So school starts tomorrow, which means I won't have time to do like anything...


Percy's POV

I watched as Annabeth and her scary friend left with the Gibbs guy. I couldn't help myself from staring at her butt, but as quickly as I realized I was doing it, I shook my head and looked away. Unfortunately it didn't go unnoticed by Tony.

"What do we have so far?" Chiron asked before he could comment.

No one answered, so I decided to voice our thoughts. "His wife had been out of town for three days and wasn't scheduled to get back for another two, um, no one in the neighborhood heard the gunshots...and...yeah that's all we got."

"That's it!?" He exclaimed.

I cringed slightly, it was pretty pathetic. "Well we just got back, Chiron, Rachel hasn't sent up any results from the fingerprints, fluids, blood, and neither has James."

My boss sighed and ran his hands through his short hair. "Alright, background information; cell phone recents, bank accounts, coworkers, Percy call the wife, anything!"

We all exchanged a quick inventory of who would do what and Nico and I went to work, Tony and Tim just stood there awkwardly. "So, where are we supposed to go?" Tim asked.

Chiron answered for me, "Find a desk, there are plenty."

There was a slight pause before, "I call Annabeth's desk!" Tony scrambled to grab my partner's chair and sit down.

"Good luck," I laughed.

Tony paused, "Good luck?"

"She changed the language on her computer, it's all in Hebrew. Trust me, I know."

He sighed and moved to sit at a desk a few feet away from Nico, next to Tim. I chuckled to myself and pulled up a list of his recent calls. It was a few minutes before I saw something. "Hey guys, there's a number here that recurs several times a day. Some chick."

"I'll go question her," Nico held his hand out, I gave him a print out of her contact stuff and started up on his work. "Thanks."

"Whoa, why didn't you go?" Tony asked, strangely surprised.

I shrugged. "Not that big on this whole, moving thing."

"Are you kidding? Did you see her picture? She's hot dude, that would get me off my ass in a second." I shrugged again, not really knowing how to respond. "Hey, what's going on with Annabeth? I saw you checking her out."

My head snapped up, expecting a comment from Chiron, only he wasn't there. He must have left at one point, but I was glad so I wasn't getting in trouble for fraternizing with the girl he thinks of as a daughter.

"I like her," I admitted, sighing. "But she's not into relationships."

"That's rough man." Was all he said before we went back to silence as we worked.

'You have no idea.'


Annabeth's POV

I sighed as information flashed across my screen, my hand pressed against my cheek allowing my head to rest comfortably as I watched. "How do we even know what we are looking for?"

Ziva cracked an amused smile. "You never were very patient as a child. We are looking for anything that may seem helpful to the investigation." I groaned and sat back. "I felt the same frustration when I first came to the states."

"What?" I looked over at the older woman.

She didn't take her eyes off the computer as she talked. "When I first arrived in America, and I was doing desk work or anything else that was not exceptionally hands on, it made me frustrated. Like the daily killing was a habit and I needed to do it, to keep myself sane."

I nodded in agreement. "The same is for me, it has been tolerable the longer I stayed, but it still feel like assassination is a part of me." She nodded with me but didn't give a response.

I looked to my computer just as something passed over the screen that caught my attention. I sat up and brought it back. Ziva noticed my sudden pep and questioned what I had found, but I was too engrossed to answer her.

"Navah! Chas veShalom!" God forbid! "What did you find!"

"Look," I broke out of my trance and pointed to the document. "It is a digital log of his passport."

"And?"

"And...see the dates?" Ziva scanned the page but still looked at me in confusion. "They correspond with the assassination of famous dignitaries. In classes, we honored this mysterious killer; how whoever it was could get in and out without leaving any trace. Look, he was in France the day before, of, and after the French ambassador to India was killed."

"Right before the major trade agreement-I remember."

"Then in Portugal two days before and day of when the diplomat to China was assassinated."

Ziva moved so she was behind me. "What else?"

"Well...it pretty much goes in the same pattern, he was never in a country for more than three days and most the time it was before a major death." I paused. "Oy va'avoi li." Oh my god.

"What?" Ziva smacked me in the shoulder. "Tell me."

"He, well, he was in Israel the same time an important official died."

"Who?"


I had to drag her out, but Ziva and I made our way back to the guys to tell them about what we found. When we got there, Leroy and Chiron were huddled around his computer while the four boys were all working on theirs.

Everyone looked up when we shuffled into the cubby space. "Did you find something already?" Chiron asked, surprised.

I nodded, looking over at my friend. "Do you want me to tell them?" Ziva moved her head in an attempt to agree but was pretty much still in to much shock to fully answer. "The man we have in our morgue was-for lack of a better description-an assassin for the United States, starting when he was in the Marines ten years ago. You are all familiar with the first victim, Eli David?"

The three outside agents all stopped. "He killed Eli? And the government knew about it? Then why did they let us investigate it?" Tony spit out questions and looked at me to answer them for some reason.

I shrugged. "All I remember from that time was being able to see my friend again and my father taking his place."

Everyone was quiet for a long time, and I don't blame them, it was a huge shock to me to find out that the United States had ordered the murder of all these dignitaries. Granted, Mossad wasn't much different, but we didn't do it to stop trade agreements to make sure Israel stayed a world power.

"I think it would be smart to put this back in the file case." Chiron stood. "There is no use in investigating this murder without the news of the assassinations getting out to the offended countries and starting an all out world war against America. It was a pleasure meeting you all, Leroy." The two men walked to the elevators and disappeared.

I sighed and started to gather my things. "I have to go."

My statement seemed to break the boys out of the spell they had fallen under. "Why?" Tony inquired.

"School's over," Percy answered. "She has to pick Madison and Kade up."

"Who?" Came yet another brilliant question.

"My children, you coming Ziva?"

"Of course." She grabbed her own jacket and we left together. Behind me I could hear Percy say 'adopted'. "I am very excited to meet these two." Ziva said as we walked out of the building.

I nodded. "They will love to meet you."


Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to stay strong.

I hope you liked the chapter, I couldn't resist adding the actual NCIS team in, plus it kinda leads into the next huge event that is to come in the next chapter or two. You're going to love it.

Always yours,

~Arty