Thursday

Chapter 10

Somewhere in Israel, Ziva notices smoke in the night's sky. She just returned from her final assassination mission; a mission that went terribly wrong because her and her death squad were deceived in knowing the true identities of the targets, but they got their revenge on the person who deceived them. Ziva's heartbeat increases drastically as the direction of the smoke is coming from the area that she's returning to after four years of being gone.

Ziva turns the steering wheel. She gasps at the sight of a house on fire. The gas pedal is floored. The vehicle speeds in the direction of the burning home. The car finally stops. Ziva quickly exits. She runs toward the burning home.

"Isaac!" Ziva yelled as she enters inside the house. She hears the screaming child but is unable to determine where it's coming from. "Isaac! Where are you?!" Ziva runs into the next room. The fiery ceiling collapses in front of her; blocking the way into the next room. She goes through a different door. The smoke is beginning to be a bit much for her, but she continues searching. "Isaac!" She continues to hear his screams.

"Help!" Isaac yelled from the room he's in somewhere in the house.

"Isaac… I'm coming!" Ziva shouted. She moves toward the stairs and begins to ascend upward. Flames burst through the stairs and a flaming piece of wood falls onto the stairs. The large, flaming piece of wood rolls down the stairs as Ziva is almost halfway up. She jumps off the side of the railing; just missing being hit by the flaming piece of wood. Upon landing on the floor, it breaks and she falls through. Ziva quickly rolls away as a flame bursts. She takes her jacket off as it caught on fire. Ziva runs to the basement door. She's back on the ground floor. "Isaac?!" Ziva looks in every direction trying to listen for a scream or any sign of life.

A couple seconds later, she hears Isaac screaming again; screams which have become more frightened and pleading for help. She can tell he's in the back room. Ziva runs in the direction. As Ziva makes her way toward the back room, a flame bursts out from the wall. Ziva screams as the flame hits her. She falls to the floor in pain and finally passes out.

Ziva awakes in her bed. She jolts up in a cold sweat. Her heartbeat is rapid and breathing is heavy. It's about 02:00 in the morning on Thursday. Ziva's eyes close as the nightmare of losing her four-year-old son Isaac is too much to bear. The emotions overwhelm her. Ziva starts crying.

After a couple minutes, Ziva walks to the bathroom. She's naked because that's how she likes to sleep. Once inside the bathroom, she walks to the sink and turns the water on. A couple handfuls of water are splashed onto her face. Her head slowly looks downward and toward the left. The scars of the night she lost her son are bore on her left side; butt cheek, hip, thigh and the entire left side of her lower back, the area under her arm, abdomen and stomach, all of which are the equivalent height of her ribs. Ziva closes her eyes as she rubs the grotesque scarring left from when a flame burst out and hit her.

"I'm sorry Isaac." Ziva cried. A couple tears drop to the floor.

A couple hours pass.

Ziva arrives at NCIS Headquarters for the start of the work day. She's a couple minutes late due to the nightmare she had last night. The elevator door opens to the third floor. Ziva steps off and walks to the bullpen where everybody is already waiting; all except Jamie because she's dropping Chioke off at school and Gibbs due to the restraining order against him. Jared is sitting in a chair near Ziva's desk; his feet are up and resting on the edge of Ziva's desk.

"Morning, Ziva." Tony greeted her.

"Good morning, Ziva." McGee also greeted her.

"Eh…" Ziva said in return.

"It appears you had a crappy morning, Ziva." Jared reads her. "Have a hard time sleeping?" Ziva glares at him and as she tries getting around her desk, she pushes Jared's feet away. He immediately realizes why Ziva is in a slightly bad mood and tired. "Ooohh!" Jared rubs his hand in excitement.

"Don't start you jackass." Ziva said as she sits down.

"Oh, come on. Tell us what's wrong." Jared said. "I promise to be sympathetic about the loss of Isaac." His hand quickly covers his mouth. Tony and McGee both pop their heads up from behind their computers because they've never heard of an Isaac before. "Oops…" Jared said. "They don't know about Isaac, do they? I'm deepest apologies for accidentally mentioning him. I'm sure it's hard enough on you."

"Who's Isaac?" McGee wondered.

"Who is he, like an old boyfriend or something?" Tony asked.

Ziva stands up from behind her desk and glares angrily at both Tony and McGee as if they're about to get their butts kicked if they don't drop it. She now looks to Jared who just smiles innocently. Ziva sits down. Jared leans in a bit closer.

"When you stood in the room with the chard, unrecognizable bodies of Jacob and your four-year-old son Isaac…" Jared begins to say in a whisper so that only Ziva can hear. "...What was going through you head as you waited for the DNA results?" He asked. "I bet you stood there hoping for some miracle that the bodies on the table weren't…" Jared's face whips to the left because Ziva punched him. He rubs his face. "Hahahaha…" Jared laughs evilly. He stops and leans closer to her again in order to whisper to her. "And what probably eats you up the most inside, is the fact that you abandoned Isaac because you were too scared to be a mother. By the time you finally figured things out and decided to go home, it was too late. The boy never knew the love of his mother." There's a brief moment of silence. "How would you like your Isaac…? I want mine roasted, toasted and burnt to a crisp. Hahaha!"

Ziva takes another swing. Jared blocks it. He twists Ziva's arm behind her back and shoves her face downward. Ziva's face hits the desk. Jared pins her down against the desk. She struggles to break free. Tony stands up.

"The fun is over, Jared." Tony stated. "It's too early in the morning for this crap. So let go of Ziva and try getting under my skin instead."

"Aww, ain't that sweet. DiNozzo's offering to spare you, Ziva." Jared let's go of her. Ziva closes her eyes, sits down and tries to control herself before she ends up murdering Jared.

Jamie walks into the area. She makes quick eye contact with Jared before looking at her husband.

"But I think I'll pass for now." Jared declined the offer. "Good morning, Jamie."

Jamie ignores him as if the dinner they had last night never happened. Jared understands she can't act differently because people might start to suspect something. He smiles. Jamie approaches Tony and kisses him.

"Aww, look at the cute couple." Jared said from near Ziva's desk. "You two are just so adorable together." He added. "Agh… It makes me want to vomit or possibly stick a knife in my eyes to blind myself."

"Maybe you should do that." Ziva stated. "Or… I can always do it for you." She grins while holding her knife.

There's a moment of silence as Jared and Ziva stare at each other. Jared finally looks away because the staring contest is boring him. He looks at Jamie.

In Jared's mind, he wants so badly to mention Isaac some more in order to piss off Ziva, but Jamie's presence is preventing him from doing so. Last evening's dinner with his niece was actually the most enjoyable thing for him in a long time. The understanding of why Jamie affects him the way she does is not completely known to him. All he knows is that he liked having a chance to chat with her, without it being all about manipulation or getting under her skin; he actually connected with someone. Though the connection may irritate him and make him wish whatever it was never existed, he doesn't plan on eliminating it; killing her. The thoughts of killing everyone he sees are always there. The urge to do so tempts him every second of his life. But the thoughts of killing don't cross his mind when it comes to Jamie; the thoughts don't exist. Jared wants a better understanding of why, but needs to figure out how to do so because that dinner was most likely a one time thing. But then again, as Jamie walked into the area she made eye contact with him for a brief couple of seconds.

A sinister looking smile stretches across Jared's face as he realizes that after last evening's dinner, Jamie is curious and intrigued. From his desk, McGee notices the expression on Jared's face. Jared's head turns and makes eye contact with McGee.

"I was thinking about meeting your sister, Sarah." Jared stated with an evil smile.

The team starts discussing the case and how to find Chief Petty Officer Cody Harrison when the only lead ended up being a dead end yesterday because the friend has no idea where Cody could've gone.