Here's Chapter 9! Lots of info in this one...

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Chapter 9-

After recovering from the shock of having Kate's mother walk right up to them, figuratively speaking of course, the woman was keeping her distance, the agents immediately got to work. Ziva pulled out her phone and called Gibbs to tell him their finding while Tony took Kate aside to calm her down and get her not to attack her mother for disappearing.

"Gibbs." A husky voice grumbled from the other end of Ziva's phone.

"Gibbs," Ziva repeated her team leader's name. "We have Kate's mother. We were at the house and she just walked in. She did not expect us to be here."

"Well no, Ziva, she probably didn't expect to see two agents in her house with her daughter." Gibbs said sarcastically then sighed. "Where's DiNozzo?"

Ziva completely ignored his comment. "He is talking to Kate, probably to get her to calm down. Once her mother walked in, she practically exploded." She looked over to her co-worker and the young girl.

Tony was bent over to be face to face with Kate. "I get you're mad at her, I would be too, she disappeared for two days while you had witnessed a murder…" Tony tried to comfort her in a long, terrible description of what has happened the past two days.

Kate, glaring at her mother with no intention of looking to the agent in front of her, eventually cut Tony off. "I don't care that she wasn't around for the past few days. That makes no difference to me!" She hissed, eyes not wavering still. "I'm mad that she's lied about her life to me, that she's never told me anything and made me live practically all on my own. I know you guys suspect her of Lagneron's death and I get why, but…" She took a deep breath and finally looked at Tony. Kate had never said much about her hatred for her mother and didn't know how to explain it, especially to Tony. "She was never there, that's all."

DiNozzo nodded, understanding the annoyance of having no parents around as a kid. "I get it." He said, completely meaning it. "We do have to take your mother in for questioning. You can stay here if you want…" His voice trailed off as Ziva walked over to them, her conversation with Gibbs over. Tony raised his eyebrows at his co-worker for information.

"Gibbs said she can stay here, if she wishes." The former Mossad officer motioned with her hand to Kate. "We will take her mother in. A few agents are coming to monitor the house, from the outside." She spoke directly to Tony, aware of Kate looking on and listening to everything Ziva said, as though her life depended on it.

After a moment of silence, Kate walked off to her room and passed her mother on the way. She grumbled something as she did and when her mother tried to stop her from walking away – being clearly mad at what Kate said – the young girl kept walking. Arcal walked after Kate; seconds later the noise and vibration of a door being slammed reverberated throughout the house. The mother let out a loud, exasperated sigh and looked at the agents. "When can we go?" She asked.

Tony, who was slowly standing up straight, stared at the mother, thoughts whirring through his mind faster than Ziva's reflexes. "Now." He responded, hearing the security agents' cars pull into the driveway. DiNozzo opened the front door and let the woman go out first. Knowing it was pointless to do, he called out loudly to Kate. "Don't leave the house!" Before Tony had closed the door, Muds walked up to him to see what was going on. Hoping that the dog wasn't in a bad mood after being fed, the agent put out his hand to pet her. Muds immediately snapped at his hand. She would have bit it if he didn't pulled back and rush out the door.

~~~~At NCIS HQ~~~~

A woman with strawberry blond hair sat at a plain steel table, tapping her foot in annoyance. She stared at a mirror across the room from her.

Tony stood beyond the mirror in a dark observation room. He chuckled as he watched the distressed woman. "Now I see the resemblance." DiNozzo exclaimed to Ziva, who was standing right next to him.

"What are you talking about, Tony?"

"The resemblance between Kate and her mother."

"Took you long enough, they look exactly alike."

"No they do-…" Tony narrowed his eyes at Kate's mother. "Okay…maybe…but that wasn't what I meant. I meant the way she taps her foot. Kate does that too. Not in anxiety like her; just does it restlessly. Drives me insane, I try working and all I hear is tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…" He made clicking noises after each time he said tap.

"I know the feeling; you used to do it all the time." She hissed in irritation. "And if you start doing it again…I swear, I will break your feet."

Tony frowned. "I won't…especially because I never did ta-." His voice was cut off by a door opening and closing shut in the other room, the interrogation room. Both agents ended their conversation and turned to watch as their boss strode in and sat down across from Kate's mother.

"Amy Bergon." A loud thwack came from the table as the case folder was thrown down. "We've been looking for you for the past two days. Where've ya been?" Gibbs was calm. He never even cast a glance at Amy, just fiddled with the folder.

Amy sighed. "I've been working." She answered simply.

"Ha!" Tony scoffed. "That's a lie. If she was working she would be reachable."

"Shh!" Ziva said abruptly.

"Oh yeah? Where?" Gibbs continued with the conversation, finally looking up at Kate's mother.

"At my office in Georgetown. Working on final dress designs…" She shifted a little under Gibbs' stare. Somehow he knew she was lying, and it was unnerving.

"Doesn't explain why you weren't contactable, or why you didn't come home."

"My phone died, and I was busy."

Gibbs rolled his eyes, not believing a word coming out of the woman's mouth. If she was going to lie, he was going to lie right back. "Scared the h*ll out your daughter."

Amy scoffed. "Kate doesn't get scared, she gets angry, then bored."

"True, very true. She's strong willed, and independent. Isn't surprising when she has to grow up on her own." He scowled.

"It's not my fault I had to work!" She shouted.

"What exactly were you working on that kept you so busy?"

"Uh…dr-dress designs." Amy stuttered, a clear sign of lying. Gibbs just stared at her, his hard, steely cold stare. She knew he was sick of the lies and finally broke, not able to handle his stare like so many others. "Alright fine, I was at work. My uh, other job…as a…"

"As a what?" The silver haired leader snapped, making her jump.

"Well, it's complicated! I design dresses, but they're special. Each one has hidden pockets for weapons, guns, knives…" Bergon explained slowly.

"Sounds like your style, Ziva." DiNozzo chuckled from behind the glass. Ziva just rolled her eyes instead of answering him.

"That doesn't explain why you went missing." Gibbs pushed on.

"After Ethan died…" She started.

"You knew?" He shouted.

"Yes! I knew, his mother was a good friend of mine, I found out within the next twelve hours."

"You left as the murder happened though. Why did you leave?" After she hesitated to answer he repeated himself. "Why. Did. You. Leave?"

"Ethan was part of the company. So was his mother." Kate's mother continued when Gibbs rolled his eyes at the already known information. "The Navy found out about our project and suspected that it was treason and we were going to sell it to other nations. We weren't, we were going to give it to police departments for undercover missions. But most of them rejected it so we were forced to keep going in secret."

"Most?"

"A few…wanted to buy them. So we got Ethan to join the Navy so no one would suspect much if they were constantly talking. I don't know exactly what went down, but Ethan suspected that they were using it to go against the Navy. I don't know how, but Ethan must have declined the offer." Amy explained what she knew, guessing at some points.

"So you think they killed him for declining?" Gibbs got to thinking. In his mind he slowly formed everything that happened. "Who was Ethan working with?"

"His CO, Gerome Wilkerson." She answered simply. "Can I go home now?" Amy asked anxiously.

Gibbs stood up and answered, "No. You're staying here." Then he walked out of the interrogation room, meeting up with Tony and Ziva in the hallway. "DiNozzo, call Kate, tell her that you're coming to get her and bring her here. David, get McGee, we're getting Wilkerson."

"What are we gonna do with Wilkerson when you have him?" Tony asked and answered his own question from the look he got from his leader. "Get him to confess, right. Getting Kate, Boss." He walked off, pulling out his phone as he did. After dialing a number, the agent waited for Kate to pick up on the other end of the line. "Kate, good, you're still in the house. I'll be over in a few minutes, please don't move." Before she answered, Tony hung up and headed for the parking lot to get his car.