Chapitre Une: Juste Un Autre Cas... Ou Pas

Gibbs sauntered into the bullpen, coffee cup in hand. It was early, only 06h00. It was empty, quiet. He sighed and sat down at his desk. 'Might as well get some paper work down, while I'm here,' he thought to himself.

Just then, the elevator dings and the door opened. Standing there was Abby, her hair was down and in tangles and she wasn't wearing any makeup. Distressed, she didn't even notice Gibbs.

"Abbs, what are you doing here so early?" Gibbs asked her gently, seeing the anxiety and stress on her face

"It's my mass spec Jethro! It's smoking! And I can't get a hold of McGee! I don't know what to do! I don't know why it's doing this!"

Gibbs chuckled. "Abbs, relax. Come here." He opened his arms invitingly.

She smiled and ran over to him. Holding her in his arms, he kisses the top of her head.

"It'll be ok, baby, I promise."

They heard the elevator ding again and jumped apart.

"Oh Tony, it's just you." Abby said, pulling Gibbs in for a kiss.

"Still haven't told the director about you two?" Tony asked.

Abby shook her head.

"You're going to have to tell her eventually. Are you planning on inviting her to the wedding?" Tony asked.

"No." Gibbs answers simply.

"Jethro, be nice." Abby told him, gently swatting his chest. "Of course we are."

"Well then you're going to have to tell her soon. Before the night of the wedding would probably be good." Tony told them seriously. "Although, you could just send pictures of the wedding, with little captions, 'we're married'… then you wouldn't have to say it to her face." Tony laughed. Gibbs didn't.

"DiNozzo, why are you here so early anyways?" Gibbs asked.

"Dispatch called. Dead woman out in Quantico. Didn't they call you?"

Gibbs pulls out his cell phone and opens it up. "Yep. Must've missed it. Call Ziva and McGee. I'll meet you out there."

"Jethro, don't make Timmy go. I need his help! Mr. Mass Spec hates me! I need McGee to help me make up to him."

Gibbs sighed and rolled his eyes. "DiNozzo, I'll meet you and Ziva out there."

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"What do you know, Jethro?" Ducky asked him, kneeling down beside the body, next to Gibbs.

"Not much Duck. She was stabbed sometime in the night. Neighbour called it in, she heard screaming. It took the police a while to make it out here though. They found her I.D. and called us." Gibbs explained to Ducky.

"Liver probe tells me she's been dead for about six hours. This makes time of death around 2h00. Multiple bruises and judging by the colour, they definitely took place before she died. The cuts on her head aren't serious…" Ducky rambled on to himself for a while. "Looks like a classic case of spousal abuse to me, Jethro. The knife looks to me like the cause of death. I'll know more once I do the autopsy."

"Shhh, did you hear that?" Gibbs asked, standing up.

"Hear what?"

Gibbs put his finger to his lips and walked toward the noise. It sounded like a small cry. The noise led him to the closet and he opened it up.

Isabelle looked up at him, fear in her eyes. She cried softly.

"Shh, it's ok. I'm here to help. I promise." He tried to sooth her. He kneeled down to her level. "What's your name, sweetie?"

She didn't answer him. She didn't say anything at all.

Gibbs could see her ribs she was so thin. She had bruises on her legs and arms and cuts across her face. Her dark, curly hair was in tangles and she was shaking.

"It's ok sweetie. Come here." He gently lifted her out of the closet and held her close to his chest. She was just little, small for her age, and barely weighed twenty pounds.

Ducky gasped. "Jethro…"

"I'm going to take her back to headquarters. When Tony and Ziva get here, tell them what we know, and where I am. Then hurry back so you can do an examination on her. Ok?" He left without waiting for a reply.

Gently he sat the girl in the back seat of his car and did up her seatbelt. She struggled a little, but he gently told her, "It's ok, sweetie, I promise, I'm here to help you. I'm going to take you back to where I work and we're going to get you all cleaned up and feeling better ok?"

The little girl nodded and Gibbs smiled. At least he got some kind of response. That was a good thing.

He drove quickly (but carefully of course) back to NCIS. He carried the little girl into the bullpen and found her a blanket and a cup of water. He sat her down in his chair, and he kneeled on the floor in front of her.

"Now sweetie, can you tell me your name?"

"Izzy," She said slowly and quietly.

"Izzy, that's a pretty name." Gibbs smiled and Izzy smiled back at him. "Izzy, is there anything you want? I can get you a snack? Are you hungry?"

Izzy just shook her head.

"Ok. Now Izzy, can you tell me what happened tonight?"

Izzy looked away from him and you could see the tears in her eyes. She talked very quietly and slowly. "Daddy tried to hurt me. Mommy wanted to stop him, but he hurt her too! Then mommy wouldn't get up. I-I tried to get her to get up, but she wouldn't! And daddy just ran away." Izzy was crying again now.

Gibbs pulled her into a tight hug. "Izzy, Sweetie, it's ok. It's ok. You're safe now. I promise I won't let anyone hurt you." He kissed the top of her head. "Now, you need to get washed up, ok? My friend Abby works downstairs, would you like it better if she got you showered off?"

Izzy nodded.

"Ok, come with me sweetie." Gibbs took her hand and led her down to Abby's lab.

"Jethro! You're back already! Do you have some evidence for me? I could really use a caf-pow! Did you bring-" She turned around and saw Izzy standing beside Gibbs. "Jethro who-?"

"This is Izzy." Gibbs interrupted. "I need you to do me a favour, Abbs."

"Anything Jethro."

"I need you to take her and get her showered off and cleaned up. Find her a little NCIS shirt and pair of shorts if there are no sweat pants small enough."

Abby nodded.

"As soon as you're done, bring her back up to the bullpen."

Abby smiled and kneeled down to talk to Izzy. "Hey Izzy, do you want to come with me?" She extended her hand and Izzy took it. "Alright, let's go get cleaned up ok?"

Izzy nodded. She still looked scared.

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A little while later Abby brought Izzy back up to the bullpen. Izzy was wearing a NCIS sweatshirt that was way to big for her, and a pair of black shorts, that fit her more like pants. Abby had combed her wet her into pigtails to match hers. And for the first time since she came to NCIS, Izzy was smiling. Just a little smile, but still smiling.

Gibbs laughed to himself when he saw her. "Abby." He rolled his eyes.

"What? Don't you think she looks cute?" Abby asked him.

"She looks adorable."

"I told you he would love it." Abby said to Izzy.

"Thank you Mr. Gibbs." Izzy said politely. Gibbs picked the girl up and set her in his lap.

"Aren't you polite." Abby commented.

"Mommy told me that it's always important to be polite." Izzy said quietly.

"You're mommy is very right." Abby told her with a smile.

"Was, Abby." Gibbs told her, barely audible. Just loud enough that Abby could hear.

"Oh." Abby looked down at the little girl in pity.

The elevator dinged again and Ducky came running over then. "Jethro! There you are! I thought you'd be waiting in autopsy. Can I take the girl down there now?"

"Ducky, this is Izzy." Gibbs told him. "And Izzy, this is Ducky. He's a friend of mine, and he's going to take very good care of you. I need you to go with him for now ok? He's going to take you downstairs and make sure that you are healthy. Sound good?"

Izzy nodded and stood up. Ducky smiled at her and took her hand. "Hi Izzy."

"Hi. It's nice to meet you." Izzy said.

"It's very nice to meet you, too." Ducky smiled at her politeness.

He tenderly guided her over to elevator where they went down to autopsy.

"This is where I usually work." Ducky explained to her. "Now, I just want to do a quick examination. I promise you it's not going to hurt, ok sweetie?"

Izzy nodded and Ducky set her up on the autopsy table. "I promise you it won't take long, ok?"

About twenty minutes later, Gibbs came down. "Aren't you done yet Duck?" He asked, and smiled at Izzy.

"Almost Jethro."

Gibbs softly whispered in Ducky's ear. "Did you run a rape kit?"

Ducky shook his head. "Do you want me to?"

Gibbs just nodded.

"Ok. We'll be done soon. I'll bring her up when we are finished."

Gibbs nodded, smiled at Izzy and headed back to the elevator.

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