A/N: Oi. And now for some… sensitive stuff. I apologize in advance for this…

General Warning Label: teen!NCIS, heterosexual sex (Abby/Gibbs), slash (Tony/Tim), masturbation (Tony), erotic dreams/fantasies (Everybody), violence (Gibbs), teacher/student (Kate/Jimmy, respectively), child abuse (Ziva), homelessness (Jenny), suicide (Ducky), & death by abortion (Abby). Told you this wasn't for the faint of heart...

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Chapter Five: The Dark I Know Well

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"Ducky…" Ducky winced when he saw that both of his parents had been waiting for him to get home. Mrs. Mallard had a piece of paper in her hands, and Mr. Mallard had a pensive look on his face.

"What is it, Mother, Father?" Ducky asked, looking at the floor and hiding the sex essay behind his back.

"We just want to say that your grades came out very well, almost all A's," Mrs. Mallard said, smiling warmly.

"…But Principal Vance just called… and because of your performance in your classes, you'll have to go to a summer class…" Mr. Mallard said seethingly, "What have you been doing at that school of yours? Passing notes to that bastard child Leroy?!"

Ducky faced this rage often, but learned to just listen quietly, and his mother would then take him up to his room, kiss his forehead, and tell him that everything would be all right.

"You are grounded, Donald Mallard, until this summer class is over! You hear me?! I will lock you in that room until you pass that fucking summer class, you hear! Do you hear that, you fucking son of a bitch?"

Mrs. Mallard winced, both at being called a 'bitch' (probably intentionally), and the painful sounding slap that Ducky received from his father.

He grabbed Ducky's collar and dragged him up the steps to his room. Ducky's quiet mother followed them delicately and only watched as Mr. Mallard threw him into the room and slammed the door. Ducky heard the lock on the outside click, and turned to his computer. He sat in front of it and began typing an email to his only adult friend at the moment: Mrs. Gibbs, Leroy's widowed mother.

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The doorbell had rang that morning as Mr. Sciuto was getting ready for that day's lesson in the living room. Abby and Ziva were just coming down as Abby's mother opened the door to Jenny.

"Come in, dear," Mrs. Sciuto said.

Jenny looked at her friends silently and smiled, "I guess I overdressed," she said, glancing at her friends' pajamas. They all laughed and went upstairs to make Jenny feel like one of the group.

After the lesson, the girls went out to the park they always hung out in. They hung out there because it was in between Abby's house and Jenny's little warehouse. They also liked it because it was on a hill overlooking the boy's school, and sometimes they could watch the boys sitting and, sometimes, eating together under the apple tree in front. Jenny and Ziva watched as Abby seemed to remember something when she stared down at the abandoned apple tree… then suddenly she turned to Ziva and asked:

"Why are you always over at my house, Ziva?"

Ziva almost whimpered at the question, remembering how, in Israel, her father… she couldn't tell them. But… they were her friends…

"My father… at night… when Ari isn't home, he… he insists we have sex… and if I don't comply, he hits me and does it anyway… Ari usually takes the fall for me when he's at home, but nowadays he's been working, and he's joining the military next month so… I don't know what I'm going to do…" she said slowly. As she told her story, Jenny and Abby's faces slowly grew horrified.

"Pull those sleeves up, little miss…" Jenny said, and Ziva complied. Her arms were bruised up to her shoulder. Jenny kneeled down and pulled up her pant legs. It was the same up to her thigh. Then Jenny lifted up the back of Ziva's shirt. Still just the same as her arms and legs. "Just like me… we have to call the police, Ziva…"

"NO! I don't want to end up like you, Jenny… on the streets, so sad and alone…" Ziva replied, beginning to cry. Jenny to took her up in her arms and began stroking her back. There was a long silence as Ziva let out all her pent up fear and sadness.

"I turn eighteen at the end of the month. For my birthday present, I'm going to adopt you from that home…" she pushed Ziva away, but held her at arm's length to look into her dark, sad eyes, "Can you be strong for me until then?"

Ziva sniffed and nodded. Abby was still appalled, "Ziva… really, if I'd known…"

"But you didn't. But you've been a good friend, putting up with me and my… fear of my father."

Abby looked over at the boys' school and saw that the boys were just getting out. The three girls sat in still silence for a minute as the schoolhouse emptied. Tim and Tony never came out, of course, since choir practice would begin in about twenty minutes, and Leroy and Ducky were the last ones to leave. They talked for a minute as they walked over to the apple tree. The two friends then hugged each other tightly before Ducky headed home. Ducky looked sadder than usual about leaving Leroy, but Leroy seemed to shrugged it off, sat down, and began writing in a small, leather-bound journal.

"Abby? We're going to visit Ari at his restaurant. I want to discuss their… living arrangements further and see if he's okay with my Birthday Plan," Jenny said. It sounded like she was nicknaming her adoption of Ziva.

So Mission Impossible, Abby thought. She looked longingly down at the apple tree before replying: "All right… I'll see you back at home, Ziva…" Abby said. They parted ways, and Abby made her way down to the apple tree to talk with Leroy.

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Ducky isn't allowed out of the house because of the insensitivities of the school system! Even this little private boys' school is suffering because teachers aren't taught compassion for students… if only these teachers were more like Ms. Todd… she understands when Jimmy isn't feeling quite up to playing his scales… at least that's what he says…

"Leroy?"

The aforementioned boy snapped his journal shut and threw it in the grass when he was the look on Abby's face, "What wrong, Abs?" he asked, going up to her.

She flinched, as if she had been abused all her life, "I had a dream last night…" she finally said after a few moments of silence.

"About what?" Leroy asked. He looked… almost grossed out as he said it. Oh no. Girly sexual fantasies… he thought as he remembered the other day, when the boys had expressed their sexual desires to him.

"Well… I was serving coffee to my father in the morning, but a mouse scurried across the floor. It startled me, and I spilled the coffee onto Dad's lap. He flew into a rage and slapped me across the face, and proceeded to beat me with a broomstick…" Abby said, trying to imagine what it would be like.

"Well, what do you think that means? Does your father… actually abuse you?" Leroy asked.

"Ziva'sfatherabuseshereverynight!" Abby almost shrieked, before Leroy could finish his thought.

"I'm sorry, what?" Leroy asked, a worried look on his face.

Abby breathed in slowly, "She promised me not to tell the authorities… but you're not the authorities, so don't tell the authorities…" Abby babbled. Leroy nodded his head as he sorted out what could possibly be wrong with the girl in front of him.

"Ziva's father abuses her when Ari's not home. That's why she's always at my house. You can see all the bruises all over her body when she tries to defy her father…"

"Holy shit! Did you—"

"And Jenny is adopting her when she turns eighteen. Ziva and Jenny are in the same boat… or were… in Jenny's case."

"I know, but did you—"

"Please help me, Leroy!" Abby yelled, grasping his arms with her hands and nearly shaking him.

He paused and let the moment go on, even if Abby wasn't fully hugging him, "All right…" he said slowly, after a few tense moments had gone by.

"I want… I want to feel Jenny and Ziva's pain," she said, letting her hands down and searching the ground for something.

"What?" Leroy asked, his brain still fuzzy from when Abby had clutched him.

"Here," Abby said, picking up a stick, "Hit me with it."

"What? I don't do that kind of stuff!" Leroy shouted.

"Wimp," Abby said, her eyes fearful but determined.

"Fine," Leroy replied. He whacked her lightly.

"What was that? I could hardly feel it!" Abby said, this time closing her eyes.

Leroy sighed and whacked her again, harder.

"I still can't feel it," Abby replied through gritted teeth, for she really had felt it.

"Abby!" Leroy shouted, and suddenly hit her with the stick harder than he had been, "Don't make me hit you!" Rage consumed him and he began to beat her harder with the stick. She egged him on for a while, until she couldn't handle the pain and fell on the grass. Leroy stopped, panting hard. His eyes widened at what he had done. He dropped the stick and ran in the direction of an old barn that no one ever used anymore.

Abby lay on the ground, silently weeping. She didn't know why she had asked Leroy of all people to beat her like that. Maybe she was secretly a masochist. Then it hit her, she winced a bit, but remembered that Ziva and Jenny… it made her cry harder. When she was done, she sat up, checked herself for bruises: they were beginning to show, and then whispered to herself, "'It's okay, Ziva, I was just running around and not looking where I was going… I ran into some rogue trees behind the boys' school…'"

Lame excuse, but it would keep everyone off her aching back for a while.

Something suddenly caught her eye as she was pulling down her sleeves and making sure her pant legs were rolled down to cover the emerging bruises: it was the brown leather journal she had caught Leroy writing in before he had… accidently beaten her…

She picked it up and reached to open it, but thought better of it. She wanted to apologize to Leroy for making him beat her, and the journal would just be a perk. She slowly got up and limped to the abandoned barn.

~*~

Ow! My heart hurt to write this chapter. I'm seriously weeping from writing this. God… why did I choose to write about such horrible things? Why? Oh well. Review, if you want. And thanks for reading this. If you don't want to continue, I understand.

Aeron Ailsa