A/N: Thank you for all the reviews. I promise more McGiva/Chelsea fluff to come. Please review. Disclaimer: the usual.

Previously on Chelsea

Abby brought up the results from the finger prints on the note given to Cynthia. But they both gasped a the name that came up.

Damon Werth.

"It can't be!" Abby yelped, frantically restarting the search, "It just can't be!"

Gibbs rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down. But the screen came up with the same result.

Damon Werth.

"Oh Gibbs." Abby whimpered.

Upstairs, Chelsea had decided that she wanted food or else.

"Chelsea's hungry." Tony said as if her tantrum wasn't happening.

McGee picked her up and headed to the snack machine. He was tired, both physically and emotionally.

Once he had settled Chelsea with some doughnut holes, McGee collapsed into a plastic chair and sighed loudly.

"Trouble in paradise, my boy?"

McGee jumped and turned to see Ducky standing behind him with a smile.

"Hey Ducky."

Ducky sat down in the chair opposite him, smiling at Chelsea who was snacking away in McGee's lap.

"Hello Chelsea."

"Hewow." came the muffled response.

"I sensed some animosity between you and Ziva." Ducky said, right to the point.

"Yeah," McGee sighed, knowing he couldn't hide anything from Ducky, "we had some - uh - words this morning."

Ducky nodded for him to continue, sipping on his coffee had brought along.

"We said some hurtful things." McGee continued, "I told her she had a heart of ice."

"Ahhh." was all Ducky said, urging him to continue.

"And she said that I was too soft." McGee finished regretfully.

"Did you mean it?" Ducky asked McGee, wiping chocolate off Chelsea's face.

"Of course not!" McGee said in surprise.

"Then why did you say it?" Ducky asked.

"Because she never lets anyone in or lets anyone take care of her!" McGee spat out.

"And you want her to want you to protect her?"

"Yes!" McGee turned red, " I mean no! yes! I don't know."

Ducky chuckled lightly.

"Perhaps you should talk to her about this." Ducky said, "But perhaps at a lower volume."

Ducky stood up and patted McGee's shoulder as he left, but McGee didn't notice. He was too deep in thought.

Ziva was never one to have a heart to heart, even with Abby, who could get Gibbs to talk. McGee slowly came to realize that he had expected Ziva to let her guard down fast and easily. But that was not the person she was.

"McGee."

McGee turned again. This time it was Ziva standing behind him.

"Hi Ziva." he said softly, motioning to the chair Ducky had previously inhabited.

She sat before him quietly. They sat in awkward silence. The only noise was Chelsea's light snoring from McGee's lap.

"I'm sorry." they finally said in unison.

"I was wrong to expect you to be different then you are." McGee offered.

"And I am sorry for saying you were soft." Ziva said softly, "You are a strong agent. I was just angry."

They fell into silence once again, uncertain of where they went from there.

Back down in Abby's lab Gibbs had an idea.

"Abby, calm down."

"Gibbs!" Abby cried, "You don't think Damon did it, do you!"

"Abby, no," Gibbs assured her, grasping both her shoulders "my gut says no. Just listen."

Abby nodded her head so fast, her pigtails were flying into Gibbs' face.

"If I bring you a paper sample, can you compare it to this note?" Gibbs asked.

"You bet I can!"

Gibbs kissed her cheek and hurried upstairs.

"DiNozzo!"

"Yeah Boss!" Tony cried, quickly removing his feet from his desk.

"We need to go to Colonel Thomas Grey's home." Gibbs said, grabbing his gear, "Get the address."

Colonel Grey let Gibbs and Tony in without a fuss.

"What are we even lookin' for Boss?" Tony asked.

"A note pad." Gibbs responded.

"All Laurie's note pads are on her roll-away desk." Colonel Grey said, leading them to the rickety wooden desk.

There was one big problem. Laurie seemed to have collected notepads.

"This is one big paper cut." Tony observed with a laugh.

"Can we take all of these?" Gibbs asked Colonel Grey.

Colonel Grey nodded. Gibbs could see he was grieving heavily.

"We'll find out who did this." Gibbs promised the pale looking Colonel after they had gathered all the note pads.

Once the note pads had been taken to Abby, Gibbs took McGee, Chelsea and Ziva back to his house.

"Fix it." is what he called from the car when he dropped them off.

Both McGee and Ziva knew he was demanding they fix what ever problem they had entered the building with that morning.

Chelsea had fallen asleep in the car, so McGee took her down stairs to her bed. When he came back upstairs, Ziva had already made two coffees and was sitting at the table. She looked exhausted, but so was he. It had been a really long day.

"We need to talk."