"Tony, I don't know what to tell you."

"All you have to do is answer the question: do you prefer a dad bod or a six-pack?"

"I love you just the way you are."

"You know, I used to have a good body." His fingers tug the leather belt. "I used to be a lean, mean fighting machine."

"And you still are." I roll my eyes.

He begins a round of jumping jacks behind his desk. "You need a guy who can keep up with you, alright, Eva?"

"If you want to exercise some more, I'd be happy to help, but —"

"So you want me to lose weight."

". . .but I think you look great for your age."

"And now she's calling me old."

As we walk out of the elevator to headquarters, Tony gazes down at his abdomen in disappointment of his recent weight gain — which no one has noticed except him.

"Escaped mental patient." Gibbs enters through the opposite end.

"Yeah, I'm beginning to think so, too." I mumble, causing the man to look back. "Oh, you were talking about a case."

"Bethesda Naval Hospital. Attack and orderly, busted up the place." He grabs his things. "Come on, let's go."

The orderly explains what happened the night before while McGee relays information about the patient, Corporal Damon Werth, and his hostage, Dr. Adrian De La Casa.

Ray Vincent, a P.R. man for the senator, arrives to inform us of Corporal Werth's upcoming award ceremony where he will receive the silver star.

"The suit fill you in on what happened in Iraq?"

"Werth's unit was ambushed and captured. He was being tortured when he broke loose. He killed his interrogators and carried all three of his men to safety."

"Wow."

"Leathernecks nicknamed him Corporal Punishment." Gibbs walks back to his desk. "What else you got?"

"Werth's life." McGee projects a map to the plasma screen. "Locations of interest: boot camp at Parris Island, stationed at Quantico then LeJeune before shipping out overseas." Three green arrows blink over the named areas.

"Family?"

Ziva shakes her head. "Unmarried, no siblings. His father is retired S.A.S., mother is a behavioral therapist. They live in Michigan."

"Friends in the area?"

"None outside of the Corps." I reply in defeat.

"Dr. De La Casa?"

"Navy Captain, resides in Reston, Virginia." Tony recites.

"He works at Bethesda."

"So he'd have to take the Dulles Toll Road every day." He squints in thought. "So he would have a Smart Tag — McGoo."

"Scanned on 267 yesterday, again this morning entering Virginia."

"Tried to triangulate De La Casa's cell, but it's either switched off or Werth's laying low in the countryside out of range."

As if by coincidence, a Smart Tag alert beeps on his computer, signaling the vehicle's reentry into the District.

When we save Dr. De La Casa from the back of a trunk in an abandoned garage, McGee finds a computer live-streaming the view of the room — disclosing to Werth our appearances.

So sometime afterwards, we visit Walter Reed where one of Werth's men undergoes rehabilitative physical therapy.

Tony and Gibbs enter the gymnasium, leaving Ziva, McGee, and me to secure the perimeter and watch the security footage.

"Let's see what we've got here." McGee mutters under his breath before replaying the tape. "Got cameras on the north and south gates."

"Possible point of entry from the fire escape." Ziva suggests.

I furrow my brows when a new name appears on the screen. "De La Casa's here? I thought he was on his way home."

"Werth has his badge." McGee reminds us.

My finger presses against the speed dial button, and I inform Gibbs of an unexpected visitor who may be paying them a visit very soon.

"Drop your weapons!"

Ziva, McGee, and I silently creep into the gymnasium where Werth stands with a gun targeted at the two N.C.I.S. agents.

Tony and Gibbs comply and place their guns on the ground before sliding them to the side. The latter manages to talk him into giving him his gun.

But just as McGee cuffs his wrist, Gibbs receives a kick to the chest, McGee's knocked to the ground, and Tony's head-butted. Ziva and I stand on either side of him, preparing to use hand-to-hand combat.

With a swift punch to her eye and a painful knee to the ribs, she and I are taken down — not before landing a few knocks to the head. The other three take this as a vantage point and keep him on the ground.

Everyone, except Ziva and Gibbs, earn a trip to the nearest E.R..

"Three bruised ribs, two broken. . .and a severely bruised sternum."

Tony paces up and down alongside the government-issued vehicle, one hand tapping the metal plate over his nose and the other clenching every so often.

"Broken nose — second time, by the way."

"First time doesn't count, Ev." His tongue clicks against his teeth. "Who breaks their nose on a date, for God's sake?"

"A guy who's trying to woo his girlfriend." I press my cheek to his shoulder, receiving a soft kiss to the head.

"Let's get you — my pretty, pretty woman — back home."

The senior agent slowly sways as his feet rock unsteadily. He reaches a shaking hand to his pocket to retrieve the set of keys.

"Alright, I'm driving."

Upon arrival, McGee and Ziva inform us of Ducky's findings — someone's been giving Corporal Werth steroids to induce his psychosis.

"Abby's mapping Werth's blood work." McGee struggles to open a can of soda. "Already found a bunch of steroids, well covered. Would have been masked from standard drug testing."

Tony twirls a pen between his fingertips. "Drug testing's big bucks, McGiggle. N.F.L., N.B.A., M.L.B., Tour de France. . .they all face the same problem."

"He could have been injected his entire career. Werth is not just a Marine with post-traumatic stress." Ziva suggests.

"Someone's trying to recreate Captain America." I blurt out.

"He's in a hospital bed. Weak." Gibbs slowly stalks to the center of the bullpen. "19 years old, he's just been rejected by the Corps."

"His dream of becoming a marine over before it starts."

"Because he's four F, has an anemic blood disorder."

"Three years later, he's ripping through boot camp."

"A miraculous improvement in his blood-cell count."

"It's not a miracle. . .it's an experiment."

"Werth's swiss cheese brain means he can't name the mad scientist." Tony balances his elbows on his knee. "Any chance the attending was Dr. De La Casa?"

McGee regretfully shakes his head. "No such luck. As far as I can tell, they didn't cross paths till a couple weeks ago."

"Then who? Who would benefit from an experiment like this?" Ziva lifts her shoulders.

"Pharmaceuticals?" I suggest with a shrug, to which Gibbs looks in my direction. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Find out what kind of research the Biotech Corporation does and everything on Karen Sutherland. DiNozzo, you're with me."

Soon, Abby comes up from her lab.

"Oh, I missed you! I missed you so much!"

The young forensics expert launches herself onto me, hugging and squeezing me like there's no tomorrow.

"I was only gone for a few —"

"Don't you ever do anything like that again." She waves a stern finger.

"You mean do my job, Abbs?" I cock a brow.

Her lips pout. ". . .you're no fun. Can't you let me have my motherly moment to scold you?"

The research and casual interrogation with Karen Sutherland goes nowhere, unfortunately. But Abby clears the Biotech Corporation and Sutherland, telling us they're not responsible.

Dr. De La Casa meets us at the hospital entrance, where we meet the Senator's P.R. person Ray Vincent again.

Ziva and Gibbs pay the veteran a visit where they find out the sedative meant to help him was pushed to a much higher level.

He thrashes around for a bit before succumbing to the adrenaline injection.

The man who had been stealing vials of medicine from the hospital lockers is none other than the orderly who had been Werth's first victim.

Although we aren't able to find who had been poisoning Werth all these years, he still receives the silver star.