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Chapter Ten

Ziva sat at her desk. She was staring straight ahead, not seeing whatever it was she was looking at which happened to be the filling cabinet between Tony and Tim's desks. McGee watched her sympathetically until Gibbs came back into the roomwho ignored McGee completely and instead went and crouched down in front of Ziva. He placed his hand on hers and she seemed to come back to reality slightly. She stared down at Gibbs face looking up at hers.

"The guy you knocked out? Just came around. I'm going to interrogate him, if you want to watch I'll be in room three." Ziva nodded before thinking and watched as Gibbs stood up and walked away. She re thought what he had just told her and she merely slunk back into her chair. She didn't need to see some crazy suicidal lunatic raving about how his group got the kid in the end, regardless of his 'sacrifice'. Ziva closed her eyes and leaned back further in her chair, resting her head to one side.

Gibbs slammed the door, startling the groggy man out of his doze. The man looked up and glared at the newcomer. Gibbs silently and without looking at the man walked over and sat down in the chair opposite him. He gently placed a file on the table, the man glanced at it repeatedly before settling his gaze back on Gibbs. Gibbs waited for a while before pulling several photographs out of the file. One was a photograph of Ziva, another one was a photograph of Ziva and Ben supplied to Gibbs by Ziva and the other three were all photographs of Ben taken within the last few months.

"Do you know who this woman is?" Gibbs asked pointing to Ziva, the man stared at the picture before nodding his head.

"Ziva David. Director of Mossad's last remaining child. To answer you're next question, Benjamin David, only grandchild to the Director of Mossad and Ziva David's only child." The man seemed content with his answering of questions and leaned back in his chair and waited patiently for Gibbs to ask his next question.

"Who do you work for?" Gibbs questioned. The man smirked.

"What makes you think it was not my mission, my own personal vendetta?"

"You wouldn't have been stupid enough to get caught. Now who are you working for?"

"Patience is a virtue, Special Agent Gibbs. Now arrest me, or release me." The man stubbornly pointed out holding his wrists out and together as if about to be cuffed. Gibbs stood up and stormed out mentally going through numerous laws he could attempt at arresting him for. He was right however, they had no proof. The only proof they had was Ziva saying he had distracted her at the exact same moment the unknown kidnappers had taken Ben. Not exactly substantial evidence.

Gibbs decided he would go and get coffee. He needed to think about the best way to approach the situation they were in. He just needed coffee.

The elevator to the bullpen dinged drawing McGee's gaze forwards until he realised the elevator that had made the noise had been the one behind him, the one that led to the basement and Abby and Ducky's domains. He turned his neck and saw his fiancée walking towards him pampering to a rather battered Tony. McGee smiled sadly at Abby, the smile barely gracing his eyes. Abby replied the smile to the same level before hugging McGee. Tony looked past them both to stare at the sleeping form now slouched over her desk.

He walked towards her to hear her mumbling in her sleep, he leaned closer to her and sighed he considered walking her but was not sure if that was such a good idea. He raised his arm ready to nudge her gently to ease her awake but it froze above her when he heard her say Ben's name, she mumbled something about her fault and began shaking slightly. Tony took this to mean she was having a nightmare and slowly nudged her awake. When she finally did wake she leapt backwards and was momentarily disorientated before taking in her surroundings and allowing the past few hours to catch up with her. She groaned and allowed her desk to fall forwards and hit the desk. She mumbled something incoherent and Tony asked her to repeat it.

"My fault. I shouldn't have let him get so far away; I never let him get so far away. I never let him out of my sight for the first year of his life. I thought he would be safer here I was so wrong, I failed him completely. Worst. Mother. Ever." She mumbled. Tony watched her as she spoke into the desk; he slowly walked around to her side of the desk and crouched down next to her chair. He spun it around so she was facing him. Her arms slipped off the desk, her neck was forced to support the weight of her head.

"Whatever it was, not at all you're fault. Okay? You couldn't have known those guys were going to turn up you're not psychic Zee."

"Doesn't make me a better mother." She mumbled in response before standing up and walking over to the bathroom where she remained for the next twenty minutes. According to Abby who had been thrust in there by peer pressure and a promise from Tony he would hurt McGee in a place Abby may want to use in the future if she didn't go in. She came out a ten minutes later looking like she was on the verge of tears. She had plainly told them Ziva is blaming herself and wishes to be left alone a request Abby had heeded after Ziva had threatened to murder McGee a threat which Abby took deadly serious. Who would mess with an assassin whose son has been kidnapped?

Abby had retreated to the safety of her lab for the rest of the day to avoid being pressurised into any unnecessary suicidal Ziva hunts. She persuaded McGee to give her half hourly reports and updates as soon as they came in. He did so and Abby gladly noted all the new developments although with Ziva hiding in the bathroom they were few and far between. Gibbs had eventually broken the man Ziva had knocked out. He had merely told them what they all suspected, revenge attack most likely on Mossad possibly personal. Gibbs was yet to figure it out and Abby had nothing to do but wait for the phone to ring.

The bullpen was a flurry of activity, the man was yet to give Gibbs the organisation in which he worked but he did offer up several vital pieces of information to allow the team to do some form of work. McGee was tracing all the contact the man had received in the past three months by checking his phone and bank records. He kept drawing blanks. Tony was busy attempting to contact Tel Aviv and Ziva's father in the hopes he could help them out. No luck again. It was over an hour before the team began losing momentum. Tony and McGee both kept glancing towards the bathroom door where Ziva was still hiding.

She had been in there for nearly an hour before she made herself look relatively respectable and exited. After completely breaking down for an thirty minutes Ziva had gotten angry at herself for doing so and then again for wasting time. She plucked up the courage and left the room. She walked across to her desk and sat down, picking up her phone as she went. She dialled a familiar number and it went straight through to her Father's office. She quickly explained the situation to him and he agreed to send over any case files she had worked on that could lead to somebody wanting her dead or hurting. Ziva then pressed the hang up button and waited to hear the dialling tone; she then dialled the number for Darren and told him what had happened.

Within ten minutes he had arrived at the NCIS, Lissy slightly bedraggled after a whirlwind few minutes she immediately hugged her aunty before breaking down in floods of tears. Ziva held her while she sobbed in to her shoulder; Darren struck up a conversation with Tony, Tim and Gibbs at the other end of the bullpen. He demanded being involved with the investigation they were no doubt carrying out. Gibbs agreed his eyes never leaving Ziva's back, and the teenage girl sobbing in to her shoulder. Gibbs shortly told Darren and McGee to take Ziva and Lissy home as they would be more comfortable and not in the way of Gibbs investigation.

When Ziva had returned home she had walked around the house several times before being stopped by her brother who looked her straight in the eye telling her there was absolutely nothing she could do except wait for Mossad and NCIS to pull through for him. Ziva began to start nodding before breaking free of his grasp and walking back around her house, entering each room and picking up toys packing them away, before walking back in to the same room and placing the toys back on the floor. McGee was sat in the lounge room with Darren and Lissy for most of this time, he had attempted getting Ziva to join them but she had flatly refused.

McGee and Darren received regular updates from NCIS but nothing new was uncovered, the members of the David home were beginning to get restless again when Ziva's cell phone rang. She had left it on the side table when she entered her house and now McGee and Darren both glanced at it. Lissy however stood up and answered it, she had been doing this for her father and Ziva when one of them couldn't get to the phone for several months.

"Hello? Ziva David's phone, Alyssa speaking."

"Al-is-sa?" The man on the other side spoke out as Lissy frowned; she took a moment to glance at the caller-ID not a number she knew. She flicked some buttons as she walked towards her father and McGee, as Ziva re-entered the room they hushed her as she began to talk. "Alyssa, where is Officer David?"

"She isn't here right now, Can I take a message?" Lissy adopted a secretary type persona, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Yes, you may Miss Alyssa. You may tell her if she ever wants to see her son again, she must offer herself up in turn. You may also tell her Elijah sends his love." The man cut off the connection as McGee and Lissy frowned at Ziva, while Darren stood up. He was shaking from head to toe and he quickly embraced Ziva in a hug. He knew exactly who Elijah was and knew if this was his doing he meant business. He also knew now why they had not merely taken Ziva when she was in the park, alone. It would have been simple.

Ziva saw out of the corner of her eye as McGee dialled that all too familiar number for Gibbs, she watched as he quickly relayed the message and Gibbs gave McGee some unknown order before he closed his phone. He walked towards Lissy and she quickly ran off up the stairs. He then walked towards Darren and Ziva; they separated, although Darren kept his arm around Ziva's shoulders, protectively. McGee was not used to seeing Ziva in need of comforting let alone protecting. He told Darren what was happening and he nodded following the same path his daughter had a few moments previously. Ziva just stood there not looking at McGee who quietly filled her in and told her that she, Darren and Lissy would be staying at NCIS that night, in the break room. Gibbs had felt it safer for all three of them not wishing to relinquish protection detail to Mossad.

Within twenty minutes Ziva was walking back into the NCIS building, her head hung low reliving a certain time of her life. Darren knew what she was thinking and scowled, he knew Ziva better than she liked to believe, and knew the plan that was forming in her head. He had his arm wrapped around Lissy and pulled her closer, angry that she had gotten pulled into his sister's ridiculous lifestyle. He had left to protect Lissy, he was devastated after her mother died and so did everything he could to allow Lissy to live in a world that was not culturally divided, constantly at war. He wanted her own world to be peaceful and happy, where her only dilemma was whether or not to wear a pink or a blue top that day. His plan was certainly failing.

That night Ziva, Darren and Lissy were all shut in the NCIs break. Along two walls there were two sets of bunk beds, allowing room for eight people to sleep at a time. One wall housed a door while the other a window. Ziva quickly flopped down on a bed while Lissy slowly studied each bed on one wall opposite Ziva before climbing up in to the bunk nearest the door. She flung the overnight bag she had been told to pack by McGee on the bed next to hers. Her father smiled before lying on the bed under the one that now contained all the overnight bags. He watched Ziva as she rolled over on to her back. She kicked the slats on the bed above her, her anger getting the better of her.

"Isn't your fault Zee. You weren't to know the guy was psycho, you can't be psychic all the time."

"I should have seen it the first time I met him, it was way too obvious to be chance. Come on, I knew he was Muslim I knew his father hated Jews. It is the next step to assume he is either a supporter of or a member of HAMAS or similar. I was foolish and now my son is paying for it."

"Zee, you was not foolish, you was thirteen. Ari and Tali and I were just as foolish." 'Of course we never dated the kind of people who we knew would force our father in to a rage.' He finished his sentence off in his head, recalling the numerous boys Ziva would bring home purely to aggravate the father she had never felt loved by. Of course, the ones she cared about she didn't bring home.

Ziva sighed and glared at Darren before leaning away from him in to the wall folding her arm under her head as a makeshift pillow, her pillow pulled over her head as if trying to block out a loud noise. Darren watched her for a while ensuring she was asleep when her snores began to pierce the room. He shifted slightly, standing up, Lissy was also long asleep. He climbed back into his own bed and pulled the covers up to his neck falling asleep quickly. The last thing he remembered was a particularly loud snore coming from the direction of Ziva's bed.

She rolled over, stealing a glimpse of her now sleeping elder brother, meddlesome brother. She knew he would be watching her, waiting for the tell-tale onset of sleep, her particularly loud snoring. When it arrived she knew it would only be a matter or a few minutes before he went to sleep himself. She continued the charade for longer than she thought necessary and it paid off. When she stood up and walked towards him he made no movement at all, either an incredible actor or actually asleep. Either case, she could now leave here. She did so, making for the door silently, she slipped it open and crept down the darkened corridor, and she noticed a faint glow coming from the bullpen, which means somebody, was still there.

She chose to take the back elevator; she could go down to the basement and 'borrow' one of the NCIS vans. She liked this plan so quickly made her way to the lift, hiding in the alcove she went to press the button, before realising the lift would ping when it arrived, realising this she opted for the stairs slowly creeping down them until she was at least two floors down were she broke into a sprint. As much as one can sprint down stairs anyway. Her plan went off without a hitch, the NCIS van was sat there waiting, she did have to hot wire it because only team leaders had keys and she had to break into the van too, but soon she was on her way.

She drove around before stopping at a payphone and dialling a number scribbled on her forearm.

"Shalom Elijah." She whispered.