So if this sounds like it could have been a Law and Order:SVU episode it may have very well been one since it's been on TV for more than a decade. Law and Order:SVU is one of my favorite shows and I've taken some inspiration from some of their episodes that deal with this issue.

Spoilers: Slight spoilers to 5x07 'Requiem', 6x08 'Cloak', 6x09 'Dagger', 7x15 'Jack knife'

Wednesday, February 17—2145

Thwack! Thwack!

Tony had long ago ceased to remember how long he had been punishing the punching bag but if the dull ache he felt in his hands was any indication it had been quite a while. Still, he could not stop because every time he tried to stop the graphic images of the past week kept coming to the surface unbidden.

--

Wednesday, February 10—1450

Cases involving children were always the worst—always.

The young daughter of a Petty Officer had been abducted while at the mall with her parents and had seemingly vanished. For four days, the team relentlessly ran down every possible lead and every crackpot tip that came through the tip line in hopes of finding something, anything, relating to young Nadia Delobel. Sleep was a precious commodity to be found whenever it was possible since the team had practically moved into NCIS headquarters. On the fifth day, it seemed as if some deity felt sorry for them and a long shot tip panned out

The trio stood in the observation room as they watched Gibbs in interrogation. Gibbs tended to be scary when he interrogated suspects period but cases involving children always hit a nerve and he became ten times as scary.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" yelled Gibbs furiously.

"Did she just say—" began McGee before he was interrupted by Gibbs storming into the observation room.

"DiNozzo, get in touch with your contacts in Metro and the Baltimore PD," barked Gibbs. "Ziva, you still have contacts in Eastern Europe with ties to the human trafficking trade?"

"Yes."

"Good, get in touch with them," he commanded.

"Boss?" began McGee uncertainly.

"What, McGee?" Gibbs responded sharply.

"Did we hear her right? Did she honestly mean—"

"What do you think, Probie?" interrupted Tony. "Why do you think the Boss has Ziva and me sniffing around prostitution rings?" he asked seriously before exiting observation.

--

February 17—0700

For the past week it felt as if they had suddenly been transplanted into an episode of Law and Order: SVU and after hours upon hours spent combing through porn websites and chat rooms they finally managed to find their first substantial lead to the human trafficking gang that had kidnapped Nadia because they had lost one of their girls and needed another one immediately for a party. Nadia, young and with the looks of a classic Eastern European beauty, was the perfect fit.

Ziva was going undercover as a wealthy ex-patriot from Russia who was looking for entertainment for her party that she was hosting for some wealthy businessmen from home. Arraignments had been make beforehand for Ziva, along with Tony as her driver, to meet with the men in charge so that she could personally pick the girls for the party. They arrived at the nondescript motel just off the main thoroughfare in Alexandria, Virginia. Their intel told them that Nadia would be included in this group so the plan was to ostensibly pick out eight girls, one of them being Nadia, from the twenty that Alexei had promised her and once she and the other girls were safely away, another team would arrest the other members and rescue the remaining girls.

That was the plan anyway.

February 17—1013

Tony stared blankly ahead of him as he tried to pinpoint where it all went wrong. Their cover was intact, at least that was what they thought at the time, Alexei suspected nothing and Nadia was there in the group of girls. They got the girls and Nadia out of the room and down to the car before everything went to hell in a handbasket in the blink of an eye. The sound of the safety being disabled was the only warning they got before gunshots starting flying. They had just enough time to get the girls behind the van.

The feel of a soft towel being placed in his empty hands brought him back the present and he blinked up owlishly at Ducky. Why was Ducky giving him a towel? Sensing the younger man's confusion the elderly medical examiner smiled a small comforting smile before he began to gently wipe off the blood from his hands. Tony looked down at his hands in wonder as he tried to remember how his hands had gotten so sticky with blood. A couple of seconds later the events of the past hour came rushing back to him and all he could see was the blood spattered room and the blood pooling around the bodies of three of the girls they had taken out of the room.

Cases involving children were always the worst.

--

February 17—2155

Finally tired, Tony rested his head against the punching bag.

"You done?" asked a voice from the doorway. Tony looked over to see Jimmy standing in the doorway; too tired to speak he nodded. "Let me have a look at your hands," Jimmy said once he reached Tony and gently led his friend the benches up against the gym wall. "Were you wearing gloves?" asked Jimmy frowning as he studied the bloody knuckles.

"They just got in the way," Tony said in reply.

Jimmy pursed his lips in a disapproving gesture but did not say anything, this case was an awful one and he could not begrudge Tony for wanting to let off some steam. Actually, Tony taking out his frustration out on the NCIS gym equipment was better than the alternative, which would probably involve copious amounts of alcohol and a phone call for a cab or a phone call from the bar to Gibbs.

"When's your appointment?" asked Jimmy idly.

"Friday morning," replied Tony as he stared down at his feet, too emotionally spent to even bother flinching when Jimmy sprayed some antiseptic on the larger cuts. "When is yours?"

"First thing Thursday morning, before my shift at the hospital," Jimmy said wearily.

They saw many horrible things while working at NCIS but sometimes it got to be too much, this was one of those times. Director Vance told Gibbs and his team that they were going to talk to psych starting Thursday, in fact, he had even made the appointments for them, obviously not trusting that they would willing follow through with his orders. The Director had also strongly suggested that Ducky and Jimmy find time to talk to the psych as well and told them that he had blocked out two separate times that they could use if they so wished.

"They'll sting a bit if you get soap in them, so try to keep as free of soap as possible," Jimmy said indicating the numerous cuts evident among the many bruises. "Did you grab your stash of clean clothes from your car?"

Tony just nodded and headed towards the showers, pausing only shortly to grab the duffle bag he had haphazardly thrown by the bench closest to the showers. Jimmy packed up the few first aid supplies he had used and threw away the discarded rags before letting his head fall back against the wall before taking off his glasses and closing his eyes. He wondered how he was going to get to sleep tonight or, more importantly, if he was going to get any sleep tonight because every time he closed his eyes he saw the gruesome and bloody motel room that greeted them once the room had been cleared. Cases involving children were always hard but it was always worst when they were young and indeed, all the girls, both dead and rescued, were young, no more than twelve at the oldest and no more than eight at the youngest. It was all just so very wrong. Before Jimmy could get too lost in his thoughts the familiar scent of strong black coffee greeted his nostrils and Jimmy couldn't help but smile slightly, he was wondering how long it would take for Gibbs to come looking for Tony.

"He's in the showers," the medical student eyes still closed. "He should be done soon," he continued once he had replaced his glasses and turned to face Agent Gibbs. The other man just nodded and Jimmy could not help but notice just how much older he looked; he had noticed it with Doctor Mallard as well. Intellectually Jimmy knew that his mentor was an old man, equal in age to his grandfather, but Jimmy had never really given that fact much thought because Doctor Mallard hardly acted like a man well into his sixties but sometimes when they had a case as hard to fathom as this one Jimmy would notice how it seemed as if the weight of all his years spent living weighed heavily on the elderly medical examiner's shoulders. He noticed that same slump of the shoulders in Agent Gibbs now.

By that, point Gibbs had moved into the gym area but stopped short when he came face to face with an ordinary brown paper bag.

"They're headed for the incinerator," Jimmy said in way of explanation.

Gibbs nodded once again, he had expected as much, it would not be the first time DiNozzo burned the clothes he wore after an exceptionally gruesome crime scene and it would not be the last. He understood what prompted his senior field agent to take such drastic measures despite how much money he might have paid for that outfit, there were just some things that you never wanted a reminder of; he had been known to do the same thing on occasion. Finding that he had nothing to say to Jimmy Gibbs let the silence envelope them and gave the agent time to discreetly examine Ducky's young assistant, the first thing that jumped out at Gibbs was honestly how young the man in front of him really was. Yes, he had been an almost constant presence in autopsy for close to seven years now but in that time period Gibbs had given hardly any thought to Jimmy's age but in that very moment it occurred to him that Jimmy Palmer was young, as in closer to Maddie Tyler's age young than Abby's age when she first started working at NCIS young, that realization suddenly made Gibbs feel very old.

The ringing of a cell phone playing some pop song that Gibbs could not even name broke the silence and Jimmy smiled slightly before answering.

"That was Abby," Jimmy informed him once he hung up. "Could you tell Tony goodbye for me?"

"Sure," Gibbs replied. Satisfied Jimmy grabbed his stuff and headed towards the doorway. Gibbs watched as he gathered his belongings, in the years that Jimmy had worked at NCIS Gibbs had hardly interacted with him on a one-on-one basis but after the incident involving Michelle Lee both Ducky and Tony had made it clear that he should talk to the younger man to try to get him to understand because at the end of the day regardless of what their relationship was or that it was over by the time Michelle had been revealed as a traitor, Jimmy and Michelle had, one time, shared something. Gibbs had never really made an effort to do so, unsure of how to justify his actions to the one time lover of Michelle when he had a hard enough time justifying his actions with himself.

"Jimmy," he said calling after him. Jimmy stopped and turned around, no doubt curious as to what the senior agent had to say. "My door is always open," Gibbs said simply.

"But you got a new lock," Jimmy blurted out and Gibbs just gave him a slightly exasperated but amused look. "Oh, right…" Jimmy said flustered once he managed to decode what Gibbs had meant. "Just make sure that Tony doesn't get too drunk tonight, you and I know that he'd get completely wasted if he was allowed to."