Hi,

I know that I was on hiatus for a really long time. Sorry about that! I had my exams to cram for. Geez, it's been really long now has it? Sorry! On to the story!

Chapter 9:

"Where in the world was Ziva?" Tony wondered to himself. He had walked throughout the ballroom and checked (with a few glares) the ladies room.

"Maybe the courtyard," he thought and made his way towards the glass doors.

At the courtyard,

The mystery man had Ziva pinned down to the ground and had used his tie to muffle her cries. She was frantically struggling but whatever she had been drugged with was making her feel groggy.

He took out a pocket knife and started to cut away at her dress. She flashed back to a certain Somalia terrorist camp.

Not again, not this time. She couldn't let her weakness overcome her.

Still, she froze. Tears were welling up at her eyes in fear. She felt weak and she hated it. Until she heard Tony's voice,

"Hey! Get off her you son of a bitch!"

The man grabbed Ziva by her hair and held his pocket knife to her throat.

"Move and she dies."

"If you dare hurt her I swear I'm gonna…"

At that time, the NYPD and NCIS busted in,

"NYIS, put the weapon down slowly!" both team leaders looked at each other. The unintended combined name sounded odd.

The man looked faltered for a moment and dropped the knife, he pushed Ziva to the ground. He took off only to be stopped by Esposito and McGee.

Tony ran over to Ziva and helped her up, he undid the tie knot on her mouth,

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

She shook her head slowly. The NYPD took over and cuffed the man.

Gibbs and Kate came over,

"Ziva, I think that's enough work for you in one night, go home and get some rest." Said Kate

"But…"

"No buts. Go home."

Ziva nodded in defeat.

"Dinozzo, take her home."

"On it boss."

Tony led Ziva to his car and did the gentlemanly thing of opening the door to the passenger seat for her. She flashed him a small smile and got in.

In Tony's car,

"Are you…?"

"I am fine."

"You don't seem fine."

Ziva ran her fingers through her hair.

"Just fine." She muttered softly.

Tony walked Ziva up to her apartment.

"Here you are, need anything else?" Tony asked

"No, I will be fine thank you." Ziva replied

"Goodnight detective." Tony said with a charming smile.

She flashed a dazzling smile back. "Goodnight agent Dinozzo."

He was about to head off when she pulled him back and pecked him on the cheek.

"Wha…"

"That was for being my prince charming and my hero tonight." She said with a wink.

Tony stood there with a baffled expression. She blew a kiss and disappeared behind the door.

She was fine after all.

Meanwhile,

Adam dragged the now deceased service a man behind a dumpster, the bastard was supposed to be his father's best friend back in the war. But, he was in fact, the one who suggested that they had to abandon his father to move on. He had to pay for that.

The next day,

Ziva was the first one in the office. She couldn't get much sleep and decided to get up for an early jog and head to work. She read through the interrogation report,

"The suspect admitted that he found detective David "cute" and drugged her drink to have some "fun"."

"Gross," she thought. She went to the murder board and doodled on the flip side of the board out of boredom.

Castle sneaked into the precinct and poked Ziva's hips. Ziva, being the ninja she was, turned around and flipped Castle to the floor.

"Ouch! What is wrong with you?"

"Good morning Castle," Ziva said with an innocent smile.

"Don't give me that face."

"What face?" she said still smiling.

Kate stepped in and went over to Castle,

"Preparing for an earthquake Castle?"

"Shut it."

Kate helped him up.

"So, where are we on this?"

"Nothing, the guy yesterday was just a pervert."

Ziva sighed. Castle bit into a donut.

"Got any theories earthquake predictor?"

"Well, I was thinking about the profile of this guy,"

"Go on,"

"The killer must be a guy, service men are very strong and all of our victims have defensive marks on their bodies suggesting that they all put up a fight. They all seem to be either ambushed or they must know their killer. If not, they would have done what Ziva did to me, attack."

Ziva took a bow

"Okay, so Castle, what you're saying is that we can start by finding a connection between these men besides the fact that they are service men."

"Exactly what I'm saying,"

The three of them went to get coffee and headed back to the precinct to continue the case.

"Hey Beckett," called Ryan after a few hours into searching

"What?"

"Got another one, NCIS already started processing,"

"How did they get alerted first?"

"Because they were sweeping the ballroom from yesterday as you told them to and they found a body at the back dumpster and they called it in."

"Let's go!" Kate called out.

At the crime scene,

Lanie was kneeled next to their latest victim,

"COD's gunshot wounds to the chest. I'll put TOD around 2200-2300pm last night, also, this guy managed to get something off his killer."

Lanie handed Kate a dog tag, Ziva gasped.

Was that….

"Anything wrong Ziva?"

"N… Nothing. I'll go sweep the crime scene once more." Ziva said and hurried off.

Ziva did more than just sweep the crime scene, she needed to clear her head. She dialed the familiar number, only to be brought to voice mail. She sighed and disconnected. McGee bumped into Ziva,

"Sorry!"

"It's okay."

"McGee!"

"Hey Ziva, We haven't spoken in a while! How are you?" McGee asked in his usual innocent and cheery way.

"I've been better. How about you and Abby?"

'She's dying to see you again."

"Sorry to let her hopes down but I won't be going back."

"Wouldn't bet on it."

Ziva shot him a puzzled look. McGee grinned.

"Are you still writing?"

"Yes! Of course! I'm getting all sorts of good advice from Mr. Castle."

Ziva found it odd to hear Castle addressed with a salutation.

"What's that?" she asked nodding towards the evidence bag.

"Some bullet rounds," replied McGee

"Caliber?" asked Ziva

"Probably a 45,"

Ziva froze, that was the gun that…

"You okay?"

"Urm, yeah. You should probably get that to Gibbs."

"Oh yes! He's gonna kill me! See you soon?"

Ziva smiled warmly. McGee smiled back and scurried off.

Things were not adding up right now for Ziva.

R&R please! Who likes Pixie Lott? I'm going for her private showcase! So exciting!