20 months after reuniting.

Her hair was pulled back in a tight hair tie, the running made the hair jump from shoulder to shoulder. She wore black fitted cotton poly-blend fitted pants and a black windbreaker. It was 10 minutes to six when she finally slowed down to take a breath. She caught a glimpse of a white light in the pitch black off the trail. She used the flashlight app on her phone to look for any idea as to what she only saw a moment ago…nothing. She gave up and returned to the trail, when suddenly three crunches of leaves behind her caught her off guard, someone was following her. She halted any movement and turned around.

Three weeks ago, Tony had left Ziva and Tali to do staff evaluations, confidentiality screenings, and wartime preparedness training for the Georgia Kings Bay Navy Submarine Base. His job rarely required trips like these, but because he had had experience with the Navy- his boss figured he was the right man for the job. He was eager to get home, as he only had two days left.

He left a voicemail for Ziva when she didn't answer her phone, "Hey Z, Just letting you know I'll arrive at the airport Thursday at noon. If you can still pick me up, great, if not I'll just get a Lyft. I miss you guys so sooo much! Call me back."

Five hours passed without any word from Ziva. He called one of the her friends that lived in the neighborhood in regards to her whereabouts, "Yeah…I know. She should've been back by now. And you're okay with Tali?"

The voice on the other line was pleasant and reassuring, "Yeah Tony. I'm sorry, if I wasn't sick this morning I would've gone with her..."

"No, I wouldn't worry. Ziva can perfectly take care of herself."

"Well, Tony... I know it's none of my business but…"

Tony broke in, concerned, "What? What did she say?"

"Well, when she dropped her off this morning, I had told her I couldn't run with her today, she was okay with it and everything, but she said it was perfect opportunity to get some business done… To get this over with. … I thought it was odd. Maybe you know what she's talking about?"

A moment passed then Tony thanked her for the information and said good-bye.

After he hung up he went to his contacts and tapped on Gibb's number. When he heard the other line pick up all Tony could say was, "Catcher Code Sand Storm". Both of them hung up, then Gibbs, who was sitting at his desk at NCIS called McGee over, he kept his mouth shut and wrote on a sticky note "Sandstorm. NOW. " McGee looked at the note and nodded, rushing back to his desk to type furiously into the computer. Ellie, Nick, and Alex looked over to McGee and Gibbs expecting to be given orders, but none ever came. Clearly, the senior agent and Gibbs were working alone on this one.

Ziva woke up with a pounding headache, she reached for the right side of her head, a cold wet sensation was on her fingertips, when she looked at it she noticed it was her blood. Suddenly, she realized she had been hit. The person or persons following her had done this. Was she kidnapped? She noticed her surroundings, bright fluorescent lighting and office chairs and desks. White walls and grey carpeting. She looked to her left and noticed the large window, observing the landscape outside, she could see the Washington monument; she was in D.C. Why? They must've driven her, a three hour drive? She adjusted herself up right when a calm, authoritative voiced told her to remain calm.

Groggily she asked, "Who. Who are you?"

Out from the corner of the room a bald man, late early 40's, in a brown leather jacket and blue jeans and military boots appeared. He sat down across from her, and when he did, she noticed the semi-automatic in his holster. "Miss David, we are a group of people that simply want information. If you provide this information then we will let you go and everything will be okay. Are we clear?"

"I don't have any information. I can't help you." She had been out of the game for a while, but her years of training stuck with her."

Two men, Arab looking late 30's and early 40's, came through the door, chattering in Arabic. When the bald man turned around, he too responded in Arabic. Ziva knew what they were saying but she didn't let on.

One of the men asked Ziva, accent present, "April 2012 through November 2014 files. Your father's files! Where are they?"

Her heart sank, these men are with a group of militants Eli had been tracking the last 2 years before his death. He was recording phone conversations, bartering, and locations of weapon storage. He ordered a massive attack on the terrorist cell that resided in east Jerusalem, killing and imprisoning over 100 men. Ziva suspected that these men were the last of them, they wanted the locations of the bomb storage and other weapons to carry out an attack in Israel or the United States. "You are the ones who had been following me the past two weeks. Aren't you? The black van outside my house at night… Why am I in D.C?"

The bald man looked at her with a hardened expression, "You don't need to know. But you do need to give us the files."

Ziva sighed and looked up to the ceiling.

The man interrupted her, "I feel generous today, Miss David. I know what it's like to go motherless and I really don't want to put a bullet through your head and make …Tali? Is that her name?" Ziva eyes were like saucers watching the man like a she was a sniper ready to fire. He continued, "Anyway, I will be back in an hour. If you do not give us the login information for the files, I will kill you. Okay? See…I'm not the bad guy here. Work with us."

The man left, leaving Ziva alone on the floor, tied up. She was left to her own devices. She noticed her phone on the desk, maybe ten feet away. She thought about screaming in hopes someone would hear her and get help, but she knew if the wrong person heard her she would surely die.

McGee pinged Ziva's phone at a vacant newly constructed building. The building was 12 stories high and there was no way of extracting a specific floor, which had to be done manually. "Boss." McGee got up and grabbed his gun. Gibbs tossed the keys to the agent and led the way to the elevator. The rest of the team looked curiously at them but no orders were given to grab gear so they stayed put.

On the way to the office building, McGee called Tony and let him know they were on the way to get Ziva. For the past three hours Tony had been getting intel on the militants and their captain, he learned about the former Mossad director's orders to lead an attack on the terrorists cell and then he just knew what he was dealing with: angry terrorists looking for gunfire.

No cars were in the parking lot, so Gibbs parked on the side of the building near a single-story doctor's office. They ran over to the entrance of the structure. Level by level, guided by their guns, carefully looked around until level six. Ziva called out to Gibbs. "Gibbs! Here!"

"My God, Ziva."

"They are with-"

McGee stared at her and answered quickly, "We know. We sent a team out to get them. They were on the watch list already so…" He looked to his watch, "they should be in custody right about now."

Ziva exhaled, relaxed at the thought of safety. "I need to call Tony".

Gibbs helped her up after untangling her constraints, "On his way to NCIS now. Caught a ride from the base."

She hugged Gibbs then McGee in gratitude.

The ride back to NCIS with her former co-worker and former boss was quite peaceful to her surprise. McGee found out about Ziva fifteen months ago when Tony called him after Ziva came back to America. Vance, McGee, and Gibbs were all in the loop but everyone else never found out.

Gibbs and McGee quickly made it to the Director's office with Ziva without being detected by any agents, including Gibb's team. Ziva sat down with Vance and exchanged a nice conversation about life in general, Tony, and Tali. He told her that Mike, one of the department heads at Homeland, praises Anthony's work. Ziva smiles at this. She explains to the director that she knew something like this would happen eventually and she was glad it was completely over now.

A knock at the door, with Vance's permission, the door opened. Gibbs appeared, "Ziva, Tony's about to arrive in a few minutes."

"Thank you, I'll be on my way." Gibbs waited as Ziva stood up to shake the Director's hand.

Right when Gibbs and Ziva were descending the stairs to the bullpen, Abby and Ducky were giving results on a dead petty officer's case to the team. Abby looked to the staircase and looked back to the team. Her mouth opened and then looked to Ziva. "What? What's going on Abby?" Ellie asked Abby. Ziva and Gibbs were now down a few feet away from the bullpen.

"It feels so... different being back here." Ziva said quietly to Gibbs.

Gibbs chuckled and led her to his desk.

They turned the corner into the bullpen where everyone looked to Gibbs and to Nick, Alex, and Ellie, the mysterious woman who was with their boss. Ducky and Abby looked astonished. Ducky smile and walked to Ziva who had her arms open for him to hug her. "My dear, it is so good to see you. I must say you look absolutely ravishing for a dead woman." He noticed a worry look cross Ziva's face, "Don't worry, Ziva, even if Jethro didn't tell me persay, we had our own way of communicating of your, uh, revival from the ashes."

Then they talked amongst themselves with a silent Abby (which was very unlike her) besides Doctor Mallard.

Nick leaned over to Ellie who was just as stunned as everyone else, "Uh, what's going on?"

Ellie typed into her computer Z-i-v-a D-a-v-i-d into the NCIS personnel database.

The picture popped up and then Ellie compared appearances. The puzzle pieces connected, "HOLY-" She couldn't even finish her sentence because everyone turned to look at her.

Ziva's attention was now shifted away from the blonde agent and now to the elevator. Everyone saw her smile and walk towards someone farther in the back; Tony had just gotten off the elevator. Abby, McGee, Vance (who had made his way down from his office) , Ducky, Gibbs, and the other agents on looked this scene of one former death-defying agent and another formerly dead agent embrace each other with a tremendous love in their hearts. Anyone, regardless of their affiliation with the couple, could see these two were deeply in love. They kissed each other briefly then Ziva assured Tony she was absolutely fine and Tali is Ok.

Abby broke her silence, the phase of astonishment faded away, "Woah! Okay! Ziva you're alive. Tony is here. Everyone, this is Anthony DiNozzo..."

Alex and Nick exchanged looks; Nick then commented, "Oh, THE Agent Tony DiNozzo? Dude you're like a legend."

Tony smiled then nodded, Abby continued, "and this is former agent Ze-vah Da-vid." Abby cocked her head, a little steam in her voice indicated she was not very pleased. "Who apparently did NOT die? Oh and guys, these two have a child together."

Ziva looked up to Tony, she wanted him to say something to Abby.

Tony and Ziva walked over to Abby and dragged her to another part of the building.

Nick, Alex, Gibbs, McGee, and Ellie remained at their desks; probably the loudest silence that had ever occurred within the NCIS walls. Ducky glanced at Gibbs, "Uh, I believe we will discuss this later. You know where I'll be, as always." And just like that, Ducky was on his way back down to autopsy.

Nick broke the silence with his curiosity and went over to Ellie, "So you knew this Ziva David?"

"No, she was the agent before me, a few months after she resigned I took her place."

"She died?"

Ellie shook her head, "Well, apparently not."

"I thought my life was crazy…They have a kid together? You worked with Tony, though?"

Ellie nodded, "Yeah, he left after Ziva supposedly died in a fire in Israel, I think. He was really emotional and then a day or so later, apparently, it was then he was introduced to his daughter. Then you and Alex entered."

Nick stood straight and crossed his arms.

McGee had crept up behind them when they weren't looked, "Hey guys, I know this is fascinating and everything, but there's an officer's murderer out there…"

Abby had her arms folded taking turn staring down Tony and Ziva. After a ten minute rant on how uncouth Ziva's death was and how three years plus an extra two years of silence had been on Abby and the rest of them.

"Gibbs knew." Ziva responded to Abby.

Tony followed up, "He knew. He always knew. McGee kinda knew. Abby, you can't completely understand what Ziva did but she had very good reasons for it." Ziva felt so good that Tony could explain things for her instead of her having to go through all of the explaining and reasoning again.

"It better be a good one." Abby stated.

Tony told Ziva he was going to have chat with Abby. She nodded then Tony kissed Ziva on the cheek.

Abby saw this, "Oh come on! You guys are like this now? Are you guys married, too and didn't tell me?"

Ziva lightly chuckled and turned to head back to the bullpen. But first, he needed to call her friend and talk to Tali, who will be turning four in a few months.

Forty minutes passed and then Ziva heard loud footsteps running towards her. Ziva looked up from her phone and spotted Abby. Abby ran and embraced Ziva with a gigantic hug and a few tears. "Oh my Gosh, Ziva. I am so so sooooo sorry I was so mean. You have to understand. I didn't mean anything by it. I can't believe you had to go through all that. But you're safe. Tony said everything is A-OK now. Today was the last of 'em. And Tali? She's okay too. Everything is good and great. Ziva I always knew you weren't dead. I mean you're Ziva David, former Mossad and NCIS badass, oh and you're a mommy now!"

"I've been a mommy for almost four years now, you should come by sometime and see her." Ziva chuckled and looked to Tony who had a look of satisfaction on his face.

"Oh my goodness. Tony's a father, you two…" Abby quickly turned to Tony and grabbed his arm. "How long was this going on? Oh you have to tell me…everything!"

Tony and Ziva kept their silence until Gibbs came up besides the Goth, "Abby, as much as you would like to know, I don't think it's necessarily your business…"

Abby put her hands on her hips and told Gibbs, "I think we all want to know, Gibbs."

"Even if that's true, you have to run three more DNA samples, not to mention a tire track to match…"

She lets out a sigh, "Fine, you win." She turns to the couple, "We're not through." She spins around and heads back to her scientific duties.

"Gibbs sipped his coffee and stared at the Tony and Ziva, "You guys should head back."

"I think that's a good idea. I have a tony of paperwork to do and Tali's been asking for me. She's just a wonderful ball of cuteness! I miss her, Ziva." Tony interjected.

McGee chuckled, "ball of cuteness?"

"Uh, yeah, McMouse. Deal with it."

Ziva smiles at Gibbs, "We'll see you on the 12th, right?"

Gibbs nods, "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Tony calls to McGee typing away, "You too, right?"

He glances to the three of them, "Of course. Ducky will be coming with me."

Tony puts his arm around Ziva and heads towards the elevator, a few moments and they're gone, on their way back to their home with their daughter.

Ellie asked her boss if he thought seeing them together felt weird. Gibbs took a sip of his coffee, leaned back and thought, "Not weird. Different. Good different." He then looked to Alex and Nick and warns, "Rule 12 still applies."

"Why'd you look at me when you said that?" Nick asked.

Gibbs replied sharply, "Don't you have work to do?"