NCIS

Disclaimer: NCIS and characters do not belong to me.

SUMMARY:

Every year Ziva is hauted by a nightmare of her Somalia and what could have happened. This year it's been haunting her for two weeks, everyone is beginning to notice. She has been in a bad temper and Tony seems to be getting the worst of it.

HAUNTED BY THE NIGHTMARES...

CHAPTER 1: The Nighmare...

ZIVA'S APARTMENT...

DREAM *

She had been captured and had lost track of time. They came into the cell again, this time dragging her to her feet and putting a bag on her head.

She was in the dark. She didn't know what was going to happen to her now. She was being led somewhere and a part of her hoped that after so long they would finally kill her...get it over with.

She heard a door open and was led into a room.

"Questions are being asked in town about missing NCIS agents..." Saleem said and Ziva wondered if she had heard right.

'NCIS agents? It couldn't be...it was not possible.'

"Concern that U.S. forces that might mobilize. One of you will tell me the identities and locations of all operatives in the area and the other will die." Saleem said and took the bag off her head.

Then she saw him...

Tony DiNozzo

She had been dreaming of him since she had been captured and wondered now if she was dreaming.

"I'll give you a moment to decide who lives." Saleem said and left.

They were alone, the three of them. Her...Tony and McGee.

"Well, how was your summer?" Tony asked her, she still couldn't believe it.

"Out of everyone in the world who could have found me, it had to be you." She told him. "You're welcome. So are you happy to see me?" Tony asked her.

"You should not have come." She said. "All right then. Good catching up. I'll be going now..."

He tried to get up, but was strapped to the chair.

"Oh, yeah, forgot. Taken prisoner." Tony told her.

"Are you all right, McGee?" She asked the man that was behind her chair.

"I'm just glad you're alive." She heard McGee say.

"You thought I was dead?" She inquired in shock looking at Tony.

"Oh, yeah." Tony said.

"Then why are you here?" Ziva asked looking him in the eye.

"Well, McGee...McGee, didn't think you were dead." Tony replied.

"Tony, why are you here?" She repeated.

"Couldn't live without you, I guess." Tony said and she could see something in his eyes.

"So you will die with me. You should have left me alone." She told him, because after everything that happened to her...she didn't know how she would go on living.

"Okay, tried, couldn't. Listen, you should know I've taken some truth serum, so if there's questions you don't want answers to..." Tony began.

"I did not ask for anyone to put themselves in harm's way for me. I do not deserve it." She said sadly.

"So what are doing out here, some kind of Monastic Experience? Doing Penance?" Tony asked her.

"It is justified." She was all she could think to say.

"Get over yourself." Tony told her.

"I have. Now you tell Saleem everything he wants to hear and you try to save yourselves. I am ready to die." She knew she was giving up.

"That's not how it works." McGee said from behind her.

"How what works?" She asked and was curious.

"The plan." Tony told her simply.

"Tony...they have 30 men, heavily armed. They have anti-tanks and anti-planes. What do you have?" She asked him.

"Well, that's where things get a little tricky..."

He then told her about talking to Vance, almost giving up and talking to Gibbs about changing the circumstances and getting captured on purpose.

"Wait...you got captured on purpose?" She couldn't believe that was true.

"Yeah." Tony replied.

"These men are killers, Tony." She said didn't know how they were going to get out of this.

"I know. That's why we have to stay alive long enough to not get dead." Tony said and then it came to her.

"That would involve being rescued." She said.

"Yes, it would." He said and she was a little confused.

"How long will it take?" She had to know.

"I don't know. How long do you think I've been talking?" He asked her.

"What's the plan?" She was dying to know.

"Oh, well..." Tony began.

'That doesn't sound like they have a plan.' Ziva thought.

"We fail to contact Dubai, word gets carried in the Med and they scramble F-22 Raptors that burns sand into gloss. I don't know how long it will take. Hours or...days. Ziva, can you fight?" Tony asked and she was unsure if she could, because she was already starting to give up.

Even after training in Mossad and NCIS.

She heard the door open and knew something was about to happen.

"Oh, hey, Saleem. What's up, man? What's the commotion?" Tony said turning his attention to Saleem.

"We're moving out." Saleem said.

"Oh, well that's good. I was getting kind of tired of sitting in this place." Tony said.

"We're not taking prisoners." Saleem informed them.

"Oh, well, okay. It was nice talking with you." Tony said and she wondered...

'How could Tony act like that? They were all about to die.'

"No..." Saleem said and Ziva gasp as Saleem grabbed her head and tilted it back.

She felt the knife at her throat.

"We're not done." Saleem continued.

"If they do not check in, their people will come looking for them." She said and she was doing as Tony said...buying time...

"Ziva, shut up." Tony said.

"Kill me. You'll need the Americans for leverage." She was ready to die as she had already stated.

"I do not make bargains." Saleem said his knife to her throat.

"Do you make pizza?" Tony asked and Saleem seemed confused.

"What?" Saleem asked.

She heard something from behind her and knew the knife had been knocked out of Saleem's hands.

A gunshot and she knew McGee was dead...this couldn't be happening.

"No! Stop! Stop! There's so..." Tony began, another gunshot and she saw it his hit Tony right between the eyes.

Ziva wanted to scream, but she was in shock.

* END DREAM

Ziva sat up in bed; she was soaked with sweat and crying.

A nightmare...the same nightmare she had been having for years, since it had happened.

It happened every year as the day she was rescued drew near. Usually it was only a day or two, but this year...she had been having the nightmare for the past two weeks.

She was having a hard time staying focused and awake at work. She was always tired and had been trying to find ways to stay awake, but it was getting harder.

She knew Gibbs would be asking her soon what was going on and she had seen Tony looking over at her...a look on concerned look on his face.

She had watched as he played his pranks and had picked on McGee; everything was normal...except for her.

She looked at the clock...02:45 in the morning. She knew she would be awake the rest of the night and got up out of bed.

She would take a shower and try to calm down. She wanted to call Tony and McGee, but no one knew of her nightmare.

She couldn't explain it...it was getting closer to the anniversary of the day they had rescued her.

She ran the water and after a minute climbed in the shower, letting the water pour over her. She was drained and wanted to cry. She had been in a bad mood at work and snapped at everyone...Tony getting the worst of her bad temper.

It was because of the fact she wasn't sleeping.

After a while, she turned off the shower, dried off and got dressed. Then deciding there was nothing she could do and looking at the clock that now read 03: 45.

It was early, but she knew there would be nobody at work right now and she could at least try to get some work done