Gibbs watched over his team silently. Tony stretched out on the couch, Ziva lying across his chest her dark hair spread out. McGee snoring quietly on the loveseat, his arm wrapped protectively around Abby. He sighed and went to the kitchen to refill his coffee mug.
"They're still sleeping?" Jenny took off her glasses and looked up at Gibbs.
He grunted and made a detour to the coffee perk.
"You know, it's not as bad as you think." She stood up and stretched. "Relationships I mean."
"Jenny...don't." He leaned against the cupboard in the kitchen.
"Just because all of your relationships ended badly, doesn't mean they're all bad." The redhead glared at her senior agent.
"I am NOT having this conversation with you."
Jenny smirked and went back to reading the case file.
#
The light pierced her eyes, the blaring sound ripped at her brain. She followed silently, her feet shuffling tie together with thick rope, her hands behind her. Her eyes flickered around, memorizing each crack, each corner, each colour.
"I'm going to untie you, do you promise not to run away?" The man in the mask asked.
"Yes." Daniela said softly.
"Do you know your phone number?"
She cocked her eyebrow, even though it pulled on one of the newly opened cuts. "Do I look stupid to you?" Another sharp slap made her wince.
"You're a Jew. You're a stupid Jew." He glared at her. "Do you know your phone number?"
"Yes." She felt around her mouth with her tongue and wiggled a tooth that was knocked loose. "555-4561."
He dialled it. "You say EXACTLY what I tell you."
The phone rang. And rang. And rang. Finally, after what felt like forever, Ziva's voice came on the line and filled the room through speakerphone.
"Hello?"
"Mummy..." Daniela felt her throat constrict as she fought back tears.
"Daniela!" Ziva cried, and instantly Tony was at her side. "Daniela, how are you?"
"Alive." She whispered, looking at the man suspiciously.
"Tell them you are fine."
"I am fine." She repeated quietly.
"How is Jacob?"
Daniela looked towards her kidnapper who nodded his head. "Tell them he's fine too."
"Fine." She sighed and felt her chin begin to quiver. "We are in a warehouse. Lots of noise. Trucks. We drove for over an hour. We are not fine, they hit us and kick us..." Her voice trailed off when the man hit her.
"What where you telling her?!" He screamed, forgetting to cut the speaker phone off.
"N-nothing. That I love and missed them and to do whatever you tell them to." She looked up through bruised eyelids. "I swear."
He ripped the phone from her. "5 million dollars. Friday. I will contact you for the drop off point." Closing the phone he gave her a lewd smile. "Too bad you're diseased, you're kinda pretty." He ran his hand through her hair and over her cheek. "Very pretty."
She pulled back and winced. "Do not touch me."
Smiling down at her, he dragged her back to her box.
Ziva put the phone down, her hands shaking despite everything she did to calm them. "McGee..."
"Tracing as we speak."
"What did she say?" Gibbs asked, watching Ziva's reactions.
"They are in a warehouse with lots of trucks. They...they're getting beat." She ended softly.
Tony flinched and reached out to put his arm around her. "Hey...hey...Tim and Abby will find them...and then we'll go and get our kids."
She didn't notice his wording, neither did he, but everyone else in the room did.
"You will find them, right Tim?" He asked, his eyes silently pleading.
McGee turned back to his computer and typed as quickly as he could.
Waves of doubt washed over the team as McGee and Abby struggled to trace the call. Gibbs watched his senior agent that was so much like him in so many ways...the look of fear, anger, love...they were all real on Tony. Their family may have been construed at the start, it may have been a relationship of convenience to begin with...but it blossomed into something more. Sighing, conceding the fact that this was something that was out of his hands, something that was out of anyone's control, he looked towards his agents.
"DiNozzo, kitchen." He pointed to the room like it had personally attacked and stalked off.
Tony frowned, racking his brain for what he would have done to upset Gibbs, but finally reluctantly followed his boss into the kitchen, but not before placing a kiss on the top of Ziva's head. "Don't worry."
She smiled up at him. "Go before Gibbs kills you."
He flashed her a soft smile but followed her orders and went into the kitchen. Gibbs was sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in his hands and another one across from him. "Sit."
"Boss, I didn't do it."
"Tony..." Gibbs sighed. "Just sit down."
Tony sat on the chair and stared nervously at his boss.
"How serious are you?"
"What?"
"Tony, I mean it. I'm asking you. How serious are you with Ziva and the kids?" He ran his finger over the top lip of his coffee mug. "I can see it in your eyes and in your face. How serious?"
"Boss...I can't remember ever feeling like this. Ever."
"You know that a family is a big responsibility. They're not just something you can throw away when you get bored. They're real and they're forever."
"I know my history boss...but..." Tony sighed. "This is real. This is as real as it gets. They're mine and I care about them."
"And Ziva?"
His face gave it away before he had to say anything. "I see."
"I'm sorry Boss. Really, we didn't mean for it to happen..." He tensed and waited for a headslap that never came. "Boss?"
"Take care of them Tony. I know how it is to care about someone so much it hurts. But I swear to God, if you hurt any of them...I will kill you."
Tony nodded. "I swear on my life, I wouldn't hurt any of them."
"Good. Now go be with Ziva. As much as she says she's fine...she isn't."
"Thanks Boss. For everything."
"Go DiNozzo." He watched the younger agent scamper out of the kitchen. "Jen. Can you come here, I need to talk to you!"
#
Jacob was not a stupid boy. On the contrary, he was very smart and his lack of hearing did not put him at a disadvantage. He played the part. He pretended not to understand what they were telling him, despite reading lips. He pretended to not watch the men drag his sister away. He strained against his restraints, watching the men with a careful eye. He patiently waited for Ziva and Tony, knowing that they would be there for him...
"You're so pretty."
Daniela kept her gaze down and stared at her hands. She pulled away at his touch, swallow the feeling of disgust and repulsion.
"So young."
There was a new man. He seemed to be the boss. He got her out of her box and took pictures of her. "To make sure that your parents bring the money." He said.
She looked down, quietly praying that help would come soon. She didn't like the way he looked at her, his hot breath on her cheek...the way he touched her.
"So innocent...so pure."
Daniela chewed her bottom lip until it bled as she felt his hands on her body...her eyes filled with tears and she went rigid until she heard the box lock. Taking huge gasps of the stale oxygen she allowed the tears run down her face. She started humming the song that Tony and Ziva taught her.
"Somewhere out there,
Beneath the pale moonlight,
Someone's thinking of me,
And loving me tonight.
Somewhere out there,
Someone's saying a prayer,
That we'll find one another,
In that big somewhere out there.
And even though I know how very far apart we are,
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star,
And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby,
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky!
Somewhere out there,
If love can see us through,
Then we'll be together,
Somewhere out there,
Out where dreams
Come true..."
#
Had anyone known better, they would have thought that they were just a normal family, everyone over for an evening dinner, to play board games or perhaps just to visit. But it was anything but normal in the house. Tony took Ziva to the bedroom, allowing her cry privately. Abby and McGee worked furiously, their fingers flying at an uneven cadence. Jenny and Gibbs sat, watched and drank coffee in silence their minds elsewhere.
"Abby..."
"Timmy we're going to find them."
The goth looked from her computer to the junior agent and back again, her green eyes sad. McGee shook his head defiantly. "We WILL find them Abs."
Tony didn't mind when girls cried, at least he never used to. It meant that they were vulnerable and would come running to him. Now, the sight and sound of Ziva crying made him physically ill. He held her in his arms, allowing her hot tears soak through his expensive shirt.
"It will be okay Zee." He murmured, rubbing his hands down her back. "We'll get them."
The assassin swallowed hard, the dam of emotions broken, her tears flowing freely down her face. "Tony I lied to you."
His fingers raked through her dark curls. "It's okay Ziva."
"Tony...I love those kids...and...I love you."
He sighed and gently pulled her away. "How about we talk about his later? I don't want you to say something just because we're in this situation." He couldn't believe the fact that he was saying that.
"When?"
"When we find Jacob and Daniela." He gave her a firm kiss on her forehead. "Then we can talk all you want."
She yawned, her energy suddenly drained from her body. "Tony, I think I am going to have a quick cat nip."
"Cat nap."
"Yes, that."
Tony stood up to leave, until he felt Ziva's hand on his. "Stay Tony."
He nodded silently, pulling her close to him. They stayed like that until Ziva's eyes closed and she fell into a restless sleep. Tony separated from her and quietly closed the bedroom door. "Ziva is sleeping."
"Good." Gibbs nodded. "You should get some sleep too Tony, you look drained."
"Didn't sleep well last night." He admitted covering a yawn. "But I'll be fine."
"DiNozzo, go get some sleep. We'll let you know if we get something."
Tony nodded slowly. "Thanks."
#
She was too tired and sore to even cry. It was like the well of tears had dried up. Now all she could do was lie in the stifling oppressive heat of the metal box and wait. She had been told not to be afraid of dying because as her Ima had told her, "Everyone dies. Malkuth hashamaim is nothing to be afraid of." She was positive she was going to die, and die in a box none the less. If she was to die young, why didn't she die with her parents? With her brother. Her brother...she thought of Jacob. Who would protect him if she was dead? No one.
"Daniela?"
A voice, almost scared, broke her out of her reverie.
"Daniela, can you hear me?"
She mumbled something through her cracked and bleeding lips.
"It's James."
James. The bastard that sold her out. She stayed silent and waited for him to keep talking.
"I'm sorry Daniela." He continued. "Jacob is okay. He looks better today. I...I just did what my dad and uncle told me to do. I hope you understand."
"I do not." She licked her dry lips. "Why us?"
"Your family. Your dad married your mom...he took a pure race and dirtied it." James said, almost reciting what he had been told from birth. "Do you know Jesus?"
Daniela frowned. She knew the name, she knew what she had learned at school and at the synagogue about Jesus. "I know about him."
"Your people, the Jews. They killed him. The Bible says an Eye for an Eye." He sighed as if he was teaching this to a young child. "I am sorry Daniela. But you should really blame your parents. Your mother should have stayed with her own kind...and your father shouldn't have married a whore."
"James? Can I call my mom and dad? To say good bye?" Her voice was soft but strong. "Please?"
The boy thought. What could it hurt? They were going to die anyway.
"Okay. My dad and uncle are out. I will let you use the phone. Just don't tell them." He struggled with the lid of the box.
Sitting up, Daniela gave him a sore smile. "I will not. Thank you."
Her hands shook as he handed her phone and she pressed the numbers painfully. The phone rang and rang until a groggy voice answered.
"'Lo?"
Tears pricked her eyes. "Papa. It's Daniela...I love you."