Author's Note: Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and the reviews. Hope you are to enjoy this chapter as well. Catch ya on the flip side-Later Days!-Geek

Chapter 31: Trapped

Ziva enters the interrogation room; her emotions already locked away and shut out from the rest of the world. Her determination lies on answering realistic questions and keeping her personal afflictions private.

"David, please, take a seat." Fornell tells her; his eyes glued to the way her body moves carefully.

As she connects with the chair, she looks ahead of her to the far right corner and sees Doron staring at her with such betrayal it makes her heart skip a beat; her first sight of a Mossad since passing by the still bodies of her father and her husband laying on the warehouse floor.

"Over here." Fornell waves his hand carefully in front of her face; her state of mind unlike Tony's. "Want to tell us what happened in Tel Aviv?"

"…alright…" Her steadiness is forced, but it pulls through regardless and it gives her strength she knows how to find deep down inside of herself. "An unsuspected event took place leaving…m-…my father and Michael Rivkin dead." She sighs, but the weight on her shoulders still pushes her down.

"What was Agent DiNozzo doing there?"

"He had come back with me…from Hong Kong." The palms of her hands rest flat against the top of the table.

Fornell thinks to himself and squints. Ziva watches him nervously as he tries to peel away the thick boards of metal she has put up around herself, and it scares her because he has a look in his eyes that tells her that he will get through her and he will take whatever information she holds deep inside.

"Then the event had not be unsuspected." He states. "…if anything, it had been suspected otherwise Agent DiNozzo would not have found his way back with you."

"He had been given orders." The level of her voice heightens, but not enough to cause hysteria. "Director Shepard had given him orders to find Agents Gibbs and McGee."

"So this is an act of vengeance." He tosses his head to the side and laughs. "And Agent DiNozzo almost had me-"

"It had not been an act of vengeance."

"I know the story, David. Agent Gibbs killed your brother in recent years and your father wanted to make him pay. Of course he couldn't properly do that without suffering extreme consequences while Gibbs resided in the country, but as soon as he entered your father's territory then there wasn't a need to hold back. All that needed to be done was a phone call to his people and therefore-"

"Director David had every right to make Agent Gibbs pay for the death of his son." Agent Miriam steps into the conversation. "It had been the honorable thing to do."

"That doesn't make what he did right, Doron!" Ziva harshly whispers. "Ari targeted Gibbs when he had been defenseless."

"How would you-"

"I know because I killed Ari."

Fornell's jaw nearly drops on the floor as a truth he had not been seeking makes itself known.

Doron flinches at her words, but he never once looks away from her.

"I killed him to save Agent Gibbs' life…because it was the 'honorable' thing to do." She pauses for a few seconds. "Ari had killed one of their own."

"Had their own not been eligible to kill Ari?"

"He doesn't train his Agents to kill, Doron…he teaches them to investigate."

Doron huffs. "You fell short of that, Ziva."

"I fell short of a lot of things…my father as well." She laughs at her own stupidity. "My father…" She shakes her head slightly.

Fornell sees an opening to tear the rest of the metal boards away from her and he wants the moment to be his.

"Be straight with me, David…"

"I am being straight with you, Agent Fornell. Agent DiNozzo was given orders by Director Shepard-"

"His orders had nothing to do with your own." He makes a point. "You did not need to reenter Tel Aviv."

"He requested my help!" She snaps finally. "…and considering the two Agents that needed help…I took it upon myself to return to Tel Aviv, but I wanted to find them…I did not want to kill anyone."

"Shit happens." He rasps carelessly. "Sometimes people have to die."

"My father and Michael Rivkin brought it upon themselves. They killed everyone on our team."

"A team that you put together all of your own!" Fornell barks. "There's nothing right or okay about what the both of you did. Agent DiNozzo went against the grain and then he pushed some more."

She shakes her head and knits her eyebrows. "No."

"No?" Fornell blinks.

"No…no this isn't right. Agent DiNozzo should not be blamed for what he did. The Director of NCIS ordered him to bring her Agents back. He was only following protocol." She hit's the table with one of her fists. "He was only doing what any member of Gibbs' team would have done."

Fornell rubs his forehead with one of his hands. The swelling on the sides indicate that he is absorbing far too much information for one day.

Miriam paces the floor behind Fornell; his gaze drifting every so often in the direction of the two-way mirror that is close enough for him to touch with his hands.

"No one in their right mind is going to let either of you free-"

"No one in their right mind should hold us in contempt."

"Hatred has nothing to do with this-"

"It does!" She feels the impulse to scream at him. "If Ari had not targeted Gibbs-if Gibbs had not targeted Ari-if Ari had never decided to Kill Gibbs-I wouldn't have actually killed him…my father wouldn't have wanted to take Gibbs' life…I…I wouldn't have…"

Several minutes before, Gibbs had forced his way through the door of the tiny room. With his ex-girlfriend and his eldest friend on either side of him, he looks through the two-way mirror as a pain-stricken face watches her.

"You aren't supposed to be in here, Jethro." Jenny whispers.

"She's remembering…" He can hardly continue. "He's making her remember…"

Ducky swallows his fear as best as he can. The clearness in the situation is multiplying as he thinks of even more of a possible set back to the strained relationship between his Marine friend and the Israeli fighter.

"David?" Fornell tries to bring her back. "You were saying?"

She opens her mouth, but nothing is able to come out.

Fornell knits his eyebrows and throws a look over his shoulder as if he can feel Gibbs' wooden stare. "We going to need a little help in here?" He calls out.

Director Shepard places a hand on Gibbs' shoulder, "Now is the time for you to leave, Jethro."

"What's he doing to her?" His senses loose focus on the world around him momentarily. "Why does he want to make her remember?" He slams his fist against the glass, causing a moment of silence inside the room and a startles the others inside the interrogation room.

"I suggest you keep your emotions under wraps until it is convenient." Ducky speaks calmly, yet steadily to his friend. "Losing control will not help anyone in this situation."

"I'd kill the bastard!" He growls; his pulse can be felt in every region of his body that is still hurting from the torment he had been dealt. "…again…"

Jenny keeps her lips together as she eyes Ducky worriedly.

"That doesn't sound like the investigator we all know you to be…" Ducky offers as an attempt to get Gibbs back to being well-grounded.

"I'd still kill the bastard if I could…" He takes a step back, but not enough to be far away from the two-way mirror. "For killing Kate…for wanting to kill me…" He looks to Ducky, feeling slightly uncomfortable to look in Jenny's eyes for what he feels the need to say, "…for wanting to kill her…"

"How about a break, David?" Fornell asks now that he no longer has the patience to sit there and stare at her. "About an hour or so sound good?"

She keeps her mouth closed, but nods in agreement. When she sees him nod back, she shoots out of the chair and rushes for the door. As soon as she turns the knob, Fornell approaches her.

"You will be escorted by an Agent; you aren't to leave headquarters or hold any conversations with other Agents."

She nods slightly as she opens the door. Outside an Agent greets her immediately; making her feel just as trapped as she felt inside the stuffy interrogation room.