I'm sorry I took so long getting this chapter up! I tried to write it like five different ways and I hated every single version of it until this one. Anyway, chapter seven will not take nearly as long! Sorry for the wait, but enjoy chapter 6 and make sure to let me know what you think!

Six

"I feel kind of bad for leaving Gibbs and McGee to work the case alone." Tony told Ziva as they got in the car Wednesday morning.

Ziva pulled the car away from the curb. "He would not have sent us home if they could not handle it." She said.

Tony nodded. "I guess. Do you think he thinks I'm not ready to come back?" He asked quietly.

Ziva reached over the center console to hold his hand. "Absolutely not." She told him. "He cares about you, and your health. I was the one who asked if I could take you home last night. Gibbs agreed because he wants to ease you back in. He does not want to overwhelm you."

Tony looked over at her. "Do you think I'm not ready to be back?" He asked.

Ziva looked over at him as she stopped at a red light. "No, Tony I know you are. You are perfectly capable of handling desk duty." She told him.

"But?" Tony asked.

"But you have been through a lot. I know you do not want to say it, but yesterday you were so frustrated by the end of the day you were shaking. You are letting the emotions from your own attack guide your instincts at work. Which is not a bad thing." She told him as she watched the light turn green.

"Then why did you take me home?" He asked.

"Because even though it is not a bad thing, you need a bit of time to adjust. Think about it this way. When you break a bone, you go to physical therapy for a while, and you're only allowed to do so much while it strengthens and finishes healing, yes?" Ziva asked.

Tony nodded. "Yeah."

"They why is it not the same for your mind?" She asked, squeezing his hand gently.

Tony thought for a moment. "I guess it should be." He told her.

"That is why I took you home. I could see that it was getting to you. And I know you're too stubborn to want to say anything, especially in front of Gibbs and McGee." Ziva said.

"Embarrassed." Tony mumbled.

Ziva looked over at him. "Hmm?" She asked.

"Embarrassed. Not stubborn." He told her.

Ziva reached for his hand once again, tangling her fingers with his. "You do not need to be embarrassed, Tony. It is okay to feel things."

XXXXX

Ten minutes later Tony and Ziva stepped into the elevator at work. Ziva reached over and hit the emergency stop switch.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked.

Ziva stepped closer to him, pulling him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You okay?" Tony asked.

Ziva nodded. "I am fine. I just need a second." She told him.

She really just wanted to give him a last attempt at feeling safe before the doors slid open and they had to step into the real world.

Tony nodded against her. "Alright."

Ziva pulled away after a moment and stood on her toes to kiss Tony's cheek gently before she reached over and flipped the emergency switch. The lights in the elevator came back on and Tony reached for her hand. She took it, smiling up at him as the elevator doors slid open.

They stepped out of the elevator and walked toward their desks. They were surprised to see that Gibbs and McGee were already at their desks. They had thought they were early.

"Morning." Ziva said as she and Tony separated to sit in their own chairs.

"Morning." McGee greeted quickly.

"Have you found anything?" Ziva asked.

"Nothing. We went to pick Ramsey up last night and he wasn't home." McGee told her.

"And this surprised you?" Ziva asked.

McGee shook his head no. "We've been trying to track Ramsey all night. The guy just disappeared." He told them.

"DiNozzo, see-" Tony cut Gibbs off.

"If Ramsey or any of his family members have used their bank cards since Lieutenant McDonald's attack." He said as he took his jacket off and sat down in his chair.

Gibbs turned to Ziva. "Find-"

"Find out if Ramsey's family has had any contact with him. I will go interview the parents?" She asked.

Gibbs nodded. "Go."

"Just sent you the address." McGee called from his desk.

Ziva nodded and grabbed her bag off of the floor beside her desk. "I will be back."

She looked over at Tony, who looked up from his computer for a moment. He nodded, and she took it as his 'I'll be okay,' signal, and headed toward the elevator.

XXXXX

Ziva raised her hand to knock on the door of the Ramsey house.

The door was pulled open and a tall man with greying hair stepped into the doorway.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

Ziva held up her badge. "My name is Ziva David, I am with NCIS, I have a few questions about your son, Owen." She told him.

The man rolled his eyes. "I'm Patrick. Please, come in." He said, stepping out of the way to let her into the house.

Ziva stepped into the house and waited for mister Ramsey to shut the door. He stepped around her and led her into a small, cozy kitchen, where a small woman, who looked to be around sixty – his wife, she assumed – was standing, washing dishes.

"Evelyn, this agent is here to ask some questions about Owen." Mister Ramsey told his wife, setting his hand on her shoulder.

Evelyn picked up a towel off the counter and dried her hands as she turned around to face Ziva.

"Would you like some tea, dear? I was just about to make some for Patrick." She said, pointing to the kettle heating up on the stove.

Ziva smiled. "Tea would be lovely, thank you." She said.

Evelyn nodded and pulled an extra cup off out of the cupboard.

"Please, sit." Patrick said, pulling a chair out at the table for Ziva.

Ziva sat and placed her notepad on the table in front of her. "Thank you." She said as she watched Patrick sit down across from her.

"So, what has he done this time?" Patrick asked.

"You expect that he has done something wrong?" Ziva asked curiously.

Patrick shrugged. "It's normal. It's been normal since he was what, Eve, sixteen?" He asked.

Evelyn nodded. "That sounds about right." She told them as she placed a cup full of tea in front of each of them. "Cream and sugar?" She asked Ziva.

Ziva nodded. "Please." She said. "He has had a long history of violence?"

Patrick nodded. "It started with being protective of his sister, they have always been close, but after they grew up, he moved out, and he's been in… too many fights to even count, and he's been arrested for domestic violence a few times." He told her.

Ziva waited until Evelyn was sitting down before she spoke.

"He stabbed and raped a Navy Lieutenant yesterday morning." Ziva told them bluntly.

"Dear God… did she survive?" Evelyn asked.

Ziva nodded. "Yes, she did, she will make a full recovery."

Evelyn nodded. "That's good…" She trailed off.

"Have either of you had any contact with your son since yesterday morning?" Ziva asked.

Patrick shook his head no. "He doesn't usually call or come over until Sunday." He told her.

Ziva nodded. "Can you tell me about his mental state most of the time?" She asked, sipping her cup of tea.

Evelyn sighed. "He was a good boy, when he was younger… he was always very protective of his sister, he still is. They are still very close." She told Ziva.

"He never had anything wrong with him. He's always been perfectly healthy, both physically and mentally." Patrick told her.

"Do you think he would go to your daughter if he was in trouble?" Ziva asked.

Evelyn nodded. "It's a good possibility."

XXXXX

Gibbs stepped out of the elevator and crossed the hall into Abby's lab. The familiar loud music pounded in his ears as he walked toward her, fresh Caf-Pow! in hand.

"Whad'ya got Abbs?" Gibbs asked.

Abby looked over at him. "Just what we already know." She told him. "The DNA from the SANE kit definitely belongs to Owen Ramsey." She told him.

Gibbs nodded. "Anything else? Find anything about where he had been before the attack?" He asked.

Abby shrugged and turned around to the table behind her, which was currently supporting a microscope.

"A few of the fibres that were recovered were transferred from Ramsey's clothes onto the Lieutenant. There is a bit of a weird substance on the skirt that was sent over. It's from a shoe print, but there was something on the shoe when he stepped on her." Abby told him.

"What is it?" Gibbs asked, peering through the microscope.

Abby shrugged. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe paint, it's a bit too sticky for paint though." She told him.

Gibbs nodded. "But the DNA is definitely his?" He asked.

Abby nodded. "Yes. I got a ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent match. It's him Gibbs." She told him.

"I also think I know what the knife he used looks like." Abby told him.

She held up a sketch of a knife with a curved blade.

"The Lieutenant probably got lucky. There was no serrated edge in the wound, and it was too thin to be any type of combat knife, and it's not a steak knife, so I'm thinking it's a-"

Gibbs cut her off. "It's a fillet knife."

Abby nodded. "Yeah."

Gibbs leaned forward to kiss her cheek lightly and he handed her the Caf-Pow! in his hand.

"Thanks Abby." He said before walking back out of the lab.

XXXXX

Ziva stepped out onto the front porch of the Ramsey's house, escorted by Patrick and Evelyn.

"Thank you for the tea, and for the answers." Ziva said politely.

Evelyn smiled brightly. "If you have any more questions just give us a call."

Ziva nodded. "I will, and if Owen comes home, you will make sure to call me, yes?" She asked.

They nodded. "Absolutely."

Ziva nodded and began to walk down the few steps to the driveway. "Take care." She called back.

She heard the front door of the house close and she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket as she got into the car. She pulled Tony's number up and pressed the call button before putting it on speaker phone.

Tony answered on the fourth ring.

"Hey, what's up?" Tony asked

"Can you find the address for Owen Ramsey's sister Sophie? Apparently they are very close." Ziva asked.

Tony nodded. "Yeah, just give me one second."

Ziva heard him typing for a moment.

"Did the parents give you anything?" He asked.

Ziva shook her head. "Not as to where he could be. He doesn't usually contact them until Sunday."

Tony nodded. "Helpful. Alright, Sophie Ramsey lives in an apartment in Logan Circle… twelve twenty-three Twelfth Street Northwest."

Ziva wrote the address down in her notepad. "Thank you. Tell Gibbs I am going to talk to the sister and then I will be back." She told Tony.

"Will do." Tony said. "Be safe."

Ziva smiled softly. "I love you too." She told him before she hung up.

She started the car and pulled out of the Ramsey's driveway, headed for Logan Circle.

XXXXX

Ziva stepped off the elevator at NCIS an hour and a half later, frustrated.

She walked toward her desk and dropped her bag on the floor with a thud.

"You okay?" Tony asked as he approached her desk.

Ziva shrugged her jacket off her shoulders angrily and threw it over the back of her chair. "I got nothing. Where are Gibbs and McGee?" She asked.

"They just went to interview Ramsey's roommates." He told her. "Come on, let's go grab something from the vending machine, you haven't eaten since last night." He suggested softly.

Ziva shook her head. "I am not hungry Tony." She snapped as she sat down in her chair.

Tony held his hand out to her. "You have to eat something. Let me buy you a bag of chips. You can tell me what Ramsey's family said. Maybe there's something there."

Ziva sighed, looking up at him. She knew what he was trying to do. He was just trying to help her head stop spinning, and she appreciated it. Even for her, this was a case that was incredibly intense to experience as your first case in two months.

She nodded silently and slid her hand into his. "Alright."

Tony smiled as she stood, and he led her toward the elevator to go upstairs to the lounge.

Ziva sat down at one of the tables in the empty lounge and watched at Tony pulled a dollar out of his wallet at the vending machine.

He put the dollar in the machine and hit the button for the barbecue chips – Ziva's favorite. He grabbed the chips out of the machine and handed them to her.

She took them gratefully and pulled them open as he sat down across from her.

"So, tell me." He said. "What did the parents say?"

Ziva sighed. "They were not shocked when I showed up, I suppose Ramsey has always been in trouble with the police. They told me he started to get violent around his sixteenth birthday." She told him.

Tony nodded. "There had to have been a reason for that, did they tell you anything?" He asked.

Ziva shook her head no as she chewed on a chip. "No, they said that he was the one who started causing the problems, nothing happened to him. No bullying, no death in the family, not even a head injury." She said.

"What did the sister say?" Tony asked.

"Basically, the same thing. He never hurt her, he was very protective. But she never saw or heard about anything happening to him that would have caused that amount of anger." Ziva told him.

Tony reached out to grab a chip from the bag. "Do you believe what they're saying?" He asked.

Ziva thought for a moment. "Yes. They all seemed genuine, and I do not know why they would lie, they were not the ones being looked at."

Tony nodded. "Maybe he just snapped?" Tony asked. "It's happened before."

Ziva nodded. "Maybe. I just do not understand how he can disappear like this. He has no training, he bags groceries at a Walmart, he should not be able to do this." She told him.

"Did they say anything about his friends? Maybe gang members?" Tony asked.

Ziva shook her head no. "Nothing like that. I left the parents and the family my phone number. They said they would call if they heard from him."

Tony nodded. "Come on, let's go see if Gibbs and McGee got anything."

XXXXX

"Where the hell could he be?!" Ziva asked angrily as she slammed the phone down on her desk. It was now almost midnight and they still had absolutely nothing to go on.

Gibbs looked up at her, and then looked toward Tony, who seemed to be just as surprised by her outburst as he was.

"Ziver-" Gibbs started.

Ziva interrupted him. "I am not going home." She snapped. "I am fine." She told him, looking back at her computer screen.

Gibbs looked back toward Tony, giving him a look that Tony interpreted as 'get her head on straight and come back tomorrow.'

Tony nodded and started to shut down his computers. He flicked the switch on his desk lamp and stood to walk over to Ziva's desk.

"I could use the time." He told her. It wasn't a complete lie, but he hadn't taken the time to see how this case was getting to her either.

Ziva looked up at him, trying to read the look on his face, and eventually resigned her position.

"Fine." She mumbled quietly. She switched off her computer and stood to pull her jacket onto her shoulders as Tony did the same.

"You will call me if you find anything?" She asked.

Gibbs nodded. "I will."

Ziva sighed and took the hand that Tony was holding out to her. "Alright. We will see you tomorrow morning."