A smiling Catherine Larsen, age nine, looked out from the photograph Tony was holding, she was a pretty girl and looking at Annette Larsen Tony could see where she got her looks from. Gibbs and McGee had gone to the base to base to talk to Annette Larsen's husband, Navy Commander Steven Larsen and ask if he knew who would want to kidnap his daughter leaving Ziva and him to question Annette Larsen.

"When did you last see your daughter, Mrs. Larsen?"

"When I dropped her off at school this morning, she was going to stay later for choir practice and then go over to a friend's house, I was going to pick her up there," she replied while Tony made some notes.

"What friend was this?"

"Maggie Bird, she's in choir with Cathy and also on the same soccer team, she usually stays with them if Steven and I are working late."

Tony nodded. "I'll need their address."

"Of course," Annette said as she looked through her address book and copied down the address.

"Thank you," he said taking the piece of paper. "Mrs. Larsen, what was your daughter wearing today?"

"Jeans, a purple top with butterflies on it, a cream cardigan, sneakers and her hair was braided today."

Just then Ziva appeared signaling that she was done with her duties and Tony nodded goodbye to Annette Larsen, leaving her in the care of the NCIS agent staying with her incase they got a ransom demand.

"Where to?" asked Ziva as she started the car.

Tony wordlessly handed over the piece of paper given to him by Annette Larsen.

--

"What time did you arrive at the diner, Zachery?"

"Close to eleven forty-five."

"Who else was there?"

"Um, Bobby, Alex, Shannon, Matt, Alyssa and Kevin, while we were there some other kids from the dance showed up but they left before we did."

"How long did you stay at the diner?"

"I dunno, maybe like an hour, we just went there for some dessert and ended up talking for a while afterwards."

"While you guys were talking did you notice anything odd about Michelle? Did she seem anxious, distracted, anything like that?"

"No, she was laughing and having a good time like the rest of us."

"What happened next?"

"Well, once we paid we all went our separate ways, I drove Michelle home, and it was about one am by then."

"Did you see her enter her house?"

"Um," began Zachery looking slightly uncomfortable, "she, uh, didn't go in immediately." Tony gave Zachery a questioning look and after a swift glance at his parents Zachery reluctantly continued. "Well, we got to talking and…other stuff," Zachery said slowly before throwing Tony and throwing a desperate look, he seriously hoped that this cop wasn't going to make him go into any detail. For his part Tony just smirked, he knew what 'other stuff' Zachery was talking about, he could still vividly remember doing all that 'other stuff' with Becky Draisser, to this day watermelon was still his favorite Lipsmacker flavor.

"So what happened afterwards?" asked Tony, not missing the relieved look on Zachery's face.

"She had gotten to her front door by the time I had backed out of the driveway, when I checked the rearview mirror she had just found her key in her bag. You'll find her, won't you?"

Tony looked at him for a long time before finally answering. "Yeah, we will."

--

A redheaded Maggie Bird stared back intently at Tony and Ziva.

"Maggie," Tony began, "Catherine's mother said that she was going to go home with you after choir practice."

"Cathy," Maggie said firmly. "She likes Cathy, not Catherine," she explained.

Tony nodded his understanding. "So Cathy was supposed to come home with you after choir practice?"

"Yeah, she always comes home with me after practice; her parents don't want her coming home to an empty house."

"So you walk here together."

"All the time but today she forgot something in the school so I waited by the swings for her to come back."

"How long did you wait?"

"Fifteen minutes before I asked Mr. Demner if he saw Cathy in the school, he's the one who helped me look for her but we didn't find her. You'll find her, wont you?" asked Maggie staring at Tony with big eyes.

Tony was suddenly transported back ten years to another time, another place and another child asking him if he would find their friend. Years ago he would answer in the affirmative but time had been an exceptionally cruel teacher and taught him that sometimes you didn't find them and sometimes you found them a moment too late.

"We'll do our best."

--

Tim wasn't sure who was more determined to find little Cathy Larsen – Tony or Gibbs. Cases involving children always caused all of them to push themselves to their limits, usually it was only Gibbs pushing himself beyond his limit but something about this case affected Tony enough that he was giving even Gibbs a run for his money. It was day number four since Catherine Larsen had disappeared and while they still had hope that they'd find her alive they all knew that the odds were against it. That particular piece of knowledge made work almost unbearable by the fourth day; Gibbs wasn't the only one who could be a bastard. Taking a moment to stretch the tense muscles in his shoulders McGee let himself relax for five minutes before resuming the computer trace he had been working on all afternoon. Ten minutes after he started working again Tony returned to his desk but McGee didn't say anything, he had already been the victim to Tony's exceptionally sharp tongue once today, he didn't feel like getting verbal whiplash twice in one day.

Tony sighed in frustration, every lead they've had so far ended up being a dead end. The possibility of finding Catherine alive and unharmed disappeared as each day passed. As they updated the Larsens on the status of their daughter's case they kept emphasizing the fact that there was still hope, if they didn't find Catherine soon he wondered how long the Larsens would continue to believe in that hope. Time and experience had taught him that it would go one of two ways, they would never give up hope or they would eventually give up hope of ever finding their child alive and instead resign themselves to a recovery of their child's remains. He wasn't sure which option he hated more.

--

"DiNozzo, visitors," said Stevens jerking his head towards the door. Tony looked up from the box he was currently filling with the few personal items he had at the station and his heart sank when he saw the visitors.

"Mr. and Mrs. Nead, please, have a seat," he said gesturing to the two empty chairs near his desk.

"I heard you were leaving," Tracy Nead said without preamble.

Tony nodded. "Effective immediately."

"What about our daughter's case?" she blurted out. "You're the lead officer."

Tony inwardly flinched at the hurt and accusation evident in Tracy Nead's tone of voice. He had been hoping for a clean break from Philadelphia but it was becoming more and more difficult for that to happen.

"Honey, Tracy, please…" began Richard Nead as he tried to calm down his distraught wife. "You'll have to excuse my wife," he addressed Tony, "it's Michelle's birthday today, it's been a hard day for all of us."

Tony swallowed thickly and nodded. God, could today get any worse? Stevens had been silently watching the scene unfold. The kid didn't deserve this, he had just gotten out of the hospital two days ago and now Michelle Nead's parents were making him feel worse about leaving that he already was. Deciding that it would just be cruel to let this continue he stepped in before things got too emotionally charged.

"Why don't we just take a couple of minutes to calm down? Martha, can get you something to drink," he told the couple calmly. "Martha, could you?" he asked a petite brunette.

"Of course, follow me please," she said leading the Neads down the hall.

"Sorry about that man," Stevens said sincerely. "If I had known I would have told them that you weren't in today."

"It's okay, they would have found out eventually anyway, better now than later," Tony replied, waving off his concern. Sighing he let himself collapse into his chair trying hard not to flinch as his still on the mend injuries made their presence known. He groaned when he realized that he needed another box, all the spare boxes were located in the closet two floors up. Eying the cane resting at the side of his desk he weighed the effort it would take to get the box against how much he needed the box, he realized that he really did need that damn box and groaned again.

"It's okay, I can get it, DiNozzo," Stevens said stopping him from getting up and Tony gave him a grateful look.

Once Stevens had disappeared he opened up the top left drawer and pulled out the Michelle Nead file, opening it up he saw her smiling innocently back at him. "I swear, I will find out what happened to you."