Disclaimer: The American premiere of NCIS season five is drawing closer, so the demise of She Who Must Not Be Named must be soon (I've seen the preview, by the way, and it looks great – pity I'm in Australia and have to wait until next year). Anyways, down with Jeanne and NCIS is not mine.

A/N I originally planned this flashback of sorts to be one chapter long, but I decided that it would better serve the purpose by being two shorter chapters so there isn't so much to take in. It's a little slow, but I think it works. This is a continuation of what was said in the previous chapter 'Did I Ever Thank You'. I hope you enjoy and thanks to my beta, Kandon Kuuson :D

"Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice." - Woodrow T. Wilson
Chapter Ten: Loyalty

Present Time – Somewhere far, far away

"Don't you see, Ziva? Tali tried again, looking desperately at her older sister.

"See what?" Ziva asked, raising her eyebrows questioningly.

"That!" Tali yelled and pointed to the blank screen.

"It's dark, Tal, what's there to see?"

Tali sighed exasperatedly. "Why do you insist on making things so difficult? Okay, let me smell . . ."

"Spell, Tali," Roy corrected with a smile.

"Whatever." Tali brushed his comment aside in a very Ziva-like manner; the two sisters were more alike than they realised. "I will spell it out for you. Father trained us from the beginning to work for Mossad. Hell, he groomed our brother . . ."

"Half-brother!" Ziva all but yelled.

At the same time, Kate glared at Tali. "Don't bring him into this!"

Ignoring the comments, Tali continued, "He made Ari," – Kate and Ziva shot Tali murderous glances, she ignored them – "into a spy. Do you think he would have done what he did if father hadn't pushed . . .?"

Both Ziva and Kate opened their mouths to argue, but Tali was too quick and silenced them with a wave of her hand.

"This is not about Ari!" Tali said sternly, glaring at the two women. "This is not about what he did to Kate or to Agent Gibbs' team." She looked pointedly at Kate. "Or what he did to Israel and Mossad, and it is certainly not about what happened to him." This time she looked at Ziva. "This is about you, Ziva. Yes, Ari is part of it, but he is not the subject of this discussion. I was merely making a point."

Roy watched the exchange with an amused expression. Unable to help himself, he interrupted, "And I thought testosterone males were bad enough . . . I guess I was wrong." His comment stopped all three women in their tracks. One by one, they turned and looked at him.

"What?" he shrugged. "It's true! Being stuck in a room with three times the normal amount of oestrogen is not all that it's cracked up to be."

"Do you want to find out what three times the normal amount of oestrogen can do?" Tali threatened, the argument momentarily forgotten.

"It was just an observation." Roy backed away; he was digging himself deeper into a hole. He raised his hands in surrender as the three women glared icily at him. "Anyway . . ." he started, trying to get the women to forget their argument, "you did learn one good thing from your father."

"What might that be?" Ziva asked.

"Loyalty," was Roy curt reply.

"Loyalty?"

"Yes, loyalty," Roy repeated. "Loyalty for your colleagues, but, most importantly, loyalty for your friends."

"Whaa . . ." Ziva was confused. 'Who was he talking about? Jenny?' she wondered. 'Tony?'

"Do you think if you weren't loyal to Director Shepard, you would have gone back for her?" Roy asked emotionally.

"Yes," Ziva replied sharply. She relaxed as Roy spelt it out to her.

"Are you sure?" Roy questioned. "You knew Mossad's reasoning was valid, it was what was expected. The best of the best leave no trail! But you went off anyway, and saved her life. Any other officer and you'd have a different Director of NCIS."

Ziva was prepared to argue, but Roy pointed to the screen.

"Watch."

Central Point Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, October 2003

Ziva groaned as she emerged from a groggy slumber. Struggling to open her eyes, she heard the all too familiar beeps of the hospital machinery. Ziva groaned again and opened her eyes, only to be blasted with a shower of bright light. Blinking a few times, Ziva's vision cleared. She looked over to a chair across the room and saw her former boss, Maor Hirsch, reading a local newspaper. Ziva groaned yet again, but this time it was for different reasons. Hirsch looked up at the sudden sounds.

"Officer David,' he said emotionlessly, neatly folding the paper and walking over to her bedside, "you're awake."

"Well spotted," Ziva mumbled sarcastically, earning a smirk from Hirsch.

"Aren't we just the charmer," Hirsch replied.

Ziva grumbled, "What did I do to earn the company of Mossad's finest?"

Hirsch looked down at her. "You don't remember?"

"We were after Jahan Ahmed," Ziva remembered slowly, thinking back, "Jen and I. We were outside his sister's house, surveillance. Then . . ."

Flashback

"Jen, down!" was the first thing Ziva yelled after seeing the flash of silver. They were sitting in a run down car, surveying Jahan Ahmed's sister's house, when the first bullets penetrated the car.

"Jen!" Ziva yelled again, diving into the back seat and pulling out her gun. She aimed in the direction the bullets had come from and fired. Ziva received no answer from Jenny, but was unable to look around for her partner as a fresh round of bullets pierced the car.

Running out of ammunition, Ziva reached for her back-up clip and jammed in into her gun. Unfortunately, a bullet decided it was the perfect time and struck her shoulder. Yelling out in surprise, Ziva toppled back into the backrest of the car seat.

End Flashback

"Jen," Ziva gasped in horror and turned to Hirsch, "where is she?"

"Taken," Hirsch replied flatly.

"What do you mean taken?" Ziva asked forcefully.

"Agent Shepard was gone when we recovered you," Hirsch replied in the same voice. "We believe that Ahmed and his men ambushed the car. There was a lot of blood on your clothes, so they must have accounted for you as dead. It would also appear that they took Shepard."

"What!" Ziva yelled disbelievingly.

"Unless Shepard has gone AWOL, she was taken," Hirsch repeated.

"What are you doing then?" Ziva asked, going into Mossad officer mode.

"Nothing." Hirsch's voice was like a sharp razor sliding across his victim's neck.

"What do you mean nothing?" Ziva questioned, her voice getting a little louder.

"I mean exactly what I said," Hirsch replied coolly. "You know just as well as the rest of us that Ahmed will pump her for information and then pump her with bullets."

"So you're just doing nothing?" Ziva's voice had a slight tinge of hysteria.

"There is nothing that can be done," Hirsch said calmly.

"Nothing!" Ziva shrieked. "So you are just going to leave her."

"Yes, there is nothing more we can do," Hirsch replied. "We will let our friends in America know that Agent Shepard served her . . ."

"Oh, because that'll go down so well with the Americans," Ziva said sarcastically. "She died for her country . . . I doubt the Naval Criminal Investigative Service will be pleased with that."

"We will send our condolences . . ." Hirsch began.

"And that'll make it all better." Ziva was now riled and angry. "Sure it will, Hirsch."

"David . . ." Hirsch said warningly.

"No. Don't. Just . . . just go," Ziva snapped and pointed to the door with her uninjured arm.

"I am here to guard you." Hirsch didn't move.

"Then guard me from outside!" Ziva shouted. "Do you want me to call my father?" Ziva knew the father line would work and Hirsch reluctantly left the room.

"I will be outside," he said before he disappeared.

Ziva sighed and looked out the small hospital window. "Where are you, Jen?"

Sliding her legs from under the covers and resisting the urge to moan as a spasm of pain rocketed up her left arm; Ziva put her feet on the linoleum floor and padded over to the pile she recognised as her clothes. Fishing in the pocket of her bloodied jeans, Ziva grasped her cell and silently removed it from her jeans. Checking to make sure it still worked, she pressed speed dial one and put the phone to her ear.

"Ziva!" Adena exclaimed as she answered the phone. "I thought you were in surgery?"

"Surgery?" Ziva repeated stupidly.

"Yeah, you were shot pretty badly," Adena explained, and then remembered to whom she was talking to. "Oh, gosh, are you okay?"

"Would I be talking to you if I was not okay?" Ziva was met with silence. "I'm okay, Addy, but Jen's not."

"What?" Adena asked. Although she was in Cairo, she was working another part of the mission and had only found out about Ziva in passing.

"Ahmed's got her," Ziva stated.

"What?" Adena said for the second time.

"We were ambushed. I was shot and Jen was abducted," Ziva replied.

"What's happening?" Adena asked, and Ziva knew what she meant.

"Nothing," she said bitterly.

"Nothing?" Adena echoed.

"Yeah, you know Mossad," Ziva muttered darkly, "someone goes, we get somebody new."

"That's . . . that's not . . . fair." Adena struggled for the correct words, but knew that what Ziva was saying made sense and fitted Mossad to the tee.

"That's why I need your help," Ziva said suddenly, catching Adena's attention.

"Huh?"

"I need you to come and help me get out of here," Ziva said quickly.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, Addy," Ziva said.

"Are you out of your mind?" Adena hissed. "You've just had major surgery. No way should you be breaking out of hospital."

"Jen's in trouble, Ad," Ziva stated. "Mossad isn't doing anything so I have to do it."

"But, Zee . . ."

"No, Adena," Ziva said strongly and firmly, "I am not leaving her. I will make sure I find her, no matter what state she's in. I won't give up."

"That's very noble of you, but how . . ."

"Don't doubt me, Addy," Ziva said coldly. "You are either in or out. You're the only one I can trust. I will do it on my own if I have to."

"Ziva . . ."

"Don't try and talk me out of it," Ziva said stubbornly. "Jen is my friend. I don't leave my friends behind."

Adena sighed on the other end of the phone. "How do you expect to rescue Jenny if you're half injured yourself?"

"It's nothing I can't handle," Ziva said defiantly. "Are you in or not?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone and then, "Count me in, Zee. Let's do it."