Chapter 11: Jenny's words
He felt nauseous and light headed when he woke up. At first he couldn't remember what had happened, but then everything came back to him. Slowly he opened his eyes and found himself lying on the floor of his basement, beside the puddle of Eli David's blood. He tried to sit up, but his arms didn't cooperate. He was surprised though that he wasn't bound, handcuffed, poisoned or dead.
On the third try he managed to partially sit up and saw Eli David still slumped in his chair, a dribble of blood running out of his mouth.
"Don't worry, Agent Gibbs, he's still alive. It's just his liver that's slowly shutting down," he heard Joelle say and looked straight ahead. She sat on his tool table, his gun in her hand pointed at him.
"I'm not worried about him, Joelle," he replied and tried to get rid of the sleepiness that surrounded his brain.
"Oh, so you know my name by now," she replied with a cynical smile.
"Why did your mother never tell me about you?" he asked her and hoped that he would at least get some answers before he would die.
"Because you let her down again and again," she replied without missing a beat.
"That's not true," he protested.
"After the first night you spent together? You told her you couldn't cheat on your wife, although that was compete bull. You had already cheated on her. Then you gave her France, but you could never really commit to her. You think she didn't notice that you were holding something back?"
"I loved your mother. I still do," he swore, simply because it was the truth.
"That's why you got married only four months after she left you?"
"You're too young to understand, Joelle," he replied tiredly. "Your mother and I should have had this conversation."
"But you never did and now she's dead, because she couldn't trust you," Joelle replied and he could see the sadness creep into her eyes.
"She should have trusted me and I wish she did. But I can't change the past anymore," he said and fully sat up. "So if you want to kill me for letting your mother down, then go ahead and do it. I lost too many people in my life for caring much about my own," he said and felt himself getting angry because of his helplessness. "But know that if she had just opened mouth one damn time and would have told me about you or her problems I would have helped her. If you're my daughter or not- it wouldn't have mattered."
"Your daughter? Your daughter is dead Agent Gibbs. Kelly died over a decade ago and I am nothing like her," she said with a smile that quivered slightly.
"You're Jen's daughter and that makes you family, no matter if we're related or not. Semper fi- you remember?" he asked her.
"You won't have another daughter, Jethro, because no matter how this ends here, either you or I will be dead." She pronounced his name the same way her mother had always done, putting emphasize on every letter.
He smiled at her when he noticed it and took a close look at her for the first time, this time not on a photo. She resembled Jenny a lot, but not as much as she had when she had been younger. Her hair was dark and slightly curly, falling loosely over her shoulders. And her green eyes that had reminded him so much of Jenny when he had first seen them, were wary, tired and so sad it made his heart ache. She's like a child soldier, he thought, thinking of the children that were abducted and trained as killers with unbelievable cruelty. They became the most cruel and heartless killers.
"What did he do to you?" he asked her, barely above a whisper, the smile gone. The weapon that she had lowered slightly during the silence was back, pointing at his head. He already thought she would fire when he heard a noise from the stairs and Joelle's eyes shortly left him, seeing whoever was standing on the stairs.
"Livvy!" there was a yell and Ziva stormed down into the basement, gun drawn.
"Emschi Ziva," the girl said without taking her eyes off him.
"Livvy la! Nasilt kalamat umik? " Ziva asked her in Arabic and he was shocked when he heard that Ziva put her gun down and kicked it away.
"Abadan. Kalimatha fi hulumi," she looked shocked by whatever Ziva had asked her.
"I'm here now, Livvy. Give me the weapon," Ziva pleaded and slowly moved in front of Gibbs, passing her father without so much as a second look.
"Emschi ya Ziva!" Joelle yelled, but Ziva didn't move, shielding him with her body.
"You don't want to do this, Livvy. You know. You know everything. You know who he is. You know what your mother always wanted. You know how much she loved him. Don't do it, habibi. Put the gun down," Ziva kept talking in English, because she had seen Toni and Mc Gee coming in, both with poised weapons that were pointed at the teenager.
Joelle stared at her, blinking against tears, her hands shaking. "You always trusted me and I've never let you down and neither did your mother. Imagine what she would say now. What would Jenny tell you?" she went on and signalized her two colleagues to stay back. "I couldn't care less if you kill my father, for all I know, he deserves it. But I won't let you kill Gibbs. Jenny wouldn't want you to. In fact, if she were here I think she would throw one of her fits and yell at you. You remember those?" Ziva asked her and a small smile appeared on Joelle's face as she remembered her mother.
"I miss her so much, Ziva," she admitted and slowly lowered the gun. They heard the click that meant safety was back on and Ziva moved forward, just as slowly, and took the gun from her, then lowered it to the ground and kicked it away, just like she had done with her own gun.
Joelle looked helpless and defeated at her friend, tears running in thick drops over her cheeks, while the others still just watched the exchange. Ziva cupped the girls face with her palms. "What did he do to you?" she asked with tears in her eyes now as well. "What has he done?" she asked again and they all knew she was talking about her father. Joelle fell into Ziva's arms, sobbing violently.
"He had her killed to get me...I didn't know what to do. I just miss her so much," she cried and Ziva held her while Tony and McGee helped him up. Tony then went to Eli David, while Tim helped him standing upright.
"He's still alive," he said when he had found a pulse.
"Where's the antidote?" he asked Joelle. She didn't react, but Ziva carefully pushed her away and asked the same question in Arabic. The girl pointed to the table and Ziva knew which one it was, took the syringe and injected her father, while Tony had gone out. When he came back he came with the guys from the ambulance, who must have waited outside.
"How did you find us?" he asked them, while Eli David was worked on, and Ziva held Jenny's daughter in her arms, not letting her go. She knew better than anyone else what the child had gone through and what had made her go out and kill her mother's murderers.
"Abby told us that you had just left and McGee managed to trace your cell phone, even though she switched it off."
"How?" he asked and lifted his jeans a bit, so the paramedic could take a look at the wound the knife had left.
"Secret service came out with a new program that once installed on a cell phone makes it possible to activate t any time, urn on the microphone or send texts from it, without that the owner notices," McGee told him. "And I installed it on all our NCIS phones, so we would always be able to trace those," the young agent said proudly.
"Good job, all," he said and then looked at Ziva and Joelle.
"What happens to her now, Gibbs?" Ziva asked him when she felt his eyes on them.
"We will take her to NCIS with us. She has a hell of a lot of explaining to do during interrogation," he replied.
"She's a child, Gibbs," Tony protested and he knew it was only because Ziva looked panicked.
"I know. Still I need to know everything before I can come up with a plan how to get her out of this mess," he said and accepted the help as McGee and Tony led him out of his basement.
TBC
Emschi- Go away
Livvy la! Nasilt kalamat umik?- Livvy, no! Did you forget your mother's words?
Abadan. Kalimatha fi hulumi- Never. Her words are in my dreams