Disclaimer: I do not own the characters to NCIS. They are owned by CBS. It's been a long time since I've seen that season, please forgive me if I've overlooked anything and point them out in a review. I hope to make a few more chapters to make this feel like an entire episode. Enjoy.

The ride back to the office was a bit somber. Their vital link to connecting the shooter to their suspects was dead, but that didn't mean all was lost. The pistol was recovered along with Younger's possessions that might yield results, but that takes time to process. What the team was going to do during that time was up in the air. Arriving back at the office the body was turned over to Ducky and Palmer while the pistol and other stuff was to be turned over for Abby, but while she was waiting for these-she was doing something else in her office and upon hearing of their return she called them down to her lair where she had all of the pictures taken from Zimmerman's apartment arrayed before them on her computer desk and examination table, all of the dark, polished frames aimed straight at them so they could see the work-all of it fine down in pencil with great care done for scale and shading and she turned off her music so the others could hear her.

"What's all this?" McGee asked as they stepped in.

The bubbly goth was all the more willing to tell them as DiNozzo handed over the pistol and Younger's bag, "These will be fun," Abby smiled taking the bags and placing them beside her computer, "But, not as fun as what I've been doing." Her black hair was held back a high ponytail with curled bangs over her wide eyes rimmed in black and red lipstick. She was bubbly and full of energy and had been practicing for this moment to show off for her team, "One thing that I like art over math and science is that their work is always precise and non-lenient, whereas art is always interpretation. Don't get me wrong. I love science, but a good piece of art will always get my attention. You can get two artists to look at the same thing and you can come out with two different versions of the same thing. But, at the same time, what an artist's subject is and how they interpret them also gives mood and what they're feeling; such as using a lot of sharp edges and reds can convey anger and dark colors with little light gives sadness. Now, most of the time Zimmerman didn't use colors, but what I didn't find was a lot of mood through that medium. However, what I did find from his artwork was how he was feeling by his subjects. Each one of his pieces all have the same subject, despite all of their obvious differences."

"What's that?" McGee asked as their eyes all looked at the pictures, but they were unable to correlate an answer.

Going towards the closest picture on her examination table Abby picked up the frame and held up for them. "This was a small seaplane tender from World War II called the USS Avocet. By the looks of it, most of us would overlook it as just a simple ship-but!" holding up the slender index finger on her left hand, "This one is not like the others. This ship was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. It was credited with shooting down a Japanese torpedo-bomber."

"Never heard of that one before" Tony replied as he shifted his feet about and put his hands into his trouser pockets.

"Exactly!" Abby pointed to him as she placed that frame down and went for another, "This one here is the USS Edsall, a Clemson class destroyer, also called a Four-Piper for its four smoke stacks. It was lost on the 1st of March 1942 supposedly with all hands on-board after an intense surface battle with Japanese battleships."

"What are you getting at, Abby?" Gibbs inquired.

"What I'm getting at is what McGee suspected from the outset," Abby said. This made McGee's eyebrows buckle. "Zimmerman was using his art to convey his mood. McGee was right when he said that the pictures in his room of Scarlett and Amaya and his former commander wouldn't be made unless they meant something personal, but these other ones also have their own deep personal connection. Each piece here is of a ship or an aircraft that is overlooked by the larger scale around it." Putting the frame of the Edsall down on the table she turned and waved the others towards her computer where the Google search engine was waiting. A few quick taps on the keyboard yielded hundreds of thousands of results, but she knew exactly what to look for and clicked the "Images" tab and the first one that came up was a black and white picture. "Look at this" she said expanding the image to full screen. The image was taken during the Pearl Harbor attack that shows the battleship USS Nevada making her run through the channel, "When people look at this picture-they're looking at the big ship in the center..."

The others gathered around her and Gibbs immediately recognized what she was driving at, "And missing the little guy right in front of them" The 'little guy' he referred to was the USS Avocet in the foreground, crews at their battle-stations, eyes scanning the sky for the Japanese threats.

"Each piece is the same thing, a ship or aircraft with a pilot that is overlooked or seemingly forgotten about. Heck, I didn't even know most of these things existed" Abby went on as she pulled up pages on the Edsall as well.

"So, Zimmerman felt like he was being overlooked? That's obvious, Tanner was turning down his promotions and medals" Ziva replied.

"Yes," Abby turned to her, "but there's something else more sinister here taking place," leaving her computer and taking a large step to the examination table, "Looking at the dates and the subject matter, I believe that as the months went on" her voice suddenly dropped away to somber. Grasping one frame of a close up of a French pilot in a Sopwith Camel from World War I, "I have to say that suicide is never the answer, but I do understand why some take it" her eyes began to water, "...Zimmerman was feeling depressed to the point of possible suicide."

"You got that from his artwork?" McGee replied stunned by this revelation.

"That and what I found inside his diary" Abby said pulling out the book from her pile of evidence. Opening the pages towards the end she went to a bookmarked page, "I don't know what to do anymore. Scarlett and Amaya are gone from my life. She's out at sea and she's in another city. I have no friends here. Command is no help. I want to leave, but not with my discharge. Tanner is harassing me daily. I feel small. Stepped on. My work is not appreciated by anyone now in the command, and no one here seems to care about my well being. When I was pushed down the stairs and fractured my arm, I had to walk to the hospital because no one would even look at me when I came limping by. They all scattered to the wind before me. What did I ever do to deserve this? I always thought I was a good sailor, but I guess I'm not. I want the pain to stop. I cry myself to sleep every night. I look at my pictures of Scarlett, Amaya and Stevens and pray for them to help me, I beg for them...and they don't come."

The room went quiet as Abby continued to hug the picture. Her team mates were stunned into silence. Gibbs was silent but stared at the pictures before walking away first. Tony and Ziva followed but McGee hung back. He placed a hand on her white cotton blouse, "You going to be okay?" asking in a whisper.

"How can people be so mean for no reason?"

Shaking his head and looking down, the detective didn't have a satisfying answer. "Look, the good news is we're going to get Salvador for theft-at least."

That didn't satisfy her. "McGee, even if you do that and the evidence matches and we get both Tanner and Salvador...it's not going to stop. You heard what was written. The whole command is...filled with just..."

"Jerks?"

"That's putting it mildly, but yeah. You can get those two, but they're just the surface. There are others in there."

"Don't worry" he tried to assure her, "We'll get them."

Going back to their desks, the team were left to ponder this. "Zimmerman was calling out for help, but he was doing it all wrong. When people call out for help they do it in a public way, either on the internet or talking to a doctor or a social worker, but here..."

"He didn't know who to turn to" Ziva replied, "All of his friends were gone. Brannan, Amaya, Stevens...they're all gone so all he had left was his artwork."

"If he was troubled...why didn't he go to the base therapist?" Tony asked them as he went and sat on the edge of his desk feeling his feet ache. It had been a long and eventful day that showed no signs of ending.

"Because if the doctor feels that there's a threat-then the doctor would have to tell his commanding officer" Gibbs said as he went to his own desk and put his piece inside the center drawer, "And it would go into his records. That's why many personnel go to private doctors and not military ones." When he spoke-all eyes of the team were on him. Gibbs had a plan. They had to wait for the evidence to be processed and in that time they still had Salvador in holding. "Tanner has a toxic command. We're going to set this right. They may not all be held criminally liable, but each one is morally wrong. I want Tanner's command here."

"Which ones?" Tony asked painfully rising up onto his feet.

Gibbs said, "Everyone."