Chapter 14
Ziva was sitting on the couch watching television, she was pretty sure that something was going to happen and soon. Maliek was not the type of person who would just sit around and do nothing for a long period of time. She also knew that Tony was getting increasingly worried about her. Ziva had drawn herself into this tiny shell more and more lately, not wanting to talk to anyone, especially not Tony. She was thinking of ways to disappear and just get a way but she knew that he was not letting her out of his sight. She sighed and flipped the television off and immediately she got to her feet in the stupid safe house they were currently in. She walked to the window, carefully hiding behind the wall and keeping herself low in case of a sniper. She felt the hair on the back of her neck standing up and she knew that it meant someone was out there and someone was watching, she was sure it was Maliek, and she was also sure he was ready to make another move.
"Ziva why don't you try and get some rest?" Mcgee said as he walked over towards her.
"Shh… McGee stay away from the windows. I have a bad feeling." She said in a way of warning.
"Ziva, I am sure that there is no one out there. There is no way this guy could have found this safe house." McGee said with an arched eyebrow. He was clearly looking at her like she had lost her mind and was becoming paranoid but Ziva knew her instincts weren't getting rusty and she knew he was out there. She was ready to lose her temper when she saw Abby walking into the room, taking no precautions at all as well.
"Abby, you must get down, stay away from the windows!" Ziva hissed surprised at the forensics specialist who was staring at her with surprise on her face. The goth dressed woman was wearing her favorite chunky black boots, another one of her short plaid skirts with a chain on it and her skull and cross bones t-shirt, one that McGee had given her for her birthday. Abby's hair was in pigtails again that day and Ziva could tell that she had just finished working on the computer.
Gibbs and the Director had talked and decided to move all their work to the safe house, that way they would be safe together as a team and get to work and brainstorm together without leaving the safe area and hopefully be able to track down their killer.
"Gibbs said that the perimeter alarm is still on and hasn't gone off Ziva, no one is out there. We would have heard the alarms blaring like mad if he had crossed through and there is a warning system if someone tampers with the box that holds the power to the alarms." Abby said confused.
"It doesn't mean he doesn't have a sniper trained on the house." Gibbs said entering the room. "Ziva is right, the windows are dangerous. You enter a room that has windows that aren't blacked out, you stay low and clear and don't make yourself a target. Black out those windows, David."
"Yes Gibbs." Ziva said nodding her head as she used the specialized blinds they had to black out the windows. The window glass was bullet proof, but it didn't mean it was completely safe and no one was willing to risk the lives of everyone that was in there.
Ducky was the only one of the team that would not be working from the safe house, well besides the Director. However, Ducky had a special security team as well as his mother did to. He was being escorted to and from work and he and his mother were never left alone. They had also replaced all the glass of their windows with bullet and tamper proof glass. It was the only thing that they could think of. Ducky had originally been scheduled to join the group but his mother couldn't be placed in the type of jeopardy that staying with Ziva would have placed her and he couldn't leave her alone so he opted to stay behind with a different team working to keep him safe.
Ziva stalked out of the room, angry that it appeared that it took Gibbs for people to realize how serious this situation was. No one would listen to her when it came to safety and keeping themselves alive and it was getting to her. She stalked straight into the room she was staying in, forgetting that Tony had opted to stay in the room with her, despite that it obviously gave away their relationship to everyone at that point. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw him standing there staring into his closet, completely and utterly naked. She groaned as she turned her back to him and quickly shut the door and locked it at the sound of footsteps hurrying after her down the hallway.
"Why did you not lock the door?" Ziva demanded keeping her back to him despite their relationship.
"I wasn't hiding anything from you, I mean you have seen it all. More than once if I can recall correctly. The first time you saw it we weren't even dating." Tony teased walking over and turning her to face him, still standing there stark naked.
"Put some type of clothing on." Ziva demanded shutting her eyes.
Tony chuckled and then leaned in and kissed her on the lips. "My little assassin, I don't know why you keep insisting on pretending that we haven't already slept together, because we have." He said as he leaned in and kissed her on the lips again.
They both turned as someone started pounding on the door. "Ziva I want to talk to you! I am so sorry if I made you feel like I wasn't listening to your warnings, I mean I know that you know this guy better than any of us considering that he is trying to kill you more than us and all…" Abby trailed off as they heard someone come towards her and grab her arm and drag her away from the door. They could hear her arguing with the person, probably McGee, as they pulled her down the hallway.
"Well where were we?" Tony asked as he tackled the woman he loved with all his heat to the bed, intent to prove to her that they had no reason to hide their feelings, not from the people they worked with and especially not from each other.
Maliek was watching the house through his sniper scope. He could already tell that the windows were most likely bullet proof, they wouldn't take any chances with the lives that were currently living within the walls in front of him. The question was, how long would it take before Ziva got bored with waiting for him and became careless enough to leave that house and look for him? He knew she was like him, knew she couldn't just sit on a couch and watch the television, she would need action and she would need to run. He knew she loved to run in the mornings, so maybe tomorrow morning he would finally get to kill the woman who he needed to kill to feel better about his life.
