Did I mention that the story takes place in 2010? You will find out why in later chapters

Disclaimer: disclaimed

"Oh," was all that McGee could say.

He exchanged a worried look with Tony. "Care to share, you two?" Gibbs asked, unnerved.

Back in Abby's lab:

"Daniel Connery, born on January 15th, 1971, joined the Marine Corps two months after he turned 18. Spotless record. 1998 to 2000 he was deployed to the AFRICOM central in Stuttgart, Germany. Married his wife, Norah, in 2001. He was deployed to Germany again in September 2002, took his then pregnant wife with him, they lived in Germany until he was transferred back to the States in 2008. Died in 2009 in Iraq, shot in the head in combat, just like Mackenzie told me earlier. Norah was born in 1978 and she, too, joined the Marine Corps when she was 18. She was deployed in 1999 to the AFRICOM central, that's probably where she met her husband. She gave birth to Mackenzie in Stuttgart on December 3rd, 2002 and since then, has been a reservist. Mackenzie attended kindergarten and preschool in Filderstadt - I think that is in Stuttgart."

"Isn't it unusual for Marines to keep getting deployed to the same location abroad?" Abby asked, pointing to Daniel Connery's record.

"Yes, you are right." Ziva answered slowly, deep in thought. "Look it says here that he was born in Berlin, Germany and only moved with his parents to the US in '79, so he must have been fluent in German, that's probably why he was so useful in Stuttgart.

Oh, I almost forgot- look Abby, I got this off her sleeve when I cleaned her clothes earlier." Ziva gave Abby the paper towel with the muddy substance. "I hope it will do like that, I didn't want to take her jacket, she was so cold."

"That's totally fine, Ziva, whatever it is, I will get right on it!" Abby stared past Ziva's shoulder for a second, then said:" Uh- hi! I'm Abby. You must be Mackenzie, right?"

Mackenzie had just come out of the ballistics lab, clearly confused, still clutching Bert to her chest, her hair all tousled and her face quite pale. She mustered Abby for a second, before she looked around, still confused and then seemed relieved when she recognized Ziva.

"Ziva!" she choked out. Ziva lifted her up onto her hip and the girl immediately buried her face in Ziva's neck.

"Did you sleep well?" Abby asked, unsure of what to do. But Mackenzie just sniffed for a while. Then she shook her head slightly and mumbled into Ziva's neck, "I had a nightmare". Bert made a small farting sound, squished between the two.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ziva asked carefully. Mackenzie shook her head again. She still had her arms wrapped around Ziva's neck in a death grip but carefully peeked at Abby through a curtain of Ziva's hair. Bert made another, louder fart. Mackenzie looked at him and almost smiled a bit. Abby took that as her cue:

"Hi, I'm Abby and that is Bert, my farting hippo."

Mackenzie smiled a bit more.

"You know, I think he has had too much beans these past few days, he won't stop farting!"

Mackenzie giggled and squeezed Bert harder. The following fart was so loud that an Agent just walking past the door stopped dead in her tracks and glanced around the corner into the lab with a half shocked half disgusted expression on her face.

"See, everybody's jealous of you now, Mackenzie, because secretly they've always wanted to hug Bert!" Abby explained with tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.

The girl relaxed visibly as she was laughing. When the three of them had finally recovered from their giggle-attack, only one of her arms was draped around Ziva's neck loosely, the other one was holding Bert and squeezed him again.

They looked up surprised when Ziva's cell phone rang in her pocket.

"Cell towers must work again. Yeah, it's not raining that hard anymore. Come on Mackenzie, I'll show you my lab, or, what I like to call it: LABBY!" Abby offered.

Ziva put the girl down and reached for her phone. The screen said "Incoming call from Gibbs" but she didn't hit the green button before checking and seeing that Abby, bless her, had started her tour in the ballistics lab and closed the door behind them.

"Gibbs?"

As always, he didn't waste a second and got right to the point: "Is the girl's name Mackenzie Connery?"

"Yes."

"We just found the body of her mother, apparently shot in her living room. Did you talk to her already?"

"I did. She witnessed the murder from outside when she came back. The murderers saw her and chased her through the woods. She gave me a fairly detailed description of what happened but I did not press her further."

"We'll talk when we get back. Just make her feel safe. I'll have DiNozzo pack a few things from her bedroom."

The beeping sound told her that he had already disconnected.

At the crime scene:

"DiNozzo, go back upstairs and grab a few things from the girl's bedroom!" Gibbs ordered.

"Uhh…like what, toys?" Tony asked, taken aback. How would he know what a seven-year-old needed?

"Okay, I'll go, you two finish up here, we're leaving in fifteen mikes."

Gibbs went upstairs and entered the girl's bedroom. It was spacious and had a window that looked out over the front lawn. The walls were a light green and the one opposite the window a light lavender color. The room held a queen-sized bed with an antique-looking chest at the foot, a desk in front of the window, a dresser and a door that he found out led into a small closet.

Gibbs looked into the closet, then the dresser and finally found a small children's trolley, a green backpack and a few toys in the chest. He took a green plush thing from her pillow that had the shape of a walking person seen from the side and put that into the backpack together with a blanket that by its looks had been dragged around the whole girl's life and a book from her nightstand.

He then went over to the closet and started putting clothes into the trolley. In the dresser he found underwear, a hairbrush, hairpins, elastics and shoes and behind the door on a hook he discovered a few jackets.

The next challenge was the bathroom. He put on some rubber gloves and entered the room. He exhaled relieved, because it was easy to tell which toothbrush belonged to Mackenzie. A green children's brush with a ladybug on it and a tube of children's toothpaste went into the trolley where it was joined by some shampoo. He went back to the bedroom and looked around. After a few seconds of internal debate he took a photo off the wall. It showed Mackenzie, her mother, and a man who was probably her father in front of some building with a glass dome, which on the second glance turned out to be the German Reichstag in Berlin. It went into the backpack next to her plush cuddle thing.

"BOSS! WE'RE READY TO GO!" He heard from downstairs and then some steps on the stairs. McGee entered the room.

"Need some help, Boss?"

"What do you reckon she would want from her room, other than clothes and stuff, Tim?" Gibbs asked

McGee looked around: „Well, my sister was a dancer, she wouldn't go anywhere without her ballerina shoes. Judging by the trophies and medals on the walls and the dresser, she must be a gymnast. So, maybe a leotard and her sports bag?"

"Good thinking. Except I couldn't find a sports bag." He went into the closet and to a corner with a whole rack full of leotards. "Which ones?"

McGee stepped into the closet and glanced at the rack "Whoa…hm, no idea boss, just take one in green or purple? That seem to be her favorite colors…"

Gibbs stuffed a few in the trolley and handed it to McGee: "Take this downstairs, I'll be right down."

Gibbs took the backpack and with one last glance around the room closed the door and went downstairs to the car. The trolley was already sitting in the trunk and Tony and McGee were in the MRCT truck, ready to leave.

The drive back to HQ was spent in deep thought. Tony and McGee were both thinking about the little girl that had lost her mother in such a brutal way. Gibbs was deep in memories… old memories, one night in specific, that wouldn't get out of his mind since he saw the body of Norah Connery earlier…

McGee sat next to Tony, who had his eyes focused on the road. Of course they had lost sight of Gibbs in the car, the moment they had pulled out of the Connery's driveway. "Whoa!" Tony suddenly exclaimed, looked in the rearview mirror and then cursed. "That was Gibbs. He must have turned around. Did we forget something?"