Currently I'm working on three stories at once so don't get mad if I don't update within the week. I don't own anything only Carly and Adam.

"Dead marine!" Gibbs shouted gruffly to his team as he walked in and threw his empty coffee cup in the garbage. The MCRT jumped up and grabbed their gear.

"Where are we going boss?" McGee asked as the team headed to the elevator behind Gibbs.

"Delaware." He said and the team groaned.

"Not another car trip boss! We just went to…" But Gibbs cut Tony off with a headslap and he groaned. Ziva just laughed at him snorting as she pushed the button in the elevator for the garage.

The drive was painful for the MCRT team. Gibbs drove a separate car of course but he could practically feel the tension and fear in the other car seeing as Ziva had snacked the keys wickedly from DiNozzo in the garage. Gibbs smiled to himself as he remembered what went down in the garage just an hour ago. Ziva had been pestering Tony on her driving and how it got them places ten times faster than his driving. Tony had just snorted and dangled the keys in front of her face smugly. "I want my destination to be Delaware though, not the morgue." He had shot back coolly and McGee snickered. Ziva elbowed Tim in the ribs and snatched the keys away from Tony whose cheeky grin was replaced with a frown.

"Cannot drive without keys, yes?" She replied dangling the keys in front of his face like he had done just a few moments ago. Angrily he tried to grab them back but stumbled forward as she, quick as lightning, backed away and smoothly jumped in the driver's side of the NCIS van. A disgruntled Tony mumbled something inaudible to Ziva and soon felt a hand sharply whack the back of his head along with a loud crack.

"There is no way you heard that boss!" Tony exclaimed looking questionably at his boss who had a smile pulling at the corner of his lips and slid into his company blue sedan without a word. Of course Gibbs hadn't heard it. He's good. But he's not that good. But Gibbs knew it'd been anything but nice that Tony had said so a headslap was necessary. Now as Gibbs started his car he heard Tony and Tim fighting over who got the window seat, which had the airbag and the handle. Gibbs was starting to get annoyed and rolled his eyes before honking the horn loudly. The two male agents jumped and quickly played a short round of rock paper scissors. McGee won. Ziva snorted loudly while Tony complained about not making it through the day.

"Karma Tony!" Ziva shouted to him as he rounded the car and stepped in.

"For what?! What did I do?" He complained as he buckled his seat belt.

"It's just for being you." McGee said smiling as he got in the car after Tony. Gibbs chuckled to himself before pulling out of the garage shortly followed by the van carrying his team.

Now they were just outside of the town where the crime had been committed. Three marines were murdered only four days after they had come back from Iraq. That's all he knew. Usually with a case this far away they would send out a different team but with three marines brutally murdered this was definitely a case for the Major Case Response Team. Gibbs drove through the town which was just outside the city in a nice suburban area and he couldn't help but think about how this case would ruin the nice neighborhood. He sighed as he thought about the marines. The marines who laid down their lives for their country and what did they get in return: a death sentence. Shaking his head of those thoughts he took a sip of his virtually empty coffee and rounded the corner of a street where he saw bright yellow police tape blocking off a single house in the neighborhood. He drove to it and stopped the car, parking it on the opposite side of the road. The NCIS van soon pulled up behind Gibbs's car as the man himself got out and waited for his team to gather their gear. Something he didn't do often and was hoping they didn't take it for granted. They didn't and quickly collected their things before walking along side Gibbs to the house. Over his shoulder he heard Tony silently bickering with Tim. "Did you see that turn she made back then? She almost gave me a heart attack!" Tony exclaimed.

"I know! She barely missed that little boy!"

"Would you two give it a sleep already? I was not going to run him over! I was way off the curb by that time!" She exclaimed hiking her backpack farther onto her shoulder. Tony scoffed.

"Define off the curb Ziva? Because my definition is on the road! Not five inches onto the curb and scuffing the van!" Ziva muttered something in Hebrew that wouldn't be appropriate for the little boy they 'almost ran over' according to Tony.

"It's rest Ziva. Give it a rest." McGee corrected her softly and Ziva thanked him before proceeding to punch Tony's arm. Gibbs had had enough and turned around angrily just as they approached the police line.

"All of you, shut up!" He yelled and turned back to the police officer who had one eyebrow raised at the dysfunctional team. They all pulled out their badges and showed it to the plump man. "Agent Gibbs NCIS and these are agents DiNozzo, McGee and David. We can take it from here." He said before the policeman nodded and let them slip under the police tape. Once they were under Gibbs started barking out orders to them. "DiNozzo sketch, McGee photos, David talk to witnesses!" He yelled and quickly they all got to work. Besides the neighbors who only heard noises there was one person who was actually a real witness to the crime and she was sobbing on her front porch. The owner to the house was a red head in very casual clothes with a bag of grocery's sitting by her side. She looked horrible though Ziva couldn't see her face because it was in her hands as he small frame shook as heart wrenching sobs escaped her mouth and she sniffled. Ziva hesitantly approached the vaguely familiar woman. She had never been very good with crying women and didn't know where to begin. The Israeli decided to start by sitting down next to the read head with her fiery locks cascading down her back. Ziva patted her back awkwardly and whispered reassuring things into her ear but it did no good because the red head hadn't even glanced up at the NCIS agent once. Ziva hadn't even gotten her name. Ducky had just arrived and silently walked past the two women with Gibbs and into the house where the unfortunate marines lay dead.

She knew she was going to have to face them. But it all became too real when she saw the NCIS vans and Gibbs's car parked on the side of the road. The other red head didn't really have time to worry though because she was just as terrified as her sister who she now saw was crying on the front porch… with Ziva at her side. A pang of guilt washed over her. She could have been there instead. It didn't have to be her sister. But she had been the one to volunteer to take her niece and nephew to day care, not their mother who was now traumatized and would have nightmares for weeks. She knew. She understood her sister's pain because she had experienced it too. Her first year as an NCIS agent was not a pretty one but a one every agent had to go through. She had seen things nobody should have to see and she had become desensitized to those kinds of situations. Though sometimes a case hit home and she was left reduced to nothing but raw, uncontrolled emotion and a bottle of alcohol. So with a heavy heart and an overpowering desire to comfort her sister she turned off her car and practically ran out of it. Thankfully nobody noticed her yet. But they will soon. She ran to the yellow crime scene tape in some uncharacteristic sandals for the short red head and tried to duck underneath it but a police officer stopped her. "Joe, get off of me!" She said angrily.

"I'm sorry I can't let you go in there! It's a crime scene." He replied gently knowing this would be a delicate subject for the two sisters. Frustrated she broke from his grasp and called out for her sister.

"Heather! Heather, come here!" She shouted and all heads turned towards her including the NCIS team whose jaws were on the floor. But she ignored them as her sister stood up and jogged to her. The police officer held up the tape for them and Heather ducked under it and engulfed her younger sister in a tight hug. Her freckle faced counterpart didn't say a word and she didn't expect her too. Instead the younger red head pulled her closer, rubbed her back soothingly and put a hand in her hair keeping Heather's head on her shoulder. "Shhh Heather everything will be okay." The younger red head said as her pony tail was messed up by her sister grabbing onto her back as she cried on her shoulder.

"Jen did you see who was in there? Everything will not be alright!" Heather cried through sobs. Jenny Shepard didn't dare look at the NCIS team who was slowly coming closer to her even Ducky who had come out to see what all the commotion was. Tenderly Jenny pulled her sister off of her and wiped her eyes.

"Heather? Heather look at me." Jenny said pulling her sisters chin up so their eyes would meet.

"Carly? Adam?" Is all she could manage to get out as her breath was catching rather violently.

"They're okay. I dropped them off." She replied softly rubbing Heather's arms slowly. She nodded closing her eyes briefly. In that time Jenny's eyes caught Gibbs's and something passed between them. Something neither could explain nor pin a name on. Jenny tore her eyes away first and swallowed hard before finding her sisters gaze again. But Heather had other plans and broke away from Jenny to face the gawking NCIS team. They were in shock and all Jenny could say was "Hi." Jenny had left NCIS for a reason all those years ago and she didn't want to dig up old demons now or ever.