Warnings: There is a major character death in this chapter.

A/N I was doing some research on the rise of domestic violence reporting in male survivors and found that even in 2015 there are people in health services and law enforcement who deny that men can be victims of violence or abuse by current partners or dates. For example, Australian stats between 2010- 12 show 30 percent of victims are male. 75 deaths occurred in that period and for violence by partners against men only a small proportion of violence was by males against male - the vast majority of violent acts and abuse were committed by females and that less than half as likely to have told anyone about it happening. That isn't reporting it - that is confiding in someone and when they do reach out for help, the services aren't available to men. One male who contacted a help line for assistance was told to admit he was the perpetrator so his partner could receive help and he could get therapy. Gee I wonder why they don't tell anyone!

It seems to me that instead of stamping out domestic violence and abuse for everyone, regardless of their gender, we are merely succeeding in women feeling empowered to become more violent, in the name of equality. And we are celebrating violent angry women who don't have coping skills, adopting them as role models - we call them kick-ass, assertive, strong, BAMF. We confuse anger with strength and confidence and isn't that sad.

Thanks to Arress for the beta and Frakkin Toasters for her feedback. Thanks to everyone who left reviews, read or are following.

Chapter 4

When Tony realised that in order to protect his children from their mother's madness, from her violent abuse, from her crazy obsession to create her son in her father's image, he'd have to fake their deaths and disappear and he knew he couldn't do it without expert help. At first, he was tempted to reach out to his old team, but they had loyalties to Ziva and, if she contacted them and they made her even slightly suspicious, it would give the game away. No, he corrected himself mentally, this wasn't a game; it was a matter of life and death. He couldn't afford to run the risk of trusting any of them – they had to believe that he and the children were dead, too. As hard as that was, if it was a choice between keeping the children safe and hurting his friends in DC, it really was no choice.

Tony briefly thought about asking Tobias Fornell to help him since the FBI agent was no particular fan of the David clan, but he ultimately discounted him since he wasn't sure if he might tip Gibbs off. Tony had heard via Abby that he and Diane had gotten back together again, only for her to be killed by some lunatic trying to get back at Gibbs. So, he wasn't sure how close he was to Gibbs these days, but Tony couldn't run the risk.

In the end, after a lot of angst, he decided to approach Tom Morrow. He needed someone stateside to access the trust fund he'd created from a good portion of the money his mother left him in a secret account, with which he'd created as a trust fund for the children he hoped to have with Wendy all those years ago. It had been invested for over 15 years and had grown into a considerable sum, and he was going to need to access it to pull this off.

He also needed someone to help him set up false identities for himself and his kids and Tom Morrow was one of the few people he still trusted. He'd never abused his position as the NCIS director for his personal gain or agenda. Even after he left to take up the deputy directorship of Homeland Security he'd still been looking out for his old agency because he had integrity. He'd tried to make Leon back off. Tried to stop Ziva going after Bodnar even if he hadn't ultimately been unsuccessful. Maybe he should have followed Morrow to OHS years ago – he certainly wouldn't be in this mess if he had.

Realizing that he also needed to find people in Israel to help him arrange their 'deaths', he knew that this was a critical decision. Over time, certain people had approached him, concerned about his welfare when they started to suspect that Ziva was hurting him and, of course, he was so into denial about what was going on that he covered up for her with the typical I walked into a door shit. He thought about the people who pleaded with him to leave her before she killed him - Liat Tuvia when she'd dragged him off to the emergency department to get his fractured arm reduced, Malachi Ben-Gidon when she'd sliced him in an argument, and the Mossad operative who was on protection duty for the associate director, who'd efficiently sutured him up so he didn't have to leave his daughters to go to the ER yet again.

They weren't the only ones; Nettie had been on his case for a long time now. He'd assumed that Ziva's Aunt Nettie would be a wizened, eighty-year-old yenta, but it turned out that this was far from the truth. She wasn't even a real relative; she was actually a family friend. Originally a friend of Rivka David, Ziva's mother, and she was no fan of Eli and what he'd done to his children. Nettie was in her late sixties, English by birth, but she'd married an Israeli soldier who was one of Rivka's former beaux. He'd been tragically killed by a suicide bomber back in 2001. Even though she'd been a second mother to Tali and Ziva - especially after her mother died, Nettie had taken Tony, and later Aviva and Sarah, into her heart and home too.

Nettie had tried hard to talk him into leaving Israel from quite early on in their relationship, but Tony had been too intend upon saving Ziva from herself at the time. He kept telling himself that it wasn't that bad, that things would improve when, in fact, the situation continued to deteriorate. The truth was he felt like it was his fault - that he'd gotten what he deserved for marrying her when he wasn't truly in love with her, so he felt he owed it to her not to cut and run when she was clearly in trouble. Tony was pretty sure that Nettie would help him to get their children out of the country and keep their secret because he'd overheard her talking, and no one ever twigged that he'd learnt to speak Hebrew soon after moving there.

He wasn't sure why, because he already spoke Italian and Spanish, it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise that he could pick up languages relatively easily, but he guessed most of them thought of him as the agent meatball persona that Ziva had profiled him as. Still, he'd never bother to reveal that he understood conversations that were carried on in Hebrew, ostensibly to shut him out of the discussion, since when he'd suggested that he learn it early on when they first got together, Ziva had been violently opposed to the idea. Now he was glad he'd kept it to himself, as well as the fact that he was fluent in French.

With a mother who was English and from a blue-blood 'old money' family, she had spoken French almost like a native, spending summers on the French Riviera at the family chateau. So, he grew up speaking it as a child, even if after her death Tony never spoke it again until he went backpacking to Europe when he was at college, and he had been surprised at how easily he'd picked it up again as he travelled through France and Belgium and that his accent was so good. It was almost flawless but with a trace of English – not surprising since his mother had an English accent.

So, no one knew that he could speak the language, with the possible exception of his father and the people he worked with back in Peoria. He'd learnt though that speaking three languages ended up with him being used as a translator more times than a cop so he tended to keep the fact that he spoke Italian and French under his hat when he changed jobs and only copped to speaking Spanish since it was a useful language for law enforcement professionals to speak. Besides it never fit with his just a dumb jock image to admit he was fluent in three other languages. Although in his undercover gig with the mafia it had become obvious that he spoke Italian but speaking French had never come to light. He was sure that Ziva never knew, despite her profile or that they posed a French speaking assassins not long after she joined the team. Since she spoke French there was no need to let the cat out of the bag, fortunately.

So apart from his father, who was always drunk when Tony was growing up and he really doubted that Senior would even recall he could speak French as a child, he very much doubted that anyone from his Peoria days would remember which languages he spoke. Tony figured that when they disappeared, he would take the children to France or better yet to French speaking Quebec to start over with new identities. Less chance of running into anyone he knew in Montreal and to be on the safe side he would be half English, moving to France with his family when he was ten years old to explain why he spoke French with a slight English accent.

If Nettie agreed to help him to get the children away, he figured that she would know who to approach to help him fake their deaths and then get them out of the country. Since her husband, Yaakov, had been a high ranking Brigadier General in the Israeli Defense Forces, she had military connections. Tony was wary of involving anyone from Mossad, even if Liat and Malachi seemed to be on his side, but hopefully Nettie had the contacts that could help fake their deaths and help them get out of the country untraced.

12th April 2018

Eight months after he decided that he needed to take their children and disappear, Tony knew the time had come. Ziva's descent into madness continued its inexorable path, and he knew that it was time. If they delayed any longer, she would either kill him or he'd be forced to do what he didn't want to - kill his children's mother in self -defense, because he knew that it would be the only way to stop her. In the six months since Eli Jacob DiNozzo had been born, she was becoming increasingly violent and unpredictable. He'd had numerous fractured ribs, had punctured a lung, and had suffered several serious concussions. But today when he stopped her spanking Vivy for spilling her cup of juice on her dress, she'd held a knife to his throat. Tony was under no illusion that he was going to die when Eli had woken from his nap and started crying.

Ziva was totally besotted with her son; she'd breastfed him, unlike Sarah, who she'd refused to feed. In fact, she still hadn't bonded with their second child even after Eli's birth. It was as if Rory didn't exist to her, while Vivy was acknowledged, albeit cursorily, and Eli had become the focus of all her love - the apple of her eye. Tony knew that if he wasn't successful at leaving with their three children, in her madness, she would destroy all three. Tony had accepted that he wasn't able to save Ziva from her demons, she would have to save herself but he could save her children. He could make sure the cycle of madness didn't carry over into the next generation.

He contacted Nettie on a burn phone using a code phrase that they'd worked out previously – 'Abandon Ship' - to tell her that he and the children had to move immediately. Even if they all preferred to have more time to plan everything out, their time to plan had come to an end.

18th April 2018 DC

Abby Sciuto ran into the bullpen, her face streaked with black tears, throwing herself into Gibbs' arms as she sobbed hysterically.

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs. Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod. There was a car bombing in Tel Aviv. It was an American male and three children and they were all killed immediately." She sobbed inconsolably. "Promise me it wasn't Tony and my nieces and nephew, Gibbs. Tell me it wasn't them!"

Gibbs calmed her as best as he could, knowing that their best bet was to call Tony and Ziva's cells and for Leon to make enquiries through official channels to Orli Elbaz. He was sure that DiNozzo wasn't the only American living in Israel with three kids, but on the other hand, as the spouse of an associate director of Mossad, Tony and their kids would be prime targets for terrorists.

20th April 2018

Abby entered Autopsy, sniffling pathetically. She desperately needed to talk to Ducky about what she'd discovered. As she entered Ducky's realm, she staggered under the grief-laden atmosphere that was evident in this coldly impersonal place where Ducky and Jimmy presided and the dead told their final tales.

The whole agency was in mourning since they'd received confirmation that one of their own, former Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, and his three children, Aviva Clare age three, Sarah Aurora almost two years old, and little six-month-old Eli Jacob, had died in a terrorist car bombing on their way to the park to play. There was a pall over the building, but nowhere was it more apparent than in Dr. Donald Mallard's domain, where he and Jimmy Palmer were engulfed in deep sadness and guilt. Both had been the most vocal in encouraging Tony to leave the MCRT and seize the chance for happiness instead of returning to the fold, and now they were feeling guilty for urging him to move to Israel.

Ducky had done so because after his brush with death he'd begun to examine his life and found his chief regret was not having a family, even if Jimmy had become like a son to him over the years. Jimmy had advised Tony to stay in Israel with Ziva because he was so happy after marrying Breena and they had been desperate to start a family and felt like everyone should experience his level of bliss. Now he felt guilty because if they hadn't exhorted him to move halfway across the world and take a chance, he would still be alive.

"Ducky, I need you to look at these medical records. I think they've made a mistake. I don't think it was Tony in that car," Abby burst out excitedly.

Looking at her sadly, he hugged her gently and pushed her down into a chair.

"Sit, my dear child," he spoke soothingly, pushing his own grief aside as he stared at Abby. She was a mess. The Goth had refused to sleep, stubbornly refused to believe that it had been Anthony in the car with his three precious babies. Insisting it was a mistake, just like when his Mustang was blown up when he was undercover with La Grenouille - that he would call and say it was just a terrible mistake.

"But Ducky, I hacked into the records of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute to make sure that they had Tony's medical records to work off, and I found that they've mixed his up with someone else's. I cross checked them with the one on file here at NCIS and there are all these admissions and visits to the ER for broken bones, concussions, and knife wounds - well, this can't be his. Tony was working as a musician and soccer coach until Ziva went back to working at Mossad and he became a stay-at-home dad when Aviva was born. This has to be someone else's medical records, Ducky, because there's no way he could've been injured so many times or so seriously. You have to contact them and tell them they've made a mistake. I have to talk to Ziva, but she won't take my calls."

Ducky looked at Abby, her eyes were wild, her face was pale, but not from make-up. She was barely coherent, and he was grateful that Ziva hadn't taken her call. He doubted that the devastated woman would want to deal with their panic-stricken forensic scientist at the moment. He nodded to his assistant and Jimmy made Abby a cup of tea, laced with a sedative since she needed to sleep and, once she was stretched out in his office, he turned his attention to the medical file that Abby had 'obtained' from Israel, Jimmy reading over his shoulder in disgust.

He looked at his protégé, sickened by what they read. They both knew this was Tony's file, but they were horrified at all the hospital admissions since his arrival in Israel. There was a splenectomy performed after he was stabbed by a knife as well as a fractured skull, a fractured zygomatic arch, along with the many other injuries, all of which Tony had explained away to the attending doctor by him walking into doors and walls and falling down stairs. Ducky knew that he was looking at the medical records of someone who was exposed to sustained domestic violence, and he was shocked. Jimmy was appalled and found it hard to believe it of Ziva, and yet medical records, x-rays, and photographs didn't lie. Tony had lived through hell for the last few years of his life.

"Why didn't he come to us, Dr Mallard? Why would she do this?"

5th February 2019

Leroy Jethro Gibbs arrived home, having closed the case of a petty officer who'd been convinced his wife was cheating on him and had killed her with a sledge hammer before committing 'suicide by cop' when the MCRT caught up with him. Their investigation had revealed that the wife had endured three years of domestic abuse, including a beating while pregnant that lead to a miscarriage before she had finally decided to leave him.

As far as they could determine, the wife wasn't having an affair, but had approached an underground women's collective to help her leave her husband. Gibbs had encountered a few of these groups that were organised like a resistance movement during the Second World War where escaped prisoners or those at risk were passed along a chain. It worked on the basis of no one knowing more than one of the links in the chain so that no one knew where the survivors finally ended up. Unfortunately, the petty officer's wife never made it that far.

Domestic violence cases like this one were always hard on the team, somehow it always seemed much worse when it was service personnel or LEOs that beat up their partners. Partly because they were held to a higher standard of conduct than the regular members of the public and partly because they had weapons training and instruction in unarmed combat, so they were highly dangerous and possessed potentially lethal skills. All of which had been obtained on the taxpayers' dime.

So, Gibbs was exhausted and he immediately put on a pot of coffee upon entering his house, noticing that the light was flashing on his landline phone indicating he had a message awaiting him. Pouring himself a cup of coffee, he walked over and hit play before sinking down on the couch to listen to the message.

"Gibbs." Ziva's voice was strained. "I just wanted to tell you that the voices won't stop whispering to me. The dead won't stay dead. Ari, my father, all of the others. They won't let me find peace, but I know what I have to do to get them out of my back..."

'Off your back,' he mentally corrected the woman who was like a daughter to him.

"…I cannot make amends until I avenge Ari's death. Why did you not stop me when I went after Bodnar, Gibbs? You and Vance should have stopped me since you knew I killed my brother. How could I avenge Aba and not avenge my own brother? They will not stop tormenting me. How could you not know that this would destroy me? Tony was the only one who tried to stop me and he did not even know that I had killed my brother, yet he knew that killing Bodnar would not make me feel better. And instead of thanking him for trying to save me from myself, I used him as a punching bag, came close to killing him so many times when my rage erupted. I knew he would not leave and I used his weakness against him.

"Just like Vance used my weakness against me and did not care what it would do to me so long as Jackie was avenged. But why did you not stop me? You more than anyone else had to know that it did not solve anything or you would not still be trapped in your own guilt, grief, and anger 25 years later. You were the closest thing I had to a real father, Gibbs. Why were you not there when I needed you to say no to me?"

The incoherent ranting ended as he heard sobs before she whispered, "Goodbye, Father. I am sorry, Ari… forgive me. Wait, I am coming, Tali."

He heard a gunshot, a crash, and then absolute silence.

Ziva David's final descent into madness was complete!