Chapter 5

With some difficulty, mostly because the girl kept bombarding him with acorns, Tony managed to find a way up the tree to where the girl was. By the time he reached her he was really annoyed. He sat down on a thick branch beside her, grabbed her by the wrist and held on tight as she tried to get away.

"Hey! Knock it out!"

The girl froze at his stern voice and gave Tony a dark scowl before trying to snatch her arm away, but his grip was too strong.

"Let me go!" the girl screamed and tried to hit Tony with her other hand, but he just caught that too.

"Stop that! Do you wanna fall? Coz that's what gonna happen if you don't stop moving."

"Then let me go and get away from me. I don't want you up here! Leave me alone!"

"You've said that already. But I've got a news flash for you, little missy; I'm not going anywhere. Not until you've told me why you're up here."

"I told you, I don't want to talk!"

"Well, I don't believe you."

Tony could actually see the anger rise in the little girl's eyes, felt it roll off of her in waves. Whatever she had been holding back, she was letting it out now, and Tony knew instinctively that he should let her. He maybe didn't understand children, but he understood anger. He just hoped that she would calm down once she was done.

"Why can't you grown-ups understand what 'I don't want to talk' means?", she yelled at the top of her lungs. "You always think that you know better than me! Just because I'm a child does it mean that I'm stupid. You always think that children are stupid, that we can't make our own decisions. You never listen to us. You never listen to me. Maybe I want to be alone! Maybe I don't want to make friends! You never think of that! You always think that talking will solve every problem, even when I keep telling you that I don't want to. I don't work that way! You never get that! And you always seem to think that I have trust issues. Well, excuse me for not trusting people I don't know. Why should I? You... you..."

The girl seemed to run out of words and then big tears began to roll down her cheeks. Tony didn't even think when he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her over onto his lap. She struggled a little at first, but when she felt that she wasn't going to let go, she just gave in, buried her face against his chest and started to cry.

Tony did the only thing he could think of that moment and wrapped his arms protectively around the girl, just letting her cry. He felt her little body shake by each sob that forced its way out of her and how his shirt got wet by her tears. Softly he began to hum as he rocked the girl back and forth, soothingly caressing her soft hair. The melody was from a song his grandmother used to sing for him when he was a little boy. He didn't remember the words, but he would never forget the melody. He had always been calmed by it and hoped that the girl would be too.

After some time, Tony felt the girl relax a little and heard her crying subside. She took some deep breaths and lifted her head slightly so that she could dry her cheeks with the back of her hand before snuggling against him as close as she could get. Tony was a little surprised by this, but he felt that the girl needed it and therefor just hugged her close.

"Feeling better now, kid?" he mumbled in her ear.

The girl nodded and closed her eyes.

"What's your name?"

At first Tony thought that the girl wouldn't answer, but then he heard her mumble something he didn't catch, as her voice was muffled by his shirt.

"I'm afraid I didn't hear that", he said and the girl lifted her head and looked up at him.

"My name is Sarah", she said.

"Sarah." Tony smiled at her and carefully dried a stray tear from the corner of her eye. "My name is Tony."

"Hi."

"Hi. Look, I'm sorry for pushing you like that. You should know that I'm not very good with kids. If you really don't want to talk, you don't have to. I promise. I just have a question for you, though."

"What?"

"Is that the reason you're hiding up here? Because no one's listening to you or respects what you feel?"

Sarah looked gravely at him for a while before giving him a short nod.

"At least that one of the reasons", she added quietly.

"What's the other reasons?"

"The older kids are bullying me. They give me names and think that I'm weird."

"Have you told anyone?"

"No. And why should I? It wouldn't make any difference anyway. I would just get more lonely than I already am."

"So you prefer to be bullied than being completely alone?"

Sarah nodded again and Tony clenched his jaws in anger. Life wasn't meant to be that hard. Not for a child. But he knew it often was. He looked down at her again to say something encouraging, but closed his mouth when he saw the many scars on Sarah's arms and legs. Carefully he lifted her arm to take a better look. His brow wrinkled and he clenched his jaws harder. There was no way she could've got all those just by playing rough. She had been abused.

"Jesus Christ, Sarah", he said, his voice thick with sympathy. "What on earth has been done to you?"

Sarah immediately got angry again. She pushed herself away from Tony and he was shocked by the pain he could see in her eyes.

"I knew it!" she yelled. "You're just like everybody else."

"No, I'm not", Tony said and hugged her close to him again. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I'm so sorry. I promise you don't have to tell me. I promise. It's okay. Everything is alright. Just calm down."

Tony kept on murmuring soothing words into Sarah's ear and it didn't take long before she had relaxed again. Tony took a deep breath and let himself relax too. He just hoped that the perp that had hurt Sarah had been looked away for good. If not, he would hunt him down himself.

He looked down at Sarah and suddenly he felt a great jolt in his heart. He didn't know how he knew it, but somehow, deep inside him, he just knew that Sarah was the one. She was meant to become his and Gibbs' daughter, and he knew that Gibbs would feel it too when he met her. There was no way Tony could let her go now. He was going to take her home, no matter what. He didn't care how many forms they had to fill or how many social workers they had to convince. Sarah was going to be theirs.

TBC