Pivotal Moments

A/N So, the timeline for this is tricky because Legends and Semper Fi and Aliyah only took a few days, but the air dates were spaced out by weeks, so it's hard to know how they line up on a calendar in reality. But let's say for the sake of following the story that the events of Aliyah happened May 19th for real, and Ziva was left in Tel Aviv on the 20th. At this point I've decided she headed to Djibouti on June 4th and was captured June 7th. In storyland it is now June 10th.

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June 10th: Washington DC

213. 345. 256. Tony dialed in one combination after another. And then something happened. The latch clicked and two squares on the top corners of the box that had seemed to be metal suddenly lit up. He jerked back, then poked at one with a fingertip. The squares went dark. "Wait!" Tony demanded of the box. What combination had he put in? "Damn it," he swore. He couldn't remember.

"We do have work, you know," McGee snapped from his station.

Tony turned to glare briefly before trying another code.

"You can't just keep playing with Ziva's things and flipping your cell phone open every thirty seconds and expect Gibbs not to notice," McGee added.

Tony gripped the edge of his desk. He knew what it looked like, but it had been four days since he'd heard from her, and though she'd gone this long before between messages he couldn't help the panic nagging at him.

Gibbs strode toward them from the elevators, gesturing with his thumb as he said, "Tony. With me. Now."

Tony rose at once and followed Gibbs into the alcove by the stairs, careful not to look at McGee so he wouldn't have to respond to the other man's suspicions.

Gibbs stopped abruptly, glancing around to make sure they had privacy. "What have you heard?"

Tony shook his head. "Nothing, Boss. She's been sending me messages pretty regularly, but I haven't heard from her in four days."

His boss raised an eyebrow. "What kind of messages?"

Tony tried not to blush. "Stupid things, one word at a time, references to pranks over the years. So I'll know she's safe."

Gibbs stared at him hard, skeptically, and Tony squirmed but was relieved when Gibbs didn't make an issue of why Ziva would risk herself by reaching out to Tony.

"Why do you ask?" Tony said suddenly, realizing the reason for Gibbs' question.

Gibbs sighed. "It's been five days since Vance has had any kind of contact from her. She's broken the schedule she promised to stick to. It's possible she's just out of range or has a good reason not to make contact."

"There has to be some way to reach her," Tony said desperately.

"It's too bad none of us are spies," Abby said softly.

The men turned to look at her as she appeared around the corner.

"You know, it's just that Ziva is the one who'd be best at this, at finding someone."

"What did you hear, Abs?" Gibbs asked gruffly.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Was there something to hear?"

"Nope," he said emphatically.

Abby shrugged. "I guess I didn't hear anything, then." She breezed past them and on down the hall, and Tony watched her go, wondering what she knew but already distracted by Ziva's silence.

***

His distraction continued all day, and Tony knew he was fortunate that they hadn't caught a case, that he wasn't paying poor attention to anything more important than old paperwork. By seven o'clock, he was back to playing with Ziva's box. He hadn't gotten it to light up again.

"May I try?" a woman's voice asked huskily, inches away from him.

Tony started, clutching it toward him. "Who are you?" he demanded.

The woman pursed her lips, then pulled a leather wallet out of her pocket and flipped it open to show him her badge. "Rebekah Meir, Mossad."

Tony's eyes widened. "Mossad thinks they can just take Ziva back and then send us someone else to replace her?" he asked, aware that his voice was becoming increasingly loud and high-pitched.

She cocked her head. "You are Tony," she said softly.

He glared at her. "What, did you do profiles on us, too?"

Rebekah shook her head. "I am Ziva's friend, Tony." She held out her hands for the box. "Here, let me."

Tony held it out warily. Rebekah punched in two sets of numbers without success and he smirked. But on her third try, the corners lit up again and he sat up alertly, focused on the box. "Now, what?" he asked eagerly.

Rebekah pressed her thumbs to the lit squares. "It is keyed to her fingerprints," she told him as she pressed down. "And mine as the backup, since I was once her partner." As she pulled her hands away, the box latch shifted audibly, and Rebekah lifted the lid.

Tony peered over it, anxious to see the contents. There appeared to be mostly documents, passports and printouts, but Rebekah shifted them and lifted out a small stack of photographs. Flipping through them, she pulled one out and held it out for Tony with a smile. "Will this prove I know her?"

He looked at it carefully. In the picture Rebekah and Ziva wore camouflage, apparently in their army days. Ziva looked impossibly young to be in the army. Tony could barely take his eyes off her face. After a long moment studying the picture, the reality of Rebekah's presence struck him and he discarded the picture, dropping it back in the box, and spoke with alarm. "Why are you here?"

Rebekah's face tensed as she replaced the other pictures, but before she could answer Gibbs turned the corner and stopped short.

"Officer Meir," he said, agitation rippling across his face.

She turned to him. "Agent Gibbs."

He turned on his heel, waving for them to follow him. "MTAC, now."

Tony and Rebekah rapidly ascended behind him. In MTAC, he paged the director and turned to Rebekah. "Well?"

She spoke rapidly. "As you know, I believe, Ziva set out five days ago for Eritrea, to confirm the location of a terrorist camp that Mossad had been seeking for some time." Gibbs nodded that he knew. "She was to arrive in Djibouti two days ago, and promised to check in with me at once. She had a cell phone, yours, and we had also arranged to communicate through shared contacts and internet portals."

"And?" Tony asked, cold spreading through his body from her expression alone. He glanced over her shoulder as Vance entered behind her.

Rebekah looked at Tony sympathetically as she continued. "I have not heard from her since she left Tel Aviv. Yesterday I began to worry and used Mossad channels to get information, but no one could confirm her arrival in Djibouti or any communication with her. Nearly everyone seemed unaware of what mission she'd even been on."

"She was set up," Gibbs said grimly.

Rebekah nodded. "Her father called me in personally twelve hours ago to tell me that her mission was now classified and she was undercover, that I was to stop looking. When I asked who her control officer was, he dismissed me." She shrugged defensively. "I could not ask other officers to disobey him, I did not know whom I could trust, so I came here. I know she would trust you to help her."

"Always," Tony said firmly.

"Tony heard from her three days ago," Gibbs said pensively.

Rebekah turned and looked at him, clearly not surprised. "You're sure it was her."

Tony nodded.

Rebekah shrugged. "Her father's words still make me think he has her somewhere." Her voice was soft but intense.

Vance spoke for the first time. "You think she is being harmed?"

"I am a Mossad officer, Director Vance," Rebekah answered, "and not easily frightened. I am terrified for her right now."

"You don't think she can take it?"

She looked down. "I know there's a point where she'll take her own life rather than suffer with no hope of respite or betray those she loves."

Tony felt nauseous. "So what do we do?" he asked swiftly.

Vance crossed the room and picked up a remote, flipping on some of the screens. "Macy and her team at OSP have been tracking Mossad movements for me for some time." He glanced at Rebekah, to see if she would object, but she didn't speak. "We focused especially on Eritrea since we knew Officer David was heading there, but Macy also noted movement in Djibouti and Somalia several days ago."

Rebekah nodded slowly. "Director David has contacts among some of the guerrilla groups there. They would likely do a favor for him if he asked." When Tony glanced at her, she looked pale even in the darkened room.

Vance punched a series of buttons, bringing up Macy on the big screen. Tony stood back as they charted activity across several days of satellite imaging of the horn of Africa, his critical mind too overwhelmed to process what they were saying until Vance finally pointed and said, "so she's probably in this region, here."

"Then let's go," Tony said heatedly.

Vance turned to look at him. "We need a pretense."

Gibbs shrugged. "Make one up later. Or say we accidentally acted on bad information. I don't care. Just get us enough men to take out anyone who might be guarding the place and a plane to get us there as soon as physically possible. I'll brief my team."

Vance glared at him for giving orders. "Gibbs, we'll have a chat about authority once your agent is safe."

"Whatever, Leon," Gibbs muttered, and strode out of the room, the others following him as Vance turned back to the computer bank.

As they swept out of MTAC, Gibbs turned to Tony and Rebekah. "You two go down to Abby's lab. I'll get McGee and Ducky and meet you there."

Tony nodded and turned, gesturing Rebekah to the elevator while Gibbs took the stairs. Just as they stepped in, her phone rang, and Rebekah stepped out again, flipping it open eagerly. Tony watched, rapt, only to see her face fall. She answered the phone, went through a few rapid exchanges in Hebrew that seemed to rapidly upset her, then closed it and returned the elevator.

"Everything alright?" Tony asked as the doors shut.

Rebekah squeezed her eyes tightly closed. Tony thought there might be tears in her eyelashes. "My father says to come home," she said, so quietly he strained to hear her. "He says it is probably too late, that he and my mother will set up the house so we can sit Shiva for Ziva."

Tony fought the urge to run away. There was nowhere to run anyway, here in this metal box. Instead he set a hand on Rebekah's shoulder. "We have to keep believing she is still alive," he said softly.

She nodded without returning his gaze. Neither spoke until the doors swung open again.

***

Tony led the way to the lab quickly, trying to keep thoughts of what might be happening to Ziva out of his head.

"Abby," he said as he entered, raising his voice above her music. Rebekah looked startled as she switched it off and Tony nearly grinned at how closely her expression matched one of Ziva's. "Abby, this is Rebekah Meir, from Mossad."

Abby raised her eyebrows haughtily, but Tony interrupted before she could give Rebekah the treatment she'd once reserved for Ziva. "She's Ziva's friend, Abbs. She's going to help us get her back."

Abby lit up. "Oh! Well, good then."

McGee entered, slightly out of breath from the stairs. "What's going on?"

Abby smiled at him. "We're going to get Ziva back!"

"Back for good?" McGee asked warily, and Abby turned perkily to Tony. He glanced warily at Rebekah, unsure what to say.

"Gibbs will explain," he finally said, and watched their expressions turn stony and worried. To his relief Tony heard Gibbs and Ducky approaching in the hallway, Ducky demanding to know what was going on.

"In here, Duck," Gibbs said shortly, and let Ducky enter before following him into the lab.

The team gathered in a circle, Ducky glancing curiously at Rebekah while the others were fixed on Gibbs' face.

"Well?" Abby finally said.

Gibbs took a breath. "Ziva wasn't a traitor."

"I knew it!" Abby shrieked. She quickly quieted when everyone else stayed serious.

"She was monitoring her father for NCIS. Vance ordered her mission kept as quiet as possible to keep her safe, but it seems she's been taken captive anyway."

This time Abby's response was wide-eyed silence.

"What are we going to do?" It was McGee who spoke.

"We're gonna get her back, McGee," Gibbs said, almost impatiently. "McGee, go up to MTAC and help Vance with the satellite tracking." With a nod, McGee left.

"Duck, Abby, I'm telling you now because you needed to know, because we need to do something else without Vance knowing."

Tony looked sharply at him. Gibbs looked instead at Rebekah. "We need to find out for sure if Ziva's father was behind this, and then we need to make sure he pays," Gibbs said.

Rebekah nodded, complete acceptance in her face.

Gibbs looked around the circle. "Tony and Rebekah and I will head out with the team to go after her as soon as we have a solid location." He turned and left, to go check on the status of the troops, Tony assumed.

Ducky extended his hand to Rebekah. "I'm Donald Mallard, Medical Examiner."

She shook his hand. "Rebekah Meir, Mossad."

"Thank you for helping us," he said gratefully.

Rebekah nodded. "We may need your help too," she said carefully, glancing sideways at Tony. "Ziva is probably," she paused, knowing the impact of her words, "is probably being tortured."

Abby's eyes went wide and panicked.

Rebekah pushed on. "I've learned it is a good idea to bring broad spectrum antibiotics and fluids and other first aid equiptment to rescues like this, in the hopes that we can...minimize any permanent damage." She looked toward Tony. He was pale enough to faint. There was one more thing she had to say. "She may also need a—what you call here a 'morning after' pill."

"You think she's been raped," Abby said, sounding strangled.

Behind her, Rebekah heard Tony flee the room. She looked at Abby, said gently, "I hope not, Abby."

Abby shuddered.

"I can get those things for you," Ducky said stiffly. "Come with me." He led her out and upstairs.

Once they were gone, Abby stumbled over her shoes to get down the hall to the men's room. She knocked once, then barged in. It was nearly 1900, and there were rarely people down here except to see her. "Tony?" she asked aloud when she didn't see him.

"Yeah," he gasped from behind the door to the handicapped stall.

She pushed it open and sat down beside him on the floor. Tony had his arms wrapped around his knees, his face hidden. His shoulders were trembling. "I tried to stop her," he whispered, "I told her not to stay, but she wouldn't listen..."

Abby wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Gibbs will get her back," she said unconvincingly.

Tony took her hand in his own, held it tightly. "And if he can't?"

Abby squeezed his hand back, but didn't answer. She had no consolation to offer.