Pivotal Moments

A/N This chapter falls a week after Aliyah ends. Do I need to keep saying they're not mine? I figure you all know it by now. :( Also, a word on post-Aliyah fics: I knew for a while that I'd get to this point sooner or later, so I made a concerted effort not to read any other stories about Aliyah. If this seems to be overlapping with the others out there, well, we were similarly inspired. And I'll try to go back and catch up on and review some of the others when this is all done with.

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Washington DC

The ding of the elevator brought Tony back to consciousness, but he didn't open his eyes. It was a struggle just to remember where he was, though it certainly wasn't the first time he'd woken to the particle board of his desk pressed into his cheek. It was clear after a minute that whoever had been in the elevator wasn't from his team, or he'd have been head-slapped already, but Tony dragged his eyes open anyway, focusing on the cellphone in his hand. He pressed the button on the side and the screen lit up an icon: 1 new message.

Flooded with adrenaline, Tony straightened up so quickly his head spun. He flipped the phone open and read the message. One word: Unicorn.

He grinned so widely his face hurt. Every other day or so, he'd get a word or two, something that seemed random but made complete sense to him. This was the fourth in the week she'd been gone: Superglue, Air Guitar, Headslap. Proof that she was alive, safe, not under duress. He knew he couldn't respond, but this was enough, just barely enough, to keep Tony from losing his mind.

As the grin faded from his face, Tony tasted his own mouth and grimaced. He glanced at the clock: 0550. If he rushed, he could shower in the locker room before Gibbs and McGee made it in. He rushed.

***

Gibbs took the elevator straight to Vance's office when he arrived, and breezed past Cynthia to fling open the door. Vance met his eyes. Gibbs looked hard at the bugged photo on Vance's wall, then jerked his head in the direction of MTAC without speaking. Vance followed, equally silent.

Once they were in the secure room, and the staff dismissed, Vance spoke. "What?"

"What have you heard?"

Vance sat down at one of the workstations and opened an internet window. "She sent this to you too, you know. You should learn to check your email."

Gibbs rolled his eyes and looked over the man's shoulder. "What does it say?"

"She's been assigned to look into the documents Rivkin recovered, in an effort to find the training camp he was searching for." He glanced up at Gibbs. "It's a good thing now that we gave them the real thing; she'd be under even more suspicion if her work didn't pan out."

Gibbs grunted agreement.

"She's had a few meals with her father, but they haven't discussed business. We have to give her time, Gibbs. I know you don't like it, but her position there seems less insecure than we feared."

"You trust him?" Gibbs asked shortly.

"Who, David?"

"Yeah."

Leon looked away, shook his head. "No."

"Then let's get this done as quickly as possible." Gibbs turned, headed for the door.

Vance stood, calling after him. "Gibbs."

He stopped at the threshold.

"We're going to have to have a conversation about how we can hire her if she's no longer Mossad."

Gibbs shrugged with irritation. "Think of something." He left.

***

Tony rubbed the towel over his hair one last time and sighed at his reflection in the mirror. This would have to do. He pulled on his suit jacket, wishing he'd remembered to bring in a new change of clothes. At least he'd found a clean shirt.

Stretching one last time, still not quite recovered from another night at his desk, Tony headed out of the gym part of the complex and through the passages that took him to the elevator up to the bullpen. As he passed Abby's lab, he saw her door open, and stepped in.

Abby turned from her computer as he entered. "Hey, Tony," she said tiredly.

"What's up, Abbs?"

She shrugged. "Why haven't we heard from her?" she asked, a hint of a whine in her voice.

Tony caught himself sharply from expressing only sympathy, forced worry and anger into his face. The worry came easily. "Maybe she's already assigned somewhere new," he offered. "But I don't think I'd hear from her anyway. She seemed pretty upset at me."

Abby snatched Bert up in her arms and squeezed him hard. "Well sure, at you. But she and I were always friends!"

Tony decided not to mention Abby's initial dislike of Ziva and instead walked to her table, glancing over its contents. The objects there were all charred, and as he recognized the half-burned cover of a Hebrew novel, a chill went through him. If she'd gone home straight from the hospital... He looked up at Abby, shaken. "Why do you still have her things out?"

She avoided his gaze. "I was looking for more clues. For proof that maybe she was innocent."

Tony nodded slowly. He hated this part. "We may never know, Abs."

There were tears in Abby's eyes as she shook her head hard. "I know you don't believe that Tony."

Rather than answer, he lifted a box that was on the corner of the table. It had a three digit combination lock and seemed least harmed of all the things there. "What's this?"

"It's a box, Tony," Abby answered, annoyed.

He gave her a Gibbs look. "Ya think?"

Tony was rewarded with a grin for his impression.

"I can't get it open," Abby said.

"Mind if I try?"

"Knock yourself out." She turned back to her computer.

Tony tried some combinations at random. None of them worked. He spun the dials over and over, pulling at the clasp, but none worked. Eventually he shrugged and set the box back on the table.

"I'm gonna go up, Abby. I'll see you later," he said softly, walking around the table to stroke her shoulder.

Abby spun on her stool and threw her arms around him. "Don't ever leave without saying goodbye, Tony. Promise me."

He twitched his nose, which was millimeters from impalement on a spike. "I promise," he said softly.

***

As the elevator doors slid open, Tony took a step forward to enter, only to find Gibbs already inside. His boss stepped to the side, and when Tony joined him Gibbs let the doors close and pressed the emergency button.

"Abby's a mess," Tony said softly, urgently. "McGee too, but he won't say so. And he's even more confused about whether she was guilty since he doesn't love as blindly as Abby—"

"I know," Gibbs cut him off.

"So?" Tony pressed.

Gibbs shook his head. "For the moment, we need things like they are. Eli David thinks we all believe that Ziva was a traitor in midst, and he seems to be trusting her."

Tony sighed heavily.

Gibbs put a hand on his shoulder for a brief moment. "I know, Tony. I don't like it either." He pressed the button that sent them into motion again, and they walked together into the bullpen, both glaring at the empty desk where Ziva used to be.