This chapter takes place within the first two weeks of Ziva being in Israel.

A/N: Loving the reviews guys. Keep 'em coming!

VillageVoice

Ziva stood in the middle of the cold and silent apartment and looked around. It was so foreign to her; the sights, the sounds . . . this was her own apartment. She should know it, but she didn't. She dropped her bag at her feet and crossed over to the window. It was quite a different view from her apartment back in DC or the view from Abby's apartment, NCIS – different from everything she had come to love in her past few years spent in the American capital. That was home. This was not.

"I'm here." She said. "Now what?"

Eli David stepped out from the shadows of the kitchen. "Now you get settled. You're back here for good now Ziva."

Ziva scoffed. "I would not be so sure Director."

"Director, Director, Director . . . I do not think you have called me 'Papa' once since I asked you to come home."

"Ordered me back to Israel." Ziva corrected. "Washington is my home and no father would order his child from her home or her family or friends…" She turned away from the window and cast her father a quick glance. "…her partner."

"Enough!" Eli yelled. "This is your home Ziva. You will be lucky if I do not restrict your passport barring you from ever returning to any country besides Israel, especially America."

"You can't."

"I can. You know information pertinent to the national defense and protection of several countries around the world. You are an extreme risk to the security of any country you step foot on."

"That is stretching it." Ziva responded, thinking how proud Tony would be of her for correctly using an American idiom.

"Perhaps. But coming from the Director of Mossad..." Eli shrugged. "You have extensive training in espionage Ziva. There is also the issue of you being a trained assassin, a very successful trained assassin."

"You have made your point."

"Point? What point? Can a father not simply be happy that his daughter has decided to move back home?"

Ziva shook her head.

"You were only a liaison officer, Ziva. It was never meant to be permanent."

Ziva was sitting in her father's office in Mossad at exactly 05:00 the next morning. She had slept little, but that had more to do with the ache in her heart and less to do with the time difference between Tel Aviv and DC, although her father would claim it was the latter. Ziva was well traveled. Her body was used to rising when she told it to and sleeping when she told it to, regardless of the time of day or where she was in the world. She could sleep anywhere, on anything. A nice warm, plush bed in a five-star hotel suite, good. A tiny wooden raft in the middle of the ocean during a category five storm, even better.

The three goons guarding her also did not aid in her attempt to sleep. There was one in the hallway outside of her apartment and two on the street below. She never slept well when she was being tailed. She didn't trust the people tailing her just as much as the person who hired them did not trust her. Although she had always been a fan of the number three. She probably could have taken them out without much effort, but her father would only send more in their place.

At 05:06 her father walked in.

"You're late." Ziva said, eyes not looking away from the spot she'd been staring at for the past six minutes.

Eli shut the door and made his way to his desk, not at all surprised to see Ziva in his office and in his chair. He dropped his briefcase beside his desk and waited for Ziva to move out of the chair. Eli cleared his throat and Ziva looked up at him, reluctantly vacating his chair and moving to one of the two on the other side of the desk. "So," Eli began, sitting down in the chair and returning it to its previous adjustments that Ziva had messed with. "What can I do for you Ziva?"

"You are the one who told me to be here."

"I never told you to be here. In the country, yes, but here-"

"When I was in Mossad-"

"You never stopped being in Mossad Ziva." Eli corrected.

Ziva rolled her eyes. "While I was here, we began at 05:00. I was here at 05:00. What is my assignment?"

"Go home Ziva."

Ziva was confused, but she couldn't resist messing with the Director. "I only just arrived here, but I will gladly get back on a plane and go ho-"

Eli David eyed his daughter sternly. "Go back to your apartment – Your apartment here." He quickly added.

"My assignment is to go back to the apartment?" Ziva asked, purposefully not calling it her apartment.

"Yes."

Ziva watched as her father pulled some files out of a drawer and begin to add his signature to random pages. After a minute he looked up. "Why?" She asked.

"You need time to process things. I may not like it, but this woman meant something to you and you need to grieve the loss of that . . . relationship."

"She still means something to me. The only thing I am grieving is the loss of a father." She charged out of the room, slamming the door behind herself.

"You grieved that a long time ago Ziva." Eli whispered after her before turning back to his work.

"Romance between agents Kate, it never works." Gibbs sighed. Why hadn't he told that to Abby? He pushed, pushed, pushed and pushed rule #12 on all of his agents. Rule #12 – Never date a co-worker. It hadn't worked out well for him or anyone before him and it wouldn't work out for anyone else. He knew that. So why had he let Abby and Ziva continue seeing each other? It wasn't as though he could actually break them up. Abby and Ziva were two of the most stubborn women he knew, but if he had really pushed with Abby she may have at least entertained the thought of breaking things off. Even if it was just for a second. Why didn't he push?

"It's not your fault Gibbs." Abby said, entering the room in her pajamas and plopping down beside Gibbs on the couch. As much as she wished she could, she couldn't wear Ziva's sweats 24/7. She leaned over and let her head fall onto Gibbs's shoulder.

"How do you know what I'm thinking?"

Abby chuckled and snuggled closer. "I'm really good, remember?"

Gibbs laughed. "Yeah. I remember."

"I wouldn't have broken up with her even if you'd asked me to." She said.

"I could have ordered you too."

Abby scoffed. This was Abby. She knew Gibbs would never order her to do anything. He always asked very nicely – most of the time with a caf-pow and a kiss on the cheek when she had done what he asked. "Like you'd do that Gibbs."

"I should have Abby." Gibbs said, shaking his head.

Abby pulled away from Gibbs and sat up so she was facing him. "No you shouldn't have. Look Gibbs, I know we have a really weird indefinable father-daughter sort of relationship, and you would murder the president to protect me, but this is my life. I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm going to screw up, big time, I'm going to get hurt, I'm going to miss vital pieces of evidence and then have it come back and bite me in the ass-"

"No you won't Abs."

"Okay, I probably won't miss evidence." Abby chuckled. "But you couldn't stop this Gibbs. I believe that Ziva and I were meant to be together. I also believe that we'll be back together." She leaned back against Gibbs and let out a happy sigh when he wrapped his arm around her. "It's fate."

"Fate Abs? I thought you only trusted in science?"

"Science and people Gibbs – Well, certain people. Like you and Ziva. And Tony and McGee, Ducky, Palmer-kind of, maybe Director Vance someday, maybe, but not very likely, my family - some of my family." She sighed. "Do you think she's ever going to come back Gibbs?"

Gibbs let out a long breath and held Abby closer, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "I don't know Abs."

"Gibbs?" Abby asked as she tried to stifle a yawn. Gibbs looked down at Abby. "I broke up with McGee because you asked me too."

"I know."

"You knew it wasn't going to go anywhere."

"Yeah."

Abby nodded. "You never asked me to do that with Ziva."

"No." Gibbs shook his head. "I didn't."

"Not that I would have done it even if you had asked, but it means a lot." Abby yawned and swung her legs over the edge of the couch. She looked at Gibbs. "That you believed too."

Gibbs watched Abby pad her way back to the bedroom, a little blur of fur trotting along behind her. "Abby, did you forget about rule number twelve when you and Ziva started seeing each other?"

Abby came out to the door frame and shook her head rigorously. "Of course not Gibbs." She smirked. "I just ignored it." Gibbs smirked as Abby turned back into her room, only to reappear a second later. "McGee wasn't even part of the team and thus not a co-worker to be breaking rule number twelve with when you asked me to end things with him. He was still working in Norfolk. You knew he was going to join the team."

"I may have had inside information."

Abby smiled. "Night Gibbs."

"Goodnight Abby."

"Complicated, complicated, complicated." Ziva muttered as she paced around her apartment. "I thought it was only in America that things were so . . ." She sighed and plopped down onto the couch. ". . complicated." She looked around the unfamiliar room and focused on her bag. Hidden inside one of the inside pockets was another pocket without an opening, so you would never be able to tell there was another pocket in the original pocket if you opened it. It was also surrounded in lead and thus impenetrable by airport x-ray machines and the Mossad officer who searched her things the minute the plane touched down in Tel Aviv. She hadn't even gotten to her bag before it was taken to be searched.

She dragged the bag over and placed it on her lap. With her knife she opened the secret pocket and pulled out a camera. She tossed the bag and knife to the side and with great momentum threw the camera to the ground. The camera shattered into tiny pieces that flew in every direction revealing a thin black phone within. She picked up the cell phone and flipped it open, quickly powering it up.

Her fingers hovered over the buttons for a few minutes before typing in the familiar numbers and writing as basic a text as she could. She knew they would be worried about her so she would let them know she was okay, but nothing more.

'In Israel. Do not worry I am fine.'

She looked out the window for a second. There was no way she could not include a message to Abby.

'Tell her I miss her and I will always love her no matter what happens.
Do not respond. I will be in contact'

Once that was sent she dialed a number she had not needed in quite some time and put the cell to her ear. She just hoped that she remembered their code. This was a secure line as no one knew she had this particular cell. When she first came to America to track down Ari it had been the first thing she had bought as soon as she got off the plane. She bought two, and when she joined NCIS and got to know the rest of the team she gave the other to McGee, just in case. She had probably only made one or two calls with it and sent just a handful of texts. It was small enough to hide inside of her once beloved camera she had taken the insides out of to make into something she could hide things inside of. No one would think anything of her bringing her camera with her.

Someone picked up on the other line and the ringing stopped. He wouldn't say anything until Ziva did. Part of their code was that whoever made the call dictated which covers they would use. By saying the other person's name, the caller gave a whole back story they created many, many years ago. "Marc, bonjour!"

"Ah, bonjour Talia. It has been a while." The man replied in a flawless French accent.

"It has." Ziva cast a glance around the room and then quickly out the window. She checked the entire apartment for bugs after her father had left when she first arrived. There was nothing there, but when she came back after going to her father's office there were five, which she had immediately destroyed. She took a second to make sure she remembered their codes. "How are Chloe and Elisa? It has been a few years since I have seen them."

"They are well. They are very well; getting bigger by the day. We could free up some time this weekend if you would like to see them."

"I was hoping to see them sooner than that." She couldn't remember their code for a next day meeting, so she just went for it and eventually he would get it.

"They are in school today."

"Then after."

The man sighed. "They were supposed to visit their grandmother after school tomorrow, but I suppose we could always postpone."

Ziva thought for a moment. If she really wanted her father to lighten up on the security, she had to lay low for at least a few days before trying anything. She changed her plan. If she behaved as if she was accepting that her life was now back in Israel with Mossad, there was a chance she could catch everyone off guard in a couple of weeks. "I would not want to take time away from their grandmother. I know they do not see her much."

"They do not."

"I am busy this coming weekend, but how about after that? In two weeks?"

"I am sure the girls will enjoy that."

"I will call you later to set everything up, yes?"

"I will be here."

"Merci Marc! Ciao."

"Ciao Tali."

Ziva nodded and shut her cell phone. She had a lot of work to do in the next two weeks if she wanted to look to be the perfectly obedient officer.

[2 Weeks Later]

A man sat down across from Ziva and looked around a few times before he took his sunglasses off. "Chloe and Elisa? Really Ziva? This has to be the furthest location from where I was. I am in the middle of an assignment." He said, his previous French accent gone and in its place his natural Israeli accent.

Ziva nodded. She had remembered what 'grandmother' was code and she appreciated his coming while he was currently involved in such a dangerous mission, but he was not going to get any sympathy from her. "It took me three and a half hours to get here."

"Three?" The man asked. "Were you at your apartment?"

"Yes." Ziva sighed. "I was being tailed. It took me a while to lose them."

"If it took you a while to lose them..." He shook his head. "They must be pretty good."

Ziva nodded. "Trained by my father."

"He order them to tail you?"

"Yes. He is making sure that I do not try to go back to America or contact anyone I worked with."

"I heard there was a girl."

Ziva laughed to herself. "Of course you did."

"So?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "Is there?"

"Yes." Ziva nodded. "Her name is Abby."

"She must be something special to have captured the heart of Ziva David."

Ziva smiled sadly. "She is."

The man eyed Ziva and leaned back in the chair. "She is the reason."

"Yes." She looked up at the man across from her with fresh tears in her eyes. "Ben I really need your help."

He took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. So, how are we going to kill the great Ziva David?"

"I'm sorry Gibbs." Vance said with what little amount of emotion he could pretend to have. "The order came from her father."

"I don't care if it came from my father."

"He is the head of Mossad."

"What are you not getting? I don't care who the order came from. It could come from the president, our president, and would still tell him to shove it up-"

"I will pretend I did not just hear that." Vance interrupted. "She's gone Gibbs. Either find someone to replace her or just stay with the two agents you have it's your choice. But Officer David is gone."

Gibbs threw the Director one last look of contempt and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind himself. He could not keep getting so attached to the women in his life. They were all either taken away from him or left at some point – His mother, Shannon, Kelly, Jenny, Kate, Hollis, now Ziva. Abby was all he had left. Kate, Ziva and Abby were like daughters to him. He lost Kelly, his real daughter and then Kate. Now Ziva was gone and who knew what her absence was going to do to Abby. NCIS was a family. He didn't know how much more of his family he could stand to lose.

McGee saw Gibbs exit the Director's office and all but run down the stairs. He was pissed. A pissed Gibbs usually meant make yourself look very busy and have good information ready in case he asked you a question. It most certainly did not mean make eye contact or say anything without being spoken to. McGee cleared his throat. It was time to make an exception. "Boss?"

Gibbs stopped at his desk and turned to McGee. He took a breath and relaxed. The team needed to stick together now more than ever. "Yes McGee?"

McGee took a deep breath. "Ziva is fine." He whispered.

Gibbs cracked a tiny smile. Ziva David was a smart woman. She and McGee were friends, but not especially close as she was with Tony or Abby. But Tony was her partner and partners always had a certain bond, and Abby was her girlfriend. So maybe McGee was the closest friend she had beside her platonic partner and her non-platonic partner, but nevertheless she knew that McGee would be the last one anyone would suspect of being in communication with her. He nodded to McGee and grabbed his gun from the drawer, heading over to the elevator once it was in it holster.

"Ah, Boss!" McGee called.

Gibbs looked over at the Probie and knew that he had more information. It was best they talk about Ziva where there wasn't a camera, like in the elevator where they had installed one after the man died on the elevator while in Ziva's custody. He walked over to McGee's desk and looked at him expectantly.

McGee stood up. "Are you staying with Abby again tonight?"

"You got a problem with that McGee?"

"No. No of course not Boss. Absolutely not."

Gibbs waited a beat and lowered his voice. "What else did she say?"

"She wants Abby to know that she misses her. And that she . . . loves her Boss."

Gibbs nodded. "I'll tell her."

"Thank-you Boss."

Gibbs went back over to the elevator while McGee got his things ready and headed over himself. He was not ready for Gibbs to be holding the elevator door open for him. "Thank-you Boss."

Gibbs let the doors close once McGee was inside. "McGee, you know that rule I have about not apologizing?"

"Yes Boss."

"Make that about saying 'thank you' too."

"Sorry Boss." McGee blurted out before he could stop himself.

Gibbs smacked him upside the head and laughed. They were a bit dysfunctional, but what family wasn't?