Recap: The following takes place before, while and after Gibbs interrogated Dr. Mexler. It also has some Ziva POVs in it.

I'm gonna apologize for all upcoming tense mistakes... Keeping track of the right tense is not exactly easy when Muse hurries on like she is at the moment ;)

~ Misunderstood ~

When the Gibbs' household had arrived at the Navy Yard, Mini-Ziva was fast asleep. She didn't noticed as Gibbs carried her up to the team's area and put her on the mattress near his desk, covering her with a small blanket, so she could get some more of the much needed sleep.

At the moment every situation was a big adventure for the little girl and Gibbs knew that the new life situation was bound to take its toll on her.

But today she wasn't Gibbs' top priority. The whole night he had only the upcoming interrogation of Mexler in mind, who's fault the whole situation was in the first place. Even just thinking about the mad scientist made Gibbs blood boil. He hoped that he could control himself when he was alone with the doctor.

While McGee had hung out around the bullpen for the first part of the morning, he soon got called down to the forensic lab by Abby.

This left the still sleeping Ziva unattended, since the team leader was out to get coffee, in hope that the black liquid would calm him enough to survive the interrogation - without killing the doctor. Meanwhile Tony was already in the observation room, watching as Dr. Mexler passed back and forth in the small room.

As the little girl now woke up a few minutes after McGee had left, she found herself alone. From time to time she would see people passing by at the ends of the open area which held the desks of the team.

For Ziva it seemed like forever till a familiar figure finally appeared. As Gibbs walked to his desk, she immediately went to greet him. Intended to spent some time with the agent, she stood in the middle of the desk area, hopefully looking up at him.

However Gibbs just spared her a short, unreadable look and led her back to his desk, where he picked up a file, before disappearing in direction of the interrogation rooms.

Disappointed, the little girl sat back on the small cot near the team leader's desk. Idly, she fiddled with the end of her sleeve as she tried to suppress her welling emotions.

xx

(Outtake 'Machine of Evil')

(Interrogation)

Now the team leader was with Mexler in Interrogation while Tony watched the whole scene from Observation.

Since Mexler had been put into the room hours before Gibbs even arrived, the gray-haired agent didn't needed to wait long before the scientist lost his nerve as Gibbs stared at him.

"He was an idiot," scoffed Mexler, referring to his fellow scientist.

"Didn't have your level of IQ?"

"Tried to sell our invention to the same country," clarified Mexler.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"He contacted two people and told each that he's making a special offer. That no one else would know about the machine. But of course those two people where in contact with each other. They found out that our offer wasn't so special after all. His mistake had cost us millions!"

"Enough for you to kill him?" The arrogance of the scientist made Gibbs clench his fists under the table.

"He would have killed himself with those cigarettes. I only speed up the progress."

"So you killed him."

"Yeah, it was too easy though."

The team leader momentarily looked behind him at the mirror, giving Vance, who was in Observation too, the signal to cut the recording.

Mexler noticed the loss of the red light on the surveillance camera and laughed.

"Now I'm scared," he said sarcastically before he became serious, "Your agents. You want to know what happened."

The proud grin on his face made Gibbs wish to be able to hit him and whip the grin of his face. Instead he just narrowed his eyes.

"We already know what happened."

"You want to know why," grinned Mexler.

"You could have run," remarked Gibbs, "Or settled for denying everything."

"Maybe, but with staying in the shadows no one except the buyers would know of my great intelligence."

A sly smile plastered on his face he continued, "Are the agents even alive? That girl was in the beam pretty long," he chuckled, regarding the man opposite the table, "She must be or you would have lost control already. Is it hard for you? Seeing your agents like that?
In my experiments I could never actually proof if the subjects lost their memory too. I didn't really care but I'm curious now, Agent Gibbs."

Mexler leaned forward, his arms folded on the table, "Do they remember? Are they independent or just like a bunch vegetables? Empty shells."

Letting his anger take over, Gibbs suddenly charged forward. With an inhuman strength he threw the table sideways towards the door and had his hand tightly wrapped around Mexler's throat in an instant.

"Never speak of my agents like this again." He managed to growl out through gritted teeth.

"I see," Mexler smirked despite the growing lack of oxygen, "You're missing your bitch, with who you can hop into bed? Or did you prefer the male?" Mexler managed to squeak out.

On the other side of the two way mirror, Vance was too shocked to proceed what was happening in the other room.

Gibbs' blood pressure rose upon hearing the doctor's words. While he had tried his hardest to control himself before, in order to prevent Mexler's death at his hands, his brain suddenly shut down.

Driven with rage he manhandled Mexler into the wall, "You'll regret having said that," he whispered into the doctor's ear.

In the next second he hauled Mexler's head away from the wall before slamming it back against the wall.

Mexler's cry of pain was drowned out by the sickening crack of bones breaking.

"Agent Gibbs!"

Gibbs growled and let Mexler drop to the ground.

"He deserved it," muttered Gibbs as he passed Vance on his way out of Interrogation, leaving Mexler to gasp for air on the ground.

"I know," Vance agreed, smirking slightly once they were alone in the hallway.

The Director took the toothpick out of his mouth, "But I'll need to punish you for your assault on that bastard."

Gibbs huffed in response.

"I'm sure you can use the time off to get your agents settled," winked Vance, walking off to find an agent who would escort Mexler to jail and most likely to the hospital, too.

"That was … intense," Tony paused, having come out of the observation room.

"I lost control," growled Gibbs.

"But he deserved it."

"No." Gibbs looked the younger man into the eyes, "Violence is no answer. Makes ya not better than people like Mexler."

"But," the teenager wanted to disagree.

"If and only IF you feel the need to be violent do it only in self-protection. Never because you let the anger get the better of you." Gibbs said in a sharp tone.

While having totally forgotten about the under-aged observer before, he now switched back into the role of a guide. Not wanting the teenager to get false morals from him.

"Okay." Tony agreed quietly.

"Let's go home, we got some rooms to redecorate."

The teenager grinned, "About that, can I install the TV and DVD system from my flat in my room?"

xx

"Have you seen Ziva?" Gibbs suddenly stood, with Tony at his side, in Abby's lab.

"No."

"Where the hell is she."

"I'll check the surveillance video of the bullpen," stated McGee and started to work.

"Maybe she's just gone to the restrooms?" Abby offered.

"Checked - not there."

"Ducky's?"

"Don't think she would go there."

"Check?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes but took out his phone to call the old M.E. anyway.

Meanwhile McGee had found the right record and played it.

"Okay, I left the bullpen around 9 am, so let's play it from there on," muttered McGee.

"She was alone most of the morning?" Abby raised an eyebrow in question, pointing at the screen a second later, "Oh, there comes Gibbs."

"Mini-Ziva looks as if she shares your opinion about being left on her own."

"Yeah but Gibbs..." whispered Abby before she called out in disapproval, "Gibbs!"

Having just hung up on Ducky, the gray-haired agent turned towards her in question, "Abbs?"

"You made her cry," Abby fumed as she pointed to the screen where the little girl whipped her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

Taking in the scene in front of him, Gibbs' gut sank and he felt something grip at his chest painfully. The last thing he had meant to do was to hurt her feelings, knowing that their shared bond was still very fragile, despite their weekend together. But obviously he had pushed her pretty far away from him as he had more or less ignored her earlier in the bullpen.

(Ziva's point of view)

She had often noticed that people got angry at some point, when they were forced to look after her longer than they had expected. She didn't know why she thought the gray-haired man was an exception.

When he had lead her back to that boring mattress she was disappointed, sad but also angry.

If they didn't wanted her then she would leave them to their silly business. Ziva never understood how people could entertain themselves in such buildings. They only contained rooms, which were filled with lots of tables, chairs and even more papers. The people running and sitting around in these buildings where always scribbling on said papers. Very boring!

She briefly wondered why her daddy had gotten mad at her when she had decided to help him and scribbled on his papers for him. She just had wanted to help him so that they could go home sooner.

But he only got angry with her and told that lady, which sits outside of his office, to look after her. He had never allowed her to enter his office again since then.

Shedding some unwanted tears at the memory of her daddy, she quickly whipped them away before looking around to see if anyone had noticed them.

She breathed a sign of relief when she found herself still alone before the loneliness itself came back to her.

She really hated those buildings...

"I lost track of her when she rounded the corner to Legal Department on the first level."

"But?"

"Uhm, there's no but at the moment, Boss."

Gibbs shot him an disapproving look.

"She doesn't turn up at any other surveillance feeds on level 1 afterward. It's like she just disappeared." Abby explained more calmly than she felt.

"We check Level 1 then?" Tony suggested.

"I'll round some people up to help us," Gibbs agreed before turning to McGee and Abby, "You two, keep looking."

"Yes boss/Gibbs." They replied in unison.

(Ziva's point of view)

After contemplating about whether to go or to stay, she decided to take a look around at least. Gibbs had already shown her what kind of rooms were on this level. She also knew that the Director of this strange place was on the floor above.

Ziva had caught glimpses of the ground floor when she came and left with Gibbs and Tony, but they never went further than through the entrance and then to the elevator.

As far as Mini-Ziva knew, Abby was working on a different level. Gibbs had told her not to go there by herself, though.

Ziva briefly wondered if the gray-haired man meant that she wasn't supposed to leave the mattress on her own either?

Her daddy and the people who were supposed to watch her never minded when she went exploring as long as she came back...

Would the gray-haired man care if she didn't? The thought made her stop in her tracks. Maybe she should just go and see if she could find a way back to her daddy?

He had left her with other people more times than she liked, but he always smiled at her and hugged her lots when they were finally back together. Especially when she left the people which were supposed to be watching her. Her daddy was always proud at her ability to sneak out and to be able to find him. Maybe this time he would be so proud that she could stay with him.

Ziva decided that she wouldn't mind if he worked late as long as she was allowed to be close to him.

The team leader and his young companion where halfway through with checking the floor when Gibbs' cell rang.

"Tell me you got something, McGee."

'We have. But you won't like it.'

"McGee."

'We weren't able to find her on feeds which show NCIS headquarters. So we decided to check if she left it somehow...'

"So?"

'We found her walking from the Navy Yard. East Gate. Heading east-north. There aren't any surveillance cameras though.'

"Damn," Gibbs cursed under his breath. He was was about to hang up when McGee's voice was heard once again.

'I sent a Bolo out to all police stations with a photo we made when you guys came in today.'

"Gibbs?" Tony asked, having come to join the agent after he had stopped walking.

"Kid left the Navy Yard."

"That's not good."

"Ya think?" Gibbs replied sarcastically, regretting the words as soon as they had left his mouth.

"We'll find her," the teenager went on, seemingly unimpressed by the older man's tone.

(Ziva's point of view)

Outside of the boring building it was colder than Ziva had anticipated. The silly jacket, the gray-haired man made her wear all the time they went outside, may would have been a good idea to take with her. But she couldn't turn around now, could she?

Why did it had to be so cold? She looked once again at the sky. The sun was nowhere to be seen, the whole sky was covered by an ugly gray. Ziva sighed. She really really wanted to go home. But as she looked around, the differences, which she noticed the weekend before, became even more obvious. Not only did the people and their clothes looked different to her but the whole atmosphere was very strange also.

There wasn't a hint of sea in the air. A bad smell lingered in the air though. As she had crossed a big street a while ago, the smell had grown even stronger.

Ziva had been surprised when the silence she kept hearing had been interrupted by the sounds of passing cars. Thinking back to the street, she wondered what would have happened if the lady woman hadn't pulled her back on the sidewalk when Ziva tried to cross the street. The oncoming cars didn't seemed to lose speed as they had approached her. This was a very strange place...

"Anything?" Tony asked as he silently slipped into the lab. By now every agent was aware of the missing girl and the resulting dull mood, which seemed to linger in the whole building, hasn't stopped at the goth' lab. To Tony it seemed as if the lab was the center of the mood. One out of two at least. Cause Gibbs wasn't better off than Abby.

Abby shook her head, "Where can she be?" she asked him, her eyes showing concern mingled with an edge of desperation.

Tony didn't knew how to answer that one. After all he was worried himself.

"It's getting dark outside. And the temperatures are dropping! Gibbs said the jacket he brought her still lies in the bullpen! And she has nothing to track on her!" By now Abby's rambling had turned into angry and desperate cries.

"Abby!" Tony had enough. He wasn't used to crying girls, less alone crying woman who seem to be more agitated than sad.

"Can I hug you?" Abby asked timidly, having calmed down as if someone had pulled a switch.

"Sure," the teenager agreed quietly and went willingly into one of Abby's embraces.

"Maybe that helps her clear her mind," he thought, still not comfortable with being hugged by a more or less unfamiliar woman. Girls, yes. Woman, no.

(Ziva's point of view)

Ziva felt so cold, but all she could think of was that her daddy wouldn't approve of her shivering like she did right now.

When she fell out of the tree in their backyard, her daddy was disappointed when her mommy told him that she had cried. He wouldn't hug, kiss or cuddle her when he had come home. And Ziva's leg had hurt so bad. At night, her big brother Ari had told her that their daddy didn't liked it when people showed their emotions. So Ziva tried not to do so anymore. She was pretty pleased with herself for not allowing herself to show too much weakness so far, as Ari had named it.

But shivering was a weakness too, yes?

The tears which Ziva tried so hard not to shed, silently made their way down her cheeks. Instead of whipping them away though, she just let them come this time. Where was the point in hiding them when it was dark and cold and she was all alone?

Her only company were the lights in her new sneakers, as she step for step steadily made her way through the darkness.

Ziva looked once again at the park in which she found herself after a long tiresome journey. As far as she could tell, there were no sounds, only the leaves of the trees waving in the late evening night.

She hasn't seen any other persons for some time now. Only an old man on a park bench, of which she wasn't sure if he was still alive or not. Her mommy always tells her to stay away from people who lay motionless somewhere, and so she did.

Slowly Ziva lost hope to find her daddy in this strange place. It had never taken her so long to find him. Where was he? A new wave of tears fell and Ziva started to wish that she had stayed with Gibbs and the others....

~ TBC ~