Fighting the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Well, here begins the story which was originally my plan to write… before things had gotten out of hand and five other chapters just appeared from nowhere... oh well...

Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Lost Little Girls

"Ready to go?" Ari stepped into the little room where Ziva was currently sitting with Avigail in her arms. She was silently singing to the baby in Arabic, the same song Anwar used to sing to her. In spite of everything that had happened, that song could still sooth her and it seemed that Avigail, too. She was quite restless during the whole day as if she could have sensed that something was happening... something that wasn't good at all.

As the song ended Ziva slowly looked up at her brother.

"Just a few more minutes. Please..." Ari could clearly hear the distress in her voice. He sighed then stepped to her and sat down next to her.

"We have to go, Ziva, if we want to get back to Tel Aviv in time."

"I know, Ari. I know. But it is so difficult to leave her here."

"It is but Hanan and her husband are good people. They will take good care of her." Ari met Hanan in Edinburgh. Her parents had emigrated from Syria back in the 1970s then, after college, she moved into Israel after marrying an Israeli doctor. He was happy that Hanan and his sister had established a good friendship during the months Ziva had spent with the family. And Ari knew that he couldn't have found a better place for Avigail to stay until everything got arranged. "She is beautiful, Ziva. She has Anwar's eyes." Ari stated looking into the girl's still dark blue eyes which would sure turn into deep brown. He felt Ziva tense next to him at the mention of her lover's name. Anwar was still a sore point between the siblings as Ari was convinced that his friend had been innocent. Ziva, on the other hand, was a completely other question. Ari wasn't sure what she could be thinking about the whole thing but he had a suspicion that his sister had her own doubts about the incident and her stubborn insistence on Anwar's guilt was some kind of self-defence on her part. Maybe she wasn't ready to accept the fact that their father had made her choose between him and her lover... and she choose her father... "But she has your nose and mouth."

"That she does." Ziva was looking at her daughter lovingly for a little longer then she stood up with a sad sigh. "Let's go." She looked down at her brother with sad eyes.

Ari also stood up then pulled Ziva and the baby closer to him.

"Hey, Princess..." He looked into her troubled brown eyes seriously. "Everything will be alright. I promise. I will make whatever it takes to make sure of that. Alright?"

Ziva smiled at him gratefully then rose on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you." She whispered.

In the dirty street of the little village Ziva carefully handed Avigail to Hanan kissing her child one more time. "Take care, my darling." She whispered with teary eyes then kissed Hanan as well making her promise that she would take good care of her daughter. Slowly she turned to make her way to the awaiting car but she didn't get in. She stopped by the door and reached for her backpack. She opened it and after a short search, she took out something. Ari's questioning look became smiling as he realized what her sister had been looking for. In the hands of his sister there were those two little purple gorillas that he had given her all those years ago. With the years their ridiculously lively purple colour had faded somewhat but for him, they still looked quite funny. But Ziva cherished them. He watched as she separated the two pieces with skilled fingers then grabbed the smaller one and made her way back to Hanan.

Ziva carefully placed the toy between her daughter's small searching fingers and smiled when the baby grabbed it. "Here, my beautiful girl." Ziva kissed her once more then practically ran back to the car letting her tears fall. She got in and the car began to move.

"It is just for a few weeks, Princess. Do not worry." Ari smiled at her sister reassuringly.

As Ziva took one last worried look at her baby from the moving car gripping the other purple gorilla in her hands, little did she know that those few weeks would turn into months... and years...

"Morning, Boss." McGee looked up from the computer screen to greet Gibbs as he walked into the bull pen, coffee in hand.

"Hey, Boss!" Tony greeted Gibbs, too, then frowned. Something was missing... or more precisely, someone. "Hmm… Boss? Where did you leave Mrs. Boss?" Tony asked his mischievous grin in place.

"Don't worry, Dinozzo. She's right behind me." Gibbs said smirking as he took the seat behind his desk. "She just has to settle a minor disagreement with a man in the parking lot."

The two younger agents frowned but it was Tony, who spoke up.

"What happened?" Tony inquired eagerly at which Gibbs looked at him. Tony gulped, more from habit than anything else. "If… I may… ask. Boss."

Gibbs just smiled to himself.

"Well, according to Ziva, the idiot hadn't checked his rear-view mirror properly."

"Did he bump into you?" This time McGee was the quicker to speak.

"I'd rather say that Ziva bumped into him… but I'm sure that they can resolve the disagreement."

"And you left Ziva there? Alone?"

"She is more than capable of looking after herself, Dinozzo."

"Well, it's not her I'm worried about, Boss."

In that moment the elevator dinged and Ziva stepped out of it. The two younger agents unbelievably quickly found something to occupy themselves with and desperately tried not to attract the presumably very pissed off Ziva's attention. Gibbs, on the other hand, regarded Ziva with a calm look.

"Good morning, everybody! Is it not a beautiful morning?" McGee and Tony froze as they heard Ziva's cheerful voice then they looked up at her. Gibbs just smirked. She gave all of them a sweet smile while Tony suspiciously regarded her.

"Should we call Ducky, Ziva?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"That would not be necessary, Tony."

"Ziva?" Gibbs asked with the slightest of worry in his voice.

"Do not worry, Gibbs. I did not even touch him." At that McGee sighed with relief while Gibbs posture relaxed a little bit.

"I'm disappointed, Ziva. Did not even push him?" Tony asked and Ziva shook her head. "Not even a little?" Tony almost whined, but again, she just shook her head. "Damn, and I thought something interesting would happen today."

"Well, Dinozzo, nothing interesting so you can turn your full attention back to writing up your report."

"Yes, Boss."

"Hey, Tony." Ziva whispered trying to get Tony's attention but not really caring that the others heard her, too. "If it makes you feel better, I can assure you that he will not sit behind the wheel again for a very long time." She gave him a playful wink as Tony's face lit up then turned back to her work.

Gibbs just shook his head with a barely visible smile.

They were working in silence for a while when Gibbs' phone began to ring.

"Gear up!" He instructed his team after hanging up. He quickly grabbed his gun and badge from the drawer and on his way to the elevator he threw the truck key to Tony. "We have a dead Marine in Baltimore." He smirked as he saw his wife's indignant expression.

"You didn't think that you'd drive after your little incident this morning, did you, David?"

"It was not my fault." She shouted after his retreating form indignantly and she had to suppress her urge to smack Dinozzo in the face when he walked out with a mocking grin on his face. Then, after grabbing her bag, she quickly left for the elevator, too, and jumped in as the doors began to close.

"Oh man!" Tony exclaimed with a disgusted grimace for the up tenth time since the team arrived at the crime scene. "Somebody is seriously living at this garbage heap?"

"Cut it off, Tony, will you?" McGee was quickly getting fed up with his colleague's whining. At a certain level he could totally understand him as the house was in a serious need of cleaning but they wasn't there to live in it, they had work to do…

"Cut it off? Have you seen the bathroom? I wouldn't let my dog in there."

"Tony, you don't have a dog."

"That's not the point, McGee." McGee rolled his eyes as he made his way up the squeaky stairs leaving Tony to finish collecting evidence downstairs.

"We are good to go, Anthony." Ducky and Palmer emerged from the living room with the body of the late Major Patrick Wilson.

"Alright, Ducky. Gibbs's still out there somewhere." He told the doctor absentmindedly as he stood in the door to the kitchen gathering his strength to enter. "And how I wish that I were there, too." He frowned as he took a look into the messy and not to mention smelly room.

On their way out of the house the two MEs bumped into Gibbs.

"Jethro, I've just told our Anthony that we are ready to go. That's it if you don't need anything else."

"It's alright, Duck." Gibbs patted the older man on the shoulder as he went on. "We are almost finished here, too." With that the agent stepped into the kitchen. "Dinozzo, what have you got?"

"A whole load of crap, Boss."

"Well, I hope that you've got more than that."

"Of course, Boss…" Tony answered chastised. "Well with the amount of evidence we've collected, Abby will sure have a field day… and I also found the murder weapon. It was a completely and utterly disgus…"

"Hey, Gibbs." Ziva interrupted Tony as she stormed into the room. "We are missing a girl." She stated as the two man turned towards her. "Major Wilson and his wife are the foster parents of five children. One of them is outside with Mrs. Wilson, three children are in school at the moment but I could not locate the fifth child. She should be in school, too, but she is not."

"Great. A missing child." And Tony thought that the day couldn't get any worse. Both Gibbs and Ziva gave Tony a pointed look and he frowned at them. "You know it's quite unnerving when both of you are giving me the Gibbs look."

Gibbs looked amused at that but Ziva just rolled her eyes and turned back to the other man.

"Mrs. Wilson told me that there was a man who had been giving them a hard time lately. The court withdrew his visitation rights but he insisted on seeing his daughter. It is very much possible that he is the one who killed the Major."

"Wow, Sherlock Holmes here is saying something, Boss." Tony laughed but Gibbs' raised eyebrow quickly shut him up. "Sorry, Boss."

"Well, Tony, as I said it is likely that he killed the Major but the missing girl is not his daughter. His daughter is with Mrs. Wilson at the moment." Ziva finished.

"Tony go and…" Gibbs turned to his senior agent.

"…and put on an amber alert. On it, Boss." Within seconds Tony was by the kitchen door but he bumped into McGee there.

"Uhm, Boss… I think it won't be necessary. I've found her."

The team quickly followed McGee up the stairs and into a little dirty room which was packed with three beds.

"It must be the girls' room." Tony was just about to make a comment about Ziva stating the obvious once again but he was cut short by the younger agent's elbow connecting with his ribs.

"Ouch, Ziva! You really had to do that?"

"Yes." Tony just looked at her frowning. Ziva stepped closer to him with a dangerous look in her eyes that made the other agent step back slightly. "You know, Tony, I was this close to inflicting some serious injuries on the man who had been stupid enough to bump into me this morning. Now my palms are really itching..." Tony visibly gulped but suddenly a hand connected with his head.

"Ouch!" He said again while his hand involuntarily went up to stroke the burning area.

"Are you two done?" Gibbs asked his two agents with an annoyed look.

Ziva nodded going back to serious in an instant then started walking around the room.

"And why did she get the gentler one?" Tony whined referring to the fact that the Israeli woman had indeed got a visibly gentler slap. "She was the one who elbowed me."

Ziva turned back to him with an all too sweet smile on her face.

"That is, Tony, what you call the perks of sleeping with the boss, yes?"

"Too much information there, thank you, Ziva." Tony frowned. "I prefer imagining you playing cards or someth… argh…" It seemed that Tony was intent on breaking his personal record of the number of head-slaps per day. "…on second thought, I rather not image anything and now I'm going back to work, Boss."

"That's much better, Dinozzo." Gibbs agreed then turned to McGee. "Where is the girl, McGee."

"She is hiding in the wardrobe, Boss. I tried to coax her out but she wouldn't move."

"Do you think she saw something?" Ziva posed the question.

"Well, there is only one way to find it out. What's her name, Ziva?"

"Uhm… Abigail" Gibbs nodded then went and squatted down by the wardrobe. The team waited patiently for quite some time but Gibbs didn't succeeded in getting the little girl out from her hiding place. Finally he stood up and went back to the others. Tony quickly assumed the task to charm the little girl out of the wardrobe but he also had to return defeated. That was when every head turned towards the only woman in the room. Ziva put up her hands in protest.

"Oh no… I do not think that it is a good idea."

"Ziver…"

"What? McGee and Tony could not get her out, hell, you could not get her out. What could I possibly do?"

"Just give it a try! Please."

Ziva sighed defeated then stepped to the wardrobe. She squatted down to peek into it and suddenly she was met by two large dark brown eyes and a mess of dark brown curls. Her breath was caught in her throat and for a moment she couldn't move but then she jumped onto her feet and stepped back from the wardrobe as if she had seen a ghost.

"Ziver…" Gibbs stepped next to her concerned. "You alright?"

The female agent blinked once or twice then looked at the man next to her. She felt slightly dizzy but she nodded. "Sure?"

"Of course, I just…" She was looking for the words but the truth was that she didn't really know for which words. "I'll go, talk to her." With that she returned to the wardrobe and not long after that, at her team mates' great amazement, she returned to them with a six-year-old in her arms.

"Hey, guys…" She called to them smiling. "Meet Abby from the wardrobe." The little girl was clinging to the Israeli woman and her face was buried into her neck so her long curly hair hid all of her face. "We have a problem, though." Ziva continued. "She is not speaking. She must be in some kind of shock."

"Alright..." Gibbs began collecting his thoughts. "Until she begins to speak, we have to assume that she saw something. She's coming with us. Ziva, take her to Ducky and have him take a look at her." Ziva nodded and Gibbs turned to Tony. "Dinozzo, you are with the other girl. What's her name?"

"Lora Carpino" Ziva supplied.

"Lora. She's coming with us, too. McGee, find her father and find out everything about him. Dinozzo, you make a background search on the Wilsons. Ziva will help you after she finished with Ducky."

"But, Boss. How am I supposed to look after the girl and do my job?" Gibbs turned to Tony with a clearly annoyed look.

"You multitask, Dinozzo."

"Yeah, of course, I'll do that."

Ziva was sitting by Gibbs' desk watching Abigail drawing by her desk. That little girl stirred up feelings in her, feelings she wasn't altogether comfortable with. On the one hand, she wanted to be close to her... to comfort her... to help her through that ordeal that she was experiencing. But on the other hand, she didn't want to have anything to do with her. She wished that Gibbs hadn't placed her in her care. She reminded her so much of what she couldn't have.

She knew, however, that it was neither the place, nor the time to dwell on her losses. Abigail seemed to take a special liking to her. She trusted Ziva enough to leave her sanctuary. She felt safe with Ziva and she didn't have the heart to deprive the little girl of that feeling. After all she knew all too well how it felt living without it.

Ziva slowly stood up and walked to her desk.

"Hey, Abby." She began gently and the girl looked up at her. "What are you doing?" She winced at the stupidity of her question but she really felt awkward. This whole small talk thing wasn't her cup of tea at all. Abby didn't answer just turned back and continued drawing. Ziva sighed defeated. How could someone pick up a conversation with a girl who wasn't willing to speak? "Can I take a look?" She asked and smiled when Abby removed her arms which were hiding the picture from her. "It is very nice, Abby. You are very talented. Do you like drawing?" Ziva winced again. Obviously she liked drawing. Abby nodded with a small smile. "Do you mind if I join you?" As the girl shook her head, her brown curls danced happily around her face.

Ziva stepped closer to her chair and picked up the girl easily then settled down and put Abby in her lap. She was surprisingly small to her age and Ziva couldn't help wonder how the Wilsons treated her.

"Alright, let's see..." She squeezed the little girl playfully then grabbed a pencil and both of them set to work in companionable silence.

It was late in the afternoon when Gibbs came down from the Director's office. Ziva was still drawing with Abby, who occasionally giggled at whatever the Israeli woman was whispering into her ear. Gibbs smiled at the sight of them then turned his attention to McGee, who had returned from Abby's lab and now looked quite busy typing away on his keyboard. Of course, it didn't mean anything, Gibbs thought. That boy could look very busy doing nothing at all... or he was just chatting with Abby, which he caught him to do quite often.

"Where is Dinozzo?" Gibbs asked finally stopping by his desk.

"I think he's still chasing after Lora." McGee informed Gibbs looking up from his computer screen and at that moment they could see the two-year-old running past them giggling happily with Tony just right after her. The two men looked after their colleague with amused glances while Ziva just laughed out and little Abby giggled with her.

"Well, I guess this is a whole new concept of Tony chasing after a girl." Ziva stated smiling.

"That's right, Ziva. That's very right." McGee conceded.

"Hey!" Gibbs shouted after his senior agent. "Dinozzo!" But Lora had already made her way around the squad room and she was running in the direction of the team leader. Gibbs stepped into her way and the little girl stopped abruptly just before she could have bumped into the man's legs. Big blue eyes were taking in the older man from his shoes until they reached a pair of stern blue eyes. For a moment there was deadly silence among the team, even Tony stopped panting as he stood a couple of steps behind Lora. But then a smile appeared on Gibbs' face as he leant down to scoop up the little girl.

"So Lora, are you giving a hard time to Agent Dinozzo?" He asked the little girl and smiled when she nodded enthusiastically. "Good." Gibbs tousled her light brown hair with a satisfied smirk. He could hear Ziva and McGee chuckle.

"I hope, Dinozzo, that you managed to exhaust her." He looked at his agent.

"I don't think that it's possible, Boss." Tony answered still panting.

"That's too bad for you." Gibbs smirked while Tony looked at him dreading what he was sure would come next. "You are taking her home." He put the girl down then patted her back. "Alright, Lora. Don't wear him out too much." With that the little girl ran to Tony giggling happily and stretched out her arms for the man to pick her up. Tony lifted the girl with a scared frown which the others found quite amusing.

"Ziver…" Gibbs turned to his wife. "Abby's staying with us." Ziva nodded and smiled down at the girl in her lap. "Alright, people. Let's go home. It was a long day."

TBC

Thanks for reading!