Chapter 21

Ziva slowly opened her eyes and looked around her. She knew she was in the back of a car and someone was lightly pushing her hair out of her face as they pressed on one of her fresher wounds that had been bleeding badly. She focused and realized the young woman was wearing a badge around her neck, an NCIS badge.

"Who are you?" Ziva managed to get out, although her voice was pretty hoarse from the lack of water lately. She was given only enough to keep her alive, but not enough to quench her thirst or to make sure her throat was not dry.

"Special Agent Kensi Blye. I work out of Los Angeles, NCIS. You are here in Los Angeles and once we got word that someone might be holding a kidnapped NCIS agent, we immediately went to work. You see our unit is a deep cover unit, most people don't know we exist or anything. G, he went in there and brokered a deal with that creep and when it went down and we could see you, we took him down. He decided to put up a fight but we still managed to subdue him. G is the one in the front seat, his name is G Callen, and the one driving is Sam Hanna." Kensi said with a smile. "We are going to take you to a hospital and your team will be notified soon enough, Hetty is already calling Vance."


"Director Vance." Leon Vance answered his phone with a sigh.

"Leon, it's Hetty. We have Ms. David and my agents are getting her to a hospital, you know which one, they said she is pretty badly injured and she has been bleeding out and is dehydrated and malnourished. I figured you would want to know right away, since you handed us this case a few weeks ago." Hetty informed the director immediately.

"Thank you and I will send out her team, which will include her fiancé." Vance said with a sigh of relief into the phone.

Gibbs looked up as Leon Vance came down the stairs, entering the work area that currently held Gibbs, Tony and McGee with Ducky and Abby standing around talking with them after they had been ordered to come up there. Aimee had stated she couldn't work with a team that clearly didn't want her around and resented her because they missed their real team mate, so she had actually quit a few days ago, which Gibbs was actually all right with, he didn't need someone around that made the others feel like they weren't going to get their Ziva back.

"Good everyone is here." Leon said as he walked over and motioned for everyone to gather around where he was standing.

"Look, Director Vance, I don't understand why you needed me up here. I have a back log of cases down in the morgue." Ducky said as he looked confused.

"I wanted to let you know the status of Ziva's case." Leon stated and soon everyone was giving him their full attention, especially Tony.

"Did Mossad find out where Maliek was keeping her?' Abby asked excited and hopeful.

"Mossad was never on this case, NCIS has had the case the entire time." Leon said shaking his head. "I had gotten word that Maliek was taking her to Los Angeles, because he was supposed to meet the person who knew Maliek hated Ziva and hired him to kidnap her and break her down, so he could take her and get the information he needed before killing her, himself. Luckily, OPS, the undercover unit we have in Los Angeles was able to get Agent Callen in place to offer Maliek a much better offer. The takedown went down about an hour or so ago, Maliek is in custody and the agents down there are taking Ziva to the closest hospital that treats military personnel out there. I have a military transport waiting to take all of you to Los Angeles, whenever you can get to the plane." Leon stated as he looked at the three male agents and the two forensics specialists.

"Even me and Ducky get to go?" Abby asked excited and happy.

"Yes Abby, even you and Ducky get to go." Leon said with a smile as he handed Gibbs the information he would need ad then Leon turned and headed back up the stairs to his office, with a pleased look on his face because he could see that DiNozzo was finally relaxed enough, knowing his fiancée was alive and well.


Ziva opened her eyes slowly, knowing she was in the hospital but wincing at the strong grip that was holding onto the only hand that was free. The other hand was in a cast, having been broken several times and the IV was in her forearm, making it easy for her to use her hand and bend her elbow without worrying about dislodging the IV or having any pain in her hand. She looked over and saw Tony was the one gripping her hand tightly and she could see his head was lying on the bed next to her. She looked around and saw the room was full of the people she loved, Gibbs, McGee, Ducky and Abby were also there. Gibbs, Ducky and Abby were sleeping next to each other on a couch that was in the corner and McGee was sleeping in the other chair in the room. It meant a lot to her that they would sleep in such uncomfortable positions just to be there for her. She turned her gaze back to Tony and saw him awake and staring at her.

"Hey beautiful." Tony said with a small smile. "I missed you."

"I missed you to." Ziva said and winced at the hoarseness of her voice. "Can I have some water?" Ziva asked with a soft sigh.

"Sure can." Abby said jumping up.

Ziva looked around and saw that everyone had come awake as they heard Tony and Ziva start talking. She smiled as they all walked over to surround her bed. They each took turns giving her a hug and Abby sat gently on the other side of the bed from where Tony was sitting and helped her sip some cold water through a straw. Ziva wanted to moan at how good the water felt on her very dry and sore throat.

"How long have you been here?" She managed to ask when she had emptied her glass.

"We got here the day you were found, and you have been unconscious since you were brought in. That was a week ago." Gibbs spoke up.

"Please tell me you haven't all been sleeping in this room, in those uncomfortable positions for a whole week." Ziva said, her eyes going wide.

"We weren't taking any chances. We still don't know who hired Maliek in the first place, and even though there is a guard at your door, we weren't taking any chances." Tony said stubbornly. "The doc said you aren't pregnant, so I guess that's a good thing right now, considering. However, you are still marrying me Ziva, that isn't something I am letting you get out of." Tony said, afraid that now she knew there wasn't a child in the picture she would want to call off their engagement.

"I had no intention of doing that. I haven't paid the rent on my apartment." Ziva said with a wince.

"I moved you out of there, and I bought that house that you always said you wanted to live in, I moved all our stuff in there and now it's just waiting for you to tell me how you want it decorated. Plus, Abby picked up a bunch of wedding books and magazines, we brought some of them with us, so you could relax and start getting ideas together for our wedding." Tony said as he brushed some hair out of her face. "Ziva I love you so much and I promise, I am not going to let anything happen to you."

Ziva knew that everyone in that room thought that they could keep her safe, but Ziva knew that there was nothing they could do to stop an enemy who was still unseen and unnamed from coming for her, and deep down inside, Ziva was scared to death that she would lose the only family she had ever felt really close to, now that she had found a home for herself.