Consequences of Love and War: Chapter 13

A/N: Yay! A day off! Let's celebrate together with a new chapter.

But before we do that, your summary: the team seems to be no closer to finding Dr. Alyse Aachen, but not for a lack of trying. In addition to looking into the terrorism angle (which is currently on hold while the SecNav and State Department debate whether or not they should agree to working with Mossad), Gibbs has also gotten the NCIS Intelligence Department to prepare a dossier on Peter Kirkan and Ducky to do a 'psychological autopsy' on Kirkan and Aachen.

"Coffee?" Tony asked as he slowed at the gate at the Navy Yard, offering the guard his ID and Ziva's, the first word spoken since they left his apartment.

"Hmm?"

"That dark beverage, tastes a little bitter, better with sugar? The stuff Gibbs mainlines?"

"I know what it is, Tony."

"Do you want to get some coffee before going into work?" he asked with exaggerated slowness. He glanced at her as he handed over her ID, seeing a knowing smile on her face. He rolled his eyes at being made to spell it out for her.

"I would like that," she said, her politeness just as exaggerated as his tempo had been. He rolled his eyes again, but when her hand lightly grazed his thigh, he removed his from the gear shift and squeezed her fingers briefly.

They parked in the NCIS garage and walked the block and a half to Gibbs' usual caffeine dealer, where Ziva ordered a large black coffee and Tony got a soy latte with nutmeg. Ziva rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything about his girlie coffee as they headed back to the building.

"Maybe if we get out at a reasonable time today, you can make that dinner you were going to make for me yesterday," Ziva said casually as they rode the elevator up to the squadroom. He caught the mischievous glint in her eye and barely resisted the urge to groan at what he knew was coming. Sure enough, she turned in the elevator so she was fully facing him, close enough that he could feel the warmth radiating from her body, but not actually touching. When she spoke again, her voice was low and sultry. "And I will provide dessert." A second later, the elevator doors slid open, and Ziva stepped out calmly, leaving a flustered DiNozzo in her wake.

"Damn you, woman," he muttered to himself as he followed behind her, taking a seat at his desk. He hated it when she did that—one innocent-seeming comment, and it took all of his willpower not to take her to one of several isolated places in the building and have his way with her. It was something he had put a lot of thought into, and he had an entire list of potential locations. The showers, that empty broom closet on the third floor, the locker rooms off the gym, the—.

"Agent DiNozzo, Officer David." DiNozzo's head snapped up at the sudden intrusion of Cynthia's voice into his thoughts. The director's secretary was standing at the top of the stairs, her hands at her hips. "There's a call in MTAC for you. From the Bahrain field office."

"We will be right there," Ziva called up. She gave Tony a knowing smile. "Are you ready?" she asked, almost teasingly. He glared briefly as he rose to follow her up the stairs. "No drinks in MTAC," she reminded him before he rounded the desk. He gave a mournful sigh as he replaced the latte on his desk, knowing that he was just going to throw it out when he returned.

"Of all the ridiculous rules," he muttered at the top of the stairs, more to himself than to her. She smiled knowingly before leaning in for the retina scan.

"Bahrain is on stand-by," the tech informed them as they entered to see the rainbow-striped screen. DiNozzo nodded as he reached for a headset and watched as Ziva did the same.

"We're ready," he said a minute later. The tech nodded and pressed a few buttons. DiNozzo blinked at the image that appeared. "Tomblin," he said in surprise. "Wasn't expecting to see you."

The petite second-in-charge in the Bahrain field office grinned widely. "I'll try not to take that personally, DiNozzo," she teased. Her eyes traveled over to Ziva and she nodded a greeting. "Good to see you again, Officer David."

"And same to you, Agent Tomblin," Ziva replied. As far as DiNozzo knew, the two women had never worked together; NCIS Special Agent Kim Tomblin filled in for Ziva on the MCRT almost two years before, after the Mossad liaison broke her ankle arresting Hedia Grossman, and left for Bahrain the same day Ziva came back from Israel after settling her father's estate. However, considering Ziva's occasional disappearances on Mossad duties over the last year or so, he couldn't say for sure that their paths hadn't crossed somewhere in the Middle East. "Is Agent Burley not available?"

Tomblin shook her head, her black ponytail swaying with the motion. "He left for Afghanistan as soon as we heard about Dr. Aachen. He's heading the investigation at Camp Phoenix and left me to take care of things on this end."

"And the Middle East as we know it falls apart," DiNozzo quipped. Tomblin rolled her eyes but played along.

"Because I'm sure you could do so much better," she said dryly. Ziva saw him stiffen slightly as the words hit far too close to his insecurities, but his playful grin didn't falter. "I read the official NCIS brief on Dr. Aachen's abduction," Tomblin informed them, instantly down to business. "What else have you got for me?"

As per agency protocol, suppositions weren't included in official briefs, only hard facts in short, clear language, so Tomblin's question was a valid one. "Dr. Aachen was the physician in charge of the detainee center at Camp Phoenix," DiNozzo began. "Gibbs spoke to Dr. Samuel Davis, an Army lieutenant colonel who held Dr. Aachen's post before redeployment. He didn't have much to offer—the detainee center is short-term, for medical care only. Any of the patients he saw would have been moved on to a more permanent location by now."

"I have a list of detainees," Tomblin informed them with a nod. "SecNav allowed for the release of information at what would have been some ungodly hour for you. Your intelligence department likely has the release as well, if you want to call for it while we continue the brief."

Tony nodded and gestured to one of the analysts in the back of the room to get that before speaking again. "Officer David and I spoke to a Mossad control officer in Afghanistan, and—"

"If it's all the same to you, DiNozzo, I'd like to hear this from Officer David," Tomblin interrupted with a nod in Ziva's direction. "No offense, but if there's one thing I've learned from having an in-house Mossad officer here in Bahrain, if you're talking Mossad, you might as well be talking to Mossad while you do so."

Tony shrugged and turned to Ziva, who took over smoothly. "Officer Raanan Thal has three operatives in Afghanistan. A few weeks ago, one was captured by the American military. His name is Ezra Hardoon, but according to Officer Thal, he was likely captured under the name Kazem Shirazi."

Tomblin nodded slightly as she jotted that down. "Posing as an Iraqi?"

Ziva flinched imperceptivity at Tomblin's words, the fact that she had picked up on that so quickly, while it had completely escaped Tony's notice. Tomblin didn't have quite enough seniority in the agency to take Burley's place in a year, but Ziva wouldn't put it past Vance to overlook that detail, if it suited his needs. She made a mental note to work on the nuisances of Arabic names with Tony soon. "That is correct," she says to Tomblin evenly, nodding at the agent's words to cover up her reaction to them. "Does that make a difference?"

"It might, as far as where he's being held," Tomblin informed them. "I'll look into it. It shouldn't take too long to find him, then I'll send it up the chain to confirm that we're a go to proceed." Her voice had long ago lost that teasing edge, leaving only the non-nonsense, down-to-business tone that had probably been the only thing that had allowed the petite, youthful-appearing, half-Asian NCIS special agent to be successful as an MP captain in the Marine Corps. She paused, studying Ziva from several thousand miles away. "I trust Thal would like to be there when Hardoon is being debriefed?"

"I am sure that was her plan," Ziva agreed. Tomblin nodded slightly.

"I don't know her," she said bluntly, "and don't trust her. No offense intended."

Ziva nodded slightly; she wasn't offended. She understood where Tomblin was coming from. "It was never a stipulation that Thal do the debriefing alone or unsupervised. The interrogators at the camp where Hardoon is held will have the lead."

"And if Thal doesn't agree?"

"She will," Ziva replied, her voice final.

Tomblin stared at her for a minute before nodding slowly. "If Hardoon has intel, things are going to happen very quickly," she finally said, something both Tony and Ziva knew already. "Hopefully, this will be over before we know it."

"Yes," Ziva said. Both she and Tony turned at the sound of the door opening, allowing re-entrance of the analyst who went to get the list of detainees from the intelligence department. "The names from the detainee center have arrived."

"Great. Let's get started," Tomblin said, reaching for her own list. Tony frowned as he flipped through the few pages he had been handed.

"Is this just the list from Camp Phoenix?" he asked. Tomblin flinched and nodded.

"Unfortunately," she said dryly. She didn't look happy about that. "And it's only the ones who have been there since Dr. Aachen assumed the physician role in the detainee center. That's all State would release to us. They're sending a representative to us as we speak, to monitor the investigation and release information as he sees fit." She rolled her eyes. "I think that's why Stan left for Afghanistan, to be honest. State Department bureaucrats are not his favorite people." She grinned at a sudden thought. "He spent five years training under Gibbs. His love of red tape is just one of Gibbs' more pleasant traits that he must have picked up in those years."

DiNozzo chuckled at that, even as he wondered exactly what traits he had picked up—Burley had put in five years under Gibbs; DiNozzo had almost ten. More than once, people had compared him to his boss. Should he start looking for a house with a basement so he could get started on his boat? Maybe he should just start with the bourbon and go from there. He all but shook his head to clear it, to force his attention back on the conversation that had already begun between Ziva and Tomblin as they discussed the names and what they could mean for Dr. Aachen. With a sigh that only Ziva could hear, he focused on their words, knowing that, at any moment, they could find something that would break open the case that could determine the course of his career.

He just couldn't help the nagging feeling that it wouldn't be enough.