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chapter six.

NCIS HQ WASHINGTON DC
BULL PEN
0700 ZULU

Gibbs passed Ahelia over to Jenny when she had calmed down. Heading over to Ducky he handed the Scottish man the box, "Ducky, I want you to test these finger nails for Ziva's DNA," he whispered so Ahelia wouldn't hear him. Pulling out the other item he unfolded it and held it up for the rest of his team to see.

"That shirt is Ziva's, she was waring it when they did the exchange," stated Abby as they all looked at the blood soaked shirt, they could all tell that their chances of finding her alive were running out.

"That poor dear, she must have endured so much pain to have her finger nails ripped off like that, and then the cuts to her torso, oh dear god!" Ducky said as he placed his hand over his mouth.

"Ducky is there any way that you can find out if she," he sighed, "if she was still alive when they did all this to her?" Gibbs asked keeping his face void of any emotion but inside he was starting to panic.

"She was alive alright otherwise there wouldn't be so much blood. Why would they perform such a horrendous act like that on such a beautiful person?"

"Well he did want revenge," stated Abby.

"No, it's more then that, it's Coercion, lifting the finger nails from the skin is a form of interrogation, so are the small cuts. They're deep enough and positioned in the right places just to immobilise her to a certain extent, but not enough for the victim to bleed out before they get the information they want," Gibbs mused out loud.

"Interrogation? But interrogate her for what? I thought this whole thing was for revenge," asked the older man.

"By the positioning of the cuts Duck he's definitely trying to get information out of her."

"What I want to know is why go to all the trouble of kidnapping Ahelia only to do an exchange for Ziva. Why not just go straight for her?" McGee questioned.

"Maybe they new that they would have trouble taking her, we all know that she would put up one hell of a fight," stated Abby.

"That would be our crazy ninja chick. Hammas terrorists are even afraid of her," mumbled Tony as a sad smile graced his lips.

"They kidnapped Ahelia, as any good parent would be willing to give up their own life for that of their child's, this way they new she would go peacefully," Gibbs stated, they all knew that he was also referring to his own daughter Kelly, as they saw a brief flash of sadness in his eyes right before he quickly covered it up.

"Well she hasn't told them anything yet," Abby said but continued on when they gave her a questioning look. "Well they pulled," she sighed, "pulled off her nails, then placed cuts on her body. There is a lot of blood on that shirt, so for her to get to that extent she mustn't be talking right?"

"They obviously didn't realise they had made a mistake when they swapped Ahelia for Ziva. Ziva's a trained interrogator, she knows what type of torture they will use and to some extent ways to alleviate the pain," he turned to look at Ahelia, she was clinging to the front of Jenny as she rocked her back and forth, the little girls hands grasping the Directors shirt. Looking back at the group he whispered, "If Ziva's not talking I'm betting they're going to try and take Ahelia again, they will threaten to torture her if Ziva wont give them the intel they want."

"Do you want McGee and I to do survalence out the front of yours tonight boss?" Tony asked.

"No, it might be best if we all stay here tonight, it's the safest place to be and we have access to everything we need to continue the investigation, we need to find Ziva and her time is running out," Gibbs suggested. "Any hits on the red sedan on BOLO yet?" Gibbs asked the two younger agents.

"Nothing yet boss," McGee answered.

"Agent Gibbs!" Cynthia called down from the landing just outside of the Directors office, "Director David wants you in MTAC ASAP please."

Gibbs nodded and walked over to Jenny and Ahelia, "I'll be right back ok?" he whispered as he kissed Ahelia's cheek.

MTAC

"Director I hope you have some good news for us," Gibbs greeted the head of Mossad.

"Agent Gibbs, I have no information that is of any use to you, but this call is on more of a personal matter," Director David stated.

"Go ahead," Gibbs could feel his chest constrict in worry. He knew by the Directors use of 'personal matter' it could only mean one thing, Ahelia.

"I have booked Ahelia on the next flight to Tel Aviv."

"What are you going to do with her?" Gibbs asked as he tried to swallow the huge lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.

"There is a family here willing to take her off my hands," the Director answered calmly.

"Wait your giving her away?" Gibbs yelled. He clinched his hands into tight fists out of anger, he was sure that his nails would leave indentations in the palms of his hands, but he didn't care.

"You should be grateful that someone even wants her!" David said angrily.

"What about when we get Ziva back?"

"Our cut off time for braking someone in Mossad is 12 hours. Any longer then that the security risk of them leaking information is to great," he paused. "After that we no longer try to bring our officers out alive. Now I suggest you focus your attention on getting me the evidence I need on this terrorist threat you claim is forming."

"What do you mean you don't bring them out alive?" Gibbs ordered but the Director didn't answer. "Wait are you telling me you will take her out as well?" he shook his head in disbelief. There was silence between the two for a few minutes before he spoke again, "Why don't you want Ahelia?"

"Why? She'll only get in my way, besides girls are of little use to me. She is nothing special."

"She is special. She is also funny, intelligent and beautiful, how could you not want her!" Gibbs stressed. "She is a wonderful child and you want to throw her away like yesterday's garbage." Suddenly hit with the harsh reality of Ahelia being taken away from him, he then realised that he had grown so attached to the little girl in such a short time, that in fact he already felt that he loved her as if she were his own. Without another thought he bellowed, "I want Ahelia! Give her to me."

"Why do you want her?"

"I know what it feels like to loose a child. And I know exactly how it will feel if I loose her too. Don't take her away from me, give me Ahelia!"

The Director looked at Gibbs for a long time before he answered. "Her flight leaves in 4 hours," Gibbs was about to protest but the Director held up his hand and continued. "If you decide that you still want her, then I will send you the required paper work. In fact if you manage to find Ziva alive," he chuckled sadistically, "you can have her too," before Gibbs could respond the Director terminated the signal and the screen went black.

BULL PEN

Gibbs marched down the stairs and straight over to his team, "I don't want anyone informing Director David of how our investigation is going, understand," he said firmly.

"Why boss?" asked McGee.

"Lets just say that he's not interested in helping us save Ziva, she's just as much of a target now as what Rhani is to him! He mainly wanted to talk about Ahelia though."

"Sabba didn't want me, did he?" Ahelia was sitting on her mothers chair.

Gibbs sighed as he crouched down in front of the little girl, "no my little soldier he didn't," he murmured as he tucked a curl behind her ear. "How would you feel if you came and stayed with me for a while?" he asked.

"What about ima? Can she live with us too?"

"We'll see," he didn't know what else to say to her as he wasn't sure himself if they would even get her back. "Here is a couple of dollars, Abby can you take Ahelia to get something from the vending machine for her to eat?"

"Sure my silver haired fox," she replied as she took Ahelia's hand and led her to the second floor.

"Ziva has only been gone for ten and a half hours and already the Director had given Ahelia away," stated Gibbs once the they were out of ear shot.

"He gave her away?" asked a shocked Jenny. "He can't possible expect us to send her back to Tel Aviv just so she can go to strangers."

"He's sending me the custody papers, he said I could have them both!" Gibbs growled out.

"Well where all here for her boss," stated Tony. "She's just another addition to this crazy family of ours!"

"His loss is our gain," smiled Ducky. "And that would mean that I have got a grandchild to spoil now," he stated proudly.

"Uncle Tony, it's kind of got a nice ring to it, doesn't it? So are you her new sabba boss?" he ducked quickly to avoid the slap that he new was coming and he wasn't disappointed when he felt the playful tap connecting with the back of his head.

"Yep one crazy family," laughed Jenny.

TBC

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