Chapter Break

Ziva had spent the last hour calming Mrs. Vance, not something she felt particularly qualified to do. But the mother was ready to take up arms and storm DaVoodi's home, blasting her way to her children. Ziva had to hand it to her, she had spirit. With the help of Ducky, she was able to slip a small amount of a mild sedative into her coffee, and the woman was now resting peacefully on the sofa in her husband's office. Ziva and Ducky stood, admiring their work, until Director Vance entered, at which time they left, allowing him some privacy with his distraught wife.

"Did you get a fix on that phone booth, McGee?" Ziva asked.

Fornell and Sachs entered the bullpen right behind her and Fornell said, "That may not be necessary. The guy whose car got commandeered by Agent DiNotzo called it in. He said, and I quote, 'some white dude covered in blood flashed a police badge and dragged me out of my car. He and two black kids took off in MY CAR!' "

"Were they hurt?" Vance asked from the balcony.

"He didn't say. We sent an agent over to check it out, but the phone booth was completely destroyed."

"Where were they?" McGee asked.

"Baltimore, way over on 32nd Street. We got DiNotzo's car and we're towing it in now." He turned to Gibbs and repeated, "If you have any idea where he'd go, now's a good time to tell us."

Gibbs stared, knowing that some answers to questions were never as simple as they seemed. He allowed the awkward silence to linger, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Finally, he replied, "Even if I did know, Fornell, I wouldn't tell you. The best chance they have at staying alive is doing exactly what they're doing."

Sachs opened his mouth, attempting to protest the subterfuge, but a hand from Fornell stopped him. A frustrated and lengthy sigh could be heard in the silence. Yes, on some level, they all knew that. It was hard to hear, and even harder to understand, but it was none-the-less the sad and painful truth.

Chapter Break

DiNozzo pulled over, he was bone tired and the adrenaline had long since worn off, allowing him to feel every inch of pain now present in his body. Kayla and Jared were asleep, and he needed to come up with a plan. It was late Tuesday night and he had to make it until Friday. That wouldn't be such an impossible task if it were just him, but he had two kids with him. How was he going to take care of two children and outrun the Mafia? "Good question, Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. Now find an answer," he whispered to himself.

Tina! Her face popped into his head from out of nowhere. "Tina!" She was a woman he'd arrested four years earlier, but she wasn't the usual criminal; she was a high class call girl and sparks had flown between them from the first time he laid eyes on her, even while he was arresting her. Ziva had even felt their attraction towards each other, and never missed an opportunity to comment on it from time to time. Tina had received a suspended sentence and then up and moved to Baltimore City, not too far from where they were now, to take a job with an escort service. He'd visited her once, but it was too risky, for both of them, so they mutually called it off. Now, if he could only remember where, exactly, she lived.

He wound his way around the city to the high rent district. Pockets of very wealthy homes dotted the landscape of eastern Baltimore, and he remembered that she lived an opulent lifestyle in an equally opulent penthouse apartment. He pulled into an underground parking garage and was granted entrance by the attendant after he flashed his badge, being careful not to put himself too far into the guard's line of vision. Once inside he parked and cut the engine. He'd found the building, now it was just a question of whether she was still living here.

"Kayla, wake up. Kayla?" Tony pushed gently on her shoulder.

"Yeah?" a groggy voice replied.

"I think I found a place where we can stay. Let's go." He lifted Jared over his shoulder and they made their way to the elevator. He pressed the button on the panel and prayed the elevator wouldn't stop along the way. The Gods were with him because it didn't, at least not until they had reached the eleventh floor. They stood in front of an apartment door staring at it. Finally, he knocked quietly several times. Eventually, he heard some noise and once again caught himself praying that she still lived here. They heard several locks unbolting, and a few chains sliding off, and then the door swung open.

And there she stood, wearing a blue satin robe tied neatly at her thin waist, with her long auburn hair falling gracefully over her shoulders and her penetrating green eyes inviting him inside. She was as alluring and as beautiful as he had remembered, and the sparks were still there.

"Hi, Tina," he smiled awkwardly but genuinely glad to see her, "I hope we're not disturbing anything, but can we come in?" He didn't wait for an answer as he pushed Kayla through first and he shuffled in behind, closing and bolting the door.

She stared at them, the battered agent with a small black boy draped over his shoulder and a young girl standing next to him. She had reserved a spot in her heart for this federal agent, and, she held onto a well kept secret: she also had a soft spot for children. Gracing him with one of her seductive smiles, she simply said, "You finally come to your senses?"

"I wish that were the case," he honestly replied. "We're in trouble and we need a place to lay low."

Being one who spent the better part of her life in trouble, she led them to a library right off the living room. "Stay here, I need to wrap things up." Through the closed glass paneled door, he heard the disappointing sound of a man's voice, and then the front door closing again. Five minutes later, she had returned, and almost laughed at DiNozzo's pleading expression.

She chuckled, "Would you like me to take him?"

He was most appreciative as she took the young boy off his shoulder. Too heavy for her to carry, she guided him away, with his sister following close behind. Thirty minutes later, and after a quick bath, Kayla and Jared were fast asleep in a queen sized bed in her guest room, and she was able to turn her attention to the handsome man. "You realize you've cost me a thousand dollar a night client?"

"Why are you still doing this?"

"It's what I know. You and I are a lot alike that way. We do what we're good at."

He couldn't help but admire her matter of fact analysis of their lives.

"Enough of that talk. Look at you! I don't want to know what happened, but I do want to get you cleaned up." The cut on the side of his head was long and deep and went from his left eye brow to above his ear. He was also bleeding from a hole in his leg where a bullet had passed through and exited out the back of his thigh. She handed him three aspirin and a glass of water and tossed a towel his way, "I'll see you when you get out."

The shower felt good; the bed even better. But her soft lips against his were indescribably satisfying. Here it was 3:30 in the morning and he was lying next to a beautiful woman in a lavishly decorated apartment. Under different circumstances, he might have thought he was living the perfect life.

"That's what it's like when you've found your soul mate," she whispered into his ear.

"What?"

"Don't you feel it? It's like we've never been apart. It's been four years since we've seen each other, but I feel like it was just last week that we spent that wonderfully passionate night together."

He touched her face, agreeing with everything she'd said. She had a way of relaxing him like no other woman could do. He lost himself in another one of her kisses and for the next hour, nothing existed… no mafia, no children, no running, no pain, no nothing, just the hot fiery love that they both had mastered over four years ago.

TBC