"Tony! So help me, if you pick that straw up one more time I'll shove it up your-"

"But Ziva, your reaction is priceless. Therefore, I have no reason to stop." Tony said with a pampas smirk as he lifted the straw to his lips and sent a quick puff of air through the hollow object, sending a small wad of moisturized paper at Ziva's forehead. Instinctively, Ziva's arms swung wildly in front of her face, trying to stop the ball of saliva, but to no avail. The scene caused Tony to burst into a fit of mindless laughter as tears nearly welled up in his eyes.

Tony's laughter was short lived as an enemy spitball found its way to the corner of his mouth, where it made impact and remained. He looked around in a sort of frenzy until his eyes rested on the now chuckling McGee. In mock laughter Tony said, "You think this is funny Probie?" The question remained up in the air as Tony tried to peel the childish spitball from his face which only caused another chuckle that erupted into laughter from both Ziva and McGee. Tony looked confused until he saw the small container of Super Glue resting on McGee's desk.

"Now I think it's funny." McGee said with a grin as both him and Ziva exchanged air high fives. They watched as Tony scratched at the wad of glue now clinging to his face. The light moment faded fast as a new figure entered the bull pen.

"Grab your gear. We got a dead Marine just outside of Norfolk." Gibbs informed as he walked through the bullpen with little interest, but with a sudden stop he looked down at Tony and said, "DiNozzo, you got a little something right here." He pointed to the corner of his own mouth indicating where the 'something' was on DiNozzo.

Tony looked away from his superior with irritation. "Thanks boss…"

By the time they arrived at the apartment where the Marine mentioned was killed, Tony had rubbed nearly half of the spitball off, sending cold glares directed to McGee who he hadn't spoken a word to since they left the base. This didn't seem to bother McGee as much as Tony had hoped.

Gibbs gave everyone their jobs. McGee was taking pictures of the body and whatever seemed to be of importance, DiNozzo was examining evidence in the room of where she died which in this case was the bigger of the two bedrooms, Ducky and Palmer were determining the time of death which they found was around 4: 30 this morning and Ziva was left interviewing the husband with Gibbs.

At this point, the husband was a wreck. His name was Allan Frost, an architect who was allegedly working with a house five miles away during the time of the murder. He was a short, stocky man who had absolutely no visible facial hair whatsoever. There wasn't even a 5 o'clock shadow despite it being 7 o'clock now. It was almost like he shaved every few minutes although the hair on top of his head was thick, wavy and excruciatingly dark.

"What was your wife's name Mr. Frost?" Ziva asked calmly as she held a little pad of paper and a pencil as she waited for information worthy enough to be written down.

Between feeble sobs, Allan said, "He-Her name was L-Lilly. Lilly Fro-Frost." He moaned near the end of the barely discernable words and covered his face with his hands, as if shielding himself from the gruesome scene just feet away in the other room.

"Does anyone else live here?" Gibbs asked patiently.

Frost slowly took his hands away from his face and exhaled before saying, "Her foster kid…" He answered solemnly. "Her name is Robyn Porter. A problem child." He said with what felt like venom in his voice.

"You didn't adopt her?" Ziva asked, a bit confused at the hatred toward the girl.

"Well, I was around when Lilly adopted her. But as soon as I saw what a menace she was, I was going to send her right back, but Lilly refused. Told me to leave if that was really how I felt. But I loved Lilly, so I dealt with the kid."

"Do you know where she is now?"

"Nope. I never know where that girl goes. Lilly was always the one who kept track of her. If you ask me, I bet she has something to do with this whole thing." Frost accused.

"Did you call her and tell her what happened to Mrs. Frost?"

"No, I figure she already knows, or she will find out whenever she walks through that door. If she ever walks through that door."

"Excuse me for asking Mr. Frost, but did Robyn ever do something to cause you to feel this way about her?"

"It's just this look about her. Like she knows something we don't know, all the damn time. Like she's smarter than everyone. And she's always out doing something weird. I don't know what, but whenever she comes back, she looks angry. I think she's on drugs or something." Frost answered, an accomplished look on his face, as if he was relieved to get that out.

After a few more minutes of back and forth Q&A, the door opened, and an exhausted looking girl stepped through with a yawn. "Hey Lilly! I'm ba-"She cut herself off when she saw a team of NCIS agents fluttering around the apartment. She knew what that meant. She felt sick to her stomach at first as all the color left her face, making her dark red hair look even redder. She dropped the pack she had been carrying as her deep green eyes filled with unshed tears.

By now, the whole team was watching her, although unable to meet her eye. When she discovered the room that everyone seemed so preoccupied with, she realized that's where Lilly was. She started running towards the bedroom to find out if it was really true. To find out if the one person she really cared about was dead. She was stopped abruptly by McGee grabbing her in what felt like a vice-like bear hug, preventing her from going any farther.

"Let go of me!" She shouted as she squirmed violently, attempting to get away from McGee's strong hold. Then she saw the reason he was stopping her as her eyes rested on the pale, lifeless hand resting on the floor just inside the tiny room. That was when she stopped. Her stomach clenched so hard that she would have doubled over in pain if McGee hadn't been holding her.

Gibbs watched the series of events unfold and he immediately knew that this was going to be a very tough case.

The team finally arrived back at the NCIS base, bringing with them Robyn Porter after realizing that it wasn't a good idea to leave her with a foster father who didn't like her and in a place where her foster mother was murdered. Frost didn't seem to mind all that much.

They had tried making conversation with her the whole way back, but the only response they received was a heartbreaking silence. She hardly even moved other than her hands as they fiddled with an old compass.

Once they were in the building, Gibbs looked down at her as she looked down at the floor. "I know it's hard. But we are here to help. Understand?" His voice was calm and gentle, and for a split second, he thought he saw Robyn nod. He patted her on the head before leading her to what looked to be a conference room. He left for only a moment before coming back with a soda, placing it in front of her.

"Thought you might be thirsty." He said as he sat on the table just a few feet away from her. It took a few seconds before she reached for it, cracking it open and taking a sip. The acidic fizz of the drink burned her throat slightly on the way down. She hadn't had a soda in nearly two years.

"Thanks…" Was all that she could muster up. Even then, her voice cracked somewhere in the middle. It was strange to Gibbs. Usually people cried. He knew that she had come close, but she refused to let them fall.

"You're welcome." He said, glad to hear her speak. "Can I ask you a few questions about your mom?" He asked with a sense of care in his voice. She nodded in return, but he could tell that it was half hearted.

"Tell me about the last time you saw her."

There was hesitation before she spoke. "Well…it was last night. She was in the middle of making dinner when she got a phone call. I didn't think anything of it because she's always getting calls from her Marine buddies." She stopped for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she continued, "She sounded upset and then walked outside so we wouldn't hear the call. We all need privacy…right?" She sighed heavily, as if she was slowly starting to realize something. "Well, I went out to check on her because the food was burning. She never walks away from the stove like that. She was always really afraid of fire. When I went to check on her, something was off. She had a distant look on her face. She didn't say anything to me when I asked her questions, so I figured that someone had died in the line of duty, so I left it alone. That's the last time I spoke to her…"

"When did you leave the house?"

Robyn thought for a moment. "Around…1 o'clock. I do that a lot. They didn't care. I didn't do anything illegal, so don't worry about it." She said, not meeting his gaze.

Gibbs dropped the subject quickly. "We'll make arrangements of where you'll be staying tonight." Seeing the distraught look on her face, he got to his feet and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Everything will be alright. We will find the person who did this. I promise."

"Don't do that." She said quickly.

"Do what?"

"Promise. Don't do that. Everyone breaks promises. They don't mean anything."

Gibbs just sighed. "Alright. I won't promise. But I know we will catch the killer." He said as he walked out of the room. Robyn stood up and followed behind him, leaving the soda sitting on the table. They walked out to the bullpen where Robyn saw McGee rubbing his arm, wincing a little bit. This caused her to walk over, a bit ashamed.

"I'm sorry about your arm. I didn't mean to hurt it." She said softly, remembering that while she was squirming around, she had elbowed his forearm just enough to leave a nasty bruise.

McGee looked up at her, not expecting to see her even speaking. "Um, it's okay. No harm done." He said with a slight smile on his face, glad to see that she was getting a little better.

It was time for the team to retire for the night. Gibbs and Robyn were the last ones to go. It had been previously decided that since Gibbs had gotten her to talk in the first place, that he should be the one to provide a place to stay while the case was going on. While in the elevator, Gibbs looked at Robyn with a slight smile.

"I bet your mom was proud of you. I don't think you want anyone to know, but you are a pretty good kid."