AN: Thanks for the reviews - auch für die deutschen Kommentare vielen Dank! - I'm happy about every one of them and I like to read about what you think.

The characters are still not mine. Those who are won't stay for long ...


7. Fairy-Tales

Tony stirred but didn't wake as the door to their prison opened. Three people entered the room, as Ziva had expected from the sound of the footsteps in the hallway - 'Mr. Creepy' and the two men they had encountered when they had been brought to the parking garage.

They stopped, flanking the door Mr. Creepy was closing. He turned and looked at his captives. "Wake him," he snapped at Ziva, all politeness gone from his voice.

"Why?" Ziva asked. "Are we going somewhere?"

"No. We're going to find out something. Better wake him before we have to do it ourselves," the man said menacingly.

Ziva bent down to whisper in Tony's ear. "Time to get up, DiNozzo. Pizza's finished." Tony stirred and this time opened his eyes. Adrenaline made him sitting upright immediately at the sight of the three men standing in the little room.

"How did it get so overcrowded in here all of a sudden, Ziva?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "We're quite unprepared to entertain our guests."

"Don't worry, we'll entertain you right away," Mr. Creepy said. "Get up," he commanded.

Ziva watched as Tony came to stand in front of the man, apparently totally relaxed, a slight grin on his face. "You gonna shoot me, you better aim this time," he said.

Ziva got up fast, leaning against the wall, asking herself why the hell Tony was provoking their captor.

"Are you tired of Miss David?" the man answered. "When I want to kill, I do so. I just slowed her down." With that he gave his henchmen a look, motioning them to take care of Ziva. "Don't underestimate her, she's good," he warned as they moved to stand on either side of her.

"What's your name?" Tony asked him. "I'd like to know who's pressing the buttons here."

"None of your business," his opponent replied curtly. "Now you'll stop annoying me and answer my questions. What were you currently working on at NCIS?"

"None of your business," Tony replied without hesitation, mimicking the other man's voice.

"I told you to stop annoying me," the man said, a remote suddenly in his hand.

"No," Ziva called out as the man pressed a button to send Tony into a spasm. Tony doubled over, barely able to remain standing. After a few seconds he propped himself up again slowly, taking a deep breath.

"Just a warning, DiNozzo. Answer my question."

Tony looked at him for a moment, rebellion in his eyes. "I was searching for a car," he said finally, clearly not intending to elaborate.

"You'll have to give me more information, I'm afraid."

Tony remained silent, watching his surroundings intently. When the man was about to use the remote again Tony kicked out, sending the device flying through the room. It crashed against the wall and came to lie at the door. Ziva suddenly jumped forward, crossed the room and picked up the remote before the men guarding her could react.

"Stop it," Mr. Creepy said calmly, gun drawn. "You wouldn't want me to shoot your partner, would you?" he asked Ziva. "Put down the remote, please."

Ziva's look locked with Tony's as she slowly crouched to place the remote on the ground. He smiled encouragingly, giving her a barely perceivable nod. Before her guards had reached her, Ziva had removed the battery with a fast, deft movement, then stomped on the remote with full force. The device shattered with a crunching sound.

"And what makes you think I won't shoot your partner now?" the man said. "Restrain her," he commanded. "I told you not to underestimate her." Pointing his gun at Tony's head, he watched as Ziva was handcuffed once again. She winced, closing her eyes, as the men grabbed her arms tightly regardless of her wound.

"Back to our question, Agent DiNozzo. I'd prefer you concentrate on the answer."

"I told you, I was searching for a car," Tony said in a bored voice, not turning his gaze away from Ziva. "The car belonged to a murder victim whose death we're investigating."

"You were not working undercover?" the man asked.

"Me?" Tony looked at his opponent again, slightly confused. "That's not the kind of case for undercover work, really."

"I'm not convinced you're telling me the truth, DiNozzo. What were you working on?"

"I told you, I was searching for ..." The sentence came to an untimely end when his arms were jerked back and held in a strong grip behind him by one of the men who had been guarding Ziva.

"Would you like to try again?" Mr. Creepy asked politely, holstering his gun.

"Okay ... the car was a dark-blue Chrysler Voyager ..." Tony started when a fist connected with his stomach, forcing the breath out of his lungs. "Wrong answer, I think," he panted, struggling against the restraining hands.

"Were you working undercover?"

"No, I wasn't! I told you ..." The fist hit him again, harder this time. He sagged in the grip of the man holding him, trying to breathe.

"Stop it," Ziva said angrily. "He wasn't working undercover, he told you the truth. You won't get another answer."

"Do you think so, Miss David? He wouldn't necessarily talk to you about it, would he? A top secret mission perhaps?"

Ziva looked at Tony who stared back, his expression unreadable. No. This couldn't be. She would have noticed. He would have told her. She would have been his backup. Gibbs wouldn't have sent him undercover without backup. Tony was her partner after all.

Then again he had been undercover for Jenny without their team knowing anything about it. Being secretive was a trait she'd never have expected of him when she'd started working with Anthony DiNozzo.

Tony saw the shadow of doubt flicker over Ziva's face. He knew she thought she could read him anytime and was slightly pleased to see her realizing it was not as easy as that. Yeah, he definitely was able to beat her at her own game once in a while. Not that it mattered now. He tried to concentrate on the task at hand - find the answer they wanted to hear. Preferably before they found another button to press.

"There's no top secret mission," he said slowly, articulating very meticulously as if explaining something to a child. "I was working on a plain case of homicide which doesn't require the tiniest bit of undercover operation, believe me."

"Let's try another way of finding the truth, Agent DiNozzo," his captor said, unfazed by Tony's statement. Leaving Tony in the grip of his henchman, he went to confront Ziva, grabbed a handful of hair and pulled, forcing her to look at him. "You won't get another answer," she repeated derisively.

"We'll see," the man answered and hit her face with the back of his flat hand, his ring leaving a bloody scar on her cheek. Ziva closed her eyes briefly, willing her body not to betray the pain. The next blow hit her wounded arm, causing her to gasp. When she was hit in the stomach, her vision began to blur. Distantly she heard Tony protesting furiously while her body took another few blows. She struggled against the grip on her arms, but it didn't losen for a second, and when she tried to kick she was forced onto her knees, facing Tony who was still looking at her, horror in his eyes.

"Do you want to tell me another fairy-tale, Agent DiNozzo?" the man asked.

"How'd you know which one's the fairy-tale?" Tony answered.

"You certainly have a point. Shall we continue then?" He turned around to face Ziva again. "He was working undercover, is that correct?" he asked her. Her rather weak "No" clashed with Tony's resolute "Yes". Immediately she was released. Sinking to the ground, she stared at Tony in disbelief. "You weren't," she whispered before she passed out.

---

On their way up Gibbs had called security to shut down the building in order to prevent anyone from leaving. As it had turned out, this had been the right call. They had opened the door to the small room which housed both of security's computer servers to find it deserted. Kristin Parson had left, and from the looks she had been in quite a hurry. McGee had called up the log files to check on what she had been doing while Gibbs had waited for security to call him with news about Parson's whereabouts.

They had finally got hold of her when she had tried to leave through an emergency exit to the parking lot. Now she was sitting in an interrogation room, engaged in a staring contest with Gibbs, waiting for him to speak.

"What is Gibbs waiting for?" Abby asked impatiently. "It's not like we have time in abundance."

"He's marking his territory," McGee answered ironically. "Parson's FBI after all. She's quite good at staring herself, I'd say."

"Gibbs is the Master of Staring," Abby stated confidently. "Shouldn't Fornell be here?"

"He prefers not to know that Parson's been found," McGee replied. "But he wants the tapes."

"Hinky," Abby said just as Gibbs decided to break the silence.

---

"She's so screwed," Abby said to nobody in particular nearly an hour later. They had listened to Parson's story with increasing disbelief which was now slowly changing to something verging on fury on Abby's part. "They risked Tony's life to protect their own agent? I wonder when exactly Gibbs will shoot her!"

"Maybe Fornell will beat him to it," Jenny replied. She had joined McGee and Abby shortly after Gibbs had started the interrogation. "She's on his team but he apparently knew nothing about what was going on."

"I could quote a precedent for this," McGee said without thinking.

"And what exactly are you speaking about, Agent McGee?" the Director replied, eyebrows raised.

"Uhm, nothing. I mean, I know nothing, uh, about, you see ..."

"Yes, I see, McGee. I know you've been curious about something Agent DiNozzo is involved in, but it's strictly need to know. And I'm not risking any FBI agent's life by this assignment, I assure you."

"Uh, yes, I mean, never mind." McGee decided to try again from a different angle. "So Tony's secret assignment isn't the reason for his present ... situation?" he asked.

"No, it's not. And that's all you need to know, Agent McGee," the Director answered. "But of course I'm as worried about Tony and Ziva as you are, Tim."

They lapsed into silence again while the interrogation finally came to an end. Jenny, Abby and McGee had watched Leroy Jethro Gibbs gradually lose his temper while more and more obscure details about a rather hapless FBI operation were unearthed. Parson seemed to be not too impressed by the Wrath of Gibbs, but as she was working with Fornell she probably was used to bad temper and knew how to deal with it.

As it had turned out, she was Fornell's resident geek, assigned by Fornell's superiors to protect FBI Special Agent Mark Ashen, currently undercover with the Hunter organization, whose cover was about to be blown. When the FBI agents steering this operation had realized that Hunter had intel about an undercover agent within their organization, they had decided to deflect the imminent danger by placing not so subtle hints that this undercover agent was Anthony DiNozzo, NCIS. Parson had used her working hours with NCIS security to provide the evidence that DiNozzo was the agent in question; at the same time some conscience had dictated that she should protect clueless DiNozzo from any danger those machinations could imply.

Except that DiNozzo hadn't been as clueless as he was supposed to be, which Gibbs had been pleased to realize. He had actually noticed he was being followed whenever he was outside the NCIS building. On the second day of her surveillance he had addressed her, asking why she was tailing him. She had told him some lies, implying that she had a crush on him, but he hadn't seemed convinced in the least. After that he had frequently made fun of her, grinning and waving at her mirror image in a shop window or bowing to her before entering the building again. When telling this part of her story Gibbs got the distinct impression that her crush on his agent wasn't the lie she believed it to be.

Today she had waited at the door of the coffee shop as usual when she had finally realized that DiNozzo wasn't in there anymore. Cursing herself - he knew that she followed him after all - she'd tried to find him, sure that he was up to something he didn't want her to witness, but she had had to finally acknowledge the fact that she had lost him. Heading back to NCIS, she'd spotted him speaking with a dark-clad man at the entrance before he had somewhat reluctantly stepped inside, alone. When he'd come back with Officer David, both of them guns at the ready, she had watched in bewilderment as the two agents got in a car and left at high speed.

"You got a look at the plates?" Gibbs asked, trying to damp the faint hope that they might actually get a new lead.

"Yes, got it," Parson replied. When she had recited the numbers Abby and McGee immediately left.


TBC