Title: Picking up the Pieces and Filling in the Gaps

Author: ChelseaDaggerCinderella

Summary: Tony and Ziva spend the four months between 'Hiatus' and 'Shalom' strengthening their partnership…and their relationship, but Tony still winds up working undercover for the Director, and Ziva has demons of her own to deal with. Can they come together to make everything alright again?

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, although I'd like to. No infringement intended, Mr. Bellisario.

Author's Note:

Okay, so two things: one, I feel horrible that I waited so long and especially that I can't even give you a good excuse—I'm just swamped; and two, I wanted to get this out because I hadn't updated in a while, but also because I wanted to take this chance to reassure you all that I WILL be finishing this fic—I'm not gonna leave you all hanging—it's just going to be a little slower than you'd all like—hell, than even I'd like—but unfortunately, it can't really be helped. But once again, I'm not going anywhere so I hope you all will stay with me as well. Just keep reminding me that you're all out there and I promise to try harder to stay on top of things.

Ziva and Tony were in the car on the way to Harrow's house to try and find the stolen copy of ARES that he'd planned on selling. Now that he was dead, the Director wanted to make sure that it couldn't fall into anyone else's hands….or so she had led everyone to believe.

Ziva looked over to the computer sitting in Tony's lap, a large video-game-like logo popping up and filling the screen. "That's ARES?" It looks like a toy…

Tony nodded slightly. "According to McGeek—" oh, holly, hell, she drives like a mad-woman—why did I let her drive, again? "…Ziva, watch the road!" Oh, please, let me live through this car ride, lord, he prayed as the sound of horns honking filled his ears.

I am perfectly capable of operating this vehicle, you baby. "I have great peripheral vision."

Oh, come on! "My sphincter doesn't," he argued as he continued pulling up files from his directory.

Ziva laughed. "Well, at least we won't have trouble finding it."

Tony looked up, a little put-off. She's just joshing you, DiNozzo… "Really?"

Oh, the ego! "Tony, it's the size of an ATM."

He shook it off and returned to the task at hand, calling up the photos of the pirated portion of ARES that he and Ziva were sent to recover. "Well, this is the controller console and this…" Oh, damn! Jeanne—the bowling pictures! Maybe she didn't see…

But she did. Aha! Ziva thought. "Your mystery woman!" she exclaimed with glee, glancing over to look at the computer instead of the road. I knew it! He couldn't hide her forever…

"Watch the road!"

She grinned, having hit a nerve. "Oh, yes it is, isn't it?" Yes! Winner and still champion!

Deny everything until you absolutely must divulge it. "No, this is no one!" She shot him a look. Or blame it on someone else… "It's McGee's idea of a prank." She snorted. And when all else fails…change the subject. "This is the pirated part of ARES we have to find."

It's just a tiny little chip! "Twenty million for that?"

"Well, size doesn't mat—" oh, no. Don't go there, DiNozzo, you'll be limping back to the office. "…Forget I even stupidly started to say that."

Ziva grinned devilishly. The boy is learning…

They arrived at Harrow's house and started up the walk. Perhaps a bargain, Ziva thought. "Will you tell me her name if I find the pirate's copy of ARES?"

No. "Pirated copy," he corrected.

Did I not just say that? "That's what I said."

Oi. "No, you said 'pirate's copy.' A pirate is a person like Captain Jack Sparrow. A pirated copy—"

Wait, who is that? "Who is Jack Sparrow?"

Oh my God. "Johnny Depp."

Ziva purred in her thoughts and her voice deepened. "He's a pirate?"

My, God, Ziva! "No, he's an actor."

"Oh," she said, a bit disappointed.

How did we get to pirates and Johnny Depp? He threw his arms out helplessly. "How did we get here?"

Duh! "I drove," she said, completely missing the point.

Tony shook his head helplessly as Ziva picked the lock to Harrow's home. She opened the door and stepped in before him. Ziva took in the sight of all the computers and equipment and circuitry and knew this was not going to be an easy find. "This is going to be like looking for a needle in a needle stack."

Tony sighed, defeated, as well but for more reasons than just the futility of the task ahead of them. "Needle in a haystack."

"I like my description better." It suits the situation perfectly…

Tony and Ziva were on the roof of a satellite storage building across the airstrip awaiting instructions. Tony had a telescopic tripod with a high power lens and Ziva had a M110 SASS, with a scope, trained on Trent Kort, whoever Ducky directly engaged, and presumably, La Grenouille himself.

Tony was having trouble keeping his mind on the mission at hand. Presumably, they were going to apprehend La Grenouille tonight and with him in custody, the Director satisfied, and ARES safely back in the hands of the good guys, Tony DiNardo had no further reason to exist, thus annulling any reason to maintain his romantic entanglement with Jeanne Benoit. I really care about her…I certainly don't want to see her hurt, but I knew going into this that come the curtain call, people were going to be unhappy. Tony just didn't expect to have to count himself in that number. They'd only been going out for about three months—but he'd grown attached. Stupid idiot! Great work, man!

He moved the telescope towards the rear of the plane and refocused the lens. "Gulf stream five; registration two-one-eight-echo."

McGee's voice filtered in from the earwig stuck in his ear. "Copy you, Archangel."

Different plane…means big bucks. Arms trade really does pay… he thought with distain. "They flew into Washington in a different G-Five when I tagged the luggage," he told Ziva, kind of glad to be able to talk about his work openly again—well, almost.

Ziva, for her part, was trying to keep the crosshairs steady on Kort's rather bulbous head. It wasn't exactly necessary to maintain such precision, but Ziva's training instilled certain things in her—like keeping a clear shot to the center of the forehead at all times. Today was no different. What's he talking about? "Tagged their luggage?" Oh… "Oh, that's when Jenny had you…undercovers."

"Undercover. Not undercovers." Sheesh.

Ziva and Tony were, together, linked directly to the mobile command unit via two-way communication, and to Ducky via a one-way communiqué (they could hear Ducky, but Ducky couldn't hear them). McGee relayed the information on the G-Five from the flight plan database, "Two-one-eight Echo is a Sorbonne Air Charter out of Orly Sud. It's been refueled and flight filed. TOD – twenty-four hundred."

Gibbs checked his watch. 11:25pm. "Thirty-five minutes," he barked into the mic, broadcasting their operational time-limit to the team. Then he nodded at Jenny and announced, "This is your op, Director."

Jenny nodded and gulped apprehensively. "Bring Ducky online," she told McGee softly.

McGee tapped a few keys and a fuzzy picture came up, the feed broadcasting from Ducky's cam. "Sound check, Ducky."

Ducky moaned. "Now I know why they call these wretched things earwigs."

Tony smiled at Ducky's comment as Shepard continued. "Make the exchange, Doctor, and get out; I don't want you caught in the middle of a firefight."

Ducky made his way through the gate, seemingly having passed inspection. He made it out of the car and up to the steps of the plane where Kort stood waiting for him. But when he got there, Kort scrunched up his face. "Charles Harrow?"

The others knew it was a bad sign, but Ducky was nonplussed, playing right into it. "You say that as if you're surprised to see me."

McGee on the other hand, wasn't so unfazed. "Uh-oh."

Not good, Tony thought, as Jenny's voice crackled into his ear. "Archangel, Ducky might have been compromised."

"Archangel has him covered." Ziva was in mission-mode. Nothing got to her wherever she was—she was focused—and she would've gladly taken off Kort's head without a moment's hesitation.

"You have ARES?" Kort asked.

"You have the twenty million?"

Gibbs's voice was prideful as he commented on Ducky's abilities. "He's a natural."

Jenny's voice had a discernable trepidation to it. "Maybe, but he's making me nervous."

Ducky handed over the laptop to a woman named Regina and with McGee's help he answered all of her queries flawlessly. Kort's behavior and body language was sending warning signals to the team stationed in their scattered positions surrounding the scene.

Ziva was ready to react at a moment's notice, Gibbs was watching for any sign of danger, should someone decide to go off-script, and Ducky continued to play the part of Charles Harrow with an ease ill-fitting that of the tension-filled air surrounding the entire operation. "Aren't you going to invite me in out of the cold, Monsieur Grenouille?"

"I would," Kort began, "but I'm not him." Then he waived his cell phone, obviously a pre-arranged signal, and Grenouille appeared from the darkness, apologizing for his theatrics. But something wasn't right—Gibbs could feel it and as the two chatted in French, Gibbs turned to McGee. "Can you get a lock on that cell phone, McGee?"

"Uh, what cell phone, boss?"

"The one that baldy's panicking into, McGee!"

"Oh, uh, yeah…" McGee started typing away, trying to locate the information requested.

"Jethro?" the Director questioned.

He gave her a dark look and shook his head, pacing the span of the surveillance truck. "Bad feeling, Jen," he said by way of explanation.

"Uh, boss, signal's bouncing off a cell tower a mile from here and redirecting back to the US."

"Where, McGee?!"

"Still loading…"

Ducky was doing okay, with the exception of screwing up his name already, but so far, so good. "This will be a beautiful way to consummate the transfer of the villa," Grenouille said, smugly. Yes, Ducky thought, if by villa you mean a treasonous copy of the Navy's Missile Defense System, Renée.

"Le Froggie is more careful than Gotti," Gibbs noted darkly.

Shepard kept her eyes focused on Grenouille. "That's why he's never been caught."

Grenouille started talking about his children and Tony cringed and forcibly chased thoughts of Jeanne and that entire situation from his head. Not now, DiNozzo…

"McGee!" Gibbs barked.

The computer made all sorts of noise. "Got it! Tower's located in Virginia, running the number now."

"Where in Virginia, McGee?" Shepard asked, with a sinking feeling.

"Uh," McGee kept typing, each sequence bringing the tower-map locator closer to the goal. He took a breath. "…Langley," he said, as the computer beeped again. "Boss," he said, gravely, as his computer flashed a security warning. "I can't access the information—firewall popped up and rerouted my search."

"Well get it back!"

"I'm trying, boss," he said as he typed furiously. "It keeps redirecting the signal and jumping servers—it's a smart piece of technology, boss."

Gibbs leaned down over his shoulder, his tone dangerous, "Then be smarter, McGee."

McGee gulped and started doing something highly illegal—again. "Right, right."

Tony's voice crackled through the system, "They're starting engines."

"McGee," Gibbs warned.

"Almost there," he said, executing sequence after sequence in quick succession. The computer bleeped again. "Boss, I can't get a fix on the phone but I can tell you that this program is rerouting through CIA servers."

There was dead silence—for a moment. And then Gibbs went nuts, "McGee, find out if the face recognition database kicked out a match for Ducky and do it yesterday."

"Already on it, boss."

Shepard spoke into her mic, "Archangel, prepare for possible dual extraction scenario."

Ziva's voice didn't waive. "Understood, Director."

"Boss, Ducky's picture was entered three minutes ago and redirected through CIA servers…they know."

'Then why haven't they done anything?" Jenny wondered aloud.

"Don't really wanna find out now, Jen," Gibbs said harshly.

"Archangel," Jenny said, "Time to put on a show."

Put on a show? Tony thought. He looked to Ziva to catch her reaction, but he'd be damned if she didn't even blink. "Understood, Director," she said seamlessly.

Ziva adjusted her aim and fired a shot, just missing Kort, but hitting the plane and getting it to ricochet back over the steps of the plane. Grenouille's people scuffled to get him and themselves back on the plane, seemingly forgetting about Ducky in the may lay. Good, Ziva thought.

"Bravo team," Jenny shouted, "…move in! Extraction Beta two!"

Ziva fired again, cutting off Kort's exit onto the tarmac and preventing Grenouille from boarding. She kept firing similar shots, blocking off paths and essentially corralling the animals. She saw Kort curse and fire off a few rounds of his own, but not knowing where the sniper was located made it impossible for him to be successful in his endeavors. And before he could even attempt to move onto a backup plan the extraction team had moved in, a van screeching to a halt next to Grenouille and shoving him in, much like Ziva and Tony had done earlier that very long day with Goliath. Another car pulled alongside a very startled and flustered Ducky and forcibly abducted him as well.

"Archangel, move out!" came the Director's brusque orders.

Ziva dropped her scope and collapsed the bipod, sliding the whole thing under her shoulder with a practiced ease that Tony could only stare in awe at. "Move, Tony," she said, scooping up the shells without missing one and sliding them in her jacket pocket. They crawled their way to the end of the satellite storage building and Tony shimmied down the back first, taking the equipment from Ziva before she jumped down herself.

He turned to her in awe. "Wanna tell me what just went down there?" he asked, a little put-off by the fact that she'd seemed to know scenarios he hadn't—and he'd been working this damn case.

"Not now," she said simply, as they made their way into the dark to the rendezvous point.

I have every intention of trying to write the mysterious chapter that continually eludes my muse this weekend, so inspire me and show me some love! Go and review!