A/N So I started this fic ages ago and sort of got tied up and lost in it. With everything that's been going on in the world, I've been going back to the chapters and editing / rewriting parts of it just as something relaxing to do, so I figured I'd reload it. Sorry for anyone who read it ages ago and are getting the rehash, but there's new stuff sketched out / written in the pretty near future. There's going to be a lot more flashbacks to developing their relationship, and I think that part will be less clumsy than it was before. Well, hopefully. Took out the name swap as well. Some of the characters' backgrounds will be fudged to make the timeline work better, so slightly AU. Holler if you have any questions or concerns.
Ziva wasted no time calling Kelly's office number from the phone on her desk, easily tapping out the familiar sequence. Gibbs came around and looked at the image, smacking Tony's hands away when he reached down for it. "You need gloves, DiNozzo. Bring it to Abby. Get a copy."
The line on the other end kept ringing; one, two, three, four, five times, before going to voicemail. Ziva counted each ring with growing alarm; whenever Kelly was at her desk she picked up on the first one. It is where she should be, with the eraser of a pencil pressed against her lips in thought as she worked. She had a bad habit of chewing them that drove Ziva crazy. Ziva hung up the call without putting down the receiver and frantically dialed again. On the fourth ring Kelly's secretary picked up.
"Kelly Morris' office, this is Alicia Spalding speaking. Ms. Morris is currently out of the office, but I'd be happy to take a message for you."
"Alicia, this is Ziva David," her tone was clipped and betrayed nothing, "Did Kelly come in today?"
"Ms. David? No, Ms. Morris hasn't come in and she's missing a meeting at the moment. Is she out with a cold?"
"Did you try calling her at home?" Out of the corner of her eye, Ziva noticed that McGee had picked up the phone and was listening in. He held a pen poised before an empty sheaf of paper, prepared to take notes.
"Yes ma'am, at least six or seven times by now. Is something the matter?"
"Alicia, I need you to think back carefully, has there been anything unusual at the office recently? Any calls that came through and dropped directly after you picked up, any weird letters, has Kelly mentioned seeing anyone strange at lunch, anything?"
"No ma'am," there was a pause, "Is Ms. Morris in trouble?"
Ziva had to swallow twice before she could continue, "Yes, Alicia. An agent from my division will be there shortly to talk to security. I will give him your number. I would appreciate it if you could bring him to the right place." Ziva hung up without even saying goodbye. A tense pause had fallen on the group.
"You mind telling us what's the matter, Ziva?" Gibbs asked, trying to get to the root of the issue.
"It is my girlfriend, Gibbs. She is missing."
Ziva's head bounced against the pane of glass on the passenger's side window with the lurches and lulls of the car. For once, she had not fought with Tony for the right to drive, preferring to get lost in her thoughts instead of in the traffic. Tony was fiddling with the radio, but he was being quiet for a change. She was always worried about me being safe. And here I never thought...
Ziva could picture her girlfriend clearly in her mind. Just last night she had come home buzzing with excitement. Ziva had prepared a light salad and cooked a spring pasta with lemon and parmesan for the both of them, while Kelly had sat on the island drinking a glass of wine, and telling her about the details of her most recent case. She was a criminal defense attorney working to overturn wrongful convictions, and she had just met with her new client, and wanted to tell Ziva about everything.
The agent's mind slid from the pleasant memories of innocuous dinners to an event a few months back. Coming home late one night, muggers had approached them demanding their wallets. Ziva had opened her hands, put them up, and taken a step towards the men, effectively placing herself between them and Kelly. She told them her wallet was in her back pocket. One of them went to grab for it. It took four and a half seconds to have them both incapacitated. They had not come near Kelly, but the violence made her uneasy nonetheless. Later that night, after they had given their statements and made it safely home to bed, Kelly started to cry. Ziva had not quite understood, but she held the younger woman until she fell asleep. How would she fair on her own?
"It is faster to cut down this street," Ziva pointed to a familiar road, snapping out of her reveries.
"Oh, right." Tony checked his mirrors and merged to the right in order to make the turn. "You've, uh, lived here long then?"
"I've lived here for almost two years, Tony." It was not the answer he was looking for, he wanted to know more about Ziva's apparently secretive life. He had always fancied that she had a thing for him; now it seemed like that wasn't the case. He changed the radio station once again.
"And Kelly lives with you? Or does she just sleep over a lot."
"We moved into the apartment together. She no longer has a place of her own."
"And we've never met her or even heard about her?" He tried to keep the tone light, but it just sounded slightly forced instead, like smiling for a camera. He had always assumed that she did not have much of a personal life to speak of, not that she had one and simply preferred not to share.
"No."
"Oh." They lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence.
Ziva checked her phone again. She was waiting on a message from McGee. He was charged with looking for any unusual cell phone or e-mail activity, and then he was to head over to Kelly's work to see if security had overlooked anything strange. Gibbs was in a meeting with Director Vance to make sure they were going to get jurisdiction on this case, considering it did not revolve around an employee of the navy or the relative of one. That left Tony and Ziva to scout her apartment.
They parked illegally in a loading and unloading zone across from her building. There was an old fire stairs crisscrossing down the side of an alley wall on the far side of the street, ending right above a dumpster. "It looks like the kidnapper might have used these to get to the roof and spy on you. Which apartment is yours again?"
"It is the loft at the top," she said, pointing.
Tony checked the copy of the image against his surroundings, the way a traveler might check a map. "That would do it, let's check the perp's nest first."
The duo flashed their badges in the lobby of the building and took the elevator to the rooftop. DiNozzo and David circled the perimeter of the parapet until they found the place that matched up with the angle. Tony dusted the area for fingerprints while Ziva scanned her apartment through the windows with the aid of a pair of binoculars. You could see right in through the large windows when the curtains were pulled back to let the sunlight in; the open layout inspired by the loft style did very little to provide any visual protection. As far as she could tell, everything seemed to be just the way she left it.
"He must have come up right after the rain storm," DiNozzo was talking more to himself than to his companion, "He cleaned up after himself pretty well, no marks, no handprints, no trash or cigarette butts." He did a cursory lap of the parapet to see if there were any other signs of disturbance. "Hello, what's this?"
The comment drew Ziva's attention and she pulled herself away from the view of her home to see what DiNozzo had discovered. On the far side, tucked behind an air-handling unit, someone had spray painted a white arrow pointing roughly towards the center of the city. DiNozzo pulled the camera around to the front of his body to take a photo of the graffiti and of the view. Then he reached down and scrapped up bit of the painted roof, while Ziva took another slow lap of around the perimeter. They met back up at the ladder to the fire escape without finding anything else of note. DiNozzo leaned over the edge and scanned the adjacent properties, "I don't see any apparent cameras around either. We'll ask downstairs just to make sure."
They didn't have any luck with that either; the one camera that would have the correct angle to view the point of access had the wire cut and the lens spray-painted. With a shrug the manager admitted that he didn't know when that happened as they had stopped recording from it either way. Most of the time they didn't want to know what went on in the back alley. It was easier to turn their head and look away than to control all the shady comings and goings. "He's good." Tony grudgingly admitted while documenting the camera for any clues.
Tony followed Ziva across the street to the entrance of her apartment building. The doorman anticipated her at the door, saving her the time of having to fish out her keys, "Ms. David, you're home early I see."
"Hello Carl, have you seen Kelly at all today?"
"Not since she left this morning ma'am," he said back with a courteous smile.
"Was there anyone with her?" DiNozzo broke in.
"No sir, not as far as I recall." A frown tugged at the corner of his lips. No doubt, he was curious, but he had more poise than to dig into the business of his residents. They thanked the man and headed over to the elevator. He dipped his hat politely as they passed.
Ziva punched the number 12 to bring them to the top floor. It opened into a short hallway with a door on either side. Ziva and Tony removed their guns from their holsters and she slipped her key into position. They nodded and burst the door open quickly. They fanned out and checked the place, confirming that no one was hiding in the tidy space. Ziva did one more sweep as her companion relaxed into a more voyeuristic look around.
"You know, this is the first time I've been over to your place. It's nice, very posh. Not too kid friendly though, if you're thinking about that." Not for the first time since leaving the office, Ziva wished that McGee had accompanied her instead of Tony.
"Is that relevant to the case?" Ziva snapped at him.
Tony was taking his time looking at the pictures on the shelf by the door, pulling one from the frame to use in the BOLO. "You've met her parents too, it seems. She doesn't look much like them."
"She was adopted."
"She actually looks a bit like Gibbs. Funny how those things work out."
This time Ziva did not even dignify his statement with a response. "The door wasn't forced, the windows are locked and unbroken, and nothing has moved since this morning. I was the last to leave." She went into the bathroom and cleanly grabbed the hairbrush off the vanity and slipped it into a protective bag. This was more habit than anything else – she could not contaminate the sample anymore than she already had brushing her hair this morning. Abby wanted to cross reference the hair sample that had been mailed with some from around the apartment to ensure there wasn't a third party playing foul with an already unfortunate situation.
Ziva took a moment to trace her fingers around the edge of the cabinet, taking in all of Kelly's things. It smelled like her shampoo here too, and Ziva found herself slipping in and out of the present, back into memories of mundane mornings preparing for the day and evenings getting ready for the night. The emotional turmoil was enough that she had to sit down a moment, as if she had just sustained a physical blow to the head. Ziva shook her head, fighting off the disorienting waves of nostalgia. She had to stay focused, even though all she wanted to do was crawl back into her bed, back into this morning.
The alert light on the message machine was blinking red. Tony pressed the playback button as Ziva emerged. The first message was from the secretary: "Ms. Morris, this is Alicia Spalding from the office. I was wondering if you were planning on coming in today. Please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you, goodbye." The second message sounded like a pocket dial, there was some disturbance scratching across the microphone, a sharp noise, and then a low beep signifying the "end of messages." Ziva removed the chip and placed it into a protective container in her front pocket, just in case. She also grabbed the recording from the security system hidden in one of the kitchen cabinets, though, by now, she knew there would be nothing unusual on it.
"You were the last to leave? You still managed to get to work pretty early." Tony asked from his position in the kitchen. He was poking around at the unfinished breakfast set still laid out. "By the time McGee and I got in to the office you were already halfway through that thick set of paper work."
"What are you trying to say DiNozzo," she was getting more annoyed with him and was now more than ready to leave. Their home made her ache in ways she had not expected. She kept getting this terrifying feeling like she was look through a photo album at a life she could not take back.
"Nothing," he said. He started to walk out only to stop a step past the threshold, "Just, you two didn't have a lovers tiff this morning, by any chance?"
She paused a few inches from him and shoved his shoulders back to the wall. Some part of her knew that this was habit, that you always suspected the romantic partners, but no part of that knowledge kept her from seeing red. He was her partner, he should know better. "If Gibbs would not take me off of this case I would drop you right here. Keep your jealousy to yourself. If, god forbid, something happens to her, you, Tony DiNozzo, would still not have a snowman's chance in hell." Ziva did not stop to think that DiNozzo was suddenly feeling as if he knew nothing at all.
Back in the car she stripped off her white gloves and checked her phone again. McGee still had not gotten back to her. Judging by the time, it meant that he probably hadn't found anything. "There is a donut shop, Steven's, five blocks down, stop there."
The shop owner who was working the counter knew Ziva by name. She often came here at night if she was coming back late from work as a peace offering for making Kelly worry. The younger woman would get so anxious sometimes that, even with reassuring texts, she found herself unable to stomach dinner. This was also the place her girlfriend would have stopped in the morning after skipping breakfast. "Was Kelly here this morning?" she asked. She prayed the answer was no. If she had been picked up in these five blocks it would be relatively simple to get a group of agents out to canvas the area. Two blocks further down was the metro stop for the red line, then there was the transfer to the green, and another four and a half blocks still to her workplace door. That was a much trickier condition to cover.
"Mhm, had the chocolate covered, and raspberry filled. Her usual. Want to pick up a few extra for her tonight, dear?"
Ziva's stomach dropped, "Not now, Jeffery, thank you." She went back outside and slammed the door to the car. They sped back uptown, heading towards the office. Ziva checked the display on her phone again, checking to see if she had missed a call, but no such luck. She had just started to scroll through her contact list to call McGee herself when her cell started vibrating in her hand. The number was unknown. She punched in the code to record the call and transfer the information to headquarters in case it was important.
"Special Agent Ziva David," she answered, and waited for a response on the other end of the line.
"Zi?" For a second she couldn't breathe. The voice was distorted, but she could recognize it anyways.
"Kel? Where are you? Where have you been?"
"Zi, 17th and-" There was a thud in the background, followed by some unholy screaming.
"That was a neat trick you taught the stupid cunt, but it wont do you any good Special Agent David," this was a new tone, still distorted but she could tell that it was deeper, a man's voice, and not one Ziva recognized.
"What do you want from her? She, she is just a lawyer. She is just a civilian. She has done nothing. She has harmed no one." She is innocent, she screamed in her head, "If you have hurt her, I swear-"
"Ah ah ah," the man teasingly scolded, "that's no way to talk to someone holding onto something you love so much. This isn't about her you see. It's about you and what you've done, about who you've harmed. I'll leave you some more hints along the way, and a few instructions, and if you don't comply well..." he trailed off and there was more screaming in the background. Ziva knew those screams, and she knew whom they belonged to. It was just the pitch and the urgency that was wholly unrecognizable. She shut her eyes tight as her knuckles turned white around the phone, but could not pull herself away from the receiver. "Neither of us want that, right?" He was breathing heavier and harder than a few seconds ago. "As a sign of good faith, I'll give you four seconds to talk to your little, civilian bitch. Starting...now." There was the muffled sound of crying that got louder, as if someone who was gagged was just placed near the microphone.
"Kel, it's me. You're going to be okay, I'm going to find you. I love you. Do you hear me? I'm coming. I love-" the call went dead in her hands.
Roughly Two Years Nine Months Earlier
It was just a little tap, but Ziva tensed up in preparation for a fight. She dropped her cup of coffee as one hand fell to her hip towards her concealed gun and her other raised slightly on its way to a defensive position. Some habits don't go away just because you've left the office. "Oh. Excuse me. I wasn't looking where I was going, I guess. God knows where my mind is. I'm so sorry about that. I'll grab some napkins."
The agent's focus zoned in on the woman babbling in front of her. She had bumped into her, that was it, just an innocuous little collision in the coffee shop. Ziva did not need to drop back her right foot to better her balance, and she did not need to decide which of her weapons would be easiest to grab first. God that last assignment had her wound up, or perhaps it was the assignment before. A lot of people had died recently, ones who were both good and smart. One thing was for sure; she needed this day off. She smiled at the woman, perhaps a moment later than was polite and received a light blush in response. Zive noticed that she was beautiful. "It is not a problem. My mistake."
"No. Of course not. Please let me buy you another coffee?" An employee came up with a mop and the woman was distracted a moment trying to insist on helping to clean up the mess before the employee managed to her away. In the meantime, Ziva slipped away to reenter the line, returning to her book to discourage further interaction.
The woman slid into line behind her. The agent was conscious that she was still being watched but was content to let the incident fade from her mind. She ordered her coffee from the barista and picked out a place to sit, this time without incident. There was sofa-chair in a corner that was far away from the windows. It allowed her a view of the rest of the shop, and most of the patrons. Not to mention, the seat had the sort of cushions that a person could sink into. She finally began to relax as she let the warm aromas of coffee and cakes waft over her.
Ziva was a full chapter in her book before she felt the first driving instinct to look up. The woman from the line was sitting across the way with two of her friends. She blushed when Ziva caught her staring, but held her gaze. Her head tipped slightly to the side and she smiled gently - just a subtle little uplift of her lips and the corners of her eyes; one of her eyebrows lifted carefully just a touch. They held a silent exchange for a few seconds, then her friend said something the moment was gone. The woman went back to gossiping with those at her table and Ziva returned to her book.
The next time Ziva looked up it was in response to the scraping of chairs and the tinkle of the bell above the door. Her two friends had left and the woman was tidying up the space they had been occupying. She shot one quick glance towards Ziva, and smiled to find her attention.
The woman walked over confidently and took the seat next to Ziva, crossing one leg over the other. She leaned in, and Ziva found herself mirroring the action. "You know, since you wouldn't let me replace the coffee, the least you could do is let me buy you dinner."
Ziva smiled, "Is that so?"
"Well you certainly can't let me continue to suffer the guilt."
"You do not think you would be able to recover?"
"Well maybe you could save me the effort of finding out?"
Ziva laughed. This close, Ziva could see a dash of freckles across her nose, and a few more trailing down her neck and disappearing beyond the edge of her v-neck. Something about her reminded the agent of summer nights spent in Spain. "I know a place that would be perfect."
The woman smiled widely and stuck out her hand, "Kelly. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?"
"It is Ziva, Ziva David."
"Ziva David," she said it slowly as if she were tasting something special for the first time, "Is it Israeli?"
"Yes, it is. Not many people pick up on that."
"Hm, well I happen to be full of surprises," she said with a gentle laugh, "Where would you intend to take me, Ms. David?"
To bed, I hope, the agent thought. "A little Spanish place I know of, so long as you can handle your food hot. I can meet you there tomorrow at seven, if that works?"
"Tomorrow? That seems rather sudden. You're lucky that I happen to be free."
Ziva smiled and pulled a pen out of her pocket. She flipped her book open wrote the address on one of the first few pages, right under, "...dedicate this book to my loyal readers." Then she ripped it out and handed it over. "I'm glad you could fit me into your busy schedule."
"I have the feeling it will be worth it. What should I wear?"
"Well, you look quite amazing right now. But if you do not feel like doing laundry between now and then, I am sure that something similar will suffice."
Kelly laughed at that, and Ziva found that she liked her laugh a lot. "Charmer. I have a terrible feeling that I am going to get myself into some trouble with you. I don't want to keep my friends waiting, but I'll see you tomorrow night?"
"I'm looking forward to it."
Kelly stood halfway, leaned in and paused to gauge the reaction from the other woman. Finding what she was hoping for, Kelly closed the gap and pressed a chaste kiss at the corner of Ziva's lips. Then she smiled, and walked away. Ziva watched her hips sway in the confines of her skinny jeans. She tried to return to her book, but her eyes kept wandering across the coffee shop to the table where Kelly and her friends had sat.
Anticipating the date had made Ziva uncharacteristically nervous. Granted, it had been awhile since her last relationship had ended in a screaming match that had her landlord threatening her with eviction. And there hadn't been many dates since then, none worth speaking of at least. She put on a nice, if casual, outfit, with dark jeans and a fitted top. After some internal deliberation, she slipped into a pair of heeled boots rather than more practical footwear. For a reason she couldn't quite articulate, she wanted to be sure that she was taller than the other woman tonight. Finally, she slipped into her leather jacket and out the door.
The little restaurant was bustling as usual, but she knew the owner, so she was assured that her favorite space had been saved for her. They greeted each other in Spanish and she took a moment to catch up with him before he escorted her to a room at the back. The booth was tucked into a quirky angle of the building, giving the seating space more privacy than the rest of the tables and booths. "A bottle of wine for the table, please?"
"Anything for my favorite costumer," he responded with a boisterous smile, and returned with one of her favorite bottles of red. "Let it breathe a bit," He advised, "and let me know if you need anything."
Ziva nodded her thanks and relaxed into her seat. The owner, Andrea, was an agent she had worked with on an international mission when was still with the Mossad. He had retired young, moved to America and started a new life as a restaurateur. He said he was happier, and he was certainly a bit rounder. That said, with enough wine he would admit that he still had trouble sleeping at night, though he claimed smoking helped. Despite the fact that he hadn't been on a mission in over five years, she still trusted him to keep a safe environment almost as much as she trusted the quality of food that was served there.
Kelly arrived a few minutes later, just as Ziva started to pour the wine. The agent stood to greet her. She was a vision in dark clothes offset by silver and white jewelry that caught the dim light just enough to make a statement. Andrea helped her out of her jacket and gave Ziva a wink behind her date's back.
"You look lovely tonight, Ziva. This seems like a lovely place, very authentic, I can't believe I've never been here before," she picked up one of the large menus. The material was heavy and bound carefully by hand with a thick, dark thread.
"I can take you to many places in this city you've never been to."
The woman smiled. She did that so easily, and Ziva was becoming quite certain that she wanted to make it happen as often as possible. "Careful, I might hold you to it."
"I would look forward to that."
Ziva soon discovered that Kelly was even flirtier with a glass of wine in her. It did not take long for her to slip her hand onto the agent's thigh. For once in a long while, Ziva found that she did not mind the overt touchiness of her company. All of a sudden, she was taking back this person, a stranger, back to the apartment where she lived. The movie they had intended to watch was cast aside even before they got out of the cab. If she was a vision before, she was even more so when she discarded her clothes. Ziva took over, hungry for this type of affection, which she had been avoiding for so long, and Kelly was more than happy to follow the other woman's lead. The sounds she made, the way she smelled, and by God the way she moved was all too much. They exhausted themselves, and for once Ziva was content to let her guards down and just hold this woman for the night. Of course, she would not get this specific pleasure until a few months into their relationship.
Kelly sat up and looked around, "Um, where's the bathroom."
Ziva pointed in the vague direction of the toilet and stretched like a cat. "There's an extra toothbrush in the first drawer if you needed," she called after her. Ziva did not notice that the woman had picked up her clothes - scattered across the apartment - until she came back fully dressed. Kelly was blushing again when she leaned down for a kiss, and resisted when Ziva tried to pull her back into bed. "I can't stay tonight, I have to wake up early for work and none of my clothes are here. But maybe we can do this again sometime?"
"Stay the night, you can borrow some clothes in the morning. I'll make it worth your while."
"I don't doubt that. I do, however, doubt your clothes will fit."
"I will buy you new clothes tomorrow." Ziva did not know why she was arguing so much; it went against all her normal instincts. But for some reason, maybe it was the series of gruesome cases she had worked on lately, she was looking forward to the prospect of not sleeping alone.
The woman laughed and tilted her head like she was considering it. Ziva ran her hand up the woman's thigh and tried to tease her into staying, but Kelly pulled away. "Maybe tomorrow, if you're up for it again. Bye Ziva, you don't have to show me out. But it would be a great view if you did." She gave the woman a wicked smile, and headed towards the door. After being left like that, filled with longing, infatuation and desire, there was no force on earth that could keep her from calling Kelly the next night.