Hey there, I'm with a new well not entirely new story. I got the idea to this back in 2015 but it wasn't really working out then. So I had it left on my computer and two days ago I stumbled upon it once again and the flow returned and I finished this in two days. So it's not proofread and sometimes my german way of saying things in English comes through but oh well just live with that.
This story takes place in Season 6 episode 25th Aliyah when Tony and Ziva had their talk and she took him down on the ground. From there this story differs greatly from canon, but I will try to explain how this happens. This is no character bashing but Ziva is not particuarly nice in this story.
All the character are not belonging to me, you know the drill, let's get on with the story. This is already complete and I will publish the chapter soon after another. Thanks for reading.
He was coughing up sand after being pressed down onto the dusty soil by his - now former - partner Ziva David. She was angry with him. That he could understand since he basically killed her boyfriend trying to protect her from him and his games but she was never a person that was thankful for such interference.
She held the weapon in his face, hands shaking with emotion. Not the cold blooded killer she wanted to be, claimed to have been all these years but rather a very hurt woman grieving for her loved one and not seeing anything else.
Yes, she was hurting and he could get it, he really did. That's why he'd asked her if she wanted to take a swing at him. Which she did just not with her fist or as a slap but with a loaded weapon, first his knee then his chest. He would never say that he was unprepared for death, his job was too dangerous for it to never happen but in this moment, he hadn't counted on dying and he was afraid. Afraid that she would pull the trigger, taking his life while thinking the worst of him.
He swallowed. She hadn't shot him yet and he didn't want to change that either. So he was silent, instead of giving her a piece of his mind and reaming her a new one for behaving this way. Oh well, the latter Gibbs would do once he would find them on the ground, struggling with each other.
After an eternity, at least it felt like it, Ziva finally took her weapon down. She didn't allow him to get up but that was fine with him. His arm hurt a lot after the assault and the broken bones wouldn't like to be used to get up himself. He felt his confidence returning.
¨Well Zeevah...¨ he started but couldn't finish his sentence as she slapped him across the face with her pistol. It hurt. A lot.
¨Ouch, nice one David¨ he answered while throwing her a dirty look. He would never tell her how much her actions hurt him not just physically. She just smirked.
"I thought that would get you to shut up. Remember I told Gibbs that he shouldn't worry about you as only two people in this country have the allowance to execute you?¨ He nodded, his cheek burned from the metal hitting it harshly before.
¨Well, one of these people is me. GET HIM!¨ The last words were said in Hebrew but you didn't have to be a genius to figure it out. She finally stood up and freed Tony's body from hers but before he could even try to get up on his own, four men came towards him.
A well placed kick in his rib-cage left him without any air to defend himself. He struggled but they restrained him fast and efficient. He was lifted from the ground, hands were cuffed behind his back, a cloth was quickly placed in his mouth to gag him. He tried to do anything against them but they were too many and he was injured. He stood no chance and they shoved a thick woolen bag over his head, so his senses were deprived of any sensation. Except the pain, that one he could still feel and the rough handling of him when they finally loaded him into a car and he landed on his arm was just that, painful.
His only thought was that Gibbs would realize that he was missing soon and hopefully come and rescue him. This time he didn't see any chance for himself to save the day, more precisely save him and get out of this situation alone.
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Gibbs and Vance were leaving the headquarters of Mossad in a somber mood. Eli David was still not very amused being played by Anthony Dinozzo and his friend Leon for seeing it through. But his hands were bound too and he didn't want to cause an international incident just over this. Michael had been a good operative but there were others that could take his place and he did kill an agent when it was unnecessary to do so. So he would let Dinozzo walk away this time but he promised Leon that this man should never try to step onto Israeli soil again or he would be facing consequences. Vance had promised that it would not happen and they parted on good terms. Gibbs was fuming the whole time but for the sake of peace between both countries he didn't voice his exact opinion on where to stick this kind of order.
¨Where the hell's Dinozzo?¨ he growled after leaving the building. His agent wouldn't go sight-seeing in this kind of situation now would he?
Vance who was still remembering Dinozzos awesome interrogation while being interrogated himself, didn't choose to comment it.
¨Maybe he went to talk with Miss David again?¨ the director surmised. He had seen the venomous looks that the Israeli had thrown towards her partner the whole flight and he knew that Tony would mostly try to right the wrong again.
Gibbs sighed. ¨Shouldn't do that. Still too fresh for her, she won't listen anyway...¨ He wouldn't either but he would've probably killed Dinozzo had he killed off his wife. Yes any of his wives, even Diane.
Vance sat down on a nearby bench and looked towards the sun.
¨I guess we have to wait for them then? David isn't here either.¨
Gibbs sat down next to him.
¨Don't know if she should come back yet. Might need a little time for herself. To sort things out... They can't work together like this.¨
¨So you plan to leave her here? You do know that Eli will immediately use her for some mission of his, one of no return?¨ Vance couldn't believe it.
Gibbs cringed when following this line of thought.
"I know that Leon. But still, can't have her working back in DC like this. You know how I was then and Mike was reluctant with me at first. Said the grieve is killing me inside out. Turned out he was right."
Now it was Vance's turn to cringe. He knew what Gibbs meant and he'd rather not talk about it. It could cost his directorship in the least not to mention entirely possible legal repercussions.
"Yeah well, since we are already not-talking about this, do you think we have to worry that Officer David could try to harm Agent Dinozzo?"
Now that was even more a train of thought that Gibbs didn't want to follow further.
"She better not." he growled. As much as he got her position there was a line that you didn't cross and he knew she did it before but now she was part of his team and his team followed his rules. Didn't matter that he hadn't in the past either.
He got up from the bench they had seated themselves upon and looked around for signs of his agents.
"Either way, we should look for them, the flight is scheduled this afternoon." Vance tried for diplomacy. As the director of NCIS he had to look out for all his agents even if he didn't like them personally. He had spoken with Tom Morrow before as he was the director at the time Dinozzo got hired and the man only had good things to say about his "asset" as he called him.
"He keeps Jethro in line while still doing an amazing job at investigating the MCRT cases." he had said. "Haven't found a lot of people who can do that while being lower in rank than Jethro. And he isn't a marine either."
Both of them knew that marines were people that easily got respect from one Leroy Jethro Gibbs while most others didn't despite their professional position.
Vance sighed. He began to look deeper than the surface of the MCRTs reports after that conversation. It took place right after he reluctantly agreed to get Dinozzo back on Gibbs team after his stint as Agent Afloat. Which was a position he did well, Vance had to admit even though the agent didn't like the isolation at sea.
He solved a few crimes on board too and was very efficient to stop drug smuggling and some light contraband issues which were quite common among the marines.
Well, he had found a lot of incidents regarding Agent Dinozzo where he got the most promising lead for a case out of nowhere it seemed and other occasions where he taunted a suspect into admitting everything without any lawyer getting them out of it.
Also the good old footwork was mostly done by him and Gibbs together which got results too. Still, technologically bases searches through databases like McGee performed almost daily were a bit more efficient but you still had to see the pattern in this jungle of information. Otherwise it was just useless data. Vance knew that himself. He relied on internet-searches and databases but to make sense of this, you needed analysts and as it seemed also out of the box thinkers like Dinozzo.
So he realized that Dinozzo was a valuable agent and this situation with Rivkin and Ziva was a directors nightmare. He had to play it light with Mossad in favor of inter-agency-cooperation and the politics this incident could cause but in his heart he couldn't really fault Dinozzo for it all. He visited a coworker for whatever reasons after hours and was surprised with the presence of a wanted assassin that was part of Mossad. They couldn't have prosecuted Rivkin if he had managed to kill Agent Dinozzo that evening and possibly he would've been called back to Israel without any consequences based on diplomatic immunity. He nearly spat on the floor as he entertained this possibility. Gibbs would have been furious and Dinozzos family too.
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While they were walking Vance decided now was a good as times as any to satisfy his curiosity.
"Speaking of which, my assistant wanted to inform Agent Dinozzos family about the flight to Israel in terms of a formal hearing for shooting an agent from another country. She couldn't find any contact information though."
Gibbs grunted, he knew Vance for fishing for information with this line of questioning. Still, if he knew then he might think a bit higher of Tony.
"She doesn't find it cause there aren't any. His next of kin is me. His father didn't visit him when he got the plague and there has been no contact since I knew him. Better stays that way too."
Gibbs was blunt with his words, as always.
"Not exactly father of the year I assume?" Vance pried further but Gibbs only glared at him to leave it alone.
"Better try to find Dinozzo and David rather than having chit-chat. Damn, Abby should've implanted the tracker in his skin all these years ago." As Vance's eyes rose questioningly Gibbs smirked.
"When he had an undercover stint on the Jeffrey White case all these years ago Abby suggested implanting a tracker in his arm so that it wouldn't be found. Well the one in his shoes was destroyed only hours into the mission but considering Whites behavior it's possible Dinozzo would've lost his arm then."
Another chapter of Tony Dinozzo that Gibbs skirted around in his thoughts. He was supposed to only be an agent, a subordinate to him but he was so much more. As were Ziva and Abby and McGee. Even Ducky. One crazy-family would be what Tony would say about them. He cared about them and now his team was in shambles and he didn't know if they could survive this rift between Tony and Ziva.
"Where the hell are they?" he growled, letting his frustration and worry out the only way he knew how.
Vance took out his phone and called his contacts. In clipped sentences he gave the order to look out for Agent Dinozzo and Officer David and to escort them back here wherever they were.
That's it for now please tell me what you're thinking. Greetings, Night