Chapter 7 - Fight and Flight

Somewhere in the ocean

Ziva's POV

"I would sooner die than take this necklace off," I said and pulled on a chain around his neck. "You ought to know." They were dog tags.

Those words rang out in my head as I looked at him now. He saved my life as I hesitated. Why did I hesitate? I hesitated because I didn't want to be a killer. I didn't want to kill when the captain's eyes were pleading me for his life. But, he was going to shoot and Shalev shot him first. We circled one another for a short moment, studying the other and staring into each other's eyes, as though testing each other's loyalty.

"Did you sell us out?" I asked him.

"If I had, what would be stopping me from pulling the trigger?" he asked.

Four shots rang out through the ship and the last of them hit Shalev in the head. He fell to the ground and my heart nearly broke. Malachi was up above me, looking down and holding onto his bleeding arm. I nearly broke then.

I took one last look at the man who had saved me and it hurt to know that he was a good man and a Marine. It hurt to know that someday NCIS might be dealing with his death and how he had died. At least I knew that they would solve the case appropriately and I would not be blamed in the end.

I found Malachi and kneeled down beside him.

"Go, Ziva," he said. "Go on without me and get to land. Then, call your father. The ship will sink sooner or later."

"Malachi, I learned something in America," I said quietly to him.

"And what did the Americans teach you that might be useful when you are on a doomed ship in the middle of some ocean, who knows how far away from Somalia?"

"They taught me a rule," I explained. "It is rule number one. Never screw your partner over. Which means that I am not leaving you here to die. I might not trust you and you might not do the same for me, but you are my partner today and I will not screw you over."

Malachi's eyes widened as I recited this. He knew that this was something that we should all live by, as long as we were going to live in peace with each other at Mossad, which is not the way things were done. But, he had never heard anyone do this or seen it happen. He was also stunned at my blatant honesty that I did not trust him. That was not something that someone in Mossad talked about, not any kind of trust in any way. We just did our jobs and continued on, without talking so much about it.

We sat in a life-raft for two days and made it to Mogadishu, Somalia. I looked at Malachi as we were finally on dry land. He had his arm wrapped in a pillowcase and he was looking at me as though he was thinking that he was going to be getting ready for a good fight.

"You should stay here," I said to him.

"You are not going alone," he reminded me. "You saved me and you will not go in there alone."

"My father said at any cost," I told him. "That means if we were to call him right now and ask him what to do, I could guarantee that he would want me to continue on without you. If you would prefer that I call him to double check, I can do that as well."

"Please, Ziva," Malachi said. "I will not let you go in alone."

"Fine, I shall call him," I said.

I pulled out the satellite phone that we had taken from the ship. I dialed the number for my father and waited as the phone rang and rang. Finally, I heard someone answer it.

"It is Officer David, I need to speak with my father," I said to his secretary, as I knew it was since there was no answer from anyone on the other end.

Three minutes later there was an answer to my request.

"Ziva, why are you calling me in the middle of an assignment that is supposed to be under deep cover?" Eli's voice rang through the phone angrily.

"Malachi is injured," I said to him. "Our other companions are dead. I wanted to clarify what you would have me do now."

"I will have you go alone, Ziva," Eli said. "I thought I had been perfectly clear when I had told you that this was going to be done at any cost?"

"You were. However, Malachi did not see it that way," I said angrily. "Goodbye, Abba."

I hung up the phone. I had never said goodbye to him in all my life, for the fear that I would never see him again. However, this time I was nearly certain that I would never see him again. I was fairly certain that I was walking straight into my death now. This was going to be an act of suicide and nothing more or less.

"I will probably not be seeing you again, Malachi," I said to him as I looked at him. "Take care of yourself."

There was actually a tear in his eye as I turned around and walked away and felt the need to push back my own tears. My almost certain suicide mission had just turned into an absolutely certain suicide mission, just on my father's words that it was going to be a go at any cost. That was the way of Mossad and I was going to see it once and for all in full force of the worst way.


Washington, DC

Gibbs' POV

I read over the letter one more time as I sat at my desk this morning. I was early and I had time. The letter nearly broke my heart to read, coupled with the text message that I had received two weeks earlier.

There were a few things from Ziva's letter that stuck clearly in my head. She reminded me of rule six and she had gotten some of my responses down perfectly. It was her reminder that she knew I didn't like personal conversations that was painful for me as she went into a very personal story that touched my heart somewhat. But, it was her feelings for Tony that touched me the most.

Ziva trusted him. She trusted him with everything that she had, but had needed an excuse to appease her father out of the fear that she had for betraying Mossad. She seemed to know Tony better than anyone else in this world knew Tony and that was somewhat miraculous to me.

She admitted that she betrayed Tony and felt awful about it. She warned me about what Tony would do and how he would react and so far she was dead on. And, she told me what I have known for a long time. She had fallen in love with Tony over her four years at NCIS, which is why she could betray him and still be bordering on okay. She knew that she was not actually betraying him. She also had a need to see Tony again.

But the text message that she had sent me haunted me. She had told me that Somalia would probably be her end and she had no choice. I wanted to cry right there at my desk. I could feel Tony's cold stare on me as my eyes filled with tears. He knew that the others had received a message from Ziva and that he had not and it hurt me so much to keep that from him. It hurt me beyond anything else. But, Ziva had asked one thing of me, one very important thing of me. I could not give him the letter until the time was just right.

I slammed my fist onto my desk and stood up.

"Boss?" Tony questioned.

I said nothing to him, just looked at him. He was broken indeed. He smelled of alcohol again this morning and he was a broken man who had been severely betrayed and I did not want his anger to be directed at Ziva. I wanted his anger to be directed at me. I walked over to him and grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him into the elevator. I pressed a button and stared at him as it started moving.

When we were halfway to Abby's lab I hit the emergency stop.

"Don't be angry with her, Tony," I said.

"Why not?" he asked angrily. "Obviously protecting her was the wrong thing to do! She hates me!"

"No, Tony," I said. "I think you've got that a little confused. She did send you a letter… or rather she sent your letter to me, on purpose."

"Why did she do that?"

"Because she thinks she isn't going to survive, Tony!" I shouted at him.

He was shocked into silence. He couldn't bare to hear what he had just heard. He looked as though another small piece of him broke. He loved her and I could see it in his heart in that moment when I said those words.

"She says I'll know when the time is right to give the letter to you," I told him. "The time isn't now, but you have to know that you do have something from her and I will make sure that you read it long before she ever gets back."

"What does it say?"

"I can't tell you that," I said. "I didn't read it." That was a flat out lie. I was given his letter and given permission to read it and I had. "She did tell me that she trusts you and doesn't even know how to apologize to you. I would assume that your letter is rather lengthy if she is trying to be open and honest. That is not exactly her strong point."

"Fine," Tony said, his expression softening into a deeply sad one. But the anger was gone. I hit the switch again and finished the ride to Abby's lab. I got her a Caf-Pow and continued in as I saw Tony go back up in the elevator, not wanting to deal with Abby at that moment, since she was still rather down since Ziva left.

"Hey, Abs," I said to her.

"Gibbs," she said.

"Got you a present," I said handing her the Caf-Pow and pulling her into a hug.

This had become our morning ritual since Ziva left. I would get her a Caf-Pow, regardless of the case and I would pull her into a hug. She was very hurt by Ziva leaving, but she seemed to understand the reasoning as well as the rest of us. It was heartbreaking to know that we might not ever see her shining face again. It was like losing a daughter all over again, though I was very glad that she took the time to be completely honest with me about everything that she had lied to me about in the past, or hidden from me.

I sighed as I pushed Abby out of the hug and breathed again. I gave Abby a kiss on the cheek and walked back to the elevator.