I am a terrible person. I last updated this on the first of May. It is now the 22nd of July. That is nearly three months.
My internet has been playing up lately, which really bugs me. One day, I am going to move somewhere that actually has a decent internet connection and where you can get a phone signal.
I also had a lot of trouble writing this, though I am not really certain why. I just could not put the words down in the right order.
LXVIII. The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
Tony let his head hang as he clasped his hands between his knees, grunting when the plane jolted and his shoulder twinged. "What are you going to do when we get her back?" He looked at the confusion on the face of his father-in-law. "Are you going to take her away from me?"
"Are you going to just lay down and let me?"
Tony whipped his head across to the older man, his face set in a hard glare. "Of course not. I love her. I'm not giving her up without a fight," Eli gave a low, rumbling chuckle and Tony grit his teeth. "I'm not kidding."
"I do not want to fight you for her, Agent DiNozzo."
"So you expect me to bow down to you?" He scoffed, shaking his head. "If you expect that, you know nothing about love."
"I know more about love than I expect you to understand, Agent DiNozzo, but no. I do not expect you to bow down to me," he narrowed his eyes. "I want my Ziva back. I am sure you would understand if someone were to take your little girl away. She is the only child I have left, and despite what you know about me, I do love her. But," he held his finger up when Tony moved to object, "I understand that she is wild, untameable. One look at her hair should tell you that – her mother used to fight so hard to control it," he chuckled lowly, "and wild things are not to be caged."
"So…what? You're gonna leave us?" He did not believe it for a second.
"Yes. If that is what she wishes."
"You do not want that, though."
"Of course I do not. I want to be there for her. I want to get to know my grandchildren, see them grow up, buy them shoes for school, help pay for them to go to college. I want to watch my only living daughter be happy, to watch her love whomever she chooses. Even if she chooses an American with a lacking upbringing."
"I was brought up Catholic, you know?" Tony offered, knowing that it was hardly the worst thing Eli could have said about him.
The older man looked to him, as if truly surprised. "No, I did not know that. It was never mentioned by my Ziva."
"Well, I'm not Catholic now. But my mother was," he nodded, running a hand through his hair. "I sort of lost faith, when she died, y'know?"
Eli was quiet for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly as he thought. "Ziva, she has had this problem many times. She sees too many people taken away from her that she cannot understand how Adonai can be good and yet still take loved people away from her. She always finds her faith again."
"She's certainly tenacious," Tony nodded, smiling at the thought of his wife.
"Adabelle DiNozzo?"
"Yep," Abby stood up, Bod on her hip and Ada in her car seat. She smiled at the nurse, who gave a hesitant, concerned look before leading them through from the waiting room into one of the offices.
"Adabelle DiNozzo for you."
Doctor Wilson looked up, slightly taken aback by the woman stood in the doorway of his office. Despite having toned down her fashion choice and avoiding heavy makeup whilst looking after the children, Abby was still not the epitome of a guardian with her black leather pants, black platforms, and worn Brain Matter t-shirt, her hair up in two high pigtails, and she was certainly not who the doctor was expecting.
"Abby Sciuto. I'm looking after the twins for a couple of days," she shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinising eyes.
"Is there a problem with Tony and Ziva?" He asked as she placed Ada's car seat on the exam table and sat down on one of the chairs, arranging Ichabod on her lap.
"Uh…I don't…" nobody had specified that what was going on was to be kept quiet. "They've had to go out of town for a bit. The guy that shot Tony, he threatened Ziva into leaving with him to Mexico. They've only just found her, arrived early this morning to try and bring her back."
The doctor sighed and looked down at his hands, folded on the table. "I am sorry. You visited the hospital frequently whilst they were here, didn't you?"
"Yeah. I've known Tony for years, he's practically a brother, and Ziva…well, she's my best girl friend. I mean, she would be my best friend, but that's Timmy, and nobody could replace Timmy, but there are some things you just can't talk to guys about, you know, and I love Timmy, I do, and I tell him nearly everything, but there are just some things that I feel kinda awkward talking to him about, you know, so…I'm talking too much," she looked at the stunned audiologist. "It's just 'cause I'm kinda nervous, y'know? Both about Ada and about Tony and Ziva. But Jen said that I should go, firstly because I'm their legal guardian if Tony, Ziva and Gibbs don't come back, but also because both of my parents were deaf, so I know about hearing and not hearing and even though Ducky's a doctor, he's not a specialist, plus he has to work, and so do Jen and Palmer, but I didn't, so it sort of fell to me. I'm babbling again, aren't I?"
"Just a little," he confirmed with a kind smile. "All I wanted to do today was check Adabelle's hearing, see if there has been any improvement even though, as I am sure you are aware, we hold little hope for such, and then the aim was to discuss plans for the future, whether we would look at surgery or not and look at learning ASL."
"Tony and Ziva said they did not want to go down the route of surgery. After weighing up the pros and the cons, and the risk of it not working, they said that they wanted it to be Ada's choice when she is old enough to decide. Both myself and Gibbs have been slowly teaching them ASL, but what with Ziva being gone for the past five weeks…Jen was wondering about classes?"
Doctor Wilson chuckled as he stepped around his desk and lifted Ada from her car seat and onto the examination table. "We have classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, ranging from beginner to advanced in abilities. Beginners is best for families with infants and young children, and as I am sure you are aware, babies can start picking up sign language earlier than they can speak," he had been examining the smaller of the twins as he spoke, scrawling notes down every so often. "You know, your knowledge has made this appointment a lot easier."
"That's why Jenny sent me," Abby shrugged.
"How are you coping, looking after them? It can't be easy, your friends in danger and you having to look after their children."
"It's…I wish it was not happening. I mean, I love them and all, but they need their parents."
"It is certainly not an ideal situation," the doctor sighed. "You seem to be coping well, though."
"Well, I'm not doing it on my own. I wouldn't have coped if I was," she bit her lip, shifting Bod on her lap. "Is there any improvement?"
He looked up and shook his head. "We were not expecting any. There was an off chance that it would improve, but it was slim."
Abby looked down to the top of Bod's head as he leant back against her chest, wondering what she would say to Tony and Ziva when they got back. "Should we start with ASL lessons now?"
"You can do," the doctor said, carrying Ada back over to her. "It is good for them to be around new people and infants and even if they are not learning, any adults with them can. I would also recommend for Tony and Ziva, when they get back, to take them to parent and baby groups. There will be first-time parents there and parents who've been through it all before, so they can expand the group of people that they can talk to. And, again, it is good for Adabelle and Ichabod to get used to being around children of their own age," he paused for a moment, handing over leaflets to her, "but I would recommend waiting to see what is happening with Tony and Ziva for parent and baby groups. When you know who is coming home."
"So they can be the ones to take the twins? Yeah, I get that," she nodded slowly, her mood plummeting as she thought about either one of them not coming home. "Thank you, Doctor."
"That's quite alright. You're doing an admirable thing, looking after them."
"They're family. It's what we do for family."
"I am sorry, Mr Franks. I could not stop him," López said as soon as Mike stepped into the ward, Gibbs and Tony hot on his heels. "They left half an hour ago. I tried to stop him, I did, but he went."
"Did she leave her stuff here?"
"Eh…I do not know," the doctor shook his head with a shrug, "you will have to check."
Mike huffed, walking through to where he knew Ziva's bed to be from where he had seen Malachi sat with her. He and Gibbs tossed the covers out of the way whilst Tony merely stood at the end of the bed and stared. "Tell me again why she was in the obstetrics ward?"
"So she didn't have to spend so much time with Malachi. She lied to him, DiNozzo." It was the fifth time it had been explained to him, but it seemed that the words simply refused to sink in. "Probie, this the phone she was using to call home?" He tossed the cell he had found tucked beneath her pillow over to Gibbs.
"Dunno. DiNozzo?" The phone was chucked over to Tony, who flipped the screen open and looked in the call log.
"Yeah," he nodded grimly. "She has no way of contacting us now," he sank down onto the bed behind him, tapping the buttons and navigating the basic phone.
"Hey, don't give up hope just yet," Gibbs snapped as he pulled out a scrap of paper from the pillowcase. "It has a schedule. No times, but details of destinations and modes of transport. They're getting a flight from Mexico City to Belize."
"If they left half an hour ago, we can still make it."
"Can we trust the Doc, though?" Tony looked to Mike, worrying his bottom lip.
"Yeah. From what I can see he's a good man."
"Right. We get down to Mexico City, get to the airport, see if McGee and Hadar can stop all flights. What with Mossad and NCIS combined authority, we might get somewhere," Gibbs said as the three of them made their way out of the ward, running down the stairs. "We do what we can about locating them with what we know - if in doubt we see if McGee can get security tape."
"What's happening?" McGee asked as they came rushing out of the hospital.
"Plug Mexico City airport into the GPS," Tony said, climbing into the back seat of the rental car whilst his younger counterpart continued to lean, rather distractedly, against the bonnet, slowly catching up with what Tony was saying.
"Mike's gonna follow us in his truck," the oldest of the MCRT nodded in the direction of his mentor as he opened the door to the driver's side. Eli held his hand out in front of him, blocking further movement and halting all action.
"Hadar will be able to drive faster, get us there quicker."
There was a moment in which everyone in the group was silent and the tension was palpable before Gibbs grumbled gruffly, slipping into the passenger's seat instead and leaving McGee to join Tony and Eli in the back.
"McGee, get to the control tower, the Director is fighting for the authority to ground all flights, just delay as many as possible. We're gonna find security tapes," Gibbs barked as they started jogging through the airport, Hadar, McGee and Mike going in one direction whilst the others took off to find the security office. After flashing their badges numerous times, they made their way to a room resembling MTAC, banks of screens showing images from across the airport. "NCIS, American Federal Agents. We're looking for these two people," he nodded to Tony, who held out two photographs, one of Ziva, one of Malachi.
"Digital copies are being sent over now. We know that they are here, can you run facial recognition?"
"No need," one of the Mexican officers pointed to one of the screens. "He has a private plane leaving in ten minutes."
"Where is that?" Tony and Eli demanded together, exchanging a tense glare before turning back to the screen.
"We take you," the rush of movement started again as they ran outside, jumping into a car with the airport's logo on the side, "the hangar is on the other side of the airport."
"Will we make it in the next ten minutes?"
"Should do."
"Should do isn't good enough."
"DiNozzo, not helping," Gibbs cautioned from the front seat. The younger of the two Americans closed his eyes, balling his fists and taking deep, deliberate breaths.
"So, uh, what are you stopping these two for?"
"He kidnapped my wife."
"My daughter."
"My agent."
"And this girl he is with is your wife, daughter, and agent?" The driver raised his eyebrows. "You're all close to this case then. This is not a conflict of interest?"
"Not with this case," Gibbs muttered as the car pulled up to the row of hangars.
"His plane is in the last hangar of the bank. They were escorted over fifteen minutes before you arrived."
"We'll take it from here. Can you call for back up, but tell them to hang back?" None of them waited for an answer as the trio bailed from the car, each of them unholstering weapons as they jogged over to the final hangar, the only one with the doors open. Tony could identify barked orders in his wife's first language, though what was being said, he did not know, but the cold, hard voice of the man who had shouted was enough to set him on edge. Gibbs looked over at Tony and then behind himself, searching the open tarmac. "Where's Eli?"
Tony shook his head, his grip tightening on his SIG. Gibbs sighed, exasperated, before nodding to the doors. They rounded the corner to see Malachi with Ziva's jaw held tightly in his hand, blood trickling from her nose and a dark bruise flourishing across her right eye socket. "Let her go, Malachi."
He looked up, a malicious glint in his eyes, and chuckled coldly. "Look, Ziva, your husband has come to die for you. This is the love I expect you to have for me."
"There's only one person dying today, Levy, and it's not gonna be DiNozzo."
He barked out a laugh. "I used to think you American's were stupid, but you got that right, Agent Gibbs," his reflexes were fast, and the move unexpected. He was holding Ziva to his chest, one arm around her torso whilst the other held a gun to her temple. "It is time for you to prove your love for me, Ziva."
She stared at Tony, blinking away tears before they could blur her vision. She wondered whether he knew what she was thinking, understood her pleas to him, the silent begging for him to go home and look after their children for her.
"Ada and Bod are doing really well, y'know? They're sleeping a lot more, and, uh, oh, Bod grinned at me the other day. A proper grin, not just a reflex. He's got the DiNozzo charm. And Ada, she's doing so well, she's putting on weight, which the doctor says is a good sign, and she's starting to catch Bod up in length. They've both got so big," he had no idea what he was doing, but it was the only thing he could think of – try and calm her down. "Ada's got a doctor's appointment today with Doc Wilson, so Abby should be taking her. They miss you, y'know. We all do, really. I mean Abby…she's started dressing like a normal person. And McGee – he hasn't played a computer game in a month. Ducky only tells his stories to the twins now and I swear the director's only been in her office twice over the past month," his voice was shaking, "and then there's me. I don't know what I'm doing anymore, Ziva. I don't know where I am, I never know what day it is and I've lost all concept of time."
Malachi started backing away, towards the Cessna Citation, pointing to Tony with his weapon. "Okay, thank you for that lovely speech, Agent DiNozzo. I am sure Ziva will contemplate it whilst we are flying to Belize. Now, if you do not mind, we will be on our wa-" he was cut off by a gunshot and a spray of red.
I seem good at ending chapters of this with gunshots. I did promise that I would fix this mess in this chapter, but I decided not to. It will be done next chapter, though. Pinky-promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. That is a really weird way of promising truthfulness…
