"What is it, Ziva?" Kate asked with a furrowed brow as they sat down in Tony's kitchen.

Ziva had poured them both a glass of wine and was looking a bit apprehensive as to how to begin the conversation. "I...feel that I should tell you something," she started. "For the sake of the team, and their sudden need to walk on seashells for my sake."

Kate narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. "I...think you mean 'eggshells'...?"

"What? Oh...right, of course."

"What do you mean?"

"I came to NCIS as a liason for Mossad," she told her. "Ari...was my half-brother." She waited for a reaction from Kate. But Kate just seemed to be waiting for something more to be said, before she looked down at the table top. Ziva was confused. "Are you not upset?"

Kate met her eyes again. "You want me to be upset with you? Or about the fact that Gibbs brought you onto the team in my place?"

"Either...or both, perhaps. Uh...no, I do not want you to be upset at all..."

"Well good. Because I'm not," she told her.

"What?" Ziva cocked her head.

"You've technically been working with Gibbs now for longer than I did. You should know, as well as I do, that he wouldn't have let you on the team if he blamed you in any way for what happened. Or if you didn't deserve a place on his team."

Ziva sat there in silence for a few moments as she considered the woman in front of her. Something of a ghost of a smile crossed her face before she spoke, "No wonder it took so long for them to come to accept me," Ziva told her. Kate gave her a questioning look. "You are a very compassionate woman. I am..." her sentence drifted off as she thought of a better way to word it. "I was raised to be an assassin; compassion is not part of that training. It was often times forced into hiding, in fact. My sister was a compassionate person," she looked somewhere off to the side in recollection. "But she was killed. My father taught me that compassion gets you killed, in that line of work. He taught me many things that, since I have been here," she looked back to Kate, "I have realized, were wrong. Not only have I been trained to be an NCIS agent, but on this team...my new family...they have taught me how to trust without being afraid; how caring isn't weakness. And how family is not always what you are born into; but rather, the people...the friends who will forgive you and accept you, no matter what... The ones who do not give up on you."

"Even Tony?" Kate smirked.

Ziva grinned, "Surprisingly, yes. Although, he probably does not know that."

"You must be pretty good at undercover for him not to have figured that out."

Ziva let out a small laugh, "He is a very good detective, and very good at undercover work. But I have had more training in staying silent; one thing I do not believe he could be trained to do."

It was Kate's turn to laugh, "Well that's the truth, if I've ever heard it!"

11 00 11 00 11

Sam had to admit, if only with laughter, that the movie was proving to be funny. Though he'd only caught glimpses of it in the past, and mentionings of it in the form of quotes from his older brother, it was a bit more funny to hear those quotes in context with the movie itself.

At some point near the beginning, they'd moved the dvd player onto Dean's lap so he didn't have to twist to see it. Sam was practically pressed up against him beside him in the next chair, leaning a bit to see the screen as well.

It wasn't until somewhere around a half an hour into the movie that Sam laughed at something and looked over at Dean, expecting the same reaction. But upon seeing his older brother, his smile faded. Dean's eyes were closed and his brow furrowed. He seemed to also be holding his breath.

Sam sat up, "Dean?" Dean's eyes remained closed, but he let out a noisy breath. "Damnit, Dean, why didn't you tell me you were in pain?" he scrambled for the kit.

"Kinda snuck up on me, Sam," he defended. "'M sorry... I shoulda listened to you; shoulda stayed home..."

"Yeah, well, I'll be sure to remind you next time," Sam said as he injected the pain killer into Dean's arm. As he put the kit away, he felt Dean shiver beside him. "You cold?"

"A little," he admitted.

"Here," Sam pulled one of the folded blankets from where Tony had set them earlier, and wrapped it around Dean.

"Can you take the movie player so I can lay on my side for a bit?"

"Yeah," Sam picked the player from Dean's lap and placed it on his own, and Dean rolled onto his side facing Sam, awkwardly searching for a place to put his head. "Dude, just..." Sam led him to lay in on his shoulder.

"Thanks, Sammy," he said in barely a whisper.

"Meds helping at all yet?"

"Little bit," he said.

"Just let me know if you need more, before it gets bad, okay?"

"Kay." Dean felt stiff against his shoulder. Sam couldn't even allow himself to concentrate on the movie anymore, until he felt his brother relax against him several minutes later. He was fairly sure he'd even fallen asleep, but he didn't dare move.

11 00 11 00 11

Vance pulled into Gibbs' driveway after leading the tow-truck with Tony's Mustang to the house. As the mechanic lowered the broken vehicle, the director made his way up to Gibbs' front door and knocked. It was only a matter of moments before Gibbs answered, cautiously cracking open the door before opening it all the way once he saw who it was.

"Had a helluva time explaining to Metro PD why there were two abandoned vehicles in the middle of the road," he told him. "What I couldn't say much about, however, was the excessive amount of blood they found 30 feet away. What the hell happened, Gibbs?"

"Tony was killed," Gibbs told him. Vance flinched and possibly even paled a bit, unsure of how to reply. "Come in, Leon. Have a cup of coffee with us."

As Vance walked into the house, he was greeted with silence, where he'd assumed a lot would be going on, considering. He turned to the lead agent, "You seem to be takin' it awfully well."

"Well I said he was killed, Leon. Didn't say he was still dead," he told him as he led the way to the kitchen.

"Hey, Director," Tony smiled from where he sat at the table.

Leon straightened. "What's goin' on?" he demanded.

"Like I told ya, he was killed in that accident," Gibbs repeated as he poured him a mug of coffee.

"Always wear your seatbelt," Tony said. "'Course, in my defense, mine was stuck in the door...and with the highspeed chase and all, I didn't really have time to get it unstuck."

"Who were you chasing?"

"We were being followed, actually," Gibbs said as he handed Vance the mug.

"You put a BOLO out yet?"

"No. And we're not going to. Anyone who pulls over that vehicle is gonna end up dead."

Vance slowly took a seat at the table as Gibbs did. "So, me covering up the accident..."

"Was to make sure she thinks he's still dead, for now," Gibbs said.

Vance sat in silence for a long while as he drank the coffee and pondered Gibbs' words. Then he looked over at Tony. "I take it your angel brought you back?"

"Well, he's not my angel. But yeah...Guess if you're gonna be fighting against forces of evil, it's nice to even out the playing field a bit."

"So this woman, the one that was chasin' you, she's what you're after now? This...demon-god thing?"

"Yeah."

"Did you see her?"

"We did. But we don't think it'd be a good idea to draw attention to her," Tony explained. "At this point, it looks like she's mainly after us. But if someone should get in her way, there's really no telling what she might do. It's best we wait it out."

"Wait it out?" Vance queried, narrowing his eyes. "Just how long do you think it's gonna take to take her down?"

"Hopefully not much longer," Gibbs said. "We've been tryin' to find the answer. Doesn't come easy."

"There's a lot of reading...you're more than welcome to camp out in the basement with us and help out," Tony smirked.

"As enticing as that sounds, it's been a damn long day. Not that it hasn't been for you all, but I don't have any angels around to perk me up. Besides, I think I'll stick to the cover-up work," he smirked. "Thanks for the coffee, Jethro," he said as he stood. "I'll show myself out. Be sure and let me know if somethin' else comes up."

"Yeah, thanks, Leon," Gibbs told him before he left the kitchen. Gibbs watched until the door shut behind him.

11 00 11 00 11

Tbc...