Tony and Ziva: Unless There's a Body

by TnJAGAz

I remember once hearing from the actors and writers of the show about a certain character that had disappeared. It looked like [at the time] he or she, was dead. All those who talked about the character always said the same thing – unless there is a body or (reasonable facsimile thereof – and no, not grave sites) that person may not be dead and gone.

NCIS

Title: Tony and Ziva : Unless There's A Body…

Author: TnJAGAz

Rating: G/PG [some language, violence, etc.]

Classification: A NCIS

Spoilers: Anything from Seasons 1-13.

Summary and Author Notes: I remember once hearing from the actors and writers of the show about a certain character that had disappeared. It looked like [at the time] he or she, was dead. All those who talked about the character always said the same thing – unless there is a body or (reasonable facsimile thereof – and no, not gravesites) that person may not be dead and gone. Call me a hopeless or hopeful [depending on your point of view] romantic.

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are the property of Donald Bellisario/Charles Johnson/Shane Brennan, Gary Glasberg, Mark Harmon, Belisarius Productions, Paramount Pictures and Columbia Broadcasting Service Entertainment – this story is for non-profit entertainment of NCIS fans only. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.

Director Vance's Office
NCIS Headquarters

Leroy Jethro Gibbs stood in his boss's office in front of his desk, like a good little solider reporting for duty. For his part NCIS Director Leon Vance couldn't believe what he was hearing from the Head of the DC Major Case Response Team.

"You executed him?!"

Senior Agent L.J. Gibbs was matter-of-fact about the whole incident. "Kort went for his weapon. We all fired simultaneously, on instinct really."

"Simultaneously…on instinct." Leon repeated dully. Did Gibbs realize what a s-storm he had stirred up?

The silver haired agent was getting irritated with his boss. "Leon, he was responsible for Ziva's death as well as badly injuring Tobias, and killing several other innocent people!" Maybe that would shake him out of his bureaucratic stupor.

Leon though, saw it differently. He tried humor to deflect Gibbs' growing anger. "I saw the report. Gibbs, you know it would almost take armor piercing bullets to bring Tobias down-"

But the Head of DC Major Case Response Team (MCRT) wasn't laughing. This wasn't the time for humor. "He was badly hurt, Leon! He almost died-!"

Leon walked over to his chair and sat down heavily. "Regardless of that, I'm going to have to take the heat for this..." he said more to himself than to his subordinate.

That did it. Gibbs exploded. "Hell, Leon! Ducky and Jimmy would have fired a weapon at him if they had been there! He was going for his!"

xxixx

Ellie Bishop looked up at Director Vance's closed office door. "Do you think the Director will throw the book at him? she asked.

Tim turned and looked upstairs as well and then back at her. "It's Gibbs, Ellie. If he did, Gibbs would probably eat the book." He went back to typing his report, hoping she would take the hint.

She didn't. Instead she glanced over at Tony's now vacant desk and sighed heavily.

"Where do you think he is now?" she asked as only Ellie Bishop could.

Tim looked up from his keyboard at her and saw the look of anguish mixed with sadness on her face. Damn, he hated this. Tony was right in doing what he did, but it didn't make it any easier for him, or Ellie. Still, he had already had to listen to Abby earlier this morning rail about why hadn't Tony contacted them lately? He tried to be understanding to the Goth Forensic Specialist's plight (and to Ellie's) but he also didn't want Gibbs catching them not working.

"Tony? He's in Israel, I guess, I know he said he wanted to go to where Ziva was buried…." His answer to the question was done in a vague manner that said, 'we need to drop this and get back to work'.

Somewhere in Tel Aviv, Israel

Tony Senior was looking around, craning his neck to see the tall concrete and glass buildings surrounding them. Tali, in her yellow sundress, was imitating him. "So this is where Ziva lived?" Senior asked.

Anthony DiNozzo, Junior was trying find the right phrase in his book so he could flag down a taxi. That phrase had always eluded him. "No, Dad, she lived on a kibbutz…not far from here," he said distractedly as he flipped through the book.

"And we're going there?" his father continued seemingly oblivious to what Junior was doing.

Junior closed the book. "Yeah Dad, we…I have to." Senior could see there was a haunted look in Tony's eyes when his son looked him. Immediately he understood.

Tony Senior raised his hand. "Don't say anymore, son-I understand."

Immediately Junior was apologetic. After all, it wasn't his Dad's fault this had happened "Dad, you and Tali don't have to come. You can stay at the hotel," he offered.

But Tony Senior wouldn't hear of it. "Nonsense, son, we'll all go. Tali will enjoy the ride, won't you?" he said looking down at the little girl holding his hand.

Eema! Tali squealed happily, making both men smile and letting them temporarily forget why they were here.

The Remains of the David House

Tony DiNozzo, Jr, former NCIS Special Agent stood at the pitiful little mound in the field next to the burned out, blackened hulk of the David villa.

"Well…this was quite a going away present that you left me, Ziva," he said simply while looking at the mound of fresh dirt and solid white gravestone inscribed with his beloved's name and the Star of David.

The former Baltimore police detective looked down at her silent gravesite and then at the incredibly blue sky. "You know, Tali can be a real…handful sometimes, but Dad's helping out…he's surprisingly good with kids…who'da thought…."

The now former NCIS senior agent could feel the betrayal of hot tears streaming down his face. He chuckled and looked at the sky again. "She's got your eyes, you know…and probably your Mossad-Ninja sense. But hey, at least she's got my good looks…"

Tony closed his eyes for a moment. "I wish…" He couldn't finish the thought. It was too painful. What bothered him most were the images of her alive, smiling. Even though she was dead, he still saw images of her as if she were still alive.

I wish….

Tony opened his eyes and looked Ziva's grave again. "I told you to be careful, Ahuva/Beloved," he said hoarsely.

As he stood there, he heard a voice, full of tears, respond in Hebrew. "Ha'ahava sheyli/Love of mine…."

Tony opened his eyes when he heard that voice and looked at the woman who was approaching him. "Ziva?" was all he could manage to get out.

Ziva's eyes were bright with tears as she walked toward him. She was wearing the same outfit she had worn when he first met her in NCIS bullpen so many years ago. Her hair in a ponytail, an IDF jacket, unzipped and unbuttoned, revealing a faded blue t-shirt, tan cargo pants and combat boots. Was this some kind of crazy dream? "Ahuv/My Love," she said softly to him as she embraced him.

He felt her warmth as he grabbed her by the waist and swung her around in circle as they hugged. It was real. It was her.

"You're alive!"

Then the ever present detective in his mind began with the questions. "But…how did….they said…."

She looked into his questioning eyes and then down as if ashamed. "I-I had a Nanny, Tony, Miriam. She was keeping Tali for me while I was gone…she had put her down in the nursery and had gone to my bedroom to leave me a few things…Miriam was similar to me in weight and height…I didn't learn until…until after it happened…that…that Orly had ordered that no forensic investigation needed to be done."

Tony though really hadn't heard her confession. He was three steps back focusing on the 'gone' part. "Gone? Gone where? Where were you gone? What were you doing, Ziva?"

She looked back up at him again. "I had…business to take care of…Orly thought-"

This time the confession hit home and Tony began nodding his head as he pulled out of her embrace and walked away from her. "Ah yes, the Mossad family business! How could I forget? How stupid of me! Once an agent always an agent, right Zi-va?!"

There was anger in Tony's words. Justified anger.

She ran over and grabbed his arm. "Tony, listen to me! What I was doing was dangerous! But I never thought-"

But Tony was having none of it. "You put our daughter in danger so you could continue the grand David family tradition-" he said to her with an angry sneer. He wanted to hurt her, wound her for what she had done. How could she be so thoughtless?

But Ziva refused to be cowed that way. She stood her ground. "Tony! Orly and I had no idea something like this would ever happen! When it did, we thought it was best that Tali go to America to be with you-"

"Were you ever going to tell me you were alive, Ziva? Huh? Were you *ever* going to let our daughter know?"

That hurt. "Tony, I'm sorry for the way this happened—for what it did to you…and Tali. I never meant to hurt either one of you…but you're an NCIS agent, Tony, you should understand-"

So she was going to throw that in her face. Well, he had a surprise for her. "Oh ho! I understand Ziva, I understand *way better* than you can ever imagine! Did you know I'm not an NCIS agent anymore?"

When she didn't ask why, he continued.

Tony struggled to compose himself. "After I thought…after we thought, you were gone…I resigned from NCIS to help Dad take care of Tali…."

Ziva couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You resigned? Then why come here?"

Tony chuckled mirthlessly. "Why? Why?! Because *you died* and I came to say *goodbye*! …and to *kill the bastard* who blew you to smithereens under Trent Kort's orders! That's why!"

"You didn't have to do that. He is dead, Tony…I killed him," she said in a flat voice that sounded like the Ziva of old-the cold professional killer that she used to be.

"Well, I'm sure Miriam will appreciate that…. Oops that's right, she's dead, isn't she?" he said sarcastically. "She can't appreciate it, can she?"

She had enough of his smart remarks. "Look, Tony, I don't expect you to understand why I did what I did, but I did it for Tali-for her safety…and for your safety as well."

"My safety?"

"I was undercover, Tony. Orly knew my plans in case of my death. Miriam's death gave me the chance to send my daughter out of harm's way. Once and for all."

"By declaring you dead? Ziva, you told me you were done with killing, with the spy business…"

Tony saw the anguish in Ziva's eyes "I thought I was too, but Orly impressed on me the importance of keeping our enemies at bay...for all our sakes. Do you understand?"

He began nodding. "Okay. Yeah, sure, I understand - the Mossad code of ethics and all that. So does this mean you stay dead?" he said flippantly.

She gave a pained look when he said that. "Tony," she practically groaned.

But the former Very Special Agent wasn't listening. "Look, we don't have any time to waste. First, we need to tell Dad what happened. Let's go, they're waiting at the bottom of the hill for me." He turned and started walking down the hill.

The lithe Mossad agent didn't understand why he was in such a hurry. She ran over to catch up to him. "Tony-"

"And don't go pulling any of your Mossad disappearing tricks!" he warned her as they walked down the hill to where Tony DiNozzo Senior was waiting with Tali.

As they walked together silently, Tony swung out his right foot and kicked Ziva in the butt.

Ziva's look was one of surprised astonishment at this childish action which was then quickly replaced by her glaring daggers at him. It took all of her willpower not to smack him to the ground. "What was that for?!" she snapped.

Tony just gave her that that well-known DiNozzo smirk. "For making me think you were dead…you know we killed Trent for you."

That stopped her dead. She never stopped to think what Gibbs and the others would do if they thought she was dead. "Oh…"

Tony mimicked the look on her face. "Yeah, 'oh'. Well, now that we've got *that* out of the way, we'd better hurry up and let Dad know, or we'll be late."

Now he was speaking in riddles again. 'Late, late for what?"

"My Mossad job interview. I was an NCIS agent, a very special NCIS agent, I might add. It shouldn't be too hard to become a very special Mossad agent. I've got some great references…."

He stopped and looked at her stunned face. "At goremet li lirtsot lihiyot adam tov yoter," he said with that patented DiNozzo smile of his.

The former NCIS agent, now once again Mossad operative, was again rendered speechless, thunderstruck by the phrase he had just spoken to her in her native language.

'You make me want to be a better man.'

Her eyes brimmed with tears as she laughed. "Tony, you don't have to do this."

But Anthony DiNozzo, Junior was very serious about it. "Ziva, I'm doing this for both Tali's sake and for yours. You need a partner to watch your back and I'm the best qualified since I've seen your back...and your front."

She rolled her eyes at that last comment.

"Now c'mon, we need to tell Dad the 'good' news…."

-Finis