Two days went by. Gibbs and Ducky were keeping a close eye on her, being careful to not let their opinions slip on who they thought the killer was. They had gone through lead after lead, and everyone seemed to wriggle their way out with an alibi or the evidence just didn't add all the way up.

Gibbs, Ziva, Tony and McGee were all in the bullpen, mulling over the possibilities.

"Could she have been having an affair?" DiNozzo asked. "That could explain the anger and the kiss goodbye in the end."

"No. If anyone was the cheater it was Richard." Gibbs said matter-of-factly.

"Then a secret admirer?" Ziva suggested.

"Could be. The thought of her leaving was too much for him to handle." Gibbs offered.

"So he kills her? And makes the leave permanent?" McGee asked.

"We didn't find any unidentified fingerprints in that room?" Gibbs asked.

"No boss." McGee answered. "But Richard's seemed to be older while Robyn's and Sara's were a bit more fresh."

Gibbs thought that was really odd. Why would Richard's fingerprints be in there in the first place? They hated each other.

At that moment, the phone at Gibbs' desk rang. He picked it up and said gruffly into the receiver, "Special Agent Gibbs."

The person on the other end spoke quickly and the more it went on, the darker his gaze became.

"Thank you." He said with sudden, unexpected anger as he slammed the phone down.

"Where is she?" He shouted.

"Who, boss?" DiNozzo asked timidly.

"Robyn! Who the hell do you think I mean? Where is she?"

"Probably down in Autopsy?" McGee answered quickly. They were all surprised in the sudden change, especially when the anger was directed towards Robyn. Everyone had gotten extremely close to her in the past few days. Hell, everyone loved her. Nobody could imagine even being irritated with her let alone being blind faced mad. They silently watched Gibbs stalk off to the elevator.

. . .

Robyn was listening to one of Ducky's stories, holding back a laugh as Palmer was making faces behind his back. Ducky turned around while Palmer was holding one of these ridiculous poses.

"Are you feeling well, Jimmy?" He asked in an irritated voice.

"Uh-um, yes…doctor." He said quickly, straightening up. "Just uh…holding in a sneeze."

"Well, grab a tissue then for whenever you stop making faces long enough to accomplish anything." Ducky responded, turning back to Robyn, continuing his story from where he left off, but Robyn was too busy laughing to hear him.

At that moment, the door opened and the angry Gibbs stepped through. Ducky was the first to see him. He cut off midsentence which caused Robyn's laughter to slowly fade to a frown. Ducky and Palmer looked almost fearful. Robyn turned around and saw Gibbs glaring down at her.

"Gibbs?" Robyn asked, as if wondering if it was the same person whose house she had been staying at for the past few days.

"Come with me. Now." It almost sounded like a growl.

Robyn looked back at Ducky and Palmer, confused.

"Now!" Gibbs ordered, putting a strong hand on her back, leading her forward, out of Autopsy. He was leading her to a part of NCIS that she had never been before.

"What did I do?" she asked, actually getting scared now. She felt like she was being led to the electric chair.

Gibbs didn't say a word. He opened one of the doors which opened to a small, grey room with a metal table in the middle with two chairs sitting on either side. Those were the only bit of furniture in the room. A camera was attached to the wall in one of the top corners of the room. Gibbs pulled out a chair for her which was facing a huge mirror.

"You're…interrogating me?" She asked, as she sat down and looked up at him, more confused than ever.

He still said nothing. He sat down in the chair opposite her and stared her down with his own piercing eyes.

A few seconds passed, then a few more. A whole minute must have gone by before Robyn finally snapped.

"What?" she shouted. "Whatever you think I did, I didn't!"

"So, you didn't skip school on Friday?" Gibbs asked coolly despite his heated face.

"Oh…yeah…that I did." She answered honestly.

"You said you left for school at 7."

"Well, yeah. I did. I just didn't exactly make it. What does this have to do with anything?"

"Where were you?" Gibbs asked, ignoring her own question.

"I don't know…around."

"That's not good enough!" Gibbs roared.

Robyn looked at him, unsure of what to say.

"Where were you at 10:30 Friday morning?" Gibbs asked, still shouting.

Now it was Robyn's turn to get angry. They both got to their feet, glaring each other down, both of their hands rested flat on the table.

"You're asking me if I killed her!" Robyn shouted right back.

"Did you?"

"Of course not! You know that! I don't know what the hell you're trying to pull!"

"Then where were you?"

Robyn realized she didn't have a choice. "I…I was at the retirement home!"

Now Gibbs was the one to look confused. "Why?"

She sighed heavily, frustrated. "Because." She hissed. "Before I was sent to the orphanage, I had a home. The guy who took care of me was David Porter. He got Alzheimer's when he was 64 and was lucid for long enough to know that he couldn't take care of me, so he sent me to the orphanage when I was 5 and checked himself in to the retirement home." She explained, the anger building up. "Satisfied?"

His eyes narrowed. "How did he get you?" Gibbs asked curiously.

"Not sure. He just said he found me, but I was 4 when he told me that, so I'm not sure how true that can be."

Gibbs glared at her for a moment longer, believing her immediately. Something seemed to click in his head and his gaze softened dramatically. It wasn't even related to this subject but he knew he had to do this now although he believed he would rather cut off his own hand.

"Why are Richard's fingerprints in your room?" Gibbs asked, his voice calm as he slowly sat down again. He saw the flicker of terror cross her face as she sat down after him. She buried it just as quickly as it had come.

"I don't know. I guess Sara would make him clean it sometimes when I wasn't home." She said simply.

Gibbs shook his head. "No. Sara knew that you two hated each other so she wouldn't trust him enough to go in there."

"Maybe he was the one that killed her." She suggested.

"They were nowhere around the body." Gibbs noticed her start to panic.

"Well, I couldn't tell you. Your guess is as good as mine." She feigned calm as she spoke, disguising her trembling fingers by twirling the old compass around and around in her hands. She had taken it out of her pocket only a few moments ago.

"Is it?" He knew. He just didn't know why he didn't see it before.

"Yeah. I mean, he was always accusing me of stealing his stuff. Maybe he was in there looking for his watch or something."

"Robyn…"

"What, Gibbs?" She snapped, her temper slowly rising to her defense. "You asked me what you needed to know, and I understand that. I shouldn't have lied to you, but now you are digging in to business that isn't yours."

"You don't have to go back there if you would just work with me." He said calmly.

"Work with you on what? Nothing is happening! I'm fine!" She lied forcefully. "Besides, all you're supposed to do is catch a killer, not badger me about my home life. You're busy making something out of nothing! All you found were fingerprints which could be there for any reason whatsoever. You're just jumping to conclusions!"

"So, to prove me wrong, you would be willing to take a few tests?" Gibbs asked, never breaking eye contact.

There was a long pause. The look of betrayal carved on Robyn's face hit him hard.

"I don't have to prove anything to you." She said in almost a whisper.

"But you wish you could."

She got to her feet, glaring at him. "I'm done here. I'm done with your accusations, I'm done with your questions, and I'm done with you." The fear of Gibbs finding out the truth hid beneath these harsh words.

Gibbs didn't react. He just watched her make her way to the door which he had intentionally left slightly ajar so it wouldn't lock. She walked out without another word which Gibbs was grateful for.

. . .

Robyn left NCIS after that. She ended up back at Gibbs' house, locking herself in 'her room' where she refused to leave. She didn't want to run the risk of bumping in to him, afraid that he would start asking her more questions.

A few hours went by before there was a knock on her door. She didn't respond.

"You hungry?" Gibbs asked, just wanting some sort of communication with her.

"No." She responded coldly. Her voice was muffled through the door.

"Are you at least going to come out?"

"No."

He sighed. "Alright, suit yourself."

"I will!" She shouted childishly. Gibbs just walked away from the door.

This went on for another day before Gibbs was finally fed up. He went down to the basement and stacked a bunch of his tools and old pieces of scrap wood up that would be sure to make a lot of noise. It took a few minutes, but when he was finally satisfied, he kicked the pile over, sending everything crashing to the ground, making a hellish noise. It didn't take long before he heard the quick footsteps a floor above him. The basement door flung open, followed by a frantic shout.

"Gibbs? Are you okay?" She descended the stairs, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw him standing behind the boat.

"Nice to see you again." Gibbs said with a crooked smile. He knew that she still cared.

She looked confused as she continued to the bottom of the stairs, her feet making the transition onto the basement floor.

"You did that on purpose?" She asked, angry more at herself right now than at him.

"Yep."

She just sat down on a stool and waited.

"Is the reason you don't want to talk to me because you knew I was right?" Gibbs asked, continuing to work on the boat. He was rewarded with more silence.

"That's what I thought." He said with a sigh. "How often does it happen?"

"Gibbs… don't do this." She pleaded, finally making eye contact.

"You know this is important…"

"Important to who?"

"You." He answered. His voice was kind and careful.

"No it's not! I don't care!" She lied.

"Do you really want to go back? Cause that's what's going to happen after this case is over. We can help you."

"I don't want your help!"

"Well, you certainly can't help yourself." He countered.

"Just shut up! Okay? You don't understand!"

"Enlighten me." Gibbs said calmly.

"I was alone! When Sara took me in, it was one of the best days of my life. I couldn't let that one little setback ruin everything… Sara never knew, so I kept it that way, afraid that she was going to get rid of me if she found out. So, I accepted that that was the cost of having a family. I just wanted to be happy." She glared at the ground, trying so hard not to think at all.

"But you were miserable."

"Of course I was miserable!" She shouted. "But what was I supposed to do? Throw away the good things I had just because of him? Then he would have won. And I'm sure tired of losing."

Gibbs watched her for a moment. "To you, losing is living in an orphanage? And winning is living with a man who-"

"Don't, Gibbs… Just don't."

There weren't many men who Gibbs truly hated on the same level as Richard Frost. The only two that really came to mind right now were Ari, Ziva's half brother, and Pedro Hernandez, Shannon and Kelly's killer. Both were now dead.

. . .

Things were back to normal, except the short break that Robyn had from school was now over. Gibbs dropped her off early in the morning before reporting to NCIS headquarters.

Everyone knew they were getting dangerously close to who the killer was. It felt like it was just staring them in the face. McGee was the first one to connect the dots.

"Of course!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "It was Richard Frost!"

"Explain yourself Elf Lord!" DiNozzo responded. McGee's sudden outburst had nearly given him a heart attack.

Ignoring Tony, McGee explained, "I can't believe we didn't think of this before. He hated Robyn. He did know that Sara was leaving. Robyn was the only one left in the dark. Think about it. She was supposed to be gone. He heard movement coming from Robyn's room and decided that it was the perfect time to kill her."

"He was afraid Robyn would tell now that Sara was leaving…" Gibbs said quietly.

"What, boss?" DiNozzo asked, confused.

"Nothing. Go on McGee."

He nodded and continued. "Since Robyn skips school on what seems to be a regular basis, he truly believed it was her. I bet all the money I have that if you go through the knife drawer, you'll find one with a missing tip. He went in without touching anything. She turned, seeing him with a knife. He couldn't talk himself out of it, so he had no choice. He stabbed her four times and finished by leaving her with a kiss. Remember how he was screaming at Robyn, saying it was her fault Sara was dead? Well, he believes it was her fault because she wasn't there." The explanation faded as it reached the end, becoming dark and filled with uncharacteristic loathing.

"No one breathes a word of this to Robyn." Gibbs ordered. "Not until we have him. DiNozzo, Ziva, go pick him up."

They wasted no time. They grabbed their gear and were off.

Gibbs checked his watch, cursing under his breath. "McGee, can you pick up Robyn from school? It let out half an hour ago."

"On it." McGee said, jumping to his feet and accompanied Tony and Ziva to the elevator.

What no one realized was that Robyn had just gotten to the headquarters from school. She overheard the conversation from a few cubicles away. She ducked behind one of them as the three agents passed. After a few minutes, she left the building behind them, but once outside, went in a completely different direction.

She knew that he wouldn't have stayed at that house. But she did know exactly where he would go.