A/N: Hey guys! Here's today's chapter. Longer chapters won by a landslide—thanks for your input! Today's chapter is one of answers. I don't have a lot to say about it, except I loved the end scene.

New episode tonight! I'm so thrilled! I think it's going to be really fabulous.

Alright, here you go. Enjoy!

"Tony and Ziva haven't been working here for the same amount of time, so that narrows down our search to cases to a total of 6 years. Then, we take out the four months that Tony was an agent afloat and Ziva was in Israel. And from there, we take out all the cases from the time Ziva left until the time she came back. That leaves us with about 5 years of cases,"

"We figured out that four hours ago," Gibbs said.

"I know, that, Gibbs, just hold on, okay?"

"I ran a snooper through both Tony and Ziva's files, looking for common, uh… Enemies," Tony and Ziva exchanged a look. "I then went through the files, looking for the most aggressive ones. I complied a list from there and then began checking alibis,"

"Wow, that is a longlist," Ziva said, looking at the glance.

"You guys have a lot of enemies," McGee explained.

"Hm," Ziva said, eyeing him with a wicked smile.

"What'd you come up with, McSnoopy?" Tony asked, obviously tired of the cracks.

"Jessica Stalker," McGee said, handing Tony a file.

"I remember her," he said, looking through it. He shuddered.

"You wouldn't stop making comments about her name," Abby remembered, smiling.

"Well I thought it was kind of ironic—she was a murder suspect, and the victim had be, what was that? Oh, stalked? That's right,"

"She hates you because you made fun of her name?" Gibbs said skeptically.

"Because he arrested her," Ziva explained.

"Where was I during this?" Gibbs asked, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Mexico," McGee replied.

"Ah," he said, taking the offered file from Tony.

"The victim was a petty officer," Gibbs read.

"That's right," McGee said. "Stabbed to death, and then some,"

"He had been stalked for six months by Stalker," Abby said.

Tony snorted. Ziva hit him on the arm, but looked at him sweetly over her shoulder. He smiled to himself for a moment. "We had witnesses placing her at the house," he said more seriously now.

"Nosy neighbors," McGee added.

"That's it?" Gibbs asked, look up.

"No, her DNA was on the murder weapon," Ziva said. "She was obsessed with the petty officer, so if she couldn't have him, no one could,"

"She didn't have an alibi," McGee said.

"Well she does now," Gibbs said, continuing to read through the file. "She's been in prison for two years,"

"So why is this relevant? It's not like she could've made those calls," Tony said.

"It's not Stalker I'm talking about—it's her fiancé, Mark Waller,"

"Always gave me the creeps," Tony remembered.

"You were terrified of him!" Ziva corrected.

"No, I was just aware of his… presence

"After she was arrested," McGee moved on, "he filed twenty formal complaints toward Tony and Ziva. When nothing came of it a month later, he started making threats,"

Gibbs moved over to Tony and Ziva who were standing near the wall, side by side. "Why didn't you come to me?" he asked in a low voice.

"We are threatened every day, Gibbs. It is apart of the job. It was nothing I could not handle," Ziva said.

Gibbs sighed and looked to Tony. "Same goes for me, Boss," In that moment, Gibbs raised his hands, and each party was blessed with a well-deserved headslap. "Thank you, Boss," Tony said, rubbing the back of his head tenderly. Ziva, McGee, and Abby shared a grin as Abby went began to speak.

"Waller's lived in DC for two years. He moved her a month after Stalker was arrested,"

"Fits the timeline," McGee said.

"Record?" Gibbs prompted.

"He's been arrested twice for assault, but was never charged," Abby replied.

"I talked to the victims, both who had minor injuries. They said they knew he had a hard life,"

"Sob story could get you anywhere," Gibbs commented.

"Including prison, if we catch him," Ziva said.

"When we catch him," Tony said, looking down at her, eyes sincere. Curiosity flashed through her own expression, brow furrowing for a second that only Tony could see.

"We need more," Gibbs said, handing the file to McGee as he walked back around the desk.

"Had motive," Abby said.

"Had no alibi," McGee added.

"But did he have the skill?" a voice asked from the doorway.

"Director Vance," Abby said, slightly startled. "Your very, um, quiet," she glanced around and grabbed her Caf-Pow to occupy herself.

"I heard it all. But Gibbs is right. We need more," he said, approaching the group.

"He had the supplies," McGee said. He typed furiously and several receipts appeared on the screen. "Everything he needed to build the bomb that blew up Tony's car, all bought within four hours of the bombing. All the brands match the products we found in the device," Vance narrowed his eyes to the screen. He wanted more proof; that much was obvious. "He also lives a block from the convenience store where the call was placed,"

"Opportunity," Ziva said.

Vance looked around the room. "Bring him in," he finally said.

"If he refuses?" McGee's brow rose.

"Arrest him on suspicion of attempted murder and threatening federal agents,"

"Good," Gibbs murmured, taking a look back at the plasma. "Good," he began to stride out of the room. "McGee with me,"

"Boss, what about us?" Tony called.

Gibbs stopped at the door and turned around, McGee still standing at Abby's desk. "Can't risk it,"

Tony made his way over to Gibbs, staring him closely in the eye. "I need to do this, Gibbs," he said in a low voice. "Can't let her die. Not again," his words were a whisper now, eyes serious.

"She needs you alive," Gibbs said quietly into Tony's ear, then stepped back to look at him. "You're staying here. Got it?"

"Yes sir," Tony replied hesitantly.

"Good," Gibbs said, motioning to McGee to follow him down the hall. "And don't call me 'sir!'" he called.

Waller sat in the interrogation room silently, his hands resting on the table, eyes fixed upon them. He didn't move, still as a statue in the frost of winter.

Gibbs walked into the room quietly and sat down in front of Waller, Tony, Ziva, and McGee in Observation.

"Do you know what you're here?" Gibbs asked after a moment.

"Nope," Waller replied, never looking up at Gibbs.

"Any guesses?"

"You finally taking my advice?" he asked, peeking up.

"What advice, Mark?" Gibbs asked, feigning naivety.

"Jessica's innocent. She didn't kill that guy,"

"His name was Petty Officer Roy Gilmore,"

"Fine, whatever. Listen, she didn't do it, okay?" Waller insisted, moving for the first time.

"You got proof, Waller?"

"I… I just know she didn't, sir. She didn't kill him,"

"She stalked him," Gibbs said. "Musta made you feel uncomfortable, knowing your fiancée was spending all her time and energy on him,"

"I don't care about that, Agent Gibbs," Gibbs stared him in the eye, searching. "She may have stalked him, and that was wrong, but she didn't kill him,"

"She was convicted by the grand jury, Waller. Her DNA was on the murder weapon. We had witness placing her at his house at the time that he was stabbed to death!"

"Doesn't matter. There's no way she killed him"

"Why will he not admit it? All of the evidence is pointing to her," Ziva said to Tony as they watched from behind the window.

Tony shrugged, not able to look her in the eye. He knew why.

"Jessica was innocent. Maybe not of stalking him, but she didn't kill him,"

"Well then maybe you did," Gibbs said, walking around behind Waller, resting his hands on the table as he looked down at his suspect. "You found out about him, you got mad, you killed him and you planted her evidence on the murder weapon. That got him out of her life and got her put in prison,"

"That's not what happened. She… I don't know who killed him, but Jessica could never have done something like that,"

"Well did you?"

"No, I didn't," Waller said, looking up at Gibbs, challenging him.

"Then what did you do? Did you try and kill the two agents responsible for putting her in prison? Threaten their lives?"

Waller stared straight ahead now, into his reflection. "I didn't,"

"You didn't?" Gibbs asked skeptically.

"He won't give up," Ziva said, slightly astonished.

"He can't," Tony said softly.

"And why not?" Ziva asked.

"I loved her," Waller said softly, eyes averted. Ziva glanced at Tony quickly, but he was looking away. "I did it," his words were a whisper.

"What did you do?" Gibbs prompted, sitting down once more.

"The bomb in Agent DiNozzo's car. The phone calls. I did it," he said, tears now streaming down his face.

"You did it because you loved her,"

"I would have done anything for Jessica. I know she's innocent. I know she is. We… we were gonna get married. But then your agents, they came and they took her from me,"

"You thought that you could get us to reopen the case,"

Waller nodded. "I didn't want to hurt anyone,"

"But if it came to that?"

Waller looked up at Gibbs, love in his distant eyes. "I would," he answered. "I'd give her the world,"

Gibbs sighed inwardly. "You have the right to remain silent," he began, reading Waller his Miranda rights.

"He did it because he loved her," Tony repeated, eyes still fixed upon the window.

"Even though she was guilty," Ziva said, still unable to believe the craziness of it all.

"When you love someone," Tony said. "Doesn't matter what they did or what everyone else thinks they did. You do whatever it takes,"

"Whatever it takes to do what?" Ziva asked.

Tony looked at her now. "To prove it," he said. His words lingered a moment as he walked out the room, Ziva still standing by the observation room, speechless.

Now, I know it might feel like the case was solved too quickly and easily, but it needed to be this way for the sake of the plot and our poor characters.

If you didn't make the connection—and I hope you did—Tony's able to understand why Waller did what he did—it was because he loved Jessica, and he would believe in her and trust her no matter what, even if the evidence said otherwise, just like Tony loved Ziva through all this time, stuck with her through everything that happened, changed for her, did everything for her. Here is also where I tried to mirror Tony's view of her in the show as well. Even though all the evidence said that she was a traitor to NCIS, to the team, by keeping vital information from, so on and so forth, even when he found out that she was dead, Tony didn't care. He remembered the woman he met all those years ago, the woman who brought him espresso in the rain. He did it all for her, going against all logic, evidence, and authority to avenge her death and eventually save her life. Now that, that is love. And that's what I tried to show here.

Don't forget to review, my dear ones.