Tony shut the door to his apartment and sighed heavily. He and Ziva had had fun that night, it was the calmest he had felt since she had been taken, but both knew that the relaxation and comfort couldn't last forever. It was back to reality and in reality they had a lot of things to figure out, a lot of problems to solve. Tony set the plastic with left over Kunyesaya Rice on the counter and took out his cell calling Gibbs. He had made the mistake of not telling Gibbs once and had no intention to do so again. The phone rings a few times before Tony hears Gibbs' trademark phone greeting, "Yeah, Gibbs."

"It's me, boss," Tony says and even through the phone Gibbs can hear Tony's distraught tone. The exhaustion had to be catching up with him. After all he hadn't slept in a week, but Gibbs doubted that that would change until Ziva was safe.

"You got an update?"

"Yeah, it seems that daddy dearest is tracking her like an overprotective parent to a rebelliant teen. He's got a microphone on her and a GPS locator. Some creepy guy is following her, but the guy was slick. You never would have noticed unless you knew to watch," Tony tells Gibbs remembering just how good of a tracker this guy was. In the grocery store he would not always follow them down an aisle and did not even leave the store until they were out to the traffic light...Which Ziva drove through even though it was red. After that he only saw him for a split second and then not one time past that. Mossad trains well. Ziva had once told him that Mossad trains the best, and only the best.

"She tell you anything else?" Gibbs asks.

"Well actually she never told me anything. Since she's wearing a microphone she has to be careful of what she says. She wrote the information on piece of paper and then handed it to me. The rest was just small talk. We watched a movie, did you know that they have them at the grocery store for a dollar, and a good selection-"

"DiNozzo," Gibbs says. Not in an angry tone but more of a "just shut up" tone.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Did she tell ya' anything else?" Gibbs asks again only now he knew that'd he get an actual answer this time instead of a ramble on movies. Which were the only rambles that come from Tony.

"No, Gibbs. Not anything that could help her out of this mess," Tony says a little sadly; the upbeat rambling side of him gone.

"Well then we need to help her out with what we have to go off of."

"How?" Tony asks. They had very little to work with. Her father wanted her to blow the president up and had the capability to kill her and anyone else who would stand in the way of accomplishing this goal. How were they supposed to help her with that bit of info?

"You said she had a GPS and Mic on her, right," Gibbs says as more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah and a creepy guy following her." Tony knew the guy from somewhere. Had seen him at some place or something but he couldn't quite put his finger on where exactly he had seen "creepy guy" before.

"Well Abby might be able to hack into that stuff or re-router or reboot or somethin' to it."

"Doesn't she need something else to go with it? Like a link or a URL. Wait that's the internet. Doesn't there need to be a buffer or connection of some sort?" Tony questions, his tech talk only slightly more developed than Gibbs.

"I don't know, DiNozzo!"

"Right. Sorry, boss," Tony says not even realizing his mistake with apologizing Gibbs until the familiar sentence was heard through the receiver of the cell phone.

"Don't apologize. It's a sign of weakness," Gibbs tells him. It had practically become an automatic response for him. You would think the rest of the team would have learned by now.

"Sorry, boss. I didn't-Damn it!" Tony yells. Angry at himself for slipping up again. He had to get some sleep before he completely lost his bearings but every time he layed down and would try to get some rest one thought would come to his mind, one person. Ziva.

"She'll be okay, Tony," Gibbs says. He could just sense the worry and fear coming from his agent. He cared deeply for Ziva, something Gibbs hated to admit. But it was impossible to ignore. Every look they shared, every time they would get closer than necessary, it was like a neon sign flashing the word "L-O-V-E" right to them. So Gibbs could only imagine what Tony must be going through. It caused him to have concern on Tony. Especially with all the memories of Shannon and Kelly that had been going through his mind lately. He always had them on his mind, but usually he could push it to the back. This week the reminders were flooding back though and he didn't have the energy to fight them and maybe he didn't want to. Gibbs liked to remember his family, although it was very hard the memories of them were so sweet. They were back during such times of joy and of love and of comfort. That is what his two agents had together, love and safety and Tony was in fear of loosing that forever.

"How can you know something like that, Gibbs? What is it another gut feeling? Because I don't think that that's going to be good enough for me this time."

"You want to know how I know, Tony?"

"Isn't that what I just said?" Tony asked his agitation level at an all time high, yet Gibbs was surprisingly calm and patient with him. Normally he would have hung up on him or, if he was closer, smack on the back of the head. Right now though Gibbs was being strangely...Sympathetic.

"I know because you won't let anything happen to her. Will you?" Gibbs asks as a rhetorical question and then decides that maybe he should offer Tony a bit more. "I know you will because when she was in Israel you were powerless, but now that she is back and only five miles away from you, you wouldn't dare let anything happen to her. If I had been here when Shannon and Kelly were in danger I would have guarded them with my life and I know that since you have the opportunity to do so with Ziva, you will. Just make sure she doesn't find out that you're protecting her or your as good as dead, DiNozzo."

"Thanks, boss," Tony says surprised by the fact that Gibbs had opened up to him. And all the more determined to make sure nothing happened to Ziva.

"Yeah, well maybe now you'll stop bugging me so I can finish building this damn boat," Gibbs says. The nice tone now gone from his voice and now his usual grumpy self had returned.

"Will do, boss," Tony says but instead of hearing the sound of a dial tone he hears Gibbs sigh.

"You think you could handle a five year old girl for a few days?" Gibbs asks.

"You're kidding right, boss? Boss?" Tony says nervousness growing in his voice. Of all people to ask to watch a child he was not it. He didn't know a single thing about kids! Hell kids didn't even like him, not even a little.

"Ducky can't handle both her and his mother for much longer and the last time I left McGee in charge of protecting someone..." Gibbs stops letting DiNozzo fill in the rest.

"She could stay with you couldn't she?" Tony asks. Hannah was cute and he might be able to take care of her for an hour or a minute, but to have her staying with him for who knows how long. That he didn't think he could do. Tony already had so many things on his mind and taking care of a kid would take all of his focus. He was just told to protect Ziva how in the world could he do that when he had a five year old with him? He couldn't rush over to her apartment if she needed him or go get dollar movies at the grocery store for them to watch if he had a child to take care of. It didn't even make sense why Gibbs would turn to him for this.

"Yeah she could, DiNozzo but I'm asking you."

"I don't know if I could, boss," Tony said uncertainty in his voice.

"Well then you'll find out," Gibbs says and now, of course now, is when Tony is met with the distinct sound signaling that there was no longer anyone to talk to on the phone.

Great DiNozzo, now you have to find out how to take care of a kid on top of everything else. Can't you just say a more firm "hell no" next time? Tony lectures himself, now angry with both himself and Gibbs and he was pretty sure his entire brain was shutting down from the insufficient amount of sleep. He debates between two choices, go lie in bed trying desperately to actually sleep or make some coffee and look at the TV guide for a good movie. The latter option was the clear cut choice for him, but he'd have to make sure it was a movie he had already seen since his mind tended to wander while he watched them.

NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS

Gibbs had called Abby and McGee to come into work early that day so he could see if it was possible to gain access to the wires Ziva's father had on her. Gibbs had never even left his desk last night, didn't go home to work on his boat, didn't sleep, which wasn't unusual. The mysteries just seemed to deepen, the plot thicken if you were in one of McGee's novel. It was one mystery as to why Director David wanted to do this, kill the president, ruin his relations with the Americans, kill his friend the Director of NCIS, Leon Vance. None of that made sense. Next Tony and McGee find a five year old girl who had been brought over from Israel but for what? To make someone else come out? To kill her? To confuse them? It sure was working. Now Ziva was back in America, supposed to pretend nothing happened and then go blow up the president. In six days. In six days Ziva was ordered to take the president's life, the director's life, along with a hundred other and her own. The purpose to it all...It was one thing Gibbs wanted to know the most and the one thing he couldn't care less about. He wanted the bastard dead, whatever his reasons or his motives. He wanted his daughter dead, he was a monster. Perhaps that is why Ari grew up as he did. Gibbs had lost Kate to Ari and he was not going to let anyone take Ziva from him too.

Abby stared at Gibbs with a concerned look on her face. He was staring dead straight ahead at nothing but air with so much concentration and anger on his face it scared her. He looked determined to do...something. The way he was staring made it look as though he had pure hatred for the filing cabinets and was preparing himself for a battle against them but Abby knew better. She walked over to Gibbs and took him by surprise when she gave him a hug.

"I didn't see you come in," he says his voice quiet and his eyes blood shot.

"I know. What was it you wanted me to check on?" Abby asks. The entire squad room was still dark, no lights were on and it was raining out and was only six in the morning so it was pretty dark.

"Ziva has a GPS and microphone on her. Could you back trace it or hack into them?" Gibbs asks his voice sounding rather disoriented.

"Do you have the GPS or microphone?" Abby questioned. After so many years you would have thought he would know on some level of what was and was not possible when it came to technology. Although he still had her "reboot" his cell phone so maybe very minimal improvement had been made.

"Couldn't you hack into Mossad?"

"That would be like hacking into the pentagon. It would takes years of planning, Gibbs. Years."

"You couldn't do anything else?" Gibbs asks and Abby almost wants to cry at how out of it he seems. The last time he had been like this had been when Kate...

"Ziva's okay, right?"

"She's gonna have to set off a bomb that she'll be wearing in six days because of her father but besides that she's fine!" Gibbs yells and automatically regrets it when he sees Abby's sad and concerned look. Worried for Ziva and for him. He was the strongest person she knew. It was like seeing your father breaking down and it wasn't a common occurrence for her to see.

"She will be okay, right?"

"I-I don't know." Gibbs had been able to reassure DiNozzo and for awhile himself, but once you added everything up and actually thought about it...How would they get out of this one? Going to the FBI or Homeland Security would do nothing. Who would even believe the fact that one of their closest allies was planning a terrorist attack? Keep your allies close and your enemies closer. It was a common saying, one of which made great sense. What was America to Israel now? Israel to America?

"She will be okay, right?" Abby asked again. As though he was a magic 8 ball that she could just keep asking the same questions until the answer she wanted appeared.

"I don't know anymore, Abby."

Tears build in her eyes as she pulls Gibbs into a hug. "Don't say that, Gibbs."

The hug brings him back into reality and he realizes just what he's said. "She'll be fine, Abs," he says hugging her back. McGee walks through the elevator doors to find the two hugging, tears in Abby's eyes, nothing in Gibbs'.

"Uh, is everything okay?" McGee asks immediately aware of the stupidity of that question. "Never mind," he says and Abby turns and gives him a hug next. "Ziva...Is she... I mean she isn't..."

"No, Tim...Not yet," Abby says as a few tears leak out.

NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS

Okay well I hope no one had been expecting anything great from this chapter because it really wasn't all that good. What I meant to write and what I did write...Two completely different things. I still hope it was okay though. Review please :)