Thank you SO MUCH to all those who reviewed! It's really awesome to see how others think of my story.

Again, I own nothing but a goldfish, and last I checked the goldfish doesn't own NCIS either.

Now, to continue our tale…

Once she was on the train, Ziva immediately decided she didn't like it. The cars were small and crowded and you had to stay in your seat for a long time. Mostly she just sighed and glared out the window.

Abby, on the other hand, found the train fascinating. They were moving really fast and when she watched out the window she could see all sorts of things.

"Look, Marie," she said to her doll. "There's cows out the window! Ziva, Kate, look what Marie and I found. Cows!"

"That's nice, Abby," Kate said distractedly. They had been on the train for about a day and a half and had already made two stops. She had watched as children were adopted away from their friends and family, some happy, some crying. Every time an adult walked by, she held her breath and squeezed Abby's hand. There had been one awful moment when someone had started talking to Ziva. Ziva, though, had acted confused and began talking in another language that Kate didn't know, and the person had quickly moved on.

Kate knew that there would be a total of seven stops on the train. Two were already past. She knew that the farther into the trip they got, the more likely it was that they would either not get adopted or get split up.

Unbenouced to Kate, the same sort of logic was going through Ziva's mind, though to a less in-depth extent. Ziva knew that the longer they stayed on the train, the greater the chances of them being split up.

Tony watched as Tim talked with his new friend Jimmy. On the train, children were placed three to a seat and Jimmy had been placed with them. Tim had been quick to adopt Jimmy as another brother, and Tony had followed soon after. The kid was a little odd, but he had a good heart and fit in well with them.

"Jimmy, have you ever been to New York?" Tim asked.

"No, have you?" Jimmy answered.

"I haven't either. But I heard about it. A kid I used to know said there's factories there as big as mountains!" Truth be told, Tim hadn't ever seen any mountains, either. He knew they were supposed to be really huge though. "Tony, have you ever been to New York?"

"As a matter of fact, I have," Tony lied. He knew Tim was smart, and that he would start thinking about what would happen to them if they split up. He had already questioned "the plan" several times.

Their plan was simple, really. They would tell anyone who thought about adopting them that they were brothers, and that they really didn't want to be separated. Now that Jimmy was included in the plan, though, it became harder, especially since none of them looked alike. They had to be careful when they said it, because if any of the people in charge of them heard them say it, they would be caught and the plan foiled.

"What's it like?" Jimmy asked with big eyes. And so Tony began to describe what he thought New York looked like, just to keep his brothers' minds busy while they made their way to the next stop.

Abby and Ziva both nervously held Kate's hands as they were unloaded from the train. While they waited to be lined up, the children milled around for a while. Kate, who was all at once trying to calm Abby and Ziva's fears as well as her own, was trying not to panic. As they walked around, stretching their legs, Abby bumped into a boy who was several years older than her. Because of the size difference between them, she fell to the ground.

"Sorry," he said, bending down to help her up. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Abby nodded tearfully. "I'm ok-kay," she said, trying not to cry. Kste immediately turned around and glared at the boy, but after she saw how flustered and upset he was that he had knocked Abby over, she decided that he didn't mean it.

"I'm Timothy McGee, but you can call me Tim," he said.

"I'm Abby," Abby said bouncily, her mood changing drastically after she decided that the boy could and would be her friend. "This is Ziva, and Kate. They're ,y bestest friends. You can be my friend, too!"

"Alright. These are my brothers, Tony and Jimmy." At this point, both groups had stopped. Knowing that they had a while before they were lined up to be adopted, they began chatting and made fast friends.

Kate looked knowingly at Tony while the younger children played. "Brothers?" she asked.

"You do what you have to," he said, shrugging. "I'm hoping it'll work."

"Yeah. We tried that for a while but…" Kate trailed off, sighing. "Ziva's from somewhere else, no one really knows. Abby and I really look nothing alike anyways."

"So what's your plan then?" Tony asked.

"We stand really close together, hold hands, and act like sisters. If someone looks at me, I speak in another language. If someone looks at Abby, she bursts out crying, which she is quite good at. If someone looks at Kate, she glares at them and acts very mean," Ziva said, becoming bored with the younger children. "But if one of us is adopted, we the other will stay with Abby no matter what."

"How's that working?" he asked.

"Pretty well, so far," Kate admitted. "I'm hoping it gets us adopted together, or at least sent back to the orphanage together."

"Well, I hope your plan works," Tony said.

"I hope yours works as well," Ziva said.

The children were called to line up and were led out onto the stage. Tony, Kate, and Ziva exchanged good lucks and found their younger comrades.

"You know, this is how they lined animals up to be sold and slaughtered in my homeland," Ziva said to Kate while they were sitting down.

"Ziva, you know too much for your age," Kate said, annoyed. "Now stop or you'll scare Abby!"

"Sorry," Ziva said, making a face. "I was just trying to start a conversation."

Kate didn't respond. Someone was coming towards them. It was a large woman in a very unflattering purple dress, with a large hat and even larger stomach. She bent down to Abby's level.

"Well aren't you the cutest thing!" she exclaimed, pinching Abby's cheek. Abby began sobbing. The woman backed up quickly, then turned to Kate, who was looking at Abby with concern.

"Oh, how sweet! Taking care of the little ones. Now, I've been looking for a young lady to take home with me. Would you like to be that young lady?"

"Depends," Kate said brusquely. "Are you looking for just one?"

"Oh, yes. I couldn't handle many more," the woman said.

"Then no," Kate said with a glare. "I would rather not, Bessie. Now moooove on before someone mistakes you for a cow."

The woman gasped, looking offended, before hurrying away from them. Kate sighed in relief.