yay! my editor finally emailed me back! so here's the next chapter and just so that we're all on the same page, we are now near the end of August. Hope you like it. As for the little Questions Contest I have running-

1. What do you hate most about Jeanne?
"The part I hated most about Jeanne was when she said Ziva was from Iran. I was like "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!" That little b* can just shut her damn french little mouth! Tiva kicks Jony's **!"- from "AgentDiNozzo13"

2. What was best McAbby moment?
"The best McAbby moment is when McGee tried to wake Abby up to take her home and she just went back to sleep. Very cute."- from "Ghost"
And best Tiva moment?
"best tiva moment tony tellin her he wont let her dad lay another hand on her. the 2 of them just have that chemistry to drive each other insane one second and the very next be serious then next second laugh."- from "Betherzz"

Come on guys! Don't let Betherzz keep winning! lol jk All you guys rock, thanks so much for reviewing. Usual disclaimer, enjoy!

Chapter 9- The Past is the Past, But the Pain's Still There

Sunlight peeked through the window and covered Ziva's face. She squinted and opened her eyes. She was laying on the sofa in the living room covered by a light blanket. She was still in her cargos and t-shirt and last night started to come back to her. She and Tony had talked- talked a lot- last night. They had talked about their childhoods, their messed up families, and even past relationships. The best part was, while she talked, Tony listened to everything she had to say. He never interrupted, or made her nervous or embarrassed about what she was saying. Instead he just smiled gently and shared things she never expected from him.

She smiled as she pulled the blanket under her chin thinking about how he had made her feel more connected to anyone than she ever been before. But she was surprised when she felt a small tug on the blanket. Ziva suddenly realized Tony was laying beside her and his strong arm was resting softly on her waist. His lips twitched into a small smile and Ziva wondered what he was dreaming about. She secretly wished it was her.

Tony had been awake for a while, but didn't want to wake Ziva, so he had just lay there in thought about last night. It had been wonderful to finally talk to someone about his messed up life, and the best part was, Ziva actually understood him and comforted him. They must have just fallen asleep in that position after hours of talking. Suddenly, Ziva shifted in his arms and it made him smile.

"Good morning, Tony," Ziva murmured as she turned on her side to face him. A dark curl fell across her face and Tony moved it away behind her ear. With their eyes' locked, Tony's hand moved to her face and caressed it. Their lips moved closer and each other's scents mixed creating a perfect wintergreen and cinnamon spice aroma. Tony moved in and Ziva craned her neck up to him just as Gibbs walked in with his morning coffee.

"About time you two got up," he said, not caring he interrupted them. Ziva jumped up and the blanket fell to the ground. Ziva sighed softly trying to hide her disappointment as she strutted away up to her room.

"Nice, Gibbs," Tony muttered as he stood. He started to sulk off to the kitchen for breakfast when Gibbs stopped him.

"Tony, listen, just…don't hurt her. If you do, she'll try to kill you, and I'll have to stop her so that I can finish you off myself. Understand?" Gibbs asked.

Tony grinned as he realized Gibbs had given him permission and answered, "Yeah, yeah I understand Gibbs."

*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*

Later that morning a thunder storm rolled in engulfing D.C. in a strong summer shower. Tony, Tim, Gibbs, Ziva, Abby, and Abby's mom Julie were playing board games in the living room. They were playing up a game a charades and the score was tied. It was guys against girls and Ziva was desperately trying to act out a movie she had never even seen for the win.

Come on, Ziva! You can do it! Julie encouraged.

Tony grinned at Ziva's exasperated look and decided to tease her. "Don't mess up, Zi! Don't mess up! You're against the clock!"

Suddenly Ziva came out of her silent, acting state and said confused, "Wait, but I thought I was supposed to be going against you guys! Not the clock."

Gibbs laughed loudly and explained, "It's an idiom, Ziva. It means that you only have a little bit of time left. In fact, your…time…is…up!" The guys yelled in excitement while the girls moaned and Ziva sat back down on the couch.

Tony stood and grabbed his card from the pile and grinned. "Oh, this is just too easy!" He quickly did the sign for play, then began.

Everyone started to laugh as Tony got done on one knee and silently serenaded to an invisible girl. He then took the part of the girl and stood up tall, as if he was on a balcony. He cupped his hands and put it up under his chin like a love struck girl and batted his eyelashes flirtatiously. Finally, before his time was up, he grabbed an invisible cup and pretended to drink. He fell to the ground with a thud! Tony lay there for about 5 seconds, and then he stood and pretended to be a distraught girl. Tony threw his hands into the air and let out a silent cry. Ziva laughed even harder as he fell to his knees and cried over the invisible body. Just as the last grains of sand in the timer were falling, he pretended to stab himself and Tim called out in realization, "Romeo and Juliet!"

"Yeah!" Tony and Gibbs yelled simultaneously in rejoice for winning the game.

"So ladies," Tony said with a grin, "what do we get for winning?"

Julie just laughed at him, then signed, How about some lunch? I'm sure us girls can rustle up some grub.

Ziva and Abby laughed and rolled their eyes as they followed Julie into the kitchen. Tony and Tim stayed in the living room talking, but Gibbs joined them in the kitchen only to be pushed out.

"What?" he asked with his hands out in exasperation. Abby bit her lips, not wanting to say anything, and waited for her mom to tell him instead.

Well, Jethro…you…well do you remember last time you cooked?

Gibbs nodded and his cheeks slowly grew red. Abby couldn't hold it in anymore and started to giggle. Ms. Scuito scolded her daughter and Ziva looked around confused.

"What do you both mean? I thought his steaks were great. Why do you think is he such a bad cook?" Ziva asked sincerely. Abby stifled another laugh as Julie explained.

Last time Jethro cooked, he almost burnt down the house. The only thing he can cook is steak and fries, outside, where you don't have to worry about cooking your oven mitt! Julie laughed along with her daughter and Ziva joined them. Ziva had never met a person who could sign with such emotion and personality. She had learned the language when she learned Hebrew, her first language. She smiled at this and helped Abby get Gibbs out of the kitchen while Julie made some soup for their cold, rainy day.

*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*

While the kids ate in the living room and talked about the upcoming school year, Gibbs joined Julie in the kitchen for lunch. He sat down at the island opposite her and she gave a small smile. Gibbs smiled back before hiding a frown. Julie was quick though and noticed her friend's sadness.

What's wrong, Jethro? she signed with concern.

Since Julie was very good with reading lips, he just spoke. "I had another dream about the crash."

Julie sighed and told him, You really should tell Ducky. It's not getting better, Jethro. You just keep having more of these…dreams. But, what happened this time?

Gibbs was about to speak, but for the first time in many years he lost his voice and decided to sign instead. I had a dream that I was there when it happened. I was seeing it from Tim's point of view, but suddenly I was me again, and I couldn't do anything to save them. It was so vivid…like a flashback. I think it's from what Tim told me happened, he told me everything he saw, and now I'm seeing it too.

Gibbs became very quiet and Julie just sat with him. To anyone else, it looked like they were spacing out, but they were both remembering what Tim had told Jethro 12 years ago. After Tim told Jethro, he told her in a drunken depression down in his basement. He had told it so clearly, that when Julie thought about the event, she sometimes believed she was right beside Tim when it happened. Their thoughts drifted quickly back to that dark night where there had been one boat (the Shannon at that time), one bottle of bourbon, and two depressed friends.

Their escort laughed with their mother in the front seat over a joke as they took a shortcut onto a dirt road. They were supposed to meet their father at the airport and they were already running late. Tim glanced at his little sister Kelly and smiled. They both couldn't wait to see their father, but Kelly had been especially excited. She got all dressed up and made their mother put navy blue bows in her hair to match her dress. Tim thought she looked very pretty in her navy blue dress with big white sash across her waist. It had short sleeves and came down to her knees, making it a perfect summer dress to match her white sandals. It was their father's favorite dress too, he called her his little sailor when she was in it.

Their escort was about to say something, when suddenly a gunshot rang out and the car swerved off the road. Their mother screamed as she tried to take control of the wheel, but it just made it worse. The car fell into a ditch and rolled once. Kelly had been screaming as well, but during the roll she became silent and now her body hung heavily as the car settled on its top.

Tim shook his head and felt warm blood tricking down his forehead. Tears formed at his eyes as he desperately tried to get out of his seat. He finally unclipped his seat belt and fell with a small oohhff! He crawled out and limped to the other side of the car. Kelly's arms were bleeding, but Tim couldn't see any other injuries. He squirmed through the broken glass to unclip her seat belt. She fell into his arms and he pulled her out, flinching as the glass cut the back of his neck.

She was cold and wasn't moving in his arms. Tears fell from his rosy cheeks onto her dress and Tim lay her down to wipe them off. Suddenly there was a sizzle and he looked up. The car was catching on fire and his mother was still in there. Tim wailed and tears were now coming in a steady stream as he ran to the car to try and pull his mother out. His hands plunged through the cracked glass shattering it all over his soft hands. But he pulled away when he saw his mother's blazing red hair literally blazing now. Tim fell to his knees and retched over and over again trying to get the image of his dead mother and sister out of his young mind.

Finally someone saw the flames and pulled onto the road to help. They discovered Tim sobbing over Kelly as he plucked the small pieces of grass and dirt off her dress. When the man asked if he was okay, and then what was he doing, Tim choked out, "Daddy would've w-wanted his l-little sailor to die pretty."

The man called for an ambulance, but it didn't matter anyway. The escort was killed by the hidden sniper, Kelly died on impact, and Shannon had died in the fire. Tim had been extremely lucky, he walked away with some cuts and a minor concussion, but no one realized how traumatized Tim was until Jethro got to see him in the hospital. Tim entered a protective shell from the rest of the world making him a much shyer child than he ever was.

Gibbs spooned the last of his soup into his mouth and placed the bowl in the sink. It settled with a clatter and Gibbs slammed his hands down on the counter. The sound was covered by some joke in the other room, but it didn't matter to Julie anyway. She couldn't hear it. She didn't flinch away because of the sound of flesh against granite; she flinched for her friend's sudden actions. Jethro was always in control with his icy blue stare, but these dreams and memories somehow always made him lose his grip.

Julie stood and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. Gibbs sighed, then the quick movement of his hands said, I'll be in the basement. He walked away and down the creaky wooden stairs to the basement. It was only about 3:45, but he grabbed his bottle of bourbon and started to sand away at the Kelly in silence.

Julie grabbed her own bowl and put it in the sink. She was surprised though when it sat on a pile of dishes instead of just next to the other bowls. She cleaned the dishes and opened the dishwasher to load them, to find that the dishwasher was full! So she got to work and put everything where it belonged. She had been friends with Jethro so long that she was convinced she knew his house better than he did. Even with the dishes done, she continued to clean. It helped calm her…as it did for Shannon. The two of them would go to one of their houses with their young children and just clean. They would talk and laugh while dusting, washing, polishing, and ironing.

As she wiped down the dusty pictures on the wall, she smiled. The first was a picture of Jethro in his uniform with Tim and Kelly in his arms. They were all laughing and Jethro's face was lit up. The second was of Shannon on the beach in a bikini. It was very old, she seemed like she was in her early 20's. She and Jethro had only been dating then, and Jethro loved taking pictures of her. The last was of her and Shannon. Julie remembered the day well-they were both 14 and she was teaching-trying to teach-Shannon how to ski. She finally got Shannon to come down the double black diamond, and she didn't fall once. Her mother had taken the picture of them with their hands in the air, yelling in excitement for Shannon's victory. Each picture was a frozen image on the wall seeming to be proof of how great their lives were.

Ever since junior high, they were best friends and did everything together. It was perfect. But once they graduated from Stillwater High, they went their separate ways off to college. They called every week to just talk and laugh, but after Julie's trauma, she became deaf. She couldn't call Shannon about it and she couldn't tell anyone because of how hard it was to learn sign language. Julie had to go to so many doctors and teachers to help her, it was months after she could finally fully communicate. She had been under so much stress that she figured she must have forgotten. Julie hated herself for forgetting her best friend years later when she fled to D.C., pregnant with Abby by her abusive, sonofabitch boyfriend. She bought her dream home and discovered it was right next door to Shannon's house a day later. The two were overjoyed and spent the next weeks together- learning/teaching sign language, catching up, and just enjoying each other's company.

Julie finished with the kitchen and stopped herself before she went on to clean her best friend's whole house. Julie looked back at the pictures, at Shannon's smiling face. She had been an only child, and Shannon practically became the sister she never had. Getting over her best friend's death, and trying to comfort her new friend, had been so much harder than adjusting to being deaf. Julie sighed, grabbed her umbrella, and signed to Abby she was leaving before she stepped out into the now drizzling rain.

They all waved good bye and Abby glanced up at the clock. "Wow! Time flew!" It read 4:47 and Tim and Tony nodded in agreement.

Ziva gave them all a weird look and said, "Time flying? And you all wonder why I have such a problem with your American language!" They all laughed and ended up spending the next 45 minutes teaching Ziva about idioms.

"Okay, I think I have it!" Ziva exclaimed. "So, for me, killing someone with a paperclip is a…piece…of…pie! Yes?"

Abby and Tony laughed while Tim rolled his eyes with a grin. "No," they yelled together. "A piece of cake! Not pie, cake!"

Ziva just threw her hands into the air in defeat and shook her head. They all stood and as they were walking upstairs to go and get ready for the party, Tony poked her. "Yes?" she asked.

"You know that's really creepy, you, killing someone with a paperclip," he commented.

Without skipping a beat, Ziva answered, "You know, Tony, I have only been able to use 9 of the 18 ways to kill with a paperclip. You would not like me to have to use the tenth way, would you?" Tony's green eyes widened with anticipation, almost daring her to say or do something, but she refrained and just walked away to her room.

*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*

Ziva was fixing her hair when she heard a knock on her door. "Yes?" she called.

"It's Abby!" Abby called from outside the door. Ziva pulled on her robe and opened the door. Abby ran in with a bag in hand and Ziva closed the door behind her.

"You got your 'surprise' outfit, Abby?" Ziva asked in anticipation. Abby finally opened the bag revealing a rose red strapless dress that came right above her knees with black lace at the bottom and a black sash across her waist.

Ziva's mouth dropped in surprise and took the dress into her hands to feel it. "This is gorgeous, Abby. How did you find this at that store?"

Abby sighed and put one hand on her hip. "You know, that store isn't that bad! Vampire's Delight has some really hot stuff! Well, I just have to put this on, and I'll be ready. Makeup and hair are already done. How 'bout you?" Abby asked, anxious for the party.

"Yeah, me too, I just have to put that on," she said pointing to her outfit that was resting on her desk chair. Both girls took off their sweats and t-shirts they were wearing for lounging around and slipped into their party clothes.

*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*NCIS*

Tim shook his head and let the beads of water hit the mirror. He only had his faded, slightly ripped jeans on and came in to dry his hair a bit more. Tim grinned at the sight of his now tight and fit stomach in the mirror. He always used to have what Tony called 'flab over his abs', but he had started working out and now he was thin and strong. He put some cologne on, and then after a second thought, he put some on his chest too. He smiled again at himself as he ran his fingers through his chestnut hair, which was finally dry. Tim strided out of the bathroom and slipped his polo over his head to find Tony shirtless as well and just in his jeans.

"Oh stop showing off, Tony! I know you have abs, but I do too!" Tim complained.

"Relax, Timmy! I know, I know, you lost your flab and we're all so proud," Tony said sarcastically as he slipped into his t-shirt. Tim rolled his eyes and walked out to meet Abby and Ziva. Tim smiled as he saw Ziva, she looked great, really hot, but his jaw almost dropped when he saw Abby. Her little dress fit her just right, and the black lace made it such an Abby dress. Really hot, but still gothic. Her long legs finally met down to the ground in little black flats, perfect for dancing at a party. Tim really wanted to dance with her tonight.

He was broken from his trance when he heard Tony jingle his keys from behind him. He nudged him and got him to pick up his jaw. Abby snickered and whispered something to Ziva, making Tim wonder what they talking about. Abby eyed him as he came down the hall, not trying to hide it at all. She wanted to dance with Tim tonight too, but she had hopes for more than just dancing.

They walked down the stairs side by side and Tony finally got a full view of Ziva. Their day at the beach last week really made her tan. Her golden Israeli skin seemed to glow under the pure white and the dark denim of her tube top and skirt. Her dark curls covered her shoulders and her diamond Star of David necklace rested on her chest. The silver chain stood out on her dark skin making it seem even brighter. Tony smirked and let her go first down the stairs. His breath came out in a shudder as he watched her hips swing along with her little butt in the tight skirt.

They finally got to the front door and he led her out to the car. With Tim and Abby in the back and Ziva beside him, Tony brought the muscle car's engine to life with a roar. He grinned at the sound and sped down the road to Andrew Simon's house where the annual End of Summer Party was being held this year. While Tim and Abby talked quietly in back about who would be there, Ziva stared out her window to see Tony pull up to a large mansion with music blasting and the famous red cups already all across the lawn. With the car clock turning 7:00 P.M., the four of them climbed out of the car with grins of anticipation. This is going to be a great night, Tony thought. It had been a while since he went to a party, and he was ready for one Hell of a crazy night.

Did you like the sad Gibbs moment? How was it? Critisism and advice is gladly accepted! Just no flames, flames hurt, flames make me sad. :( Here are this chapter's questions.

1. Did you like the part with the flashback? Did you feel bad for Tim?
2. What is one word to describe Julie? Why?

Reviews please! Thanks for reading. Oh btw, I put a poll up. I want to know your opinion! You all count! Thanks again, finally, next chapter is really the party this time! lol

P.S.- Does anybody know what Abby's old boyfriend Micheal's last name was? I need it for the next chapter...