Ever since Spanish, Ziva's head had been buzzing with both wild speculation and questions that she just couldn't ask. Although in Spanish she had been entertained by Tonys whispers about the Spanish teacher (in impeccable Spanish, no less),the rest of the day had dragged on and on until Ziva felt sure someone had been messing up the school clocks.

All Ziva wanted was to get home to a computer so that she could start her own investigation into what Tony had to do with Gibbs and why they were meeting. When the final bell finally rang Ziva sighed in relief and straight headed to her locker.

Tony had football trials and McGee was staying in school to study, so it was just Abby who met Ziva at her locker at the end of the day.

"Soooo, how was your second day?" Abby asked interestedly as they began the walk home. "Did you get the chance to talk to Tony?" Abby asked suggestively, wiggling her dark eyebrows up and down.

"Well" started Ziva, "we had a good time in Spanish" she said with a smile. "But we didn't really talk about ourselves much." Ziva trailed off with a disappointed sigh.

"Abby, can you keep a secret?" Ziva suddenly said on a spur of the moment thought, "I need help with a project of mine" she finished with a guilty half-smile.

"Oooh secrets" said Abby excitedly, "I love secrets, I'm good at keeping secrets, secret-keeper Abby at your service" babbled Abby with a mock salute that finished with a flick of her black pigtails. "Soo what is the secret project?" Abby asked excitedly, a huge grin plastered on her face.

"It's about Tony" Ziva said with a smirk, taking in Abby ecstatic expression. "I think he has a big secret, something to do with Jethro. I want to find out more, but I need someone to help me." Ziva finished starting to wonder if she had made a huge mistake at bringing in Abby to help.

The grin on Abby's face seemed to do the impossible and grow even larger before she started babbling again, "I can do fingerprints, and I can hack computers and I can use a microscope and stuff!" she said, taking a gap only in order to breathe. "I mean I don't have the fancy equipment, but there is plenty of stuff I can do at home" she finished with a dazzling smile.

Ziva just laughed at Abby's enthusiasm and realised that she had definitely made the right decision asking Abby!

"Do you want to come round and get started?" Ziva said, shyly.

"Of course!" said Abby enthusiastically, clapping her hands together. "I'll just go home to get some stuff and dump my bag!" she said excitedly, nodding at Ziva for confirmation, making her pigtails wiggle up and down.

"See you in a minute" Ziva said with a grin, turning and heading for her house before Abby could pull her into another hug.

About ten minutes later Ziva heard a knock on the door; in fact knock was not really the way to describe the noise. The guest appeared to be attempting to play a song with the knocker on the door. It could only be Abby!

"Did you guess the song?" Abby said with a grin as Ziva opened the door.

Ziva just raised her eyebrows.

"I guess metal isn't you're kinda oppop"Ah well, I lguess you couldn't be completely perfect" she sighed comically, over-exaggerating her disappointment.

"What's that?" Ziva said motioning to the red and yellow cup that Abby was clutching.

"Caaaf-pooow!" Abby said happily taking a long sip. "It helps me think" she said excitedly, grinning at Ziva who simply rolled her eyes.

"Shall we go upstairs then?" Ziva said seriously, keen to get onto the subject of Tony's secret.

"Definitely" Abby replied in a surprisingly serious tone as she wandered towards the stairs.

When the girls reached Ziva's bedroom Abby stood for a moment, in the doorway, taking in every element of Ziva's room. The wall was painted a surprisingly soft baby blue and the curtains and bedclothes were plain white; it reminded Abby of the sky, she thought with a smile. There wasn't many personal things around the room but thankfully Ziva had a computer and desk for Abby to work with. The object that drew Abby's attention most though was a small framed picture on the bedside table.

The picture showed four people, all smiling into a camera, sitting squashed-together on a faded sofa. Abby recognised Ziva immediately, a wide, bright smile on her face. The Ziva in the picture was younger and more innocent than the face of the girl standing stock-still in the doorway. There was a man and a woman, both with Ziva's dark hair, the woman's curling prettily around her face. Next to Ziva was another young girl. She looked exactly like Ziva but had a rounder face and short hair falling prettily around her smiling face.

"Who are they" Abby asked quietly.

"My family" Ziva whispered, sadness leaking into her frail voice. "Eli, Rivka and Tali" she trailed off with a longing tone.

"They're beautiful"

"I know" Ziva murmured, a tear rolling down her cheek, "They were".

A look of shock and surprise crossed Abby's face as she noticed the subtle use of the past tense.

The pair stood awkwardly in silence before Ziva began to talk again.

"The computer is there" she said motioning to the desk in the corner and wandering past a solemn looking Abby attempting a nervous smile.

"Cool" said Abby happily, as if she had flicked a switch to put the electricity back into her personality, flashing a 100 watt smile at Ziva before nodding gently to show her sympathy and understanding. She then pulled up a chair and pressed the switch to turn on the monitor.

Ziva smiled. The investigation had begun.

After half an hour the pair had gained a much wider picture of the DiNozzo family. There was no recent mentions of a current Mrs. DiNozzo but there appeared to multiple articles about Mr DiNozzo getting married, then divorced again. It seemed that after Tony's mother's death Mr DiNozzo had simply remarried again and again. It must have been tough for Tony.

Apart from notices about basketball and football triumphs there wasn't much about Tony either. However when Anthony DiNozzo Senior was entered into Abby's very own modified search engine ( a summer project with McGee) a myriad of results surfaced. There was stories of him ripping off innocent people, creating dodgy contacts and even stories of him ruining people's homes in order to build new houses and even a golf course! However Abby's findings did not, quite literally, add up. It appeared that Senior was spending and saving much more than he appeared to be earning.

After showing Ziva the figures the two girls shared a look. Although they couldn't be sure they had picked up every deal and detail, "McAbby Search" had the capability to look into businesses files ( as long as they were basic level security) so they were pretty sure they were close.

Ziva and Abby looked at each other as they realised they were having the same thoughts. Illegal.

"Has he been investigated" asked Ziva glancing at the impossible numbers again.

Abby typed into the computer and pressed enter as a new range of results flashed up on the screen.

"Wow" said Abby leaning back in her chair. "He's been investigated by everybody. FBI, CIA, NSA even NCIS" she said excitedly taking another long sip of caf-pow.

"NCIS?" Ziva exclaimed in surprise, "I thought they only investigated navy crimes?" she finished with a confused tone.

"Maybe a navy guy got scammed or something" Abby said with a shrug. "Or maybe they just know Gibbs is the best!" she exclaimed with a bright grin.

Ziva just laughed and spoke again in a more serious tone,"It definitely seems like there is something dodgy going on with Senior. Lets start our investigation there." she stated, pausing to think of their next step. "Can you hack federal databases?" Ziva asked warily, knowing they were branching into illegal territory.

"Of course" said Abby, her smile constant. "But I might need my McGee" she said uncertainly, her smile faltering.

"You think we can trust him?"

Abby nodded seriously.

"See you tomorrow then!" Abby said happily, standing up and throwing the empty caf-pow cup into the bin.

The pair were exchanging goodbye hugs in the hall when the phone suddenly rang causing the two to jump apart in surprise. Motioning a wave to Ziva, Abby quietly left so Ziva could answer the phone.

"Hello it's Ziva" she answered confidently, wondering who it could be.

"Oh... Hi Ziva it's Tony" the voice said in an unusually serious tone. "Is Gibbs home?" he asked, a hint of the usual Tony creeping into his voice.

"Sorry Tony he is still at work" she said, her original surprise (and excitedness) that Tony had called turning into one of intrigue when she heard Gibbs' name.

"Erm, can you ask him to call me" he asked uncertainly "when he, well, you know gets home" he trailed off quietly.

"Of course Tony, should I tell him what it's about" she asked politely, attempting to squeeze as much information as possible out if him.

"He'll know" he stated bluntly, "See you tomorrow Zi" he finished, slightly more softly before hanging up the phone.

Ziva held on to the phone for a few seconds in shock for a few seconds before calmly placing the phone onto the table. She had learnt nothing from Tony, even with the perfect opportunity. However worse than the feeling of letting herself down in terms of the mission was the feeling that Tony didn't want to talk to her at all! Had she done something wrong? Or was the reason for needing Gibbs more serious than she thought? Was Tony in trouble?