Tony glanced sideways at Ziva as he drove her back to her apartment. She was still sitting motionless, her hands limp in her lap and her eyes staring sightlessly out the windshield. She had not spoken a word since they'd left the warehouse on the waterfront. Not one word since she had turned to Gibbs and, in the deadest voice Tony had ever heard, told him that her father had planned to kill her if she wouldn't agree to go home with him.
That was not the way the operation had been planned. When the NSA had told Vance that they were hearing whispers about the Mossad planning a kidnapping on American soil, they had known immediately that it probably involved Ziva. Since her rescue in Somalia, the only direct communication Ziva had had with her father was to tell him that she was relinquishing her Israeli citizenship in favor of remaining in the States and joining NCIS as a full fledged agent. No one had believed it would end there. Eli David was not the sort of man to let his daughter walk away that easily. The whole team knew that it was only a matter of time before he made some sort of move to get her back, and they knew he would not care whether or not Ziva was a willing participant in his designs.
What they hadn't anticipated was that Eli himself would take part in the operation. Vance's plan had been to let Eli's agents make a grab for Ziva and then, when there was enough evidence to prove their intent, Gibbs' and the rest of the team would step in to foil the kidnapping attempt. Careful surveillance and Ziva's knowledgeable cooperation should have rendered the plan almost foolproof and provided Vance and SecNav with the embarrassing ammunition they needed to put Eli out of business.
All their carefully laid plans had gone awry when it was Eli himself who had confronted Ziva in the warehouse on the dock. They would never know exactly what had gone on in there after Ziva had disabled the surveillance links and left the team in the dark. Ziva's comment to Gibbs was the only clue they had and, if nothing else, it surely indicated that the experience had been a traumatic one for her.
With Gibbs' gut instincts working overtime, they had surged into the warehouse only to find one Mossad agent bleeding and unconcious on the floor and Ziva standing over her father, her Sig held loosely in her hand. Eli was unharmed except for a flesh wound but Ziva seemed nearly catatonic with shock. She had allowed Gibbs to remove the gun from her hand and stood motionless as he embraced her.
"It's over now," Gibbs assured her. "It's over and you're safe with friends. Whatever happened can be worked out." Gibbs patted her back once more and then stepped away, her face held gently between his hands. "Are you okay?" he asked.
Ziva finally looked him in the eye. "I thought I could handle it," she said in a monotone, "but then he offered me a choice - go home or die. My father gave me that choice and I could see in his eyes that he meant it." Speaking that much seemed to exhaust the last of her reserves and Ziva slumped against Gibbs and went silent.
Gibbs looked over her shoulder at Tony. "She's had about all she can take. Get her out of here and take her home. Any questions can wait until tomorrow." He gave Tony an piercing glance and added in a soft voice, "don't leave her alone."