It was spitting with light rain outside of the NCIS building, making the sky a little darker as the clouds were currently shielding the sun from sight.

The silver haired senior agent was sat at his desk, his glasses perched on the end of his nose and a pen in his hand as blue ink trailed over the white paper of the report forms that he was required to fill out.

At the desk beside him was Ziva, an Israeli Mossad Liaison Officer, her hair was up in a tight ponytail and held by a dark elasticated band. Around her neck lay a golden star of David that had been given to her by her mother when she was born, to begin with it had been hung above her crib until she was old enough to wear it without breaking it and since she had not gone anywhere without it around her neck.

McGee and DiNozzo were both at their own desks, both with their fingers tapping away at black keyboards as they wrote out their reports onto their computers in preparation to send them to their boss who would send them onto his boss; Director Jennifer Shepard.

The red headed Director was stood above them on the gangway, observing her Major Crime Response Team working below in the bullpen. Her arms leant onto the metal railings as her eyes fell upon the brown eyed woman who was now chewing on the end of her pen, deep in thought and clearly not writing her report like she was supposed to be doing. She was worried about the woman because the behaviour was out of character and she hadn't seen her this distracted since they first met in Cairo nearly 13 years previously.

The dark haired woman was sat in a cafe in Egypt, opposite the woman who was now the Director of one of the biggest agencies in America, and her eyes were watching an infant at a table nearby who was fast asleep in a pram.

Jenny smiled and reached a hand out, placing it on the woman's hand, "What's bothering you?", she asked softly. She had only met the woman 3 weeks previously but she could already tell that something was wrong.

The Israeli woman looked down at the hand that was currently resting on top of hers in a comforting manner before looking up at the bright green eye that were watching her intently and shone with care and a hint of worry. The woman tugged her own lip into her mouth with her teeth as she thought about what to say, "I will be fine", she said softly, "It's just… I miss my daughter". Her spare hand came up to dab her eyes as she again glanced over towards the sleeping baby.

The red headed woman was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a white top, she nodded carefully as she watched the woman's facial expressions and listened to her words with interest, "Where is she?", she asked gently.

Ziva ran her hand through her natural curls, "She died…", she said softly in an almost inaudible and broken hearted whisper. "She was stillborn", she revealed with her eyes cast towards the child who was napping in a pink pram approximately two metres from them, "Sometimes I… I wonder what it would have been like if she survived.. and sometimes I think I can hear her cry but that…. that is silly isn't it?", she said softly to the green eyed woman across the table from her.

Jen shook her head, "It isn't silly at all", she said softly as she gave a gentle squeeze to the woman's hand.

Jennifer was about to take her first step in her emerald high heels to go down the staircase that led to the bullpen, intending on investigating what was wrong with Ziva but she heard the phone in her office ring. She bit her lip gently and took a step back from the railings to enter Cynthia's section of the office, and went to her desk, knowing that she would most likely need to answer the call that would be forwarded. Usually she would get on with what she wanted to do, such as right now where she wanted to check on her friend. However something tugged her towards the phone and she felt the need to answer it.

Cynthia's voice soon filled the office of the red headed woman, "Director? I have a call here from Bethesda Hospital, they are refusing to speak with me and insist upon speaking to you directly, would you like me to forward the call to your office?"

The woman leant forward and pressed her finger to the button, "Yes please Cynthia", she said softly into the microphone that resided on the top of her wooden desk.

Within seconds the phone inside of the office began to ring and the Director picked it up to hold the plastic object to her left ear, she leant back against her leather executive office chair and perched the phone between her left shoulder and her left ear. "Hello? This is Director Shepard, NCIS", she said in her official and professional telephone voice.

The voice at the end was soft and feminine, "Good Morning Director Shepard, this is Doctor Isles from Bethesda Hospital", she said with the sound of the busy hospital in the background, the sound was faint which suggested that she was in an office rather than in the hallway of the busy hospital.

The red headed Director leant forward onto her desk and swapped ears before responding to the other woman, "Good Morning Doctor Isles, How may I help you?", she enquired.

Doctor Isles held the letter in her spare hand as she held the phone to her ear with the other, "A young girl was found this morning in a hotel room near the Navy Yard, she seems to be in her young teens and we were wondering if anyone at NCIS could help with her identification", the woman said softly into the telephone, "She was found with a letter in her hand, it was addressed to a Ziva David at NCIS".

Jennifer Shepard's empty hand ran through her red locks, "I will speak with Officer David and we will be there as soon as we can", she said softly.

"Thank you Director", the Doctor said politely, "I will see you soon, if you come to the front desk they will escort you directly to the patient's room once she is out of recovery"

The red headed Director nodded even though she knew that the other woman could not in fact see the motion, "Thank you Doctor Isles, May I ask how the young girl is doing?", she asked with concern laced within her voice.

Doctor Isles sighed softly, "She was bleeding rather heavily when she was found and lost a lot of blood, surgery however went well… I carried it out myself and she is under observation", she said gently, "Once she is out of recovery, she will be moved to ICU as she is currently in a medically induced coma in order to help her recover".

"Thank you again Doctor Isles, I will see you soon", she said softly as she ended the call.

"See you soon", the Doctor replied before both parties placed the phones back into their cradles.

The NCIS Director stood up, running her soft hands down the material of her black skirt as though ironing out invisible creases that only she could see, and adjusting the bottom of her emerald blouse that matched the shoes she wore.

She was intending on going down stairs in order to speak to Ziva but at the last minute decided that it would be best to discuss the situation with the Israeli woman in her office, sitting back down she once again leant over to press the intercom button, "Cynthia? Would you please send Officer David to my office? As a matter of urgency, and send her straight in please. Thank you", she said softly.

"Yes Director", was the only reply that the assistant gave her boss in response to her request.