Abby jumped up and started pacing the moment Ducky went back to observe the cerebral angiography. Even though McGee and Gibbs had quickly forgiven her, the fact that she'd not been given the chance yet to put action to her words weighed heavily on her. What was even worse was how much she had missed, too busy sulking to spend time with the happy couple.

She thought about what Tony had said to her, how Tim was the one strong enough to love Gibbs the way he needed. She'd heard about it when McGee stood up to her sister before she accepted them and she'd seen it herself through the window at the vet's office. Now, she clung to the belief that his strength would keep him alive through this latest hurdle. Stopping next to Palmer in front of another window, she stared, the view not nearly as heartwarming as the one earlier. It was raining and she was so intent on searching the sky for one star to wish on that she almost missed Ducky's arrival back in the waiting room.

Gibbs was back on his feet, Sarah at his side, the moment they saw Ducky come through the door. "You found the aneurysm already?"

Ducky's face was ashen. "I wish we had, Jethro. There is another problem, something is affecting Timothy's blood chemistry. His electrolytes are becoming increasingly unbalanced and we don't know why."

"What does that mean, Duck?"

"Whatever is happening, it is causing an abnormality in his heart rhythm. We don't dare start injecting the dye until we know what is causing this. The lab is running more blood tests now."

Sarah started to cry. "What about the aneurysm?"

"All we can do is hope and pray, my dear."

If Ducky had anything further to say, it was interrupted by Palmer's phone ringing. The look on his face drew the attention of the rest of the group and he had an attentive audience by the time he closed his phone. "Tim's migraine meds were tampered with."

Gibbs was the first to react. "What? Tampered how?"

"Rebecca," Palmer stopped to swallow hard. "They have Rebecca on tape with the pills he keeps in his backpack. She dropped one, Vance wants me to drive Abby back to test it."

"Heavens." Ducky didn't ask any further questions before dashing back through the swinging doors. Gibbs' words were just as short.

"Go, now."

Abby didn't speak and she didn't wait for the elevator. They were in Palmer's car before she finally said anything. "Drive, Jimmy, drive as if you were Ziva."

-NCIS-

Tony and Ziva were waiting in the lab when Abby came running in, Jimmy panting as he tried to keep up. "Here, we've already lifted Rebecca's fingerprints off the outside."

Abby took the evidence bag as Tony brought her up to speed. At the table, she broke the seal on the bag and removed the capsule before carefully pulling the two halves apart. The white powder was carefully deposited in a petri dish and Abby quickly scooped up three samples. One from each end of the pile and one from the middle, next she placed each sample in a separate vial. Two remaining vials were used when she carefully swabbed the inside of each half of the capsule.

Within fifteen minutes Abby and the two men were watching the mass spec run, while Ziva paced behind them. "I cannot sit here and wait, I will be upstairs. I will call Fornell, we need to find her accomplice."

Tony started to remind her that it was 03.00, but she was already running up the stairs.

-NCIS-

"Well?" Gibbs had never bothered to sit back down and was ready when Ducky came back out to the waiting room.

Ducky wished he had some encouraging news. "I'm afraid at the moment it's a waiting game, Jethro. On the off-chance that some of the remains of the tainted medication is still in his digestive track, he's been given several rounds of both gastric lavage and activated charcoal. The upside is that this decreases the chances of an undiscovered aneurysm."

"Because instead of taking medication that would stop the migraine, he was taking whatever poison she was trying to kill him with." Try as he might, Gibbs wasn't seeing the silver lining. "Does that mean they're giving him something for the migraine now?"

"Not yet. He was already sedated for the original procedure, so he's not suffering, but we can't risk giving him more of anything until someone is able to determine what he's already been dosed with."

"I suppose that makes sense." Sarah was twisting her hair, a nervous habit from her childhood. "Can we see Tim?"

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea right now, my dear. Timothy is unaware of his surroundings and I'm afraid that the lavage necessitated intubation."

"He's on a ventilator?"

Ducky winced at the alarm in his old friend's voice. "No, no, not at the moment. So far he's been able to maintain sufficient breathing on his own, so it is just a precaution."

"Then why can't we stay with him?"

"Jethro..."

"They let me stay with Jett while he went through the same thing."

The one thing that Ducky could always recognize was a losing argument. "Let me talk to Dr. Silbey."

-NCIS-

"Yeah, Fornell." The FBI agent didn't bother to turn on a light as he answered his phone. "This had better be good."

"Agent Fornell, it is Officer David."

Tobias squinted at the bedside clock. "Don't you people ever sleep?" He wasn't really expecting an apology, but he had to complain. When she didn't rise to the bait at all, he became immediately concerned. "Has something else happened?"

"We have a suspect in custody with evidence to prove she vandalized McGee's car both times and that she poisoned McGee's dog earlier today, well, yesterday."

"She?"

Yes, Rebecca Warren. McGee bought her coffee a few times and she became obsessed when she discovered that he and Gibbs were together. It also appears that she tampered with his medications over the weekend."

"My God, is he..."

"Still alive, that is all we know at the moment. Gibbs is at the hospital with him and we have promised him to build an air-tight case, including the sabotage of the computer monitor. We do not believe she had the knowledge or expertise to cause the explosion."

He knew instantly where she was going. "She probably had an accomplice and you're looking for his signature in the debris."

"Yes." The exhaustion was evident in Ziva's voice. "Rebecca Warren works in our legal department, so we believe that she used a suspect NCIS has had contact with. Unfortunately, she has pulled over five hundred files since she began targeting McGee."

Over the years, Fornell had perfected the art of getting dressed while talking on the phone and he sat to slip on his shoes. "I'm on my way to the Bureau right now to pick up the forensic file on the monitor. If you talk to Gibbs... tell him we're going to nail this bitch and anyone that helped her."

-NCIS-

When the Mass Spec beeped, Tony was right behind Abby, reading the print-out as she tore it free. Nothing on the page was something he recognized, so he had to wait for her. Instead of telling him what their friend had been poisoned with, she started shaking her head.

"No, no, no, no, no."

"Abs, what is it? What is in the pills?" Tony was holding her arms and shook her gently to get her attention.

"The only thing Major Mass Spec identified was the migraine medication."

"That's not possible, we know she had his pills in her hands. What other reason would she have?"

Abby shook her head as she frantically thought through the options. "I need to see the video."

A quick phone call to Ziva and Abby was able to pull the footage up on her wall mounted screen, zooming in and enhancing the image until she, Tony and Palmer could clearly see Rebecca's hand as she switched the pills, dropping one of McGee's original pills in the process. Abby was instantly mad at herself as she dashed into her office to retrieve Tim's abandoned backpack.

"Stupid, I was so stupid, Tony. Why did I only test one capsule?" Still berating herself, Abby emptied the bottle into a shallow evidence tray and looked closely at them. Under a strong light she could see the mark from where they had been pulled apart and then reassembled, but just to make sure, she tested the contents of three of them.

Just as Abby and Palmer were loading the last sample in the Mass Spec, Ziva and Vance arrived in the lab, followed by Fornell. Tony quietly explained to the newcomers why they still didn't have answers.

Grim-faced, Vance kept his voice low, hoping Abby wouldn't overhear. "I've been getting updates from Dr. Mallard. Agent McGee's heart rhythm is becoming unstable. If we don't determine what he's been poisoned with, and soon, he could go into cardiac arrest."

-NCIS-

Finally allowed into the hospital room, Gibbs was only half listening as Ducky explained to Sarah about all the equipment. Instead, his attention was on the pale figure in the bed. "Is he still sedated?"

"The sedative is still working its way out of his system, but he's had a long and difficult day, Jethro. I'd expect him to be drifting in and out for the next few hours at least." With a slight amount of pressure on the other man's shoulder, Ducky encouraged Gibbs to sit in the chair the nurse brought over. "It will help him to rest, knowing that you're here with him."

Sarah watched as Gibbs settled into the chair, noting the differences as his thick fingers wrapped gently around her brother's long, thin fingers. She couldn't hear the words he whispered into Tim's ear but, even asleep, her brother instinctively turned towards the voice, his face brushing against Gibbs' lips. Feeling like a voyeur, she stepped back slightly to sit in the second chair in the room.

-NCIS-

One person knew the content of the capsules Abby was currently testing and Vance went back into interrogation to try and get the answers out of the smug woman. After thirty minutes of watching her smirk at the Director, Ziva barged in.

Nothing was said, which made Rebecca nervous for the first time since she'd been arrested. Vance stared at Ziva for a long time before he silently walked to the door and left the room, Ziva at his heels. Alone in the small room, Rebecca glanced around. She'd worked legal long enough to know that they should have harassed her at least an hour before leaving her to stew.

Out in the hall, Vance continued to quietly observe Ziva before he made a decision. He said nothing to her before walking into the observation room, leaving the door open. She watched as he jerked his thumb towards the door, giving the techs the silent order to leave the room. Once they filed out past Ziva, Vance turned off all the recording equipment.

Rebecca continued to look around, trying to decide what was different, eventually looking up at the camera up in the corner to discover the red light was off. Behind the two-way mirror, Vance smiled as her eyes widened. Still silent, he nodded at Ziva.

Ziva used every bit of stealth she possessed to slip into the room, unnoticed by the occupant. Rebecca was still staring at the non-functioning camera when the lights in the observation room came on, illuminating the sole figure standing there. Once Rebecca made eye contact, he turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Now alone with the woman she'd come to loathe, a predatory smile crossed Ziva's face as she stepped close enough to touch the highlighted hair. Her smile widened as her prey whimpered. "Hello, Rebecca. It is time you and I had a... discussion."