance didn't give Gibbs a chance to respond.
"Let me get this straight; McGee found out his father had just died and you're angry that he went to break the news to his sister instead of taking you out to dinner?"
"I didn't know about his dad, I just knew…"
"Knew what, Miss Sciuto? That you weren't the center of his universe at that moment?"
"Timmy always comes to me when a case is bad and he didn't come to me and that means that it was so bad that he couldn't or he was hurt and didn't want me to worry because he never wants me to worry, but I worry more if I don't know that I'm not supposed to worry. And then he took blood to somebody else's lab and I didn't know why and I was still worried and I was scared and I do stupid stuff when I'm scared. Okay?" Her volume continued to rise as she babbled, until at the end she was crying and screaming as she repeated herself. "I do stupid stuff when I'm scared."
Part of Gibbs wanted to hug her and tell her it would be all right, but the case was too big and the potential for devastation too great to let go of the risk she had been willing to ignore. Risks to McGee would have been bad enough, but after being briefed by Fornell about what McGee and the task force had discovered, he understood how far-reaching the risks had become. "It was beyond stupid, Abs. Vance was right, it may have become criminal."
She was still sniffling and wiping her nose with the back of her hand as she moaned. "No…" Vance interrupted her, slamming his fist on the file.
"Our field agents depend on our lab, Miss Sciuto; you are their very lifeline in a case. They need to know we have their backs at all times, even when it's bad, especially when it's bad. They need you to be calm and rational with your concerns." Vance leaned back and took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. "I've read through what happened, and I think, under the same circumstances, I would have had to make the same decisions McGee made. He was in an unconceivable position, and it took a great deal of strength to do what he did."
He finally had her attention and she nodded slowly, as realization started to creep across her face. "He might have confided in me as a friend if I hadn't treated him so mean."
"At least knowing the option was there would have made his burden easier to endure." His point finally through, Vance outlined what the young woman would have to do to return to the lab and the team she deeply loved.
---NCIS---
Ducky and Palmer stood in the airlock as they removed their hazmat suits before moving on to the next stage of decontamination. Palmer seemed shocked at the level of procedures they used, as it was much more involved than when the plague filled envelope was opened in the squad room. Ducky was taking no chances with whatever was hidden in these bodies. Once the samples were safely delivered to Mildred in the lab, he found Fornell and then went off to find Gibbs.
Luckily the events of the day had not affected Gibbs' innate ability to know when he was needed, and was just stepping off the elevator with Vance when Ducky came out of the lab. "Gentlemen?" With a tilt of his head, he had the three following him into the unused medical unit in the secret wing of NCIS.
For someone who loved rambling stories, Ducky could be straight to the point when it was necessary. "Agent Fornell, can the case continue without Agent McGee?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure." Tobias thought about what they had so far, and the holes left to fill. "With McGee, we have the computer knowledge combined with the instincts of a well trained field agent. He's gotten further in just a few days than any of our cybercrime guys got in years. We know a lot, and have a lot still to work with, but we don't know what Moore is planning. Instead of chasing him, we need to be able to anticipate what his big plan is, and for that we need McGee."
Gibbs was having none if it. "No, no, no, he's in intensive care, remember? He's been through enough; it's time the rest of us took up the slack. He needs to recover." The glare Fornell received showed that his time as Tim's surrogate father had ended and he was now considered a threat to the young man. The FBI agent refused to think about how much that hurt as he argued.
"Do you really think he's just going to walk away from the case after all its put him through?"
Ducky broke in before it could get ugly. "I fear Agent Fornell may be right, and we're going to be forced to find some middle ground."
Middle ground had been hard enough to reach upstairs, Gibbs wasn't ready to start again, but Ducky would not be persuaded.
"His helpless father was murdered by these animals and now he has lost his mother and his sister to their threats. Whatever Moore and his people are planning, after ten years and thousands of murders, it is obviously something devastating. Timothy is too good of a son, too good of an agent to simply say his shift is over and then walk away."
"What are you suggesting, doctor?" Vance knew McGee's input would probably be necessary, but it would do no good if the man keeled over again.
"If he suffers no further fluid build up over the next forty-eight hours, his recovery will be simply that, recovery. This medical facility," Ducky paused and waved his arms around, "is more than adequate for his needs, and Mr. Palmer and I can certainly watch over him. There is some additional medical equipment we will need, but Bethesda can provide what we need."
In the end, it was an easy decision for the Director, even if Gibbs was worried that McGee would push himself too hard, too soon, despite Ducky's assurances that he could monitor McGee closely enough.