I'm not in the mood to write. But I promised a chapter yesterday and it didn't get up. So here it is. Check out the one shot, "There are other ways" (NCIS, duh! lol), that was posted yesterday if you haven't already!

This chapter is dedicated to my daughter, Gabriella Charlotte, who was still born at 19 weeks and 4 days, exactly one year ago today (april 15h, 2009) 702pm, weighing 8oz and 15 inches long. Mommy, Daddy and your big brother will always love you and miss you!

Song: You'll Be In My Heart- Phil Collins.

For a few hours after Tony had left, Ziva did nothing but sit in the same spot. She had stopped her tears, telling herself she was not some seventeen year old girl crying over a lost first love.

Except she was crying over a lost love at the moment. And Tony wasn't her first love.

Come stop your crying

It will be alright

Just take my hand

Hold it tight

Oh WHY had she let him leave? Why had she not stopped him, talked or yelled more.. made him listen? The entire situation made her upset. They couldn't communicate like normal people... no. They were too mistrusting and emotionally strung out from previous relationships that it was almost impossible for them to talk about their issues or problems with the other.

Of course both of them bottling everything inside them was not the best idea either. Because when one or both of them exploded, it wasn't pretty. Ziva had not thought of Micheal in a long time and was surprised to find herself doing so now. That situation was a prime example of both of her and Tony's tempers.

While he was only trying to protect her, she was afriad he was jealous that she wasn't dating him...even with Gibbs' Rule 12. Of course, she knew now that hadn't been the case. Just as she knew that even though she was better and they had not actually talked (or argued) about it, Tony still felt guilty for her injuries.

I will protect you

From all around you

I will be here

Don't you cry

Tony....Finally standing, Ziva cleaned the broken plate off the carpeted floor before running a vaccum and then looking for something to get the sauce stain out of the carpet. Finding something called Resolve, Ziva followed the instructions, scrubbing mindlessly until she realized it was nearly eleven in the morning.

How long had she been lost in her thoughts? Too long. With another sigh, Ziva put the cleaning supplies away and wondered if she should maybe.. No. She'd chicken and not do it if she thought about it. Pulling out her phone, she hit the familar speed dial button, waiting.

"Hello?"

She half expected him not to answer. "T..Tony,"

"Hey, Ziva. I made it here safe, obviously,"

She could here laughter in the backround and wondered where exactly he was at... 8 a.m. in California. Surely the office there was not that unstructured. "Yea... look Tony, I was calling to say-"

"It's alright. I wanted to say the same thing. I just got here about half an hour ago and I'm exhausted. I've got a case to catch up on, so I'll call you later, ok?""

Of course it had to be ok. Duty called. "Talk to you later, Tony." After all, that is what they always did...talked later or never at all about anything. She wouldn't loose it again. He wasn't brushing her off.....But if he wasn't why did it hurt so much to think that was exactly what he was doing at the moment?

For one so small

You seem so strong

My arms will hold you

Keep you safe and warm

This bond between us

Can't be broken

I will be here don't you cry

Then again, if Ziva had known it was going to be days before she talked to him again, she'd have kept him on the phone for more than a two minute phone call.

Almost a week had passed since Tony left. Ziva hadn't heard from him and his phone would go to voicemail every time she called. She was sure he was avoiding her, but he would have to at least answer once, right?

Los Angeles......

Sam Hana rubbed his face. "You know, G, when I told the guy I wouldn't mind if he went missing, I was just messing with him. I didn't think he'd actually end up missing!"

"I know, Sam..." Callen said looking around the small bull pen.

"What are we going to do? It's almost exactly like Dom's..." Kensi said tapping a pen on her desk as she rocked back and forth in her chair. "We don't know his blood type, not that Eric can't get it, there is no real evidence.. he's just gone too!"

"You know, it's got to be something with Dom...something in his case file that we're missing...something that caused both him and Tony to go missing," Sam said thoughtfully.

"Like what? We've been over the specific case many times already. What are we expecting to find? A lucky note to a drug ring?" Kensi asked incredulously. "We have no leads and the one we did have ended up getting our temporary transfer taken from under our noses too....."

"Kensi, shut up," Callen snappped. She frowned at him. Callen looked around. "What I think we need is a fresh set of eyes," he turned to Eric, who'd been silent the entire time. "What would be the chances that he and Dom are both still alive?"

Eric raised an eye. "You don't want to know that statistic-"

"Both? That's about a fifty percent chance that both are alive. It jumps to Eighty if it's just Tony and down to about twenty-five if it's just Dominic." Nate said from out of nowhere. "Tony's got a higher chance. He's been gone for three day where as Dom's been gone a hell of a lot longer so that makes Tony's chance-"

"Thank you Dr. Statistic," Sam said sarcastically. Nate mock saluted him and Sam rolled his eyes.

"No, this is good guys... think about it," Kensi said. "If we find Tony, we may find Dom...or know what happened to him. Wouldn't any answers be better than none?"

"While Kensi has a point, we still need fresh eyes." Callen looked around. "Eric, get Abby Scutio from D.C. in on this. That's Tony's home base anyway. Send her everything we have on Tony and Dom, see what she can come up with on her end. Make sure she knows we're still looking. Gibbs'll raise hell if he finds out I've lost another one of his agents,"

"Done," Eric rounded the small partition and headed up the stairs.

"Kensi come with me. We're going back to the scene where Dom was last seen, and then to Tony's hotel room. Sam, go over the cars again with the specialists, see if there is anything, and I mean ANYTHING we might have missed in either Tony's rental or Dominic's car."

"I'll search it myself, G,"

They swung into action and Callen wondered how long it would be before he got a phone call from Gibbs. Not long, he figured. He also knew he'd need to have some answers for his friend. Gibbs was territorial and protective about everything, including his agents

Cause you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

You'll be in my heart

No matter what they say

You'll be here in my heart

Always

Washington, D.C.

Gibbs slammed into the Director of NCIS's office.

"Agent Gibbs, I am in a meet-"

"I don't care, Leon. When where you going to mention the fact that you sent one of my best agents to another office?"

Leon Vance sighed. He knew the cause for the outburst. "When I had the chance."

"Had the chance? He's been gone a week. And now I come to find out that he's been MISSING for the last three and I'm only JUST NOW finding out about it? When were you going to tell me, Leon? Were you even going to? Because I'm damned sure that if Abby hadn't gotten the request to help from Eric, none of us would have known about it!"

"Agent Gibbs!" Leon snapped. He'd had enough for now. "I am in a meeting. We will talk about Agent DiNozzo when I am finshed."

Gibbs crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eye as if to say, it's over and if not, I'm gonna wait right here until it does. Leon stared at him, a battle of wills between both men until Leon cracked.

Why can't they understand

the way we feel

They just don't trust

What they can't explain

"You may wait outside for this meeting to finish. Then I will speak with you."

"You got that right, Leon," Gibbs said slamming back out the door and plopping into one of the plush chairs right outside the office. How DARE Vance not tell him DiNozzo was missing for almost half the time he was in L.A.! Gibbs didn't care what the reason was- as DiNozzo's direct supervisor he should have been informed, whether the agent was on leave or not!

Damn him...! What the hell had he been thinking?! Going to L.A. and getting himself kidnapped. Where the hell was DiNozzo's brain? First Jenny had to go. She'd died. He and McGee had gone, come back fully intact. Abby had gone and almost died after being kidnapped. Could his senior agent see the damned pattern? Ok.. maybe not pattern so much as a trend. L.A. was dangerous for his team, even he could put that together. And how was he supposed to help being almost three thousand miles away?

What exactly was Abby supposed to do from here? And there was no way in hell he was sending her back to L.A., not even for Tony's sake. Abby was good- no she was the best. If anyone could solve a crime long distance, it would be her.

What the hell kind of case were those agents working on anyway that allowed Tony to be kidnapped?

Damn it all to hell. They were family- a dysfunctional family, but still a family, even if it wasn't blood related!! For some reason Gibbs was sure anyone outside his him would not understand that analogy if he said it out loud... but he knew they all would.

I know we're different

But deep inside us

We're not that different at all

And you'll be in my heart

Yes, you'll be in my heart

From this day on

Now and forever more

A few minutes later, the office doors opened and Vance came out with some upper managment guy Gibbs has never seen before. And he didn't reallly care.

"Come on in Gibbs," Vance told him after minute.

Gibbs strutted past his boss and back into the office he'd been in not fifteen minutes before. As soon as the door shut, he exploded. "What the hell Leon!?"

"Look, Gibbs, he wanted back early..."

"And you couldn't place him back on my team because....?"

"You have two TADs for the next three weeks. I can't just transfer them suddenly without excuses."

"Oh and something along the lines of "permenant agent came back" wouldn't have worked?"

"As much as I want to say yes, no. It would not have."

"Damn it, Leon!" Gibbs slammed his hand on the table, hard. "You KNOW sending any of my team to L.A. is suicide and yet you did it anyway! Jenny Shepard, Abby....now Tony?"

"You forgot-"

"I didn't forget anyone. That place is not good for my team and you know it. Yet you still sent DiNozzo there! Are you trying to kill off every team member I have?"

"Now wait one second, Gibbs. I offered the TEMPORARY assignment to DiNozzo. He accepted it. He's an adult and you are not his father. He can do what he pleases."

"I might as well be! We're all here often enough!" Gibbs said. "I am NOT sending Abby back out there. We almost lost her once and I won't chance you knocking off two of my agents." He grit his teeth, not wanting to go on. "I've got a phone call to make," he muttered, whirling around and heading out the door, punching numbers in into his phone as he went.

Don't listen to them

Cause what do they know?

We need each other

To have, to hold

They'll see in time

I know

He placed the phone to his ear as he entered the bull pen. "McGee," he barked. "I want all of Tony's credit card transactions from the last week and a half. I want his rental car number in L.A., bank statements, calls he's placed or recieved in the last month from his cell phone, all the cases he worked on in Baltimore nine years ago that are out on parole and in the L.A. area, and a track placed on his phone."

"Uh.. boss.. I can't do all that-"

"NOW, McGee," he said before speaking into the phone, though this was more of a growl. "Callen, you'd better have something good for me," He walked off before McGee could further protest so McGee began working on finding Tony. He wasn't stupid, and had been there when Abby rushed up to inform them that Tony was in L.A.- shock number one, and that he was missin- shock number two.

McGee paused and glanced at the two agents sitting in Tony and Ziva's desks. Gibbs had totally ignored them and the two looked kinda scared. "Don't worry, he gets like that sometimes," McGee explained. The TADs nodded but they didn't look reassured. "Best you look busy or he'll go off on you,"

The two agents burried their heads in the cold case work they'd been doing yesterday and McGee couldn't help but wonder if Ziva knew Tony was missing. If she did, she'd come in, wouldn't she? Oh yes. He may be the geeky guy, but he knew those two had something between them.

When destiny calls you

You must be strong

I may not be with you

But you've got to hold on

They'll see in time

I know

We'll show them together

He just hoped Tony would make it home alive so that whatever that something was would help them.

somewhere esle-somewhere else-somewhere eslse-somewhere else- somewhere else-

Tony groaned. His head hurt like crazy. He was tied, lying on the floor. That much he knew. It was a hard floor too. What the hell had happened? He stiffened and realized he was not alone in the darknees.

"Who's there?" Oh wow, that was loud! He winced as the sound reviberated in his brain. Killer migrain, check. Tied up, check. Hard floor, check. As his eyes finally adjusted, he made out a figure sitting on the wall across from him.

"Hey there."

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"As to where you are, your guess is as good as mine. As for me, I'm Dominic Vail. You can call me Dom."

"You!" he winced and gasped. "You're the reason I'm here in the first place!! Haven't you been missing for months? What the hell are you still doing alive?"

"Ask the bastards that have me. NCIS?"

"No, Inspector Yard."

"Haha, funny. You're from D.C. aren't you? I remember you from Video."

"Yea yea... I was sent here to take your place for a bit.. but I didn't know that would literally happen."

"Sorry."

"Eh, this is normal for me."

Dominic raised an eye, but Tony could just barely make it out. "Normal?"

"Lets see, I've been almost blown up at least three times, accused of murder three, and kidnapped a few too. Sometimes all those happen in one case. Sometimes not."

"You're one lucky bastard,"

"Uh huh," he struggled with his bonds. "Mind helping me out here? I'm losing cirrculation."

"Oh.. yea, sure.... " Dom slid over to him and helped untie his bonds.

"Let's get out of here," he said looking around and rubbing his wrists.

"Can't. I've tried. And failed. Many times."

"Oh, but I will succeed.. I've got to get back to D.C. I've got unfinished business and I am not going to die out here away from...." Ziva. He wanted to be with her. He'd been an idiot. "D.C." he finished lamely since Dominic was watching him.

Cause you'll be in my heart

Believe me, you'll be in my heart

I'll be there from this day on

Now and forever more

"Good luck with that," Dom told him. "We'll be lucky if they feed us within the next three days."

Tony groaned as he realized exactly how bad the situation he was in was. "We'll get out. People will be looking--"

"They've been looking for me too. And yet I'm still here." Dom pointed out.

Tony didn't like those odds one bit.