It was time for the team to retire for the night. Gibbs and Robyn were the last ones to go. It had been previously decided that since Gibbs had gotten her to talk in the first place, that he should be the one to provide a place to stay while the case was going on.

As morning faded into night, Gibbs was doing his best to get Robyn to eat some dinner. Even a bite would have satisfied him, but she was relentless. They had been at Gibbs' house for only two hours and in that time, Robyn had reverted back to barely speaking.

"You have to face it sometime you know." He said with uncharacteristic softness.

Her jaw clenched. "No I don't."

"If you don't, you're just going to end up hurting yourself even more."

"Nah, I think I'll be okay." She argued.

"So you're going to ignore it?"

"That's the plan." She said evenly. She never broke eye contact when she spoke to him. "Why do you care so much about how I deal with it anyway?"

"I don't." Gibbs responded smoothly. He got the reaction he was looking for. She tried not to look bothered, but it was obvious she was. "But I just know the right way to hold onto things and the wrong way." Although, in truth, he really did care, but he also knew that this was the only way to get her to face it.

"I'm not holding onto anything." She said quickly. "In fact, I already let it go."

"Not thinking about it isn't the same as letting it go."

"Of course it is. It can't bother you if you don't think about it."

"Until it does." Gibbs said calmly.

Frustrated, Robyn changed the subject. "Okay, Gandhi. I think I'm going to go to sleep." She said as she stood up from the table.

Gibbs gave her a half smile. "Down the hall, first door on your left. That's where you're sleeping." He directed her.

She looked down the hall for a moment, looking almost confused. Gibbs watched her, wondering what she was thinking. He quickly realized that she hadn't been expecting an actual room, but the couch. For some reason, this seemed really important to her. After a few seconds, Robyn looked back at him.

"Thank you." Was all that she said as she swiped up her pack from the floor and started down the hall. Gibbs waited for the door to shut before he gathered up the plates from the table, placed them in the sink and proceeded down into the basement to work on his half finished boat. It wasn't until about three hours later, around 1 o'clock when he heard footsteps tapping along the basement steps.

"What's up?" He asked without even looking up at her.

"Couldn't sleep." She muttered. "Why are you building a boat in your basement?"

"Keeps me busy." He answered simply.

There was a long pause.

"You want to help?" Gibbs asked.

"I'll mess it up."

He tossed her a sander, as if he hadn't even heard her. "With the grain. Not against." Was his only direction.

She looked down at the sander in her hands and then at the boat. She walked a little closer and before the sander even came near it, she touched one of the ribs of the boat with her fingertips, getting into the motion. She finally brought the sander up to the boat's surface and started working.

After a while of silence, the sound of scraping wood quieted. Gibbs looked over at Robyn, wondering why the sudden stop.

"She was killed in my room." Robyn stated.

"I know." Gibbs responded, waiting for her to continue.

Robyn looked over at him. "She was all I had left. And she died in my room. What does that say?" Her voice was filled with hurt, but it didn't reach her face. She refused to allow it.

"It doesn't say anything. Not about you anyway."

The look on her face told him that she didn't believe it.

"So, it's just my luck?"

"I don't believe in luck, good or bad." Gibbs answered.

"Well, neither do I, but I wouldn't even want to get too close to me."

"She didn't die because of you." He said firmly. "Understand?"

He was rewarded with a slight nod.

"I just thought that maybe, I finally had something close to being a real, normal life. All I had to do was sidestep Dick every now and then. But that was okay, because Sara cared. She took me in when I was eleven. I didn't say a word for a whole month. But instead of taking me back to that place, she waited. Eventually, we started having real, whole conversations."

Gibbs stayed quiet.

"I was just starting to be okay. After five years, I was starting to act normal. I even tried out for the softball team last week. Now, it doesn't matter. Even if I make it, she won't be there. Because she was murdered… in my own room."

"Look, I know that you're scared but-"

"I'm not scared!" She snapped defensively.

Gibbs gave her a look and continued, "But, if you quit now, what will people think of you?" Gibbs knew immediately that this struck a nerve. He didn't even have to look at her. "So, you keep moving forward. People say 'don't look back', but that's bull. If you don't look back then you'll forget the person you don't want to be. That's the reason history repeats itself. Not because people are stupid, but because they don't want to look back on old, bad decisions and learn from them. So they make the same mistakes. You said before that you stopped thinking about all the things that happened to you, and look. You're already reverting to the kid who wouldn't speak. We've had a total of two conversations in the five hours that you've been here."

Robyn wouldn't look at him now. "History repeats itself no matter what you do." She said through clenched teeth. "People either die around me, or they leave and I come right back to this."

Gibbs knew that she wasn't just talking about Sara now.

"What happened to your parents?" He asked softly.

"Mom died, dad left. 'Course, nobody tells you anything about your parents when you're an orphan, so it's just a guess. But I think it's an alright one."

"What made you come up with that?" Gibbs was curious now.

"Well, I remember her voice… not his. So, as far as I'm concerned, he never existed." She said evenly. "Then, she died… I know she didn't leave because her voice was nice. It didn't belong to somebody that could just give their kid away. But that's all I can remember. That and this stupid compass." She said as she dug an old, gold compass out of her pocket.

"I've had it for as long as I can remember."

Gibbs held his hand out from across the room, silently asking to see it. She tossed it to him, over the boat where he caught it as it landed perfectly in his hand. He brought it close to his face, turning it over in his fingers. He couldn't help feeling in his gut that it looked familiar. Shrugging it off he said, "You think it was your mom's?" He asked, tossing it back to her.

Catching it, she answered, "Hell if I know. I'd like to think so." She placed it securely back in her pocket. She obviously didn't think the compass was as stupid as she said, but he knew that she was angry and exhausted. She had done as much as she emotionally could that day.

"I think you should let yourself take the night off. Get some sleep." Gibbs ordered.

Her eyes were bloodshot from being overworked. Clearly all they wanted to do was shut down for the night. "Okay." She muttered as she stepped away from the boat and began to ascend the stairs. For just a moment, Gibbs thought he heard a sniff as she reached the top, but was unable to confirm it as the basement door shut behind her. When this case was over, there was no way they could send her back to Richard and they couldn't send her back to the orphanage. He knew that would kill her and he just couldn't live with that, but he didn't see another option. He just hoped that they had time to figure out a solution.

. . .

"Tony! You said you would forget about the whole spitball thing!" McGee exclaimed obviously flustered. Tony, who now sported a band-aid on the corner of his mouth just laughed sarcastically at the angry Probie, who was not trying to get his hand out of the vending machine.

"Oh yeah. I guess I forgot." He says with a slight shrug, hiding his grin. "Well, we can let bygones be bygones and just let it go." Tony said, suppressing a burst of hilarity.

"Tony! Get my hand out!" McGee shouted, his hand starting to ache due to the pressure of the little door.

"Say please." Tony said with a smirk.

With a sigh, McGee swallowed his pride and said, "Please…?"

"Now that wasn't too hard now was it Probie?" Tony said getting behind McGee and started to help him retrieve his hand.

At that moment the sound of an elevator door opening was heard. Robyn and Gibbs stepped out of it, and the first thing they were greeted by was two men at a vending machine. One was bent over, grunting and making strange, suggestive movements that caused Robyn's jaw to drop. Tony glanced behind him, seeing Gibbs with a coffee in hand and a look that nobody could read, but it was nothing good. It disappeared quickly as it was followed by the classic Gibbs glare.

"Boss!" Tony shouted as he got as far away from McGee as he could with the little time that he had. "Um…McKlutz got his hand stuck in the vending machine and I was tryin-"Tony said exasperated, trying to explain before he was cut off by Gibbs.

"Just get his hand out and get to work before McGee has to report you for sexual harassment." He demanded and began walking away as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, Robyn had just started inching away from the scene, holding back laughter as she saw Tony's face get redder and redder. She peeled herself away, finding no words that would make the situation better.

"Please tell me it was only Gibbs…" McGee groaned

"Remember the kid from yesterday?" Tony asked, unable to even look at McGee now.

"Oh no…"

"Oh, yes."

. . .

As the day went on, Robyn kept herself busy alternating between the forensic lab and autopsy, the rest of the team were busy working on the case. McGee, who now was the proud owner of a searing red hand, glared at Tony every few minutes, until finally he hung up the phone and said with all the triumph he could muster, "I found something!"

"What is it McGoof?" Tony asked, creating a new name for his colleague out of thin air.

At that moment, Gibbs walked up and listened to the newfound evidence.

"Well, I was going through Mrs. Frost's phone records and I found the last call was from her last scheduled Marine base. I talked to the man in charge of it and found out that she was supposed to be going to Afghanistan and report to the base for brief training before leaving. It was originally planned that she was leaving at 5 o'clock pm. But… she was obviously-"

"Dead." Tony finished McGee's sentence for him.

"So why wouldn't Robyn or Frost have told us that she was supposed to be leaving?"Ziva asked confused.

"They didn't know?" McGee said, although it was more of a question. "But why?"

"She was trying to skip it." Gibbs said evenly. "The crime scene had clothes scattered all over it. It wasn't a struggle. She was packing." He explained.

"But it was Robyn's room, wasn't it?" Tony chimed in.

"She was the reason she wanted to skip out. She knew that she couldn't leave Robyn with Frost or send her back to the orphanage. She was in there packing Robyn's clothes so they could leave as soon as she got home that night."

"So why would someone want to kill her? Did someone find out?" Tony asked, trying to fit the pieces together.

"Maybe, but even if they did, it would not come to that." Ziva said simply.

"What if the killer had been planning this for a while, found out that she was leaving and decided to take the chance before she left?" McGee added.

"Keep digging." Gibbs ordered as he walked out of the bullpen and made his way to the forensics lab.

He stepped out of the elevator and heard a very animated conversation going on. The glass door slid open and Gibbs walked into the lab, seeing Robyn and Abby having a huge talk that looked like it had been going on for hours and wouldn't stop anytime soon.

"There is no way you can do that. That's insane!" Came Robyn's voice. She was beaming. Gibbs was almost stunned. She was usually so intense, but right now it seemed that she was damn near being happy.

"I so can! I'll pro-" Abby's voice cut off the moment she saw Gibbs. This caused Robyn to spin around on the stool she was sitting on so she was fully facing Gibbs.

"Hey Gibbs!" They both greeted in unison. When Robyn was actually smiling, she looked so familiar, but he just could not place it.

He walked over and placed the Caf-Pow he had brought for Abby on the counter.

"What do you got Abby?" He asked, giving Robyn a warning look. He didn't want her around when they talked about the murder.

"It's okay Gibbs." Abby said, noticing his look. "I haven't found much. I just ran some fingerprints and they are all a match for Sara, Robyn and Richard. I haven't gotten a chance to really go through the evidence yet. Do you have any leads?" She asked.

"No." He answered smoothly. "Not yet."

Robyn looked slightly disappointed as she moved her gaze towards the ground.

Gibbs approached Abby and whispered in her ear, "Don't let her go down to autopsy. Ducky started half an hour ago."

Abby nodded, understanding. "Got it. Come back soon. I might have something by then." She said with a smile.

Gibbs kissed her forehead. "I know you will." He said before leaving to go see Ducky.

. . .

"Oh, Jethro! Just the man I wanted to see!" Ducky said brightly. The body of Sara Frost lay cut open on the autopsy table.

"What do you got for me, Duck?"

"Well, the cause of death is rather simple. Four knife wounds to the chest. The first blow is what killed her. The second would have been just for good measure, but the killer stabbed her three more times. Now, I'm no psychologist, but that seems to me that this was-"

"An act of passion." Gibbs finished

"Doctor!" Palmer said, trying to grab their attention. "Could you look at this?"

Both Ducky and Gibbs walked over to the body. Jimmy pointed to one of the ribs where a small piece of metal was jutting out of it, embedded deeply into the bone. He pulled the shard out with a large pair of tweezers and dropped it into a small metal bowl to examine it.

"The tip of the knife?" Palmer asked, looking for confirmation.

"That is certainly what it looks like." Ducky answered. "Would you be so kind as to send this up to Abby for testing, Jimmy?" Ducky asked, handing Palmer the bowl with the metal.

"Yes sir." He said quickly as he rushed out of the room towards Abby's lab.

"Anything else, Duck?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes, well, look here." Ducky said moving up towards the head of the body. He pointed directly at her lips.

"Do you see the slight smudging of her lipstick here?"

Gibbs nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, I believe that after she died, the last act of passion the killer could have fulfilled was a kiss goodbye. I attempted to get a viable DNA sample and sent it up to Abby. She should have the results at any moment.

"Thanks Duck." Gibbs said simply as he started walking out of the room.

"Hey, Jethro." Ducky stopped him.

"Yes?" Gibbs asked, turning around to face him.

"How is our little friend doing?" He asked, almost looking concerned.

Gibbs gave a small, half smile. "She's doing okay. I wouldn't be surprised if her and Abby kept in touch after this thing is over."

"Good…good." Ducky responded softly.

"You okay, Duck?"

"Yes, it's just that… has she exhibited any emotion towards what happened to her foster mother? Tears, perhaps?"

"Well, no tears from what I've seen, but she did talk about her a little bit last night."

"Did you ever get the notion that she blames herself?" Ducky asked, getting to the heart of what he wanted to talk about.

"Well, yeah. But that's normal, isn't it?"

"Yes, but not to this degree."

"What are you thinking, Duck?"

"I'm thinking… that she is blaming herself to the point where she feels as if she needs to make it right. To let herself off the hook, if you will. Which means-"

"Revenge…" Gibbs muttered.

"Precisely…"