A/N Hello, my little readers (I have no idea where that came from.)
Enjoy!!
Chapter 11
Ziva was awake and staring at the ceiling.
"Hi," Tony said as he sat down next to the bed. "How you feeling?"
"Fine."
Tony watched her face. "What you thinking about?"
"I'm confused."
"About?"
Ziva took a deep breath. "How I feel."
"Okay…" Tony was surprised. Ziva never talked about how she felt.
Then again, this wasn't the Ziva he was used to.
"I miss my husband and son. I do. But I feel like I'm over their deaths."
"It has been about seven years. It's only natural to feel that way," Tony said.
"I just…I don't know how to say it without sounding weird," Ziva said.
Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't matter what you sound like. I sound like an idiot all the time."
Ziva smiled for a second, but then returned to being confused. "Okay…this whole situation is confusing. I feel like I'm over them. But then I feel like I shouldn't be because they are dead, and because I know that the team is keeping something from me."
"I can't tell you what it is without Gibbs' permission, Ziva. He'd headslap me into oblivion. Now, back to the other stuff," he said, reaching down into his bag. "I snuck this in. I'm not sure if you're allowed eat but you can at least look at it." He held up a chocolate bar.
Ziva leant back against the vending machine. "Do you ever think about soulmates?" she asked Tony.
Tony continued chewing his food. "They were on Decker, right? Big hit, mid-seventies, sort of a disco thing. Sing a few bars, I'll get it."
"You will never get it," Ziva said, walking off.
"You remember something?" Tony asked. He could now recognize the 'having a flashback' face.
"Yes."
"Well? What was it?"
"I was asking you about soulmates."
Tony leant back on his chair. Ah yes, the time I made a fool of myself avoiding the question, he thought. "Yes, you did ask me about it."
"Why?"
Tony tried to think back. "Something to do with a case we were working on. A woman that was involved talked about soulmates."
"Ah."
"Yes."
"And then I asked you about it? Sorry," she added, seeing his confused 'don't ask me any more' look. "I'm just trying to understand."
"It's alright," Tony said. "Perfectly understandable."
"Boss!" McGee exclaimed as Gibbs and Jenny walked into the squadroom. They had left Tony with Ziva. "I think I got something!"
"You think?" Gibbs said. Jenny punched him lightly on the shoulder.
"I've been reading the files about the four people Jamal was suspected of watching."
"They're all dead," Gibbs said as the files appeared on the plasma.
"Well, yeah, but I didn't think it would hurt to look," McGee said. "Anyway, one in particular stood out. Yusuf Nachash. Practically his whole family was investigated on terrorism charges by Mossad a few years before the Kilhaad bombing."
"And?"
"His brother, Kasam, was imprisoned, but nothing else was found. Investigation ended, nothing else happened."
"And why is this important? Was the brother released just before the Kilhaad bombing or something?" Gibbs said impatiently.
"Well, no, but Yusuf's mother, Mira, went off the grid for a while after Kasam was arrested. She returned three weeks before Ziva's place was blown up."
"She doesn't have motive. How could it be her?" Jenny said. Gibbs looked at her. "I'm just making sure we think of everything."
"I have a theory!" Abby announced as she walked into the squadroom.
"You get anything from the evidence?" Gibbs asked.
"I'm pretty sure that Jamal was carrying the bomb," Abby said quietly, joining the group. "But only because of what was left of his body. I also determined that the bomb was inside something, like a box or briefcase."
"Makes sense. Ziva said she thought Jamal was on a business trip, so it makes sense that he would carry a briefcase to sell the act," McGee said.
"So your theory?" Gibbs said.
"Okay, the Nachash family is investigated for terrorism, which would have been fairly common. Anyway, after Kasam was imprisoned, Mira would have wanted to know who gave the evidence against her son. She would have found out it was Mossad and wanted to seek revenge on them. Anyway, then years later, Jamal is sent to investigate Mira's other son, Yusuf. Mira returned from wherever she went just as Jamal's mission was starting."
Jenny realized where Abby was going. "Mira might have noticed that Jamal was watching Yusuf. Seeing as Jamal had no Mossad training, he probably wouldn't have been very good at disguising himself."
"Exactly. So Mira finds out that Jamal is watching Yusuf, and can't stand the idea of her only other son being imprisoned as well," Abby explained. "Luckily, Jamal couldn't find anything, so the investigation ended."
"Is this theory going to end soon?" Gibbs said.
Jenny shushed him. "But Mira wouldn't let it go. She would have guessed that Mossad was behind this second investigation, which gave her more of a reason to hate them."
"She would have gone after Mossad," Gibbs said, cottoning on.
"Yeah. So she went after Jamal, knowing that he was Mossad."
"Doesn't explain how Jamal had the bomb," Gibbs said, as usual being the one to find a fault in the plan.
"Mira could have planted it."
"Wow," McGee said. Everyone turned to look at him. "It's complicated," he said lamely.
"McGee, look more into Mira Nachash," Gibbs ordered as he and Jenny headed up to MTAC to talk to Uri again.
Once again, Ziva was bored with just lying there. She was waiting for Tony to return from getting his lunch.
She poked her jelly, disgusted that it barely even moved. Yuck, she thought.
"I'm baaaack!" Tony's voice drifted in from the corridor.
Ziva laughed. "Finally."
"You haven't touched your food," he observed, trying to keep his burger hidden.
"Not true. I did touch it. That's why I'm not eating it," Ziva explained, poking the jelly again.
Tony grimaced. "Yuck."
"Exactly."
"I got a call from Gibbs while I was out," Tony said, unwrapping his food as discreetly as possible. He didn't want to rub it in that Ziva was stuck with hospital food while he had takeaway.
"What did he say?"
"They have a new theory. They think the bomb might have been planted," he explained, putting his food down on the table.
"Good."
"Good?"
"It means Jamal didn't do it," Ziva said. It was almost as if she was talking about some other case, not one involving her husband.
Ex-husband, she thought to herself. He died seven years ago.
"Ziva? You alright?" Tony said. She was staring at the window. He turned to look at what she was staring at.
Nothing was there.
"Ziva?" he said, turning back around to face her.
She was eating his burger.
"You sneaky little spy," he said. He reached over to grab it, but she held it out of his reach.
"You looked away. It's mine now," she giggled.
"This means war," he said. He jumped up and leant right over her, trying to reach his precious burger. His chest was right near her face.
"Ahem," a voice came from the doorway. Tony and Ziva turned to see who it was.
"This isn't keeping your stress levels down, Ziva," the doctor said as he walked away.
Oh, believe me, Ziva thought as Tony got off of her. This is anything but stressful.
A/N Please review!!
Just for the record, the plot of this story kinda get complicated. It gets a bit more clarified later on, but if you're confused, join the club. We'll get t-shirts.
I have the next few chapters written, so I'll be updating as normal, but after that things might slow down again. I know I've said this before, but I really need to spend more time on homework than writing (majorly freaked out two days ago and ended up spending a whole day catching up on work).
Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the story!!
-PJ
