"Kate, that's not funny. You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry."
His head spins a fifty percent DNA match to Kate, and a twelve percent match to Ziva, meaning that the only common denominator was… his stomach twists into knots. He shifts his focus to the envelope addressed to him. He rips the envelope open, and finds several pages inside. He begins to read a familiar scrawl.
January, 23rd, 2005
Gibbs,
I am truly sorry that I have lied to you all of this time. You think that I am out because of a shoulder injury. I never told you the truth. I never told anyone. I simply didn't know how to. I have a brand new daughter, and I sit awake all night, trying to figure out how to protect her. He will find out about her. He will take her from me. He will make me pay. I hope that she finds you one day. Please make sure she is okay.
Kate
He feels a lump beginning to form in his throat as the picture begins to become clearer. He shifts to the next page. He realizes that it is a photocopied page from a journal, or something equivalent.
May 5th, 2004
When I got home last night, I found out that I wasn't alone. Ari was here. He broke in to my apartment. He was waiting for me when I got here. I tried to make him leave. It wasn't that simple.
June 29th, 2004
Several weeks ago Ari broke into my apartment. He would only leave after I gave him what he wanted. This morning my doctor confirmed that I'm pregnant. I don't know what to do. I nearly told Abby everything, but I don't want to get her involved. How can I continue knowing what I do? I can't give birth to the child of a known terrorist.
He locks eyes with Bailey. She doesn't say a word. He tries to formulate a thought. He can't think clearly enough to string a sentence together.
"Where have you been all of this time?" Abby breaks the silence.
"My mother was supposed to pick me up from the sitter that afternoon. The woman who was watching me was the next door neighbor. He took me, I don't know what happened to the sitter, but I would guess that she didn't live to tell about it."
"He died soon after that," Abby points out.
"I think he knew how things would end."
"Then why did he kill Kate? Why did he take you?"
"He gave me to Sergei," she explains.
"Seregei has been dead for months," Gibbs points out.
"He shipped me off to a boarding school stateside when I was six."
"Why aren't you there, now?" Abby wonders.
"One night I woke up, and there was someone standing over my bed. It was Sergei. He said that if something happened to me I would have to carry on the mission."
"You're here to kill me?" Gibbs questions.
"No. I didn't want any part of any of this. He told me that people he knew would come and retrieve me. He said that they would take me somewhere remote, and teach me what I need to know," she looks at them, on the verge of tears, "I don't want anything to do with his mission. I knew that they would come. I left the next morning, they followed me all the way to West Virginia."
"How did you survive on your own for all of those months?" Gibbs questions.
"Sergei made me undergo wilderness survival training when I was nine. We spent the whole summer in the desert," Bailey explains.
"Bailey what do you know about Sergei, or your father?"
"They were half-brothers. My father died when I was just a few months old. I know Ari was a terrorist."
"What do you know about your mother?" Gibbs queries.
"Are you asking what I was told, or what I actually know?"
"What do you know?"
"Sergei told me that my father took me, because my mother abandoned me. He wanted me to believe that she didn't want me. I read the news articles, I know that Ari killed her," she swallows hard.
"Bailey, we didn't know about you," Gibbs explains.
"I know. I know that she was trying to protect me. She didn't know how to tell any of you."
"Why do you think that is?" Gibbs asks delicately.
"Having me was her decision, but I don't think creating me was," she answers.
Gibbs vacates his chair. Without a word he walks around the table to her. He scoots her chair away from the table. He wraps his arms around her.
"We would have come for you," he insists.
"I don't think she had enough time."
"What makes you say that?"
She digs a piece of paper from the pile, and hands it to him.
Bailey,
If you're reading this you found the key sewed into the lining of your blanket. If that is the case I am dead. I wasn't planning on any of this. The world is a complicated place, and this was a complicated situation. I am going to stick to the simple things that I know to be true. First of all no matter what anyone says, from the second I laid eyes on you I realized how much that I loved you. I want to protect you, and get to see you grow up, but I don't know if that is possible. Last night when I put you in your crib I found stuffed lion lying inside. It was from Ari, I am certain of it. He isn't supposed to know about you. If he does our days together are numbered. He will want to take you from me. I love you to the moon and back.
Love,
Mom