A/N: Okay, so it's been a while between drinks. Sorry about that. Real life happens, you know?
Disclaimer: I don't own them, nor would I want that kind of responsibility. What I would like is some NCIS action figures. Who do I have to speak to about getting those babies into production?
Gibbs and McGee were out of the car and strapping on bulletproof vests when Tony's car pulled up behind them. Gibbs was only mildly surprised to see Ziva pop out of the passenger side. There was no question that she shouldn't be there to arrest the men who'd buried her, but he certainly understood her drive to bear witness to the takedown.
When she reached for a vest from the trunk of Gibbs' car, Gibbs shot a look at Tony. Wasn't he going to tell her no?
Tony saw and understood the look, but shook his head. "I already tried," he said, smirking. "If you want to give it a go, be my guest."
Ziva heard the exchange and raised her chin defiantly at Gibbs, daring him to tell her to sit this one out. He considered it, but knew it would be about as effective as telling the sun not to rise. She'd already made up her mind. She was going in, and the only way to stop her would be to knock her out.
He shook his head and pulled the fastenings on her vest tighter around her. "Don't make me regret this."
She gave his a smile and held up three random fingers. "Scout's honour."
The three men looked at each other with barely suppressed smirks.
"What?" she demanded.
McGee leaned over the trunk and put her fingers in the right position. "It's like this, Ziva."
Ziva dropped her hand. "What is a scout, anyway?" she asked, checking her gun's position on her hip before swiping the hair off her face and securing it with a hairband. "And what makes them so honourable?"
McGee said, "Well, it's like a club where you learn—"
"Are you two really having this conversation right now?" Gibbs cut in, incredulous.
"Sorry, Gibbs," Ziva said, just as McGee answered, "No, boss."
Gibbs gave Tony and Ziva the necessary background information. "Suspects on the tape have been identified as Michael Mason and George Savage. Mason's the big one. We got a better look at the licence plate from ATM footage three blocks from the park. SUV is registered to Mason."
Tony looked to Ziva. "That name sound familiar?"
Ziva shook her head. "No. Did you find any connection between us?"
"His brother is Petty Officer Sam Mason," McGee said. "We put him away last year when the drugs he was dealing on base ended up killing Mindy Kreiger."
The details of the case came back to Ziva. "She was sixteen, yes?"
McGee nodded. "Yes."
"Revenge," Tony stated, and shook his head in disbelief.
Ziva chuckled darkly, and fitted her earwig. "He thought I was the soft touch? Let's go show him how soft I am."
While Gibbs and McGee crept up to the front door, Tony and Ziva got into position around back. Once they had the exit flanked, Tony whispered into his comms link.
"In position, boss." He peered through the window to his right. "Looks like two in the kitchen, can't tell if they're armed."
"We got one up front," Gibbs' voice came back. "We'll subdue him then head upstairs. On my mark."
While they waited for the count, Tony caught Ziva's dark eyes. He recognised the look on her face. She was determined to do some damage, and Tony honestly couldn't blame her. Someone had taken away her control over her own life, and that was not something that Ziva David took kindly to. Gibbs had made it clear that he didn't want Ziva to unleash the ninja on these guys, but Tony already knew that if she did, he'd look the other way.
He gave her a reassuring nod. "Got your back," he whispered.
Ziva gave him a quick smile in thanks as Gibbs started his countdown, and when he made it to 'one', Tony put his boot into the door and splintered the frame. Ziva swept into the house in front of him, gun drawn as they both yelled out a warning.
"NCIS! Federal agents! Get down on the ground!"
By the time they'd covered the short distance to the kitchen, Michael Mason had armed himself with a kitchen knife and swung it wildly at Ziva as she advanced on him.
"Drop it!" Ziva warned, her gun aimed at his head.
Mason seemed to recognise her. "You! You're the bitch!"
He swung at her again with a growl, throwing his body towards her and knocking her off balance. Ziva caught herself on the kitchen counter but lost her grip on the gun. While Tony tackled George Savage to prevent him from picking up the dropped weapon, Ziva drove the heel of her boot into Mason's foot, and the heel of her palm into his chin. His head snapped back and Ziva grabbed his wrist in both her hands as she tried to loosen his grip on the knife. She squeezed his thumb between her fingers, quickly finding the pressure point that made him drop the knife and cry out in pain. Then, she swung around the elbow him in the face, and Mason fell to his knees.
She took half a second to glance at Tony and check he was okay. He had Savage on his stomach, his knee pressing down hard in between the man's shoulderblades and both of Savage's arms wrenched behind his back. He cried out in pain as Tony snapped the cuffs around his wrists, but Tony didn't seem particularly swayed by his pleas for mercy.
Satisfied that Savage was under control, Ziva returned her attention to Mason. He looked up at her after wiping blood from his nose, and the meeting of eyes was all it took for him to grab for her again. He tackled her around the thighs and Ziva went down. As soon as she hit the floor, she used the slight bounce it gave her to rear up and land a bone-cracking punch on his jaw. He cried out and rolled off her, but Ziva followed him, grabbing her gun off the floor before she came to sit on top of him. She shifted quickly to bring her knee up under his chin and applied pressure to his throat before putting her gun against his head.
"Is that all you've got?" she baited. "Big guy like you taken down by one punch?"
Mason spat the blood running down the back of his nose at her, but the fact that he couldn't lift his head meant his aim was way off.
Ziva leaned in a started smacking his cheek. "Come on! You've got more than that! Give me a reason to bury you six feet under!"
Tony did not like the sound of that. "Ziva," he said warningly. "Cuff him."
Ziva smiled down at Mason. "But that wouldn't give him a sporting chance," she said sweetly.
"You don't scare me," Mason growled. "You won't pull the trigger on someone you've already restrained."
Tony winced as Ziva's smile grew. "I've made easier kills."
"Ziva," Tony said again, a step away from begging. "Don't."
The tone in his voice spoke volumes. He'd lie for her if it came to that. He'd tell Gibbs and Vance she'd fired in self-defence. But he didn't want her to put him in that position, an ultimately neither did she. She'd been an assassin—had been—but that wasn't who she was anymore. And although Tony knew of the things she had done, she never wanted to provide him with graphic evidence of the fact.
She let out a tense breath. "You're lucky my partner is more level-headed than I," she told Mason, then reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cuffs. She snapped one around Mason's wrist, holstered her gun and got off him. "Roll over."
"Gibbs entering," Gibbs called from the hallway, and a moment later he filled the doorframe. He looked down at the mess in front of him—tangled bodies, knives and blood on the floor—and bent to help Ziva get the second cuff around Mason's wrist.
"You good?" he asked her quietly.
"That's the rumour," Ziva replied easily, and Gibbs had to shoot a semi-disgusted look in Tony's direction. A comment like that could've come straight out of DiNozzo's mouth, and Gibbs had to wonder when it was exactly that his humour started rubbing off on his partner. Tony just laughed in approval.
"Michael Mason and George Savage?" Gibbs began. "You guys are under arrest for kidnapping and attempted murder of a federal agent."
"That means you're in big trouble," Tony said, and roughly pulled Savage to his feet.
Final chapter is up now. Go on: finish it. You've come this far.