by Sammie

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. If they were, would Kate be dead? (bares fangs) The new JAG Gordon Cresswell (I thought he was a terrific character and a great foil for Mac for a whole host of reasons which I won't go in to here) is also not mine, but again, there is enough explanation for those unfamiliar with that storyline.

RATING: K+ (I'm so bad at this)

SUMMARY: When a Gulf War veteran dies unexpectedly, NCIS opens an investigation and discovers something far worse. Hunches don't hold up in court, though, and they will have to find a different way to get the information they need.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to my beta for this story, Em. All mistakes still left over are mine!

I know the Veterans' Administration doesn't fall under NCIS jurisdiction, but humor me, okay? And at least give me credit for making the first guy active duty, thus dumping HIM under NCIS jurisdiction.

Oh, I've also decided to make other changes. Since I've decided to write stories in the world where Kate still lives, then why not go all the way? Never warmed up to the tape-recording, yappy, insecure Palmer...he's just a McGee for Ducky, except that McGee is far better developed. So I've made Gerald return. That was a lot simpler than resurrecting Kate.

Secondly, I think Tom Morrow is a fantastic character. I'm all for more women on-screen, but I see no point to making a new director when Tom Morrow was doing so wonderfully (and Alan Dale is available to play him). He could keep Gibbs in line.

All I have to say is...the team (including McGee) from season 1 was ingenious. Talk about truly different characters.

PRESENT DAY
DR. BRIAN MARTIN'S OFFICE, VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION CLINIC

"Get him on the table!" Martin shouted, motioning to his fellow doctor as they bodily dragged the veteran into one of the examining rooms. The elderly Westin proved much younger than he looked, more than holding up the sick man on one side, with the Marine's wife on the other. Martin threw open the door to let them inside.

The two doctors eased the veteran onto the table, where he continued to choke, gasping for air. His wife was close behind, maintaining an amazing calm and trying to situate her husband despite the obvious panic in her eyes.

Suddenly the man on the table began to convulse, his back arching, his body twisting horribly, his eyes unnaturally wide. Westin dashed forward, trying to help Nina Morgan hold her husband on the table.

The convulsing worsened and blood began seeping from his mouth. Westin looked up at Martin, panicked but hopeful and expectant that he could do something. Nina was holding her husband's head steady, trying to keep him from smashing his head against the table, begging him to look at her. She turned a pleading look to Martin, her eyes brimming with desperate tears.

Martin blinked helplessly, as if he were reacting in slow motion to a train wreck.

X X X X X

Outside, Carrie Barrett flinched at the sudden keening noise from the back room. She had waited too long - how could she have agreed to wait? Good God in heaven forgive her; she couldn't believe she....

Nina Morgan was crying in the back room. Carrie could hear it even over the doctors' shouted directions. She knew what would happen - Doc Martin had told her before. He had a sudden shot of medicine that was supposed to help counter...come to think of it, he had never said what it was supposed to counter.

911 was her first call, and the throaty voice that answered seemed to her to be too calm.

She hung up and managed to find the business card she was looking for; her shaking hands nearly dropped it. She quickly put it down on her desk and frantically dialed Agent DiNozzo's number. It didn't matter what happened to her close friend now - a woman was losing her husband in the back room. She grabbed the phone.

"DiNozzo."

"It's Carrie Barrett."

"Oh." Kate paused and put the phone between her ear and her shoulder and readjusted the braided bun in her hair. "Conference 1? We'll be there." She hung up. "Gibbs just called. He's with the JAG downstairs."

McGee nodded, but Tony looked up, concerned. "The JAG came here after we pissed him off so royally two years ago?"

"When he accused a JAG lawyer of murder?" Kate asked.

"How did you know about that?" Tony asked. "You weren't here."

"When Gibbs dragged Lt. Bud Roberts in here to try to work him in the Fuentes case," Kate replied. "The JAG's AJ Chegwidden, right?"

"Chegwidden?" McGee frowned. "Name sounds familiar." The two others turned to him. "I..." he hedged a moment before his eyes widened in recognition. "He signed up some drug-dealing putz - Walter? Walden! Something - Daniel Walden - for the Navy to clean him up!" McGee made an angry face. "The Navy is not some baby-sitting service!"

Tony and Kate exchanged amused but surprised looks at McGee's vehemence. "I...take it you had problems with him?" Tony asked.

McGee rolled his eyes. "Every time the idiot tried to sneak drugs into his bunk I got called. Schmuck."

"What happened?"

"The supervising agent down at Norfolk filed a formal complaint for me when Walden went to trial again. Guess where the complaint ended up."

"JAG office in DC," Tony muttered sympathetically, as if punched in the gut. "Great, so the only who hasn't pissed off the JAG is...you." Tony looked down at Kate. "We ought to have a grand ole time down there."

XXXXX

They came down to the conference room, where they heard Gibbs and another male talking. McGee was about to open the door when Tony held up a hand.

The voices were muffled, but they were clear enough to be heard. "I heard about Col. Ryan. When we were grunts I served with him," said the unfamiliar voice. "He was a good man. First guy I'd want in my foxhole."

"He mentioned you often. Always in the best of terms."

"It's nice to be remembered," the man replied with a chuckle. "Where are your agents?"

"They should be here," came the mutter, and McGee quickly opened the door. "General, Special Agents Todd, DiNozzo, McGee," Gibbs replied. The Marine JAG gave a slightly puzzled look to Kate, whose hair was up in a bun off her neck, but didn't comment. "This is Major General Gordon Cresswell, the new JAG."

The Marine nodded at them as they sat down across the table from him, then began. "I'll keep it short. An old friend of mine from Desert Storm died recently, ostensibly from a stroke. He was under treatment by a doctor at a VA clinic."

"You have our sympathies, sir," Kate supplied.

"What I want is your investigative skills. His widow was convinced he was killed, so I had some of the JAs look into it, on the side."

"Some?" Gibbs raised an eyebrow, a hint of amusement in his voice, and the general chuckled.

"But...." McGee frowned. "Is VA even under NCIS and JAG jurisdiction?"

"He was active duty," the general replied. "He was seeing the doctor on the side, under his wife's veteran's pension plan. I've explained the details to Agent Gibbs."

"What did your investigation find?" Gibbs asked.

"They recommended a full investigation into the matter. Criminal." He pushed a folder across the table to Gibbs, who began to flip through it. "This is a copy of everything we had at JAG, including interviews with the doctor and the widow. There was one JAGman investigation before ours, and from some notes, I'd guess two NCIS investigations into the doctor already."

"And there was nothing?" Kate asked with a puzzled frown.

The Marine turned to her, eyeing her carefully for a moment before responding. "Nothing."

MacCLELLAN HOME

The widow wiped her eyes a little and shook her head. "No, Dan was following orders - exercising, not intensely, taking his medicine, and eating healthy. He seemed to be getting better. That very bad cold season that hit a few months ago - he made it through without getting sick. He had a small cough, that was it."

Kate watched from the corner of her eye as Gibbs frowned, his brow furrowing slightly. "Mrs. MacClellan, how did you find Dr. Martin?"

"He was referred to us," the woman replied. "By Dan's friend from high school, Jack Myick. They had signed up together for the Corps, ended up in different units, though. When we heard the doctor was VA, we...were reluctant because Dan's active duty coverage wouldn't cover it. But mine did."

"How did your husband's friend find the doctor?"

"He was referred by a friend who had tried Dr. Martin and felt better."

Gibbs nodded. "How do we contact Myick?" He handed her a small notebook, and she wrote a number and an address. "Does he know that your husband is deceased?"

"No, not yet. I...I didn't say anything yet."

Gibbs nodded and turned to Kate, and the two got ready to go. "Thank you, Mrs. MacClellan," Kate said as gently as she could. "We'll do everything we can."

"So," the widow replied, taking a big breath. "Biff said you had some ideas of your own."

Gibbs and Kate exchanged looks, and then Kate paused a moment, not answering, and then said as gently as possible, "Mrs. MacClellan, you do know that Gulf War Syndrome has not been officially recognized as an illness?"

The woman's dark eyes flashed as she sat up and looked at the two agents straight in the eye. "Tell me, then," she replied sharply. "If it isn't some kind of illness, then why are so many of these Gulf veterans getting so sick?"

NCIS HQ

"What've you got, probie?" Tony asked, throwing a folder onto his desk.

"Dr. Brian Martin. Model citizen," McGee replied. "Father was a Vietnam vet, died when he was young; mother raised him alone before she died, too. Put himself through college and medical school, married up. His wife is a medical researcher. They met in medical school. She's loaded, and she still works, so he can work wherever he wants without worrying about money. He's spent his entire life working for the VA, and she does a lot, too. He's clean as a whistle."

"Hey guys," Balboa greeted as he plopped into an open chair and pushed himself across to Tony's desk.

"Hey, Bal," Tony greeted, as he stood up. "Gibbs got through to you, huh?"

"Kate, actually. Kate...sounding like Gibbs," Balboa replied with a small smile. "She said that the last widow they talked to, said there's a whole network of Marines who see this guy, and that you might get overwhelmed by all the paperwork."

"Be our guest," McGee welcomed, pushing half the files to Balboa. "These are the Marines' files."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking at the past NCIS investigations."

"Did you find anything, probie?" Tony asked, propping his feet up on the desk.

"Nothing good," McGee replied, shaking his head. "There's some digging in his financial records, checking up on his phone record, interviewing his friends...and that's it. They just kind of say there's no evidence and it ends there."

Tony and Balboa looked up. "What?" DiNozzo spoke first. "It just ends there?"

"Hey," Balboa sighed. "Not everyone suspects foul play at every single angle," he pointed out. At their looks, he added, "Unlike Gibbs."

McGee conceded the point.

MYICK HOME

"It worked for me," Myick insisted. "I feel less jittery, and I get sick less."

"Couldn't it just be the diet?" Kate asked.

Myick snorted. "Maybe, but I can only see diet helping, not making me this much better."

"What kind of medicine were the both of you using?" Gibbs asked.

"Pleromades," Myick replied. "It's a prescription drug."

Kate blinked and began to open her mouth to protest: there was no prescription drugs for Gulf War Syndrome. Gibbs' warning look made her change her question. "May we see it?"

The Marine nodded, getting up and bringing the bottle by. "This is it."

"We'll be taking this," Gibbs said.

"I need to take my medicine," the Marine objected.

"We just need one," Gibbs replied.

"It's very timed," Myick insisted. "I have to take one every day, and I only get another bottle when I'm near the end."

"One every day," Kate nodded as sympathetically. "Never dropped a pill...never lost one under the counter...never accidentally stepped on one and crushed it."

Myick looked at her, an eyebrow raised expectantly, and then to the older agent, who was looking just as smugly at him. He then conceded reluctantly, taking out the last few pills from the bottle and then handing the old bottle with one pill to Kate, who quickly slipped on a pair of gloves and bagged the evidence.

Myick shrugged. "I don't know what you'd want with it, though," he replied in an annoyed, almost defensive tone. "Dr. Martin is the best thing to have happened to most of us Gulf vets."

"Not to your old friend MacClellan," Gibbs replied, turning at the door as he and Kate were heading out.

"What?" Myick paused. "Dan? But he was fine."

"Fine for a dead guy."

DR. BRIAN MARTIN'S OFFICE, VA CLINIC

"Dr. Martin's office," the receptionist answered. She clamped the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she turned to her computer and continued typing. "Sir, I am really sorry, but Dr. Martin isn't taking new patients at this time. ... I understand that, sir," she replied firmly, obviously happy the man on the other end couldn't see her face. The voice on the other end continued to speak, and the receptionist's face almost twisted in sympathetic pain.

Carrie Barrett winced as she listened to the story. She didn't think Dr. Martin would mind another patient,

but she had her orders. "Sir, I'm sorry, I - " The voice on the other end dropped in disappointment. "All right." She lowered her voice. "Sir, I'll make you an initial appointment and I'll speak to Dr. Martin and let him know your Marine friend referred you. Dr. Martin knows Jack Myick. But I can't guarantee anything."

She listened to grateful words on the other end. "Again, sir, I don't want to get your hopes up, but I will try. Mr. Morgan, please understand that I might not be able to pull this off. I will try, though, so - "

"Try what?" asked a voice behind her.

The young woman cringed. "We'll make that appointment for tomorrow," she replied and hung up, then sheepishly turned to her employer.

"You accepted another patient, didn't you," Martin replied not unkindly but with a chastising tone.

"He sounded so desperate," she replied. "Dr. Martin, you should have heard him when he was making that appointment and I said no."

"Carr, we can't take very patient who calls here," the doctor replied not unkindly. "I don't have that kind of time. I know you want to, and I do too, but it's not possible. It's past closing - " he indicated the clock, which said 7 pm " - and I've been seeing patients all day."

"I know, I know. I...I turned away four others this week," Carrie replied. "I've been trying, but."

Martin sighed. "All right, I'll take the initial appointment. But no promises, make sure you tell them that."

NCIS HQ

"Hey," Tony greeted as Gibbs and Kate came in. "Playing hooky all day?" Gibbs just gave him a look and picked up his ringing phone.

Kate groaned as she dropped into her seat and whispered across to Tony, "Is it possible to play hooky with Gibbs?"

"True." Tony conceded, then asked in a normal voice, "What did you guys get?"

"In case you didn't know, we report to Gibbs, Tony."

"Cute."

Gibbs put down his phone. "Tony, McGee. We're going to see Ducky."

Kate frowned and looked at Balboa, who looked up, puzzled. "What about us?"

"No," Gibbs replied as he turned the corner. "I want a network of Martin's patients by tonight."

"This is going to take forever," Balboa suddenly said, holding up half his files. "There's tons of them! He's not serious, right?"

Kate just smiled sympathetically. "I think he is."

"Hope you didn't have plans for tonight," Tony replied, patting him on the shoulder as he went by.

NCIS HQ, AUTOPSY

"What do you have for us, Duck?" Gibbs asked as he came in.

"Ah, the better question is what I do not have for you, Jethro," Ducky replied, waving them over. "The unfortunate Col. MacClellan suffered an incapacitating heart attack and a stroke. There was also signs of internal hemorrhaging, which may or may not have been related to the cause of death."

"All of them?" Tony asked in disbelief.

"All of 'em," Gerald replied with a small wince. "This guy wasn't going to get out of this one alive."

"What caused it?" Gibbs asked, frowning.

"That's difficult to say," Ducky replied. "I sent the blood up to Abby, but the fact of the matter is that Col. MacClellan had trace evidence of so many drugs in his system it's difficult to tell what exactly it was that might have killed him."

"You think it was drug-induced?" McGee asked, turning to the ME.

"Well, to have all those things at once, at least one must have been drug-induced," Ducky replied firmly. "The question is which drug it was and whether or not it was the fatal mixing of the drugs which killed him - perhaps pure misfortune."

"A doctor always asks what medications a patient takes before prescribing," Gibbs replied as he started out. "Thanks, Duck."

Ducky nodded, a small smile on his face, and then looked up to see Tony, McGee, and Gerald still looking at him. "Jethro doesn't believe in accidents."

"'Course HE doesn't," Gerald commented.

NCIS HQ, LAB

"Abs?" Gibbs called as he came in, shouting over the music. He smacked her stereo off.

"Gibbs!" Abby protested.

"Noise," Gibbs declared, pointing at the boom box. "What do you have?"

"More like what don't I have," Abby replied as the doors opened again and in came DiNozzo and McGee. "Hey guys." She typed a command into her computer and brought the lab test results onto the plasma. "He had enough drugs to open his own pharmacy, and in elevated levels."

"What do all these drugs do?" Tony frowned, gesturing at the chart. "What are these things used in?"

"Well, in elevated doses, in order from left to right...blood thinner, heart medication, antibiotics, and lots of health-supplement type vitamin herbal things."

"Did you run MacClellan's medicine?" Gibbs asked.

"Sure did. but it's hard to tell what levels came from which med."

"What about Myick's?"

"Gibbs, I know you think I'm Superwoman, but - "

"Abs!"

"No."

"When?"

"If I can get someone to help me with MacClellan's meds...."

"Okay. Thanks, Abby." Gibbs turned to the other two agents. "McGee. Help Abby. Tony, get back upstairs."

As they left, he called over his shoulder, "I better not catch you two playing!"

NEXT MORNING
NCIS HQ

"Good morning," Tony grinned as he came in.

"That can only mean one thing," Kate smirked.

"Girl or a new car," McGee supplied, and Kate laughed. Tony made a face.

"Both of which he refers to as 'she'," Kate added, one eyebrow cocked. "So, which is it? A flesh and blood she or a metal one?"

"It doesn't always have to do with a woman," Tony protested.

"Gas?" Kate replied with a smile. McGee snorted, and Tony glared at him. "Hey, Balboa," she greeted as the loaned agent came in.

"Hey." He dropped into an empty chair nearby. "Gibbs not here yet? Wrong question. Where's Gibbs?"

"Right here," Gibbs replied, coming in. "What did you guys get yesterday?"

The three men crowded around his desk. "Dr. Martin's a model citizen, boss," Tony replied. "Father was a Vietnam vet who died when he was a kid. His mother raised him alone before she died, too, when he was 19. He put himself through college and medical school, married up his social class. His wife is pretty loaded - old money. They met in med school; she's a medical researcher. Between her family's money and her own job, he can pretty much do whatever he wants to without worrying about money. He's spent his entire life working for the VA, and she does a lot, too. He's clean as a whistle."

"McGee." Gibbs raised an eyebrow at him.

"NCIS did two investigations into him, and JAG two. They didn't find anything criminal. They looked into his financial records, checking up on his phone record, interviewing his friends...and that's it. They just kind of say there's no evidence of criminal activity and it ends there."

Kate winced slightly from her seat.

"He's got enough cash to buy people off, boss," Tony said pointedly.

"That's a serious accusation," Balboa frowned. "You're going to accuse a NCIS agent of being bribed?"

"No," Tony replied. "I'm just speculating."

"Balboa?"

The agent clicked the chart onto the screen. "This is the network of Dr. Martin's patients. How many of them are complaining about Gulf War Syndrome, I don't know. We'd have to see their medical records."

Gibbs frowned. "That's pretty intricate."

"It's all word of mouth," Balboa replied. "Everybody knows somebody, and that's how they get referred around. It's not linear, either. I think a lot of the Marines wouldn't go to the doc unless they had at least a second reference."

"We're still checking," Kate added. "Most of this information is from the recommenders. We have to double check with all those they said they recommended."

"What about our possible vics?" Gibbs asked.

"Those we know are on Pleromades are the circled ones," Balboa replied, pointing at the names on the chart. "I've underlined the ones who have died while under Dr. Martin's care. No confirmation on how they died, so that's still pending. You and Kate talked to all of these" he pointed at the bolded names "yesterday."

"There's so many more," Kate groaned.

"Balboa, figure out a way to get those medical records."

"They keep saying we don't have probable cause...for a warrant or a subpoena."

"Well, figure out a way," Gibbs replied. "Make sure Ducky sees them. Abby done with the medicine yet?"

"Not since I called her ten minutes ago."

"Make sure you guys talk to the doctor."

DR. BRIAN MARTIN'S OFFICE, VA CLINIC

His wife quietly called his name again, this time laying a hand on his shoulder. This time, the distracted man finally registered, looking up at her for a moment questioningly. She smiled softly and took the medical form checklist out of his hands, and, taking the pen, began to complete the form.

Carrie Barrett cringed slightly behind her desk and shook it off. She saw it all the time - this was no different from some of the other couples she'd seen in the office. But it was never easier to see patients like this.

She heard her boss come up to the wall partition from the back and turned around. "Hey Carrie. This the new patient?"

"Yeah," she replied, handing him a folder. "Recommended by Jack Myick."

"Where's the patient form?"

"His, uh, wife is still filling it out," Carrie replied. "He was getting distracted - he won't say it, but I think he's got a bad headache. And some flu symptoms."

The doctor nodded. "Tell me what you know."

"He's a Gulf War veteran, obviously; a Marine staff sergeant when he left the service. His wife is a nurse."

Martin looked up from his file, frowning. "Did you read his file?"

She shook her head. "She told me," the secretary replied. "When they came in."

"So, what did the wife say to convince you to take her husband as my patient?"

"Actually," Carrie said quietly, giving a sidelong glance over the partition. "HE called."

Martin stopped reading and looked up, now certainly piqued. "HE called? For his wife?"

"No, he's...uh...he's the Gulf veteran," she said quietly. "He called to make the appointment. He was the one I was talking to on the phone the other day. He sounded kind of desperate on the phone."

"He must be," Martin muttered. Most of the veterans he was treating for the Gulf War Syndrome were particularly wary of his treatments, as were their spouses. It was only after his new medications had helped that they had wholeheartedly recommended him. Of his roughly twenty patients, only two had called themselves; the others had given their spouses permission to call for them.

This new one - former Staff Sergeant Paul Morgan - was the first man to call himself. Looking at the slew of medical tests, it looked as if the man was at the end of his rope. No wonder he called. He must've been really desperate. He looked up from the file to his secretary, who was giving him a sheepish and apologetic smile.

Martin stepped into the waiting room. "Paul Morgan?" The couple looked up, and the wife quickly scrambled to fill out the forms as they approached. "Hi. I'm Dr. Brian Martin." He smiled warmly, holding the door for them as they went in.

NCIS HQ

"We just wanted to double check," McGee replied into the phone as Tony drove. "You told Agent Gibbs that your wife had been on the medication almost a year. Was there anything else?" He paused. "Okay...." He scribbled a quick note. "All right. Thank you, Mr. Kim."

"What?" Tony asked.

"Kim - that's the widower - said his wife had her stroke while they were at the doctor's office. The doctor used an epi-pen on his wife. At least, from his description, it seemed like one of those epi-pens."

"Epi-pen?" Tony frowned.

"It looks like a pen, and it carries epinephrine," Kate explained. "A lot of people with allergies will carry them. When they need a shot fast - because of an allergic reaction to something - they inject themselves with the medicine inside the pen."

"He used it for someone with a stroke?" Tony asked incredulously.

McGee shrugged. "No idea."

"Don't ask Martin about it yet," Tony replied. "I don't want him to know that we know."

NCIS HQ, LAB

"Hey Abby," Gerald greeted as he held up the small tube. "Hair. Ducky thought you might want to test it."

Abby grinned. "Right over there in the cooler, thanks."

"Did you test the medicine yet?" Gerald asked.

"I've started, but mostly I've just been trying to find the FDA reg book on the meds. I've only been able to find minimal information. Why?"

"Ducky thinks that something's hinky."

"Hinky how?"

"He doesn't have the pre-symptoms for a stroke," Gerald replied.

"A chemical, then?"

"Hey," Gerald grinned, shrugging. "That's why he sent up the blood and hair to you."

"What can you tell us about Lt. Col. Daniel MacClellan?" Tony asked.

"He's a good guy," Dr. Martin replied. "A bit resistant to taking medicine, at first, but he'd do anything for his wife."

"Health-wise, doctor," Tony replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, he was feeling tired, got sick often, memory loss, among other things."

"Doctor," Tony replied shortly. "You realize that could be the same symptoms for getting old."

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, I know. I don't diagnose lightly. I generally watch, treating the symptoms directly and having them speak to a dietician. The point is to make the patient better."

"Why do you take these patients?" McGee asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"These patients must be...real...pains in the neck," Tony clarified. "Always sick. Some people would call the Gulf War Syndrome stuff...hypochondria."

The doctor snorted. "Not when you've got so many people with the same s ymptoms," he said carefully. "And I've found nothing that indicates to me that any of these veterans are crazy or need any kind of...mental therapy."