Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me for the ride. There's only 3 more chapters left after this. Crazy, considering how far we've come since 2013 and the cote depocalypse. I had planned on it being about 50 chapters then, but looks like we're going to make it to 60.
I think this is by far, this and the next one are my favorite chapters.
-x-
Tony slinked down against the cold tile of the grungy restroom floor, the blood still rushing out of the cuts on his fist. He knew he would need some form of medical attention, but doubted anyone would try to help him, especially if they knew the background history of what he had done to his wife and kids. The glass shards that were stuck in his cuts poked at his skin, a piercing pain ripping through his arm from the injury. He grunted, wondering if he should get up or not when he heard the music start from the reception.
No, he didn't need to see Ziva and his kids dance with another man. He didn't need to see that ever.
So, he stayed there, sulking in shitty existence and wondering when it would ever end. Perhaps it would have been better for everyone if he really was killed in 2013 and Ziva had moved on without him. But then there would be no Ty and Isabella, no marriage, no family…. nothing.
Yet, here he was.
With nothing.
-x-
"Gibbs," The silver fox answered his phone, a stern expression on his face. He listened closely, nodding his head as if the person on the other end could see him. "Yeah, yeah. I got it," He answered, a muffled voice echoing on the line. "Sure, I'm with two agents who will be available to stop by in the morning. Yeah, they can interview suspects. Bye." He hung up the phone, tucking it away in his trouser pockets and returned to the reception.
-x-
Ziva was on the dance floor with the rest of her team, Isabella on her hip and Ty on the ground beside her, holding her hand tightly. She moved her hip to the beat, spinning Ty around, teaching her children how to dance to the music. Isabella giggled, her mother swaying her around, Ty following them around in the flashing, colored lights of the ballroom. To their left, McGee dipped Delilah down, the guest cheering at his action. Ziva smiled, pulling Ty close to her, hugging him and Isabella tightly. Mark was still sitting at the reception table with Lisa and Ducky. No threat or dangerous situation could ever make Ziva go sit at the table, not even a figure of money.
Gibbs scooted behind her in that moment, his palm resting of the small on her back as he whispered in her ear. She nodded in response to his words, biting her lip and continued to listen closely. He pulled away, patting her on the back in a fatherly way, the comfort she always sought to find from him over the years. As soon as he walked away, she let go of the breath that she didn't know she was holding in.
McGee scooped up Isabella from Ziva's arms, holding her arms out as if he was going to waltz with her and carried her around the dance floor. Isabella giggled, snorting when Uncle McGee spun her around quickly in his arms. He decided he would take over the role that her father should've taken that night, despite all the negativity in the room. Ziva matched his motions, grabbing Ty's hands and leading him around the dance floor. She wriggled his arms, shaking her body in the same fashion as he was, laughing for the first time in a while. Ty started to shake his butt, something that Ziva knew he had picked up from his father and she couldn't help, but keep laughing. McGee and Isabella joined in the laughter, Isabella commenting that her brother was "shaking his booty."
It wouldn't be too bad of a night after all.
-x-
The pounding of the door woke Tony up from the coma state he felt that he was in. He took a shit ton of Aspirin when he got back to his room, finally getting off the ground of the men's restroom. A bottle of whiskey helped the few Aspirin go down relatively easy and he could barely remember when he fell asleep.
"Who the hell could that be?" Lisa groaned, hiding her head under the pillow after looking at the clock. "It's 6am!"
Tony jumped in response, "Why are you here?" He bit back, shaking his head and slowly sitting up from the bed.
"Uh, because you reserved this hotel room for the both of us. Is this how you're always going to act when she's around?" Lisa asked, watching him rise from the bed and slowly walk towards the door.
"Jesus Christ, my hand-"Tony yelped, the blood rushing to his hand where his injury had grown over night. He swung open the door, wincing at the pain. "For fucks sake, is it ten years ago?"
Gibbs pushed the door open wider, "Throw some clothes on. You have to go investigate for me. There's a ship stuck ten miles from the port here, some questioning folks on board." He had two cups of coffee in his hand, waiting for the younger man.
"Do I have to remind you that I don't work for you anymore?" Tony remarked, receiving a dirty glare from Gibbs and sighed. He turned around, walking back into the hotel room and grabbing a long sleeve, white shirt from his suitcase. He buttoned it half way, pulling a pair of khaki shorts from the ground. "This will have to do," he said as he put on some socks and shoes before walking out the door and slamming it shut.
"Bye?" Lisa questioned, falling back into bed.
-x-
"Who's coming? You, me and McGee?" Tony asked, in the passenger seat, gulping the hot coffee.
"I'm not going to ruin McGee's wedding with him and Delilah investigating a potential scene." Gibbs answered, turning left down a highway close to the ocean.
"Oh, so just you and me. Cool, boss, it'll be like the old days." Tony nodded, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the side panel of the passenger door to the music.
"Not going to be me either, DiNozzo. I'm on vacation." The elder man smiled, pulling into a parking spot where the marina was.
"Then who's-" Tony started as he got out of the car, confused, but stopped when he saw the car door next to him opening.
"Really? A coffee stop? I have been waiting here for fifteen minutes!" Her accent was thicker than he had remembered hearing on this trip, his heart skipped a beat.
"Have to have my coffee, Ziver." Gibbs smirked, hugging her. "Now I need you two to focus today."
"Oh yeah, that'll be easy." Tony sneered, finishing the rest of his coffee with an icy stare coming from Ziva.
"If he is incapable of being an adult today, I am fine doing this on my own, Gibbs…" Ziva reasoned, throwing her hands up in the air in defeat.
"No, he's doing it with you. I don't give a shit what problems you two have between you, but remember my rules? Put your problems aside and get the job done." Gibbs scolded, pointing his finger at Tony. "I need you to interview some of the people on the ship. They believe there's a navy officer turned terrorist posing as a cruise guest. I want you to find him, keep an eye on him and interview the guests, the crew… see what any of them have seen or know. You got that?"
"Yes," Both Tony and Ziva mumbled.
"Good. That boat," Gibbs pointed in the direction of a relatively small fishing boat, "That boat's going to take you out to the ship. Get back here before midnight. Grandpa Gibbs doesn't do overnights." He smirked, a playful wink thrown at Ziva before leaving the once was couple in the parking lot.
"Let us just do this, yes?" Ziva questioned, her hands on her hip.
"Roger that," Tony nodded, as they both began to walk towards the boat and head in the way of their next case.
-x-
The boat ride over to the ship, a mere 12 miles from shore, longer than Gibbs had estimated was silent. As soon as they arrived at the ship they would have to investigate on, the captain of the smaller boat called on his radio for the captain of the larger ship to release a ladder down to them. Once he did, Ziva stared at the ladder, annoyed that this was the only means they had to get on the ship. She bit her lip, nervously, wondering when she became such a turkey… It must have been after becoming a mother.
"You okay?" Tony asked her, noticing the look on her face when she stared at the ladder.
Ziva nodded, stepping onto the small, metal steps of the ladder and looked up. She had to climb about 10 feet up, something she never cared about before, but now that she could see the ocean through the steps of the ladder and she thought about her two children at home, the thought of climbing the ladder made her uneasy.
Putting her fears aside, she began to climb up, Tony following her from behind at a close distance. She went at a slow pace, her hands and legs shaky as she heard the rough waves crashing at the seams of both the small boat and large ship. Her lips began to curl into her mouth, her heart rapidly beating as she looked down in between the skinny, metal steps at the oce-
Her foot slipped, her breath catching in her throat and she fell backwards. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to reach out around her and grip anything she possibly could, but to her surprise, she didn't hit any water. She didn't hit anything. Warm skin grasped at her body—Tony.
"I got you…I got you…" He whispered into her ear, clinging at her body that just fell above him. He held onto the ladder with his left arm, his right arm encompassing her to him as he let out a deep breath. She stared at him for a moment in disbelief and embarrassment, knowing he could sense her sudden fear when she was once the snare devil. Snare devil? There wasn't time to ask him to correct her now. "You're good," He broke her train of thought, helping her back onto the ladder.
Wanting to avoid another moment with his hands on her skin and the ache in her heart, she took in a deep breath, her lungs filling with air and she continued to climb up the ladder. Once she was almost at the top, two men from the crew hung over and helped her up. From behind her, she felt Tony's hands on her ass, pushing her up and over the side of the ship.
Once she was finally aboard, she bent over, breathing in deeply to remind herself that she hadn't fallen into the dark pits of the ocean below them.
"Hey…." She heard Tony's calm voice approach her, "I wasn't trying to be a perv or anything, I was just trying to help you up…" He explained.
"I know, Tony." She acknowledged him for the first time in what seemed like forever. No yelling, no shouting, no snide comments. An actual decent conversation between them.
"Are you—you good?" He asked, stepping closer into her personal bubble once again.
"I am fine…" She replied, standing back up and looking around the ship.
"I still know when you're lying…You're not okay." He said, giving her a stern look before more members of the crew came over to greet them.
-x-
They managed to talk to each member of the crew and remarkably, half of the guests on the cruise ship. They were looking for Navy Officer Gerald Rodman, and any information that anyone on the ship had on him. Few guests knew who he was, but when shown his picture, they commented that yes, they had seen him a few times while on the ship.
FBI had warned he had connections with a Middle Eastern terrorist network, one that Ziva wasn't too familiar with as her days with Mossad were long over. The network must have been newer, growing in size over the last decade that she had been with NCIS. Officer Rodman had been caught online, watching the terrorist networks videos and exchanging emails with one of its affiliates.
"Can we arrest him right here?" Ziva questioned, looking at Tony diligently.
"I'd say yes, get the bastard now…but we don't have any real information that he's on this ship to do harm." Tony answered, looking at the captain of the ship.
"Will you show us the way to the basement of the ship? One guest commented that they had seen him go down the stairs to the basement corridors. I would like to take a look down there, perhaps?" Ziva asked the captain, following him as he lead them to the staircase.
"Take these stairs all the way down past the sea level guest rooms, continue down and you're at the boiler room. Below that is the engine room." The captain signaled them and they hurried down the stairs.
-x-
"This is beery," Ziva stated as they approached the dark halls of the engine room. They had searched around the boiler room and found nothing that was suspicious. But as they creeped down lower into the basement of the ship where the engine room was, the darker it became.
"Eerie," Tony corrected her, turning on the flashlight of his smart phone. "I thought they were supposed to have these pretty lit up for crews to come down here and check the engine." He peered around the corners of the room, using the flashlight as they entered the engine room. "They're supposed to be checking the engine ever so often…" He said, confused at the odd happening on this ship.
"Unless someone else was here before us…" She commented, looking around at all the machinery.
The room was relatively dark, machines running all around them. Lights flashed from all over, control desks that looked to have been forgotten about in the past few days as the ship was stalled in the middle of the ocean. Ziva went to the left, Tony taking the right side of the room. Both used the flashlights from their phone, checking out the equipment on each side of the room for any possible problems.
Ziva squatted, looking closely at the huge, metal engine. She took a closer look behind it, using the flashlight. "Tony….." She called out, looking behind her and then back to where her flashlight was pointed. "Tony!" She called again, him fumbling to get to her.
"What- what is it?" He asked, bending down next to her on the ground of engine room.
"Look," She nodded towards where her flashlight was, biting her lip in response to the look on his face.
Red, blue and yellow wires to an explosive laid, tangled around the ship engine.
-x-