Title: In Slow Motion
Authors: Sara and Lizzie
Rating: T
Disclaimer: We don't own NCIS. If we did, Tony and Ziva would be married with Italian ninja kids.
Summary: Picks up where Season 2 left off- we meant to start posting it earlier than the day before the season premiere, but that didn't happen. Basically, it's the Tony Ziva story after Aliyah, and yes, it's Tiva. There may be some Abby/McGee if we get particularly sentimental, and undertones of Gibbs and Jenny because....
IMPORTANT thing to remember, we tried to write Vance and hated it, so we took some liberties and decided Director Shepherd never died.
Enjoy and review! PLEASE REVIEW!
I'm like a prisoner getting ready to talk, I feel the blood in my hands.
"I'm going to make my move soon." Tony said into the reciever. "I'm close. Too close to stay here for too long." Abby and McGee locked eyes over the speaker.
"How did you do it?" McGee finally asked. "That was supposed to be the impossible." Despite being miles, countries and time zones away, Tony shook his head like McGee could see it.
"Don't ask me that Probie." he said solemnly. "Trust me when I say you don't want to know." And of that, he was certain. For the last three weeks, he had battled to desert heat, cursing it constantly, wondering how she ever lived like this.
In that heat, he had done the unthinkable, things he was sure he would never do, would never be reduced to doing. For twenty two days, Tony DiNozzo had been on a mission. He beat or shot anyone who stood in his way, and he found a way to extract information from those who knew what he needed to know. In some ways, he felt completely unlike himself, and in others, he knew this was the only thing he needed to be doing.
"You haven't done anything stupidly heroic, have you?" Abby's voice cut through his memories. "Your not about to walk inside some cave so she can walk out?"
"Of course not Abs." he said, even though the thought had crossed his mind. "It doesn't count if we don't both come home." This seemed to satisfy Abby.
"How did you do it then?" she asked again.
"Tell me where she is." Tony said, pressing his gun into the man's temple. "Now."
"I don't know!" his captive said. "I know the who and the how, not the why."
"Who?" Tony demanded. He would kill them, whoever the who was. He would kill them with his own two hands if it was the last thing that he ever did.
"Her father, Eli David." the young man said, scared. "It was brought to his attention, argued as a case for Israel, and he went for it."
"Director David let this happen?" A trembling nod.
"Why?" Tony demanded.
"Two birds, one rock. Only the insiders in Mossad knew about the problems with Ziva. Sending her somewhere where she would almost inevitably die would appease them, and ensure she wouldn't jeopardize her father's initiatives. It would make the lower ranks angry. They would want to avenge the daughter of Israel.
"Stone." Tony said, shaking his head. "Two birds, one stone. What were the problems with Ziva?"
"Director David thought… he thought she wasn't in love with Michael. He thought she fell in love with someone from NCIS."
Tony had let that one go.
"Abby, I wasn't kidding." he said. He didn't want them to know. The means would justify the end, that's all that mattered.
He knew without doubt or hesitation that he would shoot this time. It wouldn't be the first time, or the last, but it was the only time he wanted to pull the trigger.
"Michael's girl? Took too much into her hands, she did. Forgot her place. She is deserving of everything she is getting. I hope her pretty face bleeds." Michael Rifkin's cousin Rafi told Tony. The thought of anything but porcelain skin, endless eyes and the most perfect lips he had ever seen on her pretty face lit a fire in Tony he hadn't felt since...ever.
"You worthless little son of a bitch." he muttered. Before he could stop himself, the knife hidden in shoe, a gift from none other than Ziva was in his hands and in Rafi's side. His scream pierced the still stifling night air. "Tell me where she is."
"I will do nothing to save that woman." He spat out. Tony held the knife to his throat with one hand, while his other hand traveled down Rafi's arm and effortlessly snapped his wrist. Just the way Ziva taught him to. Rafi screamed again. The first time Tony had caused someone to make that noise, he had felt sick with guilt, disgusted with himself. But now, as time slipped by and the fear he wouldn't find her increased, the guilt disappeared.
"Where is Ziva?" he asked again, pressing the knife against the younger man's throat. "Tell me and I'll let you go." Rafi shook his head so Tony cut into his throat, just enough to terrify. Rafi looked in Tony's eyes through his gasps and panicked screams, until finally he mustered up coordinates.
"I hope she is broken when you find her. I hope you find nothing but a lifeless and broken body." Tony no longer had a desire to shoot him. He didn't hesitate before angling the knife into the cut he had just made, and extending it to the jugular. Another trick he picked up from the David School of Self Defense.
"That one was for you, Zi." He said to Rafi's body as he left the room. It was all for her.
"We found the location of the coordinates, Tony." McGee's voice cut into his memory, snapping him back to the present.
"McGee, Abby, you're great. It's her exact location?" McGee nodded, as if they were at their desks and Tony could see the gesture.
"Even the limited intel we've gotten backs it up." He said.
"So where am I going?" Tony asked.
"Agent DiNozzo, how did you obtain these coordinates?" Tony winced as the Director's voice sounded through the airwaves.
"You told the Director?" he groaned.
"Sorry Tony!" Abby burst out. "But she was on to us and she's kind of Gibbs like, or at least very scary when she wants information."
"I'm still standing right here." Jenny pointed out. "Now, DiNozzo, how did you get her location?"
"You don't want to know." Abby and McGee answered in unison. Director Sheppard shot them a look.
"It's what he told both of us!" McGee protested.
"And it's true." Tony chimed in. "Look, let's finish this up before Gibbs catches on, okay?" The silence on the other end told him who was there before he heard the voice.
"Too late, DiNozzo." Gibbs said. "How'd you track her down?"
"You don't want to know." Abby and McGee said again, this time joined by Jenny. Gibbs gave them all the stare.
"That's what he told all of us." Jenny said shrugging. Gibbs looked at the phone as if he could convey his glare to Tony thousands of miles away.
"I won't tell you, Gibbs." Tony said.
"Why the hell not?"
"In case it would ever force you to testify against me." Tony said, seriously.
"You killed for her." Gibbs said, avoiding Jenny's eyes.
"She's my partner." Tony said. Jenny raised her eyes at Gibbs, but he was still staring at the phone.
"That's taking rule number one to the extreme, don't you think DiNozzo?"
"It's not a rule number one case anymore, Director." Gibbs answered for her. "Now it's rule number twelve."
"I don't have time for rules." Tony said. "Just tell me where to find her."
"She's in a known terrorist operations base, Tony." McGee said. "Told you finding them was close to impossible."
"Unless you happen to be Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo."
"Or in love." Abby whispered to McGee.
"Heard that." Tony muttered.
"They seem to be one and the same, DiNozzo." Gibbs said.
"Enough!" Jenny snapped. "Bottom line DiNozzo, I called in a favor and you're going to have Navy SEALS and a highly trained Marine Corps Unit for backup. We're sending them the location now so they can put a strategy together."
"Just give us a minute, Tony." Abby said. "We'll patch them through and talk this over." It only took moments to put it all into play.
"God those Marines mean business." Tony said as they got off the line. "Now we know where Gibbs get it."
"Oh no." McGee said suddenly.
"You think that's not where Gibbs gets it?" Tony asked, feeling lighter than he had in months. There was a plan. A plan to save Ziva.
"They heard the call." McGee said. "The communications director at their base. They hacked in through a weak spot in the local connections the Marines were using."
"What the hell does that mean, McGee?" Gibbs asked.
"It means they know we're coming."
It must have been nighttime, because it was cold now. That or the seasons were changing. Ziva had lost track of how long she had been there. Everything hurt; some of it stung, some of it ached and some of it throbbed, but everything hurt now, inside and out.
Why are you on top of me?
Tony. She would give anything for him now, for just two more seconds. It was never supposed to be this way. She was going to go home and straighten it out in her head. She was going to explain to her father who she was now, who she had become. Who Gibbs and Abby and McGee and Ducky and Tony, especially Tony had made her. She would apologize to Michael's grave for never truly being his, and then she would go back to the one who truly had her heart, and tell him that it sat in his hands.
But there was no place for that now. There never would be. Because she was certain that she would die here. Despite everything Mossad had prepared her for, this was something she never saw coming. Not even her crazy ninja skills would save her now. There was only one thing that could save an agent in these circumstances. Their partner. And she wanted nothing more than for hers to appear, but only as long as it took her to say the three words she couldn't keep to herself anymore. And then she wanted him to disappear, because if he came, he would die for her here.
And Ziva wanted one of them to keep living.
"Okay, I hacked into their system through the same connection they used to gain access to ours." McGee said. "And it looks like they have a system in place for this. As soon as anyone enters, and that'd be you, Tony, they detonate a bomb on a five minute timer."
"I'm still going in." Tony said. They all stared at him. He stared back, looking just as incredulous at the thought of staying out as they did at the thought of going in. "This is Ziva we're talking about. I will not leave her here."
"What if she's already dead?" Gibbs asked, never being one for tact.
"If she's alive and I leave her behind, I will never forgive myself." Tony said. "I'm going in, Marines or no Marines, bomb or no bomb. You can let me do it blind or you can tell me everything you know."
It was the Director who broke the silence. "Let's make a plan." She said.
"What do we hear from Tunisia?" Eli David asked. His second in command looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
"Ziva is still alive, Director."
"But she will not be for long, I presume?"
"There is a bomb set to take out the base. Soon. Within days."
"Very well then."
"You feel no regret, Director? Over Ziva?"
"Ziva did this to herself." He said, in a tone that dismissed the other man. There in his office, Eli David sat as the orange sun sunk slowly, coating Tel Aviv in its rays. He took the photo of her out of it's frame on his desk and looked at in one last time, before placing it in the bottom drawer of his desk, with Tali and Ari.
"Goodbye Ziva."