Frank began to respond, but McGruder put up a hand, silencing him. He thought it was time to bring the matter to a head. To put Young on the spot, to see how she would react. He had a great deal of respect for the woman. She was a fine agent and had been doing damn good work with Hood for the past year. Work that, in his opinion, went far beyond that expected of a handler or bodyguard. He hadn't put much credence into Dilworth's accusations; but after arriving in Deale, he wasn't so sure.

"What's your call here Agent Young? I assume Hood filled you in on what happened? Do you think Dilworth was justified?"

Rachel shifted uneasily in her seat. "Sir, I have Hood's version of what happened. I wouldn't like to second-guess Agent Dilworth; after all, he was there, not me."

McGruder refused to let her off the hook. "Loyalty to the service only goes so far. Dilworth claims that Hood wanted to act on a wild hunch, go out banging on doors in the worst part of Boston in the middle of the night; that square with what Hood told you?"

"Pretty much," Rachel admitted.

"So, would you have done the same as Dilworth?"

At this Rachel sat up straighter, squared her shoulders and responded crisply.

"No, sir, I wouldn't."

Dilworth blurted out, "I told you, Agent Young has developed a personal relationship with Dr. Hood and is incapable of acting effectively as his bodyguard. In my opinion, she has no control over Hood; she let him run wild, so of course he resented my reining him in."

"If I may continue," Rachel responded icily.

McGruder nodded.

"I wouldn't have acted as Agent Dilworth did for two reasons. First, basic physics."

"Physics," McGruder was confused, "what's that have to do…"

"Mass and energy," Rachel answered crisply. "Hood is taller and heavier than me. Greater mass as it were. For me to move that mass, I would have to expend a great deal of energy. Enough energy that Hood might be injured, even if only slightly."

"And," Rachel glared at Dilworth, "I do not believe that it is appropriate to injure or physically overpower a protectee unless faced with a clear, immediate threat to his life or safety."

McGruder considered her answer. "Reasonable, so what's your second reason?"

Rachel lifted her chin. "Past experience. I've worked with Hood for over a year now. I've learned to respect his hunches." Rachel smiled, recalling something Hood had told her early in their association, "after all, once upon a time even gravity was just a hunch."

Jacob broke in, "See, I told you, Dilworth was being unreasonable. I can assure you, if Rachel had been with me in Boston, things would have gone differently."

McGruder considered this carefully. "You really think things would have been different? Why? What makes her so much better than anyone else the EPD supplies? You have to know, there was quite some comment when your parade of handlers ended with Agent Young."

Jacob flushed angrily, "yes, I'm aware that some people," he threw a dirty look in Dilworth's direction, "seem to think I like having Rachel around because she's a pretty blonde. I'm not sure which is the greater insult; to my character or to her competence."

"I like, having Rachel around because, unlike the other idiots you saddled me with," jerking his head toward Dilworth "she is both intelligent and has a fair share of curiosity. Both things being vital to the work we do."

"But Jacob," Frank objected, "she's just your bodyguard and handler."

"Maybe she started out that way, but that changed, I consider her an equal partner in our investigations. The contributions she makes to my work are invaluable. And that is why if Rachel had been with me in Boston, things would have been different." Jacob sat back, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the men in front of him.

McGruder looked over at Rachel. "So," he said softly, "equal partner? Ok, I'll buy that, so what would have been done differently? I take it you would have let Hood here go out on his little baby hunt?"

Rachel was appalled. "Of course not sir, that was an incredibly stupid idea."

Jacob was shocked, "Rachel, you said that you agreed with me, that what Dilworth did was wrong!"

Rachel looked over at him, "Yeah, Dilworth was wrong in what he did to you, but I gotta say, he was right about your plan, it sucked."

McGruder was beginning to be amused. "So, his plan sucked, but you respect his hunches, how do you stop him and what do you do instead?"

"Again, I have the advantage over Dilworth, I know Hood. He responds best to logic. I could have stopped him with a simple question."

"My plan did not suck!" Jacob was indignant. "What question?"

"Ok, it's the middle of the night, a man and a woman came banging on Alex's door. They claim they're with the FBI, but hey, she can't confirm it, 'cause did I mention it's the middle of the night? They insist that she go upstairs, get Owen and turn him over to them for unspecified medical tests. So, what's Alex gonna do?"

Jacob grimaced. "You mean before or after she calls the cops?"

Rachel again addressed McGruder. "If Hood said he needed those babies, he needed them. I would have sent the cops .."

Jacob interrupted, "but it would have taken forever to convince them to cooperate."

Rachel ignored this interruption. "I'd then have gotten Hood back to the hospital ASAP. Maybe if he'd gotten there earlier," she shrugged, "who knows?" She added softly, almost to herself, "I would have handled things differently from the beginning."

"Really," McGruder challenged her, "how?"

Rachel stiffened, "Sir, it's one thing to explain how I would have handled a specific situation differently from Agent Dilworth where he and I share basically the same information. I don't think I should be second guessing how Agent Dilworth acted throughout the entire case, he was there, I wasn't."

"Missy," McGruder barked, "I'm ordering you to second guess him."

Rachel glared at her boss, missy indeed!

"Fine," she snapped, "I can accept the police or the local office not being notified when Hood was first called to Boston..."

"Why?" McGruder questioned.

"Not all of the cases we handle involve a direct threat to Hood's life."

"Like in Texas with the PCP," Hood contributed.

Rachel nodded. "Good example, the drug dealers looking for the PCP had no idea that Hood was conducting an investigation. There was never a threat to his life. But in this case, the moment Hood discovered that there was a pattern to those deaths, the threat to him was definite."

McGruder looked a question.

"The pattern," Rachel explained, "meant, at the least, a serial killer, at most, some kind of criminal conspiracy. Some person or persons were at risk of being exposed by Hood's investigation. Since there was no way of knowing the extent of the threat, the police, or at least the local office, should have been notified at once. We could have used the extra man-power anyway. There's no way Felix should have been reviewing medical records."

Rachel threw an apologetic look at Felix, "Not that you're not capable of understanding them, but that's not your strength."

She looked back to McGruder. "Felix is superb at ferreting out intel about, from people. I'm sure if he had been able to focus on the staff of the hospital, he would have made the connection between Clare and Marchette sooner. And knowing that there was a direct connection between a chemist working in the pharmaceutical lab and an aide in the nursery might have brought a break a little sooner."

Rachel looked over at Jacob, "Hood told me last night that he thought I would have brought Clare to his attention sooner. That's probably right."

She smiled slightly. "It's not unusual for there to be a random woman or two floating around the edges of a Hood investigation." Jacob squirmed in his seat in embarrassment; he knew where Rachel was heading.

"Mostly they're trying to flirt, but every once in a while they have some information about the case, but are afraid to approach him." Rachel cocked an eyebrow at Jacob when he muttered a protest.

"No, you have to admit it Hood, sometimes you get a little intense when you get consumed with a case. It's part of my job to figure out what type they are and deal with them. As it turned out, Clare had a key piece of information.

Now, we're up to the 'baby hunt.' By the time we got to that point, what with either the local office or the police fully involved; the locals would have responded quickly to the request." Rachel sat back "And that is how I would have handled things differently!"

McGruder looked at her approvingly; Rachel sitting in Deale obviously had a better grasp of the situation in Boston, and how to work with Hood, than Dilworth ever did. But then, McGruder mused, Dilworth was older, had a different perspective on the job. And, as much as he hated to admit, it, the man wasn't near as smart as Young.

A puzzled expression crossed Rachel's face. She twisted in her seat, pulling one leg up under her so she could face Jacob head on. "There is one thing I don't understand. How did Clare know which babies to infect? I mean, Marchette never came near the nursery did he?"

Jacob shook his head, "No, I'm almost positive he didn't."

Rachel looked to Felix for confirmation.

"No ma'am," Felix answered firmly. "I had lists of everyone who as much as set foot in that nursery. He was never even on the floor."

"Right, then how were they picked? There's no way in hell he picked them at random. He was the real deal, wasn't he?"

Jacob twisted on the loveseat, unconsciously mimicking Rachel's position. ""What do you mean?"

"I mean, he was a real scientist, like you, right?"

Frank protested, "Well, hardly like Jacob!"

Jacob gave a half smile. "I think Rachel means like me if I were an immoral psychopath."

Rachel threw him a grin. "Exactly, this guy wasn't just someone with a book of science experiments and delusions of grandeur?"

"No, whatever else he was, Marchette was a fully trained, and I hate to admit, a talented research chemist." Jacob said.

"And that," Rachel declared, "is why there is no way those babies were picked at random."

"Why not?" put in Frank. He blinked in surprise at the identical looks of contempt on Rachel and Jacob's faces. Jacob began to answer, but Rachel beat him to it.

"Variables," she answered shortly. "When you're testing something on a group of subjects, they have to be as alike as you can get them. Otherwise how can you tell if your results are any good? You wouldn't be able to tell if it was the thing you were testing or something about the subjects themselves that influenced the results."

"Lab rats!" Jacob said softly. "In his journal he referred to the babies as lab rats. I thought he was being callous, but…"

"In reality he was being literal. They were like lab rats to him. Close enough physically and genetically so as not to make a difference, and perfectly healthy" Rachel finished the thought for him.

"But we're talking newborns," Frank protested. "How different can they be?"

"You'd be amazed," Jacob answered. "They may all share approximately the same height and weight, but they are still unique individuals."

"And in that population," Rachel said, "even the heights and weights might vary dramatically,"

Jacob looked at her quizzically.

"From what you told me," Rachel continued, "this hospital was in a poor section Boston, but not totally poverty stricken, right?"

Jacob nodded his assent.

"Well, that means you're going to have a real cross-section of patients, some with insurance, but most without. And that means a lot of moms with poor prenatal care giving birth to low weight babies. Plus, I'll bet there were a fair number of crack babies." Rachel and Jacob both looked to Felix for confirmation.

"You're right ma'am," he answered grimly. "I remember thinking at the time how strange it was that the littlest and weakest babies weren't getting sick."

Rachel nodded her head in satisfaction. "Right, he was targeting certain babies, but how?"

Jacob thought carefully, "They do some genetic testing at birth, maybe Marchette…"

"No," Rachel cut in decisively, "it can't have been that, first of all, Clare wouldn't have had access to those records, would she, she was only an aide?"

Felix chimed in, "nope, I asked her to get me some records once when she was helping us, and she told me she couldn't."

Rachel continued, "Plus the timing is wrong."

Jacob leaned toward Rachel, intent on what she was saying. "Why, what's wrong with the timing?"

"His window of access to the babies was small," Rachel explained. "Maternity cases are discharged within 24 hours of birth, 48 at the most. From what you told me about the progression of the illnesses, those babies had to be infected almost immediately." Rachel frowned. "I mean, that's assuming that none of the babies got sick at home?"

"No," Jacob stated firmly. "I had Felix check that out. All of the illnesses were confined to infants in the hospital."

Two heads turned to Felix simultaneously.

"Checked up on all those kids, either myself and had a nurse do it. Every infant that was discharged was still ok."

Jacob and Rachel considered the matter. Jacob wondered, "How could Marchette know when the right babies would be showing up in the maternity ward? I mean," he trailed off.

"Are you kidding," Rachel almost laughed. "Maternity cases may be admitted through the ER, but they're not emergencies. The hospitals know when you're coming almost to the day. Plus, there's the pre-admission paperwork."

Jacob cocked his head quizzically.

Rachel explained, "Patients with insurance, those are the ones most likely to have had regular doctor visits, those are the ones whose babies were most likely targeted. Well, those patients doctor's would have them file admission papers a few weeks before the mom was due, papers that would give the whole medical history of the pregnancy, mom and dads' health histories, any test results on the fetus, the whole ball of wax."

Jacob swore softly. "Of course, that way Marchette could come up with lists of potential victims. All he had to do was give Clare a list of names and she could alert him when they showed up. Damn," he exclaimed. "That explains why the intervals were irregular! I assumed that whoever was doing this was varying the intervals to make the whole thing less conspicuous"

"But they were irregular because Marchette was waiting for right babies to show up," Rachel finished.

Rachel and Jacob looked at each other, their expressions turning grim.

"You know what this means?" said Rachel.

"Oh yeah," Jacob answered.

Frank blew out his breath in exasperation. "What does it mean? And, who cares, it's over, Marchette's dead, how can it matter how he chose the babies he did?"

"It means," Jacob said coldly, "that's it's not over."

"It means," Rachel continued, "that Marchette had an accomplice, someone other than Clare. Someone with access to records. And the fact there is another person involved means there are three hypotheses we have to consider."

Jacob nodded, "Exactly, first, Marchette seduced some other poor woman, like he did Clare. If that's the case, not a problem."

"Second," Rachel continued, "Marchette paid someone off for the information he needed. That person may or may not have known what was going on, but they should be prosecuted for their part in this thing."

"And third," Jacob said, "Marchette had a partner. Someone, who was expecting to be paid for the risks he was taking with the money Marchette would make from his patent when he was successful. And this person may have copies of Marchette's notes, lab results, everything. He may be getting ready to find himself another chemist and start this whole thing up again somewhere else. It means," Jacob said, looking at Rachel, "we've got to go back to Boston."

At this Rachel slumped in her seat. "Not us," Rachel said, "I wish, but the reality is, I'm still on leave, and you." Rachel shook her head. "Your part of the investigation is over. Besides, I think the Bureau would prefer you stay as far away from Boston and the Cardinal as possible. If anyone is going to Boston, it should be Felix."

"Me?" Felix squeaked.

"Makes absolute sense," Rachel declared. "You know the players, you've already done some of the spadework." She looked at Felix thoughtfully. "I'll bet you even have a good idea where to start."

Felix narrowed his eyes, "you mean the weasel, ma'am? Gotta admit, his behavior was pretty hincky."

Rachel nodded approvingly, as if at a star pupil. "Absolutely, his behavior was hincky."

Frank exploded, "who the hell is the weasel?"

"The hospital administrator," Rachel and Jacob spoke together.

Jacob looked confused though. "Why him? He was a weasel, he was trying to cover his ass, protect that damn hospital, but why is he at the top of the list?"

"Yeah, he's a weasel," Rachel explained patiently, "but he can't have had that job if he's stupid. His not cooperating with you was stupid. Sure, he was running a cover up, didn't want the press or the parents to know how many babies were dying. But it didn't make sense to keep it up when you arrived. Once you had the records he had to know that all hell was going to break loose, it would be impossible to cover up what was going on. So what was he still trying to hide?"

Jacob considered what Rachel said and nodded. "Yeah, makes sense." He turned to Frank, "Frank, you need to send Felix to Boston right away. We need to wrap this thing up. And by the way," he added grinning, "Still wondering why I keep her around!"

Frank was stunned. He had half believed, on the drive to Deale, that despite McGruder's assurances, that maybe Dilworth was right. That his old friend had fallen for a pretty girl. After all, it had been what, almost four years since Maggie died. But he had to admit, Young had shown a keen insight in how to work with Jacob, to get him to cooperate, and this last. The way they had bounced ideas, facts off each other, turning to Lee for confirmation when necessary. He shook his head and glanced at McGruder who was sitting there looking like the cat that ate the canary.

"Um, Jacob," Frank sputtered. "I can't just, I mean, you do realize that all of this is just speculation. I mean…"

Jacob looked at him in astonishment. "What do you mean speculation? It's the most probable resolution of the problem when analyzing all of the relevant data. This is what you pay me to do. Rachel's right, no reason for me to go back to Boston, the science is clear. What you need now is someone with the skills to track down and confirm what Rachel and I just figured out. Skills, I might add, that Felix possesses in abundance."

Frank shook his head and made a quick decision. "Right then." He turned to look over his shoulder. "Agent Lee, as soon as we get back to DC, I want you heading to Boston. You'll work with the local office. I'll alert them to your coming and instruct them to give you all the assistance you need. You lead on this one."

A broad grin broke out on Felix's face. His own investigation! "Yes sir!" he said. He winked at Hood and Rachel. "And don't worry Doc, ma'am. I'll do you proud!" Rachel and Jacob smiled in response.

"I'm sure you will Felix," said Jacob

Frank then turned his attention back to Rachel. "When," he demanded, "did you become the lead agent of an FBI unit and not just a bodyguard and handler?"

McGruder smiled lazily and answered for her. "I told you coming down here Frank. Girl's smart as a whip. Been thinking for a while now she's wasted in the EPD."

Jacob and Rachel froze at these words. Were they going to be separated?

McGruder continued, "But before we deal with that issue, we need to finish up this problem with Dilworth here and Hood."

"I have to admit," said McGruder, "I bear some responsibility here. Should have realized this pairing wouldn't work out. But still seems to me there's fault here on both sides. Dilworth, can't say that I approve of what you did to Hood. I agree with Young on this one. You should only lay hands on a protectee when absolutely necessary. But, you were trained differently, I recognize that."

"And Hood, I'm sorry." His eyes turned stony. "What Dilworth did was unfortunate. What you did was unforgiveable. Your detail is there for your protection. It is not, ever, acceptable for you to strike your bodyguard and ditch the detail."

Jacob opened his mouth to protest, but McGruder held up his hand. "No, I don't want to hear it. I don't care how justified you thought you were. Now, Dilworth is under my command and I will deal with him. But you, you work out of the Director's office and I will insist that the Director discipline you. If he doesn't, it could affect the morale of my division."

Frank nodded in agreement. "He's right Jacob. It would send the wrong message to the EPD and all of their protectees if I let you get away with what you did. What do you suggest Ty?"

McGruder considered the matter. "Hell, you came down here expecting to suspend him, why not just do it?"

Frank concurred. "Done, how long will satisfy you?"

McGruder thought, "Today's what, Wednesday? And next Monday's Memorial Day? Let's say a week? Until next Wednesday. Plus sticking Hood down here in Deale will be a bonus, make him less accessible to the media. May I make a suggestion?"

Frank nodded.

Jerking his head back to Dilworth and Felix he said "We don't need these two anymore. Lee needs to get to Boston and Dilworth needs to get to my office. What say we dismiss them now? Then I suggest we consider a little idea I have about these two" he nodded at Jacob and Rachel.

"Sounds good," Frank agreed. "Lee, Dilworth, take off. Tell my detail we won't be much longer."

Felix waved to Rachel and Jacob as he left the room. "Bye, Doc, ma'am. I'll keep you posted on what's happening in Boston."