So… hello! I'm sorry that it's been so long since I updated anything or spoken with you all. I can only apologise for how long it's taken me to finally write this chapter. Thank you all so much for sticking with me and continuing to read this story. I know I'm like the most annoying person ever with my disappearing acts and very sporadic updates… (I'm so sorry!). This has been a really busy, crazy year but I'm so excited to be getting back into this story and writing again. I broke up for the summer about 2 weeks ago and I'm enjoying a much-needed break! I can't believe that my first year of teaching is already done! I'm really going to miss my class; all the kids are so amazing and inspiring! I couldn't have asked for a better group to teach as my first class :)
Thank you to everyone who has read this story and to all of you who have favourited and followed! Thank you also to everyone that has ever left me a review or sent me a message. I have read every one of them and they mean more to me than words can explain. I apologise if I have not yet replied or responded, I'm going to try my best to talk with you guys over the next few weeks! Thank you also to moonclarinet for adding this story to their community.
I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a fab day :)
Chapter 15 – Absolution:
Thursday 26th May 2016, Parisian Apartment, France, 4pm
Ziva held her breath. She didn't think she would be able to breathe again until she heard that Gibbs was alright. There she sat anxiously on the living room couch. Tony noticed her worried expression and continued, not wanting to prolong this further. "After Luke shot Gibbs, we got him onboard the USS Daniel Webster where he underwent surgery performed by a Dr Taft. He'd lost a lot of blood and the bullet to his chest had done the most damage: it had shattered upon impact. He didn't look good. Luckily, Taft is very good at his job and Gibbs made it through."
"Thank God." Ziva breathed a big, very audible sigh of relief. She was so relieved to hear that he had come through that. It was horrible to think about Gibbs getting hurt, but it must have been awful to watch for Tony and the team. And even harder for Gibbs himself to go through.
"I know. He survived, but he still had a long road to recovery ahead of him. Skip ahead a few months, Budd was still out there and Gibbs was back at work, but we were under strict instructions not to discuss the case with him. Not that that stopped him, of course. The latest tip we had put Budd in Shanghai and it turned out he was using The Calling to audition his services to the Chinese. So, Joanna Teague and I went out there and tracked him down. Let's just say, he's now out of business.
"But you still blamed yourself." Statement, not question. Ziva knew that wasn't quite everything. She could see that Tony pinned Gibbs' near death on himself. She could feel his emotions about that radiating from him. They were subtle, but they were there. She just knew how to read him.
Tony's gaze shot up from the floor to meet her chocolate brown orbs. How did she do that? How did she know he felt guilty and blamed himself? "How…?"
"It was not your fault." Ziva answered. There was no way he could have known about Luke. No one would have predicted that. She certainly hadn't seen that one coming. Tony was not to blame and he needed to hear that.
He sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. "If I hadn't let myself get distracted by Budd calling me…"
"Tony, you had a wanted man calling you. Keeping him on the phone, finding out what he wanted would have been your top priority. Luke would still have taken the shot." Ziva explained, wanting to show him that he could not have prevented this from happening.
"I wasn't watching his six." Tony spoke quietly, almost to berate himself. He still held a lot of guilt about these events.
Ziva shook her head. "Okay, so if you had not answered the call, would you have been able to stop Luke? Would you have had to take him down? Or would you have been shot too?"
Tony opened his mouth to reply, but couldn't answer. That had stumped him. He'd never thought of things like that. He'd always thought he would have stopped Luke from shooting, but hadn't thought of other scenarios. What would he have done?
Ziva smiled sadly and ran her thumb over his hand. "Tony… you could not have seen that coming. You were not the one who fired the weapon. You were not the one who was hiring kids to carry out violent crimes. You are not to blame." Tony looked down at his hands in his lap, mulling things over in his head. He didn't think he'd ever really come to terms with his past actions, but there was one thing that was clear to him. Ziva was stubborn, but she just had a way of making him feel better. "That was why you went to Shanghai?" Ziva asked.
He took a deep breath and nodded, looking back up at her. "You clean up your own mess."
"Rule 45." She recalled one of the infamous Gibbs rules with a smile.
"I had to find Budd… take him down… for the lives he'd taken… for Gibbs." Tony replied quietly.
"This was personal for you." She stated.
"It was eating away at me. And that only got worse over time. I just wanted to catch him; make him pay for what he'd done." Tony could feel his frustrations start to come to the surface.
"Rule 11." She responded. Never get personally involved on a case.
Tony chuckled. "Yeah…"
"You wanted vengeance for Gibbs. Budd had almost had him killed." She paused for a moment. "Did you talk to Gibbs about this?"
Tony sighed. That was complicated. "Sort of… Well, no… I went to his basement; asked if we needed to talk about what had happened. He just asked what I wanted to talk about. Sort of implied that there wasn't really anything to discuss."
Ziva shook her head slightly, but kept quiet. This was starting to remind her of how tense things were between Tony and Gibbs when Tony was dating EJ. Things had not been good between the two of them then. She only hoped that it had not reached that point again, or worse.
He knew what she was thinking. Tony knew that things hadn't been the same between him and Gibbs for a while. And he really didn't want to get into that right now. "There was one good thing to come out of all of this. Gibbs made a new friend in Dr Taft." Tony continued, changing the subject slightly.
"The surgeon who saved his life?" Ziva asked.
Tony nodded. "Uh huh. He was a Navy reserve captain, a decorated Gulf War veteran and a former chief trauma surgeon. However, he kept leaving his private practice because of depression. He and his wife had lost their son two years before that to leukaemia. I guess Gibbs could relate to how Taft felt. They'd both lost a child and were still fighting the demons; picking up the pieces. They both understood each other and actually became friends."
Wow… to lose your child like that… that was just heart-breaking. No one should have to experience going through leukaemia or losing a loved one. Taft and his wife had obviously been through a lot. But she was hugely grateful that Taft had found the strength to carry on and had probably saved many lives since, including Gibbs'. "I would like to meet Dr Taft one day." Tony gave her a slightly confused look. "You know. And thank him." Ziva explained. Tony smiled, getting what she meant by this.
"So, what happened next? How were things after that?" Ziva asked.
"After that, we teamed up with DEA Agent Luis Mitchell. He'd been after Long for years and was trying to turn one of his new recruits, Gleason. However, he missed their meeting and Mitch wanted our help to find him. Gibbs and Mitch went to Long's house, but Gleason had cleared his stuff out a week before and had apparently gone on a road trip." Tony explained.
Ziva's look said it all. Okay… Tony had to laugh at that. Her 'I'm not falling for your rubbish' look. He hadn't seen that in a long time… "Yeah I know. It was hard to believe that Long would let him go just like that. We took a gun from his cousin, Roy and Abby matched prints to Roy, Long and a guy named Fisher Hyland who'd done time for possession. He told us about a rave where drug dealers would get rid of products they needed to push fast. One had taken place in an abandoned school, where we found Gleason's body."
"Ooh, getting prints from that place must have been a nightmare!" Ziva winced.
"Ugh, tell me about it! It was interesting... and a dead end. No pun intended. Abby and Ducky matched fibres from Gleason to a rug found in his trunk, which had drugs sewn into it. This is what he was going to bring to Mitch, as Roy owned the store that sold those rugs. Gibbs, McGee and Mitch went to talk to Roy, but Probie had to shoot Roy to save Mitch and he later died in surgery. Mitch was furious and blamed McGee for taking away our one shot of getting Long."
"Ooh, I would not have liked to have been McGee at this point…" Ziva said. She wouldn't have wanted to face Mitch's wrath.
"Haha, no I don't think any of us would switched places!" Tony laughed. "But while they went out into the field, Gibbs asked me to read through the DEA's case files."
"Wait, he benched you?!" She questioned. That was a surprise. Why would Gibbs want Tony on the side-lines? Ziva didn't like where this was going.
Tony paused, thinking through how to answer that. "Umm… sort of. I guess so. But, I did find out more about Mitch. His father was an NIS agent who had died in 1991 while he was protecting a woman who was going to testify against a Mexican drug-lord, and her eight-year old daughter."
"Shannon and Kelly." Ziva spoke softly. This was going to be a tough one. She could see why this case was so important to Gibbs and Mitch now. This was personal for them.
"Yep. I knew this was definitely going to test Rule 11 and I suggested we turn the case over to another team. I knew that Gibbs would do whatever it took to protect Mitch." Like jump in front of him or something crazy like that. Tony thought.
Ziva could see where this was going. She knew how fiercely loyal and protective Tony was. And how guilty he would have felt at the time for Gibbs being shot and almost dying. And the fact that he'd felt as if Gibbs was punishing him by making him sit on the side-lines. Tony would still have wanted to keep Gibbs safe and out of the danger that he seemed adamant to go towards too often, with no regard for his own well-being. "I'm sure he did not take too kindly to that."
He scoffed lightly at her comment. "Not really, no. Told me to keep what I'd found out to myself." Ziva raised her eyebrows. He was loyal to a fault, but Tony couldn't resist a bit of gossip. "Okay, so I may have told McGee." And… "And Bishop." Ziva rolled her eyes and smiled. That was more like it. "They made me tell!" Tony defended. Ziva raised her eyebrows, as if to say 'really?!'.
Tony cleared his throat. "Anyway, Bishop found Long's name in the old NIS file. Turns out that while Pedro Hernandez pulled the trigger, Long was the one calling the shots and running things in Pendleton back then. I knew Gibbs and Mitch must have known about that; thought they were making this a revenge mission. But Gibbs claimed that we would bring Long down with evidence. What he didn't know was that Mitch had gone to Long's house to confront him. When I told him, he took off and got to Mitch before Long arrived. Told him that the agent who had been assigned to protect his family passed it off as it was too dangerous. So, Mitch's dad had gone up to Frank's and volunteered. Said he'd want someone to do the same for his family. And Gibbs was returning the favour. But then Long arrived and boasted about what he'd done, even confessed to killing Gleason. Thought he was untouchable. So, Mitch pulled a gun on him. He knew Gibbs had shot Hernandez and wanted his own payback. But Gibbs explained that while he got his revenge, it hadn't fixed anything and it hadn't brought his family back. He managed to talk him down and we arrested Long."
She was pleased with that outcome. And she got what Gibbs was saying; she could relate to that. When she had hunted down Bodnar and he'd died, she had felt relieved at the time. But then it brought about the Parsons case. It had gotten Gibbs in a whole heap of trouble. It had temporarily cost Tony and McGee their jobs. And it had done nothing to bring back her father. In short, it had done more harm than good.
"It wasn't what I thought would happen. I'd assumed that Gibbs wanted Long dead. But I guess he changed after being shot. And not just his actions or personality, either. His whole look and wardrobe also changed." That really surprised Ziva. "Everyone talked about Gibbs' new look, from the change in shirt to the new haircut. Bishop called it "the makeover of the century". He seemed more focused."
"Were things any better with you and Gibbs after that?" Ziva asked.
Tony rubbed at the back of his neck. "I felt like we still needed to talk and clear the air, so I stopped by his place to try to talk to him again. To my surprise, he wasn't focused on what had happened in Iraq. Instead, he'd been re-evaluating his life and wondered what I was still doing working for him. Asked me if I ever wanted to be a team leader. I'd been offered the chance to have my own team in Rota before but I'd turned it down. He explained that when joined NIS, he had a reason, and while things change, the reason stays the same and never leaves. Either you have a reason or you don't."
(October 2014)
"How did you feel about that?" she asked. Ziva was a little curious: if they had not had Tali, would Tony have still left NCIS? But she didn't want to hear that he had been unhappy about being there anymore. She knew how much NCIS meant to him; to both of them, really.
Tony held his hands out together in his lap. "I guess that… I hadn't really thought about my career… where I wanted to go, in a long time. I'd spent so long loving that team with all of us and then… when you left… it threw me for a long time. It kind of gave me a wake-up call; showed me how I was living my life now. And I wasn't too pleased with what I'd become. I would go to work, come home, eat take-out, go to bed… just do the same thing day in, day out. I wasn't like Palmer, I didn't have anyone waiting for me when I got home. I guess I was starting to think about my family; my future. I only really had Senior left and I just couldn't see myself having a wife and kids anymore." Ziva looked guilty. She may have had her reasons, but that didn't make everything better. He'd had a right to know about his family.
"So, I started to think about my family history. And I remembered that Uncle Clive used to insist we were related to British royalty. I went on to see if it was true. Well… there was a small fee… but Uncle Clive was right. I'm a direct descendant of Archibald Drummond, the 17th Earl of Trent. I called my snivelling cousin Crispian to see if he knew about this. As it turned out, they knew all about him. He was a thief, a con man, he died in prison and, um… some historians think he may have been… Jack the Ripper." He revealed, muttering the last part.
Wait, what? Ziva looked half in disbelief, half in surprise. He was joking, right? Nope, he was serious. "Tony, even if that is true, that is no reflection on you. You are as opposite as you can get. And you are Tony DiNozzo, a true gentleman, a great comedian and… a loving father."
His mouth fell open a little at her comments. Wow, that was really what she thought? He was a good father? "You are amazing with Tali, a natural." she continued. Tony was seriously chocked up at her words. That meant a lot to him. Maybe now he would start to believe that he was doing a good job. At that moment, Tali chose to wake up and start fussing in the next room. Tony looked back at Ziva, thinking she would be straight in there to sort things out. "You do not need my permission to spend time with Tali. I have denied you two enough time together already." She spoke, looking down. Tony took hold of both of her hands and squeezed them gently, in thanks and reassurance. They'd lost enough time already and he wasn't going to waste anymore by arguing. He kissed her on the forehead and then left to go and see their little girl…
(November 2014) 5pm
After changing a fussy toddler, Tony brought Tali into the kitchen where Ziva was busy preparing some dinner for them all. He tried to help, but with a toddler on one arm, he ended up wearing most of it, much to Tali's delight. Ziva rolled her eyes and smirked; she'd missed how fun and easy-going he was.
As dinner was served and they settled down to eat, Tony continued his re-telling of the last year. "We got a case based in South Sudan. Two doctors who were part of the International Doctors Group were helping locals but came under attack. One doctor, Liz, called in a Mayday, which got sent to Stan Burley. Yes, Ziva, the cute guy we went to Italy with!" She smirked and blushed slightly. "They recovered her body and two others and sent them to Ducky. Bishop and I went to IDG and discovered that the other missing doctor, Dr David Woods, was married and his wife also worked for IDG."
"And…? Who was he married to?" Ziva asked, cutting up her food.
"Jeanne Benoit." He half-mumbled. This was going to be awkward.
Ziva looked back at him and raised her eyebrows, her mouth open. Did he just say…? "Jeanne Benoit, really?!"
"Why does everyone say it like that?" Tony half-exclaimed. This had become like a running joke.
"Wow… I did not see that coming." Ziva replied softly. She hated how much Tony was used and hurt during that time and how much he punished himself for hurting Jeanne. He had been used as a pawn in other people's games and he paid a price. Plus, Jeanne and Tony hadn't exactly ended things in a good place, especially after she accused him of murdering her father. Ziva just hoped that Tony hadn't been hurt again this time around.
Tony scoffed lightly. "You and me both. She'd received a 911 text from him and hadn't been able to reach him since. We confirmed that her husband was not one of the two bodies in autopsy and Jeanne identified them both, which meant that David was missing, along with Joni Ryan. Joni was Dr Taft's friend and was the surgical tech during Gibbs' surgery. Gibbs and I were going to meet Stan and find them. Not all that wise, considering Gibbs' had only had major surgery a few months before."
Ziva shook her head. Why was she not surprised that Gibbs acted blasé about that. "Sounds like Gibbs alright."
"Haha, yeah. Still as stubborn as ever. Taft certainly wasn't happy about it and tried to convince Gibbs otherwise, but Gibbs chose to ignore him." Ziva rolled her eyes. "Jeanne also insisted on coming and Gibbs agreed to this. She wanted to find her husband and argued that she was an experienced doctor who knew the people, the dialect and the region. But before we could go anywhere, Gibbs collapsed at his desk."
Ziva sat back in her chair, nearly chocking on her food. Did she just hear that right? Gibbs. GIBBS, of all people, actually collapsed?! "What happened? Was he alright?" she asked softly.
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, Vance put him on restricted duty from home. Gibbs changed after being shot. We all noticed it. He was extra quiet; went from speaking two words to one. Taft told Gibbs his tests came back normal and that this was all stress-related. His body remembered being shot and the pain was real enough to shake him. Taft didn't want Gibbs going back to work just yet and wanted him to go to therapy."
Ziva almost chocked again. Gibbs, in therapy?! He would never willing go or admit to needing that. Although, it would help him to talk to someone, even speaking to a friend. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I felt the same way too. And so did Gibbs. He insisted that the only therapy he needed was his job. Taft argued that he wasn't prepared to watch Gibbs kill himself and threw his steak out!" Tony explained.
They both laughed at that image. Ziva could imagine that Gibbs would not have been happy about someone throwing away his favourite food to eat. "I bet Gibbs did not take that too well…"
"Yeah, you can say that again! I don't think Taft was in his good books at this point." Tony chuckled.
"So, who ended up going with you?" she asked.
"Well since Gibbs was banned from going anywhere, I got the Elf-Lord instead. McGossipGirl spent most of the flight asking me when I was gonna talk to Jeanne. But what more was there to say? It was a mission, she got hurt and I was sorry that any of it had happened. But it was 8 years ago and it was more important that we found her husband." Tony said unconvincingly.
Ziva rubbed her left arm slightly. She knew that this would still be a sore subject for him. And she could understand why. Jeanne may have been hurt by all of that, but Tony had been too. "How did they meet?" she asked, trying to change the subject slightly for him.
"After we'd seen each other last, she did a fellowship before she joined Doctors Without Borders. Wanted to do something that made her feel good after everything her dad and I had put her through." Ziva opened her mouth to interject, but Tony got there quicker. "She met David there and a year later, they got married and started IDG together."
"Tony…" Ziva tried, but again Tony continued, feeling like he didn't deserve any sympathy for his actions of the far past. "I knew she would never forgive me, and she shouldn't either, but I gave her my word that I wouldn't rest until we found David."
"He sounds like a good man". Tony told her. "He's the best I've ever known". Jeanne replied.
"When we got to the Sudan, we found scorched earth and a blooded glove that Jeanne identified as one of theirs – a sign they were still alive." he continued.
"They were still of use." Ziva mused quietly. Tony nodded, "Thanks to the Gibbs gut, we found the doctors, but without back-up, we had to stage a rescue mission. We got David and Joni and in the end, Gibbs got us some back-up to help get us out alive."
"So… how did things end with you and Jeanne?" she asked gently. Ziva just hoped that they could at least have parted ways on better terms this time.
Tony took a few moments before answering that question. "I… I was happy for her. I am happy for her. She's married to a guy who treats her well and isn't lying to her. He makes her happy and she deserves to be. Before she left, she thanked me; told me she owes me, but she doesn't."
"Well… you did help to get her husband back, and I am glad that she thanked you for that. I am glad that you both had the chance to talk about things. That must have helped you, to hear those words from her." Ziva spoke.
Tony nodded slowly, looking somewhat awkwardly at the ceiling. "Well… I'll never stop feeling somewhat guilty for hurting her, but it meant that I could start to let go of some of that. Both of us could…" he trailed off, looking off into the distance.
Ziva spotted this and changed the subject before he started to shut-down too much. "And Gibbs? Was he alright?"
"Well, Gibbs went back to work against Taft's advice. Denied he'd collapsed and argued he was fine. But he zoned out for a bit. What surprised me was that after that, he went to see Taft. Double-checked his test results. Taft got him a replacement steak because his cholesterol was actually very low for someone with a "caveman diet"!" Ziva giggled, glad to hear that the two friends had made up. Gibbs needed a friend like Taft in his life. "He'd also received back more test results, which showed there was scar tissue in his chest cavity that may cause some discomfort, or ghosting. It would fade with time, as would the stress and panic, but he'd also need to talk about what he was afraid of. Course, Gibbs denied he was afraid of anything, but Taft didn't buy it."
'Everyone's afraid of something, even Gibbs.' Ziva thought.
"He asked Taft if he'd gone back to work soon after losing his son. Taft had taken a year off and talked a lot. He then got Leroy Jethro Gibbs to admit that talking might help. But he did refuse to have his head shrunk. That left one option: Taft. Poor guy wondered why he worried about the health of someone who doesn't even bother to lock his front door!"
Ziva laughed at that, which made Tali join in too. Yes, she could imagine why Taft would question himself about that. Gibbs was a very interesting person to try to understand.
(December 2014)
"Then around Christmas, Ducky got a call one morning and ran out of autopsy. Gibbs questioned Palmer at our crime scene but he had no idea where Ducky was. Gibbs got him to call Ducky again and we heard his ringtone. We found Ducky bound and tied in the back of a van. He'd been called by someone claiming to be a lawyer with information about someone called Nicholas. When they'd met, Ducky suspected he was fishing and tried to leave, but the man knocked him out."
"Who's Nicholas?" Ziva asked, feeling like she'd missed something here.
"Nicholas was Ducky's younger half-brother, on his father's side. While there was a 20-year age gap, they were very close." Tony exclaimed, waiting for Ziva's reaction.
"What?!" Ziva exclaimed. "Ducky has a brother?!"
"Yeah, I know, none of us saw that one coming! Including Gibbs! When Nicholas was 8 years old, their father divorced Nicholas' mother, but she planned to leave the country with Nicholas. Lorraine had filed for full custody, but she would reconsider for the right price. Ducky sought legal advice from his friend and decided he was going to resign his commission and raise Nicholas himself. But just as his friend offered to give him the money he needed, Lorraine changed her mind. He tried to stop her, but he was forced to watch her drive off with Nicholas.
"Wow… that's just horrible." Ziva said. Those two brothers had been torn apart from one another. That was too horrid to even contemplate. She couldn't imagine going through that with her younger sister. Ziva shivered.
"I know… no one should have to watch that or have their sibling taken away from them. But, past Ducky had a bit of luck as one of the patients he treated was a Field Marshall. Since Ducky saved his life, he got Ducky assigned to Albania, as that was where Lorraine seemed to be heading. A relative told him that Nicholas and Lorraine were killed in a car crash in Prague. The next day, he volunteered for an assignment in an Afghan refugee camp. A broken man has no place in polite society. When he heard that his brother was dead, it almost killed him."
"Poor Ducky…" Ziva spoke quietly. That was a heart-breaking event that Ducky had gone through. No wonder Ducky hadn't wanted to talk about this painful part of his past.
"Ducky told us our crime scene victim wasn't his attacker, but he'd come to Ducky's aid at the cost of his own. The guy who rented the van had been seen with Ducky's attacker, but we found the van man hanging inside a rented house. Appeared to be suicide, but the Duck man found it was staged – he'd drowned 12 hours before. We also found a letter in his suitcase addressed to Ducky's old flat in London from Nicholas." Tony continued.
"How did your dead 'van man' end up with Nicholas' letter?" Ziva asked.
"He worked at a post office and it didn't have a valid stamp. He was trying to pawn the stamp and ended up meeting this PI, who he hired to find Nicholas. He didn't count on the PI getting greedy." Tony explained. "It was definitely Nicholas who had written the letter. Ducky told us that it looked like his handwriting. And then Abby found DNA that was a familial match to Ducky and that the letter was written three weeks before. It appeared that Nicholas was still alive.
Ziva gave a look of surprise. "He was alive?!" Oh, she really hoped he was.
Tony smiled and nodded. "He was alive."
Ziva smiled widely. "That is amazing news! Did Ducky find his brother?" she asked anxiously. She knew how devastated Ducky had been after losing his mother. He deserved to have some family left in his life.
"We went digging and found plane tickets in Lorraine and Nicholas' names to Albania. We also found Lorraine's application to change her name, an application for US residency and an address where Nicholas was now: a nursing home outside Philadelphia. He had early-onset Alzheimer's, but he was healthy. One of the nurses revealed that he'd escaped, taken a bus into the city and gone to a post office a few weeks before. Ducky went to visit him and Nicholas remembered him.
'You found me, Donnie." Nicholas exclaimed. "I told you I would" Ducky replied and they hugged.
"That is beautiful..." Ziva replied, wiping a stray tear from her eyes with the back of her hand.
(January 2015) 8pm
After clearing up dinner and bathing Tali, Tony and Ziva were settling their daughter down for the evening. Tonight, it was Ziva's turn to read the 'Good Night Moon' story and Tony's turn to sing some more Sinatra to send Tali off to sleep. Now, the pair had returned to the kitchen and sat at the counter, nursing a cup of coffee and a cup of jasmine tea.
"So… I had an interesting start to the new year." Tony continued. Zia gave him a questioning, intrigued look. "Zoe and I broke up."
It sounded terrible, but Ziva was jumping up and down on the inside. She knew that she had no right to dictate Tony's love life, but she had secretly really hoped that they were not still together, as bad as that sounded. She felt so selfish for feeling that way, but he still held her heart in his hands, even if he understandably no longer felt the same way about her.
"Oh… I am sorry to hear that." Ziva replied politely. And she felt sorry for Tony about that happening. It was never easy when a relationship ended.
Tony shrugged. He knew that this felt strange to talk to her about, but he appreciated the fact that she was trying to look out for him and his feelings. "Thanks… it was only a matter of time before it happened, I guess. And before you ask, I was the one who called things off with her."
"How… how did she take that?" Ziva asked, hoping that Tony wasn't about to get hurt again by a relationship. He had been hurt enough by women, herself included.
"She wasn't overly pleased with how things were ending, but she agreed that things had fizzled out between us and that it would be best if we stopped seeing each other." Ziva breathed a silent sigh of relief that they are parted amicably.
"How… how come?" Ziva wondered what would have led him to this.
"Things just weren't right between Zoe and I anymore. I wasn't looking for something short-term anymore. I just couldn't picture settling down with Zoe. And I didn't want to string her along. It wasn't fair. So, I thought things through and my gut told me that breaking up with Zoe was the right thing to do. I'd had a lot of time to think about… things. What I wanted to do with my life, where I wanted things to go. And… I just couldn't stop thinking about… you." he finished quietly.
Ziva looked back at him in shock. What?! Did she just hear him say that? He still cared about her like that, even after what she had put him through? Her heart was racing and beating madly. It was a long-shot, but maybe, just maybe he still loved her…
Tony watched the different expressions on her face, trying to see how she felt about that. It was scary to reveal his feelings about her in front of her, but he couldn't stop himself from nervously rambling on. "When I thought about things, I knew that you were the only person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And I guess I knew that one day, I would try to get in contact and track you down. I knew that it was a long-shot. I mean, you had asked me to move on and you were trying to start afresh. But I just couldn't let you go. I knew I had to give it one more chance, and if you said no this time, then I would have done everything possible and I could live with that. But, I didn't want to live with regrets anymore…"
Tony thought back to some of the events in the bull-pen a few weeks after his break-up with Zoe. Abby sneaks from desk to desk leaving Valentine cards for her friends, while McGee and Tony watch from the upper level. McGee says that he thinks Tony wants to be alone. "We all have to live with our decisions, Tim." He had replied cryptically. Tony didn't want to be alone, but he also respected Ziva's decision. And now they both had to live with that.
"I thought about going to find you then. And I almost did on a few occasions. But… something stopped me every time. I think I was worried that you would have still stood by what you had said before. That you wanted to move on. And I was worried that… I would not be able to be with you. That you wouldn't want me to be in your life." he admitted. Wow, this was so hard to talk about.
(February 2015)
Ziva was stunned. She had no words to say. He wanted to find her again, months before all of these events, because he wanted to spend his life with her? Wow… she never imagined he would still feel that way about her. She felt her cheeks burn as they turned slightly red. Her mind was a jumble right now, she had no idea what to think or say…
Tony watched her stunned expression and saw the guilt wash over her. That wasn't what he had intended, he didn't want her to feel guilty about their time apart. He understood why she had needed to be alone for a while. But then he saw her blush slightly. Did she still have feelings towards him? Now wasn't the right time for that conversation, so he continued re-telling events that had happened over the last few months.
"And I guess I kept finding excuses with work. There was a shooting at the Naval Operations Centre. Petty Officer Finn was killed and Petty Officer Shor and one of the shooters, Fritz Beimler, were injured. McGee and Bishop went to talk with Shor, but she'd already spoken to an ATF Agent Kitt. Beimler ended up being one of Dr Taft's patients and despite Taft's best efforts, and orders from Gibbs, Beimler died in surgery. He was already a wanted man for robbery, extortion and drug smuggling and had been presumed dead in 2003 after he went to work in the Sudan and lost contact with his family. So, Gibbs wanted to speak with another doctor with experience in the Sudan, as they're not very common."
Oh no. She could see where this was going. "David and Jeanne." They really had to open those wounds again for Tony.
Tony sighed and nodded. Here we go again. "Yep. David was more than happy to contact some doctors they knew in that area. Even wanted to thank McGee and I with dinner for rescuing him! As you can imagine, Jeanne, on the other hand, wasn't happy about seeing us again. Or maybe it was just me."
Ziva shook her head at him and frowned. Jeanne was probably just frustrated about the situation, like Tony probably would have been too.
"It didn't help that she'd heard that Beimler had killed someone and stolen weapons. She wanted to know if we were really there because her father was an arms dealer. I tried to reassure her that we just needed their help because they were doctors with experience in the Sudan, but Jeanne wasn't buying it. Things only got worse when Ducky found a bullet near Beimler's spine from a previous shooting and Abby found that it was part of a stolen batch. A batch that linked back to La Grenouille. And one of his former henchman, Oskar Bruenig, left his prints on the wheel of the van used in the robbery.
Ziva winced. Again. Ugh, it just seemed that Tony wasn't going to catch a break. He'd had a rough time of it this year. And this whole thing with Jeanne being back, again (and talks of La Grenouille) wasn't making things better. Yeah, she could understand if Jeanne was dubious about the whole situation. She knew that she would have been, too. And of course, she could somewhat relate to that with the complicated relationship with her own father. But that didn't make things any easier for the team, and Tony especially.
"How… how did Jeanne take that?" she gently asked. Ziva had no idea what to say to Tony. There wasn't much to say.
"It definitely shook me a bit. I didn't see that coming. And I really didn't want to have to tell Jeanne about this, especially after I promised her this case had nothing to do with her dad. You can imagine how she reacted when she walked into the bullpen to see her father's picture on our screen. She was furious, convinced I was lying to her again. Gibbs had to explain that we'd only just made the connection and that neither her or her father were suspects. Somehow, that didn't make things much better."
Ziva thought for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "I get why Jeanne was so upset and angry with this whole situation. But not with you. It wasn't your fault, Tony. There was no way that you could have seen that coming. There was no way that anyone could have seen that coming." knew that Jeanne would have needed a release and a target, and she could see why Jeanne may have felt that Tony had lied to her. But she shouldn't have taken out her anger on Tony. He isn't that type of person, and surely deep-down Jeanne must have known that. Hopefully she realised this before things spiralled even more out of control.
Tony scratched the back of his neck. He knew that he had no way of knowing that the case would have ties to Jeanne's father, but he still couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty. He knew that it wasn't his fault, but he still felt like it sort of was. "I know… but that didn't really change anything. Jeanne was still mad either way. She identified Bruenig as her father's driver, although he'd gone by the name Pierre when she knew him. McGee found his new address, but when we got there, he'd already been shot dead. Bishop found an empty box of detonators, before we got a call to say that Taft's car had been blown up."
"Was he alright?" Ziva asked, hoping that he hadn't been in the car at the time.
"Yeah, luckily he wasn't near the car, but his wife had some minor injuries. They were more shaken than anything." Ziva breathed a sigh of relief. "Kitt tried to persuade us that the guns were on a plane to be sold in the Ukraine and that the third shooter was onboard too. Unsurprisingly, Gibbs didn't fall for it. It turned out that the ATF had put tracking chips in the guns as part of an operation, so they knew the guns and the ammo had been split up and scattered across the country. Kitt didn't know who the third shooter was but tracked his gun, which meant we caught him. Case closed."
Ziva highly doubted that. There was still one thing left for him to resolve. "That must have been hard for you. Seeing Jeanne twice within a few weeks when you hadn't seen her in years. Especially as things hadn't ended well before, all those years ago and you'd both only just arrived at a good place with one another when you had met a few weeks before."
Tony took a sharp breath in. Jeanne was a hard topic of conversation for him. And Ziva had hit the nail right on the head. It had been hard for him to face the demons of his past. It still was. "Yeah, it was tough. Felt like someone wouldn't let us move on. And it was just… awkward. Everyone was trying to get the gossip; find out what was going on. I was just so frustrated that this had happened. I wanted to turn back the clock to when we'd come back from the Sudan and make that our final meeting. We'd cleared the air and things were good between us. And to complicate things even more, David figured out there had been something between us; thought I may try to get Jeanne back."
"Were you?" Ziva asked cautiously. Ugh. She hated to ask, but she wanted to know.
"No. I mean, I loved her all those years ago, but I've moved on. We both have. And I wasn't interested in going back to that." Ziva believed him, but she sensed that there was something that he wasn't telling her. Her gut was telling her that he was keeping something to himself. And Tony knew straight away that Ziva saw this. She could read him like a book. He really didn't want to talk about this, but he feared that she wasn't going to let this go. "We… almost kissed goodbye. But we didn't. It wouldn't have achieved anything and it wouldn't have been right."
Ah. Oh… Ziva wasn't sure what to make of that. They'd almost kissed. Almost. Hmm… She wanted to kick herself. Why was she feeling like this? Why was she jealous of an almost kiss? She had no reason to feel like this. But deep down she knew why she did…
(March 2015):
Tony stood up, placed his cup in the sink and moved towards the living room. He couldn't change the subject fast enough. "I was spending more time with my dad, though. Senior had moved into town and we'd started meeting up every Tuesday for lunch.
Ziva picked up her lukewarm cup of tea and checked in on Tali before she joined Tony in the living room. She knew that he wanted to leave that topic behind. And honestly, she couldn't blame him. She wanted to change the subject too. "That is wonderful that you were spending time more with your father, Tony." Ziva loved Senior. He was so sweet and he had worked hard to repair his relationship with his son.
Tony sat back down on the couch and smiled. She was right. He was so glad to have had the chance to get to know his father better and they had grown much closer over the last few years. "Yeah, you gotta love the old man. It's been nice getting to see him more and talk. I know we've both enjoyed our Tuesday lunches. Although one of them did end with something unusual. As we were leaving one of them, this young homeless woman took Senior's arm and called him "Dad." I joked about a secret sister but Senior looked startled. He felt terrible for walking away and explained that it was possible that he could have a daughter that age."
Oh wow, Ziva thought. Secret siblings, possible daughters, this was starting to sound a bit like a soap opera! "And Gibbs actually encouraged Senior to go find her!" Tony added. Ziva couldn't believe that Gibbs would have… and then she thought about it again. 'Well… I guess it could make sense. Gibbs will always love Kelly and he wouldn't want Senior to waste time getting to know his daughter if he had one. A bit like how Gibbs had once encouraged Senior to get to know Tony better.'
Ziva sat down next to Tony on the couch as he continued. "Next morning, he showed up at my apartment with her. Susan, her name was. She couldn't remember her last name, but she could play my piano. Claimed Senior had made her take lessons. We took her to a shelter, where they told us Susan needed medical attention and took her prints to try to get her full name and medical history. Senior also had Abby run them. She was Susan Lowe, an Army Corporal. He went back to the shelter but found that Susan had slipped out after she was examined. They found that she had some form of dementia and they also wanted to test her for a brain tumour."
"Wow… I am so sorry to hear that." Ziva spoke heartfully.
Tony gave her a sad smile and nodded. "We went to her last known address and the building manager remembered her. After her mother died, Susan and her father had become estranged as he couldn't accept that she was gay. Susan just wanted to reconnect with him. We found her at a park, barely conscious. Doctors said her tumour was inoperable. She didn't have much time left. And I watched as my father stayed and talked with her at the hospital. He comforted her; made sure she was comfortable. And then… he pretended to be her father. Told her it was his fault that they'd lost touch and apologised for not accepting her for who she was. Told her he loved her."
"I was angry. My wife died. I had to raise a child by myself. And I took that out on you. And I had no right to do that." Senior explained to Susan.
"And, you know, we'd found out that Senior wasn't her father, but he that didn't stop him from wanting to find and help her. I could see how much Susan was affecting my father. He later admitted that helping Susan was also a way for him to make amends for all the times that he hadn't been there for me." Tony felt very proud of his father.
That was beautiful, Ziva thought. Senior had done a very special thing for Susan. He had given her what she had needed. And those actions and words would have meant everything to Susan. Senior had really seen over the past few years how important it was to reconcile with and get to know his son. And he had tried to help a woman who needed the same thing with her own father. Ziva was so thankful and glad that he had.
(April/May 2015) 11pm
Tony and Ziva had taken a bit of a break from their conversation to shower, change and grab another hot drink. They'd done a lot of talking and catching up over the past few days and they'd needed a bit of a break. A little touch of normality before they delved back into the past. And even though they were close to catching up to the present day, they would soon be approaching the toughest topics.
"I guess the next thing that happened was that Vance and I went to this political soiree. We were introduced to Senator Bransfield, but he looked spooked to see me. He later found me at the bar, called me a bunch of interesting names and said we weren't meant to meet until that evening. He shoved an envelope with $20,000 in cash at me before leaving. Next day, Gibbs told us that an NCIS agent had been killed in a car crash. Me. Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo."
'Oh no, not again', Ziva thought. What was it with the boys and identity theft? First Renny Grant pretended to be Tony and threw a body bag down a trash chute, then McGee's landlady's kid used his credit card number and spent a lot of money to try and liven up McGee's life, now Tony had someone using his identity to blackmail a Senator? Those boys really needed to tighten up their security.
Tony laughed at her expression. "I know, I was getting déjà vu! I'd already been impersonated once before! Gibbs certainly wasn't happy that I hadn't mentioned anything about Bransfield handing me a load of cash. But I'd wanted to find some answers myself. Wasn't expecting identity theft, that's for sure!" Ziva scoffed and shook her head. Same old Tony!
"As you may have guessed, it wasn't me in the crash. Victim was Scott Byers. Guy had links to a forgery ring and had my badge and ID. McGee thought Byers stole my identity, used my credit cards and tried to extort money from Bransfield, who agreed to meet us. He tried to hand me more cash before Gibbs explained things to him. It turned out that photos of his affair were sent to him by "Special Agent DiNozzo", with a note threatening to release them to the press. Senator's Kelly and Matheson had received similar emails. Byers had blackmailed Kelly, so that meant there were two more "phony Tony's".
Ziva didn't believe this. Only Tony could have his identity stolen by three people in one go. He just couldn't seem to catch a break.
"I devised a rather ingenious plan: Gibbs and McGee pretended to be the Senators and when the perps went to meet them to collect the cash, we caught them. They were struggling actors who needed money and were hired by this woman. They'd collect the cash and leave it in a locker at a bus station and Abby caught her on surveillance picking up the cash. It was a shock as I knew her. She'd told me her name was Leah Ramsey, but there was no one with that name in the country matching her description."
"Who was she? How did you know her?" Ziva had a funny feeling about what Tony's answer would be. He really did date some interesting women!
"A few weeks before, I'd dated her." Ziva smiled and shook her head. "She came back to my apartment after a meal on our second and last date. Gibbs was angry that I didn't know more about her and when he heard we'd met at a bar, he said I'd been an easy target. We got her prints off a bottle of chardonnay at my apartment. Real name was Elizabeth Elliott. She'd been arrested twice for writing bad checks and embezzlement and had two warrants out for her arrest. I headed out to bring her in, but ended up being pulled over by cops. My rental had been flagged as the card used to rent it was stolen. I tried to explain that I was the victim but they arrested me instead.
"Wait… you got arrested for impersonating yourself?!" Ziva exclaimed. "Well that is a new one. It certainly takes the cookie!"
Tony laughed. He loved it when she messed up an idiom, he found it sweet. "Biscuit, takes the biscuit! And yes, it most definitely did. McGee got me out, but I'd hit a real low by this point. I'd had my identity stolen, again, by three different people, two of whom had then proceeded to inform me that I was boring. All cos I had no wife, no kids, I'd had the same apartment for years. I was pretending to have a pet to impress women. I felt like I was losing my edge. That I was a loser."
This was so painful. It was a topic that had come up a few times and Ziva just felt guiltier each time that it did. Tony could have had a very different life over the last 2/3 years. And she'd denied him the chance of being with Tali earlier. It was something that she would always live with and regret, but she could try to show Tony that this was not his fault and that he was (and still is) a very good man. "Tony, you are certainly not boring and you are by no means a loser. You spent your time saving people's lives and making those around you smile. And those people around you appreciate all you do for them. Everyone has bad days, but they do not reflect you as a person. You are a very good, very loved man and you do not need to hide yourself away to be loved by others."
Ziva had spent her whole speech holding Tony's hands, making sure he was looking at her, showing him just how true her words were. And her words were very powerful and meaningful to Tony. He'd longed to hear her speak like that to him. He could feel his cheeks were damp. It meant the world. "Thank you." he whispered meaningfully. And he truly meant it. He had to clear his throat before he could carry on. "Abby called me out on that too. Told me I didn't have to hide behind made-up lies to impress women; I was a keeper. And McGee tried to tell me I was on the way to reclaiming my famous DiNozzo edge."
Ziva smiled, loving that McAbby had been there to support Tony. "I am glad that they both had your back. Abby is right. And I am glad that she told you so." 'Because you are a keeper.' she thought. And she shouldn't have let him go.
"The McAbby pep talks helped me get back on track and focus. We found Leah and solved the case. Leah said that Kelly had run Byers off the road and killed him. Byers had called her to say that Kelly was following him before the phone went dead. There was white paint on the side of Byers' car from where a second car had made contact. Kelly drove a white Mercedes, but his car had recently been repaired. Turns out his aide was driving his car when she hit Byers. She'd worked with Leah before, so they decided to blackmail and frame Kelly for the murder."
Ah, so his ex-girlfriend was in on this. She should have known. All of them had shown poor taste in partners over the years. McGee, Ducky, Tony, Abby, and most definitely herself.
Tony shifted on the couch, folding his feet up onto the seat. He really wasn't looking forward to going down this road. Talking about the case that wreaked havoc and led them to where they were now. This was going to be tough.
"And then we caught the case to end all cases. Or in this case, to end my career. A funeral home owner had been unloading an international shipment of caskets and found that someone had been living in the container. One of the caskets also had a body that shouldn't have been there. Victim was Sandra Billingsley, an English prison guard. She'd been taken hostage three weeks before by two prisoners: Cassio Chavez… and Jacob Scott."
Ziva flinched. Yep, she knew that name alright. And she too was dreading this conversation. It made her want to run from the room. But, no doubt Tony was feeling exactly the same way. And if they wanted to move on and clear the air between them, then they had to have this conversation.
"As you probably know, Scott was a former MI6 officer, doing time for espionage for selling American nuclear intelligence to Russia. NCIS put Scott in prison when Morrow was director, so we took the case with the FBI assisting. Scott had no family or friends and his last visitor was Miranda Okafor five years ago. She then left England for America and owned a laser tag business, where we found her and the janitor dead. I found a secret room with the safe emptied and weapons missing. Okafor was a former MI6 agent who'd trained Scott."
"So, you thought that Scott was tying up loose ends." Ziva said. She would have thought the same thing.
"Exactly. The other escaped prisoner was Chavez, whose father worked at the same port where the prisoners had boarded the ship. He'd helped them escape. The container had been packed in advance and had magazines with Billingsley's address on them. That made her an accomplice." Tony explained.
"Why was she helping two prisoners escape?" Ziva asked. She had been wondering who had been on the inside helping Scott escape and what their reasons were for doing so.
Tony folded his left leg over his right, tapping his foot quietly against the coffee table. "We found out that Chavez and Billingsley were in love and planned to have a baby. He admitted to killing Okafor and the janitor to get more money, but told us that Scott wanted revenge against NCIS for killing his wife. However, our video chat got cut short by a security alert from an NCIS data centre in Anacostia. It was triggered using a duress password by Vance before his creds were used to access a private room."
"How did Scott get to Vance?" Ziva asked. She didn't have to ask if it was Scott. She knew. She just didn't know how.
"Scott got in the back of his car as he was waiting for his morning donut. He had a cell phone jammer to stop Vance pressing the panic button in his car and pulled a gun on him. Scott ordered Vance to drive to the data centre and accessed one file. The file that named the six NCIS agents who had been involved in Juniper Strike, an NCIS/MI6 operation in Istanbul in 2002, to take out Scott's Russian buyer, Nika Razin. She was Scott's wife and he planned to take out everyone involved, starting with Morrow who'd ordered it. Gibbs and Fornell found Morrow dead at his house with a gunshot wound to his head."
Tony watched Ziva to see what her reaction would be. Ziva bowed her head, looking at her hands folding in her lap. She was sitting with her legs crossed underneath her on the couch. "I know. About Morrow, I mean." He knew from that that Orli would have told her. He'd sort of expected that too.
"Gibbs sent me to England to work with MI6 and find Scott. The head of MI6, Jessica Terdei, had redacted the names of the MI6 agents involved in that operation. That meant more people were in danger. She'd gone under the radar but I'd found a possible location and left this with an MI6 contact. Vance and Fornell travelled to London and got this information from my contact. They found Terdei, who told them that the FBI had used one of Scott's phones to get Razin out of the embassy in Istanbul and someone had leaked this to whoever killed her. Terdei had cleared all her operatives, so the mole must have been in NCIS. Then someone fired at them. Vance thought Scott had followed them, which proved there was a mole as only a small number of people knew where Vance and Fornell were. They returned to DC and Fornell and Terdei waited for Gibbs at his house, but they were shot by an unknown assailant."
"Was Fornell alright?" Ziva hadn't heard that he'd been shot. She didn't know how he was or if he'd survived. Fornell was a very good person and she hoped that he was okay. He didn't deserve to be caught up in the middle of all of this.
"They took him to hospital. He didn't look good." Ziva felt her heart leap into her mouth. Oh my God. No… Fornell had to be okay. He just had to be. He couldn't… And Emily couldn't lose her father, especially so soon after losing her mother.
Tony watched Ziva's reaction and he saw how strong her reaction was. He quickly tried to reassure her and took her hand in his. "It's okay, Ziva, he survived. Fornell's alive." Ziva let out the breath that she'd been holding in and put her head in her hands, still keeping hold of Tony's. Thank God for that. Tony moved his thumb over the back of her hand, his way of apologising. "Gibbs was mad at me for not catching Scott, but we hadn't been able to pin him down. We didn't know how Scott got back into the country, but we found his fingerprint on a window at Gibbs' house. Gibbs planned to find him and kill him."
Ziva swallowed. Yeah, you definitely wouldn't mess with people who were important to Gibbs. He would make sure that you paid for it. He was a very scary papa bear when he wanted and needed to be.
"FBI Special Agent Tess Monroe had been working with Fornell, so she ran point with Gibbs from then. FBI put the remaining potential targets into protective custody but couldn't find two partners who'd worked for NCIS. They'd flown under the radar but we found the ex-wife of one of them. Told us her husband, Dresser, disappeared after their son was killed, but he would leave a gift on her porch on their wedding anniversary every year. Their anniversary was the previous week and his prints were on the pot. We got an address for Dresser but heard gunshots before we went in. Dresser was dead and two guys were fighting. One was Clayton Reeves, an MI6 agent I'd met in London. The other… was Trent Kort."
Tony shivered after forcing himself to say that name. The name of the scumbag who'd tried and almost succeeded in taking his family from him. The slimy weasel who thought that Tony would sit idly by and let him go after the people that he loved. Yeah right, he had another thing coming. That would be the last thing he ever did.
Ziva also shivered. She hated the very thought of that… monster. The monster who had nearly taken Tali's life; who had hunted her down; had killed innocent people; had hurt the man she loved. That name alone was sending her into panic mode. She didn't think that she wanted to hear about more of the unspeakable things that he had done. But they had to discuss everything…
"Reeves had received a tip on Scott. He'd entered the house and was checking Dresser's pulse when Kort attacked him. Reeves didn't know Kort but managed to knock him to the ground." They both smirked a bit at that. "Kort acted surprised to hear that Scott was out of prison." Tony said mockingly. "He'd thought that Reeves had killed his friend. They'd worked together on Juniper Strike and Dresser had called him as he thought someone was following him. I didn't believe him from the start." He would never believe a word that he said. The person who tried to kill him all those years ago and then go after his family.
"Dresser had his old partner Kane's address and we found an unusual deposit in Kane's account, which he claimed he'd won at the race-track. We suspected he'd warned the Russians about Razin's arrest as he'd called an untraceable number before the op to grab her. He didn't know where Scott was, but knew he had a safe house in an old motel, which was now a spa. The manager had found her office door open and we caught Scott on her security feed hiding something in the wall. He told us to stop following him or more people would get hurt. Scott also used the Internet to search for someone - Ziva David."
Ah, so that was how Scott had found out more about her, Ziva thought. She'd heard some of the facts from Orli, but had a feeling that she had left some things out.
"Ducky made a psych profile of Scott, showing that he was either a sociopath or he'd may have run out of targets, but he still needed revenge. It meant anyone from NCIS could be a target, especially former agents. We then discovered that Scott had called someone to borrow their jet to go to Tel Aviv, which meant he was after you. It was scary to think that Scott was after you. That you were in danger. We tried to call and email you, but you didn't respond and your cell was disconnected. Nobody knew where you were." Tony shivered, reliving his fear.
"After I'd smashed my phone, Orli would give me a burn phone to use. She would give me a new one every so often. It felt a bit paranoid, but she wanted to be certain that no one was tracking my electronic trail. But she kept my old number on one of her phones, in-case you ever tried to contact me." Ziva explained. "She never said that you were trying to reach me…" Ziva wondered.
Tony thought carefully. "Maybe Orli didn't want to complicate things… oh, and you'd left the country by this point." he realised. Oh, Ziva thought. That must mean that they were getting close to discussing the explosion and its aftermath. Something they were both dreading.
"I called Kort as we wanted the CIA case files on that op. He strolled in an hour later and teased me because I was worried about you. He got shoved pretty hard and far across the room for that! Smug pig." Tony muttered. Ziva blushed and smirked. She would have paid good money to have seen that!
"He told us he'd ask around to see if anyone had heard from you." Sure he would, they both thought! "Meanwhile, we tried to track down Scott, but he showed up at the Navy yard to surrender. Gibbs interrogated him and Scott claimed he was being framed for the murders and was set up for espionage. He'd gone to his old safe house to get some money and had found a note from his wife, saying that Eli had private files that could prove his innocence. That's why he was looking for you. Scott turned himself in as he knew Gibbs always got the truth and wanted help to prove his innocence. Gibbs believed him and we started to think where Eli's private files would be. Monroe had heard Eli had a farmhouse where you might be staying."
Ziva shifted back and frowned. "Wait, isn't Monroe FBI? How did they find out about the farmhouse?" The only people that knew where she was were Tony, Nettie and Orli. And Kort, unfortunately.
Tony shifted his body to face her, matching her confused expression. She'd raised a very interesting point. "Yeah… it is a bit suspicious. That the FBI knew where you were; that Kort knew; that the CIA probably knew. It makes me wonder how they knew." This was supposed to be something that only a handful of people knew, so how had it spread to become more well-known information?
"I do not know…" Ziva trailed off. This was definitely something that they would need to sit down and discuss in more detail. But not today.
"Well… Scott assumed that you could lead him to the files, so he had planned to go to Israel to find you. We also found that his blood didn't match the blood on Dresser's clothes. He didn't kill him. And Scott's fingerprints at the other crime scenes were too perfect: someone had used his file to make a fake print. It won't shock you to hear that Kort was behind it all. He had been fired from the CIA, killed Dresser, paid Kane to tell him what NCIS was doing and sold secrets to the Russians. Scott and Razin were set up to take the fall but Kane didn't know that Kort was going to kill her. We let Scott go and found Kort's phone at the zoo, but not Kort. McGee was about to call Interpol and the Israeli Embassy but he saw a breaking news headline. We all froze when the news showed that an Israeli farmhouse that had been owned by Eli David had been bombed in a terrorist attack. And it was the farmhouse where you'd been staying…"
Ziva could feel that her heart was racing. She was completely dreading the next part of this conversation. Having to deal with the aftermath of the explosion. This was going to be really tough for both of them to talk about. The hardest part of their catch-up conversation was now approaching…
A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter. I know that it's been so long since I updated this story, but thank you continuing to read this, it really means the world to me :) You are all super, amazing, beautiful people and thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you have a really great day and I hope to talk with you soon! :)