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Long chapter but worth it ... I think.

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Chapter XXIV - I'm Up!


Earlier That Day : 0700 Hours

Torres sat with Amadi, Benjamin, and Johanson in one of the rooms at the warehouse that held Tali. "We are going to need to move the girl soon. Mamabear is getting extremely suspicious of me and, unfortunately, Papabear survived the bombing at the safehouse."

"Well isn't that lovely", Johanson said sarcastically. "I told you to let me go in and set up the bombs. This inside agent of yours is an amateur Mr. Amadi."

"Hey fuck you! I did exactly what you told me to do! Not my fault if your product didn't do the damn job! And I'm not the one that was dumb enough to leave blood at the DiNozzo house and get implicated in this shit so who's the amateur", Torres fired back.

"Gentleman, gentleman", Amadi spoke calmly, "there is no room to turn on each other now. I have waited years for this and I have taken into consideration that there might be a few mishaps along the way. Trust me, I have it covered."

Benjamin looked at him curiously, "so what do we do now? NCIS is now following him so there's no way we can just switch locations. Hell, how do we know they didn't follow him here. He could of led them right to us."

"That's very true", Amadi agreed.

"Look", Torres defended himself, "I made sure I broke from that protection detail without them knowing anything. Anything linking me to here is locked up in my desk at NCIS."

"Are you fucking mental", Johnson yelled. "Why the hell would you keep that shit in your fucking desk?"

"Because it's the last place anyone would expect me hide something. Completely in plain sight, it's perfect. So just chill! There's no way for them to track me right now whatsoever. We're good ... we just need a plan because once I go back to headquarters, I know for sure that Ziva DiNozzo is going to question me heavy."

"Well then, here's what I propose, you give her Mr. Johanson's hideaway as a cover for where the girl is and then ..."

"Wait, what", Johanson interrupted. "Why do I have to lose my place just because this douchebag fucked up!?"

Amadi cleared his throat then continued, "because I'm the one paying all of you and, so far, none of you have proven to be worth what I've paid. Now, as I was saying, Agent Torres here will give them the location of the other warehouse and then you, Mr. Johanson, will blow it up after the NCIS agents are inside. I'm sure Agent DiNozzo will be there so this is your shot to take her out for locking up your brother."

"Yeah, but what about all the stuff in there? They can scan for it before entering", Benjamin asked.

"We use the same jammers as before with the dummy location that Hunter Amadi was in. NCIS hasn't figured out a way to remotely deactivate them yet, so they'll basically go in blind. As long as Ziva doesn't see the original blueprints of the place, she'll go right in without question. I can make sure she gets the blueprints that don't show the basement. It will be easy. Plus, the chick is slightly off her game between her daughter and her husband, so we play it to our advantage", Torres informed.

Amadi smiled, "then it's settled, it will buy us another day or two before we have to move the girl and give us time to setup the final target. They'll be too caught up in dealing with the aftermath of the explosion that no one will be looking for anything else. So, let's make it happen gentlemen!"


.


Present Time : 1900 Hours

It was almost quiet as the world seemed to stop spinning and darkness fell. The only noises to be heard as Ziva got out the car was that of the wind whistling and the rain falling. A calm washed over her while she stood under the pouring rain and a familiar feeling crept up her spine.

Tali is here.

She looked up at where the second warehouse stood. The building looked dark and uninhabited. It looked more abandoned and run down than all the other places they'd been to search for Tali. By looking at it, there would be no way anyone was inside but Ziva knew.

Tali is definitely here.

There was no need to talk as all instructions were laid out before arrival. The second car had gone ahead of them, as planned, to cover the back of the building. From her car— Ziva, McGee, the agent from Homeland, and a member of the extraction team walked up to the front of the building.

"We're in position Agent DiNozzo", said one of the other extraction team members over the radio.

Ziva looked at McGee as they got in position. He nodded that he was ready.

Ima's coming motek.

She lifted her hand to cut on her mic and spoke, "this is it boys, 3 - 2 - 1 - GO!"


.


Bishop cautiously walked next to the tree line behind the other warehouse trying to find any clues concerning the bombing. Given the priliminary trajectory readings of the blast, she figured it might be worth a shot to look around closer to the trees. She stopped as something caught her eye in the tall grass that surrounded the same tree that Ziva had pointed to when they first arrived on the scene.

"Ziva was right", Bishop said absently.

The other agent walking with her looked at her quizzically. "Huh?"

She shook her head, "Ziva ... she said that there was something over here before and I told her it was probably a deer ... I was wrong, look." Bishop pointed down towards the metal object on the ground.

"That looks like a remote trigger", the agent said as he walked over to take a picture and collect it for evidence.

"Yeah, which means there wasn't a deer over here but a person. I should have pushed her to trust her instincts and not brush them off. Had I done that, we wouldn't have lost four agents and the others wouldn't be fighting for their lives right now. This is basically my fault."

The agent finished bagging the trigger and stood up, "I'm sure Agent DiNozzo isn't going to blame you Agent Bishop. None of us could have known this was going to happen. We went in blind."

"But Ziva knew something was off and she was right. There had to be someone here watching us, waiting for us to storm the building. My guess would be that it was Marko Johanson."

"Why him? And how would he know we were coming?"

"I spoke to his brother in prinson today, Deeter Johanson. The guy basically gloated about how he had taught his little brother to build bombs early on in life. Then he mentioned something about loving the forest. I should have put it together sooner. As for how Marko would have know about us being here, I don't know. Unfortunately, I'm betting on my old partner finding a way to contact him to tell him we were coming."

"Well, I don't really know what to say to that but you have to think positive considering everything. I mean, it could of been worse."

She sighed then turned to point at the side of the building that took the brunt of the blast, "what could be worse than that?'

The agent shrugged, "Could of been the entire warehouse."


.


"Can't believe I had to blow my place up", Johanson shook his head and he walked in behind Benjamin and Amadi. He looked down at Tali knocked out on the floor. "She had better been worth me losing that prime location."

"Oh trust me, Mr. Johanson, she is", Amadi chuckled as he turned to face him. "So, how long ago did the bomb go off? I'd like to watch the news and find out the casualties."

"Thirty minutes ago. I got out of there as quick as I could before any first responders got to the scene. The blast was bigger than I thought it would be, damn this was beautiful to watch. Shouldn't be long now before it's on the breaking news report", he smirked. "Just wish all those bastards were inside. I know for sure I got the girl's mum though."

"No worries", Benjamin chimed in, "when we take down NCIS you'll get them all."

All three men laughed and looked back at Tali's limp body before moving to exit the room. Their laugh fest was cut short, however, when gunshots could be heard on the other side of the door.

"What the fuck is that", Johanson asked looking at Benjamin.

Amadi shook his head, "go get your goons in order Mr. Benjamin! That's the second time today that those imbeciles have decided to use that vacant room as a shooting range!"

"Those aren't my guys", Benjamin confessed in a panic as he closed the door back after peaking out into the hall. "It's the fucking ..."

"FEDERAL AGENTS! EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND NOW", an extraction team agent shouted as he entered the room with the other four agents that had come along with McGee and Ziva.

The last two remaining men from Benjamin's crew drew their weapons and stood beside the terrorist trio. Benjamin and Johanson also had guns drawn. Amadi stood behind them, but in front of where Tali was laying on the floor.

It was a stand-off. Everyone froze as silence blanketed the room. It wasn't long though, before the silence was broken by the sound of two gunshots going off in unison from the other side of the room. A hidden access door had allowed Ziva and McGee to creep into the room from behind and take out the last of Benjamin's men with perfect headshots.

"Drop your weapons", McGee demanded as the three men turned around. "NOW!"

Amadi knelt down towards Tali and Ziva stepped closer, "touch her and my next bullet gets buried in your skull. My husband isn't here to save you now, and all things considering, I'm pretty sure he'd love for me to take the shot" Her voice was even and calm. There was an eeriness, however, in her tone that almost made the man tremble.

He nodded and glanced back at Johanson and Benjamin who still held their stance with their weapons. "Do as they say, lower your weapons gentlemen."

"No fuck that bitch", Johanson yelled. "I don't know how the fuck you escaped my bomb, but you ain't escaping this ro ..."

Before he could finish, Ziva took the shot and everyone watched as his lifeless body instantly dropped to the floor. With that distraction, two men from extraction tackled Benjamin and disarmed him before putting him in cuffs. The other agents pushed Amadi all the way to the ground and cuffed him as well.

"Get those two out of here", McGee ordered before taking out his cell to call Bishop for backup at their location. He requested she get an ambulance to follow as well for Tali and Ziva. When he hung up, he looked down at Ziva who had finally broken out of her old self and was holding Tali tightly, rocking her back and forth with tears streaming down her face.

"Ima is here motek. I'm right here. I got you baby girl, it's all over now. I promise."

McGee walked back over to her. "Is she ...", he couldn't bring himself to ask the question.

Ziva looked up and smiled through her tears, "she's alive Tim. My baby is alive!"

He let out an overdue sigh of relief, "oh thank God!"

"I think she's just knocked out, but her pulse is good and her heart beat is strong." She looked over at the blood pool around Johanson's head. "Please, help me get my angel out of here. I don't want her to wake up again inside this hellhole."


.


Three Hours Later : 2200 Hours

Ziva and Anthony sat in between Tony and Tali as they laid sleeping in their hospital beds. Somehow, Gibbs had pulled some crazy strings to break hospital protocol and have the father and daughter put into the same room so the family could be together.

Gibbs, Bishop, Abby, Palmer, and McGee had all stopped by shortly after Ziva had finished getting checked by Dr. Copeland. Apart from a minor concussion and some cuts and bruises, she was perfectly fine. A miracle in itself given the fact that she was so close to the blast radius. She had made a mental note to go see Agent Holmes later and thank him. Had it not been for him standing in front of her, things would have been a lot worse.

For now, she was just focused on being with her family. Most importantly, preparing for Tali and Tony to regain consciousness.

Please come back soon.

Part of her was nervous as she knew it was possible Tony would have memory loss. It could definitely put stress on all of them depending on exactly how much he'd forgotten. She also worried about how the drugs in Tali's system would affect her in the hours to come. Dr. Copeland had made it clear that the teen's system could go into shock at some point, just like Hunter's had, but they would monitor her closely for the next few days.

Just fight through it.

Despite it all though, Ziva was just grateful that the nightmare was done. The DiNozzo's had survived the worst.

It's all over now.

"Ima?" Anthony's soft voice drew Ziva from her thoughts.

"Yes my little lamb", she looked towards him as he pointed down to his hand holding Tali's hand.

"Tal just moved", his eyes got wide as he watched his big sister's hand squeeze his again.

Ziva jumped up from her seat and started stroking Tali's head as she spoke closely into her ear, "Motek, can you hear me? You are safe now. Ima is here and so is abba and Anthony. My sweet angel, if you can hear me, please squeeze your brother's hand again."

The room was quiet for a moment except for the sounds of the monitors and machines beeping. Ziva and Anthony both stared at Tali's hand in anticipation. Time seemed to go slower as they waited. After a minute that seemed more like an hour ...

"She did it! She squeezed my hand! She can hear you Ima!" Anthony couldn't hide his excitement.

"Tali, baby, listen to me. I need you to open your eyes, okay? We need you to fully come back to us. I promise, you're safe now", Ziva paused to kiss Tali's forehead softly. "Please, motek, come back. Just listen to my voice and open your eyes."

"Come on Tal, you got this", Anthony encouraged.

A lone tear forced itself out of Tali's closed eyes as she fought to open them. Ziva quickly wiped it away and kissed her daughter's forehead again, "it's okay Tali, Ima is right here motek. You're doing good, just open your eyes all the way babygirl. Come back to us."

The soothing sound of her mother's voice finally broke through completely as Tali's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at her. "Ima", she choked out as the tears came in full force.

Ziva matched her daughter's tears as she gently pulled her into a hug. "Shhh, it's okay baby. I promise, you are safe now. No one else can hurt you again."

Anthony continued to hold Tali's hand and smiled as they locked eyes, "welcome back Tal! I missed you're annoying face."

She couldn't help but chuckle, "I missed you too twerp." Tali squeezed his hand again then looked back up at Ziva. An immediate sadness washed over her and she looked away.

Ziva noticed the change in her eyes and needed to know what was wrong. "Anthony, please go see if Dr. Copeland is in her office and tell her that Tali is awake. If you can't find her, then bring a nurse back with you."

"I'm on it", he squeezed Tali's hand once more and then gently sat it down before exiting to find Dr. Copeland.

"Tali", Ziva lightly placed her hand on the teen's face and turned it so that their eyes could meet. "I know a lot has happened, but it's not good to hold it in. Your healing begins now. I need you to tell me what is wrong so we can help you. Are you in pain?"

"A little, but I'm fine."

Ziva shook her head, "I used to tell your father that lie all the time. He always saw right through it." At the mention of her father, Tali started crying hysterically. It took Ziva by surprise but she immediately held her tighter. "Motek, what is it?"

"I know already Ima ... I know about abba ... about the bomb ... I'm so sorry."

"Oh my sweet child, there is nothing to be sorry about. Your father will be okay."

What? Tali's head shot up and her confusion was evident, "how can he be okay if he's dead!?"

Taken aback by the comment and the elevation in Tali's voice, Ziva sighed deeply and moved so that she was no longer blocking Tali's view. "Tali, your father survived the bomb. He's not dead, he's right there baby."

Her eyes followed the direction in which Ziva was looking. Suddenly she sprang up from the bed and ran to her father's side, completely disregarding that her IV had ripped out of her arm. "ABBA! OH GOD ABBA!"

Ziva quickly went to her and rubbed her back as she leaned on Tony. "Tali", she said softly, "You can't be out of bed sweetheart. We need to get you back in bed and your IV needs to be put back in. Abba is still unconscious. He might be for another few days."

"No", Tali yelled. "Please Ima, if I heard you then maybe he can hear me! I need him to wake up! I need to hear his voice! They told me he was dead!"

"Sssshhhhh, baby, you have seen for yourself that he is alive. He will comeback when he is ready. Right now, you need to rest and get checked out again."

"Your mother is right Tali", Dr. Copeland spoke as she entered the room with Anthony following behind her. "You need to get back in bed. You're actually bleeding on top of your father's bandages. I need to get you both cleaned up again"

"Who is she", Tali asked as she looked down and realized she was in fact bleeding on one of Tony's bandages.

"This is Dr. Copeland", Ziva explained, "she's been taking care of your father and she will take care of you too. Come on, let's get you back in bed."

Tali reluctantly agreed and allowed Ziva to help her climb into bed then let the doctor do a quick checkup and replace her IV. Anthony went in hall to give some privacy since Tali need to be undressed and called Gibbs to share the news of Tali being awake.

"Tali, you have a minor concussion and you have stitches on your back and shoulder. Looks like you've popped a few so I'll have to redo those. You have two bruised ribs as well so you really must take it easy. Aside from that, the external bruises should heal up soon enough but those cuts on your back will leave scars. Luckily, you don't have an infection. You should recover well in due time."

"What's wrong with my dad?"

Dr. Copeland looked at Ziva who nodded her approval for her to respond to Tali's question. "Your father sustained a severe concussion as well as a sprained wrist and dislocated shoulder. Due to the nature of his head trauma, it is possible that he may have some temporary memory loss when he regains consciousness. But we can't force him to wake up, it could make things worse."

"So we just have to wait then", Tali sighed. "This is all my fault."

Ziva scoffed, "this is NOT your fault Tali. Do not say such things."

"How can you say it's not when abba is laying there because Nick blew him and Hunter up after trying to find a lead to find me."

Ziva cleared her throat as it now dawned on her that Tali knew a lot more than she thought. "Doctor, can you excuse us for a moment?"

"Yes but only to go get what I need to patch up those stiches and rebandage the both of them. I really need to keep her from getting an infection, but I suppose it can wait ten minutes."

"I understand, ten minutes is all I need." As soon as Dr. Copeland left, Ziva turned to Tali, "you know about Torres being involved?"

"At first I didn't, then he showed up one day and was bragging with Hunter's dad about killing abba and Hunter", she paused as her thoughts drifted to Hunter.

Ziva noticed the far off longing look on her face. "Hunter is alive too." Tali's eyes shot up in shock and then shifted to a look of relief. Ziva noticed that too, "you were held together. He told me what happened. What Benjamin did to ..."

"I'm fine", Tali interrupted. "Really, I'm not ready to talk about that yet. Please don't ..."

"I will not make you do or say anything you are not ready my angel." She reassured the teen with a smile.

"Thank you ... can I see Hunter? I mean, not now obviously, but in a day or two?"

If he pulls through. Ziva suddenly didn't have the heart to tell Tali that it was possible Hunter might not make it. The girl looked so hopeful, she didn't want to break her. "Sure, motek, we will see him soon. For now, just focus on getting better yourself. After the doctor stitches you back up, I want you to try to go back to sleep and rest. We won't be leaving any time soon. So you just rest."


.


A Short Time Later : 2345 Hours

Once father and daughter were cleaned up again, Ziva had gotten Tali and Tony's beds moved closer together so Tali could hold her abba's hand as requested in her terms for staying in bed. Her stubbornness making Ziva laugh at the reminder of how much the teenage girl was so much like her.

Now, Anthony sat indian-style at the foot of Tali's bed. Ziva sat in the chair next to Tony's and softly stroked his head. Tali had dozed of slightly but abruptly woke back up when an image flashed in her subconscious mind.

"Whoa, Tal, you okay", Anthony rubbed his sister's leg to try to calm her down. It worked quickly when she looked around the room and remembered where she was.

She sighed and leaned back, "Yeah, just a bad dream."

Ziva carefully watched the exchange. She's having flashbacks. Readjusting in her seat, Ziva decided not to ask what she saw but chose to remind her, "you are safe motek."

"I know", she shook her head to knock out the unsettling feeling. "I know, I'm fine, it was nothing. How long was I out?"

"Not long", Anthony answered as he continued to rub her leg. "You sure you're cool?"

"Yes III, I'm cool", she tried to laugh it off. "Since when did you become such a worrywart like mom."

"Since those assholes took you."

"Hey young man", Ziva interrupted. "Language!"

"Oops, my bad. But they are ass ..." He paused when Ziva gave him a threatening look. "Um .. I mean ... jerks and I hope they pay for hurting you guys."

It was then that Tali finally noticed the bandage on Ziva's head and the cuts and scrapes on her arm. "Wait, mom, what happened to you?"

"Nothing honey, I'm fine".

"Lies, mom was totally badass and got blown up earlier then still went to track down the terrorist assholes and rescue you."

"If I tell you about your choice of language again, you are going to be grounded for the next three years."

"Jeeezzzzzz that's harsh ..."

"Pause", Tali interrupted, "you were in the explosion too?"

Ziva sighed, "not the same one as your father but a different one. We were sent into a trap, luckily I was far away enough to only have some cuts and bruises. After I came to, I had Abby give me the second location we traced the terrorists to and Uncle Tim and I, along with some other agents, found you."

"Did you kill them", Tali's question was laced with a desperate hope that the answer was 'yes'.

"We can talk about this later Tali. Now is not the time." Ziva knew it wasn't the answer she wanted but she didn't want to upset her anymore than she visibly was. "Let's just be thankful and grateful that you are back with us and safe now."

They're not dead. Tali sighed in defeat, knowing exactly what her mother's response meant but she let it go for now. "I think I'll be more thankful and grateful when abba wakes up."

Just then, a weak low hoarse voice came from the bed next to her saying, "I'm up!"


Whoop whoop! Tali's back!

The DiNozzo's are reunited!

Next chapter:

We talk to Tony ... will he have memory loss?

We talk to the remaining terrorist ... will they reveal everything?

We get a visit from an old OLD friend ... but who?

Stick around my friends! And don't forget to review!