Chapter 33—
Gaggles of schoolgirls gasped in surprise at the sight of a Baltimore Police Department issued vehicle lingering outside the main gates of their middle school.
Tali David approached the gates, ready to walk to the bus stop, with a girl the same age and height on either side. One of them, small, blonde and petite, held a cell phone in her fingers and was texting madly.
"Did you hear? Apparently there's a police car in the school!" she exclaimed.
"I can see it!" the girl on Tali's right said, gesturing rather grandly to the car across the road. As the girls started wildly speculating about its intentions, Tali squinted and studied the car. The window rolled down, and a familiar face – Tony's – poked out and smiled, and the horn sounded loudly.
"Bye, you guys!" Tali said suddenly before dashing off towards the car, leaving her friends standing there in confused states. She still was not so fond of police cars, but Tony was inside this one. That had to make it good.
"Hey, kiddo," he greeted with a grin as soon as she was in earshot, lifting his shades onto his forehead.
"Tony," she said with an inquisitive stare, halting just a few feet from the open window. "What are you doing here?"
He tapped his fingers loudly against the door to the beat of the drums in the rock song that was playing on the radio. "Giving you a ride. You've gotta come with me to the station."
Tali frowned and tilted her head sideways, her long brown braid falling over her shoulder. "Is this because I didn't finish by geometry homework?"
"No, but we should talk about that. Come on, get in."
She hesitated for a minute, but eventually circled the car and slid into the passenger's seat, closing her door with a thud.
Once she was secure in her seat, her fingers began hovering daintily over the switches that activated the sirens. She didn't dare touch, though. "You know, this is the first time I've been inside a police car since..." She swallowed. Since the police picked her up from school, the day her mother died.
"And let's hope it's the last," Tony finished.
"Is everything alright, Tony?" There was real fear present in her all of a sudden. If something were to happen to Ziva...
"Listen: Ziva's doing a . . . well, a favour for me. She thinks it'd be safest if you hang around the station for a few hours till she's done. That way you won't be alone." He tried to explain it in the least threatening way possible. Like her sister wasn't being sent on a dangerous mission.
"Will you be there?" she asked calmly, like being dragged to a police station after school in the middle of the week was a totally normal thing.
"Not exactly – see, Ziva's really only helping me, so I've gotta be there with her."
Tali frowned. "What exactly are you doing?"
Tony hesitated, not certain he should reveal anything. He didn't want the pressure of a little girl's worrying added to the stress of the operation, for his own sake and for Ziva's . But he couldn't ignore her question in silence forever, either. "Maybe you should ask her," was the answer he settled on, though he did not particularly like it.
"Is it dangerous?"
"It's my job to make sure it's not," he said. It was the truth, really. Just in a kind of twisted way. Yes, it was his job to keep Ziva safe, though if they were talking about his job as a police officer then he would be saying the same about every citizen of Baltimore. If, in fact, he meant his job as her boyfriend, then yes, it was very much his job. Though he had no doubt in his mind that she could hold her own just fine, ninety nine per cent of the time.
"And you're good at your job," Tali deduced.
"What makes you think that?" he questioned.
"I'm not sure – I mean, you always seem to be at work. That's gotta count for something."
Tony laughed. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"
Tali fell silent for a moment, staring down at her hands, fingers locked and resting in her lap. "She will be okay, though, won't she?"
"You know me, Tali," he replied. "And you know that I wouldn't do any less that my absolute best to keep Ziva – keep both of you – safe."
That seemed to satisfy her, though she said nothing more for the rest of the ride.
...
"I'm Detective Price." Danny held out his hand to Tali, who shook it somewhat hesitantly. "But you can call me Danny."
"I give you permission to spit ball him if he misbehaves," Tony advised the young girl with a firm gesture. Tali nodded seriously before kicking her legs and spinning around a few more times in Tony's office chair.
"Detective Price, why aren't you going with Tony and Ziva?" Tali asked.
"Well," Danny said, puffing out his cheeks in thought. He noted a rather stern look from Tony and understood it meant keep things quiet. "I guess they didn't need my help." That seemed to be the answer she was looking for, because she nodded. She probably assumed that two people's work was perfectly safe. "But they're sending McGee along."
Hearing his name from across the room, McGee looked up from the earpiece in his hand that he was currently calibrating and waved to Tali. She waved back.
"Is Ziva ready yet?" McGee asked impatiently.
"Where is my sister?" Tali asked, realising she had not been anywhere to be seen since she had arrived.
"She's coming, I think," Tony said. "Danny, why don't you take Tali on a tour? Show her the cell we use for overnighters." Again, Tony sent him a firm look which, thankfully, the other man understood, and quickly ushered Tali out of there. Just in time, too, because Ziva, fully dressed for the operation, exited the bathrooms and began walking in his direction.
She had on a tiny black dress that showed off her long, caramel legs and stilettos that would be crippling to any other woman. The dress had thin straps that clung to her shoulders and its fabric was almost skin-tight. Her hair was free and curly, and her eyelids were covered with a smoky shadow. Minus the skimpy excuse for a police officer's uniform, she was the spitting image of the girl she had been the first time he saw her. It was like déjà vu.
A whistle sounded from one of the nearby clusters of desks, and one of the men who had made the noise stood up as she passed. She proudly ignored them and kept a straight calm, expression.
"Watch it, Phil," Tony yelled in a threatening tone. "I'm the one with the gun, remember?"
Phil simply sneered in reply and blatantly stared at Ziva's ass as she walked past him.
Tony's words were certainly friendlier than his thoughts. He wanted to go over there and slam his head against a table. This guy was a perpetual scumbag, unfortunately for everybody else who had to work with him.
"Leave it, Tony," she whispered to him, once she was close enough. "Some men are just . . ." She did not seem to have a word.
"Assholes?" Tony suggested.
"I was going to say something a little more elegant but that fits the card just fine."
"Bill. Fits the bill."
"Whatever. I am used to it." She sent him a smile. "Besides, maybe the ogling will help me get into 'character'."
Tony led her over to McGee's desk, where he handed Tony an earpiece and Ziva a broach inside which was a video camera, the footage from which to be sent to the surveillance van, hopefully containing the information they were after.
"Kinda strange, huh?" he said. "I mean, you've come full circle. And it's funny: that night I first met you, you were dressed as a police officer – a very hot one might I add." She laughed at him. He loved her laugh. It was the one thing that never failed to reassure him when he needed it. "And now you're fighting for the right side of the law. This would make –"
"A great movie," she finished with an affectionate smile. "We should . . . we should get going."
"You ready?"
"As ready as I am ever going to be."
He could not help thinking, as they walked out, that she was so very brave.
A/N: Don't forget to review! Not all that many chapters left to go!