Soon the whole team had come over and most of them were putting up the decorations but the mood was too somber for a party.

Ducky put a hand on Gibbs' as he reached for his third cup of coffee in an hour, anyway a poor replacement for bourbon.

"Enough Jethro" Gibbs considered fighting him for a split second then sighed and nodded.

"I'm going to go up and wake her up." Ducky nodded. "I will come and cheek on you if you're not down in 20 minutes."

Gibbs could feel all pairs of eyes on him as he climbed the stairs.

He didn't knock as he didn't want to startle the child awake so when he softly opened the door, he was not expecting the child to be staring at the ceiling.

"Hi Amira."

"Hello Sir." Gibbs never quite got used to that word.

"You're up."

"No Sir." She was technically correct.

"Well then get up, there's a princess party waiting for you." Gibbs tried to bring enthusiasm into his tone hoping that would do the trick.

Amira looked at him for almost 15 seconds before she asked, "Is it a part of my punishment, Sir?"

"No child, as I said before, that is done. This is your birthday party or at least the first part of it."

"May I please be excused Sir?"

"Hey, I know you haven't had the best start to the weekend but give it a shot and you might feel better?"

She was quiet for over a minute so Gibbs asked, "Any particular birthday presents that you're looking forward to?"

"May I please spend the evening in bed?"

"Amira, enough." Gibbs snapped then took a breath before continuing, "Stop sulking. Too many people have put too much effort into this. You made a mistake, you got punished, it's over. It's almost time for dinner. So get up unless you want to add being late to dinner to your list of infractions."

A tear ran down the child's cheek as she got up and Gibbs felt like a little bit of a monster.

"Would you like me to help you into your new princess dress?"

"No Sir." Gibbs decided to let it go for now.

"Alright then, let's go."

Gibbs moved to pick up the child, to carry her downstairs as a treat but the child stepped back with a "I'm sorry."

Gibbs froze for a moment then stepped away and explained, "was just reaching to pick you up."

"May I walk?"

"Sure thing."

When Abby saw Amira walk down the stairs, she let out the breath she seemed to have been holding and went to hug the child shouting "Happy Birthday!"

Amira seemed startled, she turned back, hands spread to reach out, saw Gibbs and then just wrapped her arms around herself. Gibbs stretched his arm to stop Abby, not sure if the goth had noticed that her energy was not welcome right now.

"Let's eat dinner first," Ducky diffused the situation.

He had deliberately set up himself and Amira on the opposite side of the table from Gibbs.

The menu was all of Amira's favorites - a surprisingly low amount of junk foods - and some meat mainly for Gibbs.

The dinner started quiet till Ducky poked Abby to start talking about something. Abby started rambling about her favorite disney princesses and the kind of goth princess she had been emailing disney about and the other pitched in with comments.

Ducky kept a surreptitious watch on Amira's plate and when she had only moved her food around for almost 10 minutes without a single bite into her mouth, he tried, "what's your favorite food, Amira?"

"I don't know, Sir."

"Who else can know the answer to that?" Ducky tried to joke but only got another "I don't know, Sir" in response.

"May I be excused?" a quiet voice.

"After the food on your plate is cleared," Gibbs answered.

"I'm not hungry."

"You still need to eat."

"Yes Sir."

Amira started putting the food into her mouth and chewing. The conversation continued around the table but on her fourth bite, there was a sound and Amira threw up. Ducky reached to lift the child and suddenly asked, "Do you have a fever, child?"

Amira threw up again in response.

Ducky carried the child back up to her room and asked Jethro to bring a glass of juice and water.

He started running a bath for the child who was sobbing now.

"Hush child, what's wrong?"

"Everything."

"Does something hurt?"

"Everything."

"I'll soon give you something for your stomach."

"And what about my bottom?"

"I'll have to discuss this with Jethro but I can give you something for that too."

"And what about my heart?"

Ducky, who was always full of stories, was at a loss of words at that. And Jethro, who was a functional mute suddenly blubbered in the doorway.

Ducky got back first and said, "Amira, the only thing we can do to help your heart is if you talk to us. Tell us what happened. Talking makes the heart feel lighter and makes it hurt less."

"No."

"What?"

"I said no."

"I heard you child but I didn't understand what you mean."

"No talking doesn't help make your heart feel better."

"I'm a doctor child, trust me."

"May I go to bed?"

Ducky was about to say something when Jethro interjected, "Yes, you may."

When Amira left the bathroom, Ducky pointed questioning eyes to Jethro who murmured, "should have just let her do that in the first place."

Ducky cocked an eyebrow, looked into the room then shut the bathroom door.

"Jethro stop feeling sorry for yourself this instant. You may indulge in Bourbon later after the child, your child, has gone to bed. But right now pull yourself together. The child needs some nutrients and some medicines and we need to find out what has happened to know if anything else is wrong. Her health and safety are the priorities right now. Clear?"

Gibbs was taken aback by the lecture but the metaphorical slap on the head brought him back to his senses.

"Clear."

They walked into the room to find Amira about to get into bed.

"Amira, take a quick bath and change into a fresh set of pajamas," Gibbs instructed.

Amira looked at him for a moment, then at Ducky and then said, "Yes Sir."

Gibbs used the five minutes to set up the bed and Ducky got out the medicines.

When she stepped out, Gibbs sat on the bed, considered lifting her onto his lap but then tapped the bed beside him. Amira climbed up.

"Take these meds," Gibbs said as he handed her the medicines with the glass of juice.

She stared at it for a while then took them.

"And now one last thing, what happened today?"

No response.

"Amira, I expect an answer to the question."

"You already know, Sir."

"No, there are clearly parts that I don't know about."

"I don't know Sir."

"Amira, I have been patient with you but now it is affecting your health which I will not risk. So you have 2 minutes to tell me or I am going to spank you till you tell me. Withholding important information is like lying and you know how I feel about lying."

"Amira, just tell us, I promise we'll help and you'll feel better," Ducky tried to soften the situation.

"I don't know what you want me to say. Just tell me what you want me to say."

Gibbs considered his response and answered, "half a minute has crossed, Amira."

"Did you bring me here just so that you could keep yelling at me and hitting me? Was Gibbsy even real?" Amira screamed.