Hello! Thank you all so so much for reading this story. YOU ARE ALL SUPER! I feel more overwhelmed everyday by the amount and level of support from all of you guys. You are the ones who give me the confidence and motivation to write this story, so thank you :) I'm so sorry this is being posted much later than I wanted it to be, I struggled with this chapter and all the minor details a bit. I hope that things start make sense in this chapter. I debated for ages where Tali and Ziva would sleep in the guest room. I almost gave Tali the bed but then I realised that this wouldn't have any bed rails around it to prevent her from falling out. I just still feel weird having her sleep on a mattress on the floor…

There are now 75 of you following this story! That's insane, thank you! 4susan41, 1994omi, Athenalarissa, Atlante41, Aubrey Etta, BlackWidowAndCapRule, Brightlight94, DetectiveInspectorSydney, Ebony10, EowynGoldberry, Fahrenhheit, Hales23, HarrylovesGinny09, HoldxOn, Iluvgleetwilightthg, James the vet, JdnHwke169, Kim69etv, Krazzy Kezz, Lgehris, Lipush, LoveZoraLancasteranSonnyMunroe, LyanaDavid, Mockingprettygirls, Mrs. Fitzgerald, Rach4, SJlove07, SUZITROUBLE, TZDDN, Tiva-Forever-08, TivaCallensi4ever, VivianaLockhart, ambermichele, angry penguin, anniemous27, arcadia1328, beckums8685, bobisbusy, bunnykoko, cindy Seidenberg, countrygal64, egal77, fireandice1986, gallieni, giggles11228, heathergsu02, hejo.12, hopalong123546, ittybittyalissa, jenny1221, jgibbs7, kfink77, kissedyouwithfire, klutzysunshine, krazymelmo5385, kurrumu, 82kt, libs1709, littlecook28, love is only a dream, malec4eva, minihannibal65, moviesmadewithlove , nattlouu, ncisgirl18, runner229, scarredlove, seriously56, sjg563517, sonckad, tammy henson, tazmania081005, tere55, tiffanynloud and writeinspiredraw.

To everyone who has favourited: THANK YOU ALL! ambermichele, BlackWidowAndCapRule, booklover321, cindy Seidenberg, Cosmos89, DetectiveInspectorSydney, Ebony Ater, Emeraldcello, gallieni , HarrylovesGinny09, hlaughlin93, hopalong123546, James the vet, jgibbs7, Kim69etv, Krazzy Kezz, kurrumu, Lgehris, libs1709, love is only a dream, LoveZoraLancasteranSonnyMunroe, melitami, minihannibal65, missy841, Mlb080915, Mockingprettygirls, ncisandsvuaddict, RAD092515, seriously56, srshibaharah, tammy henson, tazmania081005, tiffanynloud and writeinspiredraw.

Thank you Thank you Thank you! To everyone who reviewed, you super people. Like always, I hope that those with FF accounts got my replies ok: angry penguin, Ebony10, nattlouu, VivianaLockhart, EowynGoldberry, libs1709, aj344, HarrylovesGinny09 and TivaRulesInGreece. I love replying to you guys and getting your feedback. It feels like even more of a community :) Thank you to Chickie10016, Debbie, Stella and Sue, here are my replies to you guys:

Chickie10016: Thank you for your lovely review! Welcome to the wonderful, weird-old world of fanfiction! Just run, run away while you can! Three of my school friends introduced me to fanfiction when I was 13 years old and I haven't looked back since so I'm really glad that you have found this little community here. Hehe I'm loving your Ricky Ricardo comments, oh yeah Tony could totally pull that off! That's how he would have said that :) Your comments about my writing really mean so so much to me. I'm super critical of myself and I'm constantly changing things in my writing and story so to hear that people enjoy your writing is a huge compliment. Thank you so much :)

Debbie: Thank you for your review! Oooh I totally agree, they need to be together and be a family. I will say that you will have your answer about Ziva by Chapter 8. I think. Unless my brain decides that it wants to add something else. Hopefully Orli will make things clearer over the next two chapters :)

Stella: Thank you for your amazing comments! Haha oh no I'm fuelling the addiction! I've got a few fanfics that I'm like that with so I'm honoured that this story is one for you :) Wow! I'm chocked that you feel like I'm one of your best friends. I really feel that you and everyone here are like my best friends too. You guys are honest with me and I feel like I can be myself with you. Thank you, I'm honoured to be your friend :) Okay, you asked me "is tony gonna find Ziva in any chapter soon?". I will say that you will have your answer by Chapter 8. Hopefully. Unless my brain decides to add an extra chapter… TEAM "ZIVA IS NOT DEAD!"

Sue Dooley: Thank you so much for reviewing! Hehe Tony:1, Orli:0! At least for now anyways. Orli needs to show her hand now. Yeah you didn't miss anything since Ziva left. I'm so glad that you can watch the re-runs. I used to watch an episode every night until that finale aired (in chronological order from Series 3 to 10. Yep. I'm that sad :D ). I can't watch an old ep anymore without wanting to cry but I'd love to be able to watch the old eps again one day. Just can't face them yet :) Tiva forever

Tuesday 24th May 2016 Orli's House, Tel Aviv, Israel 2am (just after)

Tony began his search in the guest room. He spotted the small inflatable mattress next to the bed straight away, clearly where Tali had been sleeping. Tony slowly walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress, staring towards the top of the bed. He couldn't resist picking up the top pillow and pressing his nose against it, needing to feel Ziva's presence…

Oh yeah, she was definitely staying here. Oh Ziva.

Tony forced himself to take a deep breath and put the pillow back down. There's work to be done. While he had been on the other side of the room, he had noticed something hidden underneath the bed. So he stood up, turned to face the bed and crouched down onto the floor (his knees were not going to forgive him any time soon!). After stretching his right hand under the bed, he grabbed onto the item and pulled with all his might to reveal it from its hidden chamber.

Pulling the item into the lit part of the room, Tony discovered that he held a suitcase in his hands. Luckily, it wasn't padlocked so he quickly worked it open. Once he set his eyes upon the possessions, Tony sighed a little. Inside lay clothes both for Ziva and Tali, some emergency cash, photo albums of her time at NCIS with the team. Small little pieces like an autographed copy of Deep Six also sat within the case. But it was a cloth bag that caught Tony's attention. Carefully picking this up and placing it onto the floor, he opened the bag and pulled out a small lock-box concealed from within. Tony looked puzzled at the box for a moment, rattling it slightly and attempting to open it. But it needed a code to get in. Great, how I am supposed to guess that? Her birthday? Way too obvious. Tali's Birthday? I don't even know when that is!

Tony threw the cloth bag to one side, but it made a soft thump against the floor. Huh? He looked over to his left to stare at the recently discarded bag quizzically. Did I just imagine that? Reaching for the bag, he pulled something else hidden from within. Another photo frame that had been underneath the lock-box, this time showing a picture of him and Ziva inside the hotel lobby from Berlin. Tony took this in his hands and sighed, rubbing his thumbs softly over the brown wooden frame. Ziva had her arms folded and was rolling her eyes at him, but held a slight grin on her face. He was smirking madly, waving his arms madly around in the air. Even back then, while they were chasing down Bodnar, Tony could always be counted on to make Ziva smile. Both of them looked a little rugged from the long flight, but somehow Ziva still managed to look stunning in his eyes with her long hair flowing freely. I can't even remember what was so funny now…

Hold on, why was this photo with the lock-box? All of the other photos that Ziva took with her were in photo albums. What did that mean? This photo was a code? A code? Numbers? A number from Berlin? From our hotel?

"The room number?"

Tony reached for the box and quickly tapped in the numbers, 1. 9. 6. 2. Ding. Of course. That's what was so funny! They had just checked into the hotel when he'd seen the number of the room that they would be staying in. Room 1962. A reference to the year of the first Bond film. Of course he would remember that! He had rambled on and on about it while Ziva had found it sad but highly amusing. Oh Ziva. Tony opened the box.

"Oh my God!" he gasped quietly. Inside lay missing puzzle pieces and little treasures that Tony had been desperate for. Tali's birth certificate (Wednesday 18th June 2014), with her name printed as Talia Elizabeth DiNozzo. Tony chocked on a sob out-loud – Ziva had given Tali his last name and his mother's name as her middle name. Maybe she really did love me…

There were pictures of Tali, from her birth up until more recent photos, pictures of Ziva while she was pregnant, sonogram photos, little trinkets. Now he held silent tears running down his face but he didn't bother to brush them away. He came across a copy of Ziva's will and he just couldn't bring himself to look at it yet. That would be too final. Yet, there was something that did surprise him in that box. It was Ziva's 'I Will' list from 3 years ago.

"Huh?!"

The last time he'd seen this, Ziva had buried it in a box in the orchard. He hadn't even checked the other day at the orchard for this list. She must have dug it up.

Tony had seen Ziva's new list and the contents had been ingrained into his brain since that day, even inspiring some of the things on his own I Will list. Reading through her list again now however, he did spot that the last two items were new additions:

I will give up the badge.

I will stop this for him.

I will keep people safe from me.

I will make amends with everyone that I need to.

I will work hard every day to be a better me.

I will always remember America and everything that my family there taught me.

I will tell Tony about Tali and protect them at any cost.

We will always have Paris.

Paris…. Paris…It couldn't be…?

Tony stood sharply and ran back into the kitchen clutching her list in his grasp and sat where Orli had left his own list. He set the 2 pieces of paper next to each other and took his pen from his top left pocket. It's time to start answering the questions and cross these off my list:

1. They haven't found a body. Ziva wasn't in the building so there was no body to find.

2. We never saw a survivor being pulled from the house. There was no survivor – Tali wasn't there.

3. Don't believe what you're told. Always double check. Checked out ideas in Israel and with Orli.

4. Where's the smell of smoke? The go-bag wasn't in the fire.

5. No bruises, cuts, burns. Tali was safe at Orli's house.

6. She would have known. Confirmed. My ninja did know.

7. Tali was so far from Ziva in the house.

8. Kelev. Was with Tali at Orli's house.

9. Ziva's scarf.

10. Paris.

11. Trent Kort. Orli had someone tip him off that Ziva and Tali were not in the farmhouse.

Tony began to speak to himself out-loud, needing to sort through his thoughts. "Okay, so they were staying here with Orli, that answers most of the questions. And Kort knew that they weren't supposed to be staying in the farmhouse thanks to Orli. But why did Ziva include the scarf in the go-bag? Why the photo of Paris? Why add that to her I Will list? And why did Orli tip Kort off?" Tony put his head into his hands, massaging his temples. He could feel a headache coming on.

"Perhaps I can help you there, Anthony." Tony jumped slightly at Orli's intrusion and looked up to face her. "I trust that you found what you were looking for?"

Tony blinked. "Yeah… mostly."

Orli walked over to the chair on the opposite side of the kitchen counter and dragged this over so it was next to where Tony was seated. She sat onto the oval stool, placing her hands into her lap. Orli looked up to face him.

"Yes Tony, you are correct. Ziva and Tali were not in the farmhouse when the attack happened. You have now seen that they were staying here." she took a quick glance at both of the lists, pleased to see that he had found Ziva's list. "I see that you still have some things to find out." Tony simply nodded, wanting her to continue.

"Ziva chose exactly what she would put into that bag. She thought very carefully about everything. Her scarf and the photograph of the two of you in Paris both had multiple reasons for being included – reasons for Tali and reasons for you."

"Reasons for me… like clues?" Orli crossed her left leg over her right, still seated on the stool.

"Let us start with her scarf. When Tali was a baby, that scarf was her favourite thing. She used to try to roll herself up in it and fall asleep. It reminds her of her Ima, so Ziva wanted her to take comfort from it." Orli paused for a moment. "Why do you think Ziva put this in the bag for you?"

Tony looked down and to the left, thinking back to the conversation that he had with his father. That felt like years ago to him now. "The last time I saw Ziva wearing that scarf, it was 3 years ago when she left NCIS. She had just been attacked at the safe house and you found out that she sought medical attention. She went underground after that."

"Exactly." Orli emphasised. Tony's mouth opened slightly at that. So Ziva is underground. Tick.

"And the Paris photo?"

"Tali's favourite picture. Every night, she would ask her Ima if she could look at it. She would point to you and ask for a story. Ziva wanted Tali to know her father, she wanted you in Tali's life." Orli paused there, seeing the hurt look cross Tony's face. "What does Paris mean to you?" Tony smiled at this, he had lots of memories about Ziva and Paris.

"Everything. It's our place. It was always special to Ziva and it became special to me too." He looked down at his lap, rubbing his hands together.

Orli smiled at this. "You asked me why I had someone inform Kort about Ziva not being in the farmhouse." Tony glanced back up at her.

"Kort wanted the files to be gone. He also knew that Ziva knew far too much, so it would be helpful to him if she was gone too. But he did not want to harm a child. The only small mercy that we can thank that horrible man for. We knew that Kort would wait for days, weeks until he could get to Ziva when Tali was not there. Kort had wanted to kill Ziva in the bombing, but Tali was always with her so he wanted to wait until they were apart. Except they were always together. When Ziva and Tali moved in with me, it forced Kort to panic and let him know that people were onto him. He had to re-think his plan and act sooner. So he planned to have his people bomb the farmhouse and then go to collect or deal with Ziva while I was at Mossad."

She paused and then started to fiddle with the necklace she was wearing. Tony stood up, before he started to pace around the kitchen. He needed a few minutes to make sense of this.

"Ziva and I both agreed that telling Kort where she was staying and then letting him believe that she was dead would be the best thing to do. She knew that Kort would be relentless in his search for her but she did not want to spend weeks and months being chased by him. Not with Tali. We knew that if we tipped him off, then he would act out his plan sooner. Ziva could disappear as no one would be looking for a dead person. Kort would move on. And it worked."

Tony continued to pace the length of the kitchen for a few minutes. Finally, he paused in front of the fridge and faced Orli.

"Anthony, you have all the answers that you could get from here. There is nothing else that I can give to you."

Tony thought for a second.

"Maybe. But there's still one more thing that needs to be done."

A/N: Thank you all for reading! I really hope that this makes sense. I had a bit of a fight with this chapter. Next up will be a conversation between Orli, Tony and Nettie. Orli has more 'splaining to do. But she is one of the good guys here ;) She was always going to be good in this story! I was going to include the next conversation within this chapter but once I started writing it, it just grew and grew (it's now a 2-page word document and it's not finished yet!). That made me realise that their conversation deserved to be a chapter of its own. Please let me know if there is anything that you would like to see happen in this fanfic. We're getting close to the end of part 1…!