Chapter 14
AN: Thank you so much for the support. It means a lot to me. Hope you like this chapter, PLEASE REVIEW.
HUGE THANK YOU TO: RMK1983 who has become my beta
A little while has passed since McGee arrived at Gibbs's house and ever since Gibbs, Jack, Tony, Ziva and McGee have been discussing their plan, and what they need to know to put it into action.
Preparing to put the plan into action, Jack is in Gibbs's room changing into a fresh pain of jeans and a t-shirt from her go bag. Due to her shoulder, Jack is having a slightly harder time than usual getting changed.
"Jack." Ziva says, walking into the bedroom without knocking and as Jack is pulling the shirt down Ziva sees the scars on her back. The second she sees the scars, Ziva realises why the look in Jack's eyes was familiar. "Sorry." Ziva says, looking away.
"It's okay." Jack says, turning to look at Ziva, "We ready to go?" Jack asks curious, as she puts her arm into the sling that is still around her neck, trying to avoid talking about her scars. As she really doesn't want to discuss her past right now, though she knows that if anyone were to understand it would be Ziva.
"Almost." Ziva answers, as Jack goes to put her holster on the side which she would usually put it on, but as she remembers she cannot use her right arm at the moment and so she switches it to the other side, "You can shoot with either hand?" Ziva asks curious.
"Thankfully." Jack answers, "Let's go."
While Ziva and Jack are upstairs McGee and Tony are in the living room with Tali who is still playing, completely unaware of how tense everyone is.
"So, you really don't know what's going on with Gibbs and Jack?" Tony asks.
"I really don't. You know Gibbs he never actually talks about things." McGee comments.
"What do you think is going on?" Tony asks curious.
"I really don't know. It wouldn't surprise me if something was. The first time I met Sloane she called Gibbs 'Cowboy' and threw him his own housekeys." McGee explains.
"Really?" Tony asks, drawing out the word, but before he can ask more, which he would really like to do, Ziva and Jack walk down from upstairs.
"I'll get Gibbs." Jack says, heading to the basement.
"McGee what was Jack before she was an NCIS agent?" Ziva asks curious, once Jack is out of hearing range, causing McGee to feel pretty uncomfortable as he can guess why Ziva would be asking that and while not knowing all the details he knows how private this is.
"A solider, she was in the Army." McGee explains.
"Iraq or Afghanistan?" Ziva asks.
"Afghanistan."
After leaving Ziva, McGee, Tony and Tali Jack heads straight down to the basement, where Gibbs is.
"Everything's ready to go." Jack comments, as she walks towards Gibbs.
"Good." Gibbs says, "Trying to convince you to sit this out won't do anything will it?" Gibbs asks.
"Nothing at all." Jack reveals, "I can still shoot, and we need five people for this plan to have a hope of working." Jack reminds Gibbs.
"I can call Bishop, or Torres, or Vance." Gibbs argues.
"Not enough time and you know it." Jack tells him, as she gets to Gibbs, "I get that you're worried about me, Gibbs, but I've never needed anyone's protection, and I certainly don't need yours now." Jack reveals, "Please respect that." Jack says, her voice serious.
"I do Jack…. You just mean a hell of a lot to me, and I know how dangerous this is." Gibbs admits, feeling confident after everything that's happened over the last day and feeling like if he doesn't say something now then he's going to regret it.
"You mean a hell of a lot to me too, Gibbs." Jack admits, with a smile, "And you've been hurt as well, and I'm worried about you too, but I'm not trying to convince you not to do this because I know there's nothing I can say." Jack reveals, "What you should know, Gunny is that there's nothing you can say to me either." Jack says, "You're a Marine, well I'm a Solider, and I've joined this war now, so I'm not going to sit on the sidelines." Jack reveals.
"Good speech." Gibbs says, looking at Jack in amazement.
"True speech." Jack says, "Let's go, Tony, Ziva and McGee are waiting." Jack says, and once she does Gibbs picks up his bag and the two of them head upstairs.
Once upstairs Gibbs and Jack find McGee, Tony and Ziva standing together. As they see Jack and Gibbs Tony and Ziva walk over to Tali who is playing on the ground.
"Tali." Ziva says, as she and Tony squat down on the ground.
"Yes Ima?" Tali asks.
"Abba, Saba, Jack and I have to go away for a little while." Ziva explains, using a gentle voice, "While we are gone Uncle McGee is going to stay here with you, is that okay?"
"How long will you be gone?" Tali asks curious.
"Hopefully not to long." Tony tells his daughter, who looks between everyone.
"Okay." Tali says.
"בואי הנה, טלי." Ziva says to her daughter, (come here, Tali), and Tali puts down what she is doing and walks over to her mother
Once Tali is close enough Ziva picks up her daughter and hugs her tightly as she whispers something, in Hebrew, to her daughter and kisses her head. After she kisses her daughters head Ziva, quite reluctantly, removes her arms from around her daughter who walks over to her father.
"I love you Kiddo." Tony says to his daughter, "Have fun with your, Uncle McGee." Tony tells her.
"I will Abba." Tali responds as her father hugs her and holds her tightly for a few moments, "Abba, hurt." Tali says, as Tony is hugging her rather tightly, and Tony lets go of his daughter.
"Can I play now?" Tali asks curious.
"Of course, but not up here. You and Uncle McGee are going to spend some time in the basement." Gibbs explains.
"Okay Saba." Tali says, before grabbing her dog and heading downstairs.
"Probie…" Tony starts to say, as he and Ziva stand up.
"I'll protect her with my life." McGee promises, before heading down to the basement, and Gibbs, Tony, Ziva and Jack all wait for the sound of the basement door closing.
"Okay, let's do this." Gibbs says, opening the bag he got from the basement and pulling out an old doll that is so big that it is about the size of a four-year-old girl.
"This has got to be the weirdest thing we've ever done." Tony says as he picks up the doll, holding it like he would hold Tali if she had fallen asleep in his arms and puts a blanket over the doll to try and hide the fact that it is a doll.
"I am not so sure about that." Ziva comments.
"You two clear on the plan?" Gibbs asks, looking between Ziva and Jack, both of whom give him less than impressed looks, "Right." Gibbs says, closing his bag and putting it over his shoulder, "Jack, you first." Gibbs says, throwing Jack the keys to his 1971 dodge charger RT hemi.
"Gladly." Jack says, heading out of the house, and thanks to cars being moved when they were figuring out a plan, Jack is able to pull the charger straight out of the driveway, not having much issue with driving as she has driven one handed many times before. As she, makes her way to the car, and then out of the driveway, Jack makes sure to make it obvious that she is the one leaving.
After Jack leaves Gibbs, Tony and Ziva wait for about five minutes
"Let's go DiNozzo." Gibbs says, puling his gun as he and Tony make their way out of the house, through the front door, making it seem like they are watching for signs of danger or people following them.
As Tony and Gibbs go out the front door Ziva, using ways she has learnt by spending so much time at Gibbs's place, leaves through the back, doing it in a way that makes her completely unnoticeable.
While Gibbs and crew are putting their plan into action back at headquarters, the others have realised that McGee has disappeared.
"Okay, we've checked the entire building, McGee isn't here." Ellie says as she and Torres walk into the bullpen where Ducky, Palmer and Kasie are.
"I just spoke to security, McGee left the Navy Yard." Vance reveals, as he walks into the bullpen.
"Why wouldn't McGee tell us that he is going somewhere?" Kasie asks, as she doesn't understand.
"Jethro." Ducky says, "This has a plan of his written all of it."
"I wouldn't put it past being Jack's plan." Vance says, he also wouldn't be surprised if it was Ziva's but he doesn't want to voice that. "Bishop, Torres, you're with me. No one else is to leave the building." Vance instructs, and once he does Ellie and Torres hurry to get their gear, and once they have it the three of them head to the elevator.
A little while after she snuck out of Gibbs's place, a few streets away from the house where her daughter and friend are, Ziva gets into the dodge charger that is waiting for her.
"Did anyone follow you?" Ziva asks.
"No one that I noticed." Jack reveals, as she starts to drive, "If they stick to pattern they would have been more concerned with Gibbs and Tony than me."
"Yes, they would have." Ziva confirms and realising that she may not get another chance Ziva knows there is something she has to say, "Thank you, Jack, you did not have to be a part of this."
"I felt like I did." Jack reveals, "And I wanted to." Jack admits, and to explain herself, she decides to be open with Ziva. Consider everything she knows Jack is pretty sure that honesty is best, "I've read some of the journals you kept in your office." Jack reveals.
"You have?" Ziva asks, it being hard to tell whether she is angry, upset, or just curious.
"When I thought you were dead, I encouraged Gibbs to read them." Jack reveals, "I thought it would be good for him to read the words of one of the daughters he lost." Jack explains.
"You know about Kelly." Ziva says, sounding surprised and Jack nods.
"From what I know he doesn't have much of her left other than memories, but your journals are a piece of you, a piece he could still hold and use to understand you better, so I thought it would be good for him to read them." Jack explains, "He asked me to read them with him."
"That's how you realised I was alive." Ziva realises from the way Jack reacted when she first saw her, Ziva is sure she had known that she was alive for a little while, certainly longer than just a couple of days.
"I realised that you are his daughter and if you were really gone Gibbs wouldn't have been at NCIS when I moved up here." Jack admits.
"That was part of the reason I knew I could not allow Gibbs to know I was dead." Ziva admits, though she did have other reasons. "I could not allow him to throw his life away for me."
"He would have." Jack says, "You're his daughter, if it meant protecting or saving you there's nothing Gibbs wouldn't do." Jack reveals.
"I know." Ziva says, that knowledge making her feel amazed as she knows that if Eli was alive he wouldn't go to the lengths Gibbs will to protect her, "I would do the same for him."
"I know." Jack confirms, giving Ziva a look.
"In the interest of being honest, I saw your scars when you were getting dressed." Ziva reveals, feeling like if she were to stick around DC, something which she won't let herself think about at the moment, she could see herself becoming good friends with Jack.
"I thought you did." Jack says, and as she does Ziva notices her one hand tighten on the wheel. Even though she doesn't like to talk about what happened, Jack figures she owes Ziva some personal details considering all the personal details she knows about her. "Afghanistan, I was held by terrorists for nine months, Vance and a team rescued me." Jack explains, waning to explain in as little detail as possible.
"Four months, Somalia. Gibbs, Tony and McGee rescued me, but I assume you know that." Ziva comments.
"Not the details." Jack reveals, "When we got to that notebook Gibbs said he wanted to read it alone." Jack reveals, and Ziva is very glad to hear that, "Have you thought about what you're going to do once the Collective is dealt with?" Jack asks curious.
"No." Ziva says, recognising the change of subject, "I cannot think about what I am going to do next until this is over. I just know Tali is what matters most." Ziva reveals, as right now she isn't too sure she has a next.
"We're ending this, Ziva." Jack reveals, turning to look at her, "It's time to start thinking about your next move, time to think about what you really want." Jack says, as she turns back to the road.
"I have not done that in a very long time." Ziva admits, finding it easy to talk to Jack even though they just met.
"That's exactly why you should." Jack says and once she does she and Ziva drift into silence once more.
Ever since the others left Gibbs's house McGee, in the basement with Tali, spent his time listening for sings of danger. As he hears footsteps and whispers voices above McGee knows exactly what he has to do.
"Tali, we're going to play a game, okay." McGee says.
"What kind of game?" Tali asks curious.
"You're going to hide under the bench and stay there until I say, okay?" McGee asks as he picks up Tali.
"Okay." Tali says, thinking it is a strange game, but not the strangest she has ever played, and she allows her uncle to hide her under the bench. Once Tali is under the bench McGee pulls his gun and stands in front of where Tali is hiding.
Moments after McGee hid Tali the basement door opens and McGee hears footsteps, but to his relief it is Vance, Bishop and Torres who walk into the basement.
"McGee, where's Gibbs and Sloane?" Vance asks.
"Not here, Sir." McGee says as he gets Tali out from under bench.
"But you and Tali are?" Ellie asks, sounding surprised by that.
"Yeah." McGee confirms.
"Agent McGee, I'll ask again, where are Agents Gibbs and Sloane?" Vance asks, giving McGee a 'tell me now or you'll regret it' look.
"With Tony and Ziva." McGee explains.
"They've gone after The Collective haven't they?" Torres asks.
"Not exactly." McGee admits.
"By all means McGee, tell us, what exactly are David, DiNozzo, Gibbs and Sloane doing?" Vance asks. Even though he would rather not say anything McGee knows he has to, and so, quiet reluctantly, McGee starts to explain the plan to Vance, Ellie and Torres.