WOW!

you guys are seriously awesome! the response i got from this is better than i could have dreamed! i woke up to inbox (27) on sunday morning because of all of you guys, which was AMAZING! thank you for taking the time to review little old me :)

DISCLAIMER: i do not known any recognised figures :(

Chapter 2

Down in the cool and metallic world of autopsy, the doors swished open and Tony and Kate walked in, as usual, squabbling like brother and sister.
"Why is it that you insist on driving like Gibbs?" Kate snapped, having just spent a car journey with Tony's bad driving, and after arriving being ordered to go check on Ducky. With the very man who had caused the discomfort in the first place. She was not amused.

"At least I don't drive like an old woman with a sight problem," Tony retaliated.

"Rather slow than road kill!" Kate said. Before Tony could say anything, Ducky cut in.

"A much as I enjoy your company, I will ask you both to leave if you keep up this noise," he said and effectively shut the two of them up.

"Have you got anything yet, Duck?" Kate asked, pulling out a notepad and getting down to business.

"Nothing new. No physical signs of violence, no abnormal scars or bruises. She is completely healthy."

"Other than the fact that she is dead," Tony said, and Kate shot him a withering look. However, both respected Ducky enough to listen to his previous warning.

"I sent some blood work up to Abby, so maybe she will be able to shed some light on all this," Ducky said. They both thanked Ducky and with that, both of them left autopsy.

"What you got, Abs," Gibbs said, breezing into Forensics with McGee trailing after him like the good probie he hated to be. It was a few hours after they had returned from the crime scene, and in Gibbs' opinion it was about time that they got some results. Or at least something useful.

Abby spun around on her heel, and much to both McGee and Gibb's surprise she had a pair of glasses with a thick black frame and thick lenses to match perched on her nose. Gibbs tilted his head quizzically.

"What?" Abby said at his look.

And then she realised what he was looking at.

"Oh! These!" she said touching the black frames by her ear, "do you know that in a survey of a hundred Americans, 98 of them said that they are more likely to trust the work of a scientist who wears glasses! My results could be doubted because I don't wear them!"

This was typical Abby. McGee could remember just the other week that she had been rolling around on roller-skates claiming that they made her "38.5% more efficient". That was, until Director Vance had deemed it a health and safety hazard, and banned roller-skates from the office. It was probably something to do with the fact that Abby had (almost) ran over Bill the mailman, who happened to be transporting blood samples that had arrived from the labs in Los Angeles. McGee had never seen Bill look so scared before.

"No-one here doubts your credibility, Abby," McGee said to placate her, and Gibbs turned around to glare at McGee. It was his job to comfort Abby, to be the reassuring father. But increasingly he had noticed the attraction that seemed to flow between Abby and McGee. And it was not that Gibbs objected to McGee as a person, it was just the thought of Abby dating anyone with the capacity to break her heart, was what bothered him the most.

Abby, however, was oblivious to the civil war that was going on inside Gibbs' head, McGee's obvious attraction to her, and Gibbs going all protective father on her. She just grinned at McGee's words and pulled the glasses off.

"Thank goodness for that! It was not like I could even see through those anyway…"

"Abby, results?" Gibbs said, gently pushing her into the direction that involved giving him some results.

"I was going through her personal effects, and I found this," she said, walking over to the table where all of the evidence was spread over, "sleeping pills. When the Lieutenant commander was diagnosed with PTSD she was given them."

"Is it possible that she overdosed?" McGee asked.

"Could be. I'm running the blood sample now, I should get it in a couple of hours."

"That's good work," Gibbs said, kissing Abby on the cheek quickly. McGee was about to follow Gibbs out of the lab when Abby called to him.

"What McGee, no kiss from you?" she said cheekily, and Gibbs had to grit his teeth so as not to say anything. Abby was like his daughter, but getting a kiss from McGee would be anything but paternal to Abby. But McGee seemed unaware of Gibbs' inner battle. Either that, or he did not care, that his feeling were too important to ignore. Whatever it was, McGee boldly walked back into the lab and pressed a slow kiss on Abby's cheek, holding on too long for Gibbs liking. He also didn't particularly like the look that Abby gave Tim from beneath her lashes, and the blush that had tinted her porcelain skin. And the look of satisfaction that Tim had on his face for the rest of the day…

oooOOOooo

The day dragged on, and with no results from the labs there was not much that they could do. McGee was chasing the idea that it was indeed a suicide, assuming that Abby's evidence came through. He was checking local traffic cameras to see if there was any suspicious activity going on around the area of the studio. Tony was watching the CCTV footage that Ziva had given him earlier. It should have been useful to the case. Unfortunately, Ziva could not tell him which studio that the deceased was most likely to be in. Which meant he had watched hours and hours of dance, and still there was no sign of the woman he was looking for. And after the first few hours of watching women prancing around in next to nothing, it was getting boring. This was Anthony DiNozzo saying that scantily clad women were "getting boring". He never thought that he would say it, but it was. The only thing that kept it interesting was when Ziva was taking a class. Even though he was watching it all in fast motion, it was still interesting just to watch her.

Tony had been so fascinated with watching the video that he had not noticed the Sun begin to dip down in the horizon, becoming shrouded by the buildings of the busy Washington landscape. Gibbs had been sitting at his desk and rolled his shoulders to relieve the tension that had been building since he had first sat down hours ago. He glanced at the time, and sighed.

"Go home. Come back tomorrow ready to work," he said, and the team gratefully shut all their monitors off and gathered their things together and left for the night.

As they all crammed in the elevator, Kate waited behind, saying she would see them tomorrow. Not think anything of it they started the left without her and McGee talked animatedly about some game that he could finally get back to. Tony did not pay any attention to the conversation. Not that that was anything special, he never did pay attention to McGee. The difference was now he was thinking of something different. His mind was drifting back to the dark haired beauty that he couldn't seem to get out of his mind.

Little did he know that across town at the studio Ziva was thinking similar thoughts about him as she locked up the studio for the night…

As the other two disappeared into the elevator Kate turned to Gibbs, who despite being the one to order them all home was hanging around to complete his work. He sat there, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose, squinting at the lack of light. And he could not have looked better. At some point in the day he had taken off his thick jacket, and now just sat in his signature polo shirt and T-shirt. She would have thought something about how the blue in his shirt made his eyes stand out even more than they usually did. But she did not want to become every love cliché in the world. But for him, she risked doing and being just that.

She was being bold in the absence of the boys as she spoke. After all, she didn't become the protector of the president through being meek and quiet.

"Are you going to take your own advice?" she asked.

Gibbs pulled his glasses off his head, and peered up at her. She stood there, bathed in the light from his desk lamp. And she looked the vision of an angel.

"When did you become boss?" he shot back, the words coming out harsher than intended. But he couldn't go back on them now.

"Is that a no?" Kate answered quickly, secretly smiling at their verbal sparring match.

A few minutes past, and Gibbs pretended to read the papers in front of him. But Kate continued to stare at him, and eventually he sighed and got up.

"You happy?" he said, as he gathered his things up, and they walked to the elevator together, Kate with a grin on her face. One-nil to her. Gibbs' serve.

oooOOOooo

Ziva David rolled out of bed at the sound of her alarm chirping away in the corner. She was this close to throwing it across the room for disturbing her, but instead she contented her with hitting the "alarm off" button really hard. She cranked open her eyes grudgingly and took her phone off the nightstand to check it. There were no new messages, she observed with one eye open, and she put it back on the stand. She kicked her legs off the bed, careful not to knock the cup of tea off the side that she had brought to bed, but never finished. Shuffling around to her bedroom door, she made her way out into the main section of her apartment.

It was fairly roomy, as far as apartments went, with a large open space living room/dining room with the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom and spare room all leading into it. The morning light that filtered through the large windows made the house look large and spacious, and not a bad place for in the middle of DC. As Ziva shuffled into the kitchen to start up the kettle, another set of footsteps followed her. Her little sister Tali stumbled into the room, eyes half closed and groggy.

"Ziva, it's 0600," she mumbled, going to the cupboard to retrieve their favourite mugs. Ziva rolled her eyes.

"If you don't like it then move out," she replied. But secretly, there was little malice behind the words. Every morning, they had this conversation, and every morning Ziva told Tali she could move out, and it would solve everything. But she didn't really mean that. Tali had come over to crash with her after she left university, as she tried to navigate her way into some kind of job. However, a degree in archaeology didn't really help. She had been twenty years old when she had first come to crash on her couch. Three years later, she was still there.

"You do know you are killing my sex-life?" Ziva continued.

"What sex-life?" Tali said, and if Ziva threw the apple that she had in her hand at her.

Tali neatly caught the apple and took a smug bite out of it, before changing the subject.

"I saw the studio on the news yesterday," Tali said as she poured herself a cup of coffee, "did you know who got killed?"

"Yeah," Ziva said, turning away under the pretence of looking something to eat in the fridge. In reality, she didn't want Tali to see her face, "it was Megan."

Tali clearly hadn't seen that coming. She had thought that it would just be some random body. She pulled Ziva away from the fridge by the back of her shirt, and even though Ziva clung on for dear life Tali wrenched her away and pulled her into a hug.

Tali had always been the more affectionate of the two of them, and for once Ziva was thankful for it. When she had first heard about Megan, the first thing that she had wanted was a hug from her sister. But it was not a good time, her competition class had just come, not knowing about the body that had been found, and she could not cancel the class at last minute. It was these girls and their parents' money that kept the studio open and Ziva's dream alive, and she was not going to cancel the class. And besides, it was a good excuse to keep her busy, so her thought could not linger on her newly deceased friend.

Because it had been true, everything that he had told that good looking special agent the other day. But there had always been more to it. Megan had told her things, about her time being deployed, and they had drug up some of her memories of her Mossad days. Before her mum took a stand, before she had second thought about the lives that she was taking. Some of the scenarios that Megan described were too similar to hers, being pushed so hard to do something, just to gain the approval of others. To be forced into doing something that went against her moral compass. And now Megan was gone.

The two of them just stood there for a few moments, breathing in and out, Ziva trying to calm the tears, and Tali wanting to stop them. Eventually Ziva drew away, not wanting to burden Tali with her problems. Tali could read this from her, and had to say something.

"Ziva, I'm not a baby anymore! I'm twenty-three! It's bad enough with Ari…"

If Ziva was guilty of sheltering Tali, Ari was the one who wrapped them both in a layer of cotton wool, then a layer of Kevlar, followed by building a house around them. Ever since they had moved to the USA together after escaping from their father, he had done everything he could to protect his little sisters. He had barely been able to see Ziva off to school on her first day, being worried sick for the whole day until she returned, grinning from ear to ear and begging him to let her go back again tomorrow. That had been 21 years ago, and he had not changed much since.

Ziva sighed, "I know, Tali. I am sorry."

Tali sighed dramatically in a "look what I have to put up with" way, and Ziva rolled her eyes and tapped her gently on the cheek, "I really need to go."

"Go. And have fun," Tali replied, and she watched Ziva walk away to get ready for the day. It was at times like this when she worried about her big sister. She had done so much for her, housed her, clothed her and fed her. But Ziva was not easy to read, and sometimes she heard what she thought was Ziva crying in the night. But the next day, it was like nothing had ever happened. She would be alright. For now.

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