IM SO SORRY THIS UPDATE TOOK SO LONG! L my laptop died on me while on holiday and it took this long to get everything fixed again. I am very, very, very sorry. Please forgive me! I'm also sorry because this is kinda a filler chapter (and in places a little fluffy, not like me at all) Please review, after my week I need it! (Updates may slow down, but not this much coz now I'm back at school!)

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Chapter Nineteen #Milkshake Date#

"If I were you, I would get out of here right now." Ari said coldly. "And if any of you come near my sister or her friends ever again, I will make it my personal mission to kill you."

If Warrick had said it would be a 'mission' to kill, he would have been laughed at, but the icy seriousness in the Israeli's voice had the gang racing away as fast as they could.

Ari looked at Tali with a pained expression. "Are you alright, Tali?"

She nodded shakily and Warrick hesitantly stood up. Ari holstered his gun and looked down at Morgan. "Are you okay?"

She stepped backwards a couple of times. "Wh...who..."

Tali hugged Morgan tightly. "This is Ari, my brother. We're safe now."

Morgan sobbed and broke away from Tali, before throwing up violently in the side of the alley. "Oh my god!" she cried.

Warrick put a hand on her shoulder, guilt and pain shining in his eyes. "Morgan, I'm so sorry."

"Why?" she sniffed, still trembling.

"I should've done something." Warrick shook his head.

"Like what?" Morgan's lip trembled and she burst into tears, falling into Warrick's arms. He hugged her tightly.

"I don't know..."

"You're safe now." Ari said softly. "Let's get you all home."

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Tali bit her lip. "What if they do it to someone else?"

Ari sighed. "I suppose."

"How did you find us?" Morgan whispered.

"Before I left home I hardwired 912 into Tali's phone as an emergency line. If she was in trouble, a GPS in her phone sent the coordinates straight to my phone. You call it paranoid; I say it's the result of growing up in a war zone." Ari explained, still fuming.

Warrick called the police on his cell and within minutes they were giving statements about what happened.

Morgan was still trembling when the policewoman talking to her finished. "Miss Brody? Morgan?"

She snapped her head up. "What?"

"I think you might be going into shock, we should take you to hospital-"

"No!" Morgan cried, shaking her head. "I'm fine; I just want to go home. Please..."

The policewoman sighed. "Well, let the paramedics check first. You're mom's on the way."

Morgan reluctantly let the paramedics check her over and then raced over to Tali, who hugged her immediately.

A car flew down the road and stopped just outside the police cars. Morgan's mom flew out of the car and ran towards her. A policeman stopped her, but she protested. "That's my daughter!"

The policeman let her pass and Morgan hugged her mother tightly. "Mom!"

"Oh, god, Morgan!" she gasped, stroking Morgan's hair. "Are you okay, are you hurt?"

Morgan shook her head into her mom's shoulder. "I'm okay now, I'm okay now."

"Oh god, if I'd come back earlier and driven you home!"

"Mom, it's not your fault!" Morgan sniffed.

Warrick's grandma was next to arrive, squeezing Warrick tightly before talking to the police herself. Only minutes after that Orah David arrived with Ziva.

"Tali!" Ziva cried. She raced over and held her little sister tightly. Then she did a double take as she recognised her half-brother. "Ari?"

"He was the first person I thought to call." Tali said softly.

Orah embraced her youngest daughter and stared at her step-son.

"Are you alright, Ari?"

He smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes, thank you. I am fine."

"And you didn't kill anyone?" Ziva asked.

"I must admit, I was tempted. Very tempted." He said darkly, looking at Tali protectively. "But this is America. And I didn't want Tali to see any more death."

Tali stared at the floor. "Thank you, Ari."

"Where are you staying? Why don't you call?" Ziva demanded of her brother, stroking Tali's hair softly.

"I am staying downtown. Don't worry about me, I am fine. I have two jobs; I don't get much time to call. Are you all alright?"

The family nodded and started to head home, but Morgan's mom stopped them. "Wait!"

The family turned.

"Thank you, for...well. I guess you know." She nodded tearfully.

"It is no problem." Ari smiled.

"Thank you." Morgan nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow, Tali?"

"Of course." Tali smiled.

"You know, I think you and your friends are cursed, Tali." Ziva shook her head. "Especially Greg."

"I'm still irritated about earlier, Zee." Tali frowned, "I told you he didn't do anything, you should have believed me."

Ziva sighed. "I am sorry, Tali."

"I know, you said." Tali sighed. "just please believe me next time?"

"There will not be a next time." Ziva smiled.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"They what?" Greg cried as Morgan, Tali and Warrick relayed the night's events. Morgan looked at him sorrowfully, and his face was a mask of devastation. "They didn't, he didn't..."

Tali shook her head. "The number I called was an SOS signal to Ari, my brother. She kicked James away and ran to the end of the alley, and by the time she got there Ari arrived. Thank god."

"He got close." Morgan whispered, and the room was silent. Greg stood up, ignoring his crutch and limped the two steps to Morgan, wrapping her in a tight embrace.

Nick's face radiated anger. "If I see that son of a bitch again, I don't care if he's got two or twenty people around him..."

"Why does it always happen to us?" Sara sighed, looking at Morgan with concern.

"Well I was talking about it with my grandma last night, and like I said before she's a Christian. She thinks that we're incredibly unlucky but because God knows that we're strong friends and he know we can take it he saves us. She says that's why we survive these things." Warrick shrugged. "I think it's because we're not populars, we're in high school and we're in Vegas."

There was a soft knock on the door, and Tony DiNozzo stuck his head around the door. "Uh, Sara can I talk to you for a second?"

She frowned. "Sure..." she shrugged at Tali and followed him out of the door.

"I was just wondering if you were doing anything on Halloween."

"Oh, um yeah. I'm going to Greg's." Sara said uncomfortably.

"Oh, right. Okay...Well it's just that I'm going to this party and I have no idea what to do for a costume and I was wondering if you wanted to help me this Saturday?"

"Wouldn't it be better to ask someone arty?" she asked with a slight small.

"Yeah. I guess it would." Tony sighed. "Okay, enough excuses. I just wanted to ask if you're okay. I mean, you had the flu, then the massive fight..."

"Yeah." Sara smiled. "I'm fine."

"Good." Tony nodded. "Good. I should go."

"Okay..." Sara frowned slightly. "See you around."

She went back into the classroom and Tony kicked himself, dragging himself back to Don.

"Did you ask her?" Don asked eagerly.

"No." Tony sighed.

"What? So I don't get to find out who she is?"

"Nope."

"What happened?" Don asked.

Tony sighed again. "I asked her about Halloween. She's busy. Then I asked her about finding a costume and she asked wouldn't an arty person be better to ask. Then I chickened out." He admitted.

"You what? Who the hell are you and what have you done with the real Tony DiNozzo?"

"Ha ha." Tony scowled.

"You must really like her." Don guessed.

"Yep." Tony said sadly.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"So what did he want?" Tali asked Sara as she came back into the classroom. Sara shrugged.

"He wanted to know if I was okay." Sara shook her head. "I don't know."

Tali shrugged. "Okay..."

Ryan sighed. "So what did you two do yesterday?"

"What, you mean while you were having pizza and Ben and Jerry's without us?" Sara raised her eyebrows, and smiled at Nick.

"Well, we went to Sara's house, I talked her out of trouble, we went for a walk, then we went to Carlos' Ranch and Sara saw horses for the first time in her life, then we had dinner at Sara's house." Nick summarised.

"Nick has his own horse." Sara announced.

"Are you kidding? How come we're only being told about this now?" Morgan gaped.

Nick sighed. "I grew up on a ranch, guys. When you live on a ranch, having a horse is no big deal."

"What's the horse called?" Greg asked.

"Muse. Number Three named him. I was born half an hour before the horse." Nick explained.

"Do you ride with or without a saddle?" Tali asked curiously.

"Without." Sara interrupted.

"Then Sara came on with me and totally freaked out."

"I did not!" Sara protested.

"So what was the whole – 'Nick, I'm gonna fall off!' and 'Nick look where we're going!' about then?" he raised his eyebrows at her.

"Whatever." Sara rolled her eyes. "You're a pain in the ass, Stokes, you know that?"

Nick smiled.

The school day passed rather quickly. At least it did until the detention.

"Right." Ecklie announced. "Sit down everyone. No talking. You can work on homework if you want to, but that's it."

Morgan, Ryan and Tali immediately brought out their art books. Sara started to bury herself in science. Greg continued to work on his history essay. Warrick and Archie both started to work on math. Nick raced through his Spanish work.

"Um, Morgan, will you come into my office for a minute?" Ecklie asked.

Morgan groaned and dragged herself up to the office. "What?"

"Your mom told me about what happened last night." He said in a soft, pained voice.

Morgan's eyes flew to the floor. "Oh."

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, dad. I'm fine." Morgan insisted, before turning and going back into the detention room. Ecklie closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Nick was bored. He had finished his Spanish homework in minutes, and was left with nothing else. Suddenly it hit him. He pulled out a plain exercise book that he was going to use for psychology and started to write.

When Ecklie came out of the office forty minutes later to let everyone out, Nick stared at his handiwork with a small smile before dropping it into his bag.

"Aw, damn." Greg moaned.

"What?" Nick frowned.

"We missed our smoothie day." Greg pouted.

"Well I would come today but I gotta go." Nick winked at Sara who grinned.

"Oh my god, you two are going out!" Greg cried.

"No!" They both protested. Sara rolled her eyes. "Nick's teaching me how to ride. Thursdays."

"That's what they all say." Greg grinned.

"Whatever!" Sara grinned. "Bye guys!"

Nick and Sara took off.

"They're not going out." Tali shook her head.

"How'd you know?" Greg asked hotly.

"Because I do. Trust me. Sara likes someone else."

"Nick does too." Morgan said softly.

"Anyone want to do milkshakes?"

One by one everyone refused, and Greg looked crestfallen.

Morgan wrapped her arms around him. "If you wanna make it a date..."

Greg's eyes lit up. "Really?"

She smiled, and he grinned. "Bye guys!"

Greg and Morgan left in the opposite way to Sara and Nick.

Archie's parents rolled up in the car and Archie sighed. "They're angry about the whole detention thing. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Archie."

Ryan's mom sped round the corner next and he left, and Ziva brought her car around to pick up Tali.

"Wanna lift, 'Rick?" Tali asked.

"If it's okay." Warrick slid into the car.

Sara and Nick waved at Warrick and Tali as they drove past. "Thanks for this, Nick."

"It's not a problem." He smiled. "This is our bus. I love riding, and I wanna be able to share it with my friends."

"God, it makes me sick thinking about what happened to Morgan and the others yesterday." Sara shuddered lightly.

"Tell me about it." Nick's face darkened. "The bastards."

Sara's excitement grew as they reached the ranch.

"Oh my god, I can't believe this is actually happening." She grinned.

"Muse!" Nick called as they entered the stables, and his horse neighed in response. Sara smiled as Nick threw his bag into the corner of Muse's stall and stroked his horse gently, looking into the large eyes for a long moment, before turning back to Sara who was watching with a strange expression. "What?"

She smiled. "That's beautiful."

Nick went bright red. "I like my horse, so what?"

"It's beautiful." She repeated. She sighed and thought about what she wanted to say. You love your horse more than my family loves me.

"Let's get you riding, then." Nick shook his head at her. "Dump your bag with mine."

"Is there poo?"

"How dare she offend you, Muse!" Nick rubbed Muse's neck. "I don't think she trusts either of us. We'll have to fix that, won't we?"

Muse whickered loudly and nodded his head. Sara's mouth popped open as she moved slowly closer, dumping her bag next to Nick's. "It's like he understands what you're saying..."

"Of course he does!" Nick smiled; resting his head on Muse's for a minute. "Right, let's go!"

As soon as they went into the back paddock, Sara felt nervous. "No saddle or bridle?"

"Nope. Trust me, Sara. Saddles are just annoying. The Stokes family rule is bridle and saddle and all that jazz when you leave the property, at least on a Stokes' horse." Nick nodded, and Muse nudged him. "Okay, okay. We gotta teach Sara how to ride, okay?"

Muse tossed his head into the air.

"Is that a no?" Sara asked nervously.

"No, it's a yes." Nick said firmly, bringing Muse over to the fence. Sara climbed up again. "Right, grab a hold of his mane and jump on."

"Won't I hurt him?" Sara asked in concern.

"You listening to this, Muse? Sara, I've known him all my life, and all his life. You won't hurt him if you do what I say, okay?"Nick smiled encouragingly.

Sara nodded and clambered awkwardly on. Nick helped her adjust her sitting position and Muse took a few steps.

"Whoa, Muse, hold on a second. Right, you wanna hold his mane, not too tight, not too loose." Nick went into full teacher mode. "Right, you could say that Muse and I were trained at the same time, I guess. He responds to certain verbal commands, and if you ever need to stop, you say 'stop' or 'whoa' okay?"

Sara nodded and Nick ran through the commands, testing her as he went. "Okay, now we're gonna walk...that's it..." Nick led them around the paddock. "Sara, relax. Relax...okay. Right, think of it this way. When you're bareback, you're connecting more with the horse. Trust him; he knows what he's doing. Trust him and relax. Straighten your posture but enjoy it. Don't look like a wooden doll or one of those sissy show jumpers." He grinned teasingly and she slowly relaxed. As she did, Nick told her what to say and Muse slowly grew faster as the minutes flew by.

"Okay, come with me." He led Muse and Sara out of the paddock and around to look at one of the professional horse riding lessons. "These people have been riding for months. They have no relationship with the horses. It's not about that for them, it's an activity. The horses may as well just be bikes. I think that riding's about having fun and letting the horses have fun as well. And you're getting it! It should feel natural, not difficult. You wanna take a break?"

"Not really." Sara admitted.

Nick laughed. "Well, you won't be able to walk home if you stay on much longer."

Sara frowned. "Good point."

Nick helped her down and they led Muse back into the stable.

"Ow..." she whimpered, touching her legs gently.

Nick laughed. "It gets easier, I swear. Right, when you get a little better we can go out riding, ride up to Lake Mead – it's not too far from here, but when that happens, we'll need another horse. Ethan and MJ rent their horses to Carlos for lessons so we won't be able to rely on them, so I'll ask Carlos who's free on Thursday nights then, okay?"

Sara nodded. "Sure. You're a good teacher."

"Well, thanks." He bowed dramatically, leading Muse into his stall.

Sara glanced at the horse next to him, a smaller, light chestnut coloured mare.

"That's Ant. MJ's horse."

"Ant?" Sara frowned.

"Remember that song Greg was playing, the one he said was Kat's favourite?"

"La la la la la la la, la la la la la and I need you now..." Sara sang.

"Yup. Well, that when MJ bought Ant, Lady Antebellum was her favourite artist, so Lady Antebellum was the name of the horse. Rosa said it was mean to the horse to have such a long name, so Ant it was." Nick explained.

"Do you always name your horses after music artists?" Sara asked as they put Muse away.

"I guess it's a family tradition." Nick shrugged. "Come here." He led her over to the stall opposite Ant's and showed her a huge pitch black horse. "We were all raised on country music, but we all like other types as well. This is Ethan's. Dead by April."

"Dead by April?" Sara raised her eyebrows.

"Yep. We all call him DA." At the sound of Nick's voice the horse trotted over, nudging Nick happily. "He was the biggest softie on the ranch."

Sara laughed. "Doesn't look it."

"I know..." Nick laughed. "Bobby – Number Two - is living on the ranch at the moment with his family, most of them have horses there."

"How many horses are there?"

"Well, we each had one but Katie had two so that's eight, plus mom's, dad's and Rosa's that's eleven, then there are eleven nieces and nephews, not counting Bump-"

"Um, Bump?"

"Lily's pregnant, Bump is what we call the baby. So eleven plus eleven is twenty two, then we had five for breeding and stuff like that so that's twenty seven plus about five people keep horses so about...thirty five or so? It's a pretty big ranch." Nick finished modestly.

"Wow." Sara breathed. "That's amazing."

"I know." Nick grinned. "We are very lucky."

"I'll say." Sara shook her head. "What are your favourite horses' names?"

"Good question...They're all really different. There's Coldplay, that's Bobby's...Joanne has Snow Patrol... Halley, my oldest 'niece' was tempted to call her new horse JLS, but her mom wouldn't let her so she called him Derulo."

"Derulo?" Sara laughed.

"Yep. After Jason Derulo."

Sara rolled her eyes. "I'm not completely socially backwards Nick, I have heard of Jason Derulo."

"Yeah, yeah. We should get going." Nick grinned.

"Okay..." Sara said, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from the horses.

"We can come back next week..." Nick smiled.

Sara smiled back. "Thanks Nick."

"No problem. Bye Muse!"

The horse whinnied sadly.

CSIVCSIVCSIV

"Oh, hey guys. I missed you all yesterday. What happened?" Alice, the bubbly waitress at Wendy's Smoothie Partner, asked as Greg and Morgan came through the door.

"There was a massive fight at school. I was in hospital. Again." Greg explained. "It's just the two of us today."

Alice smiled. "Okay..."

"Yes, like a date." Morgan blushed slightly as she answered the unasked question.

"Oh, okay then. Follow me." Alice winked, leading them past the table they usually sat at. "Here." She pointed to a table for two by the window.

"Thanks, Alice." Greg grinned.

"Just tell me what you want, I'll kick it up to the top of the list. You're both regular patrons." She winked as they ordered.

"Thanks, Alice!" Greg called.

"You know, I never thought I would date a friend." Morgan looked at Greg. "I was always too scared that I'd wreck something."

"You won't." Greg promised. He paused. "I dated a friend once."

"Really? What happened?"

"I ever told you about Mandy?"

"Only a million times when you talk about San Gabriel and the others there. Was it her?"

"Yep. Didn't work out, we realised we were better off as friends. I know it sounds ridiculously corny, but I honestly have never felt this way about anyone before."

Morgan smiled and stared at the table. "I have to admit the same thing."

"That you dated Mandy Webster?" Greg put on a look of mock surprise and Morgan rolled her eyes.

"If you're gonna be silly I won't say it." She sighed.

"I love it when you do that."

"Do what?" she frowned.

"Make me feel guilty when I have no idea what I've done."

Morgan laughed as Alice brought them their drinks.

Greg grinned at her, before turning serious again. "You know...when I asked Ellen out..."

Morgan turned away slightly.

"No, listen! Please hear me out!" Greg begged, reaching across the table to hold her hand. "When we walked past here, and I saw you with Nick...at first I thought that the two of you were, well you know. Then I couldn't figure out why I felt so jealous. I mean I could, but I had a massive argument with myself. It felt... I just couldn't take it. Then when Messer chased them away, and in the hospital...the only thing I could think of was if it felt the same way to you. And if it did how sorry I was..."

Morgan smiled slightly. "You know what? It doesn't matter, okay? It doesn't matter because now... Well, just look."

Greg smiled at her. "I don't think I deserve a girlfriend as good as you."

She smiled back. "Of course you do. I'd say you deserve better."

"Well, it's a little hard to date an angel that hasn't fallen."

Morgan laughed again, stirring her fruit smoothie with her straw, gazing over the top of the tall glass at Greg.

Her phone buzzed, breaking the moment, and she stared at the caller ID. "Sorry Greg, gimme a sec."

"Sure..." Greg shrugged.

"Mom? Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yes, everything's fine, sweetie, I was just making sure you're okay."

Morgan sighed. She had suspected that something like this would happen for a while, and in a way she was a little grateful. "I'm fine, thanks for calling. I'm with Greg. I'll call you when I'm gonna come home."

"Not too late, okay honey? I love you."

"Love you too. B-bye." She hung up. "Sorry...I guess we were all a little shaken up about last night."

Greg's face saddened instantly, and he took one of Morgan's hands in his own. .

"What?"

"I just...I can't imagine someone...hurting you like that, I..." Greg shook his head dejectedly. "It makes me sick, I..." he shuddered and took a deep breath. "Morgan, when I think about how close he got to...to raping you, I wanna kill somebody. And I don't want you to ever have to go through anything like it again. If anything happened to you, anything...I couldn't take it."

Morgan smiled slightly. "Ever seen the film Ghost?"

"Um, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" Greg asked sadly.

Morgan hopped off her stool and slid around the table. She kissed Greg passionately for a long moment. As she broke away she stared into the brown eyes she loved so much.

"Ditto."

What do you think? Worth the wait?