Of course I don't own any of the original characters, stories, concepts etc. of NCIS or otherwise, they belong to their respective owners. However, any characters and/or storylines that I created for this story are mine.

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Thanks to LorelaiGilmore82 for betaing!

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Making Up for Lost Time

Chapter 3: Decision

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When we had settled in the kitchen, each one of us holding a hot, steaming cup of coffee in hands, Ziva started to explain her plans.

"Tony, I can't go back to Mossad. There are some things that happened on my last assignment which have placed me on their bad side. NCIS was my "get-out-of-jail-free" card as far as all that was concerned. But now, with Jenny gone, there wont be anymore reason for Mossad to keep this quiet. When I return I can't expect to even survive my first few assignments, they all will be bound to be suicide missions!" She stated matter-of-factly.

Shocked as I was, I had to interrupt her. "They want to kill you, just because you shot Ari Haswari? But he went rogue, you had to do something! He was a madman! They have to consider that!"

Which was her cue to cut me off. "But he also was the son of one of Mossad's deputy directors! And how did you know that it was me who shot Ari?"

"Well, Ziva, I am a trained crime scene investigator and although Gibbs' report was very good and also extremely convincing, there just were too many things that suggested a third person in the room. And why would it be important that he was the son of a deputy director?"

"Because his father's Name, Dr. Benjamin Weinstein, only was an alias for deputy director David, my father. Ari was my half-brother!", she exclaimed, looking extremely sad and desperate. "And, no offense, but if you figured it out, you can see why I am so sure that my father also knows about this!"

Her whole body was shaking, as she was relieved of at least a part of the pressure which had been building up by the sheer weight of all the secrets she had to carry around with her.

I reached across the table and took both her hands into mine, offering her some comfort. My eyes searched hers, trying to determine if I should come around and hold her or if that would just break her down right now. But then she suddenly pulled herself together.

"Listen Tony, I am happy that you know the whole story now, but thats only a small part of what I wanted to talk to you about. I have made arrangements for myself to disappear, to go underground. But I will never be able to come back."

I looked at her in disbelieve, but at the same time I knew that she was right. Director David wouldn't shy away from killing her, 'just' because she was his own daughter.

"I'll come with you!" I basically blurted out.

She smiled at me, but I could also see that her smile had a bitterness to it, she knew what she was asking me to do, maybe she just hadn't realized how very ready, almost eager, I was to do it.

"I was hoping you'd say that, because I was seriously starting to consider taking one of those guys," she said, reaching into her bag, retrieving a thick envelope and handing it to me.

I ripped open the envelope and found 6 passports in it. I opened the first, a German one, it stated "Jürgen Kaufmann", right next to my picture. The next one was Dutch, issued to "Jan Meijer", also a guy that had a strong likeness to me. The remaining passports were for Sweden, Spain, Italy and France.

I felt her hand on my arm, she stood right beside me.

"Before you say any more, I need you to think about the consequences that coming with me will have. For you! You will never be able to come back home. Period! And even if everything goes well, there are very few people who are on the run, and we definitely would be on the run, who make it more that a few years. Most are caught even sooner."

I put my finger over her lips, stopping her.

"But I would be on the run with the very best, wouldn't I?" I even managed to give her a little smile.

"Yes, but you also would be running from the best!"

"Stop trying to talk me out of this! Otherwise I will have to start saying stuff like 'Home is where the heart is' or 'I would follow you to the end of the world and back' and that would just be way too cheesy, wouldn't it?"

I enjoyed seeing her flash a small smile, no matter how brief it was.

"So, I suppose we are traveling light?" I said, starting to go to my bedroom to fetch a few things I treasured.

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