It was a normal, quiet day in the NCIS bullpen. The team was sitting down at their desks doing paperwork. Well, everyone but Ziva, who had take their daughter to a dentist appointment. There was an awkward silence in the building until Tony yawned and stretched his arms behind his head. He couldn't wait for Ziva to get back. He hated looking at her desk and seeing it empty. He wasn't used to seeing it empty.
McGee could see Tony checking Ziva's desk every 5 minutes. "She's going to be back soon, Tony," he said to the senior field agent.
Tony knew this was true. She was only supposed to be an hour. She would be back any minute now. "Yeah, I know, McGee, but, I can't help but think that something is off. My gut is telling me that something isn't right. But I can't figure out what it is."
"I'm sure everything is fine. She just went to the dentist." And then, McGee said the dreaded words. The ones that are always followed with a horrible outcome: "What could possibly go wrong?"
And, as if it was planned, his question was answered. Tony heard her screams before the elevator doors even opened. When she appeared, she had glass in her left arm, which was covered in blood, along with the scratches on her face, neck, and hands. She was also covered in soot and reeked of smoke. Worst of all, she was crying. Tony had never seen her cry. Never. Something terrible must have happened.
"Ziva! Ziva! What happened?" he kept asking her. She ran into his arms and threw hers around his waist, burying her head into his shoulder and crying uncontrollably. By now Gibbs and McGee were at their side and the entire squad room was on their feet trying to watch the drama unfolding in front of them.
"It was horrible, Tony! We were coming home from the dentist and there was a pothole. I know how much Sali loves when the car goes over them so I thought I would go over it. Just one pothole. But it wasn't just one pothole. It was-" Then she started bawling her eyes out again.
"Shh. It's okay, it's okay." Tony tried to keep her calm. "Just calm down now keep going. What happened next?"
"Okay. Bt it wasn't a pothole. It was a¾ a roadside bomb." At the mention of the word "bomb," the whole room got dead silent, except for one person who called the director to let her know what was being said. Ziva continued her story as Tony took her to her desk so she could sit. McGee called Ducky and told him to come to the bullpen and to bring a first aid kit.
"The car flipped on its side and onto the side of the road. I jumped out and ran around the car to try to get Sali out, but someone hit me in the face with the butt of a sniper gun." She indicated the bruise on her right cheek. Tony's hand immediately went to it, the light bouncing off the engraving in his gold wedding band. "I fell to the ground and was dazed for only a few seconds, but when I came to, I looked up and- I looked up and the man who was carrying the gun that had hit me was closing the back door of a van, and Sali was inside being held by another man." She locked eyes with Tony, his face blurry behind her tears. Ziva paused and tried to hold back a sob, failing horribly as it ripped through her. Her team could barely make out what she said next. "She was screaming for me Tony. She was crying and screaming for me and all I could do was watch as that man slammed he door in her face and drove away with our little girl! They have our little girl, Tony!" Ziva bawled her eyes out as Tony held her in her arms and tried to comfort her, while he himself was too much in shock to be much help to her at this point.
Abby suddenly came bouncing into the bullpen happy as can be. "Hey, Ziva! I heard that you were back. Where's Sali?" Ziva began to bawl even harder at the mention of her daughter's name. "What did I do?" a very confused Abby asked her fellow agents.
"Just don't ask," McGee told her as he took her aside to tell her the story out of earshot of Ziva and Tony. Tony was trying to get information out of Ziva, but was too much of a mess to be any help to anyone right now. Tony had never seen her like this. He wanted to cry just watching her. But he was even more upset at the fact that his little buttercup was in the hands of a stranger and that he had hurt his wife and possibly his daughter. He would catch the men who did this to his family if it was the last thing he did.