1.

Ziva walked into the office. Jenny was sitting at her desk. She clicked her mouse and something printed. Ziva coughed. Jenny looked up and offered her a seat. Ziva sat and Jenny sighed.

"You know time is running out for me. When I was about seven I enrolled myself in military boarding school. I always wanted to join the military and when I was accepted it was a dream come true. What I didn't realise when I enrolled secretly was that the boarding school was in San Francisco. My parents made me go and I was cut off from the rest of the family. I graduated and went straight to NCIS. I wanted to track down my brothers and sisters-if I had any."

Ziva could see the pain on her face and realised this was hard for Jenny. She didn't understand what Jenny meant when she said 'time is running out for me' but didn't want to interrupt.

"I found one of my sisters." continued Jenny, "She moved to England after she married a British man. She had a daughter-my niece." Jenny smiled at this.

"I was meant to go out to meet her yesterday because they were on holiday here." Jenny sighed. Ziva did not understand why Jenny was telling her this.

"She was abducted yesterday morning. A ransom note was emailed to them. The police are doing all they can do but it's not enough. Apparently the trail's gone cold."

Ziva looked shocked. Jenny had family? She secretly enrolled herself in military boarding school? She had a niece? Lots of questions were running through Ziva's head but she didn't know what to ask first.

Jenny grabbed he printout and gave it to Ziva. The picture was of a girl of about thirteen. She had the same colour hair as Jenny and the same eyes. Ziva studied her curiously.

"This is my niece." Said Jenny, "I'm going to ask Mcgee to try to trace the email. I'm putting you in charge of this case Ziva."

Ziva looked at her alarmed. This was the first case she had ever been put in charge of and Jenny had asked her specially. Ziva tried to clear all her doubts from her head.

"Jenny..." Ziva started. Jenny looked up at her. "Does Gibbs know?"

"I will tell him soon." Reassured Jenny.

Ziva picked up the print out and left.

Jenny sighed with relief as the door closed. She sat down at her desk and pulled a pill bottle out of the desk drawer. She swallowed some pills and hoped Gibbs would not over react when she told him what she had done.

"Send in Agent Gibbs." Jenny told Cynthia over the speaker phone.

Gibbs stalked into the office. A thoughtful look was on his face. His famous gut told him something was wrong.

"You wanted me?" he grunted leaning against the glass table.

Jenny sighed. She seemed to be sighing a lot. Her life was in a mess. She needed to sort it out before it ended.

"I found out I had a niece." She started. Gibbs stared, shocked. "I was going to go see her today but she was abducted."

"What do you want me to do?" interrupted Gibbs earnestly.

"Stay out of it!" she said. Gibbs scowled. "I've put officer David in charge of the case. I might need Mcgee a bit too."

Gibbs' face darkened. "Are you sure?" he said warily watching her.

"Yes!" she said stoutly. "You may go."

Gibbs walked out of the office, partially slamming the door. Thank God that's over she thought.