The Lady in the Portrait

Jessica nodded "forgot his bottle" when Khaat mentioned tea jess sighed maybe a cup would do her some good , help her relax a bit , with a smile "I'd love to have soem of your dads tea it always makes me feel better " she pushed the pram towards Khaat just as Nicalus kicked off his blanket again , shighing she picked it up leaving it hung over the handel bar "well now what you going to do" she said softly to him , he gave a soft giggle grasping his foot. Jess smiled as she noticed he didn't really want it where as caitlin had fallen asleep under hers.

Khaat led the way to the back room where her mother had created almost efficiency apartment for herself. It had a small compact, efficiency style kitchen, an antique wood table and chairs, a long comfortable sofa in an American Southwest print, along with some tan leather chairs. The walls were a buckskin color, and she had made some artwork that was inspired by America's native american artwork. Colorful paintings and tapestries, Mission style furniture, Leaded stained glass lighting fixtures.

Khaat got out some of the same style large tea mugs that she had in her own home,and she sent them magically to the coffee table. She sent the teapot, which was extra large, to the coffee table onto a tile trivet to help keep it warm, and sent cream, sugar, spoons, and napkins. She also found a tin of her mothers homemade cookies and sent that to the coffee table as well. "Sorry it's not more formal," Khaat apologized. "I do know how to serve a proper tea. And this, really, isn't it. You know, I really like this room. I might have to redo my study. Make yourselves at home. Sit anywhere you like."

Jess rolled the pram into the room choosing to sit on the couch as it made it easier for feeding if the twins became hungry but so far catlin was asleep nd nicalus was happy playing ith his toes and gurggling. Standing Jess walked over to the table and pored herself a cup of tea she smiled smelling the aroma "smells wonderful Khaat" she said blowing across the top she took a sip feeling almost instaly calmed and ablwe to focuse at the job in hand the finding of the woman in the portrait.

Moving back to the couch she checked once more on the twins glad of the pice she now had, catlin gave a soft sneese but never woke. Jess smiled and chuckled seeing the diferances between them now aparent.

Gibbs sighed and followed Khaat and the other woman through into the back. Ziva was capable of getting herself out of any situation without help. He didn’t understand why her general health was so important to people that had never met her. At least someone cared though. He hadn’t seen her in years, not that he could really remember much about her off of the top of his head. He knew that the ignoramus that had dragged him to the gallery probably had some kind of premonition beforehand. The kid based his life very heavily on luck and didn’t seem to whether he’d get killed in a Quidditch accident because it would just be ‘the way of things’. He knew that the idiot would do anything in his power to prevent it but he did count on luck quite a lot.

He sat down in one of the chairs but didn’t relax, he kept a ridged sitting position with his shoulders squared and back straight against the back of the chair. He looked at the tea with a little bit of contempt and promised himself some coffee on the way back. He swallowed, his throat dry for some unknown reason. He sighed again and looked at Khaat, waiting for her to begin her longwinded explanation of why she knew about Ziva etcetera, etcetera.

Khaat looked at him, unable to suppress a small laugh, "I know. Tea. Here. Lets fix that." She conjured two mugs of french roast. One for him and one for her. "Better?" she asked. It would have been far better if it were brewed coffee, but conjured was better than tea.

"I've been having nightmares about her for a long time," She told Gibbs softly. "I had never seen her before that. But I do see her being held in a damp, dark, cellar type of room. She's being held in enchanted shackles that prevent her escape. She's bruised--a lot. There is some significant physical pain and discomfort--maybe some injuries. She's getting thinner. I'm not sure they feed her. Either that or she's not trusting the food they give her. She has been completely unable to free herself--for quite awhile now. She's been beaten--more than once. They've tortured her for information--about whoever sent her. So far, it doesn't look like she's told them anything, from what I can see. Whoever sent her betrayed her into this. She's thought a lot about this--about being betrayed. She's angry--and hurt.

"You'll have to look outside of where she usually is. Not where she usually lives. The room I see her in is made of old, heavy, thick stone. I think you're going to have to look for a large building--long standing. Like a castle or something. The plants I see at the cellar window remind me of flowers from Eastern Europe. Like the little purple ones that grow as wildflowers in the fields at Charlie Weasley's place in Romania. For all I know she very well could be in Romania. I don't know if those little purple flowers grow much of any place else except close to where Charlie's place is. Is that any help?"

Khaat heard a noise. Her mother talking very sternly to someone, and she could not imagine it would be Eli. The next she knew a falcon came gliding into the room, and circled the room twice before landing beside Gibbs. It looked highly irritated and it screeched at him angrily. "Um, he seems to know you. I presume he's a friend of yours, Gibbs?" Khaat asked.