Title: A Long Way Home (Chapter Eighteen)

Author: LizzieInk

A/N: Thanks to everyone who left encouraging feedback for the previous chapter. I am glad that those of you who have commented, would be interested in reading a follow-up fan-fiction. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you my idea for the storyline. You'll just have to wait and check it out when I write it after this fic is complete. Anyway enough rambling. Here's the latest chapter. Enjoy! ;)

Disclaimer: …Do I really need to say it? Lol.

It didn't take long for Tony and Ziva to get changed and grab their weapons. They had found their gear packed into the go-bags that Gibbs had brought them when they had first moved into Abby's apartment.

Tony holstered his weapon guiltily. Gibbs had obviously packed the weapons with their things so that they could protect themselves if they needed to. However, Tony seriously doubted that Gibbs would be impressed if he knew what his two senior agents were about to do. Tony did his best to ignore these thoughts, and push them from his head as he continued to get ready.

Doubt had no place on any op, but especially not one as important to them as this. If Renner, or as Ziva suspected, Bodnar, showed at the abandoned location to which they were heading, then they would have to act quickly. Bodnar was as well trained as Ziva and they would have to use extreme caution, which Tony thought, considering they were both still recovering from their injuries, would be hard enough as it was. But injured or not, if anyone would be able to stop Bodnar it would be Ziva. She knew how he thought, and that was the best defence they might have at this point. Tony just hoped that this would be enough.

5 minutes later Tony joined Ziva in the hallway by the door. Ziva had wrapped her ribs up as tightly as possible, so that she could fight if necessary. Her wrist which was still in a cast, remained as it was. There wasn't much that either of them could do about their respective casts.

Tony and Ziva shared a look. Tony could see the determination in Ziva's eyes and he tried to look similarly positive, hiding the worry he felt within.

"Are you ready?" He asked Ziva.

"Yes, I am." Ziva replied, allowing herself to fall back on her former Mossad training. After all, this op would take everything that they had left. Ziva was certain, almost without a doubt, that she would find Ilan where they were headed, and she refused to let him slip through her fingers. Not again.

Meanwhile… Gibbs and McGee had arrived at the first location on their list; a recently condemned building on the outskirts of town.

It looked like it had been empty for a long time, but Gibbs knew better than anyone how misleading appearances could be. As he and McGee got out of the car, Gibbs signalled for his agent to take the back of the house while Gibbs himself opted to check out the front.

McGee nodded and quickly but quietly moved around the house and out of sight. Gibbs leant against the door, only to find that it wasn't even locked. He had a gut feeling that if anyone had been staying here, they were most likely long gone by now. Surely the door would be secured if Renner was still using this building as a safe house.

Gibbs kicked the door down and shouted "NCIS" as he began methodically clearing the rooms on his side of the house. Gibbs and McGee met in the middle of the building, both coming up empty handed.

"It's clear, boss." Said McGee, as he lowered his weapon. "It doesn't look like this place has been used for a while, and we don't even know if Renner or Hadar were ever even here. For all we know this place could have been used by squatters."

"Call for back-up. The building will need to be swept for prints. We may as well be thorough about this."

McGee nodded and took out his phone. "What are you going to do, boss?" He asked curiously, as Gibbs also pulled out his cell phone.

"I'm calling Ziva, McGee." And when McGee gave him a confused look in return, Gibbs muttered: "Call it a hunch."

It didn't take long for Tony and Ziva to realise that they were at the right place. The address was for an old abandoned warehouse, that was located beside a long-out-of-use aeroplane hangar. There was a small 2 man plane waiting off to the side of the runway, along with a man whose job appeared to be to fix the slightly dilapidated aircraft, and get it fit for take-off. By the looks of things he would still be at it for a while yet.

Tony and Ziva glanced at each other, before sliding as quietly as possible from the car. They had hidden out of sight near the property boundary, to make sure that they would go unnoticed. Ziva pulled a pair of binoculars from her bag and tried to get a closer look at the building and the surrounding property. As she did so, her phone began to buzz silently. Tony snagged the phone from the car and with a nod from Ziva, clicked answer.

"Hey Boss." He whispered as loud as he dared.

Tony grimaced as he listened patiently to the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Look Boss, this really isn't a good time…" Gibbs seemed to cut him off, as Ziva heard the buzz of speech coming through the phone, even though she was stood a couple of metres away from Tony.

"How'd you know that's where we are?" muttered Tony.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Tony said: "Look if you know where we are then get over here. Something's going down boss, and Ziva and I are not going to sit idly on our asses and let this guy get away. We're going in!"

Ziva had already started sneaking through the shadows towards the back entrance of the warehouse, and there was no way Tony was going to stay chatting on the phone while the woman he loved put herself in danger. He speedily hung up the phone, not caring that he cut Gibbs off in mid-sentence, and threw the phone back into the car.

Tony grabbed his crutches and as quickly as possible made his way towards the door where Ziva was now waiting for him.

Luckily Tony's crutches were tipped with rubber, so although they were a nuisance to have to take on an op, at least they allowed him to move without a sound. Due to Tony's distinct handicap, Ziva motioned that she would go in first, and after giving her a couple of seconds head start, Tony said a quick prayer under his breath before following her into the unknown.

A/N: I hope you guys liked this latest instalment of A Long Way Home? This chapter was essential to move the storyline forwards, but the real fun is coming up next! Be sure to keep an eye out, because I am soo excited for the next chapter! I hope you all love it. Anyway what did you guys think of this latest chapter? Any theories on what you think might happen next? ;)