Expansion on numerous stories. Bound together by friendship, family, Israeli sense of duty and tragedy – the class of 2000. The Beth Shalom class would survive tragedy in all its ugly forms... together.

DISCLAIMER: I don't any of the characters from NCIS.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is a backstory on a few different WIPs right now. Any of my stories that mention Beth Shalom or its members (Where No Counsel Is, Hero of Israel) have the same backstory in regards to Ziva's school years.

Prologue – June 27, 2000

Their parents would've been horrified if they could've seen the party that their newly graduated teenagers had built. All of those Mossad agents and directors who had sent their so-called responsible young adults off to an 'innocent celebration'…

"Motel, Motel, our little rabbi, come have a drink!" Sulaiman laughed, slinging one friendly arm around the poor bespectacled young man as he handed him a bottle of beer. "Trust us, you will enjoy the night so much more!"

Motel eyed the bottle in suspicion. "No, I don't think so," he said finally.

"How do you expect to survive IDF, Mordecai Horowitz, if you don't drink every once in a while?" Kemuel said, slinging his arm around Motel from the other side.

"Where is the music in this place?" Yael yelled as he entered with more drinks, aided by two other graduating students. "Malachi, turn the music on! This is a party! Motel, have a drink before you pass out!"

Malachi cranked up the volume on the music station he was setting up in the corner of the abandoned warehouse. "Loud enough for you, Yael?"

"I can still hear you, Malachi!"

"Where are the girls?" Hiram yelled over the beat as he came in with a few more of the Beth Shalom graduating class. "I thought for sure Ziva would be here by now!"

"Don't complain, Hiram!" Sulaiman yelled back, clapping Motel on the shoulder and shoving the beer into his hand with a final admonition of, "Motel, drink!"

"We get a head start on her this way!" Yael laughed as he joined his classmates. "We can be good and drunk by the time she arrives and she will have to play catch-up!"

"Don't kill her, Yael!" Malachi admonished. "Do you want Deputy Director David angry at you?"

"Why is my father angry at Yael?" came Ziva's voice from behind Kemuel. She grinned at her classmates, already taking a swig from one bottle.

"He's not," Yael returned.

"Good! He's angry enough at me," Ziva laughed, passing the drink to Rafi as he showed up.

"Why?"

"Because I brought Tali."

"Tali!" the other boys exclaimed as Ziva's 16-year-old sister appeared amongst them, accompanied by David.

"Come to crash our party, then, have you?"

"Not much of a party right now," Tali replied with a smile and a laugh, tossing her long curls back over her shoulder as she pulled her sister's drink from Rafi's hands. "Come on, let's dance!" she yelled, passing the drink back to Ziva.

"I second the little lady's motion!" David exclaimed, pulling her out into the open space.

Ziva laughed again, crossing over to where Motel was hurriedly trying to replace the untouched drink before he was accosted by classmates.

"Ziva, I will not drink that, no matter what you threaten!" Motel exclaimed, just as she grinned and lightly slapped his face.

"Good, Motel, you do have a backbone! Perhaps you aren't quite hopeless yet!"

Ziva and Rafi hadn't even had time to let the sweat cool when they heard the explosions and the screams.

"Damn it, what's happened?" Rafi muttered as they quickly redressed and dashed out from the weapons carrier.

The warehouse was smoking, flames licking up in huge tongues as the graduates all began leaving, two of them pulling motionless bodies with them.

"Oh, my God, Tali!" Ziva screamed as she saw Simon lay down the young teen. "No, Tali!"

"What happened?" Rafi demanded of Kemuel as Zelig dropped David's body to the pavement next to Tali.

"I don't know, I don't know," Kemuel said frantically, as Etan was desperately trying to find a signal to dial emergency.

"A bomber," Myriam gasped, collapsing to the pavement with a few others. "A suicide bomber. Maybe Hamas… He just walked in. He walked in and David and Tali were the only ones close enough to be hit by the blast and the shrapnel…"

It was sheer chaos when Mossad arrived, mostly the parents of said graduates.

"Everybody's name is going on the record!" Director David roared as he angrily yanked his daughter up from the ground where she knelt next to her sister's body. "All of you, in a line, present your name, unit and ID number to Officer Bashan!" The director pretty much threw Ziva to the front of the line. "Beginning with you!"

"As usual, Ziva's the first on the record," Yehudi muttered under his breath to Etan.

"David, Ziva. Komemuite 200007," Ziva said dully, moving aside to let the rest of her classmates do the same.

"Rosen, Simon. Intelligence 200020."

"Meyer, Lev. Komemuite 200017."

"Horowitz, Mordecai. Administration 200012."

"Davidovich, Hiram. Judiciary Courts 200008."

"Ben-Tsion, Sulaiman. Komemuite 200004."

"Rogel, Myriam. Komemuite 200018."

"Rosen, Reuven. No unit, 200019."

"Sachar, Sarah. No unit, 200021."

"Bashan, Kemuel. Komemuite, 200002."

"Mikkelssen, Yael. Intelligence, 200016."

"Ha-Or, Yehudi. State Security, 200010."

"Heidelmann, Zelig. Intelligence, 200011."

"Meir, Malachi. Intelligence, 200014."

"Bashan, Raphael. Komemuite, 200003."

"Cohen, Chaim. Judiciary Courts, 200005."

"Mogen, Leib. Public Relations, 200017."

"Bar-Abba, Etan. State Security, 200001."

"Lubetkin, Zion. Komemuite, 200013."