Patolog Mallard konečně zjistí, kdo byl jedním z oněch tří rozkouskovaných těl, které měl dlouho na pitevně. Zjistil, že se i v případě ostatních dvou těl jedná o soudní úředníky z případu, kde i on figuroval. Jednalo se o muže, který znásilnil a zavraždil příslušnici Námořní pěchoty. Gibbs brzy pochopí, že je třeba hlídat i patologa, protože ten je další možnou obětí. Bohužel pachatel Kate Toddovou ošálí a patologa unese. Začíná honba s časem, úkolem je patologa zachránit živého. Stopy vedou do pohřebního ústavu, který vlastní matka onoho pachatele. Gibbs a jeho lidé přijdou v poslední chvíli.

As Ducky and Mr. Palmer work on reassembling three bodies from the small bits from the barrel, Ducky notices something odd. He calls Mr. Palmer, but gets no response. He realized that Mr. Palmer is wearing ear buds and listening to loud music as he works at a table neaby. Ducky removes the ear buds and addresses Mr. Palmer as "a serious student of anatomy. You are a serious student of anatomy, aren't you?" He asks Mr. Palmer to look at a portion of the Body #1 puzzle and identify what is odd about it. Mr. Palmer correctly identifies the fact that the body part placed in the thumb position is, in fact, a big toe. Ducky asks why the big toe is placed with the hand, and Mr. Palmer quickly explains that it was placed correctly. Body #1 had lost a thumb sometime in life to some sort of accident, and had a big toe sewn on in its place. Ducky is visibly rattled by this news. He has a flashback to someone's hand on a table, with a big toe instead of a thumb.

As Ducky prepares to leave, Mr. Palmer excitedly, and not too coherently, tries to express his seriousness as a would-be ME, his respect for Ducky, his desire to learn everything possible.... Ducky is getting more and more anxious through this ramble, and finally snaps, "Jimmy!" to encourage him to get to his point. Jimmy's point, it turns out, is that he actually does know the difference between a big toe and a thumb. Ducky acknowledges this with a thumbs up and heads quickly for the elevator to let Gibbs know that Ducky knows who Body #1 is. This leaves Jimmy behind in autopsy to reflect happily on the fact that "he called me Jimmy."

Ducky tells Gibbs that he believe Body #1 is a prosecutor who Ducky worked with a few times on various cases. The Giblets go to work to look up the prosecutor's status - and he has been missing for 8 months. The turn to the other key players in the cases in question and find that a particular judge from one of those cases also went missing, 7 months ago. Ducky now knows exactly which case is in play. A medical examiner wannabe, washed out of school, was accused of attempted rape and murder of a female officer. The evidence against him was circumstantial, but Ducky's testimony convinced the jury, and Victor Hanlan went off to prison. Ducky realizes that it is no coincidence that those bodies turned up at a military hospital in his jurisdiction. The killer intended for him to find them.

Gibbs becomes worried when it becomes apparent that Ducky is the next target. Gibbs assigns the team to protect Ducky at his home with his mother: DiNozzo gets the day shift and ends up becoming an expert on the art of marshaling corgi dogs. Mrs Mallard is convinced he is a gigolo. He is desperate for Kate to take over the minder duties. More barrels get delivered to his house: the jury foreman is in them.

Gibbs and team trace the barrels to a former machinist mate 1st class, who was on board the Forrestal, who runs a metal scrap dealership, but he is not the baddie.

When Ducky comes home for the evening, Kate takes the night shift. Ducky normally sleeps upstairs but Mrs Mallard sleeps downstairs: however, Ducky chooses to sit up all night. He falls asleep in his chair. Kate hears dogs barking out the back of the beautiful mansion that is Ducky's home: Kate goes to the back garden, gun drawn but finds Mrs Mallard with a dog. She persuades the lady to return to the house with the dog but eventually Mrs Mallard points out that it is not her dog: it is not a corgi. Kate rushes back into the house, but kidnappers have taken Ducky. Kate fears Gibbs' wrath for falling for the trick but Gibbs apologizes and says it is his fault: two people to protect means there should have been two agents doing the protecting. Kate protected Mrs Mallard, so the baddies got Ducky.

The team is puzzled, because the prime suspect, (the villain who was incarcerated) was supposed to have died in a car accident a few years ago: but his family are all creepily into death: the brother stuffs animals, the parents embalm people at their funeral home, so the team turn their attention to the villain's ultra creepy mother.

The taxidermist brother is interrogated and cracks under pressure: Villain Victor did not die in an accident: creepy mother pulled out Victor's teeth and glued them into the mouth of a car crash victim who was meant to be processed at the family funeral home.

Gibbs and the team decide that Ducky is being held at the funeral home: they wait until they see lights going on, then rush the house: but cannot find the mother or Ducky. They pressure the wimpy Dad, who points out the door to the embalming room. They rush in, just in time to untie Ducky's hands so that Ducky can pull out the drain from his neck, which was to exsanguinate Ducky. We see his viscous red liquid running out of his neck, through a tube, into a drain channel in the embalming table, to a bucket below. Ducky did not look happy. Creepy Mother and Villain Victor were going to embalm Ducky, alive. Because the team were so busy saving Ducky, Victor, unable to stand the idea of going to prison, was able to grab a scalpel and cut his own throat, in front of creepy mother. Serves her right.