Thanks to a lifetime of being bullied and victimized for her intelligence and anything else that could be picked to pieces by people who had nothing better to do, Tim had come to the decision that there was no such thing as boys against girls. Men against women. 'Them' against 'us.

There was just the popular kids against everybody else.

But that never stopped her from hoping.

When Tim had first met Kate she had allowed herself to hope. She had allowed herself to think that it was all part of some hazing when Tony ordered her to stay at the stripped crime scene. Kate had not stuck up for her or approached her to tell her that Tony was joking about. No. Tim had watched them glance towards her and smile between themselves.

She knew that her presence was not required all night – or at all – and that that was something they assumed she did not know.

Just hazing, she told herself. Just hazing.

Just a bad day.

Tim repeated inwardly when she had been fitting cables beneath Kate's desk and the agent had rolled her chair into her shoulder. Kate had been furious at her being there and Tim had stuttered and stammered her way through an explanation while rubbing at her throbbing shoulder and trying not to cry. She wanted to be an agent who worked in this building, who went out in the field. She could take being yelled at a little. She was just doing her job and trying to help by setting things up it was true but she had given Kate a fright by being under her desk like that.

After all, Kate was just having a bad day.

Just working her annoyance out of her system. That was all Kate was doing. She hadn't meant it maliciously. She just hadn't thought things through.

That's what Tim told herself when Kate made her climb out of the first story window, both of her shoulders and arms aching from having the smaller woman use her as ladder to gain entrance into the house.

If she wanted to be a field agent she could handle climbing out a window. She knew that Kate was still angry about the earlier incident and even as she rolled of the roof and landed painfully in the ground she found herself thinking that Kate wouldn't have made her do it if she knew just how clumsy Tim could be.

She would be hurting all over in the morning. Already she could feel the bruises blooming and the muscles in her legs and arms stiffening more and more. But it was fine. It was nothing that some painkillers and a hot bath wouldn't solve.

Kate had only been angry. She hadn't thought it through. That was all.

Honest.

That was all Kate was being when a 'mother' for DiNozzo's fictitious child was needed for them to get access to some files. Tim had hoped that she would finally have the chance to show them what she could do. But the chance had not come.

When Kate looked her up and down from the top of her head to her thick soled shoes and raised a brow it had hurt. But, standing in the ladies toilet, washing her hands, she studied her reflection in the mirror above the sinks.

A chubby face – a double chin that was shrinking though – a blouse that was a little tight across her back and arms – showing the rolls of fat - she quickly shrugged on her baggy jacket. She didn't even want to think about her legs.

She had understood the raised brow.

'Really?' it had said, 'Tony would not go for you. Even a pretend Tony,"

She glanced back in the mirror.

And Kate was right.

She was just being honest.

Tim's patience and acceptance finally broke the day they broke into her apartment under the pretext of fetching her for work.

Both of them smug and self-assured as they saunter about her tiny living room, picking up her knickknacks and studying her shelves. She had been too shocked by their sudden appearance and the thought that Gibbs might be mad at her tardiness to give the situation much attention until later.

And when she did she was furious!

There was no excuse. None! She had a perfectly working bell. How dare they!

Had they done this before and she hadn't known?

Her little sister had been in the apartment with her and Tim did not like the idea of anyone – even people she worked with – just letting themselves into her home via her lock-picked door.

The first thing she did upon getting back to her apartment was clean. Everywhere.

Books came of shelves, the TV and the computer were unplugged to be cleaned behind. The vents in her walls and floors were vacuumed and her bathroom was bleached within an inch of its life. Her bed was stripped and the sheets changed.

Despite it all Tim's skin still itched and she felt uneasy.

Her home, her space, had been violated. She wanted to strip the wall paper from the walls, paint everywhere, and tear up the flooring… Anything to erase the presence of two people who had not been invited into her home.

Tim slumped against the wall, rubber gloves still on her hands and smelling of disinfectant.

If they did that again while she was in the apartment she would shoot them as intruders. Just see if she wouldn't. And she wouldn't miss.

A tear slowly gathered at the corner of her eye, growing fatter until the weight dragged it down her cheek.

She wiped it away quickly but she couldn't stop the others from falling.

She looked up at her door. The lock would be the first this to be changed in the morning and she would make sure it was harder to pick.

No, there was no such thing as 'them' against 'us'. There was just her against them. And she would win.

Yeah…I'm not really a big fan of Kate. There was a few episodes where I found her OK but most of the time she just really got up my nose…

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you for all the awesome reviews! I also understand if this is not up everyone's street but thank you for giving it a try anyway :)

Take care. :)

x