A/N: Okay so…..I suck royal hippogriff. I am the worst person in the world and I cannot apologize enough for my horrible lax in updating.
So to make up for this I have decided to do something which involves you, my readers, with the story. As you all have noticed none of my chapters have titles. In the past I have titled chapters with songs or poems, anything that I thought related to the chapter, but for some reason with this story I haven't been able to come up with any titles for the chapters. This is where you guys come in! For the past twelve chapters, this one as well, in your review I would love to hear your ideas for titles for as many chapters as you want. Once I'm pretty sure that all of the reviews are in I will pick my favorites and go back and change the titles, then in the next chapter I'll announce which ones I picked so you guys don't have to go back through each chapter. This will continue for the rest of the story and I'm hoping it will force me to update more frequently so you guys can see which title won. Also if the title you submit is the title of a song let me know so I can listen to it.
Alright now that's over and you can read the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Thirteen
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal the familiar NCIS bull pins. Ziva followed Tony and Gibbs out of the elevator, as she heard the familiar sounds and saw the familiar sights, she felt as if she was finally coming home. She watched as Tony began to walk over to his old desk, but Gibbs stopped him.
"DiNozzo." The older man barked.
"Yeah boss?" he turned back confused.
"What're you doing?" Gibbs questioned, eyebrow raised.
"Well, I was just…"
"If you two," He interrupted glancing back at her. "want your jobs back like you were talking about on the way her, we have to talk to the director first. Plus there's got to be a team already working there, time didn't stop when we left."
Ziva smirked as Gibbs continued walking towards the stairs and Tony caught up with them. "I should've known it wouldn't have been that easy." He whispered and she laughed quietly.
"The next fifteen minutes are going to be extremely anti-easy." She whispered back, they both caught the meaning behind her words and their smiles disappeared as they walked into the director's office.
They followed Gibbs as he ignored the secretary and went straight in to Jenny's office.
"Jethro what're you…" she trailed off as Ziva and Tony entered. "Why are you all here? Tony what happened to your arm? Where is Tali?"
Ziva stiffened noticeably at the mention of her daughter. "That's why we're here." She paused taking a deep breath. "Last night Tali was-she was take-I mean she was…"
She felt Tony's hand on her shoulder and she knew he would finish for her. "Last night some men, who we believe to be working for Ziva's father kidnapped Tali. One of them shot me when I went after them."
"What? How?" She asked, standing and joining them at the table where Tony had led Ziva over to. "Why do you think this was Eli's doing."
Gibbs glanced at Ziva and she nodded silently. "Eli has been chasing Ziva and Tali for years trying to get them back and train Tali for Mossad. We think he's finally succeeded."
"I guess that makes since." Jenny nodded her head slowly. "Should I send CSU over?"
"Probably a good idea." Gibbs agreed. "There's something else, though." She nodded for him to continue. "Yesterday I told you that Abby and McGee were still alive." He paused taking the picture he had shown Ziva and Tony yesterday out of his wallet. "They were put into Witness Protection without any of us knowing, except for Ducky."
"Ducky?" Tony questioned confused.
"He would've figured out that the bodies weren't Abby and McGee and that's a problem for WPP, so they had him lie." Gibbs explained.
"How do you know that?" Ziva asked, eyebrows knitted together.
"After I went to see them I called Duck, and he confirmed my suspicions."
"So Ducky knew they were alive and he didn't tell us?" Jenny balked.
"If Duck thought they were in danger he wouldn't tell anybody, which is part of the reason why he quit when they went into WPP. He didn't want anything to slip out." He answered leaning back in his chair.
"Okay, so they're still alive, which is amazing, but what does this have to do with Eli David?" She questioned looking between Ziva, Tony, and Gibbs.
Ziva just stared at her hands in deep contemplation as Gibbs explained that the explosion that had supposedly killed Abby and McGee was actually meant for her and Tony and how they had used the man who had killed two marine couples to make it look like Abby and McGee's 'deaths' were just part of the serial killings.
Deep in thought part of her kept telling herself that everything that her father had done shouldn't surprise her. Her father was cunning, impatient, and demanding;he did whatever it took to get his way. But, and there was always a but, part of Ziva could not believe that he had gone to such lengths. First he tried to kill her off, tie off a loose end, and at one point in her life it would have made perfect sense to her. She had killed her own brother, because he was no longer of use to Mossad. Then she just had to go back into his waiting arms full of false love and caring. When she eventually saw through his façade, saw that he only let her back in because she had brought him a new 'soldier' to train, she left. But that wasn't in Eli's plans, so he made Ziva's life a living hell. Forcing her to move every few months, rent apartments and take out credit cards in false names. Now they were here, without Tali, because he had finally gotten his way, just like normal.
"Zee?" Tony's voice startled her out of her reverie. "You okay?"
"Yes." She replied quickly, but he still looked unconvinced. "I am fine, I just zoomed out."
He chuckled. "Zoned out, not zoomed."
"Well while you were zoned out," Jenny said giving her a small smile. "Tony told me that the two of you were hoping to get back on a team?"
"Yes, if you think that is possible we would love to be back with NCIS, especially since it will make it easier to find Tali." She answered, glancing at Tony who nodded in agreement.
"Well as it just so happens the team that took over when you left is heading to Rota, Spain for a job so if Gibbs wants to take over as head of the team again, you can most certainly come back." Ziva turned her gaze on Gibbs who was sitting beside Jenny across from her and Tony.
He gave them a nod and a grunt which in 'Gibbs speak' meant, "Sure."
"Thank you Director." Tony stood and shook her hand, Ziva repeated the same motion. "We're going to go down and start tracking down Tali."
He surprised Ziva by taking her hand and leading her down to the bull pin. As they entered the familiar area a woman with long strawberry-blonde hair was just finishing cleaning out Gibbs former desk and she turned when she heard them approach.
"Hello, I'm Special Agent Barrett. Can I help you with something?" She asked politely smiling widely at them.
"Hi, I'm Tony and this is Ziva." He said gesturing to her. "Actually we're your replacements."
"Oh, I didn't know the director had already found a new team." Barrett picked up the cardboard box full of her belongings and then a look of recognition dawned on her face. "Wait a minute! You're Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David! Is Gibbs here too?" She exclaimed looking around for the older agent.
"Um…yes. What have you heard about us?" Ziva asked cautiously.
"Nothing bad, just stories from when you guys used to work here. Like when Tony went undercover and almost got blown up. You were so brave." She gushed.
Tony shrugged, "It wasn't that big of a deal."
The young women's smile faltered a bit. "But you…"
"It was nice meeting you Agent Barrett." Ziva interrupted with forced smile, knowing Tony most likely did not want to talk about what had happened.
"Yes, you too." She replied then turned to Tony. "See you around?"
"Spain's pretty far away. But it was nice to meet you." He replied politely, moving away from the two women as he took a seat at his desk.
"Oh, okay. Well bye." Barrett muttered heading towards the elevator.
Ziva walked over and sat on the edge of his desk. "She was nice."
"Yeah I guess." Tony swiveled absentmindedly in his chair.
"She seemed to like you." She continued, trying to figure out why Tony had not flirted with the woman like she had so obviously been doing with him.
"Really?" He asked, a serious look of doubt on his face. "I didn't notice anything."
"Are you being serious, Tony?" She asked incredulously. "She was not that subtle with her attraction towards you. Plus she was very pretty, you usually notice these things."
"Maybe I just didn't notice because there was someone more beautiful in the room."
Tony's emerald green eyes stared into her brown ones and Ziva let out a small gasp. Those words were not at all what she had expected. She was suddenly overwhelmed with a flurry of emotions and looked away quickly, inspecting a small snag in her cargo pants intently.
After a moment Tony cleared his throat. "Why don't we get to work on finding Tali? I memorized the plate number from the SUV last night while I was chasing it, why don't you put a bolo out on it?"
She looked back up at him, "Why can't you do it?"
He smiled playfully at her then gestured to his right arm. "I can't really do much, being tragically injured and all."
Ziva just rolled her eyes and got up, walking over to her own desk. She started up her computer then looked back at him. "Alright what was it?
"Agh!" Ziva slammed her fists down on her desk.
After three, almost four hours of searching for anything that would help them figure out where the men had taken Tali they still had nothing. The SUV had been rented from a company under a fake name and there were conveniently no security cameras in the building that would give them a good look at the men. For ten minutes Ziva had been trying to get access to her father's email and bank accounts as Tony watched over her shoulder and Gibbs sat at his desk quietly.
"We might as well just face the facts." Tony said, leaning back on the cabinet behind her desk.
"And what are these 'facts' Tony?" Ziva retorted her voice muffled because her head was lying face down on her desk in defeat.
"We need McGee and Abby. Or as I like to call them McGabby." He answered, with a crooked grin.
"McGabby? Where did you get that?" she questioned, looking up at him confused.
"It's a combination of their names." Tony said as if it was as simple as two plus two. He turned to Gibbs. "Well Boss?"
He sighed rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. "We'll go back to my place first so you can put on some real clothes, then we'll head out so we can be there by morning."
"Wooh! Roadtrip!" Tony hopped up and walked quickly over to the elevator.
Ziva rolled her eyes as she shut off her computer. "One minute he's a mature adult and then next he is acting like a five year old." She muttered, desperately wishing Gibbs would give him a head-slap.
She grinned as they got into the elevator and heard Gibbs' hand make contact with the back of Tony's head. "Hey!"
"You deserved that." Ziva whispered smirking at him.
A/N: So I know it seems like Tony is handling this whole situation rather oddly, but I promise his attitude towards everything that has happened will be explained soon. Also I know I made Barrett seem kind of desperate and overly flirty, but I hated her guts when she was on, so sue me :) Anway, hoped you liked this chapter and please review!
P.S. Anybody seen the preview for the 200th episode Tuesday? If you haven't go watch it and if you have who else hopes that is a TIVA baby Tony is holding?