Mellissa stepped into the room. "Logan where's A'Cadia?"

Logan twisted around on the couch to frown at her. "I don't know. I'm not her keeper."

"No, but you're her daddy and I can't find her! She's not anywhere in the building! She's gone! Why is everyone leaving me? First Ziva now A'Cadia! Craig might as well be gone! My life is over! Over I tell you!" She sank to the floor weeping as she pulled a can of whip cream out of a jacket pocket.

With a grumble, Logan rose from the couch. He never could watch an entire program in this house without interruption. Thank God for the advent of the DVR. He stepped over Mellissa and made a circuit around the school, searching for his daughter, ending at Storm's office.

"Storm, where in the hell is A'Cadia?"

She looked up at him. "I don't know. She's your child, I would think that means you should know where she is."

"She's eighteen, I'm not going to hover over her," he argued. Yet, he couldn't help but feel the panic rising. How could he not notice she was gone? What kind of a father was he?

"Hold on let me check something." She lifted the phone and dialed. "Stevie? Have you seen A'Cadia?"

She waited, nodding a couple of times and giving a couple of "uh-huhs" before she finally hung up and stared across the room at him.

"Well?" he asked her.

"According to the security footage Stevie has, she left the garage, at night, a week ago. She hasn't been back since. Her car is still missing from the garage."

"And the little booger didn't think to tell anyone about this?"

"He doesn't continually monitor the cameras. He checked the recorded footage when I asked him to."

"Why is the kid in charge of the security tapes?" he asked her with a frown.

"Don't ask questions which you really don't want the answers to, Logan."

He opened his mouth to ask her again and then shut it, he honestly didn't care why mini-booger had access to the security cameras. How in the hell was he going to find A'Cadia? Craig was out of commission. Skylar was little better, Angela would be no help, and Mellissa was just as useless. Releasing a groan, he went to Stevie's room and knocked on the door. The look on Stevie's face when he opened the door almost made him turn around and leave, the kid looked as if he'd been sitting around waiting for him to arrive.

"I thought you'd show up eventually. Come on in, Logan. I've got everything of A'Cadia from the day she left. You might not like this."

Several minutes later, he was scowling. Stevie was right, he didn't like it. "Are you certain it was Ziva on the phone?"

Stevie gave him a disgusted look. "Do I look like an amateur here? I yanked her phone records, dude."

Logan didn't want to know how Stevie had gotten A'Cadia's phone records so quickly. He decided there was probably a lot he really didn't want to know about Stevie. Booger Boy had skills and contacts he was better off not knowing about.

***

A'Cadia pushed up onto her elbows and glared across the room at Ziva. "We've been here a week already. What the hell does Lenny want us to do, rot in our room?"

"Hey, I've been here for two weeks, how do you think I feel? I don't know what he wants. However, I can guess that he's trying to stall us out as long as possible. I'm starting to get the feeling that he's never going to give me that antidote."

"He wants you on his side, Ziva. That was part of his whole plan. He wants your powers, so at some point, he's going to have to give you the antidote if he wants to use you."

Ziva groaned and pulled the pillow down over her face. "We don't have time for this!"

A'Cadia gave her one of those smiles that reminded her far too much of Logan. "Then we take it for ourselves."

"Now, that is an idea I can get on board with. I know exactly where the lab is. Third floor," Ziva replied with a grin.

"Perfect. So how do we do this?"

Ziva grinned and stood, heading for the door. "Follow me."

A'Cadia glanced up at the speaker in the elevator with a smirk. "Never fixed that did they?"

Ziva grinned. "Nope, this is my favorite elevator. I think Lenny is grateful to your dad for that, he let Brittney pick the elevator music, big mistake."

They got off on the third floor. Ziva led the way, stopping before a door marked with bright red lettering. A'Cadia raised an eyebrow. "Real subtle."

The laboratory door read: Lab. Authorized Personnel and Lenny Only. Unauthorized Personnel Will Be Killed.

"Yeah well, we know he isn't exactly known for subtly. Ya know, or intelligence. Come on let me do the talking. I've tried to get to know a few of the mutants and I know how to talk to them." Ziva pushed the door open and crossed the lab to a desk in one corner.

The desk wasn't anything special, it was a rather boring little desk. One of those mass-produced, metal, with fake wood, seen in a classroom type desks. Behind it sat a skinny kid, wearing glasses, a bright red plaid bow tie, lab coat, and with enough pimples gracing his features for the entire freshman class of any local high school.

Ziva knew he was in charge of the lab—even if he was only fourteen or fifteen—because of his massive brainpower. His mutation allowed him to retain massive amounts of data and his IQ was far higher than any other human.

At the moment, the kid looked nervous as hell staring up at her and A'Cadia. "Uh, can I help you, ladies?"

She sent him her most pleasant smile, the one she'd used at the diner for customers who were on her last nerve, but she knew had the cash to leave a good tip. "You sure can, handsome, Lenny sent us down here. See, A'Cadia and I are going to be taking over the lab. You know, overseeing things? Lenny has waaaaaay too much on his plate right now. What with the Compound 13 shipments going out, the army growing so quickly, and worrying about the X-Men. Just too much for him to worry about, ya know? So, he's delegated the lab to us."

"Whaaat?" The kid's voice cracked over the word and his head went back and forth, as he looked between them. He looked like a spectator at a ping pong tournament.

"Didn't you get the memo? Lenny sent a memo down. Please don't tell me you lost the memo, Lenny will not be happy if you lost the memo. You know how he is about the memos." Ziva was certain to stress the word memo every time, she finished by sending A'Cadia a meaningful look.

"Oh yeah, he gets real upset if you lose memos," A'Cadia agreed, nodding vigorously and looking serious.

The kid's eyes went wide and he began moving papers around on his desk. "Right, memo. I'm sure I've got it here somewhere." His voice cracked over most of the words causing both of them to wince. Jeez, how old was the kid exactly? They were both quite certain he hadn't hit puberty yet.

Ziva waved a hand at the kid. "Find it later. The reason we're here is that we need eight doses of antidote. Lenny asked us to fetch them. For some of the new recruits."

"Eight?" He ran a finger around his collar, looking uncertain.

"Yes, eight. Would you like me to get Lenny down here? I can go fetch him for you."

The kid balked and hurried over to a cabinet. "No, no, ma'am. I've got them right here!" He pulled out eight little canisters and held them out to her.

Ziva took them with a smile. "I'll be sure to let Lenny know how cooperative you've been. Thank you so much." She glanced at his name badge. "Uh, Timmy."

He beamed at her and adjusted his bowtie. "Thank you, ma'am!"

She gave him a nod and ushered A'Cadia out of the lab. They hurried down the hallway. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Couldn't agree more, Sparky!" A'Cadia grinned at her. "That was some fancy talking there."

Ziva lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "A lot of Lenny's people are caught up in his red-tape world. He has rules and regulations for everything. And I wasn't lying about the memos, he lives by them."

They made their way out to A'Cadia's car and headed back to the school as quickly as possible. Ziva smirked at A'Cadia as they pulled into the garage.

"Why the goofy grin?" A'Cadia asked.

"Lenny's gonna be pissed when he finds out. I was just imagining the look on his face."

A'Cadia smirked back at her. "I'm sure it will be good. Too bad we won't be there to witness it, but I'd rather be far from him." She pulled open the door from the garage into the kitchen.

They stepped inside and headed down to Storm's office. Ziva grinned at a rather stunned Storm as they sauntered through the door.

"What in the hell do you two think you're doing here?"

"Oh, well see we thought we'd bring you these vials of antidote. But, if you don't want them, we can always leave," Ziva said gesturing back toward the door.

"Antidote?" Storm asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, antidote. For Compound 13," A'Cadia answered.

"We stole it from Lenny's lab. We got eight vials. One for each mutant hit with the Compound 13 and two extra for our lab to work with," Ziva told her, setting the vials on the desk carefully.

Storm stared at the vials. "You haven't taken the antidote?"

Ziva shrugged. "I thought it would be better if I let our guys give it to me."

Storm sat back in her chair and stared at the two of them for several minutes before she said anything. "This was your plan the entire time. You never really joined Lenny's army. You went with him so you could steal the antidote. That was dangerous, you should have told someone what you were up to."

Ziva gestured to A'Cadia. "I wasn't exactly alone."

Storm scowled. "You, neither one of you, are officially part of the X-Men team! What you did was dangerous!"

"No, we aren't, but we've done a pretty decent job so far."

More scowling. "Have you? Lenny is on the loose. He's distributing his Compound 13. The lot of you got doused with it. Shall I go on?"

"Fine, so we aren't perfect. As if you are?" Ziva snapped before storming from the office.

A'Cadia threw her arms up and followed after Ziva, who was already halfway up the stairs by the time she caught up with her. "Hey! Wait up!"

Ziva stopped and turned. "What?"

"No sense snapping at Storm. She's just doing her job."

"Right whatever."

"Ahhhh! I thought I heard you! I knew you weren't a traitor! I knew it!" Skylar flew down the stairs and nearly tackled Ziva, wrapping her in a tight hug. "Roomie, I missed you!"

"Sure, I missed you too, Skylar. Now can you let me go so I can breathe?"

Skylar stepped back, tears leaking from her eyes. "Sorry, I just missed you sooooooooo much! I couldn't sleep a wink with you gone! The room was so quiet!"

A'Cadia rolled her eyes. "I am so glad I don't have a roommate."

Skylar sniffled and gave them a watery smile. "Mellissa is gonna freak. And OMG Craig! We need to tell Craig." Her voice went quiet as she continued. "He was devastated, Ziva. He's barely left his room since you left. He, um, well you might wanna hold your breath if you go in there. I mean he really hasn't moved very much. He's a little, no, a lot, ripe."

"You can't be serious? He had to have gotten out of bed. How could he stay in his room the entire time I was gone? I was gone for two weeks!" She raced up the stairs and came to an abrupt halt in the doorway of Craig's room, her face scrunched.

A'Cadia crashed into her back. "Oh God, Skylar wasn't kidding! It's worse than Stevie's closet!"

Ziva held her nose and made her way into the room, trying not to breathe as she did. She edged closer to the side of the bed and prodded Craig in the shoulder. He lay face down on the bed.

"Craig, come on get up!" He mumbled and moved his head, but his eyes remained closed. She poked him again. "Craig! Get up!"

He whimpered. "I can hear her voice! Why did she leave!?"

"I'm right here you idiot! That's why you can hear my voice! Now get up and take a shower you smell like death!"

Craig cracked his eyes open and stared up at her in disbelief. "Ziva?"

She propped her hands on her hips, immediately regretted releasing her nose, and plugged it up again. "Yes, now take a shower before you talk to me! Better yet, take two or three and then we'll talk. And brush your teeth with an entire tube of toothpaste while you're at it."

He jumped up, wobbled a bit because he hadn't moved much since she'd left, and fell, grabbing at her as he did, and enveloping her in a cloud of stench.

"Eww, gross!" She shoved him back at the bed. "Go shower!" She turned away and left the room.

A'Cadia was still in the hall, her shoulders propped against the wall opposite Craig's room, a big grin on her face. "Loverboy try and snag a kiss?"

"Oh, shut up, paws 'n' claws!"

"You should be flattered that he was so broken up that he didn't even shower while you were gone. I've never had a guy lose it like that over me. Come on, Ziva, the guy likes you. A lot." She didn't lose the grin while she spoke.

She didn't respond. Not because she didn't have anything to say, but because she had way too much to say about it. In a very weird way, it was flattering the way Craig had fallen apart, it was also creepy, and well, overwhelming. How could he like her that much? Could he honestly have feelings that deep for her that it upset him that much when she'd left? They barely knew one another! It worried her. Not because Craig might have deep feelings for her, but because she just might have them back. She didn't want a relationship. An attachment. It could only lead to heartbreak. Hurt. She'd loved her parents. Where had that ended up? The second she hadn't been what they expected, they tossed her out onto the street. She included her father because he hadn't exactly come looking for her, the fact that he hadn't come after her spoke volumes in her opinion. She was better off alone. It was the way she'd lived her life since her parents tossed her out. It was the reason she hadn't wanted Logan and Craig to bring her here in the first place. She should have listened to her instincts and left as soon as she could. Instead, she'd stayed. Gotten attached to everyone here. Dammit, she even liked A'Cadia.

"You like him back, admit it," A'Cadia pushed.

"I don't have to admit to anything," Ziva growled at her.

A'Cadia chuckled. "See, right there, that's an admission if I ever heard one."

"A'Cadia? Jesus, where have you been?"

She spun around to face Logan where he stood glowering at her. "I was with, Ziva. We stole the antidote from Lenny and brought it back."

He blinked at her, frowned, and perched his hands on his hips. "You did what?"

"Lenny wouldn't trust Ziva unless she brought me in, so she called me. I agreed to help her. But after a week he was still being a jerk, he wasn't giving her the antidote, so we stole it from the lab and brought it back." She shrugged at him.

"And you didn't bother to think that doing all of that might be dangerous?" he snarled at her.

"Of course, it was dangerous, but we needed the antidote! Logan, I'm not a baby! If you'll recall I'm just as deadly as you are, claws and all. You want a demonstration?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

His hands fell from his hips and his shoulders slumped slightly. "No, of course not. I was worried about you. I had no idea where you were or if you were okay." He stopped and sighed. "I'm new to this whole father thing, give me a chance okay?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, all right."

Craig came down the hall, a big smile on his face. His hair still wet from his shower. Ziva groaned and ducked into her room. A'Cadia smiled and shook her head. Logan arched an eyebrow.

A'Cadia waved at Craig. "Good to see you up and about there, lover boy. Ziva's in her room."

"Thanks, A'Cadia." Craig smiled at her and headed into Ziva's room.

"Ziva avoiding him?" Logan asked.

"Possibly, haven't figured those two out yet. I think Ziva's rather eager to avoid anything having to do with any kind of relationship."

Logan shook his head, looped his arm over her shoulders, and tugged her down the hallway. "That's the vibe I got from her when we brought her here. The girl is a loner. She doesn't like people, but then again, a lot of mutants don't. Wanna play some video games?"

"Sure, let's go so I can kick your butt."

"Oh, you think you can kick my butt, kid?"

"Any day, anytime, old man," A'Cadia told him with a grin as they headed off to his little media room, formerly known as the study.