Fallen Angels: Chapter 36

It was probably in the fifth hour of waiting for the boat to appear at the docks in Kazakhstan that DiNozzo realized he never called Gibbs and reported what he had learned from Mossad, about how the Iranians were buying information regarding Capt. McNamee in order to take down the Israelis.

Oops. He'd call them later. After he saw for himself that both Ziva and Rabb were safe and unharmed. He'd settle for relatively unharmed, really.

It had been six and a half hours—six and a half hours of the SEAL liaison coming down to where DiNozzo was waiting at the docks to inform him that they wouldn't be there any time soon, six and a half hours of consuming only black coffee, and a lot of it—before he saw the lights that could only be coming from a boat heading directly for the dock he had been standing on. As they got closer, he could make out the shapes of two men standing at the bow, weapons at the ready. SEALs.

Thank God.

The boat arrived at the dock, the four SEALs jumping off to secure it to the dock, and DiNozzo felt his heart just about stop in realization: there were more people than he expected on the boat. Five more, in fact.

Ziva.

Neither of them said anything before she was in his arms, him holding her so tightly he was afraid she might break, if breaking Ziva David were possible.

He didn't know how long they stood there like that on the docks, neither of them moving or speaking, until he finally, reluctantly, pulled away. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "I am fine," she replied. He nodded as well before leaning down and kissing her.

"You're sure?" he asked when they separated. "You're not hit or anything?" His hand made its way to her side, to the skin that he knew was still pink under her clothes from an all-too-recent graze by a bullet.

"No, Tony," she said, sounding amused at the question. "It was Cohen's turn."

Judging by the tone she said that in and the chuckle from the Mossad operative in question, it wasn't that serious. "It is only a flesh wound," Cohen joked.

"I think you need to be missing a limb for that to be funny."

"Sir, you should probably get that checked out at a hospital as soon as you can," one of the SEALs commented to Cohen as he walked by.

"I will be sure to do that," Cohen replied. DiNozzo was pretty sure he wouldn't.

Remembering what the mission had been about, DiNozzo finally began glancing around in search of Captain Rabb. Fortunately, he didn't have to search long. It had been almost a decade since he had seen the captain in person, but that didn't stop DiNozzo from recognizing the former murder suspect. "Captain Rabb," he greeted, offering his hand. "How're you feeling?"

"Better now," the captain replied with a wide grin. He blinked in sudden recognition. "Special Agent DiNozzo. From Lt. Singer's investigation."

"That'll be me."

"I never got the chance to thank you for that."

"Just doing my job, Captain."

"Well, now it appears I have something else to thank you for."

"Just doing my job," DiNozzo repeated. He grinned and tilted his head toward Ziva. "Actually, that wasn't really me. Mossad found where they were keeping you and the Lt. Bowers' team got you out. I just sat here and drank a lot of coffee. A lot of coffee. I don't think I'll be sleeping again for a while."

Rabb smiled at that. "Well, I still wish there was something I could do to thank you."

"Actually…" DiNozzo's voice trailed off as he glanced at Ziva, who was looking back with a quizzical expression. He turned back to Rabb to see him wearing a similar expression. "Can you do weddings?"

"What?" both Ziva and Rabb asked in unison. DiNozzo chose to ignore the captain for the moment and gave Ziva his full attention.

"You said to ask again when the time's right," he reminded her. "We've been together for almost three years and worked together for three years before that. I've never had another partner I've known or trusted more than you. I've never known anyone I've loved more than you. I moved to Bahrain for you. You changed your job for me. We're renting a house together! If it's not the right time to ask you to marry me, I don't know when that would be."

For a long minute, she didn't say anything before she slowly nodded. "Yes," she finally said. "Yes. I will marry you."

Tony couldn't think of anything eloquent to say that, so he went with the next best thing and kissed her again. Somewhere, he registered Rabb's laugh behind him. "You should hear the story of my engagement sometime," the captain remarked. "Now, is there a plane here to take us back to Bahrain?"

Before they could get to anything else, Gibbs had to be called about what Mossad had found out about Captain McNamee and what the Iranians were doing to get her, and Rabb had to be debriefed about his time in Iran and how he had gotten there, and even though he was distracted by his upcoming nuptials, DiNozzo was pretty sure he had the situation figured out. Lt. Antonellis, the pilot who had died in the crash, was La Massab, the source who was being paid for information on McNamee. He had paid a petty officer to plant the charge that led to the power outage that led to the crash that took his life. Most of that Gibbs had already known; the only thing DiNozzo really helped with was the timeline of Antonellis' payments and his motives for selling out his fellow pilot. He had already been assigned to Squadron 251 before he was approached by the Iranians, who approached him for the reasons Gibbs and company had already identified: he was very close to his family, including family with gambling debts to all the wrong people.

Where Rabb came in was a little bit more complicated. The captain informed DiNozzo and Freiler that he had been on the runway in Bahrain when he was approached by Agent Loyd—who had identified himself to Rabb as 'Agent Brown'—and told of a plot to cause an F-18 to crash off an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. Loyd had never told him how he came across this information—something DiNozzo was willing to assume was from Loyd's work in the CIA's Iran division—but during the flight, Rabb managed to get out of the CIA agent that his role was, if necessary, to fly the plane back to safety.

He had never figured out why the plane ended up in Iran, instead of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush. With Loyd dead, they'll probably never know.

They had been at it for almost two hours when both DiNozzo and Rabb determined that they had probably learned as much as they possibly could from the other. "So," Rabb said, the beginnings of a true grin appearing on his face. "About that other request you had for me?"

"Other request?" Freiler asked with a frown. DiNozzo just grinned and reached for his phone.

"Hey, Sweetcheeks," he said into the phone. "You ready to come down?"

"I will be right there."

Freiler was frowning as DiNozzo hung up the phone. "Does Mossad need to debrief Captain Rabb as well?"

DiNozzo grinned as the back door to the office opened. "No, not quite," he replied.

"Not quite what?" Ziva asked as she headed to his desk. She had gone back to the apartment to change during the debriefing, her shapeless garment exchanged for a simple dress Tony had forgotten she had and an engagement ring purchased more than two years on her left ring finger. He would have asked how she knew where to find it, but she was, after all, a trained spy. Hiding things from her wasn't exactly possible. Cohen was trailing close behind Ziva with a large bandage on his arm and even larger smirk on his face. "Not quite what?" Ziva repeated.

"Not quite here for a debriefing," DiNozzo filled her in. "You brought your minion?"

"I am not small, cycloptic, or yellow," Cohen pointed out.

"Good job on the movie reference," DiNozzo acknowledged. "Can you get this one? 'I—"

"Tony," Ziva interrupted. "You two can determine which of you is a bigger movie butt—"

"Buff," both DiNozzo and Cohen interrupted. Ziva rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath in Hebrew.

"Are we ready?" she asked, directing the question at Rabb.

"As soon as you are," the captain replied. "I have the license right here."

"License for what?" Freiler asked, clearly confused.

"You wanna be a witness?" DiNozzo asked him.

"Witness for what?" he replied, now sounding exasperated.

"These two are finally getting hitched," Cohen explained, gesturing at DiNozzo and Ziva. "I am here to witness in case Mossad has any questions."

Rabb frowned at the comment and studied Ziva for a few seconds. "Is there anything that needs to be done for Israel?" he asked.

"No," Ziva replied. "There are no civil wedding ceremonies in Israel, but they do recognize weddings performed elsewhere."

"What happened on that mission?" Freiler asked, his eyes wide. "Ziva, are you wearing an engagement ring? Can someone please catch me up?"

"Rabb asked if there's anything he could do to thank us for freeing him. I figured officiating a wedding would make us about even," DiNozzo replied with a shrug.

"So… you went from being freaked out about a house to deciding to get married? Did I miss something here?"

"Do not question it," Cohen advised him. "Just agree to be a witness."

"Well, okay," Freiler said slowly. "Mazel tov, I guess."

"That is what you say after they are married," Cohen informed him. "What do they say after the vows in a Mormon ceremony? Or is that one of those things that those of us who are not Mormon are not to know?"

DiNozzo smirked at Cohen's innocent-seeming questions about Mormonism and quickly covered it up. "Everyone ready?" he asked. He turned to both Ziva and Rabb and received a nod in reply. He ignored Cohen and Freiler.

"Then let's get started," Rabb began. He smiled as he glanced down at the words he had printed off between filling out the marriage license and beginning the debriefing. "We are here to participate in a wedding. By this act we unite Tony and Ziva as husband and wife. Tony and Ziva, you stand before me having requested that I marry you. Do you both do this of your own free will, with no pressure upon you from other persons?"

"We do," both DiNozzo and Ziva replied.

"Then let us continue," Rabb said. "Tony, if it is your desire to become the husband of Ziva, then repeat after me."

They both repeated their vows, and Rabb declared them to be husband and wife, and then Tony kissed Ziva, and Cohen and Freiler both offered their mazel tov's at the right time, just as the sun began to rise over Bahrain.

DiNozzo was fairly sure he had never had a more chaotic day, and hoped he never had another one like that, but at the same time, he couldn't imagine a better one.