Chapter Two: Meeting Gibbs

"Gibbs" the voice came through the phone speaker, she froze for a couple of seconds not sure what to say "If you don't start talking I'm going to hang up" he said and Lilith panicked "No, please don't hang up" she rushed the words out.

Gibbs was at home in his basement when his phone had rung, he could tell that the person on the other end was scared, defiantly female and by the sounds of it quite young "Okay, I won't hang up, can I help you with something?" He asked his tone a little softer.

" She gave me this number, said if anything happened, if I was ever in trouble, to call it" the person spoke "who gave you the number?" he asked, calmly trying to extract any information from her that he could without scaring her.

"Sharon, my Mother" she said, he could hear pain in her voice "Okay, and does your Mom have a last name?" he asked "Yeah, Arelle, her name's Sharon Arelle" the name didn't ring a bell for Gibbs "and you, what's your name?"

"I'm Lilith, Lilith Jay Harding" she replied, Gibbs thought the name over, Harding it sounded familiar, then he remembered Sharon Harding was a woman he'd dated over fourteen years ago and she hadn't had a daughter then, which meant the girl must be thirteen or younger.

"So Lilith, what's the problem? Why's ya call?" he asked and there was a pause then "because she's dead, Warren killed her" her voice was rushed and panicked. "Okay, where are you Lilith?" he questioned "I'm on the corner, by the 'Thingy Ma Bob' cafe" Gibbs asked her for the directions and then said "Hang on, stay where you are, I'll be there soon".

He hung up and headed for his car, his instinct to protect was deeply ingrained, this girl was scared and alone and if she was to be believed her mother was dead.

Lilith tried not to let the tears fall, she wouldn't cry. Her mother hadn't exactly been mother of the year; in fact she'd been pretty terrible, neglecting her daughter, hardly ever noticing her daughter unless she needed something. Sharon had gotten into drugs again not long after her daughter was born, she'd gone from man to man before marrying Warren Arelle, a Navel Petty Officer, when Lilith was seven, he seemed great at first, but had after on six months of marriage he had started to hit her, it had gotten worse, he was abusive towards them both all the time. Lilith wasn't scared of much, but she was scared of Warren and what he could do to her.

She looked at her watch, it was late and she wanted to be off the street as soon as possible, she hoped this Gibbs guy would be here soon. She wondered who he was and why her Mother had told her to call him if she was in trouble. Hopefully he could help; she really needed help right now and had no one to turn to.

A car pulled up and the window wound down "you Lilith?" the man asked "you Gibbs?" she asked right back "Yeah, I'm Gibbs" he replied, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his NCIS badge and ID, he leant over and passed it out the window to her.

Lilith took the ID, she looked at it and it read 'NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' he was a fed, that calmed her a lot, "Hop in and we'll have a chat okay?" he said, Lilith opened the car door and slid into the passenger seat, she put her seat belt on and sat there her bag hugged to her chest.

"So, you said your Mom was dead?" he decided to go straight for the facts, the girl nodded "want to tell me how?" he asked, she had mentioned someone called Warren on the phone earlier, but he wanted the whole story.

"She and Warren were fighting again, I was in my room, hiding under the bed, It's something I've been doing since I was little" she started to explain, her voice catching a little "there was lots of yelling and Warren hit her a couple of times, but that was kinda normal around ours, you know?" Gibbs nodded a little, starting to get the picture, Lilith continued "then things got bad, I heard a gunshot and Sharon screamed, then Warren left, slamming the door" she finished her story.

So it was murder, Gibbs thought to himself, this girl, who couldn't be more than thirteen had lay under her bed and listened while her mother was murdered by her own husband. By the way she talked about her mom; Gibbs figured they didn't have a good relationship.

"Tell me about Warren, what kind of job does he have?" Gibbs asked "He's in the Navy, a Petty Officer, I think" she said, Gibbs nodded, Navy meant his team could investigate "Okay, lets head into my work and figure out how to get the bastard" he said, Lilith nodded and they drove towards the Navy Yard, her Mother had been right, maybe Gibbs could help after all.

A/N: This chap is longer, I hope you liked it, let me know, Please Review.