A/N: Hello, welcome to chapter 6 of And Then, It's Called Grace. I know things are looking bleak right now, and the next chapter or two may be a little, meh, but I promise: there is definitely hope. Things will start looking up in due time.

In this chapter, there's a lot of answers, and a lot of questions. I know a lot of you are confused, but I wrote it that way—it'll make more sense as time goes on.

Autumn

"Unfortunately, a super abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares." --Sir Peter Ustinov

Ziva's head rest in her hand as she dozed in and out of a restless sleep. Gibbs made her stay the night in the conference room until SecNav could come in the next morning—Vance refused to call him so late at night for a matter that did not concern national security.

Dreams haunted her in the dimly lit conference room.

"Why didn't you tell me, Ziva? Why'd you just go and leave?" Tony cried, throwing his hands in the air.

"I had no choice," Ziva spout.

"You always had a choice. You've had a million choices in the ten years since we met, and none of them were the right one,"

"I made the choice to stay at NCIS. I thought you actually appreciated that one,"

"Oh, sorry, I kind of forgot about that one after you left again!" Tony yelled. A single tear streamed down Ziva's face and he ran a hand through his hair. "I can't forgive you," he said.

"I know," Ziva replied. "Neither can I,"

"Goodbye, Ziva David," he said, walking away as a curtain of brilliant orange and yellow flames flew up around her, trapping her with no way out.

"Tony!" she tried to call him back, but the fire was drowning her. "Tony!"

"David. Wake up," Gibbs said. Ziva opened her eyes and spotted the small cup of coffee before her.

"Thank you," she said, taking it in her hands, a small gesture to show that he wanted her to be innocent. She took a long sip, thankful that it was only some semblance of a nightmare, and not reality… yet.

"SecNav will be here momentarily," Vance said, entering the room. "And Agent DiNozzo."

"Tony?" Ziva asked.

"SecNav's suggestion."

"Is it absolutely necessary?" Ziva asked. Vance gave her a look, and for a moment, she almost said sorry, but stopped herself. Sign of weakness.

The door opened and a figure walked in. He didn't look at her, and for a moment, she felt as if she might be dreaming again.

"Tony," she whispered, eyes filled with confusion.

He avoided her attempts at making eye contact. He hadn't changed much. His hair has hints of gray, and his face looked a little older. He looked weary, but not from lack of sleep. He looked defeated.

Tell me I did not do this to him. She reminded herself to breathe, to take things one step at a time, to fall back on her training, rusty with abandon.

"Agent DiNozzo," Vance greeted him as he sat down.

"Director," he said.

"You are aware of what this is about?" Vance prompted.

"Yes, sir, I am," he confirmed and Ziva shut her eyes for a brief moment, mentally head slapping herself as she watched the SecNav walk in the room.

"Mr. Secretary," Vance greeted him, offering his hand.

"Leon," he said. "Gibbs," he sat down at the end of the table. "Now, why am I here?"

Vance handed him a copy of the paper he had found the night before in Ziva's file.

"We were curious as to the nature of this… document."

"What did Agent David tell you?" he said, using Ziva's previous title that made her feel as if she was being slapped across the face. He examined the sheet, though it was clear he already knew its contents.

"She didn't," Gibbs said. "She said we would have to talk to you,"

The Secretary looked at Ziva for a moment. "Agent David did not leave NCIS of her own free will," he said. "Well, not on paper."

"What happened?" Leon prompted, exchanging a look with Gibbs, who then looked at his agents, or rather, his agent and former agent. Both were staring at the grain of the hardwood conference table, eyes focused, minds elsewhere, lips held tight.

"It was a cover up," Tony said in a low voice, angry.

"A what?"

"Tony," Ziva snapped, her heart aching.

"They wanted the truth," he said, still not looking at her. "I messed up, five years ago," he finally met her eyes, and she knew that he finally understood what had happened. They were darker now. Shrapnel took to her heart as she watched him. "And Ziva, took the blame."

"I'm bored."

"I will give you something to think about if you do not shut up," Ziva said, looking out the window of the car, eyeing the house. They had been staking out the Michlein house for two days, and Gibbs was almost certain this was their guy, the one who had been killing of high-profile Navymen.

"Fine," Tony said, pulling out a bag of chips from thin air. He began to crunch on them loudly.

"I said to shut up," Ziva snapped.

"You told me to shut up, not the chips," he said, but he put the chips away for later.

"Quit being such a baby."

"Oh, I'm a baby? Who's the one who need's perfect silence here like a whiny kid who needs a nap? Oh right, that'd be you," he said sarcastically.

Ziva rolled her eyes and moved on. "No activity for the past two days. Something is hinky."

"You mean like murdering? Yeah, I'd say that qualifies as hinky. You know, maybe he's just not here," Tony suggested.

"Maybe he knows. Maybe he's waiting for us. There has been no movement on his cell phone, car, or credit cards. He hasn't even turned on the lights in two days."

"Maybe he has a secret escape route and it goes underground and--"

"This is not one of your movies, Tony. People do not just build underground tunnels."

"Virginia's full of 'em. Used to be a slave state. You should know that from your citizenship studies." He said, grabbing for the binoculars in her hands.

She swatted his hands away. "I know that."

"Did not."

"Did too. In fact, I knew that long before I ever came to the United States," she boasted.

"Hmph," Tony said.

She was quiet for a second as she studied the house. "I do not like this, something feels off," Ziva said, looking around nervously.

"Last time you said that--"

"I know," she said. She didn't need to be reminded. The last time she had said that, Jenny died. Tony sighed. "But you agree with me," she realized.

"Yeah, I do," he admitted.

"So what do we do?"

It was then that two gunshots went off. "Guess that answers that question," Tony said as the exited the car quickly, pulling out their weapons.

They rushed toward the door across the road. Ziva nodded to Tony and she opened the door silently for him and he moved in quickly. She stayed on his six, and they went down the hall, clearing rooms as they went.

They heard a muffled scream come from the back room of the house. Ziva motioned to Tony, and he knocked down the door.

"NCIS!" he called before he could take in the scene.

The missing Commander was tied in a chair, a hood over his head. Michlein stood in front of him, a nine-millimeter SIG in his hand, a ski mask over his face.

"Put down your weapon or I shoot!" Tony warned him.

"I can't," Michlein said.

"Put it down. We can talk about this," Tony said. "I don't want to shoot you,"

"Neither do I," he said and raised his weapon a little higher. Tony shot. A perfect headshot. He fell to the floor without a word.

Ziva moved to the Commander and pulled off the hood. "No," she breathed.

"What?"

The man began to laugh wickedly. "Wrong one,"

"Michlein," Tony said, eyes wide.

"You cannot be serious," Ziva said as she pulled off the mask from the second man's head. "This is the Commander," she said.

Tony felt the sinking in his heart.

"You've got seconds," the real Michlein warned sadistically.

"What?" Tony said.

It was then that Ziva noticed the beeping, growing louder, faster, stronger with every moment. "Tony!" she cried. She took his hand and they ran out of the room, out the backdoor just as the entire house exploded into a fire, flames brilliant and dangerous. They were thrown to the ground but were uninjured.

Tony looked back at the house, breathing heavily. "This is not good."

If you feel like their reunion and the explanation was totally anticlimactic, don't worry. There's a purpose to all of this. There'll be more explanation in the next chapters, I promise. : ) Just hold on! There's more to it. There's always more to it.

Don't forget to review!