Sitting on the cold metal table in autopsy, Kristin put all her focus on not breaking down. Tim was sitting beside her, hold her arm which she had been shocked to discover was bleeding rather profusely despite her never realising she had cut it. Nonetheless it was shaking and Ducky could hardly stitch it up so Tim was holding it still, stroking the side of her arm with his thumb, gently telling her to relax. She didn't know Tim that well and to be honest, he had always made her nervous. But she didn't care about that now. She didn't know where Gibbs was but she was getting nervous. Apparently not as nervous as Tony who was pacing back and forth across the room. Finally, when Ducky had finished stitching her came over and crouched down so they were eye to eye and Kristin struggled to not look away.
"What were you thinking?" Tony asked, "what were you running from, I don't understand. None of us do and trust me, you are going to have to explain it to Gibbs."
Wordlessly dropping Tony's stare, Kristin pulled the newspaper article from her pocket and handed it to him.
Taking a minute to understand what was in front of him, Tony realised he was staring at the only picture he had ever seen of Shannon and Kelly, Gibbs' first wife and daughter.

"This is why you ran away?"
"I'm not going to be a burden on anyone else. This has gone too far already. He doesn't need me here!" Kristin replied, her voice just above a whisper.

If Ducky was confused he didn't show it, continuing to poke and prod his patient as Tony stormed out of the room, article in hand, presumably to find Gibbs.

Upstairs in the bullpen, Tony came to a crashing halt as he ran into an even more agitated Gibbs.

"DiNozzo," he barked, "I told you stay with her, what the hell are you doing?"
"McGee is with her. I wanted to show you this"
He watched as his boss silently read the article about the one event in his life he tried so hard not to think about.

"Where did she get this? What the hell does this have to do with anything?"
"I don't know where she got it but it has her really upset. She thinks…..she thinks she's in the way. That she is making this worse for you."

Gibbs clapped Tony's shoulder as he stormed past to the elevator, wondering how on earth he was going to fix this mess.

Kristin's eyes widened and she subconsciously shrank into Tim as Gibbs entered the room. As he stormed over to Ducky, Kristin mistook this as aggression towards her and tried to move away, unsuccessfully with Tim still holding her bandaged arm.

"Is she ok Duck? What happened to her arm?" He asked.

"She must have scrapped it on something, I put in a few stitches but it'll be fine. Her blood sugar is a little low so maybe some food before the third degree."

"I don't need…." Kristin started only to be interrupted by Gibbs,

"You can talk, when I ask you to talk" Gibbs said firmly, not missing the flash of anger her Kristin's eyes. Helping her off the table he kept a firm grasp on her shoulder, reminding her she was far from off the hook, no matter how she was feeling.

The car ride had been the longest of her life. Still convinced she had done nothing wrong, Kristin's anger had begun to grow. Yet she didn't even totally know what she was angry about. She knew she was angry about the case, about her father, about the way everyone treated her like she hadn't been caring for herself the past few years.
Coming around to her side of the car and (none too gently) helping her out, Kristin realised Gibbs was probably at least as pissed off as she was.

To her great surprise the yelling didn't start straight away. When her father was pissed off, he could barely wait til they got in the house before the yelling started. This was an odd and concentrated silence. Watching Gibbs go into the kitchen, she didn't know whether to follow, but when he returned with leftover pasta, salad and her blood sugar testing kit his glare told her to sit a the kitchen table and don't argue.
Sitting down, she decided to test the waters anyway,
"I'm really not hungry" she said,

"We have a lot to talk about and you have a lot of explaining to do. But none of that is happening until your blood sugar is up."
Kristin wanted to argue, but the fact was, she was hungry and thirsty and she knew he was right. This didn't bode well for her.

After a silent and tense dinner Kristin passed the blood sugar test and Gibbs started clearing the plates, but another famous stare kept her glued to her seat when she tried to help. Finally he sat back down and already, Kristin couldn't keep eye contact.
"Do you want to explain to me, what part of out conversation about skipping school you didn't understand last time? And then maybe you can explain where the hell you were going?"
When she didn't reply, Gibbs slammed down the article Tony had given him on the table, making Kristin flinch.

"And where did you get this?"

"I found it." She lied in a whisper.
"Don't lie to me," Gibbs' replied, his voice dangerously low. "Where did you get it?"
Swallowing hard, Kristin replied, "My father gave it to me. Indirectly. At the hearing."

"And this is why you were running?"
"Yes sir"
"So what you are saying, is that rather than come and talk to me. Or to Tony. Or Tim. Or anyone who would tell you the truth in a heartbeat, you believe some rubbish line your father spun you. The man who you just watched lie to an open court for an hour?"
"So you're saying he's wrong? You don't have a wife or a child who died?" Kristin challenged,

"Of course I do. Not even your father can create a lie this big."
"Then he's right. I am in the way. Why would you want someone here reminding you of your daughter? Someone who causes you nothing but trouble?" Kristin said, almost yelling.

"Have you ever met someone who could get me to do something I didn't want to do?" Gibbs asked, "and furthermore, have a look at the date on that article. This happened such a long time ago. You're father was messing with you and it worked. Trust me, if I didn't want you here, you wouldn't be here."

Feeling quite stupid and somehow touched all at the same time, Kristin returned her gaze to the table.
"Ok, so I know why you were running. Where were you going?" Gibbs asked and when he saw Kristin's face turn red, he tried again.

"I expect an answer. Where were you going?"

"I can't tell you."

"Don't do this again. We both know you will tell me so save yourself the anguish and the time."
"I was going to see my brother but I can't tell you where.'
Gibbs paused. This was unexpected.

"You have a brother?"
"He's 27, so he's not on the child services radar, but yes, I have a brother."
"And his name is…."
"I can't tell you that either."

Levelling her with his best glare, the one that made Tony squirm, Kristin held strong.
"Why not?"
"Because what he does…..its not exactly legal…mostly anyway. He's the only person I have and I'm not ratting on him."
"You know I could find him if I wanted to?" Gibbs challenged.

With renewed anger Kristin replied,

"That doesn't mean I'm giving you a head start."

Gibbs could hardly believe the girl that was in front of him. Where was the girl who barely spoke and when she did, could hardly raise her voice above a whisper? He had to bring her in before he lost her for good.

"So here is what we agree on. You skipped school. Again. Something we have covered before correct?"
Dropping her head in shame she replied, "Yes sir" in her usual whisper.

"You put yourself in danger by running away. Again. Something, by the way, your father probably expected you to do."

He watched the realisation hit Kristin, before he continued,

"All of this because of something you could have come to me about. I would have talked to you about. We could have avoided all of this."

Realising she had nothing more to say, his voice turned hard again.
"You are grounded for the next 2 weeks. You will come to NCIS every day after school and do school work or chores I find for you to do. Then every night for the next 2 weeks, you will stand in the corner for 15 minutes and think about all of the ways you could have avoided the way today turned out."
Sunk so low she was in danger of sliding of her chair, Kristin mumbled a barely coherent "yes sir."

Walking over to couch and pointing to a spot in front of him Gibbs said,
"Right then, lets get this over with. Come here."

Kristin stood up so fast her chair turned over and backed away.

"What are you doing?"
"You know exactly what I'm doing. We had this discussion the last time this happened, you had to know it would happen again?"
"But this was…was a misunderstanding… please"
Gibbs didn't know why she was suddenly so scared, but he was determined to stay strong.
"Don't make me come and get your Kristin."

But Kristin kept backing away, not really planning on running away but just scared enough to keep away. She hadn't thought it would come to this again. She thought he'd throw her out, not care enough to spank her again. All she knew that if she pissed her dad off about the same thing twice. Well….she didn't like to think about it.

Reaching her in a few steps Gibbs took her by the arm and led her upstairs, depositing her in a corner. Then, in a dangerously low tone he said,

"Stay and have a good think about today's event and tell me you don't deserve a spanking."

Her forehead resting against the wall, Kristin knew he was right, but the emotions of the day had gotten the best of her and at the end of the day she was still scared of this man. Scared that she was wrong about him. She wished he had just let her go.

Finally after 10 minutes Gibbs called Kristin out of the corner and she walked over to him with her head down.

"Im sorry, I just…it's too hard yet….if I ever did the same thing twice to my father…." Her voice trailed off.

"Hey," he said, raising her chin so they were looking at each other. "I'm not your father."

"I know."
"Ok then. Let's get this over with. Pants down."
Kristin looked up in horror. But his face was firm.

"You can do it or I can but they are coming down. This is the second time we've had this discussion."
"I…I can't"

Guiding her over his lap, Gibbs pulled down her pants and held her in place and she continued to struggle slightly,

"You can do this. You can trust me. I need you to trust me if I am going to keep you safe."
A tear ran down Kristin's face and she held still, Gibbs took this as his one and only sign she was ready and brought his hand down with a SMACK.

As he continued for the next 5 minutes, Kristin stoicism began to fade before she was sobbing, limp over his lap. Despite everything that had happened, she knew she could trust him and as she felt his hand rubbing her back she realised what is was like to have someone who cared about her.

The next morning, Kristin still felt terrible about the events that had transpired the night before but she knew she had one more person to make amends with.

Sitting on the fence in the back carpark of the school, she waited for her teacher's car to arrive. When she saw Andrew's car appear she slowly stood up, but was too embarrassed to head over to him. Not one to hold a grudge, he made the first move.
"You came back."

Nodding she replied, "I never really got that far."

As he pulled her into a hug he whispered, "I'm glad you're ok"
Taking a deep breath she looked up at him, her face full of shame and said,

"I can't believe I talked to you like that. I have never had anyone who has cared about me before I moved here and suddenly I have a guardian, his work colleagues, friends and a teacher who are all looking out for me. And not because they have to. But because they want to. I just didn't know how to deal with it and so I took it out on you. And I am so sorry."

Putting an arm around her shoulders Andrew replied, "You have to let your feelings out once in a while. Tell people when they are royally pissing you off. Otherwise it all boils up and you lose it."
Understanding completely, Kristin sighed and met his eyes, "I fully accept whatever punishment the school has for me. I don't want you to get me out of any of it."

Laughing and steering her towards the school he replied "why would you think I would get you out it? I'd say you're in for about a weeks worth of detention and there is no way in hell I am answering to Gibbs for letting you off it!"
"Fair call," Kristin laughed, "I'm not a fan of answering to him either!"