As the bourbon slid unceremoniously down her throat, she felt almost instant comfort. I am spending too much time with Gibbs, she thought to herself sourly as took another swig before carefully placing the bottle on the glass table in front of her. The team caught a particularly rough case. A teenage girl, 16 years in age, had been caught in an explosion of an abandoned warehouse. Her sister, being the girl's only living family, had been devastated. Ziva had put on her Mossad face, keeping all her emotions in check, not allowing any of her teammates to see her vulnerability. No one had thought that she would have a problem; no one thought about the case and its similarity to Ziva's own experiences, and for that, she was grateful.

The case was closed. Homegrown terrorists had been using the abandoned warehouse for their headquarters and the young girl had stumbled upon it unconsciously. She was an innocent bystander, and it killed Ziva to see another woman broken and shattered like she herself felt. Ziva had rushed to finish her paperwork and did all but sprint out of the office.

McGee and Gibbs were all still at the office finishing paperwork. Tony had been pacing the office and Abby sat quietly spinning in Tony's chair. He saw one of Ziva's desk drawers partially open and curiously opened it. Inside was a picture yellow with age. Tony looked at it and broke the silence in the bullpen. "I didn't know Ziva knew the victim in the Reagan case." Three pairs of eyes looked at him from their respective desks as he held up the picture in response to their questioning looks. "That's Ziva in the middle of a young girl, who looks remarkably like the vic, and a young boy, who looks strangely like Ari."

"Shit," muttered Gibbs as McGee got up to see the picture. "Tim, sit. Tony, that's not the vic; that's Tali, her sister who died at 16. She was killed in an explosion in a market in Israel. And yes, that's Ari. She was Ari's sister and control officer. Before you get outraged, Dinozzo, she killed him. I didn't."

Abby looked from the photo to the older man. "Oh my god. She told me about Tali. How could I have not seen the similarities? Is she okay? When did she leave?"

Tony was still processing information. "She killed him?"

"Yes, Dinozzo. She shot Ari because he was going to shoot me. We kept it out of the report because she is Mossad and it was for her safety. Her father would have her killed for killing a fellow Mossad agent, especially since Ari was his son. Abby, call Ziva now. Tony, do not leave this building until you can control your emotion whether it be worry or anger. She needs us as a comfort not to scream at her for keeping a secret. Got it?"

"On it, Boss." Abby spoke as she quickly dialed Ziva's cell from memory. Tony simply nodded still trying to digest the information. His partner had killed her brother to save his boss—their boss—and had kept it a secret for over 3 years. He didn't understand how she had managed to keep something that big a secret for so long, but after all, she was his crazy ninja chick. She could do anything.

"Phone's off." Abby stated as she dialed Ziva's house.

The ringing of her home phone was the last thing Ziva heard before she slipped into unconsciousness, the knife dropping from her hand.