Warnings: Same as usual. Some spoilers for "Family First"

A/N: I apologize for the delay, I was at Disney last week and just didn't have time to post while I was away.

Ladyaloysius- Thanks for reading!


"I see that you made it out of Columbia," Tony drawled, watching as a glass of water was placed in front of him. "Ziva had nothing to worry about after all."

"In that instance, no," Monique Lisson said, with a smile. "I barely spoke to her until after her father died. I think she was angry at me for staying behind in Columbia. That was when she called me—she wanted my help locating Bodnar."

Tony's jaw clenched. Ziva never would have admitted it but her father's murder changed her. She became even more reckless and calculating in her hunt for the killer. "Did you know about Tali?"

Monique handed a glass of water to Tim and sighed. "I knew that she existed but I did not know she was your daughter. Ziva never mentioned that you came to Israel to try and convince her to return to Washington. She made it sound like she was not speaking to any of you anymore."

"She wasn't speaking to us," Tim said. "After Tony saw her at the farmhouse that was the last the team heard from her."

"I am not surprised," Monique said. "When Ziva wanted to disappear she disappeared."

"It would have been nice to have a phone call once and a while," Tim snapped.

"And especially after my daughter was born," Tony added.

Monique sat down at the table with the two men. She folded her hands on top of the rustic wood. "If I had known sooner that Tali was your daughter, Agent DiNozzo, I would have urged Ziva to contact you. By the time she told me, Director Elbanz had already taken the child to the United States."

Tony felt his heart skip a beat. "So, Ziva was alive after the explosion?"

"Yes, she was."

"How did Orli get Tali?"

"Do you for one moment believe that Trent Kort was the only one looking for Eli's files?"

Of course there had been some speculation that Kort wasn't the only one on the hunt for those files; however, everything had happened so fast that no one on the team had a moment to think. Tony took a sip of the coppery tasting water. "Did Orli take Tali?"

Monique's dark eyes narrowed in on him. "No. Ever since Eli was killed there has been a small fraction of loyal officers to him that have been trying to cover up some of his more….shady doings."

Tony felt his throat go dry. "Did someone abduct Tali?"

"Yes. They wanted the file. They used her as leverage."

"Ziva got the file from the farmhouse before it was bombed."

"She did."

"How come the exchange was never made?" Tim asked.

"Kort had the farmhouse blown up and it was all over international news," Monique said. "Isn't that how you found out?"

Tony sighed and gave her a small nod. "It was Orli that called Director Vance and told her that Ziva was dead."

Monique's gaze softened. "She believed that Ziva was dead. The loyal officers returned Tali to her believing Ziva to be dead as well and that the file was destroyed. By the time she got back to Tel Aviv, Tali was gone."

"Why didn't she come to Washington?" Tim asked the obvious question. "If she wasn't in danger, and Tali was safe, why hide?"

"She had the file," Monique said. "And everyone wanted that file."

"Did she send me that necklace?"

"Yes."

Tim could see Tony's shoulders going stiff. "Why didn't she reach out to us?"

Monique smiled, sadly. "She did not want to put your wife and your other children in danger. It was better off for everyone that you believed her to be dead."

Tony shook with rage. "Better off?" he snapped. "For who? Because now I have that file, NCIS has that file! And that apparently puts all of us in danger—maybe including Leah and my kids!"

"So, Lieutenant Ryan managed to get the file to you," Monique said. "When I gave it to him three weeks ago he promised me he would."

"Yeah. We got the file. Guess what? He's dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Why did Ziva want NCIS to have the file?" Tim questioned, ignoring the fire in Tony's eyes.

Monique sighed. "She just wanted it out of the Middle East. Harder for those rogue Mossad agents to get their hands on it if it's in the United States."

Tony ran his hands through his damp hair. "Where's Ziva now? You said that she was gone. Where did she go? Back to Israel? Did she go to Washington?" He pulled a notepad out of his pocket and slid it across the table to her. "Write down everything that you know Monique. Because I intend to find her and get some damn answers."

She eyed him carefully for a moment. "You might not like what you find out, Agent DiNozzo."

He glared. "I don't care. I'm trying to protect my family, to keep it from being torn to shreds."

"Do you think Ziva wanted to leave Tali behind?"

"She sure as hell didn't want to let me know about her."

"It has not been easy for Ziva to stay away from Tali," Monique said.

"Yeah," Tony sighed, angrily, "it wasn't exactly easy for my family either."


Nick pulled up the footage from their dead guy's security camera. It had caught grainy images of his murder, but it had not caught a clear photograph of the murderer. This led Nick to believe that they were dealing with someone that knew what they were doing—a professional.

Ellie suddenly whistled at him to catch his attention. He glanced up to see her gesturing for him to join her in MTAC. "Tony wants to update us," she said. "He's on standby."

He hit pause on the video and sprinted up the steps to join her. "Did they find Officer David yet?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. Tony wants me to look in to something."

"Another lead?"

"It sounds like it."

Nick was intrigued. His work up until this point was primarily undercover work, he was revered as one of the best agents for going undercover, but lately had found himself wanting to tag along on more of the everyday, cut and dry cases—he wanted to investigate.

Ellie didn't mind him tagging along either. He was scrappy, sometimes annoying, but otherwise a decent guy. Now that Gibbs had retired, the team was short staffed, so Nick's help was always appreciated. It was clear that Tony was going to take a long time picking a replacement agent for Gibbs.

Tony had other things on his mind now; finding a new agent for their team was not at the top of his priority list. He looked tense, uncomfortable, and hot on the large screen in MTAC. "Did you two get any evidence from that crime scene?"

"Shell casings and DNA samples all went to Abby," Ellie reported. "Jimmy is working on the autopsy."

"Gibbs?"

"Ducky said they woke him up for a bit. He was cranky."

Tony smiled. "Guess if he's cranky, he's going to be fine."

Ellie frowned. "Tell that to Ducky right now."

"I would if I was going to see him, but Tim and I have a plane to catch."

"Where are you going now?"

"Tel Aviv. It's time to go chat with Mossad."

Ellie glanced over at Nick briefly, who looked a little worried about the prospect of that. "What did you want me to look into?"

Tony gave her a name. "See if you can find out where she's traveled in the last nine months."

She wrote the name down on a scrap piece of paper. "Does she have something to do with our case?"

He licked his dry, cracked lips. "Yes."

"If we find her here in the States should we bring her in for questioning?" Nick asked.

"No. Just let me know where she is," Tony replied before cutting the feed.

Ellie looked at Nick in the now dim room. "That was odd."

Nick quirked his eyebrows. "So, you thought so too?"

"Yeah," Ellie said. "He's usually not so cryptic—that was Gibbs. I never knew which way was up with him, but that hasn't been the case with Tony."

"Well," Nick sighed, looking at the name on the paper. "Obviously, he thinks that this Sophie Rainier has something to do with our case so we better start looking for her."


Tali woke up in the middle of the night. This wasn't unusual; especially since Tony was away. She struggled to sleep through the night when either of her parents were gone.

Leah was in bed reading some term papers when she heard the footsteps on the third-floor stairs and then the door to the master bedroom opened very slowly. Two little hazel eye peered at her from behind the solid oak door. "Hi baby," she greeted with a smile. "Are you having trouble sleeping?"

"Mama, is Abba sending me back to Israel?" Tali questioned, startling Leah.

"Why do you ask?" Leah countered.

"He asked where I lived with Ima."

She pat the bed next to her and let Tali climb up. Leah hugged the little girl, kissing the top of her head. "Abba is not sending you back to Israel. He was just curious what your life was like before you came to live with us in America. So don't worry, you are not going anywhere."

Tali snuggled close, with a pensive look on her face. It was almost like she knew that Leah was trying to cover for Tony. "But why, Mama? Why did he ask me all those questions?"

Leah wasn't sure how to answer that. She had no idea why Tony was asking their daughter those questions; she had barely spoken to him before he left for the Middle East. She could surmise that he had asked Tali those questions in order to determine if Ziva was alive or not; that the story they had had been told when Tali came to them was true. Thankfully the baby began to whimper over the monitor and Leah was saved from having to answer Tali's difficult questions for now. "Want to help me with Grace?"

"Okay," the little girl said, sliding out of the bed. She took Leah's hand and climbed down the stairs with her stepmother. "Mama, will Abba be home soon?"

"He won't be gone long, baby," Leah assured her as they headed towards Grace's room. "He just needed to go ask some people some questions and then he'll be home."

Tali seemed to accept that answer but said, "I don't like it when Abba goes away."

Leah sighed and opened the door to Grace's bedroom. As she made her way to the crib and picked the crying baby up to hush her, she told the girls that she really didn't like it when Tony was away too.