Circumstances-2

Good day everyone! It's me again! Just so you know, I'm actually on a hiatus so I can't update this very often for now. If you check my profile, you'll see that I'm still working on two other fanfics. I'll update more often once I get those few done, okay? I still have a lot of back lot to do, plus a bit of collabs here and there are due. So, in a mean time, enjoy reading! And OH MY GOSH THE LATEST NCIS EPISODE... SO MUCH TIVA:D yay CI-Ray is GONE~~ I didnt like him much... I loved that Ziva punched him though haha:)

WARNING: IM SO SORRY. I REALLY DIDN'T LIKE DOING THIS CHAPTER, BUT IT HAD TO BE DONE. Character Death. MAJOR. if I haven't warned you already... Please don't hate me for this:(

Disclaimer-I can't own NCIS if I kill someone like this.

Chapter 2: Aftermath.

###

-FLASHBACK-

Ziva and Tony were sitting out in the backyard. She was sitting on the makeshift swing that she beat him to, reading one of her books. The swing rocked gently to the breeze as she shifted her position to keep the swing in motion. Her hair was blowing slightly in the wind, and her eyes were glimmering with excitement and wonder as she followed the storyline.

Tony leant against the tree branches above her. He was fiddling with his cell phone, playing an old game to make a new record. Every once in awhile, he would look down and sneak secret glances at her. She was really beautiful, even from his position. He had wondered to himself many a time, how lucky he was, so as to get such an exotic beauty, as one of his best friends. This was the first girl he had actually not asked out after a few encounters. They had argued on their first meeting, and after being formally introduced by Kate, they had become just as close as Kate and him were; or maybe even closer.

They weren't in the same grade, so they didn't see each other much in school. However, outside school, Kate, Ziva, and him, were almost inseperable. They spent nearly everyday with each other, heading over to either one's homes to study, or even simply just going over for lunch.

It happened so often that Gibbs and Jenny had already been accustomed to setting an extra plate or two, when meal times came. Ziva was a foreign student, and her father expected her to survive on her own. Whenever they went to her place, she would cook special delicacies and such for them. Kate's parents were never around, so going over meant instant noodles and sandwiches. So, of all the places to go, the trio could most likely be found at his house.

"Stop googling, Tony." He blinked and saw her smirking at the book, before turning her grin towards him.

"It's ogling. And I wasn't." He said stubbornly, and turned back to his game.

"Yes, you were. Don't lie." Came her steady and confident voice. "You've been staring at me every few minutes for a while now."

"Wha-"

"Every time you shift your body, there will be some leaves that fall down on me. "

"How do you know if that wasn't just because of the wind?"

"Your game ended a few minutes ago, and you still haven't restarted the game yet."

"Damn." He gave himself a head slap and heard Ziva chuckle softly below him.

"It's getting late. We should get started on our homework, yes?" He looked down and she was already standing up, book in hand, and checking her watch.

"I've got my science research that's due next period, but I can do it later."

"Now, Tony. Or I'm leaving."

"Weak threat, Zi. But alright, I'll do it." He commented, as he slid down the tree as easily as he climbed up.

"That's why it works." She mumbled, following him back into the house.

###

One minute they were laughing at their little joke, and the next, he heard a clash when the phone was dropped, and a gunshot. Then, all was quiet.

"Kate? Kate? Are you okay? Kate, please answer me!" He shouted into the phone. All he heard was a grunt and the sound of dragging something heavy, and then a muffled plop, before the line was cut. Most likely, the phone was stepped on. "Crap."

Tony darted down the hallway, leaving a confused Ziva in his room. He hammered on the pale door in front of him, silently begging that his sister wasn't blasting music at this time. His prayers were answered when a very grouchy Abby opened the door. Her expression immediately changed when she saw the fear in his eyes. "What happened, Tony?"

He pushed past her into her room and for once, she didn't argue or fight back. "Please, can you trace the last number I dialed? The phone is probably dead, but could you get a location of the nearest cell tower or something?"

She glanced at the number shown on his screen.

"That's Kate's number, isn't it? What's going on, Tony? Is she in some sort of trouble?" Abby pulled her brother out of a worried trance as he shook his head.

"No time for that now, Abs. I'm sorry. Could you please run the trace?"

"Okay, I'll take that as a 'yes'. Don't worry about her Tony, she can handle whatever life brings her."

"It's not life that I'm worried about." He said as he stared at the screen while Abby typed faster that she had ever did before.

"Tony? Abby? What's going on?" Jenny's voice filtered through the door frame. The sudden knock making both Abby and Tony jump slightly. "Ziva is getting worried."

Tony quickly put his finger to his lips as a sign to Abby, and she placed her thumb and index finger against the side of her mouth, mimicking the 'lock up and throw away the key' action. "We're fine, Jenny. I just wanted to take Ziva somewhere new as a surprise." He nodded to her politely and left.

He almost dragged Ziva out of his house. She had only managed to say "Tony, what the heck is-", before she was pushed out of his room as he grabbed his things and pulled her out the door.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

They arrived in half the time with Ziva behind the wheel. The street they got out on was eerily quiet. It spoke of the apparent bloodshed that had occurred earlier. They cautiously approached the back alley with a sense of fear for what they might see.

"You all right, Tony?" Ziva paused just as they were about to turn the corner, to ask him. "Yes. Let's just get this over with." He said sullenly. This was the first time she had ever seen him so serious, so she figured that it would be wrong to cheer him up in this situation.

Their original gruesome expectations were fell short by the emptiness of the alley. It was not long before Ziva noticed some scuff marks on the wall and with Tony's help, they soon uncovered a massive bloodstain behind and on the back of the dumpster. Tony began searching the garbage bags against the opposite wall, while Ziva nearly barfed at the stench when she lifted the lid off the dumpster.

"Tony? I found the body. It's not Kate." She turned to him, and spotted him frowning over another dark spot on the ground.

"You're not gonna like this, then." He turned around and raised up the broken mobile phone.

###

It wasn't supposed to be like this. He had never killed an innocent in cold blood before and now that status had changed. He looked at his senior partner, whose head was bashed against the wall. There was blood gushing out of the hole in his head. He won't last long, that's for sure. He then spared a glance at the body of the young girl he had just shot. The bullet had gone straight through her head, and her phone was lying on the floor beside her. She was innocent. He shouldn't have killed her; but why, why had she tried to stop them? It was a simple task. Take the little girl and get out. So simple that even a rookie like him would get chosen for the job.

He had only been doing this for a few months, just to earn enough cash to get him by, and some left over in case his half-sister got hounded by their father for money. She was already working a few part-time jobs. She would kill him if she found out what he did.

He hadn't expected it to end up like this. With his partner bleeding out in the alley, and the clock counting down until he was supposed to call in, with the kidnappee already in hand. "Are you alright?" He shook his partner's lifeless body and wasn't surprised when he found no pulse.

He had to think rationally. He had to get rid of the body. His partner's first. Because the gun shot wound in the girl would give up the gun he had, and he would get caught. He couldn't afford that.

He lifted his partner's body and kicked off the lid of the dumpster. Just then, he heard a soft voice sounding through the phone. "Kate? Kate? Are you okay? Kate, please answer me!" He froze for a millisecond before quickly shoving the body into the container. He immediately stomped on the phone, snapping it into half. At least he managed to buy some more time before the cops get the trace.

He scooped up the girl's body and placed it into trunk of the getaway car. Then, he ran back and used his back to push the dumpster to cover up the bloodstained wall, and took out a few bags of trash to put over the blood on the floor. He had to cover up as much evidence as possible, to stall them.

The next thing he did was to take out the bullets and scatter them over a large body of water, and change his clothes. His old clothes would need to be burnt when he got back. He kept glancing at his trunk every few minutes. The guilt of keeping the body eating at him. Maybe it'd disappear with time, but at this moment, he decided to stop the car.

She was innocent. He pulled out the body bag, and calmly placed it on a secluded park bench at the far corner of the park where almost no one except the cleaners would know about. It gave him a few hours to get rid of the rest of the evidence before heading back to the meeting place. He needed to give her family and friends restitution by letting them seeing her body. It was only right. Maybe if the mafia had allowed him that small mercy, he might have turned out differently.

He turned on the ignition and quickly drove off, with a phone to his ear.

###

The sirens got louder and louder as a few cars swung round the corner to stop at the start of the alleyway. Tony nudged Ziva, who was absent-mindedly leaning her head against his neck, a few tears silently trailing their way down her cheeks. She reluctantly lifted her head away from him, and he pulled his arm from around her waist. She quickly wiped off any evidence of her shed tears from her face, and fixed her hair. They both stood up and dusted the dirt off their clothes from the floor of the alley.

"Oh my god, Tony, Ziva. What happened?" Jenny gasped in shock when she saw the blood on the floor.

"What the hell were you thinking, you two? Running off to a crime scene without anyone's knowledge! You could have been killed!" Gibbs immediately head slapped the two of them equally hard, making Tony wince slightly, and Ziva avoid his gaze.

"Tony! Ziva! Thank God you're alright! Did you find her?" Abby suddenly came rushing up to them and enveloped them in a hug.

"Nope. Sorry Abs. But there are two blood stains, so there's a chance that.." Tony trailed off at the end, not wanting to continue.

"She might be alive, or that the killer moved her body someplace else." Ziva finished for him in her normal voice, not even a waver in her tone.

"Ziva, how can you be so unaffected and cold? She's your best friend!" Abby said while pacing the floor impatiently. She couldn't believe that Ziva wasn't reacting at all to her friend's possible murder. Tony, she understood, he had an image to uphold, but Ziva?

"When are these forensic guys gonna be done? They're so slow! I bet I could do their jobs at twice their speed and have better accuracy."

Tony was about to say something to Ziva, but stopped short when she flinched at his touch. He understood that she needed her walls so that she wouldn't hinder the process of finding the killer, but she could have acted just a little bit more sympathetically. He also understood that right now, what she needed was a quiet place where she could be alone, for her to make peace with herself and let it all out. That couldn't be done there, with Gibbs and everyone staring at them, expecting them to answer.

So, he grabbed Ziva's hand and pulled her away when the adults weren't looking. He didn't let go even when she struggled hard against him. He did let go when she threw elbowed him in the stomach, but they were already far enough away. He doubled over slightly, wincing in pain. When he looked up again, she was frowning over him, but she didn't leave.

"You've got about 8 minutes before the adults find that we're gone, and we have to get back." Tony turned away and walked behind the corner, giving her the privacy she needed. He could swear that he heard a soft sob, and wanted so badly to go back and hug her. Sadly, he knew that if he did, it would be a sign of sympathy and she would hate him for it. She would maybe never even trust him enough to cry in front of him again. She was quiet after that, but he knew it was just because she knew how to cry without making a sound.

When Tony turned his back and walked around the corner, Ziva secretly thanked him for knowing just what she needed. He understood that she was not just being a cold hearted person, that she had her reasons and did not push her for them.

She let her tears flow with a small sob which she tried to muffle by covering her mouth. She spent the rest of the time in silence, allowing the wave of sadness to wash over her as she thought about the times they shared and how that would never be able to happen again. It was her way to saying goodbye to her friend in spirit, so that she wouldn't need to be so emotional when she saw the body, and she could find the killer instead.

"Ziva, time's up. We have to go. Sorry. " She felt Tony's hand on her shoulder as he used his other hand to take hers, and pull her up.

"It's okay. I was finished." She gave him a weak smile as he wiped a few stray tears from her face, and lead her back to the crime scene.

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So...what did you think? Too long? Too short? Too OOC? Too downplayed? Good? Not good enough? Bad? Want more Tiva scenes? Want more McAbby? Want more Gibbs and Ziva scenes? The list goes on.

Please let me know what you think about this chapter so the next one would be more enjoyable for you:D If you have any other suggestions for the story, feel free to tell me! Theres a good chance that i'll incorporate your ideas;D

Thanks for reading!

~Lianna