Chapter 11 – May 2005
After two weeks off recovering from his bout of the plague Tony picked a bad day to return to work. He arrived at NCIS in the morning hoping for a warm welcome from his coworkers, of course assuming that they missed him greatly while he was off. Instead, Kate and McGee ignored him when he got off the elevator and the team was off to a crime scene right away. The day continued getting worse from there. At the crime scene that morning he was almost blown up by a bomb wired to the victim's car, followed by Gibbs almost being blown up by a bomb Ari Haswari planted in front of a coffee house. And it didn't get better after that.
The next day turned out to be even worse. His friend was dead, shot in the head by a sniper while she stood between him and Gibbs on a rooftop after taking a bullet in the vest protecting Gibbs. He and McGee spent the night out in the rain looking for bullet casings. When he brought the casings to Abby for analysis they were shot at by a sniper through the lab window. So far it had been a tough 48 hours and it wasn't over yet.
Tony sat at his desk in the bullpen as the sun started to come up, thinking about Kate and everything that had happened already. Ari was still out there and Gibbs wasn't going to stop until he was dead. Tony hadn't been home in 48 hours. He'd called Laura and asked her to look after Maddy, and she agreed to take care of her for as long as he needed. He hadn't told Maddy about Kate yet. They were starting to become close and he wasn't ready to deal with telling her yet, especially while they were in the middle of a manhunt for Ari.
Tony was interrupted from his thoughts when Gibbs came down the stairs with a pretty redhead woman. "Tony, where are we?" He asked.
"McGee and Abby are working firearms analysis, I'm matching tire tracks to vehicles," he replied.
"Nobody's to leave the building, McGee's on protection detail with Abby, I'll be back in an hour," Gibbs told him, and then he was off with the pretty redhead following him.
Tony began to think about Kate again, only this time in his imagination she was dressed in a sexy schoolgirl outfit. "Sometimes I used to picture you naked," he said aloud without realizing it initially. A woman standing in front of him smirking interrupted him from his fantasy.
"I'll call you back," Tony tried to cover up what he was doing by punching a button on the phone on his desk. "Hi," he said as he turned to acknowledge the woman, "I was just…"
"Having phone sex?" She asked him.
Tony laughed awkwardly. "Who are you?" He asked, very interested in changing the subject.
"Ziva David, Mossad," she told him, while showing him her credentials.
"You're Israeli?"
"Very good," she laughed, "The way you made that connection, Mossad to Israeli."
"What can I do for you Miss David?" He asked.
"Nothing, I'm here to see Special Agent Gibbs."
"How do you know I'm not Gibbs," Tony asked, slightly insulted.
"Gibbs?" She asked with a smile as she took a seat in McGee's desk.
"He'll be back in an hour," Tony gave up. "Are you sure I can't help you?"
"I don't think so," she replied as she shook her head.
Tony decided to start this conversation with the confident Israeli chick over again. "We got off to a bad start," he said as he stood up and walked towards her, "I'm Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. I wasn't playing charades, I was remembering my partner," he gestured towards Kate's empty desk.
"Naked?" She questioned.
"No…Yes." This woman was really giving him a hard time. He was usually so smooth around women, but this one was very different. "I… I was just… look I'm not the only man who does it," he stuttered.
"Oh women do it to, with handsome men," she told him, as her seductive eyes looked him up and down, making him uncomfortable. He turned and walked back to his desk. "And even an occasional woman," she added in, just to tease him.
"See, now you're teasing me," he told her.
"Didn't your partner tease you?" She questioned.
"Not about sex, Kate was kind of puritanical." He then found himself having to explain his relationship with Kate and was actually kind of puzzled. He did find her attractive, otherwise why would he picture her naked. He decided he'd had enough of her messing with his head and changed the subject.
"Miss David, you can sit there and slouch provocatively for an hour if you'd like or you can tell me what you need and maybe I can help."
"You can't help because I am here to stop Special Agent Gibbs from killing a Mossad Officer," she told him as she stood up and walked to the front of his desk.
"Ari Haswari?"
"Yes."
Tony beckoned her to come closer with his finger, "I'd wish you luck, but I want the bastard dead too." She walked back to McGee's desk and wordlessly took a seat.
Tony tried to get back to work on his tire tracks but he could feel her eyes on him and it was making him nervous. He decided to take a break from her and went to the vending machine to grab a bottle of water. When he returned and tried again to get back to work she got up and began talking to him again.
"You're from a wealthy family," she told him, in a matter of fact way.
"Really?" He questioned, only half listening at first.
"Born and raised on the east coast, New England boarding school, spent some time in the mid-west and Philadelphia," she concluded.
Her knowing the details of his life caught his attention. "How would you know that?"
Before she could say anything the elevator doors dinged open and Gibbs walked off, following the pretty red head. "Shalom Jen," Ziva said to her, puzzling Tony even more. Who was this crazy Israeli chick?
Tony got up and walked over to Gibbs, eyeing the strange pair of women, who clearly knew each other. "You first," Gibbs told him, as he leaned in front of his desk, trying to be less obvious.
"Ziva David, Mossad, she's here to stop you from whacking Ari. Yours?"
"Director Jenny Shepard, same mission."
"Which agency," Tony questioned.
"Ours." This left Tony with a dumbfounded look on his face as the two girls made their way over to them.
"Special Agent Gibbs, Ziva David," Jenny introduced them.
They spent the next little while discussing the Ari situation. Ziva tried to explain every single one of Ari's actions in order to prove to Gibbs that he was trying to stop a terrorist cell, not running it. She was adamant that Ari did not kill Kate. In the end all Mossad wanted was proof that Ari was gone rogue before any action was taken against him.
Meanwhile, 11 year-old Maddy DiNozzo left her school at 3:00pm when the bell went off. Wearing her blue raincoat, she headed out into the pouring rain afternoon to walk home to her apartment that she lived in with her dad. He had decided recently that she was old enough now to walk home after school by herself and wait there alone for either her dad or her aunt to come home after work. The past two days her aunt Laura had picked her up shortly after she got home, and the two went to Laura's house for the night. Maddy hadn't seen her dad in over two days after he decided he was going back to work after recovering from the plague. He'd called the first night when he wasn't coming home to explain that he was okay but they had a big case and he had to keep working. He had yet to call again since then.
Maddy continued to walk towards her apartment in the rain. They only lived a 15-minute walk away from her school. With her hood on she didn't notice the black SUV pull up beside her right away. When she did look over a man had rolled down the driver side window and was looking at her.
"Hello Maddy," he spoke with a strange accent.
"Uh hi," she said, as she continued to walk. She didn't move any closer to his vehicle.
"I'm friends with your father and Special Agent Gibbs," he told her with a smile. "It is pouring rain, let me give you a ride home."
"No that's okay thanks," Maddy told him. "I really don't mind the rain." She picked up the pace of her walking.
"Don't be silly," he told her, "You're soaking wet. Come on I'll give you a ride home."
His persistence was scaring her. "No thank you," she repeated. They came to an intersection where a few cars were stopped at the light. Maddy took this as a chance to start running, hoping that the people around would deter the man from following her anymore. She turned left at the lights; instead of the usual right she would make to go to home. Just up the road was the high school where her aunt Laura worked. She knew she'd be safe if she got inside the school and could call her dad. She kept running until she made it to the parking lot of the school. When she looked back she could no longer see the black SUV.
The high school got out even earlier than her school so there wasn't many kids around. Maddy walked into the school and straight to the office to ask for the phone and to ask where she could find her aunt. The secretary let her use the phone and called her aunt Laura down to the office for her.
Tony had made her memorize three phone numbers years ago, just in case he always said. His cell phone, Gibbs' cell phone and the NCIS number where all she had to do was ask for him or Gibbs or McGee and she would be transferred to their bullpen. She chose to call her dads cell phone and he answered on the second ring.
"DiNozzo."
"Daddy! Some guy was following me and I ran here," she started to tell the story but she was out of breath from running and talking way too fast and Tony couldn't understand her.
"Woah, Maddy slow down, I can't understand you." Gibbs looked over at Tony when he heard the mention of Maddy's name.
"I was walking home from school and a man with a weird accent in a black SUV pulled up beside me and said he knows you and Gibbs and he kept offering to drive me home but I kept saying no. I was getting scared so I ran to Auntie Laura's school," she told him.
"What?! Are you okay? Did he follow you in? Where's Aunt Laura?" Tony asked way too many questions at once.
"Yeah I'm fine Daddy, he didn't follow me after I started to run. I'm in the office and the secretary called Auntie Laura to come down here."
"Okay baby, you stay there, I'm coming to get you right now," he told her and then hung up.
Gibbs had been listening to the entire conversation and was now concerned. "What was that DiNozzo?"
"Boss, a guy with a weird accent in a black SUV tried to give Maddy a ride home from school. He told her that he knew you and I. Could it be?"
"Ari," Gibbs stated. "He's trying to mess with us Tony, he's trying to mess with me. Go get her and bring her back here." Tony didn't need to be told twice, he had his jacket and keys and was on the elevator so fast.
Gibbs sat at his desk thinking. He should've thought of that before. After Ari killed Kate and took a shot at Abby, he should've thought about Maddy. He realized that Ari was messing with him by going after the people close to him, women first. He should've had Tony bring her in for protection when he realized that. Thankfully Ari didn't try to hurt Maddy or he never would've forgiven himself.
Tony walked into the high school and was about to ask someone how to get to the office when Maddy came running down the hallway towards him, followed closely by Laura.
"Dad!" She ran into his waiting arms and hugged him hard.
"Hey Maddy-bear!" He hugged her back equally as hard and kissed the top of her head. He'd already lost Kate to this bastard; it hurt him just to imagine losing his daughter too. He was thankful he'd taught her about strangers and what to do in a situation like this. He pulled her away from him so he could see her face. "You're sure you're alright baby? He didn't hurt you?" He asked her, holding her face between his hands.
"I'm fine Dad, but who was that? What's going on? Do you actually know him like he said?"
"It's complicated Maddy," he told her. He wasn't ready to tell her about Kate yet.
"Dad I'm eleven. I'm not a baby, you can tell me what this is about," she scolded him.
"Okay, c'mere," he said, and led her over to sit on a bench so he could crouch down in front of her and be eye to eye. Laura followed and stood beside him.
"Some bad things have happened the last couple days," he was struggling with how to tell her about Kate. There was no easy way to say it so he chose to go with the truth. "Baby, Kate was killed yesterday. She's gone." Tony had a hard time keeping his emotions under control as he told her.
"What?" She asked, with tears in the corner of her eyes. "How?"
"The man who followed you today is a really bad guy. He shot her. I'm so sorry baby, I know you really liked Kate." Maddy wrapped her arms around his neck, crying softly.
"I'm going to miss her Dad."
"I know Maddy-bear, me too." They hugged for a few minutes until Tony decided they should head back to NCIS.
"Laura, thanks for watching her, but I need to keep her safe at NCIS until we find this guy," he turned to Laura as he removed Maddy's arms from around his neck and stood up.
"Of course Tony," she said sadly. "I'm really sorry about your partner."
"Thanks," he gave her a half smile and took Maddy's hand, leading her out of the school and back to his vehicle. When they got back to NCIS and got up to their floor Gibbs immediately took Tony aside on the elevator and asked him to tail Ziva, who had just left, to see if she'd contact Ari.
"Maddy will be safe here with McGee and Abby Tony, don't worry."
When they got off the elevator and went back to the bullpen Maddy was stuck in a giant hug from Abby. "Maddy I've got to go do some work. You stay here with McGee and Abby and you listen to whatever they say okay?" Abby finally released Maddy and she walked to her dad.
"Okay Dad."
He gave her a quick kiss on top of the head. "I love you Maddy-bear."
"Love you too Dad." And with that Tony was on the elevator heading after Ziva.
Maddy took a seat at her dad's desk and took her Gameboy out of the top drawer. She was always bored when she had to come here so she left it there for times like these.
"You hungry Maddy?" Gibbs asked her, a half hour later.
"Yeah a little," she replied, looking up from her game.
"Come on," he beckoned her, "let's go get a snack." She got up and walked down the hall with Gibbs, who placed a hand on her shoulder. They walked to the lunchroom in silence and Gibbs bought her a bag of chips and a soda.
Maddy finally broke the silence. "So Kate's really gone Gibbs?" She asked him sadly.
"I'm afraid so sweetheart," he told her.
"I really liked her Gibbs," she told him, before turning to walk back to the bullpen.
"Me too kiddo, me too."
The next afternoon the team, plus Maddy, went to Indiana for Kate's funeral. Ari was dead, killed by Ziva David, although that was a secret that would remain between Gibbs and Ziva. As each member of Gibbs' team lay a flower on Kate's casket they thought back on their times with Kate. She had left a positive mark on each one of their lives and left them all with many great memories. Maddy was sad to say goodbye to Kate, but she walked away from the funeral in between Tony and McGee, knowing that Kate would forever be looking out for her, just like her own mother was already.