Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).

A/N: Thanks to those few who have reviewed thus far. My beta had to leave town unexpectedly so updates may be slower as I try to edit on my own. Some more reviews and suggestions would really be appreciated. And many thanks to those that have reviewed!

Chapter 5: Back to School Part 2

"Is Alexandra all right?" her professor repeated, returning the photo to Tony. Ziva had slipped out into the hallway to call Gibbs, leaving Tony to try and stall until he arrived.

"We don't have any reason to believe she's not ok."

"Where did you get these photos then, if I may ask?"

"They were sent to our boss anonymously, at work. Now that we know who she is we need to find out why." Tony stood up as Gibbs entered the office. "Dr. Harrell, this is our boss, Senior Agent Gibbs. Boss, this is Dr. Harrell, he's had Alexandra in a couple classes, knows her quite well."

Gibbs reached out to shake the professor's hand and then sat down. "What can you tell us about her?"

"Alexandra is a graduate accounting student, top student. She's focusing on accounting fraud examination and information systems. She loves to learn, she'll sit up here and read textbooks for hours when she can. She's a bit of a loner, at least in the program. She's friendly with the other students, for the most part, but she's definitely not into partying like many of them are. Has a bit of a temper, she get's fed up with the other students not giving due attention to their studies. I think part of that is because she works a lot and that does not leave a lot of time for anything but studying. She has one stable job and then several on and off again jobs. She loves her regular job though, involves auditing and fraud at some regional, multi-state utility. Travels for her job when classes aren't in session."

"What about her personal life?" Gibbs asked.

"Lives off campus with a roommate. Not dating that I know of. I heard from another student she was a while back but something bad happened. Like I said, a bit of a loner. I invited her over for a holiday dinner, that's why I talked to her last week, but she declined. Really uncomfortable around large groups of people or when the attention is on her. She didn't even attend her undergraduate graduation. She can be social though, I've seen her force herself to do it at recruitment functions. And she volunteers someplace for children with special needs, teaching sign language to children with autism I think."

"Do you know anything about her background? Before she started college?" Tony hoped he would not be mad for taking the initiative and asking the question. Tony couldn't know that Gibbs was barely able to maintain his investigator control and not leave immediately to find her.

"She really hasn't talked about it much. Something happened when she was a child, an accident, and she doesn't remember much of her childhood. She did say she moved here from somewhere in the Midwest, Illinois I think. I do know both of her parents are dead. Her father died when she was young and her mother died, some sort of health problem, a few years before she graduated high school. I don't think she has any other family, at least she's never mentioned him. She only came out here because she got a full-ride scholarship and as she said, it was a chance to start over."

Gibbs stood up. "Thank you, Dr. Harrell, for your time." Gibbs shook his hand again.

"Senior Agent Gibbs, Agent DiNozzo, please let me know if there is anything else I can do. I hope everything is alright."

"It will be," Gibbs said with determination.

ooooooooo

Tony and Gibbs met up with Ziva and McGee outside the building. The former two had been sent to the registrar's office to get whatever information they could.

"Hey, you two find anything?" Tony asked, slipping on his sunglasses.

"All these laws about privacy, protecting privacy." Ziva scowled.

McGee shrugged. "We called Abby, gave her the name. She already had hacked into the school database."

Tony noticed Gibbs was staring off, not visibly listening as they walked back to the car. "Boss, everything ok? Did your daughter know sign language too?"

"My wife was a special education teacher, so yes, we taught Kelly," Gibbs paused. "We need to get back to the office, now." The ride back was just as fast as the ride to the campus, just with less traffic. They rode upstairs in silence, more because Gibbs wasn't saying anything and no one else wanted to risk getting on his bad side. As they exited the elevator, Gibbs reverted back to his usual direction given mode. "Tony, get Abby up here to tell us anything she found in the school records. Ziva and McGee, pull DMV records, everything you can. Abby will have a date of birth to use." Gibbs didn't wait for an answer, instead jogging up the stairs and straight to the director's office.

ooooooooo

"Thank you, Jethro, once again for not knocking." Jen got up and came around to sit on the front edge on her desk. "How did it go?"

"We found her."

"Found the girl in the photo?"

"Her name is Alexandra Mitchell." Gibbs proceeded to relay to Jen most of the conversation he had with Alexandra's professor, including the parts about Alexandra's volunteer activities and how it related to Kelly. "It's her, I'm sure it is Jenny."

"What about her parents?"

"The professor said they were, uh." Gibbs wrung his hands. "He said they were both dead. That her mother died shortly before she graduated high school."

Jen walked over to him slowly. "I'm sorry Jethro, I know you were hoping Shannon would be alive too." She took his hands in hers.

Gibbs nodded. "I need to focus on her right now."

"I understand. Did the professor say anything about her father?"

"Only that he had died when Alexandra was young. I don't know if she truly thinks I'm dead or if that's just a cover for witness protection."

"Maybe the accident that caused her to lose her memory was the same accident in which the NCIS agent protecting her and Shannon was killed. Anything she was told after that she would just be believing on blind faith." Jen ran her hands up and down his arms. "Jethro, if she doesn't remember who you are you need to be cautious when you meet her. If you spring this on her all of the sudden . . ."

"I know. I'm not going to go pick her up. But when she comes back here someone needs to talk to her, find out what happened. Ziva knows the details but she's uncomfortable if she's not forcing the words out of someone, McGee can't. . ."

Jen cut him off. "I'll do it. I'll talk to her. We'll figure it out, okay?"

Gibbs nodded. "Thank you, for helping."

"Always. Come on, let's go see what the team has found out about her."