Chapter 4

Ziva was trying to get to her shoe desperately. If I can only get to it, I can get out of here, she thought.

She had kicked her foot up and her shoe went flying across the room. She was now scooting her chair to get to it. There was a knife concealed in the heel, and she needed to get it out. She had to explain to everybody that she was trying to help them. She had to stop Ari from killing Gibbs. And he probably wouldn't stop at Gibbs either; he would probably kill McGee, and Abby, and Sarah, and - she forced herself a little bit harder to think the name. Tony.

She tried even harder to get to her shoe. She was almost there. If she could just get her foot to move a little bit farther.

"We have to do something!" Abby whispered.

Tony saw McGee look at the machine gun he was holding. "I have a clear shot."

Tony nodded. He knew how much it would hurt Ziva, but she had betrayed them, and they had to save Boss.

McGee took aim at Ari and was about to pull the trigger when something knocked him down. It was Ziva.

Everyone in the Ballroom took notice.

Ari roared in frustration and aimed his fun at McGee. Gibbs then tackled him, and Abby and Sarah both screamed.

"What are you doing?" McGee growled. "How did you get out?"

"I have my ways, McGee." she answered.

Ziva and McGee struggled for the gun. Ziva was on top of McGee, who flipped over and pinned Ziva down on the hard tile floor. Ziva then kneed him in the groin and got free. She grabbed the gun and, involuntarily, pointed at them.

Meanwhile, Ari and Gibbs were also fighting for a gun. Tony was helping Gibbs. Despite Ari having two men on him he knocked Gibbs in the gut, and Tony in the face with the gun and won.

"I don't think you wanna try any more than what you've done." Ari said. "You see, I wasn't going to kill you. Until now."

Ziva almost lost her composure. Almost. She couldn't bear to have them dead. She would kill Ari before that happened.

Just then the room flooded with people. They were wearing bullet-proof vests that said FBI. There was a lot of yelling.

"Put the guns down!" "FBI!"

Abaddon started shooting. Then everyone else started shooting.

"Go!" Abaddon told Ari and Ziva. "We'll fight them off!"

"I'm fighting!" Ari said just as Ziva replied, "No way."

"If you want to finish the mission, you must go, or you will most likely die."

Ari sighed. "I will see you, my friend."

He grabbed Ziva's hand and started pulling her toward the kitchen. Nobody noticed.

"What are you doing?" Ziva asked. "I am staying to fight!"

"No you are not!" Ari said. They crouched down as somebody beside them fell. Ziva was afraid to look at who it was. "I will not let my sister go to her death."

"I won't be going to my death."

"I need you to help finish the mission."

She thought about it. She needed to know what he was planning to do now. To save Gibbs. To save everybody.

"Please." He begged. Right then he reminded her of the old Ari. The nice, caring, loving Ari.

"Okay."

The stood back up and went for the kitchen again. A hand went on Ari's shoulder.

"You're not taking her anywhere," Gibbs said.

"Oh yes I am." Ari brought the butt of the machine gun to Gibbs' face, and it made a sickening crunch as it connected with his nose. The force was so hard that it knocked Gibbs on the floor.

With much regret, Ziva turned away from him and kept on running.

They got through the kitchen and out the exit with no trouble. They were almost to the car.

"Stop right there!" It was Tony. Ziva stopped in shock. Ari stopped because Ziva did.

"What right do you have to tell us what to do?" Ari asked.

"I'm not really older than you, so it can't be that. Maybe," he smiled his Dinozzo smile. "Just maybe it may be the fact that I have a badge." As he said that, the smile left his face and he dropped the sarcastic tone.

"I don't see how that would be it," Ari said. "As you know, you are not my government."

Ziva realized that Tony was not alone. McGee was right behind him, his gun up.

Tony's face went stone cold. "You're not leaving with Ziva."

"I believe I have more of a claim on her than you do."

"Excuse me?" Ziva said.

"Sorry, Ziva," Ari said. "I just meant that you are my family." He turned back to Tony and McGee. "She can leave with me if she wants."

Tony made eye-contact with Ziva. "Do you wanna go with him, Ziva?"

Ziva saw what he was hiding in his eyes. There was pain. Like a little boy being left by his mother in the grocery store. Abandonment.

"Yes," she said.

The abandonment in his eyes just got worse. She didn't betray the emotion she was feeling. She wanted to go comfort him. To hug him; to tell him everything. But she couldn't. Not with Ari standing right there.

Ziva looked at Ari and they made a silent conversation that lasted less than a second. Ziva pulled the knife from the sheath on her thigh and threw it in one swift movement. It hit McGee right above the knee. Tony lunged for Ari, completely forgetting that he had a gun in his hand, and Ari shot.

Ziva froze for less than second before Ari grabbed her arm and pulled towards the car. She looked back and felt instant relief. It just grazed Tony's shoulder. Ari pushed her into the passenger's seat, ran around to the driver's side, got in, and drove off. She didn't dare look back.

Tony heard the car drive away and cursed. He had just let Ari get away with Ziva. He would probably end up using her as leverage to get to Gibbs. And everyone else. His phone rang. He automatically reached for it with his right hand and felt a searing pain. He used his left hand and looked at the caller ID. Great, it was Gibbs.

"Ya, Boss?" Tony said through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the pain. He could hear McGee's deep breaths.

"Where are you? Do you know where McGee is?" Gibbs asked.

"No worries, Boss. McGee's with me. We're in the back alley from the kitchen exit. We followed Ari." He couldn't say Ziva. It hurt too much, and he was already hurting enough.

"Did you get them?" Gibbs asked.

"No," Tony said. "They got away."

"How the hell did they get away?"

"He shot me, and I don't know what she did to McGee."

"I'm coming to get you."

There was silence on the other end. Tony hung up the phone and took a deep breath. "You okay, McGee?"

"Oh ya," McGee said sarcastically. "I just got stabbed in the leg by our co-worker, I'm fine."

"Seriously, McSarcastic. Where did she get you?"

"Right above the knee."

"Ouch."

"Ya. How about you?"

"Just a graze."

Just then, Gibbs and EMTs came out. Gibbs looked at Tony and McGee, and his eyes widened slightly. It was so slight that tony thought he had imagined it.

One of the EMTs went over to Tony and started looking at his wound.

"It's not that bad," he said. "You'll just have to wear a sling for a couple weeks."

The EMT bandaged the graze after he stopped the little bleeding that came from the wound. He then helped Tony up.

"Thanks," Tony said.

"No problem."

Tony walked over to Gibbs.

"I thought you needed this," Gibbs said, handing Tony an arm sling.

"Thanks, Boss." Gibbs helped put the sling on and they stood in silence as McGee came over, using crutches.

"You ready to go?" Gibbs asked them. They both nodded.

As they were driving to the hotel, Tony was lost in his own thoughts.

How could she have done this? I thought she was for justice, and then she's all of a sudden gun-ho about killing Gibbs. She never said it but you could tell that Gibbs was like a father to her. Like he was to all of us. But more so for her, and me too, as we neither of us really had good fathers.

"Hey," Gibbs said. "It's no one's fault but her own."

Tony just nodded. But he really felt like he should've have seen this coming from her. They knew each other so well, he couldn't believe he didn't. But somehow he believed what she said. That she was on their side, she was just trying to gain Ari's trust. He didn't know why, but he believed her. She would never go against Gibbs. Or would she?

"Where are we going, Ari?"

They had been driving for a half hour non-stop. She was kind of nervous where they were going.

"To a safe house." Ari said.

"What safe house?" Ziva asked.

"I set up a safe house just in case things got out of hand."

"Oh."

"You honestly thought I wasn't prepared?"

"No, I thought you thought that you were going to succeed in killing Gibbs."

"I knew we were going to have some difficulty in the plan, did you not?"

"Yes, but I thought that wasn't gonna stop you, that's why you had all those extra people."

"Ziva," he said. "I may be adventurous, but I'm not an idiot."

"I didn't think you were."

"Good."

They drove in silence the rest of the way. Ziva knew what she had to do, but she would have to wait for the right moment to do it.

Tony was lying in his bed in his hotel room. He still couldn't believe what happened.

Maybe it was just a dream, and I'm going to wake up any second, he thought.

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them.

He was still in the hotel room, and he still had a sling on his arm.

Well, crap, he thought. Then it was real. How the hell could she do this?

Different versions of the same thoughts ran through his mind until he fell into a restless sleep, dreaming of Ziva with pain.