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Chapter 2
Tony just stood there holding his envelope. He was not sure if he wanted to open it. The letter she left the team seemed more of a final good bye. How could she leave him her necklace and a letter? A letter he may never get a chance to respond to.
"Daddy, it is ok mommy will be back she always comes back." Tali smiled as she said this.
"Go ahead and read your letter. Mommy already read most of it to me. You will understand better after you read it."
Rick stepped around the corner and started to read the letter.
Dear Rick,
Please forgive me. I had told you I was in Mossad, and if you think carefully I never said I was no longer in Mossad. I only said I was in Mossad and was no longer going away on assignments. I am sure you will wonder how this did not come up when you had your security clearance. However when your father is the Director of Mossad it is amazing what people cannot find.
I am sure you are now thinking you are truly married to an assassin. However I assure you not all Mossad are assassins. One day I may be able to tell you things I have done.
I am sure Tali told you I read this letter to her and I have read it to her up to this point.
You know Tali's grandfather that is at the embassy, he is there if you need him. Ziva, my sister I have told you about, will be joining me. We are quite the team though it has been years since we worked together. Ziva and I talked and she told me about Tony, trust him and Gibbs. Ziva would not have told me this unless she had full trust in them. You know trust for us David women is not easy. I have not met Tony however I think Ziva loves him, she is just not willing to say it.
It may be months before I can contact you. Tali knows this; she was four the last time I returned and still remembers me being gone for a long time. When we got married I had actually just returned from a mission, I was praying it was my last. When we met I was on a mission. I will tell you more about that when I see you again.
I hope you will be able to understand. I could not see you and say goodbye it is too hard. I plan on returning however if I would not then I have made arrangements for Tali to stay with you if you want her. If not, she will go live with my parents in Tel Aviv. My father will then make arrangements for her to attend boarding school for her own safety as my sisters and brother and I did growing up.
Please know that Tali views Tony as a safe person and if I know Ziva she will encourage the three of you to become friends.
My father will make sure that you and Tali need nothing. I know I have avoided talking much about him. However right now he will keep you safe. I will be home soon, I am hoping no longer than three months.
I love you more than the moon and the stars. Please make sure you never forget that. Tell Tali that also, every night before she goes to sleep.
Love Hannah
Rick finished reading the letter and walked back around the corner to hear his daughter being questioned.
"Is there anything else Ziva told you to tell us?" Gibbs asked the young girl.
Tali looked to make sure her grandfather left. Then she got a look that was very telling that she was debating if she should say anything.
"Sorry, nothing else. It was just the typical behave yourself, no hurting the other Mossad officers and do as I am told and be a nice young lady." She was straight faced as she said this and watched Tony.
"Tali, did you get in trouble when you were at the Embassy?" Rick asked
"Grandpa said I was not in trouble," she answered too quickly.
"Natalia!" Rick looked her straight in the eye and raised his voice.
"Daddy, Grandpa would have told you if I was bad, and Officer Handlin is going to be ok, come on when a six year old can disable him, get real, Grandpa David will probably have him returned to Tel Aviv and washing the bathrooms," Tali said with a very matter of fact voice and stomped her left foot on the floor.
"Tali you have been to the embassy before why would you choose this time to hurt anyone?" Rick asked as he realized this might be important, he had never seen Tali get violent.
"I wanted to call you and Grandpa said I could not call, he left me with Officer Handlin, well I thought he was not paying attention and started to call you and he caught me. He tried to grab the phone so I hit him and well I ran out of the office and then ran into Aunt Ziva."
Tali looked at everyone as she told her story and could not see any sympathy in their eyes.
"Aunt Ziva and Grandpa David said I did a good job." Tali made a huffing sound in defeat as she made her last comment.
Tony looked at her wondering if Ziva and her sister's had been like this. Was this little girl already being trained to go into Mossad?
"I think I see why your mom keeps you away from him; she said you had her father's temper."
"Whoa, do you think Ziva was similar when she was a child? Tali has quite the attitude,"
Abby whispered to Tony.
He gave a small smile and looked again at the envelope; he started to open it when Tali stopped him.
"Ummm, Aunt Ziva said to open in private," Tali said when she saw him opening the envelope.
Tali then tugged on her dad's shirt and whispered into his ear. He smiled at her and then nodded at her.
"Tony, can you join my daddy and me for dinner?" she asked with a big grin.
Tony grinned and looked at the envelope then back to the little girl that was so similar to Ziva.
"Do you like pizza?"
"YES!"
"Boss would you mind?"
"Get out of here." Gibbs said as he went over to his desk.
Abby stood there a few more minutes re-reading the letter. She could not believe how no one seemed worried for Ziva. She was off to who knows where and now she leaves Tony a note and asks them to help keep her niece safe. Abby's fear suddenly turned to anger. She tossed the letter to McGee's desk and headed down to her lab.
McGee watched as Tony put the envelope in his breast pocket and grabbed his ID and headed out to dinner.
Suddenly McGee is brought out of his trance as he feels the letter being tossed on his desk and sees Abby walking briskly off toward her lab. He wondered if he should follow her or give her space. Gibbs sits at his desk staring at his computer screen. Ziva's leaving was going to be hard on the team. Though he was not sure who it was the hardest, Gibbs who looked at Ziva like a daughter, Abby who looked at Ziva as her best friend or Tony who refused to admit he had feeling of more than just partners. What would he give to get his hands on Ziva's letter. However he had to make sure Tali was not around who knows the little kid may know how to kill someone with a paperclip also.
McGee started to head to Abby's lab and stopped when he saw that Gibbs was looking at a picture of Shannon and Kelly on his computer. However he hit a button to close it out when he noticed McGee.
"Tim, go check on Abby, you two go have dinner."
"Why don't you join us, Boss?"
"Nahhh, I need to go work on my boat."
McGee then watches Gibbs grab Ziva's letter off his desk and headed toward the elevator.
This was going to be a long week. Hopefully Ziva would not be gone long.
Ziva had been on the plane for 4 hours; she had cleaned her weapon and stared out the window. By now Tali was back with Rick at NCIS and the team had been informed of her transfer.
Ziva thought about her talk with Tali. The young girl was so much like her name sake. However she had been informed by Hani that she was more like her Aunt Ziva.
After knowing she took out Officer Handlin she realized that was true.
Ziva thought more about the conversation she had with her niece. She was a true David, at age 6 she could already speak Hebrew, French, Arabic and English. Her English was even better than her aunt's.
"Aunt Ziva, mommy said you love Tony? Am I going to get a new Uncle? My Daddy Rick has a brother and a sister so I have an Aunt and Uncle on his side. However it would be nice if you would get married." Tali was nothing but blunt.
"Who put you up to this? Did your grandfather David?"
"Nope." Tali went into a fit of giggles and started to sing in French Ziva and Tony sitting in a tree. This then lead to Ziva to tickle her young niece.
"So do you love him?" Tali asked again.
"It is not that easy my little one."
"That is what Mommy said about Rick right before they got married." Tali giggled more.
"Oh did she? What else did your mommy say?"
"She said to trust Tony 'cause you love him. Is that right?"
"Yes, you can trust Tony. He would never let anyone hurt you. Another person you can trust is Gibbs. He owes me a favor, so if you are ever in trouble just tell him Ziva said remember Ari."
"Is he the one that Grandpa thinks killed Uncle Ari?"
"Ummm, what do you?"
"Oppps, I was not supposed to, well I overheard mommy one time and well, she said Uncle Ari made bad choices and that he died because of it. She did not know I was listening. I overheard her say you would never kill him and she then started to talk in a language I could not understand." Tali looked tearfully at her Aunt.
"Tali, Ari was bad, he did something that was bad and he died when he tried to kill someone. When you are older you will understand. However you can never tell anyone what you heard."
"I know, Mommy said I could only talk with her and you about this."
"Now Tali, I need to give you some other information you must remember however until I or your mom or grandfather send the code words you cannot give this information out."
"Is it like the word game mom and I played when I was younger?"
"Yes."
Suddenly Ziva is pulled out of her memory as she feels the plane descend. She prayed that Tali was not turning into the 4th generation of Mossad.
Ziva arrived in a small airport near Suri. She could see a black car waiting. She knew this would be just a quick stop. After the plane landed the car pulled up close to the plane. Ziva grabbed her side arm and then relaxed when she saw the young women step out of the car.
The pilot then opened the door to the plane and the young women boarded the plane.
"Shalom Ziva."
"Shalom Hani."
The two women instantly hugged each other. Ziva thought how the team would be surprised to see her in a hug like this.
"Hani, you look wonderful."
"Ziva, let me get my bags on board then we can talk when we are off the ground. I see you got my message. I am sorry to bring you into this." Hani avoided Ziva's eyes.
Ziva helped Hani get her bags on board and Hani talked to the pilot and they were off again.
"So where are we going to now?" Ziva asked when they were ten minutes into the air.
Hani opened her briefcase and removed her macbook pro. Then she pulled up a file and pointed out their destination. "We are going here. However, first we will stop on Corsica to change planes and to get our new identification papers and continue on."
Ziva, looking at the location, knew it was not going to be fun. However, they had been there before and survived, they would do it again.
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