A/N: Sorry again for the delay. Perhaps I would have been smarter not to start something like this in the middle of my busy season, but I won't stop now. A nice long chapter where we get *some* answers and ask some new questions.

Tony's sleepless night showed on his face when he stumbled into work the next day. He had spent most of the dark hours of the night worrying about the repercussions of what had passed between Ziva and himself. Would she even speak to him in the morning? If she did, how would they work through the awkwardness? How was he going to deal with being around her now that they had opened this door? Could he cope with the fact that she seemed to have slammed it shut again? Every one of these questions showed in the bags beneath his eyes and the slump of his shoulders. His only consolation was that his insomnia had made it easy to arrive early and he anticipated being alone in the bullpen long enough to collect himself.

When he staggered out of the elevator a surprising sight greeted him. There, seated at her desk and looking as chipper as if she had just returned from a vacation, was Ziva. He stopped and gaped at her, and she took the opportunity to observe him as well, raising her eyebrows at what she saw.

"You have that porcupine look going again, Tony. Do mornings not agree with you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I told Gibbs I would have my report for him today ... I was awake this morning so I came in to work on it." At those words, a brief shadow crossed her face. Tony questioned whether he had even seen it at all, so quickly was it replaced by a smile. "Unlike you, I like mornings."

Tony sat down at his desk, keeping half an eye on Ziva, and wondering how the frantic woman from last night could have transformed into the cool and collected agent he saw today. There were cracks in her armor, he was sure of it, but he could barely see them. Nevertheless, he resolved to keep a close eye on her.

When Gibbs arrived shortly afterwards, he, too, seemed surprised to see Ziva, but he merely gave her an appraising glance and refrained from commenting. About a half an hour later, Ziva tapped together the pages she had been proofreading, stapled them, and delivered them to Gibbs' desk.

"Here is my report," she said. "If you have any questions after reading it, I will be happy to amend it, but I think I covered everything."

"I'm sure Director Vance will want to interview you, we can address any questions then."

"I anticipated that, and have emailed a copy of the report to him."

"Then I think we're good," Gibbs said, then he gave her another piercing look. "Ziva, are you sure you're okay. None of us would think worse of you if you needed some time to come to terms with-"

Ziva cut him off. "I am fine, work is the only thing I need." Then she turned abruptly and headed for her desk.

Tony had been surreptitiously watching the whole exchange and assessing the possibility of getting a look at the report. Last night's activities had left little time for conversation and he was dying to know what had happened in that warehouse. Ziva must have felt his eyes on her, she had always had a sixth sense for when she was being observed, and once she sat down she glanced at him and then tapped a few keys on her computer.

"I have sent you a copy, too, Tony. I would not want your curiosity to kill you, and besides, if you keep staring at me like that, I will have to hurt you."

Tony did not need to be told twice. his fingers flew across his keyboard as he opened the file. He skimmed it quickly, involuntarily biting his lip as he read the more harrowing sections. He was already familiar with the early portions of the operation because they had had full surveillance in place.

Once the rumors of a possible Mossad mission had reached NCIS, they had, with her consent, bugged Ziva's home and car, and tapped her cell phone so they could listen in on any calls. They had not had to wait long before Levi Eshel, a former Mossad teammate, had contacted her, purporting to have a message from her father. When Ziva expressed little interest in anything her father had to say, Eshel claimed that her father was gravely ill and wanted to set things right with his only surviving daughter. In the interest of not making her new American compatriots suspicious, he suggested they meet in secret, where he would give her the message her father had recorded for her.

Up to this point, it had all gone according to plan. Gibbs and the team had staked out the warehouse rendezvous, planning to listen in and intervene as soon as it was clear that Eshel intended to do more than just deliver a message. They would then use this evidence of Mossad operating on US soil, against a US agent, to clip Eli David's wings.

The plan went off the rails when Ziva entered the warehouse and it became clear that Eli intended to deliver his message in person. Eshel had patted Ziva down, looking for a wire, as soon as she arrived. He found nothing since the team had anticipated this and planted an audio/video camera, disguised as a fire alarm, that could cover the majority of the area. They had also concealed a weapon that Ziva could access if, for any reason, she was in jeopardy before the team was able to reach her.

Once Eshel decided that Ziva was clean, someone else had stepped out of the shadows of the disused warehouse.

"Ziva, motek, you are looking well."

"I could say the same for you, Papa, which is surprising because Levi told me you were dying."

"I am sorry if we distressed you with that bit of subterfuge, but it was necessary-"

"I was not distressed," Ziva broke in.

"But you would not have come without it. My only child and she will not speak to me, she has deserted not only her country, but also her father. That is a sad state of affairs."

"It is your doing as much as mine. If not for my friends at NCIS, you might not even have a daughter left. You have always been *careless* with your children, Papa."

"Ah, but do your friends know you like I do?" Eli asked, a vicious glint in his eyes. "What would they say if they knew about Ari or about what you did on the Damocles? What would they say if they really knew what my daughter, Israel's sharpened spear, is capable of?"

"They know, and what is more, they would never ask such things of me."

"I have only ever done what was necessary. Israel is not America, she needs people like me ... and people like you. It is time for you to come home."

"This is my home now, and I am not leaving. Not now, not ever," Ziva said, defiantly.

"So, you will force me to take stronger measures," said Eli, then he walked up to Ziva, leaned in close, and whispered something in her ear.

Ziva's eyes widened and as soon as her father stepped back, she whirled and swung her fist at the wall - right into the bugged fire alarm. Back in the tactical van, their screens went blank and their earphones silent. The team now had no way of knowing what was going on in the warehouse. Despite their worries, the team had to wait it out. Breaking in now, before Eli had made his move, would get them nowhere. They had to trust that Ziva could handle herself even in this volatile situation.

Events were clear up until this point, but when it came to anything after they lost the surveillance, they would have to rely on Ziva's report. According to her, after her outburst, her father had told her that, willingly or unwillingly, he was bringing her back to Israel. The situation with Ari had caused him to lose face, a blow he had recovered from before becoming director of Mossad, but the failure of the original mission to Somalia, and Ziva's subsequent defection, had once again put his standing in jeopardy. In his mind, he was the person best able to defend Israel against her enemies and he was prepared to do whatever it took to fix the situation.

"Papa, the only way I will return is in a body bag," Ziva said.

Eli had stared at her for a long moment. "The choice is yours, Ziva. I cannot let you stand in the way of Israel's needs. No one person is that important. Not you, not even me." Then he motioned with his hand to Eshel.

Horrified, and barely able to believe her own father would do this, Ziva was slow to get to the gun Gibbs had hidden among some empty boxes. Once she did reach it, she was not able to get a clear shot at Eshel, but afraid that she would not get another chance, she took the shot and did manage to wound him enough to take him down, winging her father in the process.

After reading the report, Tony closed his eyes for a moment, aghast at the lengths Eli was willing to go in pursuit of his goals. Tony had always thought himself unlucky in the parents fate had given him, but even his father, while not a prince among men, shone in relation to Ziva's. It was one thing to choose your country ahead of your life, soldiers made that choice every day, but it was another situation entirely to have a father make that decision for his own daughter.

While Ziva's report shed a lot of light on what had happened yesterday, in one area it raised more questions then it answered. Although she didn't actually state it baldly, Ziva implied that the destruction of the surveillance camera had been an accident. Tony didn't believe it. Whatever her father had whispered to her, it was something she did not want anyone else to know. If Tony could figure this out, then so would Gibbs and Vance. Tony was afraid that Ziva would face some rather pointed questions when they finally interviewed her, and he was still not sure she was in any shape to answer them.