Here, I promised you I'd update faster this time. So this is me keeping my promise :) And this is by far the longest chapter in this story thus far. The dedication for this chappy goes to purplemonkeyz48 for cheering me up with her amazing review when I most needed it.
Ziva went to sit on the other side of the simple table once she was inside the room. She looked Sean straight into the eye, noticing how he had paled a little since Gibbs spoke to him.
"Do you know who I am?" she asked, her tone even.
He nodded.
She let an almost unnoticeable smirk crawl its way onto her lips. "Good. Then you know what I could do to you."
He said nothing, only stared back at her. It was written on his face that he knew what she wanted to know. Also that he knew she wanted to get it out of him. And he was sure he would not give her the pleasure of actually getting the information.
"Where is Rachel?" Ziva asked in a low voice.
He smirked at her. "I already showed the other guy."
Something flashed in Ziva's eyes, making Sean flinch ever so slightly. "You lied."
Instead of cowering or defending himself he just grinned. "Yes, I did."
Ziva was furious. This man was officially annoying the hell out of her. All she wanted was to just do something rather unpleasant to him and go find her daughter. She wanted to hold her in her arms, wanted to know that everything would be okay.
She wanted to scream and yell and cry. But she couldn't do it in front of Sean. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of knowing how much he'd hurt her by taking Rach away from her.
"You'll never get your daughter back," he informed her with a malicious grin, as if he knew what she was thinking. "How sad. I must admit, she's very pretty. She looks a bit like you," he commented.
"If you touched her…" Ziva started, but she could not think of a good enough threat to add. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," she warned, her voice cold as ice. "You will tell me either way."
She waited for the threat to sink in, but the expected reaction didn't come. He remained grinning. "Nope," he said and leaned back in the chair casually.
Ziva gritted her teeth. "I will ask you one last time. Where is Rachel?"
He leaned forward and stared straight back at her. "And I'll tell you one last time. I will not tell you."
Abruptly Ziva stood up. She took hold of her chair and dragged it into one corner. Then she did the same with the light table, thereby eliminating the last piece of safety he might've had left.
He watched her actions carefully, the grin wavering only a little.
She started circling him. "So, Sean," she started. She stopped walking when she was just behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulders. He instinctively tried to pull away from her touch, but she held him firmly in place. "What do you know about Mossad?"
Sean met her eyes in the one-way mirror. He shivered almost unnoticeably under her hands, but she registered the fact. The slight movement would've gone unnoticed had she not been touching him. It gave her pleasure to know that this brave exterior was nothing more than an exterior. A shell into which he had hidden. She only needed to break the shell and he'd tell her everything she wanted to know.
"They kill people," Sean replied.
Ziva chuckled. Why was it the first thing most people recalled when someone mentioned Mossad?
"Amongst other things," she told the man in front of her. She started circling him again, her dark eyes never once leaving his form. "In Mossad I was also taught various ways of getting to the truth. Fast."
Ziva saw something falter in Sean's eyes. He seemed to finally comprehend the situation he was facing. Yet his wish to get his revenge on Ziva kept him from spilling the beans.
"So," she started. "Where is Rachel?"
He stayed silent.
She once again placed her hands onto his shoulders. He flinched. "Tell me." No answer. "Now!"
He said nothing.
Ziva pressed a pressure point on his neck, and a sharp intake of breath on Sean's part told her it had served its purpose.
"I have never failed on an interrogation," she informed him. Then she leaned down to whisper into his ear. "I am not planning on starting now."
Her quiet, yet deadly and dangerous voice sent shivers down his spine. He knew he would not get away from her before he told her what she wanted to know, but the urge to cause her pain was too strong. He would stay silent as long as he possibly could.
"You're not allowed to use violence on me," he said, trying to keep his fear from showing.
A smile tugged at Ziva's lips, yet it was not her usual smile. This smile was cold, holding none of its usual warmth. She placed her hands on the arms of his chair and leaned closer. "No one is watching."
Ten minutes later he hadn't said a word, though he was remarkably closer to breaking than ten minutes ago.
When Ziva was making yet another circle around him, he reached out with his right hand and grabbed the handle of the knife concealed at her waist. She had left her gun into her desk drawer, but the knife was something she kept with her at all times.
She felt the weapon leave its sheath on her waist and a fraction of a second later she spun around, just in time to grab his hand before he could hit her with the knife. She pinned it down and the knife clattered onto the floor.
But he would not give up that easily. He continued to try and beat her in a hand-to-hand fight.
Ziva soon saw he was no fighter. She had him face down on the floor in about ten seconds. She twisted his arm into an unnatural position and he let out a scream. She pulled him up by that same arm, causing him even more pain, and dragged him back to the chair.
She then proceeded to get her knife from the floor. Once she had it she made her way behind him, where she placed the blade over his throat. She could see the panic flashing in his eyes from the mirror.
"Do not make me tie you to the chair," she warned. She pressed the knife onto his throat. "Now tell me, where is she?"
Sean knew he had crossed the line this time. Yet fear kept his mouth shut. He wanted to speak, but couldn't.
Ziva pressed the blade harder against his skin. It was almost drawing blood now. "Tell me where is she and I may spare your life."
On the other side of the glass Gibbs tensed. If she killed him now he would not be able to cover it up. Plus they would never find Rachel. He could see it in her eyes how much she wanted to do it. To just end his life right now, right there.
He knew what she was feeling. If Shannon and Kelly had been kidnapped, not killed, he wouldn't have hesitated to do whatever he needed to get their location out of the one who had kidnapped them.
No one had ever found out it was him who killed Pedro Hernandez, but if Ziva killed Sean, she'd go to jail. Even Gibbs wouldn't be able to stop it. Yet he trusted her enough to control herself, and he knew that if he'd burst in through that that door and drag her away from Sean he'd ruin all the progress she had made with him during the last ten minutes.
A big grin made its way across his features as Sean blurted out an address. A house next to Fort Ward Park in Alexandria.
Back in the Interrogation Room Ziva grabbed his hair with her other hand and pulled at it, so he was now staring up at her. He grunted in pain. "How do I know you are not lying?" she asked. It was a completely reasonable question. He had already lied once, why couldn't he do it twice?
"You don't," he said simply. But Ziva could see the truth in his eyes. He had given up the fight. She saw nothing but truth and genuine fear for his life in his eyes, so she let go of him. He breathed out a sigh of relief when she removed the knife from his throat and placed it back into its sheath.
"If she is not there, I will kill you," she threatened.
He shivered once. "She is there, I swear."
Ziva stepped to the door, and was just about to exit the room when a thought crossed her mind. She made her way back to Sean. When she stood right behind him she leaned in to whisper a threat into his ear. "If you ever tell anyone what happened here," she made a pause to let her words sink in, "I will find you wherever you are, and I will kill you slowly and painfully. Are we clear?"
He gulped and nodded. Ziva's breath against his skin made his blood run cold.
"Good." And with that Ziva made her way out of the room, now armed with the information of her daughter's whereabouts.
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