Ziva was still groggy, they kept feeding her drugs through an IV and she barely stayed awake more than 10 minutes at a time. In the short time she was awake, she tired herself quickly trying to get out of the shackles she was in. Ahmad & her unnamed assailant checked in on her often and did not treat her too badly. She was given water and bread every couple of hours. Occasionally she would hear them talking, mostly too quiet for her to hear, but she did hear a hurried conversation questioning why NCIS had not yet called the phone number they had provided. She knew there was a reason they had not called, but it concerned her. She wondered if they even knew she was missing... of course they knew! Tony surely would have called her by now. She sighed heavily causing Ahmad to look her way. "You may be here longer than we thought Ms. David. It seems your Agent DiNozzo has chosen to ignore the letter we have sent him. NCIS has 8 hours to contact us before plan B is put into effect."

Tony felt he was violating Ziva's privacy. He hesitated when he got to her door, only opening it when Gibbs prompted him, "What are you waiting for DiNozzo?" Her apartment was different than it had been the last time he was in it, then again this was a different apartment. And all her things had been destroyed in the explosion, so it came as no surprise to him that the material things were different too. Gibbs & Tony surveyed the room carefully. "Boss what are we looking for," Tony asked. "Anything to help us find her," Gibbs clarified. "Right boss." They went room by room searching every drawer, every corner and ever receipt. Gibbs turned to Tony, "You take the desk, I'll check the closet." "Uh Boss, I don't really feel comfortable going through a place that could have her deepest darkest secrets written in some diary," Tony cleared his throat. "Take the closet DiNozzo," Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Thanks Boss." Gibbs walked over to the desk in the corner of the room, pulling out the chair he sat down. He moved stuff carefully around in each of the drawers, he didn't want to disturb her items either. He shut the bottom drawer and picked up the envelopes on the top of the desk. Sifting through them he came to a sealed enveloped with the word Tony written on the front. Rule #12 was meant to protect them, and thus far it had worked.

Throughout the years, he had noticed the bantering, the UST, the nicknames and the looks, but he stayed mute. He was content letting them think no one knew a thing. He smirked thinking about the office pool Abby had started years ago, it had grown a significant amount over the years. A door shut loudly and DiNozzo practically shouted, "Nothing there Boss." Gibbs slipped the letter into his pocket and said "Let's go. We need to check out her car." Her car wasn't parked out front, so they walked a block to the east. As they turned the corner, Ziva's car came into view & when they reached it they found it unlocked. Laying on the front passenger seat was a bag with a box of tea bags in it. Tony recognized the name on the receipt as a small corner store they had passed on the way to her apartment. No others clues were found in the surrounding area and they headed back to the office to see if Abby or McGee had found anything.

Where were you when everything was falling apart... you found me.... lying on the floor....

Ziva could not get a song out of her head, one she was not even sure where she had heard. The lyrics made her think about Tony and she wondered if NCIS had called yet. She tried to sit up, but it was too difficult. She looked around the room, realizing she was alone. She started to cry, this was something she had been doing much more often than she was used to. Everyone told her that after her ordeal she should expect to be emotional, but she hated these feelings. She was frustrated because she couldn't even wipe her tears and she let out a low growl.

"Boss do you think we should call the phone number?" Tony asked. "McGee run a trace on it," Gibbs responded. McGee plugged the phone number in & got the untraceable beep. "Looks like it's a burn phone." "Call it Tony, put it on speaker." Tony pushed the speaker button & dialed the number slowly.

It rang only once before a male's voice picked up & said, "Ahh Agent DiNozzo you have decided to play the game after all." "Ziva's not a toy," Tony shot back angrily. The voice on the other end laughed. "Of course she's not. But for this game she will be the prize. Tomorrow morning you will receive another set of instructions, you will follow them, if you do not Ms. David will not be the only life lost. Goodbye for now." The line went silent and Tony hit the speaker button hard, harder than he should have. "We have to do something. I can't just sit on the sidelines while Ziva's out there somewhere, alone & scared and possibly already dead," Tony hurriedly told Gibbs & McGee. "Go to down to the lab Tony. See if Abby got anything off the letter," Gibbs told him softly. Tony started to protest, but the look Gibbs gave him told him to keep his mouth shut. He made his way down to Abby who immediately jumped up wondering if they'd found Ziva yet. "No Abs." Tony kneeled onto the floor & put his head into his hands. "God Abs, why does stuff like this always happen to Ziva? Hasn't she been through enough?" Abby leaned down giving him a squg, "It'll be okay Tony. You rescued her once, you'll bring her home again."

The next morning....

Tony had slept under his desk the night before, wanting to be there when the mail came around. When the elevator dinged he jumped up and pounced on Jerry, their mail guy. "Where's it at? My mail? Are you going to answer me? Don't make me place you under arrest Jerry!" Tony interrogated him. "I, uh, it's right here," Jerry said pressing a single envelope into his hand. "Are you alright?" he asked. "You, go on with your job." Tony said. He tore it open being careful not to destroy any possible trace evidence. Again, there was three pages. On page one there was an address, page two a time and page three a new phone number. As usual Gibbs had impeccable timing and walked in with a cup of coffee just as Tony was taking the letter down to Abby. "Boss, a new letter came this morning, an address, a time and a phone number. What am I supposed to do with that?" "You sleep here DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked looking at his ruffled clothing & unkempt hair. Tony nodded. "Alright get the letter to Abby."

Back up in the bullpen McGee was running the phone number, which again was untraceable. "Where's the address lead us McGee?" Gibbs inquired sipping his coffee. "A restaurant. Limonim," McGee answered. Neither had heard Tony come back up, of course that was probably because he'd taken the stairs. "Ziva's favorite restaurant. She said it reminded her of Israel," Tony told them. "Grab your gear." "Wait! Boss, don't you think we should wait until 1:00? If they're watching us, and we don't follow their rules Ziva's dead. We can't chance that. You heard that guy, if we don't follow the rules others will die too." They waited, running down every lead they could dream up. When the time came they geared up & drove to the restaurant. When they entered, the hostess greeted them. They flashed their badges and Tony stepped towards her holding up Ziva's picture. "She have a regular table?" The hostess pointed to a table near the back corner. They first checked under the chairs, finding nothing McGee knelt done looking underneath the table. There taped to the underside was another envelope. McGee opened the letter reading it aloud in a hushed voice, "Welcome to the game. You have 1 minute to find the bomb before it detonates. Time starts now." The team started grabbing people, yelling at everyone to get out. Confused, people were running out both the front & back exits. "How are we on time McGee?" Gibbs shouted over the crowd. "20 seconds left boss." The last person exited the restaurant and Gibbs yelled, "Take cover." They barely made it out of the restaurant door before an explosion threw Gibbs & Tony onto the ground and McGee into the side of a car. First responders arrived rather quickly and they were the only ones treated for minor physical injuries. Several restaurant patrons were treated for shock, but no one had died, NCIS had succeeded. An hour later they made a call to the second phone number & again it rang only once before being answered. "Very good Agent DiNozzo. Ms. David will be satisfied to hear you have succeeded at your first task. You will receive another letter in the morning. Rest well tonight, you will need your strength for tomorrows task." Again the line went silent. Tony breathed a sigh of relief, "Boss she's still alive."

Ziva thought about screaming. But it was no use, she was sure no one would hear her cries for help. The door opened & her head jerked up. "Good afternoon Ms. David. NCIS has satisfied the requirements of the first task, they will be presented with a new one in the morning," Ahmad told her. "They are... okay?" Ziva asked. "Yes, for now." Ahmad confirmed. "I want to talk to my father," Ziva stated. "In due time, you must be patient," her other assailant said from behind her.