A/N – Sorry it has taken me so long to update. I have been busy purchasing a new car, so I've been everywhere except for home on my computer for a while. Thank you for your patience! Here is the next chapter for you.

Disclaimer – same as always, I don't own NCIS or the characters.

Chapter 13

Tuesday October 29, 2013

"David!" Vance's voice shouted, causing Ziva to jump. But, she kept her head on her desk, not wanting to be awake.

"Last name's DiNozzo," she said sleepily, putting a hand up to her eyes and rubbing them gently.

"Get up here, we need to talk," Vance said harshly.

Ziva sat up instantly and grabbed her head. It was pounding. She closed her eyes for a second and Tony was near her desk, looking at her. His eyebrows were raised, obviously asking if she was okay.

"Just a headache, Tony. Perfectly normal," she whispered to him and stood up.

He nodded and she crutched herself to the elevator to make her way up to Vance's office. When she entered he was looking at her sharply. He indicated the chair, his harsh expression faltering at the sight of one of his best agents on crutches because of an attack that they couldn't figure out.

"Why didn't you ever mention this thing about Adam Eschel? And why are you meeting with him over the weekend? Will you be safe? Who will be near you?" Vance asked, concern entering his expression as he continued to ask questions.

"I did not mention it because I did not realize exactly what it was at the time," Ziva explained. "When I finally remembered that I had gone to Ducky I asked him what his findings were and decided, as my last act as his friend that I would not press charges against him. If charges need to be filed now that is fine by me. I am okay with him getting the justice he deserves.

"I am meeting him over the weekend because he has information that we might need. After that we will bring him in. He has already agreed to that. He knows he deserves justice," Ziva continued. "I will be safe. Gibbs, Tony, and Jen will be there. They will have my back. Despite what you may think by looking at me on crutches and Jen with only one arm, we are both more than capable of taking care of ourselves and our own while we are down a limb. Trust me, I have had to do it before and so has she. We were both members of Mossad for a long time before joining your agency."

"He has information that might help your case?" Vance asked. "How?"

"Because someone is after him as well," Ziva informed Vance. "That is all I know and all he is willing to say over a cell phone that is not strictly secured. I do not know if this has anything to do with Mossad or not, Vance, but obviously he fears that someone is hacking into our communications. Otherwise he would just tell me over the cell phone. He does not feel safe and he knows also that jail is a safe place for him, no matter how long he has to spend there for what he did to me."

"Now, I have another question. Why were you sleeping on your desk?" Vance asked.

"I was tired," Ziva told him casually. "I guess I am not getting the best sleep with this thing on my leg."

That was the excuse that she and Tony could come up with together without giving away their secret too soon. The doctor's appointment had gone very well. The OB/GYN had told them that everything looked good, but there was some scarring on the lining of her uterus that could make it difficult to carry through the first trimester. The doctor was not too worried about it, because everything looked great. But, Ziva was on restricted duty. Thankfully, it was unnecessary to tell Director Vance this, since her leg restricted her more than her pregnancy did.

"I guess that's all, then," Vance said. "Try to do your sleeping at home from now on and not in the office. Although, I guess if Gibbs is fine with it then so am I. You have never failed me. I just feel like there is something you're not telling me."

"I'm hiding nothing," Ziva lied easily.

Ziva had a few things going for her. She was a very good liar in most cases. There was only one person in the world that she absolutely could not lie to or in front of and he was not in the room with her. Ziva had never been able to lie to Tony well and now that they were married she just could not lie to Tony. She couldn't bring herself to do it and when she did think about it she had worse tells than a small child trying to lie. She also could not lie in front of Tony, simply because of the amount of trust they had for each other. That was why she found it odd that some still did not believe that their marriage was real.

"Okay. One more question. The other day, when Gibbs let you all go early. Why? He made sure that everyone else was piled into the other car. I watched it happen from up here. Why did he go with you and Tony? You went in a different direction than the others."

"Grocery shopping," Ziva said and that wasn't a total lie. They had gone grocery shopping together after Ziva's appointment so the others would not ask too many questions. It was an easy enough lie to tell, even in front of Tony, since it was also the truth.

"Right," Vance said, as though he hadn't thought of this before. He nodded to her and let her go with the lingering feeling that she was hiding something from him. He was never very good at reading Ziva, but something just seemed so off with her lately, even considering the fact that she was injured. There was something else that was off about her.

Ziva left his office and as she was making her way toward the elevator her phone began to ring and she made her way into the conference room just in time to answer the call, which was the same Israeli number that she had talked to earlier that day. She had not realized how long she slept on her desk. It had already been five hours.

"Hello again," Ziva said into the phone.

"Ziva. I don't have long," he said. "I am going to be on the way to DC very soon. I'm almost to the airport where I can get away. What's the plan?"

"You are coming here. We will talk at a safe location. I will not be alone, though. You need to know that there will be three others with me," Ziva explained quietly. "Once you are in the United States you are to get a different cell phone. A burn phone we call them here. You know, one of those prepaid ones? Then you will text this number. We are meeting at the safe location on Friday at six for dinner and talk."

"Are you cooking? Your cooking is amazing," Adam said.

"No, Adam. I am on crutches and I will not be cooking," Ziva said. "Someone else will. But that information is secured information for the moment. We are not divulging secured information. I will text you the location when it is nearly time. You are not to use that burner cell phone for anything other than your contact with me, is that understood?"

"Yes, Ziva. Perfectly," Adam said, sounding as though he was smiling.

"And, only when it is necessary. Those two text messages are all you get unless you somehow become in trouble. We are only going to keep you safe until you have shared your information. Once that is done, you are going to be brought to NCIS by me and the other agents that will be accompanying us and you will be accused of the crimes you have committed against me."

"That's fine. I'm safer in an American jail anyway," Adam said. "By the way, how is that DiNozzo character?"

Ziva only laughed. "Text me when you are in America," Ziva said and hung up the phone as she placed it back inside her pocket and made her way to the elevator. She stopped at Gibbs' desk and looked at him.

"It is a go," she said quietly.

"Agreed to the terms?" Gibbs asked.

"All of them," Ziva stated and watched Gibbs' eyes widen in amusement. He knew all of the terms, of course. He knew them well, because he had helped to make the terms of Adam's demands to see Ziva and speak to her about whatever he had for information or gut feelings.

Ziva then looked to Tony and they both knew that this was going to be the easiest arrest that they had ever made and they probably would never have another arrest like it again. Someone who was coming to them to help them, in desperate need to help them, who had also done some wrong and was more than willing to take full responsibility for his actions, not just to save his own ass, but to save the rest of team Gibbs from whatever danger they had now.

Ziva sat at her desk and this time started going through her emails, noticing that the majority of it was spam mail.

"Okay, time to go," Gibbs said. "McGee, go get Abby. Jenny, go get Ducky. Jen, DiNozzo, and DiNozzo you're with me. Let's go."

They followed Gibbs into the elevator and halfway down he hit the emergency stop switch. He looked at the three agents, two of which were both injured and pregnant. He sighed.

"Okay, Friday we have a task," Gibbs said. "I needed to talk to you about this. The others are going to remain at NCIS that day. The four of us are going back to the safe house for dinner with Adam Eschel."

"Why?" Jen asked, narrowing her eyebrows.

"He has information, Jen," Gibbs said simply. "The meeting is approved and there are four of us there for a reason. I don't want this to turn into something reckless since two of my girls are there. We talk, we arrest, we bring him in. understood?"

"Got it, boss," Tony said immediately. Ziva nodded so did Jen.

They discussed details on the way home, at least as much details as they could discuss out without knowing what he knew. When they arrived Abby and Jenny were in the kitchen cooking a spectacular dinner that Ziva actually thought smelled good.

They all sat around the dinner table and Abby pulled out a bottle of wine and put a glass in front of everyone. She also had sparkling cider for Jen, though it was a large bottle. When Abby went to pour Ziva wine she put her hand over the glass and Tony mimicked her.

"Since when do you two turn down drinks?" Abby asked suspiciously.

"Since my stomach is still bothering me from that bug I had," Ziva said.

"Just not feeling in a partying kind of mood, Abby," Tony said.

"How come? That's so unusual?" she asked, glaring at him.

"Well, let's see. We have a case that we can't solve and by the way, it's not just a normal case. This is a case that involves my family! Ziva's already hurt, someone shot at you, Jen is hurt, someone shot at me and we're all living in a safe house. Not to mention that somehow Trent Kort is caught up in all this!" Tony nearly shouted and got up from the dinner table.

There were tears in Ziva's eyes at the hurt expression and tone Tony was holding, but she knew that he needed a minute. Everyone was staring at her, except for Abby.

"Well, normally you drink in this kind of circumstance! And you, too, Ziva! Normally you drink, too! Doesn't matter how you feel! You never get sick anyway, so why now? Why is all this happening?" Abby said and slammed the bottle of wine on the table, also leaving the room.

A tear rolled down Ziva's cheek as McGee got up to go talk to Abby. Ducky and Jen were watching her carefully. She said nothing. She allowed her tears to fall in front of her coworkers as she heard Abby shouting upstairs.

"No, Tim! It's not okay! Tony's right! Everything is messed up! We can't solve the one case that involves us! We're supposed to protect people and we can't even protect ourselves!"

"Abby, calm down! It'll be fine! We'll figure it out, we always do!" McGee replied.

The tears started flowing faster on Ziva's cheeks and she stood up and made her way toward the bedroom, but someone grabbed her arm gently and stopped her. She turned to see Jen there. Ziva didn't want to face Jen in the state she was in. So, she turned her face away from her and looked at the door.

"Ziva, are you crying?" Jen asked, sounding concerned.

"No," Ziva lied and tried to wiggle her arm free of the other woman's grip.

"Zi, you can always talk to me, you know that, right?" Jen asked.

"Not right now, I can't," Ziva said, telling the truth. Right now she didn't know why she was crying. What she normally would have done was rolled her eyes, but her hormones were getting in the way and causing her to cry in front of people who used to see her as emotionless. Now she was overly emotional. What would they think happened to Ziva to cause the tears?

She finally freed herself from Jen's grip and made her way into the bedroom, plopping herself down on the bed and allowing the tears to flow over her eyes. That was when Tony came out of the bathroom and noticed that Ziva was no longer sitting at the table and neither were Abby and McGee.

He knew where she was, but first he grabbed two plates of food and brought them into the bedroom.

"So much for family dinner," he said to Gibbs as he opened the door.

"Just take care of her, Tony," Gibbs said as the door closed behind him.

Tony saw Ziva sitting there. She was a big mush of tears and that was it. That was not the way he was used to seeing his ninja at all. That was not what he usually expected to see. He knew that she was quietly emotional, but seeing her mush into this was heartbreaking for him. He placed the plate of food on the side of the bed and kneeled down in front of her, moving her crutches out of his way. He looked up into her eyes before he spoke.

"I'm sorry it got out of hand," he said gently.

"It's not your fault, Tony. We are all stressed," she said through her tears and pulled him up to her and into a hug. "Thank you for dinner, by the way."

He nodded into her shoulder and they stayed there for a few minutes before eating dinner.