A/N - After the previous review about Tash pre team, I decided to add a little bit to another chapter. Well, it turned into two chapters and 7000 words and required a little rearranging and editing of the rest of the story, but here we are. Just a little bit about her earlier history. Hope you enjoy and thanks for the review that prompted it. I've had lots of fun writing the story, the editing and pruning not as much, though I am learning to like it as it certainly is starting to make the stories better. As do reviews. Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer in Chapter 1

On we go...

Chapter 13

Tash walked into Nate's office the next morning, not entirely sure she was ready for this. She saw him sitting behind his desk and put on a bright smile. Nate might be trying to get into her head, but she wasn't going to let him see how much her heart was hurting right now. She figured if she concentrated on getting her memories back, then that side of things would, hopefully, sort itself out without the need for the psychologist to know about her meltdown with Callen yesterday.

Tash walked over to the couch and sat down. "Morning Nate." He looked up at her and smiled.

"Morning Tash." He stood up and came over to sit on the chair by the couch.

Nate chuckled as Tash pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and over her.

"Getting settled for a nap are you?" Tash shook her head and grinned.

"No, your room is freezing!"

Nate frowned at her grin. "Is it?" He didn't have the air conditioning on today. It wasn't hot.

"To me anyway. What interesting memory recall spells are you planning on trying out on me today?" Tash asked, directing him away from the blanket. She was feeling a little vulnerable today and the blanket was almost like a security thing. Maybe childish, but it made her feel more comfortable.

"Not sure yet," Nate answered, still not quite sure about the blanket. She was hard to read today.

Tash frowned. Nate usually knew exactly where one of these sessions would go. He'd been trying various things with her, to see what helped the most.

"Why?"

"Tell me about Tash. What do you know about you?" Nate asked.

Tash rolled her eyes. He had to ask the most difficult question. She shrugged.

"Not much. My childhood hasn't really come back. I seem to be remembering more about my time here than anywhere else. But it's just a bunch of memories or stories. It doesn't really seem to tell me much about who I am."

Nate smiled gently. "Maybe we should see what we can do about that then. Try to find out about your childhood. I'm going to try some hypnosis with you."

Tash raised her eyebrows. "Hypnosis?"

"Yes, if you are willing." Nate wasn't quite sure if she would be, but he'd already tried so many things, and this was just another tool.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Tash asked. It was Nate's turn to roll his eyes before he answered.

"Because whilst I've had some training, I haven't exactly had a lot of practice."

Tash giggled at that. "You don't exactly have the right clientele do you?"

"No." The idea of trying to get Callen, Sam or Kensi to let him use hypnosis on them was scary. He hadn't even wanted to think about what Hetty would say if he asked her to do it. They all had too many secrets that they didn't want to share.

"You willing?" Nate asked her. Tash nodded.

"Just as long as you don't tell anyone my deepest, darkest secrets," she teased.

"You don't have dark secrets Tash."

Tash frowned slightly, but quickly replaced it with a smile. "Guess we are about to find out. What do I have to do?"

Nate breathed a sigh of relief that she had agreed. He hoped this would work well for her. A few of the things he'd tried hadn't helped at all.

"Just relax, focus on my voice and let it happen," Nate instructed.

"I can still stay under the blanket?"

Nate smiled. "Yes Tash."

Tash settled back and closed her eyes. "If you put any suggestions in my head Nate, that shouldn't be there, you will be in trouble. Tall or not."

"Understood." Nate grinned now, though she couldn't see him. She was a lot of fun, always had been.

"Go for it then, Dr Getz."

X

"Daddy, you're home!" she squealed as she flew into his arms and he lifted her up, spinning her around. She was so happy he was back.

"What are we going to do, Daddy?" she asked.

"Do? Can I come inside first?" She giggled.

"Yes."

"Can I say hello to Mummy?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Why not?"

"You can kiss her instead," she giggled again and snuggled down in his arms, as they walked through the front door.

X

Her father walked through the front door, carrying a box.

"Tash?" He frowned at her. "What are you still doing up?"

"Mummy said I could wait up for you," she replied.

"That's not quite what I said," her mother admonished from behind her.

Her father smiled. "That's my Tash, finding a way to interpret things to get your own way."

"Jonathon!" her mother exclaimed and she giggled.

"What's in the box Daddy?" she asked, her eyes going wide when she heard a little yelp come from it.

"Your birthday present, though you weren't supposed to get it until tomorrow," he said, as he put the box down on the floor.

"Can I?" She looked up at him.

"Yes Tash, you can open it now," her father said. She knelt down and carefully opened the lid. There was a gorgeous little brown puppy with white stripes.

"Daddy! He's beautiful," she said as she picked up the puppy, who promptly licked her face evoking another giggle. "I'm going to call him Spot."

"Wouldn't Stripey be more appropriate?" her father asked.

"Spot," she said, determinedly. Her father stood up and put his arms around her mother, as they both smiled at her and the boisterous puppy, who wriggled out of her arms, ran a circle around her before pouncing and sending her sprawling back on the floor.

X

She opened her eyes as a wet tongue licked her cheek. "Spot!" she groaned and tried to sit up, but the puppy wouldn't let her. He kept barking and she heard her father call out to her.

"Tash, are you all right?" She tried to sit up again, pushing Spot off her. As she did, her father came closer.

"Don't sit up Tash, you're hurt," he said.

She frowned and looked down, to see the blood on her leg. She felt faint and laid back down quickly.

"Daddy," she cried softly.

X

"Daddy!" she cried out and woke up. She got out of bed, took her teddy bear and walked out to the lounge room, Spot following faithfully behind her. There were four older men there. She searched and found the one she was needing. She could feel the tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Tash darling." Uncle Mike stood up and walked over to her. He knelt down so he was at eye level. "What's wrong, Sweetheart? Bad dream?" He wiped her tears away gently.

She nodded, clutching her teddy bear tight. He put his arms around her and held her for a moment, before he spoke again.

"Want to learn to play poker?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"Want to sit on my lap, whilst I play?" he asked again.

She nodded. He picked her up and moved to the table again, taking his seat.

"Let's see how well my good luck charm goes then," Uncle Mike said as he picked up his cards. She looked at them and looked up at him.

"Uncle Mike?" she asked.

"Yes?" He looked down at her.

"Is it good that they are all the one colour?"

The other three men around the table groaned in unison and put their cards down, bowing out of that hand.

Uncle Mike grinned at them. "Looks like she's working well already."

X

"You know Uncle Mike, I just might be able to pay for college myself at this rate." She pulled the winnings from that hand closer to her.

"Half of it will be mine, either way," Uncle Mike grumbled good naturedly, shaking his head.

"Looks like the student is better than the teacher now," Don added, looking between the two of them.

She smiled at the three older men looking at her. They'd aged a bit since that first poker lesson. They were like family to her.

"What would you expect? I've had the finest teacher and three of the best tutors around," she responded as she started to deal the next hand.

"So have you decided where and what you going to study yet, Tash?" Brian asked her.

"Law and Psychology at Stanford," she replied as she dealt the cards for the next hand.

"What?" Uncle Mike asked, shocked. Steven laughed.

She smiled. She hadn't thought she would get in, and she hadn't wanted to disappoint her uncle so she didn't tell him about that application.

"Law and Psychology," she repeated.

"I heard, Tash. Now tell me why?" Uncle Mike asked, picking up his cards. "Thought you would have been looking to head straight to Vegas with this talent of yours, but now you tell me you want to get on the right side of the law?" he joked.

She chuckled.

"Well, you were the one who told me all the stories about Grandpa being a cop." She'd never met her Grandpa, but she knew him and what he did almost as well as she would of if she had, thanks to Uncle Mike.

"True." Uncle Mike nodded in agreement. "That explains Law. What about getting inside people's heads?" He threw some money on the table as his turn came around and exchanged a couple of cards.

"You," she said.

"Me?" He frowned and looked up at her. She smiled gently at him.

"Because I want to understand the most wonderful man in the world, who chose to take me in as his own when there was no one else there for me," she replied. That was part of it. She wanted to know what made people do what they did. Law dealt with the consequences of actions. In her mind, the two seemed to fit together well.

"You're family, Tash. There was no choice to make. It just was." He smiled at her and she saw the tears form in his eyes, the fire reflected in them so clearly.

X

The fire was so big, the explosion so loud and it was hot. She backed away and screamed. Then she saw him, lying far away from the burning car and the fire was on him too.

NO!" she screamed.

X

Tash sat up screaming, "NO!" Her eyes were still closed and Nate, his heart hammering in his chest at the sound of her scream, moved forward to gently touch her arm.

"Tash, it's okay. You're safe," Nate tried to reassure her. His voice seemed to break through to her and she opened her eyes and looked at him. Nate saw the tears on her face and the distress in her eyes.

"My dad," Tash whispered. She looked at him, focusing on him so she didn't slip away to that memory again.

"I'm sorry," Nate replied gently. Guilt poured through him for having put her through this. He knew how painful that memory was to her. That hadn't been his intention, though he probably should have realised it was a high probability she would remember that.

Tash shook her head. "Not your fault Nate. There was more than just that, good ones too." Tash tried to reassure Nate as well, as she focused on the other memories.

"There really was an Uncle Mike," she told him. Nate nodded.

"Yes, there was," he agreed.

"But how come I wasn't with him?" Tash frowned as she tried to see if she had remembered more. Sometimes other memories slipped in unconsciously.

"We've been looking into that," Nate answered.

Tash looked at him and asked, "What do you know?"

Nate wasn't quite sure what he was going to tell her.

"Nate, where is he?" Tash asked when he didn't respond. Nate knew what he had to tell her. It wasn't a memory so he could. He just didn't want to, not on top of what she had just remembered, but he had no choice.

"Tash," he kept his voice gentle and she noticed. He saw her pale and her eyes go wide and he continued quickly, "He died six months ago."

Tash shook her head, "No." The tears well up in her eyes. "No."

"I'm sorry," Nate said. Tash blinked back the tears.

"Okay, so what do you know? Why wasn't I with him?" she asked again, trying not to think about everyone she had lost and would never see again.

"None of us had met your uncle. You preferred to keep him out of your work. To keep him safe. We think that he never knew about the shooting. Eric looked over past phone records and it seems like calls to your uncle were being intercepted. Only one call went through directly to his phone during the couple of days after your shooting. We weren't able to trace that call." Nate tried to sum it up as briefly as he could.

"Who?" she asked.

"We think it was Carl Trippin," Nate replied. He saw the look on her face, the determined look she used to get when a bad guy was getting away with something and she wasn't going to let it happen. He wondered what she was going to do.

"So he never knew? What did he think when I didn't call or come see him?"

Nate shook his head. "We don't know."

Tash sat up and ran her hands through her hair. "There were poker buddies. Maybe they might know something." She stood up. "I need to find them."

She started to walk away and then she stopped and turned to face him.

"Nate?"

"What?"

"I don't want to remember anymore about how my parents died Nate," she replied, her voice breaking slightly.

"I'll keep us away from your childhood then, if you want."

"Maybe that would be good." She walked to the door and turned back once more, this time with a slight smile on her face. Nate raised his eyebrows in question and the smile got slightly bigger.

"Do you think it makes me crazy that I named my striped dog Spot?" she asked.

Nate grinned. "No crazier than me naming my cat Rover."

"So that would be yes." Tash smiled back at him and walked out the door.