End of the Rainbow

(Last Name verse)

Kim knocked on the door to Clint's office at the mansion, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. Part of her wondered if she should tell him about what she had over heard at the Buenos Dias Dinner.

As Clint called for her to come in, she threw back her hair. She took stock of the fact that Bo and Nora hadn't realized she was there to pick up an order for them as they discussed their latest case: the strangling of a young red headed woman by Charlie Banks. The fact that they let it slip that he had been drunk and had probably mistaken the young woman for the missing Natalie from behind had shocked her so much that she had left without their order.

"Where's our lunch?" Clint asked as he took off his glasses and placed them on his desk, "I thought you were picking it up?"

"Ummm, Clint, I don't know how … I mean… I overheard something that I think you should know about."

"OK…" he said leaning back in the chair that had been his father's: "let me hear it."

"I don't know how to soften the blow of this one…" she admitted uneasily.

"Just say it."

"OK. I saw Nora and Bo there. I overheard part of their conversation. It had to do with why Natalie took off the way she did. Or at least I think it did…" she rambled.

"Natalie took off because she was angry at me for… well, you know. And at Vikki for a fight they had," Clint replied dismissively.

Kim shook her head: "it's more than that. You know about how Charlie's being charged with trying to kill that young girl?"

"Heard about it," Clint responded looking at the brunette questioningly.

"She wasn't the first person he attacked from what they said," Kim told him. "Nora was trying to plan out how to make sure that Eli didn't find out that Charlie had attacked Natalie the day she left."

"No way," Clint said a touch of anger in his voice. "Vikki would've… Bo…"

"She went to file a report. Bo and Nora wouldn't do it."

"They WHAT?!?!" Clint demanded jumping to his feet and heading towards the door.

"Bo was… he kept saying how guilty he felt, but Nora… she said they did the right thing. That Charlie was drunk and it seemed Natalie was overreacting…" she said chasing after him.

"I'll give them overreacting," Clint said as he stormed out of the house.

"Crap," Kim muttered. "This is not going to go well…"

"Not what have you done?" Renee asked the younger woman as she descended the steps.

"Told Clint the truth about why Natalie left town," Kim said as she turned to meet the former madam's disdain with a glare of her own. "Apparently Bo and Nora couldn't be bothered to file a report of Charlie choking her…"

"Oh dear," Renee muttered, "No matter who he goes after this isn't going to go well. You get Tea on the phone. I'll see about making sure enough bail money is on hand if needed"

Bo opened the door to his room at the Palace and stared at his angry brother a second before his brother's fist connected with his jaw. "You let that drunk get away with putting his hands on my daughter?" Clint demanded as he pushed his way into the room.

Bo looked up from where he was sprawled on the floor: "I'm not even going to ask how you found out."

"Not from you or Vikki that's for damned sure!"

Bo pushed to his feet, feeling his brother had had a right to knock him down for this one: "We thought that she was over reacting…"

"We or Nora? What she take your brains when she took your balls?" Clint demanded.

Bo rolled his eyes: "there's no need to be crude especially when you're the one sleeping with a girl young enough to be your granddaughter."

"You want to throw accusations around we can go round and round, little brother, but that's not why I'm here. You allowed Charlie to get away with choking Natalie and that's why she's gone."

"That's not the only reason. And I didn't allow anything," Bo told him.

"Right that's why you're helping Nora try to cover up the information!"

Bo cursed under his breathe, he knew and had told Nora that their conversation at the dinner should've waited to a more private setting: "her voice was scratchy, but the bruises hadn't shown then."

"THEN?!?!"

"She got a restraining order from another police department," Bo admitted. "The pictures show…" he shook his head. "We got statements from Brody and Jess. Brody pulled him off of her. They said it was nothing.

It seemed like nothing…" Bo tried to explain. "Truth is, I wanted it to be nothing. Her over reacting…"

"So you did nothing? Where is my daughter now, Bo? Huh? Who does she have to go to when Charlie pleads out, and we know that Nora will plead him out because he was drunk and because it was Natalie and not Jess he was targeting."

"Clint…"

"Don't Bo. I thought the worse thing you could do to me was steal my wife, but this?" Clint shook his head. "You better know how damned lucky you are that I didn't have the time to grab Pa's riffle."

"You know how much Natalie means to me. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her."

"Well, you have a hell of a way of showing it!"

Bo glared at Clint, now angry over the accusations. He had done his job as best he could given the information he had and the idea that he hadn't because of Nora burned him: "I was more of a father to that girl than you ever were…" he said without thinking.

The comment was met by another fist to his face. Standing over his brother's sprawled body Clint glared down at him: "You stopped that when you turned your back on her and never forgave her after Nash died. Nora was right about one thing, you are an unforgiving bastard. And know this, had it been your child--- your daughter--- in her place I wouldn't have hesitated. I wouldn't have questioned. I would've gone out and grabbed the bastard who hurt her and strung him up.

Seems like I have anyway," Clint raged. "Stay away from me and mine Bo. You hurt them again, you will pay. And if Natalie never comes home again I will make sure that you pay and pay dearly…"

Natalie stood in the corner of the house with McGee and Ziva as Gibbs rocked the baby they were returning to its desperate mother in his arms. Natalie smiled sadly as Tony handcuffed the father for his part in the kidnapping. From her place she saw Gibbs lips moving slowly: "What is he singing?" Ziva wondered.

"Daddy's Little Girl," Tim said with ease.

Natalie looked at the man sideways as Ziva raised an eyebrow: "I don't believe I know that song," the Israeli woman said.

"It's an American song. Most fathers sing it to their little girls," Natalie told her.

"So your father, he sung it to you then?"

"No," Natalie sighed. "My biological dad wasn't around when I was little. The people who raised me…" she shook her head as Gibbs came over to them.

"You guys ready to roll?" he asked.

"Sure boss," McGee and Ziva said in unison.

"Good, you two head back together I'll drive Balsom here back."

"Got it," they said as they headed out.

Gibbs looked over to his wife: "What were you talking about?" he asked as they walked out the door.

"What you were singing. How Ziva and I had no one to sing it to us as kids," she admitted.

"Don't expect me to sing it to you now," Gibbs joked as he opened the passenger side door for her.

"Just promise that if we ever have kids and we ever have a girl you'll sing it to her," she told him.

Gibbs tensed as she closed the door and he rounded the car: "You ok, Jet?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Sore subject," Natalie sighed as he looked out the window.

Gibbs started the car as they remained in an uncomfortable silence. At a light, Gibbs looked over to her: "I'll sing it. Just not Mockingbird. That was Kelly's song."

"All right," Natalie replied.

"But there's plenty of time to talk about it later, right?"

"Yeah. No rush," Natalie commented as a horn sounded behind them: "except maybe for the car behind us since the light changed."

"Right," Gibbs laughed. "So tell me your thoughts on this case…"