Chapter Twenty Two- "One More Night"

"You got anything?" Tony questioned McGee who was looking at his computer. He had asked him to try and get a satellite image of the apartment complex. He wanted to know where they were and if there was a way to move in without tipping Matt off.

"Almost got it" McGee said. He typed fast and wasn't about to stop. "Got it. There is a way in out back. It will lead you straight to the basement."

"You sure they are in the basement?" Tony questioned.

"Yeah, the heat signatures are very weak. If they were on her floor they'd be a lot stronger" McGee said.

"Alright. Gibbs Daniels I want to go right when we get in there. McGee and I will go left" Tony said to them. They already has their guns loaded and ready to go, their bulletproof vets on and had a anything they might needed incase things didn't go the way they were planned. "We get Ziva out alive. Whatever it takes."

"Got it" Melissa said. They all head towards the building.

"What ever it is you have planned just do it" Ziva said to him. It had been almost three days and something was telling her the plan had had in mind was going as he thought it should. After all he untied her once, she tired to fight but that was so unsuccessful. Then when he tied her back up she wasn't tied the same way. It was lose and she was able to get out. She figured if she could get him to slip up on something so could get the upper hand and escape. Now the trick was getting the upper hand. "I lied before no one knows I'm still in town. No one even cares where I am. So no one will care if I am dead."

"You are just trying to get me to slip up" Matt said to her. "It's not going to work."

"It is the truth. I am no longer an agent, I am not longer cared about" Ziva said to him. Matt walked over to Ziva reached up her arm and backhanded her.

"Shut up" Matt snapped at her.

"Your best bet is to kill me and get it over with" Ziva said.

"I said shut up" Matt yelled at her. Ziva could see it was working. He was slowly coming apart. "You always have to go and mess everything up don't you."

"I am tied to a chair, how can I ruin this?" Ziva questioned.

"Just stop talking" Matt snapped at her.

"This is over, you just need to figure out how this is going to end" Ziva said to him. Before either of them could say another word, the door burst open. Matt start shooting as he tired to back away, and shoots rang out towards him.

"You are out numbered" Tony said, he held up his hand to tell everyone to hold their fire.

"Oh I don't think so" Matt said, he then rushed over to Ziva and held the gun to her head.

"It's four against one, you are not going to leave her alive" Tony said to her.

"Neither is she" Matt said.

"Shoot him" Ziva snapped.

"You are done Matt, just put the gun down" Tony said. If he could he was going to try and make this so no one would get shot. He didn't want to just start firing, because he knew he'd kill Matt if he got the chance, but this wasn't about that.

"You put your guns own or I'll kill her" Matt said.

"No one is going to shoot I will make sure of that" Tony said trying to reason, but he had a feeling that wasn't possible.

"Shoot him" Ziva said again. Before she knew it a gun went off, Matt had let go of here and then it started an all out gun war. She quickly untied her hands and got up. She felt someone grab her but couldn't see who is was, all she knew was Matt was the closest. She punched them as hard as she could and pulled herself away before heading for the exit. Then the debris started to fall from the ceiling and with all the gunfire it only made the place more unstable then it already was. She tried to get way but between the rubble and the gunfire it wasn't easy. Before she knew it there was sharp pain ripping through her side and she fell.

Tony sat there next to Ziva holding her hand; refuse to move from the spot he was in. They were in the ambulance on their way to the hospital. He wasn't about to let her go, not again, and certainly not this way. He noticed she was slowly opening eyes for the first time since he had found her.

"Hey Ziva" Tony said, hoping she could hear him and understand him. "You were shot you are on your way to the hospital." He explained to her. "Now I need you to do what I told you do and fight, fight like hell. You stay with me. Do you here me you stay with me."

"I am… sorry… Tony" Ziva said to him, before her eyes closed.

Ziva walked into Vance's office, she had found it strange then he had wanted to see her. She knew things were better then they ever were now and couldn't help but question why he wanted to see her. She could only think maybe he had to do with the case they were working on, Tony and her did not act appropriate at once scene. Gibbs had already reprimanded them for that and said not to let it happen again.

"Thank you for coming Agent David" Vance said to her. He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her.

"May I ask what this is about?" Ziva asked him.

"I was contacted by your father not to long ago" Vance started to tell her. "He has a mission and wants you to be part of it."

"But I am no longer wit Mossad" Ziva said to him.

"That is why he thinks you would be perfect." Vance said to her. "He thinks with you being ex-mossad and an NCIS it will help getting you in with the group he is after. You have access to Intel they might need and it give you a leg up."

"You can tell my father no" Ziva said to him. "I have told him I am an NCIS Agent and that is what I plan stay."

"I am not trying to convince you, you should do this" Vance said to her. "I am just relaying the message."

"Then tell my father no. He will have to find someone else" Ziva said to Vance. She then walked out o his office.

Ziva walked off the elevator and into Abby's Lab. She couldn't help but think this might be the last tie she would ever be here. She was going to miss Abby and her ways and his smiles. Abby also had that way of making your smile even when you were down. Ziva walked in more to find Abby had her computer, they had finished the case and she was just double-checking or maybe triple checking everything.

"Abby" Ziva said softly not to scare her.

"Ziva, just the person I wanted to see" Abby said to her. He walked over and hugged Ziva.

"I am" Ziva questioned as he hugged Abby back.

"Yes" Abby said as she pulled away. "You know I am here for you right? Anytime, Any day, you name it I'm here."

"Thank you" Ziva said to her. "I actually need a favor from you."

"Name it" Abby said to her.

"I need your help making it look like NCIS is out to get me" Ziva said to her.

"What why?" Abby questioned.

"I am going to be going undercover for a while" Ziva started to explain to her, hoping to tell her as little as possible. "To sell my cover when they do the background check I need them to believe NCIS and I spilt way badly."

"How bad?" Abby asked.

"I need them to believe I betrayed NCIS, once Mossad always Mossad" Ziva said to her. "But no one must know, understand me."

"Okay no one will here is from me" Abby said to her. "Does Vance know?"

"He knows about the mission, not about this. You can't tell him." Ziva said.

"Is this going to be dangerous?" Abby asked her.

"Yes" Ziva said. "I can't promise I'll be back, but I will promise to take care of myself."

"Don't go Ziva" Abby said to her. Ziva knew she had already lost so many people in her life, it killed her to do this, but it was what needed to be done.

"Goodbye Abby" Ziva said to her. Abby pulled her into one more hug before letting her go.

"I'll do this for you. Take care of yourself and you come home" Abby said to her, as he watched Ziva leave the lab. "Goodbye Ziva." Ziva heard Abby said before she got on the elevator and headed up to Vance's office.

"Damn it Ziva you stay with me. You hear me" Tony said when he noticed her eyes were closing again. "You do everything you can to hang on."

"You cannot keep going on like this Ziva" Malachi said, he grabbed her arm top stop her. Ziva ripped her arm away from him and turned to face him.

"Who are you to say what I can and cannot do" Ziva snapped at him.

"You are being reckless, you nearly got us killed back there" Malachi told her.

"If you want out then you can leave at anytime" Ziva said to him. She then turned so her back was facing him and started to continue on her way.

"And leave you alone to get yourself killed?" Malachi said.

"You did it once before" Ziva snapped.

"This is different" Malachi said to her. He once again tried to get her to stop walking.

"How so?" Ziva questioned as she stopped and turned to face him.

"Because there is clearly something going on" Malachi started to say to her. "You were not thinking and we walked right into an ambush, it is lucky we got out alive."

"Why are you all of a sudden so worried about things?" Ziva asked him. "You have become weak, you should leave. You could get us killed."

"Are you listening to yourself Ziva?" Malachi said. "You are reckless, not thinking. If anyone is going to get us killed it is going to be you. You need to stop and think for a moment."

"We stop and we are dead. We have a mission and it is to be done at any coast, or have you forgotten." Ziva said to him.

"Ziva stop" Malachi said to her. "This is not the way to go. It's almost like who have a death wish." Malachi then noticed she didn't response and just looked down. "You do have a death wish."

"I have a mission to continue and that is what we are going to do" Ziva said to him.

"No you need to go back, I will finish the mission" Malachi told her.

"I started it, I will finish it" Ziva said.

"So what you can join your mother, Tali and Ari?" Malachi snapped at her.

"You know nothing" Ziva snapped at him. "You were not there."

"Well it seems like that is where you want to be" Malachi said.

"If you want to say something just say it Malachi" Ziva said.

"Ever since you returned to Tell Aviv you have been different, this is not who you are Ziva. I do not know who you are anymore?" Malachi said.

"This is getting us no where" Ziva said to him. "We have a mission, that is all we need to focus on now"

"You nearly get us killed again and I will make sure this mission ends" Malachi said to her.

"Then I will go on with or without you" Ziva said before turning back around and continued on her way.

They arrived at the hospital just as they lost Ziva's pulse. Tony started worrying they might be able to save her. They got her in the doors of the Hospital and pushed Tony back so he couldn't come with them.

"You fight Ziva, You fight" Tony said. He was hoping this wouldn't be the last time he saw her.

"What on earth are you thinking" Tony said to her, he brushed past her and walked into her apartment. Ziva just closed the door and followed him. "I used to think I knew you, right now I don't even know who you are anymore."

"I do not even know who I am" Ziva said to him, not really responding to his statement.

"I told you Ziva, I have your back and I thought you knew that" Tony said to her, continuing on his rant. She knew he didn't hear what she said. "But for some reason you still feel the need to just get up and walk away. After everything we have done and everything Vance has done." Tony turned and looked at her. "Why? I just want to know why you left Ziva?"

"It is complicated Tony" Ziva said to him.

"Complicated?" Tony said to her. "What is so complicated?"

"You would not understand" Ziva said to him.

"Understand? Ziva I risked my entire career and my life for you! So don't tell me I won't understand" Tony said to her, slightly snapping at her. "You are walking away from this team, this family" Tony started to say, he then lowered his voice "From me." Ziva just looked up at him. "I'm your partner Ziva, but right now it seems I'm not even that anymore."

"Tony" Ziva started to say, but was quickly interrupted by Tony again.

"Don't" He said to her. She could tell he needed to just say what he needed to say. "I don't want to hear another lie. I thought we were past that and we actually trusted each other. Clearly I was wrong."

"I...I do trust you" Ziva said finally getting a word in.

"Really you have a strange way of showing it?" Tony snapped at her. "Why'd you tell Gibbs the truth and lie to me?"

"I…I…I" Ziva tried to say, but couldn't get the words out. "I was not trying to hurt you. I just didn't want you to see me as this weak person. This person who could not help herself."

"Is that what you thought?" Tony said to her. "Ziva what on earth would give you that idea?"

"I have seen it before, someone gets hurt and everyone acts like they are this weak, made to shatter person." Ziva said to him

"Made of glass" Tony said correcting her. "You are anything but weak Ziva. I mean come on you are standing here. You have been through more hell and you have not fallen. If that doesn't say your are strong I don't know what does."

"You are the one person I could not stand to see look at me differently" Ziva said to him. She knew it would kill her to have him see her in a different light because of all this.

"So that is why you did all that?" Tony questioned.

"That and the more I said it out loud the more it became real" Ziva said to him.

"The more real it became the more you wanted to forget it." Tony said to her.

"I never wanted to hurt you Tony. Like you said after everything this team as done for me, everything you have done for me, you are the last people I want to hurt." Ziva said.

"Then what is this?" Tony asked her.

"A mission, I need to walk away from NCIS. No one can know" Ziva said to him. She knew she couldn't tell him, but right now she needed to tell him. "Everyone must think I left and I'm not coming back."

"Why?" Tony asked.

"It's the only way to get access to the group. They need to believe I walked away from NCIS, so they can use me to gather information. I will gather my own information to bring them down." Ziva explained to him. "My father believes they are planning something big and if we go in now, we can take them down before they can carry out their mission. Now is the perfect time to go."

"Why would you go on a mission for your father after what happened last time?" Tony questioned her.

"Because my father believes this is a real threat, he knows I am an NCIS Agent. He wouldn't ask me something if it wasn't important" Ziva said to him. "With everything that happened it makes sense, but you need to believe I am gone."

"I don't want you to go" Tony said to her.

"I must and you must believe I am never coming back. Or this will never work" Ziva told him. "Promise me you will go along with this."

"Only if you promise to come home" Tony said to her.

"I won't promise something I can't deliver" Ziva said to him.

"Okay I will play along, but I want you to come back. To the team and to me" Tony said to her. "I love you Ziva, I always have."

"I love you too" Ziva said to him. "And I always will."

Tony stood staring at the door that had the words emergency personal only, waiting for someone to come out. Suddenly Tony felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see who it was and there stood Gibbs.

"He's gone" Gibbs told Tony.

"Good because I'd kill him myself if he wasn't" Tony said to him. "If she dies, it's my fault."

"It's not and she'll pull through" Gibbs said him. "She's stronger then us all."

"I can't lose her Gibbs. I can't. No matter how mad I am at her, I can't bare to lose her." Tony said to him as his eyes started to well up. Tony refused to cry it wasn't going to cry no matter what.

"You love her?" Gibbs question.

"I do" Tony said to him. "I have always loved her."

"You will get to tell her" Gibbs said to him.

Hours had posted and they sat and waited to hear the news, it was almost like time was going so slow or stopped all together. No one could really figure out what happened, one minute they were storming into the abandoned apartment complex, the next thing they knew the building was coming down at them two people were down and they needed to find a way out. Before they could even start to make their way out, more shots rang out and in that spilt second everything changed. They all sat there praying she'd make it through. Abby had her laid her head against McGee's shoulder, trying so hard not to panic, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking they were going to lose another friend. McGee sat there, trying his best to console Abby, while still being strong himself. Ducky sat there watching everyone around him carefully; ready to offer a shoulder or a kind word. Then there was Tony and Gibbs. Tony tried to just sit there and wait, but no matter what he did he couldn't sit still. He couldn't stop thinking about how things all went wrong. He was supposed to have her back, he said he would and here they were, she was in trouble yet again. He just couldn't stop beating himself up. As Gibbs sat there trying not to think about how he failed his team.

Just then the doors opened and out walked the doctor from the emergency personal entrance only. They all stood up, but it was Tony and Gibbs that walked over to the doctor. They both knew it wasn't good news; the doctor had a look that screamed she was dead. Tony tried to stay strong, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to hear the news. He knew he couldn't live without her, nor did he ever want too. Not to mention the team needed her, whither he wanted to admit it or not.

"How is she?" Gibbs finally spoke up.

Within the silence, the words none of them wanted to hear were spoken. The doctor bowed his head and walked back through the emergency personal entrance only doors, and as the doors slowly closed, there you saw Tony as his legs slowly gave out beneath him. Gibbs stood there almost as if he didn't want to believe it. Abby was wrapped in McGee's arms as she cried uncontrollably. Ducky walked over to Gibbs and he placed a hand on Gibbs shoulder, and without words they looked at each other knowing the words to be said, but neither needed to speak them.

Gibbs walked down the stairs that lead to his basement, the one place he knew he could always go to when he just needed to be alone or just to think. The one place he didn't need to worry about what was to come or what had gone by. Somehow this time it just didn't feel right, it just wasn't the same. Once Gibbs reached the bottom, he walked over to his workbench and picked up a jar and cleaned it out. He then grabbed the bottle of scotch from the shelf, and opened it before pouring himself a glass. He turned to face his new creation and took a sip. Only this time instead of it being the cool relief he needed, it was sour and left a bitter taste in his mouth. He gripped the glass and tossed it across the room, it hit the wall, shattering as the liquid in the glass ran down the wall. Gibbs slowly started to lose control of his emotions and tears feel from his eyes. His knees began to give out underneath him, before he finally just dropped to the ground just letting the tears fall from his eyes.

AN: in case you get confused, Italics are flashbacks. The last one with Tony and Ziva though that is a what is if did things differently. And in the end if you don't get it, will explain it in the next chapter.