Chapter 26

Ziva was lying in bed and waiting for Tony to come to bed, she had, had a rough week with all the wedding planning and dress shopping. She had a maid of honor in Abby, and Vance's wife and McGee's little sister had both jumped at the chance to be a part of the wedding and be bridesmaids. They also loved getting to help plan the whole wedding and have input, and to be honest Ziva was thrilled that she had all the help she did.

"Hey." Tony said as it was apparent she was somewhere else in her mind and hadn't noticed when he had climbed into the bed.

"Hey." Ziva said as she turned towards him. She realized he had his arms open and out, waiting for her to climb into his arms like they had been doing lately.

As soon as she was enclosed in his arms, her head resting on his chest, he kissed the top of her head and started to lightly play with her hair, hoping she would relax or at least tell him what was on her mind, and he didn't have to wait too long.

"I am worried we will not be able to find the other person." Ziva said softly.

"You aren't supposed to be worrying over anything right now. Gibbs, McGee and I are looking for any other threats to you babe, just plan our wedding and just relax, let us handle things. You need to recover from your injuries and you need to just relax and plan our wedding so that you can become Mrs. DiNozzo." Tony said with a grin and he felt her giggle against his chest just before she slapped his stomach.

"Tony, I am still working for NCIS, I should be involved in the case and looking for the person who wants to kill me. This guy could be coming after you next, I don't want to be the reason behind you getting hurt or killed Tony, it would kill me if you were taken away from me." Ziva said softly. She didn't want to cry, that wasn't who she was, but she couldn't stand the thought that the first man she had really truly allowed herself to love, could be hurt or killed because of her.

"That won't happen, we won't let it." Tony whispered as he kissed the top of her head again and turned off his light. "Let's get some sleep."


The next morning Gibbs was sitting across from Tony and McGee and it was clear to him that there was something that Tony really needed to say and he was worried about saying it. Gibbs had known for a while that there was something that had been hidden from him, and he was just hoping that whatever it was that was being hidden wasn't something that could lead to a problem with their case.

"When Ziva started working here, long before there were any feelings or she was considered a true member of the team, I started getting letters and emails that were weird to me. I ignored them because I figured someone was trying to play a joke or just trying to be annoying, but as time went on I was getting more and more letters and pictures and video's accompanied them and lately they have been worse." Tony admitted as he dropped a couple of boxes on the table and then put a couple of Zip drives down that had copies of all of the emails on them.

"How bad are these letters?" Gibbs asked as he tried to decide whether to be angry or just ignore it for the moment while they worked on this case.

"They make it clear that as long as I don't talk Ziva into going back to Mossad and going home, and as long as I try and be her friend or anything more, I will be on their hit list. Then the latest letter, I received it last night, made it clear that now that I had claimed Ziva was planning on marrying her I was heading on being killed no matter what I did at this point." Tony said and when he heard McGee clear his throat he turned and saw Ziva and Abby standing there and the look made it clear that she had heard plenty.

"Ziva…" McGee started but quickly shut up when Abby gave him a look. Now that things were working out better between him and Abby, he didn't want to rock the boat, at all.

"Ziva…" Tony started but the look that he got from her made it clear she wasn't listening to him at all.

"Ziva and I are going to go and talk." Gibbs said as he got up and walked over to Ziva, motioning for Abby to take a seat with McGee and Tony before he left the room, heading for the elevator. Once they were inside, he waited till they were at a certain spot and then he hit the button so the elevator stopped and they were both leaning against the walls of the elevator, not really meeting each others eyes.

"How could he hide this from me?" Ziva asked, confusion clear in her voice.

"Because he loves you and he hates seeing you beat yourself up about all of the things going on. He is aware of the things that could happen and the people that can come after him, was aware before he even tried to be your friend, and he still fell in love with you and he still wants to marry you. Ziva, out of every female he has ever dated, including Jeanne, you are the only one that I think he actually, truly loves and can't live without. I think he thought he had true feelings for her, but for you he would give up his own life if it meant making you happy and keeping you safe." Gibbs said softly.

Ziva nodded her head, agreeing and hating it a lot. "I would do the same." Ziva admitted. "When he killed…" Ziva couldn't say his name. "When he killed him, you know who, I was so angry and couldn't understand why, but it wasn't because he killed him, it was because I was scared that it would make him a target and I couldn't protect him anymore from my father or other agents." Ziva finally admitted the truth, a truth she hadn't even admitted to Tony.

"I think you both need to talk about some things, but you need to both understand that you are about to get married and that means you need to communicate with each other. You both love each other a lot, we can all see it Ziva, don't let anything get in the way of how you two feel for each other." Gibbs said and then he gave her a hug before releasing the emergency stop button so they could return to the others.


He was beyond angry at this point as he realized that everything he was doing, was not making one bit of difference to anyone. His kills didn't even make the news and there was no reaction from Ziva, almost like she either didn't care or she didn't know. His plan seemed to be going off the deep end and he didn't know if there was a way to fix this, unless he sped everything up and went after people she did know. He was also thinking about sending Ziva video's or pictures of the kills, or better yet, he could grab random people, torture and kill them, keeping himself concealed from the camera and sending it to her with notice that these people were all dying because of her, and it wouldn't be long till the people closest to her were on that list. He would add new pictures of her closest friends, including the Director of NCIS and his wife and kids. He knew that was going to get a reaction, but it would be the message about Tony that would make the big difference to Ziva, because she would learn all the ways her fiancé was going to suffer for her sins.