He wondered into the lab silently, undetected, like he always did when Gibbs took him to work. Abby would be expecting him, Evan knew. He and Abby got along pretty well. But today, she wasn't in her lab, bouncing off the walls from drinking an excessive amount of Caf-Pow. She wasn't in her office listening to her rather, interesting (as Gibbs liked to call it) taste in music. She wasn't anywhere. Evan made one last lap around the lab before heading towards the elevators. He pressed the button in disappointment. Gibbs said she would have been around, but yet he could not find her anywhere. Right now, Evan needed Abby more than anyone.

Gibbs had hardly even looked at him the same ever since he moved in. Evan understood, he knew Gibbs still cared about him. Ducky or Palmer wouldn't be the best people to talk to under the circumstances. McGee was too un-focused. Truthfully, now as he thought about more, Abby would probably be too heartbroken to talk. It was stupid for him to come down here. In reality, he had no one to talk too. The only two people he ever went to for help were laying dead in autopsy downstairs.

The elevator made its annoying ding as the doors opened, welcoming the boy in. Evan was thankful no one had been waiting on the other side; some time alone would do him good. He waited patiently for the doors to close and for the elevator to go pass a couple floors before he hit the kill switch. The elevator came to a stop and the lights went out. He threw himself down in corner. Evan pressed his knees close to his body and hugged them tightly. He wasn't cold; he was trying to comfort himself.

His twelve-year-old body couldn't take much more of the pain. He was old enough to understand why they risked their lives everyday. He understood that they loved to protect people, to protect the innocent. He understood they loved working together, as partners, because truthfully, he knew they loved each other. What he didn't understand was why it had to be them. Why it had to be his two favorite people in the entire world? Why it had to be the man he looked up to every single day, or why it had to be the woman who held him when he was scared? Evan couldn't understand why death had finally caught up with his parents.

He dug his face into his knees and began to sob. It had happened too soon, he knew. They didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve this. The team didn't deserve this. He knew it was selfish to think, but in some terrible, twisted way, Evan wished it had happened to some other agents. To people he didn't know, that he didn't care about. Not to his family. Not to the two people that were his entire world. The boy wiped the few tears that had escaped from his eyes and pulled himself together. He gripped the bars on the side of the elevator, taking a few deep, long breaths before hitting the switch again. Evan squinted as the bright lights filled the elevator once more. There was a small jerk that knocked him against the wall before it started moving again. Before the elevator reached his floor, he gave the wall one hard punch out of anger. It wasn't like him to act weak, especially at a time like this.

Abby was waiting for him when the doors opened. She looked from the ground to the innocent boy that stood in front of her. Evan had never seen the Goth like this. Her hair wasn't perked up in pigtails, she hadn't put of makeup, and her outfit wasn't nearly Abby. The scientist tried to flash him a smile but was too depress and broken to make it look fairly happy. Evan didn't mind, he gave her his best smile in return anyways. The two exchanged places as the elevator doors closed with Abby in them. It was defiantly a good thing he didn't go and talk with her. She was too heartbroken.

For a while, he just stood in place. Evan could feel the eyes of people on him. He could feel the stares, and hear the whispers as everyone walked by. He shoved his hands deep down in his jean pockets, shifted his weight from foot to foot and kicked the group a little. Evan kept his eyes glued to the ground. He didn't dare look up at the office around him. He wouldn't admit it, but he was afraid. He knew this sort of stuff happened regularly. There would be replacements, there would be new agents, and life would go on; for most people. Unfortunately, he wasn't most people. While life went on, he knew he was going to be left behind. He knew life wasn't going to wait up for him.

Evan felt a familiar touch on his shoulders and turned around to see Gibbs looking down at him. Gibbs grabbed his shoulder and pulled him closer while walking him into the bullpen. Evan's eyes admittedly went to her desk. She would always be the first one smiling, saying hello and greeting him with a hug and an unnecessary kiss on the check that would make him blush from embarrassment. Then he would always make a comment about how she was embarrassing his 'little man,' Evan would make his way over to his desk and slap his idol a high five while discussing which movie to watch later that night.

Evan quickly rubbed his eyes hard to stop the crying. Gibbs knelt down and gently rubbed his back. The boy responded by jumping onto him and hooking his arms around Gibbs' neck. A few years ago Gibbs would've been able to lift Evan fully off the ground to comfort him, but now Evan was getting taller, bigger, older, and all Gibbs could do was awkwardly hug him for as long as Evan needed it.

Evan looked up from Gibbs' shoulder to notice McGee sadly staring at the two of them. He broke out of Gibbs' grip and ran over to McGee who greeted him with open arms, ready for hugging. When Evan finally ran into Tim, they both gave a little 'umft' sound at the impact, which made Gibbs smile. McGee held the boy tightly and pulled him up to sit him nicely on his desk. Tim turned his chair so Evan would face him and neither of them had to face their desks. It had only been a few days since they were gone, but today was the first time Evan had visited NCIS since the incident, and since he had moved in with Gibbs. McGee grunted as he motioned Evan off his desk and back onto the ground. For the second time today, some one tried to flash Evan a smile. McGee's smile looked just the same as Abby's. Depressed and broken.

"You're getting big, my man!" McGee tried to sound enthused but the thought of his two friends never getting to see their little boy grow up lingered in the back of his head. His tone ended up being a little sharp, but mostly sad. Evan took notice, but stayed strong.

"Thanks," was his response, in a hushed mumble. He turned to Gibbs who was standing in the middle of the squad room with a small smile around his lips. It was the first real smile Evan had seen all day.

"Can we go home now?" Evan found himself asking. He thought he had wanted to be here, but after an hour of just roaming around the building filled with memories with nothing to do, Evan realized he just wanted to be alone.

"Did you get to talk with Abby?" Gibbs asked. Evan had always been fond of Abby, which she loved, and the two always seemed to talk about everything together. He guessed that wasn't the case on a day like today.

"No, it is probably not a good time." Evan whispered to the ground, "Maybe later. Bye McGee." They all exchanged goodbyes as Gibbs walked Evan to the elevators with his hand placed gently on the twelve-year-old's shoulder. Evan was almost up to his shoulders. Gibbs' guessed that that was tall for a sixth grader, but wasn't really positive. When the doors opened, they both walked in. Once the elevator doors shut, Gibbs nudged Evan.

"You know its okay to talk about it with me." Gibbs informed him. Evan acted so hidden and hardly would ever show emotion. He was a strong young boy that had taken after both his mother and father.

"I know. I thought with Abby it might've been easier to talk, because she's Abby, ya know?" He paused in mid sentence, and then began again. "But when I saw her, she looked just like you do, and just like McGee does, and just like I do. I didn't think she would look like that. She's always so…happy."

Gibbs nodded in understanding as they both walked out of the building in unison. He knew that Evan wasn't going to fully open up until he knew he could talk to some one who was ready, which was going to take a while. Then he was going to have to make sure he was even ready, which was going to take even longer. Gibbs knew deep down that no one was going to be the same after the loss the team had just experienced. They reached his car and drove back to their house.


Evan walked into his room which was Gibbs' old guest room. There were still piles of boxes in corners and under his bed. He still had a lot of un-packing to do, but never seemed to be able to put any of it away in the past few days. The only thing Evan had even touched from the moving boxes was a small picture frame with his whole family smiling inside.

Now, he grabbed that frame and squirmed into bed, holding the picture close to his chest, remembering. Evan felt the tears swell up in his eyes as he took a quick glance of their family photo. His horrible thoughts started to swirl back into his brain; It should've been some one else, any other person, besides his mom and dad. Evan awoke from his thoughts when Gibbs knocked gently on his door.

"You okay?" He asked. The boy nodded, sat up in his bed, wiped his tears, and stuffed the frame under the covers.

"Will you tell me what they were like, before I was born?" Evan suddenly asked.

"What do you want to know?" Gibbs responded noticing Evan perk up slightly. He walked into the room and sat at the edge of the bed.

"I don't know." Evan thought, "What about their first date?"

Gibbs laughed a little, thinking back to his own memory about finding out his two agents were dating. "Actually, Abby knows that story a lot better than I do."

"Oh," Evan sighed and looked down at his lab. Gibbs placed his hand on Evan's knee.

"She likes telling that story. You should call her and ask her." Gibbs handed Evan his phone and watched him quickly dial the numbers. Evan held it up to his ear and waited patiently for Abby to pick up.

"Gibbs, how is Evan?" Abby asked when she answered the phone in a rather monotone voice.

"It's Evan, Abby. I have a question for you."

"What is it?" Abby asked, feeling even more depressed from Evan calling. She couldn't help but think of how he was never going to her his mom's or dad's voice over the phone ever again.

"I want to know about their first date."

Abby was surprised. "You want to know about Tony and Ziva's first date?" She repeated. "Why?"

Evan shrugged over the phone, even though Abby couldn't see him. "I think it will make me feel better. I want to know what they were like before I was born."

"Well, okay." Abby sounded unsure, but would tell him anyways. If this was what would make Evan feel better, she was willing to go through it. She didn't care how much she didn't want to talk about what her friends used to be like, she didn't care how much pain the memories would bring back, she didn't care how many tears she would cry when she told Evan the story over the phone. If this was what would make that little boy happy, she was going to do it. Because right now, he was all that mattered; to her, to Gibbs, to McGee, to everyone, even Tony and Ziva. She sighed a little and began to talk. "Well, it all started with McGee…"


And to clear up anything I DO NOT WISH DEATH ON ZIVA OR TONY. I'm not kidding when I say this is a Tony/Ziva story, trust me, it's comming up. If this is at all confusing to anyone I'm super sorry, hopefully things will get a little less confusing when I post the second chapter.

-Sam