Gibbs rolled his shoulders and ran a hand through his hair. Standing he was about to call it a day when he saw Eli David step out of the elevator.

Eli had been on a jet the moment he'd heard of Ziva's disappearance. Despite his power, his wealth he'd almost been reluctant to step off the elevator. Gibbs was not a man to be tested, he'd warned him and Eli had deserved that warning but he'd come because for all he'd done he loved his daughter and the idea he couldn't save her seemed impossible. He knew the moment Gibbs spotted him the anger was not a surprise but the way Gibbs looked was. Fatigue was a dark stamp on every part of him, pain was etched in every line of his face and even the way he held himself. Further he looked different in a way Eli couldn't put a name to at first, only when he gave it a moment did he realize his face reminded him of martyrs moments before they died.

"You're either stupid or braver than I thought Eli." Gibbs clenched his fists wanting to rain punches on the man in front of him. A man who'd hurt Ziva far too many times to be acceptable. The physical punishment would allow him to free some of the anger building in him but instead he stepped far too close to Eli for anyone's comfort.

Tony felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up even as he rose from his desk. Next to him Mike and McGee did the same. Dejas Vous had him watching Gibbs carefully. After the last meeting between these two men he didn't see this ending well. The rage Gibbs held back was barely contained. Watching him stand so close to Eli Tony couldn't be sure Gibbs would be able to continue to do so. Tony had his own anger for Eli, he knew much of what Ziva had suffered at this man's hands yet it was hard not to notice the grief in the slope of the man's shoulders.

Eli stayed still through sheer force of will. "I am a father and despite all I've done I love my daughter. If I have lost my last child I wish to be here when she is found." He watched agony much like lightning lance through Gibbs' eyes, a pain so visceral he almost stumbled. If he'd only been willing to listen he would have seen that the man his daughter had chosen was one of honor, one more than worthy of her. That pain was hidden as quickly as he'd seen it.

Gibbs knew Eli was playing on his loss of Kelly and likely of the loss of his and Ziva's child yet he spoke the truth. A father was always a father, he loathed Eli, had considered killing him on more than one occasion yet how could he deny him what Gibbs himself knew to be the worst fate. "I will never forgive you, she might but I never will."

Eli nodded, "As it should be, I ask only to be allowed information and to stay." He didn't need Gibbs permission to stay but he was trying and would keep trying for his daughter's sake. He risked a glance around the room and saw Gibbs' team watching him closely, the top of the stairs had Vance eyeing him as well. It seemed the whole room was waiting for whatever Gibbs' would do next.

Gibbs stepped back and chuckled bitterly. "We have nothing, we know nothing and she is nowhere we have found. That Eli is what information we have." He threw the pen he'd been holding at his desk ignoring the way it bounced off the metal and landed on the floor. "How much do you know?"

Eli sighed. "Some but not much, other than making sure Ziva was being well cared for I did as you both asked and kept my distance. I only found out an hour before I stepped on the plane that she was…." Eli cleared his throat unable to say the words. He was careful to keep any reprimand from his words. His source had informed him that Gibbs had not reacted well to Ziva's disappearance. The finer details hadn't been relayed to him until he'd been on the plane and that alone had told him just how much his daughter meant to the man in front of him.

Gibbs waited for Eli to comment on the fact that he hadn't contacted him. Truth be told until he'd stepped off the elevator Gibbs hadn't even thought about the fact Eli should have been informed. Whether or not he actually would have made the call didn't stop him from realizing that it wasn't a small thing he'd overlooked. He clenched his hands tightly as he wondered what else he might have overlooked. "I imagine you have a lot of questions then?"

Eli paused then nodded. "I understand you were working an undercover operation of some kind that led to this." Eli watched Gibbs flinch, just the faintest hint of reaction but one that told him more than Gibbs might have liked. "Ziva has always enjoyed undercover work, as much as anyone can enjoy it anyways. "

Gibbs saw the olive branch Eli was offering for what it was. He suspected Eli knew far more than he was letting on but he let it go. "I was going to head home, as I said we're coming up empty here and I have some cleaning up to do there. You can meet me there. Give me an hour?"

Eli nodded not unaware of how hard it had been for Gibbs to make the offer. As he'd spoken Eli had watched pain once again wash over the man. He didn't want to ask especially with the men of Gibbs' team sitting in their desks pretending not to watch but the words forced themselves out bent and slightly broken. "Whoever took her did they….was she harmed?"

Gibbs felt agony tighten his throat, felt the dark whispers filter in his mind. The none-to quiet lure of damnation calling to him in all its seductiveness. He wanted to lie, despite the fact part of him would always hate Eli he still wanted to lie to him and tell him there was no reason to believe she'd been harmed. But, the damming memory of blood smears on the wall of their home made his stomach roll and forced he truth out. "It's likely."

Eli had known before he'd asked, Ziva was a warrior and to be taken meant something more than his soul could bear. Yet he'd held out hope, the hope had been shattered even before Gibbs had voiced his answer it had been there in the way Gibbs had taken a deep breath, shifted his gaze and the way the room had reigned silence despite the fact his words had been nearly whispered. Suddenly the sound was back and that noise was too much he managed a nod and hoping that was enough made his way to the elevator. Only when the doors had closed behind him did he let out the breath he'd been holding, his entire body shook like an addict in withdrawals and tears threatened to break past his iron will. Somehow he managed to right himself and face the bodyguards and public that waited beyond the safety of NCIS' walls.

In his basement Gibbs stared at the wood pieces he'd begun putting together. Normally as he fit wood into place it played like a symphony in his mind. As he looked at the wood of the cradle he'd carefully crafted he heard the discordant note of the loss of his child.

It was enough to know Ziva was missing, lost to him perhaps forever. But it was a blood burning pain that reminded him he had also most likely lost yet another child. He wanted to curse God rage that he should be forced to bear this pain again. But, he'd learned long ago that man made choices that God could not control. They'd agreed to wait until the birth of their child to know its gender. He suspected Ziva was worried if she carried a girl he would struggle with it. He would have reassured her that it wasn't the case but she had carefully avoided the subject. Now in this moment he wondered if he would have been blessed with a son or a daughter.

Despite knowing his child might never rest inside he continued connecting the piece knowing he could easily change it to something else his child would need should he not find them alive. The man in him that knew the love of Ziva and the renewed taste of hope was reviled by the thought. The man that had buried his first child knew it was likely he would bury another one.

The pain hit so hard at the thought that he drove the chisel in his hand into the solid wood of his worktable, a harsh sweat breaking out with the effort. His anger and pain hadn't dissipated when he felt Eli's presence just off to his left. Turning away he grabbed wood oil and a rag.

Eli took in a deep breath and watched as Gibbs worked the oil into the wood. "I said hello to your father. He seems like a good man."

Gibbs didn't answer him just rubbed at the wood bringing out the natural dark shades. He glanced the other man's way and for a moment in his eyes he could see the echo of resemblance to Ziva. It hurt to see and he was forced to look away again.

"I have made many mistakes in my life; far too many of those were with Ziva. Even more were with Ari." He saw Gibbs stiffen, stop oiling the wood and throw down the rag. "I know what you lost with Shannon and Kelly. Ari may not have been perfect but he was my son my flesh and blood and while he was hard to bear losing, I did not know him like I know Ziva. As much as you wish to see them returned to you I too wish them returned not just to me but to you as well." He cleared his throat, trying to ignore his own pain and instead focus on Gibbs' pain to ease any of it he could. He owed at least that to his daughter. "When Tali was lost to us the better part of me broke, most of any goodness I had left disappeared. I had suffered injuries, my wife leaving me, but nothing compared to the death of my child. I clung then to Ziva putting all that was left to me into her." He stopped when the memories became too much, the loss to close to what he was now facing. "It is obvious Ziva loves you, and even more obvious how deeply you feel for her."

Gibbs watched Eli shift as he leaned against the stairs. He glanced at the ground and was silent for a moment. There was a certain sad irony that as he spoke he was standing exactly where Gibbs had the night Ari had died.

"When I heard you took Eli's life I knew nothing but hate, nothing but the need for vengeance. Men like us we often do what has to be done no matter what the consequences. The taking of a life is never easy but it does become a job after enough time. Except for Ziva it cost her every time she took a life always has, which is why I know for her to accept you after taking her brother's life you had to be a man of honor, someone she deemed worthy." He watched Gibbs physically flinch hands clenching as he shoved them in his pockets. "For Ziva to take her brother's life to make that choice meant I had failed far more than I thought."

Gibbs met Eli's eyes not bothering to hide his shock. He wouldn't admit anything, knew without a doubt Ziva hadn't told Eli what had really happened that night. Somehow though Eli knew and was facing Gibbs now with that knowledge.

"It was there in her eyes every time his name was mentioned. Ziva is a brilliant Agent, a better woman but I am still her father and can read her better than she would like."

"Yet you never said anything?" Gibbs faced Eli fully now wondering why. It would have been the perfect reason to force her back to Moussad. To pull her even further under his control. "Gotta say, that makes me wonder."

Eli managed a bitter smile. "I was not waiting to hold it over her if that is what you are wondering. I wanted her to be able to move on. I know what it is like to take the life of someone that cares for you. It costs you. And Ziva will hold onto what she was forced to do for all her life. I did not need to add to that burden. Ari was lost, half dead even before she took his life. If I could save her that what else could I do."

"Yet you saw fit to strike her for honoring her mother." Gibbs didn't hide the anger that memory brought.

"What Ziva said was mostly true. I loved her mother and her mother loved me. But I was not a good man to her. I did the things a man should not if he is truly the other of half of the woman who loves him. Ziva's mother had stars in her eyes all her life, she saw only the beauty in things, hope, joy and those things were lost to me. I raised Ziva to be tough, strong. I wanted her able to face anything life sent her way. Because I knew how ugly it could get when I saw her wearing the bracelet it was in my mind the antithesis of everything I had raised her to be. It was as though she was rejecting me. I did not realize that two people could love that way. To be so connected that they would make that level of commitment." Eli met Gibbs' flushed gaze staring hard.

Gibbs wanted to hold his rage, his hatred of Eli and most of him would but at the same time he could understand what Eli was saying. Sometimes he loathed the logical part of his brain. "I nearly killed you that night Eli. Had she not stopped me…. She deserved better than that." His voice began to stick as he thought that she deserved better than a man like him, a man who would allow her to stay in harm's way.

"Death would have been easier than living with what she said to me later." Again he watched Gibbs' head snap up and realized he'd unwittingly shared a secret he shouldn't have. "I did not leave at first as you requested, merely moved to a quieter place. Ziva of course found me there."

Gibbs felt shock roll through him. Ziva had said nothing not a word. And he couldn't imagine when she had found the time. Still he smiled slightly when he reminded himself it was exactly something she would have done. "She warned you."

Eli echoed Gibbs' smile "That she did. She made it clear that should I contact her again it would likely not end well for me. She told me she couldn't forgive me, at least not yet and that you likely never would. She also informed me that she belonged to you and no other. That you were who she had chosen of her own free will. Reminded me that if I wanted her happy I couldn't stand in the way of that very happiness, she was quite adamant about how she felt."

Gibbs shook his head. "She always is there is never a doubt where you stand with her."

"If she is gone Gibbs, truly gone than I have a least the peace of knowing that she was loved., truly loved for exactly the woman she was. For a father that is more of a gift than you can know." Eli felt his eyes sting, had to look away from the man in front of him. His eyes landed on the cradle Gibbs had been working on and he felt the ache of agony grown deeper. "Do you know if the child is a boy or girl?"

Gibbs shook his head "She wanted to wait. After Kelly I think she worried it would be a girl." Gibbs tried even harder not to talk to the man in front of him, to give him only silence yet he couldn't make it happen. The man in front of him knew loss, the same loss Gibbs had experienced, and that made it hard to refuse him memories of his daughter. "She didn't have to a daughter just like her would have been…"

Eli nodded "Yeah….What can you tell me."

Gibbs poured them both a glass of bourbon and sat on a stool. For a long moment he just stared at the amber liquid trying to find the strength to put his failure into words. "She took Ari's life to save mine."

Eli nodded swallowing down a burning sip of alcohol. "I assumed as much. You are a good man Gibbs, one of honor and integrity. Despite the fact he was my son Ari was not those things. Given a choice Ziva made the one she knew was right. And, I have no doubt even then she knew you were meant for her."

Gibbs looked at Eli not bothering to hide his confusion, "How can you know that?"

Eli managed a bitter smile. "I asked her to come back after…everything and she told me her future was here in Washington. When I asked her what she meant by that she would not give me a concrete answer just that this is where she belonged now. There is no arguing with Ziva when she truly wants something." He thought perhaps Gibbs would smile then but the same haggard expression remained.

Gibbs stared at his drink a moment longer, heard the whispering darkness again sliding around his brain much like a serpent waiting to strike. He set the drink aside and ran a hand through his hair. "I should have stopped this long ago. If not long ago then at least when we found out about the baby instead…." Gibbs stopped took in a breath and forced himself to look at Ziva's father. "I should have done a lot of things." Gripping the edge of his seat he took in a breath. Long into the night he told Eli the tale of what had finally brought him and Ziva together. He welcomed anything that held off going to bed alone, anything that helped him forget he would wake up without her.