A/N- Thank you for all your lovely reviews, they do help get the chapters out faster- although so do uni holidays. Anyhow, here we are and Merry Christmas
ISRAELI GOSSIP MAGAZINE!
Caitlin forced to leave Israel.
(Cut to photo of Caitlin Todd walking down a street, handbag in hand)
Officer Caitlin Todd of Mossad, girlfriend of Mossad Officer Ari Haswari and confidant of Eli and Adina David has been forced to leave Israel on the orders of Mossad Director Adir and the recently resigned Officer Schmuel Rubenstein.
"It's horrible" a close friend tells IGM, "She and Ari are so much in love and there was even talk of them getting married and now this!"
Caitlin Todd, who first came to notice in 2004 when, in a controversial move, she was hired by Mossad only hours after she resigned from NCIS and left America to be with her boyfriend, is well known for being much loved by the David family. From the moment she entered Israeli society on the arms of Adina and Ziva David she has risen from one star to the next, attending numerous charity functions and helping ease tensions between Christian and Jewish Israeli's,
(Cut to photo of Caitlin Todd in a sapphire blue gown at a dinner with a rabbi and Catholic priest)
"Katie is an amazingly tolerant person" a source tells us, "She treasures people from all walks of life and would never dream of discriminating someone based on the colour of their skin or their religion"
Which she would have to be considering her partner is an Israeli Palestinian. Doctor Ari Haswari has long since been outspoken regarding supposed 'war crimes' committed in Gaza and is well known for aiding emergency crews after attacks upon the Palestinians, often at the risk of his own life.
(Cut to blurred photo of Ari Haswari at the scene of a roadside bombing)
Despite this it is clear Caitlin and Doctor Haswari love each other, they are often seen out and about in Tel Aviv together and were considered a blessed couple- until Khan Yunis.
(Cut to long shot photo of Ari Haswari and Caitlin Todd having lunch at a cafe)
The death of ten thousand and one Palestinian civilians has cast a pall over Tel Aviv's sweethearts, Caitlin has been spotted numerous times wearing mourning clothes and is reported to be attending multiple Catholic Masses to pray for the souls of the dead.
"I suppose it would be hard on any couple" our relationship counsellor tells us, "Because Doctor Haswari knew so many of those killed he will naturally be grieving and of course poor Caitlin is completely lost...I mean how do you comfort someone in this situation?"
How indeed? IGM can report that while Eli, Adina and Ziva have continued their professional and social obligations Doctor Haswari hasn't been seen in Tel Aviv in over a month, leading to speculation that he has returned to Gaza or sought refuge from his grief in Haifa, where the David family are known to keep a beach house, leaving Caitlin stranded during this difficult time.
Or perhaps he has gone into hiding for his own safety?
There has been suggestion that the attack on Khan Yunis- now known to have been illegally ordered by former Mossad officer Schmuel Rubenstein, who neither had the authority or the intel necessary to permit such an act, came just hours after a blazing row between himself and Caitlin Todd where he allegedly threatened the life of Doctor Haswari if Caitlin did not leave Israel.
Schmuel Rubenstein has since explained to the press that this is false and that he was offering Caitlin the position of Mossad ambassador in Washington D.C so she could return to her former city but several sources have deemed this unlikely as Caitlin Todd lacks the experience and qualifications necessary to take the role of ambassadorship. Indeed this unasked for promotion has caused outrage in the intelligence community and is voiced by none other than Deputy Director Eli David himself, in a statement released to several newspapers,
"While no-one could be happier than I to see Officer Todd rise through the ranks of Mossad, for Director Adir to send her to Washington as a Mossad ambassador is ridiculous...she is not an Israeli citizen and...has not been trained for this role"
Yet it appears that despite many protests, some coming even from Officer Todd herself that preparations are underway for her to return to America- with her boyfriend and his half-sister in tow.
"I think...that if Tali had lived...she would have been a lot like you"
Kate swallowed and unbidden tears came to her eyes, she was unbelievably touched by the words just spoken by Eli David.
They were standing in Ben Gurion airport, civilians streaming around them, headed in multiple directions, not even glancing at the two renowned officers situated outside a little cafe in the main area, opposite a news stand where numerous tabloid magazines were splattered with photos of their family members.
It had been a month since the Khan Yunis massacre and Adir was still Director of Mossad- barely, Schmuel Rubenstein had taken full blame for the missile attack and resigned but criticism was still being launched at the two men and protests were taking place in the streets of Tel Aviv.
Some rumoured to have been organised by Ari Haswari himself.
When Kate had led Eli aside one morning and asked if there was any way for her and Ari to return to Washington, the man had nearly jumped at the idea and gone about reorganising the Mossad bureaucracy in America to try and wrangle a place for both of them. Not because of any desire to get rid of her, but because anyone could see that Ari clearly wasn't coping with the Khan Yunis massacre.
He'd started smoking again, a habit he'd developed during his time in the IDF and quickly dropped when he went to Edinburgh; he'd given up drinking and spent a ridiculous amount of time in prayer and if interrupted by Kate or someone else became cold and unresponsive. He had nightmares where he relived the attack and the bloodshed and tried to avoid them by exhausting himself through making love to her- only she could tell whenever he held her that he wasn't seeing her or feeling her but his own driving need to forget the demons that haunted him.
Then came the night when she had been doing the dishes and he had come up behind her, embraced her and suggested they go to bed early. She had spent the day dealing with Mossad politics and then a doctor's appointment to ensure that her miscarriage had in no way affected her ability to conceive only to be brusquely told by the doctor that considering it had been too early to truly without-a-doubt confirm if the test was even a false positive or not she should be fine. When Ari had begun unbuttoning her trousers, she had snapped and spun around slapping him across the face, screaming that if he wanted to have sex every night he should go and find a prostitute.
He'd only glared at her with cold dead eyes, told her he'd only need to find a decent girlfriend and then stormed out. He hadn't come home that night and Caitlin had cried herself to sleep and gone to see Eli the next day, spending hours online organising tickets and looking for a place for them to live, her little house having long since been rented out to a nice young family. Then around lunch time Ziva had burst into the office and turned on the television to show a news program running footage of Director Adir's house in flames. Everything around the scene was chaotic but it appeared somebody had hurled a handmade explosive onto the man's property.
And Ari was missing.
It had been another two days before he had come home, at which point the police themselves had requested to see him and Mossad were quietly exhausting every lead they had and trying to downplay the situation. Kate had returned to her apartment after being escorted to the local police station and subjected to a round of interrogation by men who believed she knew where her boyfriend was, only to find her boyfriend sitting at their dining table looking at the travel itinerary she had printed off.
Ari claimed that he had gone to Gaza that very night and not returned to Israel until an hour earlier. When questioned by Mossad he provided several alibis from Khan Yunis that swore to have seen him there and spoken to him and even surrendered a log book from the Palestinian entrance point to Gaza which showed him arriving only an hour after he'd left Caitlin and leaving again at the time he'd stated.
The police and Mossad were forced to let the matter drop- even though there was no evidence in Israel of him ever having approached the country's exit point; and the fact that he'd left his wallet and identification in the apartment and didn't give an explanation as to the means of transport he'd used to get to Khan Yunis. And then there had been a witness walking their dog near Director Adir's house who'd described a suspect that greatly resembled Ari Haswari.
At this point Eli had placed his son under unofficial house arrest and ordered him to stay put until the car came to take him to the airport, granting him temporary sick leave from Mossad and restricting his access to the outside world as much as he was able.
Of course it was clear Ari had every intention of flouting these orders, knowing that Eli wouldn't risk placing guards outside the apartment door in case word got out, but thankfully his father one-upped him and put Ziva on security detail, safe in the knowledge that his daughter wouldn't hesitate to throw a punch at her brother if necessary.
Kate took to avoiding the apartment as much as possible; spending her free time at Ziva's studying the basics to prepare herself for whatever position Eli ended up getting her in Washington. Officially she was still receiving the Mossad ambassadorship but in truth the Israeli embassy was working to piece together a role that she was actually qualified for. Nobody was quite sure what Ari would do when he got there but thankfully Ziva had also requested a position in the Israeli embassy, determined to be on hand if matters escalated further.
Hence the reason Kate was able to stand in the airport without worrying about her boyfriend in the departures lounge, Ziva was with him, so she reached out and squeezed Eli's arm,
"Not as stubborn or rude as you of course" he quickly added, "But she was the only one of us that had compassion"
"Are you saying I'm compassionate?" she asked, trying to figure out the compliment in his words,
"Is there any other virtue that would keep you at Ari's side during this time?" he asked sadly, taking her arm and leading her to the departures gate, where she stopped and impulsively hugged him,
"I love him" she whispered in his ear, "I swear and I'll never leave him"
"I won't hold you to that Caitlin" Eli kissed her hair, "What my son is going through is going to get a lot worse before it gets better"
Kate pulled away and wiped at her eyes, "I was handpicked to serve the President of the United States and I lived everyday with Gibbs when he was obsessively hunting your son, trust me Eli I can handle whatever he throws my way"
She handed her ticket to the guard at the gate and after he checked her carryon bag, he waved her through; she turned back and blew a kiss at Eli causing the man to laugh as she darted through the large partition into the large duty free departures lounge.
Ari felt very close to snapping.
He was in the smokers lounge, rolling his eighth cigarette of the day and dutifully ignoring his sister who in turn was dutifully ignoring the lustful stares of the numerous men in the lounge and standing barely a meter from him and silently staring at him,
"Can I help you?" he asked, lighting the end and inhaling deeply,
"Doubtful" she answered, continuing her placid stare,
"Then leave" he ordered but she didn't shift in the slightest, reminding him so much of when they were children and she would stand and look at him until he figured out what exactly she wanted.
At the moment though, he couldn't be bothered humouring her. Taking the cigarette from his mouth and leaving it burning on the counter, he brushed past her and exited the lounge, his eyes stinging from the relatively fresh air of the departures area. Groaning at a sudden headache, he merged into the crowd as quickly as possible, hoping that Ziva lingering to butt out the cigarette, tear the paper and scatter the tobacco would be long enough to successfully hide from her.
After all he was already through the check in point and he didn't doubt for a second that his father had scattered enough operatives throughout the airport so that any attempt to escape would have him apprehended within a good five minutes- what was the point of running?
There wasn't anything left for him in Israel anyway.
Sensing something in the corner of his eye, Ari turned and was distracted from his self-pitying musings by the sight of Caitlin sitting in the member's departure lounge, a magazine in one hand and a coffee being placed before her by a waitress. There wasn't really anywhere else for him to go, so he made his way over, fetching his card from his wallet as Ziva finally caught up to him. However upon, reaching the entrance to the private lounge, the steward didn't even look at the identification but rushed to open the glass door and greet them in a fawning tone,
"Doctor Haswari, Miss David...how lovely to see you today, can I get you anything?"
It was beneath Ari to acknowledge this pathetic creature beyond a disinterested glance, he leaves it to Ziva to make nice with the idiot- he figures that if she is so determined to stop him from self- assured destruction she can play his personal assistant while she's at it. Instead he crosses the room in long strides and takes the seat at the table with Caitlin; she doesn't even look up but frees the hand holding the magazine and reaches out to link her fingers with his.
It's moments like this that remind him of what it feels like to be human.
He squeezes her hand and brings it to his lips, turning it over to kiss the wrist, not caring if they were being watched. Every aspect of their lives was being put in trash magazines anyway, the only surprise was that Hamas and Al-Qaeda hadn't realised he was a mole yet.
Hopefully when they killed him the love of his life and his sister would be far, far away- and Adir really, really close.
The kiss brings a faint blush to her cheeks and she glances up from her magazine to give him a secretive smile, as though they are engaging in forbidden but irresistible actions.
She is the one good thing left in his life.
"Marry me" he whispers to her, and she tilts her head, his words so quiet she has to take time to process the plea. When she does, she smiles and lifts their joint hands to kiss his knuckles,
"Not yet" she replies and because he knew the answer before he even asked the question, he's not too disappointed this time.
It's not the first time Ari Haswari has asked Caitlin Todd to marry him.
The first time was the morning he'd discovered the pregnancy test sitting on their bathroom sink, the second time was when it had tested positive, the third when she'd miscarried and at least once every two days since.
He knew he loved Caitlin more than he had anything else in his life, but he also knew that if they became engaged now, with him in his current state they wouldn't last six months. It didn't stop him from asking though, and the moment he found a way back from the hell he'd entered, he knew she'd say yes.
Ziva finally arrived, followed closely by a waitress carrying a tray of cucumber sandwiches and juice,
"Food" she announced simply, taking Ari's free hand and then Caitlin's other hand and squeezing it, forming a little triangle.
"Did she say yes this time?" she asked curiously and Caitlin answered by shaking her head, his sister only shrugged however and broke the hold to help herself to the food,
"Better luck next time"
Abigail Scuito wasn't entirely sure what she was doing at Dulles airport.
Well, actually she had a fair idea.
Tobias Fornell had dropped past NCIS today and announced Kate's impending return to the team, despite all the political furore happening in Israel, Kate had still been given a position at the Israeli embassy in Washington.
It had been nearly four years since Abby had last seen her best friend- or even talked to her. In the beginning her presumed betrayal of the team for their enemy had left the Goth too shocked and hurt to do anything but delete the emails and shred the letters sent to her, and when some semblance of the truth had come out, too much time had passed and it had seemed inappropriate and wrong to contact her.
But when Jenny Sheppard had come down to her lab and invited her to come to Dulles airport with her, she'd found herself getting into the car before she could even think it over.
Though she couldn't help but feel nervous when the flight the plane from Israel was announced and ten minutes later people started trickling through the arrival gates.
Abby rather hoped that when Kate walked through the doors, their eyes would instantaneously meet and they would run into each other's arms with all troubles and issues forgotten.
Unfortunately that wasn't the case.
Distracted by an awesome fluoro pink Mohawk, Abby's attention wasn't brought back to the arrivals gate until the blinding flash of a camera caught her eye. Her eyes flew to the gates just in time to see Kate automatically recoil and look around for a place to hide from the small gathering of press. She was quickly joined by Ari Haswari and a short woman Abby didn't recognise and, after a moment's hesitation, the three of them began a brisk walk away from the arrival gate and strode towards the exits, keeping their eyes anywhere but the crowd of men with camera's shouting questions.
Abby shouted too, but only Kate's name and she saw her head shoot up a few times, clearly trying to locate the source of the familiar noise. Then Jenny grabbed her arm and they were speeding along after the trio, quickly outrunning the reporters who were circling and moving slowly in the clear hopes of blocking the three from leaving and getting more photos, maybe even a comment.
It wasn't likely though, Ari Haswari had the lead and was too tall and imposing a figure not to be able to cut a path where he wanted one to be, Kate and Ziva followed quickly in his steps acting as though they couldn't hear the questions being screamed at them, some in Hebrew, some in English, none of them worth replying to.
When a gap formed between two reporters, Jenny managed to squish her and Abby through and suddenly they were directly in front of the trio, recognition causing both Ari and the smaller woman to stop in surprise,
"Jenny?" the Israeli woman exclaimed, and Abby saw Jenny's predatory grin,
"Shalom Officers David, Todd, Doctor Haswari" she called, raising her voice to be heard above the noise of the cameras, "I am proud to welcome to America allies in our war on terrorism and black market weaponry..."
Abby felt dread sink like a lead weight in her stomach when she realised that Jenny hadn't come for purely social reasons, but was making some sort of political manoeuvre and had brought her along in the hopes she would delay the trio's escape from the press. Abby felt sick when she realised that there was nothing she could do to stop this,
Fortunately Ari Haswari didn't feel the same way,
"Wouldn't it make more sense to wait until we'd unpacked first before forcing situations like this on us director?" he called, his deep voice carrying well across the din and emphasised by the guffaws of the reporters, "My partner, my sister and I have just escaped from one political war, we don't want to be dragged into another, despite who it is that does the dragging"
With that he surged forward, Kate's hand firmly grasped in his and Officer David hurrying behind, Jenny was knocked to the side and the reported swallowed the trio back up as they rushed to the airport doors where numerous taxis waited like save havens.
Seconds beforehand however, Kate finally met Abby's eyes, but instead of instantaneous forgiveness she just saw shock at her supposed betrayal.