Hi Everyone,

I hope that you are having a lovely Easter holiday (if you are celebrating). I have a little bit of time off, so I thought I would post the next chapter!

Spoilers: This story is set just after Ziva David left NCIS (S11 E02: Past, Present, and Future). I don't take in account what happened in the series after that event. As there have been many seasons (and many Tiva developments) since, let's just say that this is a fun AU.

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, I don't earn any money with this story, I'm just enjoying playing with the characters.

Playlist: Every chapter is inspired by a song. For this chapter, it's Yossi Sassi - Melting Thoughts. Check out my profile for more details!

Reviews: Thank you all for your nice comments! I have replied directly to people with an account. And since I can't reply to anonymous comments, I just wanted to say special thanks to NciJag: I'm glad you like my story!

I hope you enjoy!

Temples of Gold

Chapter 4: Am I Not Tuned For Life's Song?

The day after Christmas, Ziva decided to have a lie in, for the first time in two months. The previous evening had exhausted her, physically and mentally, and she had barely had any sleep after her meltdown in her office. She really needed to think before being able to start her day.

She knew, when she had begun this new life, that it would be hard to move on from the old one. She had thought that the most difficult part would be to change herself, to not come back to her assassin's past, to do things differently. Weirdly, this had actually been the easiest part. Moving on from her surrogate family in D.C. however was much harder than she had expected. She had thought that her dream was strong enough to justify leaving them behind. She had thought that, since she was used to do things on her own, she would get over the heartache of the separation. She had even convinced herself that it would be better that way, because otherwise they would drag her back to her old life. Somehow, her mind had thought that her old self and the NCIS were inseparable.

She still could hear Tony begging her to let him change with her. At the time, she had trusted him to be ready to change. She knew that he was serious, that he would have done anything to be with her. However, she had not trusted herself to be strong enough not to fall back into her old ways. What if they had tried together and she had not managed to change? What if she had disappointed him? Retrospectively, she thought that she should have explained that to him. Had he known her true fears, would he have convinced her to give him a chance? But then, would she have worked so hard towards her dream?

It seemed to her that all her life she had had to choose between her dreams and other people's wishes. Her father first, who was the reason behind her career at Mossad. Ari and Gibbs, both pushing her towards NCIS in very different ways. Michael, Ray,… It was like she was forgetting her own goals if they conflicted with those of someone she loved. It was probably selfish but for the first time in her life she wanted to think about herself first and she didn't want to take the risk of changing her mind because of someone else. Even if that someone was Tony. She was protecting her dream, even if it meant crushing his.

It had worked, she admitted to herself. For the first time, she was feeling like she was accomplishing something, that her dreams were on track. Then why was she thinking about Tony more and more? Was it because now that she was sure of herself, that she knew she had changed, she didn't need to protect herself so much anymore? Was it because she could not ignore any longer that her feelings for him would never fade? Or maybe was it because she feared that he had moved on from her?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of her cell phone. Grumbling, she grabbed it from her nightstand and recognised the number of her office.

'Ziva Mizrahi.'

'Miss Mizrahi!' It was her assistant Chaviv's voice. 'I'm sorry to disturb you but you should come to the office immediately.'

'What is it Chaviv?'

'There's this man. The one you asked me to not let in. Mr Isaak. He's here, with the police. They say they want to search the office!'

'What?' she said, jumping out of her bed.

'I don't know what to do!'

'Tell them they have to wait for me!' she ordered before she hung up.

She grabbed the first outfit she found and rushed out of her bedroom, dressing up as she walked, cursing Isaak in the process. Today of all days, he had decided to follow through with his threats. She hadn't heard from him in the past weeks and had thought that he had dropped her case, but evidently he hadn't. Fully dressed, she picked up her car keys and ran down the stairs.

It only took her eight minutes to reach her office, thanks to her… personal driving style. She climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, too impatient to wait for the elevator, and arrived, a little breathless, at the reception. She reflected that she had become a little out of shape and promised herself to go back to jogging everyday. Firstly, though, she needed to deal with Isaak and the four police officers who were with him.

'What is happening in here?' she attacked immediately.

'Good morning! You have finally decided to join us today!' welcomed her Omar Isaak with a fake smile.

Ziva ignored his comment and addressed the men next to him.

'Let's go to my office, shall we?'

The officers followed her and she closed the door behind them, before sitting behind her desk.

'I am Ziva Mizrahi, founder of this organisation. How can I be of any help?

One of the officers glanced briefly at Isaak and announced, 'We are here to search these premises.'

'On what ground?'

'Terrorist activities against the State of Israel.'

'This must be a joke!' She turned to Isaak, and added, 'It's your influence!'

Isaak shook his head with a smirk. 'I have only informed my friends at the police department that maybe some people could use your… charitable efforts in a sinister way. The Commissioner agreed that some of your activities were posing questions.'

'Some people? You mean Naheem Gajani!'

'Precisely. Your project in Pakistan is a cover for his own agenda! The area is controlled by militias linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and his contacts there are, at best, friendly with them. You must know that this is borderline treason.'

'Unless you have a court-ordered warrant, you don't have my consent to search my office or disturb my employees. I'm going to ask you to leave.'

The officers looked at each other, but none of them produced a warrant so Ziva deduced that they didn't have one. There were just there to scare her. Well, too bad, she was not so easily impressed.

One by one, the officers moved towards the elevator. Isaak stayed behind, though, and closed the door to isolate them from the employees. Ziva suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

'You will not always get off that easily, Ziva… Mizrahi.'

The way he lingered on her fake last name rang alarm bells in her head. Something was wrong.

'You should leave, Mr Isaak.'

'Oh, I don't think you really want me to, not when I could tell your employees how… interesting their boss really is.'

'I don't know what you mean by that,' she pretended.

Isaak smirked and walked around the desk, stopping only when he was so close that she felt highly uncomfortable.

'Oh I think you know… It took me a while to remember but I used to be friend with Eli David. Long long time ago. Before he let his personal feelings rule Mossad.'

This time, Ziva chose to stay silent.

'You really resemble your mother, Ziva. Poor woman. Eli really treated her like dirt…'

'Shut up!' she snapped.

This time, he was going to far. She stood up, confronting him but he didn't back down, on the contrary.

'I'm not surprised that you support terrorist endeavours, given your family history. Your brother, in particular.'

'That is classified Mossad information.' The details of Ari's treason were never made public. Nobody outside Mossad knew about them.

Isaak grabbed a glass figure that she had put on her desk as decoration. He started playing with it, unnerving her even more.

'Things have changed at Mossad since your father's passing. Information gets out much more easily now, especially concerning traitors. And terrorists helpers like Naheem Gajani.'

Ziva could not understand why Isaak was so hostile to Naheem. Clearly, she didn't have all the information.

'What's really the problem here? Naheem Gajani is a respectable man who is trying to improve his country. Why are you so convinced that he's a terrorist?'

Suddenly, Isaak threw the figure against the wall. The glass exploded in thousands of pieces, startling her.

'RESPECTABLE? HE'S A MONSTER!'

'Calm down,' she tried to appease him. It didn't work. Isaak faced her, red of anger.

'I'll only calm down when Naheem Gajani is six feet under and you are with him. You've chosen his path of destruction. I will end him. I will end you both.'

She couldn't help but shiver at the tone he had used. His eyes looked like those of a rabid beast. He was dangerous, she understood. Deadly dangerous.

'We will see each other again!' he added.

He stared at her a few more seconds before storming out of her office, slamming the door behind him so hard that the walls shook. Ziva heard him shout at one of her employees who was in the way, then heard the bell of the elevator, then it was finally silent. Only then she allowed herself to release the grip on the knife she held hidden underneath her desk.

That was a habit she had not got rid of from her old life. She was not carrying a gun anymore, but nothing could separate her from her knife. It was like an extension of herself, an extra limb in case things got out of hand. Today she had the proof that her precaution was not in vain.

Omar Isaak was not going to stop there, she was sure of it.

'Chaviv!' she called.

Her assistant opened the door carefully. She could see that he had heard the outburst of Isaak, as his face reflected many questions.

'I need you to look up security firms in the area and draft me a budget for their services. From now on, we will have security guards protecting these offices 24/7.'

'Should I be worried?'

She didn't want to scare him but she didn't want to lie either. If Isaak was coming after her, there might be collateral damages.

'I don't know, Chaviv. I don't know.'

—

The morning after Christmas day, Tim McGee woke up to a lovely smell of bacon and coffee. He smiled, his head still buried in his pillow, while a tray was delicately put in front of him. Delilah hadn't lied when she had promised him a breakfast in bed last night. She had seen how troubled he had been when he had come back from the office and she had done everything she could to make him feel better.

'I'm the luckiest man alive,' he said, as she came back and sat next to him with her own tray.

She kissed him lightly and grabbed her own cup of coffee. 'Are you going to work today then?'

He shrugged. 'I'm honestly not sure. Gibbs told us to take the day off, that he needed to speak with Vance before we could investigate the case but I don't think he intends on letting us work it. When Abby said that our victim was linked to Parsa, he turned as white as a ghost.'

Last night, Tim had been so upset about the whole thing that he had for the first time ignored all safety protocols and told Delilah what tormented him. Everything. The bomb in Tony's car, the one in Bell's, the threats from Parsa, Vance shutting them off the case, Gibbs and Tony's constant bickering. In the past two months, he had tried to spare her the details of how bad things were at NCIS, but last night he had just had enough.

'He probably thinks that it will put you all in danger,' she supposed.

'At this point, I'm not even sure we can avoid it. This corpse literally fell onto our laps. We can't simply dump it to Metro Police.'

'Don't you think that Gibbs has a plan? He seems to always have one.'

Tim considered the idea carefully. Gibbs always had a plan, that much was true, but this time he was not sure that was enough. With Ziva gone and Tony at odds with him, maybe Gibbs didn't have the resources to outmanoeuvre a dangerous terrorist like Parsa.

'I don't know if Gibbs can do it, this time. In any case, he will need all the help he can get.'

'Tim, I know you. You worry about everyone before yourself. What if Parsa comes after you this time?'

That was one thing he refused: he didn't want to live in fear. But he realised that if Parsa were to place a bomb in his car, Delilah could be caught in the explosion. A cold sweat went down his back as he imagined the woman for whom he had so strong feelings being injured because of him.

'We don't have any guarantee that Parsa is not going to come after us one day. Maybe the only way to be safe is to neutralise him.'

'Maybe…'

She didn't seem convinced, but she didn't counter. Tim suddenly remembered something. During his call to MTAC, Parsa had specifically asked that no other agency was made aware of their agreement.

'Could you dig up things about Parsa?' he asked so suddenly that she almost spilled her coffee on the sheets.

'What?'

'I know you are not allowed to share specifics, but maybe the Department of Defence has more intel than what we had from Homeland. At least, if there is something that could help us better know what we're up against, could you tell me?'

'I'll see what I can find,' she reluctantly agreed.

He put his empty tray on the floor and piled hers on it, then took her into his arms to kiss her passionately. For a few minutes, they both stopped thinking about NCIS, Parsa or the Defence.

'So,' said Delilah when they took a breath, 'if you are not going to work today, then what will you do?'

'Oh I think I know one thing or two that could keep me busy… most of them include staying in bed.'

She laughed. 'That sounds tempting.'

'Then I could cook… and maybe write a little. That would be the perfect day.'

She hugged him tightly. He breathed her hair, her skin, appreciating her smell, getting drunk of it.

'Tim?' she whispered against his neck.

'Mmm…'

'Have a good day at work.'

It was true. She knew him very well.

—

Tony hadn't managed to catch any sleep last night. He had given his bed to Senior, as usual, and had spent the whole time tossing and turning on the couch. This morning, huge bags under his eyes were signs of his restlessness. He had accompanied Senior to the airport very early, then had thought briefly about going back to his flat to try to get a little shuteye but had found himself on the way to the Navy Yard.

Gibbs had specifically ordered them to stay at home, to "catch up" on Christmas but Tony couldn't care less about the holidays. He had a terrorist to catch, no matter what his boss or even the Director had to say. He parked, ignoring the scorch marks that were still staining the ground two months after the explosion and that would require a full remake of the concrete to disappear, and strode towards the entrance.

The security agent at the door eyed him curiously and greeted him with a 'No rest for the wicked, Agent DiNozzo?'

Tony simply nodded and walked in the elevator. The bullpen was completely empty when he arrived on the third floor, which was not surprising considering that it was the day after Christmas and it was only seven in the morning. It felt strange to hear no noise in the room usually full of activity and phones ringing. He dropped his bag on his desk and sat down, thinking about catching up on emails first. A few minutes later, he heard the bell of the elevator and tensed immediately, expecting Gibbs to come out. After their last argument, it was not such a good idea to be alone in the office with him. He could pretend that he was catching up on paperwork but Gibbs would probably not believe him. Fortunately, he recognised the footstep of McGee before he even saw his colleague.

'Good morning, McEarlyBird!'

'Morning Tony,' replied McGee with a yawn.

'I thought you would stay at home and enjoy the delightful presence of… what's her name again?'

Tony knew perfectly well Tim's girlfriend's name but since he had never met her, he enjoyed teasing McGee.

'Delilah.'

'Oh yes, Delilah! When am I going to meet this special lady of yours?'

'Never, if you keep making jokes about her!'

Tony snickered. McGee had actually suggested they had diner with Delilah several times, but Tony had always declined. He didn't feel like spending an entire evening with a loving couple at the moment. He thought briefly that if Ziva had stayed in DC, they could have double dated with them, but he pushed back the painful thought to the back of his mind. Today was not the time for a sad session of what-ifs.

'Why are you here so early?' asked Tony, changing the subject.

Tim shrugged. 'Just some paperwork to catch up. Maybe some research.'

Tony understood that he was not the only one disregarding Gibbs' orders. 'Research on the Brotherhood of Doubt?'

McGee stared at him, looking like he was deciding whether or not to tell him the truth. 'Maybe…'

'Good!' approved Tony. 'The more information we get about them, the quicker we can destroy Parsa.'

'Even though Gibbs said not to get involved?'

'What Gibbs doesn't know cannot hurt him!'

Tony doubted that they could keep their research hidden from the boss very long, but at least they could learn something useful in the meantime. The elevator bell rang once again, and they both turned their heads to see Alex coming into the bullpen. She stopped when she saw them looking at her.

'I had some… paperwork to do?'

—

Jethro was enjoying a warm coffee on this freezing morning in the park of the National WWII Memorial. Snow had covered grass and stones, but he had found a bench that was partially protected from the elements where he could sit. Waiting had never been his strong suit but today he appreciated the quiet of his surroundings. He took a comforting sip and hoped that the caffeine would keep him sharp for the rest of the day despite the lack of sleep.

Last night, he had been more terrified than he had felt in a long time. Since Kate's murder, in fact. He knew that as team leader he should keep his feelings for his team locked away but he couldn't completely shut the thought that someone was threatening his children. Seeing that, in spite of his attempts to keep them safe from Parsa, they were all in danger because of their new case had made him feel old and useless. He had had a brief phone conversation with Leon, who was spending Christmas in Aspen with Jared and Kayla, but it hadn't put his mind at rest. Vance had told him to stand down, let a few days pass, and wait to see what Parsa was going to do. Jethro had asked his team the follow this order and sit out this day but he couldn't just wait and see. He had to do something.

A dark silhouette entered his field of vision and Jethro recognised him immediately. 'Tobias,' he greeted him.

'Can you tell me why I had to come freeze my balls here instead of meeting at your office?'

Tobias had never been a morning person. Silently, Jethro held him the second cup of coffee, milk — no sugar, and waved him to sit down next to him.

'How is Diane?' Jethro asked. A few weeks ago, Tobias had told him that he and his ex-wife were talking again. Which, in Diane's world, meant that they were practically almost remarried.

'She told me to tell you to piss off. You're ruining her perfect holidays.'

Jethro smiled. Diane would always be Diane. 'Give her my best too.'

'Are you going to tell me why we're here?'

Jethro took another sip and told his friend about the bomb in Tony's car and Parsa's call to MTAC. He had tried to find more information on the terrorist, but his results were disappointing. Finally, he told him about the latest victim and his connexion to the Brotherhood of Doubt. When he finished, Tobias stood up angrily.

'And why exactly am I hearing this only now?'

'One of Parsa's terms was to keep everything from other agencies. Including the FBI.'

'But why?'

Jethro had asked himself the same question. He didn't think that Parsa was scared of having more agencies looking out for him. If the CIA and Homeland had never been able to find him, they were not likely to do it now. He thought that it was a way for the terrorist to keep it personal. It was the NCIS against him, because it was the NCIS that had stopped one of his most dangerous followers: Mendes. In the disturbed mind of Parsa, no one was allowed to interfere between them. Well, Gibbs was not going to play by these insane rules anymore.

'The question is not why, but what we can do about this. He's going to learn sooner or later that we have the body of one of his followers in our morgue. And I don't think he's going to be pleased about it.'

'Do you know who did it?'

'Not yet.'

Gibbs had many hypothesis but nothing solid. Maybe this murder had nothing to do with their current situation. Or maybe someone had decided to fly solo and flush out what was left of the Brotherhood of Doubt. In any case, he needed Fornell's help.

'I need a FBI protection on my team.'

Tobias choked on his coffee. 'Do you realise what you're asking? How many agents I'm gonna have to mobilise?'

'Yes, I know.'

Jethro knew that Fornell liked his team too. He would not let them be harmed. Indeed, Tobias sighed and agreed.

'For how long?'

'Until Parsa is dead.'

And Jethro was decided to see that day coming sooner rather than later.

—

Abby had always loved Christmas, but this year she felt that Christmas had taken a leave of absence. First, Ziva was not here and it weighted hard on her. In the course of her years in the team, they had become very close friends and she missed her dearly. She couldn't even be angry at Ziva for staying in Israel because she had witnessed how lost and sad she had been after her dad's death. Somehow, Abby had known that Ziva needed a new start. Of course, she had cried when Tony had passed on Ziva's words for her, but she had understood. It didn't change the fact that Abby was missing her now more than ever.

Then, there was this constant tension between two of the men she loved the most in the world. It had become so awkward to be in the same room as Tony and Gibbs that there had not even been any attempt at spending Christmas - or Thanksgiving for that matter - together. She had missed her friends when she had opened her gifts with her two brothers. It had been great to spend some time with Luca and Kyle, and she had visited the Palmer's who were busy painting their future baby's nursery, but it hadn't been the same.

Finally, she couldn't help but feel like the team had welcomed a stranger in its heart. Abby knew that her eerie feelings towards Agent Bell were based on nothing concrete, but she could not help disliking her. There was something about the agent that Abby couldn't quite wrap her head around. She just could not trust her. It reminded her of the first months of Ziva in the team. She didn't like her too at the beginning, and it had taken a lot to bring them closer. Maybe that was going to happen with Bell? She knew she had no reason to be defiant of her, so maybe this bad feeling she had every time Bell was in the room would fade out eventually. After all, it had also taken time for her to appreciate Delilah, but she now thought that Tim had chosen the perfect woman to love.

Yes, she decided as she entered her lab, she would make an effort to appreciate Bell more. After all she might need her for her secret project.

She switched on her computers and wished a good morning to Major Spectrometer, then headed to the fridge from which she took one eggnog Caf-Pow. Gibbs' gift was very appreciated, especially on this early morning. She wondered if she was the only one who had disobeyed and come to work today. She remembered Tony's look as he had left the building. Probably not. She grabbed the remote of her stereo and soon her favourite techno carroll resonated in the room. Much much better.

She typed on her keyboard and images of a burnt out car appeared. She had examined these photos thousands of times but maybe today she would notice something new. There had to be something in Tony's old car that would give them a serious lead on Parsa and she was going to find it, no matter how many times she had to look at pictures of the wreckage.

Gibbs would be extremely angry at her if he knew that she had kept a copy of these pictures. McGee had told her about Parsa's call to MTAC and shortly after, Director Vance had demanded that she handed over all the evidence. She had barely had time to make a copy of the photos and the lab results.

Abby knew that she was playing with fire but she also knew what Ducky had said about Benham Parsa: he was not likely to stop attacking them. It was not in his psychology to spare lives when he could easily kill all of them. There was every chance that it was just a respite before a bigger attack. By then, all she could find would be useful.

Because of the music, she didn't hear the elevator doors open and close, and she was startled when a voice rose behind her.

'What is that, Abby?'

She turned and pulled a face. At least it was not Gibbs, but it was the second worst. 'Hi Tony,' she said while quickly closing the pictures. 'It's nothing. Old case. Just keeping busy while I wait for Major Spec to give me more results on a case that Agent Callen asked me to have a look at.'

This was technically true, since Abby didn't like lying. Agent Callen had indeed asked her to analyse a hair sample that was causing his technicians some problems, but he had said that it could wait until January, as it was just another evidence in a trial that had plenty of them already.

'It's a little early for L.A., don't you think?' said Tony, not so easily fooled.

She bit her lower lip to prevent herself from replying.

'Come on, Abbs. I can recognise my own car, even burnt out. Why are you looking at those pictures? And how did you get them? I thought Vance had confiscated everything.'

'Maybe I made a copy,' she said with a small voice.

Tony stared at her with a disapproving look that was so Gibbs-like that she couldn't help but smiling.

'It's dangerous, Abby!'

She brought back the pictures of the burnt car on the main screen. 'Trust me, I've been watching these for the past two months. I know.'

'I don't want it to happen to you,' said Tony with a mellower voice.

'It won't. I check my car every time before using it.'

'I do too,' he confessed.

'He won't get us that way at least,' she pledged, 'but there are many other ways to get to us, so I want to be prepared.'

'Is that why you're here today? To study Parsa's operational mode? I thought… I thought that if someone was going to comply with Gibbs' order, it would be you. I actually didn't expect you to be in your lab.'

'Gibbs only wants to protect us, you know. But who's going to protect Gibbs?'

Tony didn't reply to that but she guessed that he was thinking about his many disagreements with the boss. She knew that despite that, he didn't want Gibbs to be hurt.

'Wait, if you didn't know that I was going to be in my lab, then why are you here?'

'I was trying to escape. Gibbs arrived half an hour ago. He's not very happy to see that we are all here today against his order. He's making us do paperwork.'

'What, McGee and Bell are here too?' she said, surprised.

'Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that Ducky and Palmer are downstairs.'

Then Gibbs was probably furious indeed. She decided that it would be best for her to stay in her lab for the whole day, trying to avoid the storm, even thought she knew that Gibbs was probably aware of her presence. He always knew when she was there.

The elevator doors opened and Abby was sure that Gibbs was coming to the lab to chastise her. However, she saw McGee and Bell appearing.

'Hey, Abby, didn't know you were here!' McGee said with a smile.

Abby repressed a wince when she greeted him and Bell, remembering her good resolution of trying to be friendly with the new Probie.

'Gibbs is in MTAC. I think he's speaking with Vance,' announced Bell.

'Why are you here, Abby?' asked Tim.

Abby opened her mouth to repeat everything she had explained before but Tony spoke first. 'She's in.'

That made her frown. 'In what?'

'In our Rebel Alliance!' announced a smiling Tony while the other two rolled their eyes. 'I chose the name.'

'This is not at all like that,' explained Tim. 'We just think that we cannot continue ignoring Parsa's threats. So we are going to discretely gather information about him.'

'By discretely, you mean without telling Gibbs?'

'And Vance,' confirmed Bell. 'Until we find something useful about Parsa.'

Immediately, Abby knew it was wrong. It was one thing to look at old pictures without Gibbs knowing, it was something entirely different to investigate actively. Every time an agent had played solo, it had ended up in blood.

'It's such a bad idea that I don't know where to start! I'm not gonna lie to Gibbs!'

'We don't ask you to lie Abby,' said McGee. 'Just to leave us some time to show something substantial to Gibbs. He doesn't want us to go after Parsa because we don't know anything about him or his organisation. We want to learn more, that's it.'

'Exactly what you were doing with the pictures of the bomb in my car!' added Tony.

Bell had a strange look for one second. 'I didn't know you still had those pictures!'

Abby didn't reply and turned to Tony. 'This is not the same. You could put yourselves in danger!'

'We're not going to interview people, if that's what makes you worried. We'll just… dig. Nothing more.'

She still didn't like it but she could see that she was not going to change their minds. She still thought that it was a very bad idea but she decided to let them investigate and tell Gibbs if things got out of hand.

'Fine,' she sighed, 'but cover your tracks! Nobody must know what you are doing.'

The three agents nodded. She didn't feel relaxed, but at least they were not going to do anything inconsiderate. As they left her lab, she wished very hard that Benham Parsa never learned what had been said in there.

—

Alex Bell had barely arrived at home that her phone received a text with the new encryption code for her video call with Benham. Communicating with him had become increasingly dangerous, now that the team was investigating him and that he was taking so many risks.

She switched on her laptop and connected to the video chat, entering the code she had just received. It took a few minutes and several re-routing through different proxy servers, but the call finally reached him.

'Annie,' he greeted her.

It was so good to hear his voice. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then replied, 'I missed you. Where are you now?'

'Not far.'

He looked thinner. His hair was longer and he hadn't shaved in a while. 'Are you OK?' She couldn't help but worry about him all the time.

'Yes,' he said impatiently. 'How are things going?'

She tried to hide her disappointment. She knew that Benham didn't like to be mothered, but sometimes she wished that he accepted more that she needed to take care of him.

'Tony and the others have started poking around. They still need a little convincing, but I'm sure I can get them to find what we are looking for.'

'Do you think they could access what we need in the MTAC server?'

Alex had already tried it herself but, even if she had been granted access to the room itself, she was not expected to use any computer there. She doubted that the opportunity would come in the future, especially considering that everything was password-locked anyway.

'No, only Gibbs and Vance have the authorisation codes. McGee is a decent hacker but he would not do it without a good reason.'

'So we follow the plan then.'

She nodded. 'We follow the plan.'

—

Ziva hadn't stopped shaking since Isaak had left her office. Through her closed door, she could feel that the atmosphere in the open space was tense. She had heard her employees go home one by one, exchanging worried goodbyes, and she had not had the strength to face them. She had barely managed to smile at Chaviv when he had brought a folder with quotes from various security firms, before going home himself.

She couldn't stop thinking about what Isaak had told her. Naheem, a monster? That seemed impossible. The man radiated goodness and peace. And he was friend with Schmeil, the best judge of character that she had ever met. He could not be that bad, that wasn't possible.

She considered calling Schmeil to tell him the whole story but she knew that at this time of the day in D.C. he was probably teaching. She also didn't want to worry him, as he was capable of dropping everything to come back to Israel. Plus, he probably didn't know anything negative about Naheem, otherwise he would never have introduced them.

No, she decided, if she wanted the truth about Naheem, she had to ask him directly.

She clicked on the Skype icon on her computer and saw that Naheem was connected, as usual. He had been really easy to reach outside his teaching hours, and had always been available every time she had a question about their project. Nervous, she clicked on his name to call him. It took a couple of rings before he replied.

'Hello Ziva! How are you?'

Most of the time, they didn't use the video mode of the call. Ziva didn't like it, she felt it was intrusive. Today, she felt relieved that Naheem couldn't see how troubled she was.

'I'm OK Naheem. I'm sorry to bother you, you must be busy.'

'Nonsense! I'm always happy to talk to you! And I'm sure you have good news from yesterday's event.'

Somewhere on her desk was a folder with total figures from the fundraiser but she hadn't even looked at them yet, too preoccupied.

'Well, yesterday was a success, but it is not why I'm calling you…'

Naheem probably realised that her tone was serious because he asked, 'What is it?'

She took a deep breath. 'Do you know a man named Omar Isaak?'

There was a silence on the other side of the line, then Naheem said, 'Ziva, can we use the camera please? I need to tell you something, and I need you to be able to see that I'm telling the truth.'

Oh. That didn't sound good. 'Sure, no problem,' she replied, and weakly smiled at him when he appeared on her screen.

'What did Omar Isaak tell you about me?'

She hesitated. 'He said… he said that you were a monster.'

Naheem sighed. 'I never told you why I started this project in the first place. I haven't even told Schmeil. Not a lot of people know about this and I would appreciate that you keep it to yourself.'

'OK…'

'A long time ago, I had a family. A wife, a son. But I wasn't a great father. I was obsessed with my career, I was traveling a lot. Not very present or aware of their needs, you see?'

Ziva nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about. It was a good summary of the relationship she had had with her own father.

'Finally, my wife had enough and we separated. We were still married, but she went back to her old village near the Afghan border with my son, Tariq. He was ten. There, he fell under bad influences. Very bad ones.'

'Taliban?'

'Yes. They were not united under Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan yet but they were already very friendly with al-Quaeda. He became one of their best recruits. Until that day when they gave him his ultimate mission: die as martyr while taking as many infidels as possible.'

'Oh… my god… Naheem…'

Ziva didn't want to hear it anymore, because she knew exactly where this was going.

'He rigged a car and drove it to the US consulate in Karachi. There was a big UN meeting happening at the time, with guests from everywhere in the world. Noor Isaak was amongst them.'

'Omar's… wife?'

'Yes. She was originally from Islamabad before marrying him, and she was an interpreter for the UN. She was the love of his life. And Tariq took her from him, along with a dozen more people. All that because I had not been there, all that because Tariq had no one to take care of him but the Taliban. Omar Isaak is right. I am a monster.'

Ziva could hear the sobs in his throat and she could read the agony in his eyes. Suddenly, she understood why the project was so important in his eyes. He could not undo what his son had done, the same way Ziva could not do anything about Ari's victims. The only way both of them could move on was to try to prevent it from happening to other people.

'You are not a monster,' she said, her own eyes filling with tears.

'That's really nice of you to say that, but I don't think you can understand. I accept that I'm responsible. And I accept that Isaak is never going to rest until I'm dead. I just don't want you to be in the crossfire.'

'On the contrary. I'm probably understanding it more than many people…'

She could not hold the tears anymore.

'Ziva, what do you mean?'

Naheem had been honest with her, it was time she was entirely honest with him.

'Long time ago, I had a brother named Ari…'

—

When he came home that night, Tim was so exhausted that he planned on skipping dinner and jumping straight to bed. However he heard the sound of the TV through the door and knew that Delilah was there. As soon as he opened the door, the wonderful smell of brisket and mash invaded him, and he realised that even tired, he was very hungry.

'Hey,' she said as she walked towards him and placed a light kiss on his lips. 'You must be tired. I thought you'd like a nice warm meal after today.'

He deepened the kiss and murmured against her, 'You thought well.'

She lead him to the kitchen and, as he sat down, she put a full plate in front of him.

'Did I say that I'm the luckiest man alive?' said Tim, his mouth full. Delilah was an excellent cook and tonight was no exception.

'One or two hundred times.'

She let him eat in silence for a few minutes, then said, 'By the way, I'm not really here for that.'

'Hum?' he asked, inelegantly.

'I did some digging about Benham Parsa.'

She had now all his attention. He put the fork and knife back next to his almost empty plate and listened carefully, as she continued.

'The Department of Defence doesn't have much on him, at least not more than what Homeland already gave you. But I have found something strange. Every time Benham Parsa is linked to a case, there's something - someone in common.'

'Someone in common? Like an accomplice?'

'No, more like the opposite. Apparently, NCIS is not the first agency that Parsa has targeted. She's a NSA analyst and she has studied him for years. Apparently, she's the specialist when in comes to Parsa.'

'Really? Who is she?'

'Her name is Eleanor Bishop.'

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next time, you guessed it, we'll meet Eleanor Bishop! I haven't watched many episodes with her but I liked her a lot, so I hope I'll do her justice. In the meantime, comments are always very much appreciated!

Loufoca