Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS. For the 7th time.
Author's Note: Sorry... no Jenny in this chapter... But the next chapter will be up soon and everyone will get their Jenny-fix :)
Chapter 7: I Cannot
Ziva noticed the sirens but thought nothing of them. Sirens were not unusual in Cairo. But then Ziva heard the scream. She stood and rushed over to the window. It had sounded like… but it could not have been…
One glance down at the street was enough to confirm Ziva's worst fears. Jen, lying surrounded by four men, her leg twisted at an unnatural angle beneath her. Jen was still fighting, but for how long? Ziva asked herself as she sprinted from the room, down the stairs, and out the door into the hotel lobby. She took half a second to check that her gun was ready--after all, it would do neither she nor Jen any good if Ziva made a stupid mistake like not checking her weapon…--before she burst through the doors and out onto the street. But Ziva was too late. A black car was roaring away from the scene of the fight, the doors not even all the way closed yet. As the back door slammed shut, Ziva glimpsed a flash of red: a mixture of hair and blood.
Moments later, the police arrived. Ziva was furious. Furious at herself for not saving Jen, furious at the police for being too late, at the bystanders for being bystanders…
Ziva whipped out her cell phone and dialed, flashing her Mossad badge at the policemen who were securing the scene.
"You and the NCIS agent are ready?" asked the voice on the other end of the line.
"No," Ziva snapped. "But we need to move now. They have taken Agent Shepard and I believe I know where they are bringing her."
"How do you know that she is still alive?" asked the voice. Ziva closed her eyes briefly.
"They will not kill her," she said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. "At least, not yet. That is why we must move quickly. They will be trying to determine how much we know. As long as Je--Agent Shepard does not tell them anything, they will keep her alive."
"And how do you know that she will not give in to them? People like them can be…persuasive." Ziva grimaced. Yes, she knew just how persuasive terrorists could be.
"She will not break," said Ziva, praying that this was true.
"And what if they lose patience and kill her anyway?"
"That is why we must hurry," replied Ziva, voice tight.
"Your father will not be pleased if we let the leader escape." Ziva scowled. Her father, the director of Mossad, would live. Jen would not if they waited much longer, a fact of which Ziva was painfully aware.
"We move in," Ziva growled, voice low and dangerous. "We rescue Agent Shepard, take down the cell members with her, and we work from there. We do not wait." There was a long silence from the other end of the line. Then:
"We need four hours." Ziva slammed the phone shut in anger. Four hours… they asked for four hours, with Jen enduring god-knows-what…
"I cannot lose them both," Ziva whispered, thinking of the other person she had lost to terrorists. "I cannot!" she said louder, earning a curious look from one of the police officers still processing the scene. Ziva supposed that she should go talk to them, explain what she knew of what had happened here… "I cannot," she said one more time, because with each time she said the words, her confidence and resolve grew stronger. She would not loose Jen.
Ziva had called in their back-up. Now she just had to wait.
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