"Have You Seen Me, Pt. 2"
Chapter Four (Ray) --
Two armed guards escorted Former CIA Agent, turned convict, Ray Cruz into the interrogation room at NCIS. He was handcuffed and had chains around his legs/feet.
They sat him down at the small table across from Ziva, and then left the room.
Ziva had requested that she be the one to interrogate him. Gibbs had thought it a bad idea, at first, but then said he would let her if she really thought/felt that she was up to the task.
She had told him that she was.
"Ziva," Ray said, as soon as the guards were out of the room. "It's so good to see you."
Ziva just stared at Ray. He had stubble growing around his chin and lips now, and looked as though he could use a haircut.
"Where is he?" she asked, quietly.
"I wish our meeting were under better circumstances, but I'll take what I can get." he said, with a little smile.
"Where is he Ray?" she asked again. "Where is Tony?" a little more forcefully the second time.
"Its not that simple Ziva." Ray said, shaking his head.
"Explain." she pressed him.
"Its out of my hands now, Ziva. I couldn't stop it now even if I wanted to." he told her.
"Why Ray?" She asked. "Why are you doing this?"
"You hurt me Ziva." he replied, quietly. "You hurt me, and that kind of pain doesn't just go away." he said, tears forming in his eyes.
"I wanted you to feel the way I have felt ever since that day. Ever since you turned your back on me. Betrayed me." he explained.
"So I made a few calls--we get those you know, every now and then. I called in a few favors, and poof." he said, motioning with his hands like a practiced magician.
"If he's not dead already...he soon will be." he added.
Ziva jerked forward (leaping out of her seat) suddenly, and grabbed Ray by his shirt/jumpsuit--pulling him forward.
Before Ray knew what was happening he was laying on his back, pinned against the table top by Ziva.
Ziva leaned down close to Ray, breathing heavily as her entire body trembled with rage.
"If anything happens to him--I promise you this...I will do far worse to you than anything you could possibly imagine." she hissed angrily.
"You can't save him Ziva." Ray said quietly. "And soon you will truly know my pain." he added.
Ziva let out an angry scream as she yanked him up off of the table, and slung him back against the far wall.
Then before she could take more than two or three steps in his direction--the door behind her flew open and Gibbs rushed in.
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back, as the two guards rushed in to secure their prisoner.
Gibbs had to drag Ziva out of the room and into the hallway.
"Ziva. Ziva." he said her name over her frantic struggling. "Ziva!" he nearly screamed.
Ziva began to settle down, and then she fell completely into Gibbs arms--her head coming to rest against his chest.
"Ziva." he whispered, pulling her close. He knew that the former Mossad Officer was in pain, and he wished like hell that he could fix it somehow.
The tears came, finally, they came; and Ziva sobbed openly into Gibbs' chest.
"It's okay." he whispered. "We're gonna find him." he told her softly, as the sounds of the two guards securing their prisoner drifted out into the hallway. "I promise."
Chapter Five (Finding a Killer) --
Gibbs finally returned to the squad room, having left Ziva in the break room to cool off, and McGee could tell that there was fire in the silver-haired man's eyes.
"Get anything from Cruz?" McGee asked, upon seeing his Boss.
"McGee, get that video down to Abby for analysis--I wanna know everything about it." he barked.
"I'll take that as a no." McGee said under his breath.
"McGee!" Gibbs barked.
"O-On it boss." McGee said, quickly, as he began to gather up the video stuff to take to Abby.
"Where's Ziva?" McGee asked, as he came out from around his desk.
"She's safe." Gibbs replied.
"And I want you to access all prison logs from Leavenworth--we need to find out who Ray Cruz has had contact with in the last month and a half." Gibbs continued.
"What can I do?" a voice said from behind Gibbs.
Gibbs turned around.
"Ziva? You shouldn't be up here." he said, walking towards her.
"You need all the help you can get." she said firmly. "Besides, I am better now." she said, wiping a hand across her reddened eyes.
"Sure?" Gibbs asked, staring her in the eyes.
Ziva nodded. "What can I do?" she asked again.
"We need a timeline." Gibbs said, thinking quickly. "Find out where DiNozzo went and what he did after leaving here, before he was taken."
"McGee'll help you get started." Gibbs added. "Maybe someone DiNozzo saw will remember something." Gibbs said hopefully.
"I'll get right on it." Ziva said, turning away.
Gibbs turned and headed out as well. "I'll be down in autopsy if anyone needs me." he called over his shoulder.
Time was running out for Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo--They would have to work quickly if they wanted to find him alive.
--The Next Morning/Squad Room--
Gibbs rounded the corner, coffee cup in hand, and entered the bullpen.
He stopped at the edge of the area, and looked around the bullpen.
McGee was slumped over his desk fast asleep--buried in paper work and the like.
Ducky had joined them upstairs in the middle of the night, and was now dozing behind Ziva's desk.
Jimmy was sound asleep in Tonys' chair--snoring softly.
He couldn't help but utter a soft chuckle.
Just then his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He quickly fished it out, flipped the cover open, and answered it.
"Gibbs." he said quietly.
"Gibbs," Abby's voice rang over the phone line. "You need to come down here." she told him.
"Be there in a sec." he told her, before hanging up.
--Abby's Lab--
Gibbs walked into Abby's lab a few minutes later to find her moving back and forth from her workstation to her computer station--working feverishly to finish all of the tasks that she was working on.
"Abs." Gibbs said, as he entered the room.
Abby jumped in surprise.
"G-Gibbs, you startled me." she said, backing away (a hand held up to her heart).
"Sorry. Whatcha got?" he asked.
"Oh, right. I ran an identification algorithm, designed by McGee, on the molds that Ducky made of the weapon marks on the petty officers' body."
"And?"
"And...I found this." she said, opening up a file on her computer screen.
An image flashed up of a knife--a military issue tactical knife.
"It's a-" Abby started to say.
"K-BAR." Gibbs said, finishing her sentence.
"Yeah. Of course you would know that--you're a marine...err, were a marine." she commented aloud.
"Once a marine, always a marine." Gibbs told her.
"Right. Anyway, moving on. That's not all." she told him.
Abby pressed a few keys on her keyboard, and another image flashed up onto the screen.
"These are the from the second set of markings that Ducky found on the body." Abby explained. "They're from a Pry Bar." she told him.
Gibbs looked at Abby.
"You see," Abby began. "I think that whoever killed Petty Officer Harris, first tried to kill him with the K-BAR knife; but that didn't work." she explained. "Since Ducky determined that it was the blunt-force trauma to the head that killed him--I believe he fought back against his attacker."
Gibbs nodded in agreement.
At this point Abby's eyes were sparkling with excitement.
"So," she said, pressing a few more keys on her keyboard. "That got me to thinking, okay, where would one find a Pry Bar just lying around--within close proximity of where he was last seen (at the bar)."
Abby pressed one more button on her keyboard, and an image of a construction site flashed up onto the computer screen.
"A construction site." she told Gibbs.
"Where is this?" he asked, stepping up closer to her computer screen for a better look.
"I just sent the address to your cell phone." she told him with a smile.
"Nice work Abs." he told her, as he turned to leave the lab.
As Gibbs turned to leave, he spotted Ziva sleeping on the floor of Abby's office.
He stopped, and stared at the slumbering, dark-haired woman for a long moment.
"She had a rough night." Abby told Gibbs, softly.
"She had...nightmares...about Tony." Abby said, tears creeping into her owns eyes as she remembered Ziva telling her about them in the middle of the night.
Gibbs nodded. "Let her sleep. She needs it." he told Abby quietly.
Then he turned and left the lab.
Chapter Six (The Gamble) --
Gibbs and the team continued to work feverishly, over the course of the next several hours, to locate their missing teammate.
It was later that next afternoon when the next of the kidnappers' 'videos' finally appeared at NCIS.
McGee was returning from a run to pick-up Chinese take-out food for everybody. As he entered the front door, Stan--the mail clerk--walked up to him and handed him another package.
"What's this?" McGee asked.
"Dunno." Stan replied. "It just showed up, along with a note that said to give it to you." Stan explained.
"Well, thanks, Stan." McGee said, with a smile. "I appreciate you bringing it to me so quickly."
"Not at all son." the older man said, with a wink. "I guess I best be off then--be quittin' time soon, ya know." he said, and then turned and headed back towards the mail room.
--NCIS HQ/Squad Room--
McGee entered the squad room, and then headed into the bullpen.
"Finally." Abby said, jumping up from behind McGee's desk. "I'm starving."
"Hey Boss," McGee called across the bullpen as he handed Abby her order from the big, brown sack that he was carrying in his arms.
"Stan gave me this on my way up." he said, tossing the package to Gibbs.
Gibbs stood up, behind his desk, and caught the package in mid-air.
Gibbs quickly opened up the package, and found another DVD inside it.
"McGee!" Gibbs called across the bullpen, as he stood and walked out from behind his desk. "Drop the food." he said coldly.
"Wha-Why?" McGee was somewhat confused.
"Get this up on the plasma." he said, waving the DVD in the air. "Now!" he added, forcefully.
"On it Boss." McGee said.
He quickly handed the bag of take-out food to Ziva, who was standing nearby, and then made his way over to Gibbs.
He took the DVD, and within just a minute or so had the video playing on the plasma screen.
The video started up.
--Video Sequence--
Tony still hung from the rafters by his arms/wrists. He was very still, unmoving, and at present he could pass for being dead.
Suddenly his whole body began to shake violently as his head shot straight up. He yowled in pain through gritted teeth.
finally it stopped.
Cables could now be seen in the room. One end was attached to Tony, and the other end ran off screen somewhere.
"Pl-Please," Tony groaned. "Stop."
"But this is so much fun." the man said, from off screen. "I like watching you squirm." he said delightedly.
Tony groaned again.
"I'll bet when your Israeli friend sees this...she'll be devastated." he said, and you didn't need to see the mans' smirk to know that it was there.
"Y-You...B-Bastard!" Tony grunted, angrily.
"When Gibbs finds...he'll k-kill y-" Tony was unable to finish his sentence because at that moment the man switched the machine back on.
Tony's body shook violently once more.
--End of Video Sequence--
Ziva had dropped the bag of take-out food she was holding for McGee, and had begun moving towards her desk.
Gibbs suddenly noticed Ziva pulling out her side-arm from the desk drawer that she kept it in.
"Ziva." Gibbs said, as he raced to her side.
"Don't try to stop me Gibbs." she warned him, as she walked out from behind her desk.
"Where are you going?" he asked plainly.
"To find Tony." she said through gritted teeth, as she tried to keep her anger suppressed.
"How?" he asked, as he followed her to the elevator.
"I-I don't know." she said, holstering her side-arm. "But I will tear the city apart if I have to." she said, glaring up at Gibbs.
Gibbs didn't doubt a single word that she said.
"Ziva." he said, as the dark-haired woman slapped the switch on the wall to summon the elevator.
She ignored him.
"Ziva!" he said again, even louder the second time.
"What!" she nearly screamed at her silver-haired boss. "Do you not care!?" she said, angrily, tears welling up in her eyes.
Gibbs just stood staring at her.
"Tony looks up to you...you're like a father to him." Ziva fumed. "And yet, all you can do is stand around drinking coffee--doing NOTHING!"
The elevator doors opened, and Gibbs quickly forced Ziva inside. The doors closed a second or two later. Gibbs hit the stop switch a few seconds later.
"You think I don't care." Gibbs said, staring her down. "You think, that this doesn't affect me." he continued.
Ziva was silent. She knew that she had been out of line.
"It is all I can do, Ziva, to keep myself from blowing this whole damn place to hell." he told her, his own eyes tearing up a bit.
Gibbs reached back, and re-activated the elevator. He hit another button so that the elevator would take them to a different floor.
"Where are we going?" she asked quietly.
"Cruz knows more than he admits." Gibbs said plainly.
Ziva nodded in agreement. "But how we'll we-" she started to ask.
"Do you trust me?" Gibbs asked.
"Yes." she told him.
"Good." he replied quietly.
--Interrogation Room--
A few minutes later Gibbs and Ziva stepped into the interrogation room.
Gibbs nodded at the two guards posted on either side of Ray Cruz, and they left the room.
As soon as the guards left, and the door was closed--Gibbs began.
He stared at Cruz with his trademark 'Gibbs Stare'.
"I know all about your 'Stare' tactics." Ray said quietly. "You can't scare me."
Gibbs nodded.
"I know." Gibbs said plainly.
Gibbs pulled out his Sig, and pointed it right at Ray's face.
"But I can kill you." Gibbs said told him.
"You wouldn't." Ray said, with a grin. "You're bluffing."
Gibbs shrugged.
"If that's what you think." Gibbs replied, as his finger began to close around the trigger.
A single bead of sweat rolled slowly down the side of Ray Cruz's face.
"Gibbs!" Ziva cried out, as she grabbed for the silver-haired man's gun.
Gibbs pulled away.
"Stay out of this Agent David." Gibbs demanded coldly.
"Please." she pleaded with him. "There has to be another way." she insisted.
Gibbs stood up and rounded on Ziva.
"You a part of this?" Gibbs demanded, waving a finger between her and Ray, as he moved towards her. "You with him?"
"N-no." she stammered, stepping backwards.
"Don't LIE to me!" Gibbs bellowed angrily, as he pointed the Sig Sauer at her face.
Ziva flinched.
"I-I'm not." she choked, tears forming in her eyes.
"You know where he is, don't you!?"
"Gibbs, I don't...I swear." she told him, as she continued to back-up towards the wall.
"I never should have trusted you!" Gibbs snapped angrily, as his finger began to wrap around the trigger.
"STOP!" Ray shouted as he jumped up from the table. He could go no further than that because he was chained to the table. "She has nothing to do with this!" he screamed.
"Only I know where he is!"
"Yeah right." Gibbs scoffed, as he resumed his position with the gun aimed at Ziva, who at this point was cowering in the corner.
"Its true!" Ray told him. "Murray Sanders...I told him about an abandoned CIA safe-house in Norfolk. He's there--with your friend."
Ziva stood up straight.
A thin smile spread across Gibbs' face as he turned around.
Ziva looked as if nothing had happened in the last few minutes or so.
"Thanks for the tip." Gibbs said with a wink.
"Wha-What?" Ray stammered, somewhat confused.
Gibbs popped the magazine out of the Sig, and showed it to Ray.
"Not loaded." he told him.
Ray looked at Gibbs, and then over at Ziva.
"You tricked me." he said, in disbelief.
"Yep." Ziva replied, as she wiped fake tears from her eyes.
Ray began to scream and shout angrily, as Gibbs and Ziva left the room.
Gibbs fished the car keys out of his pocket and handed them to Ziva.
"Go get McGee. I'll bring the car around front." Gibbs said, quickly, as he closed the door behind them.
Ziva nodded, and headed off down the hallway.
Chapter Seven (The Rescue) --
McGee had hacked into the CIA, and done a search for any info pertaining to an abandoned 'Safe House' in Norfolk. It turned out that there was only one.
Now, Gibbs and the team finally pulled up in front of the somewhat rundown looking house--located just off of the beaten path...as it were.
They exited the car with their weapons drawn, and held at their sides. NCIS Kevlar vests were strapped to each member of the team as they made their way towards the front door.
Gibbs looked at Ziva, and motioned for her to cover the back entrance.
Ziva nodded, and then headed off around the side of the house.
Gibbs waited a minute or so for Ziva to get into position.
"In position?" he asked quietly, over his earpiece.
"Ready." she replied.
"Breach in...3...2..." Gibbs began his countdown.
He looked sideways at McGee as the final mark rolled past his tongue, and gave the younger agent a nod.
"...1-Go!" he said finally.
Gibbs lunged forward, kicking in the front door, with McGee following close behind.
"NCIS!" Gibbs yelled out, as he and McGee entered the house.
--Around Back/Inside The House--
Around back, Ziva lunged and kicked in the backdoor with one swift movement.
"Federal Agent!" She yelled, as she entered the house. "Don't move!" she added.
She could hear through the walls--Gibbs and McGee making their entrance into the house at about the same time.
The first room that she came to was the kitchen. She moved slowly through the dimly-lit room, and made her way out into the first little hallway. As she moved around she swept each and every corner that she came to--weapon held at the ready.
Suddenly she spotted a doorway just off to the left of where she had only seconds ago exited the kitchen. There was no door--just an open space where the door should be. She moved a little closer, and then noticed a set of stairs leading down.
In her mind she could see the footage from the videos that they had received from the kidnapper. The room that they had been in had looked kind of like a basement-area.
'That's it'. She thought to herself. 'Tony's down there.' she thought. 'Has to be.'
She moved towards the steps, and then began to make her way down into the basement-area.
"Federal Agent!" she yelled down the steps. "Throw down your weapon, and keep your hands where I can see them." she said, as she reached the bottom step, and emerged into the basement-area.
Her eyes darted around the entire room for traces of movement--none. Suddenly her eyes fell upon Tony, still hanging from the rafters, in the center of the room.
Tony wasn't moving--at least not that she could see.
Without thinking, she lowered her guard and raced across the room to his side.
"Tony." she breathed his name, as she reached his side. "Don't worry." she told him, as she began looking around for something to cut him down with, as she holstered her side-arm.
"Gibbs! McGee!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Down here! I found him!"
She finally found a pair of bolt cutters laying off to one side, on the floor, and she quickly picked them up and returned to Tony's side.
She raised the cutters up over her head, and wiggled them into place. Then with a couple of precision breaks--he was free.
She dropped the cutters to the floor, and caught Tony in her arms all at the same moment it seemed like.
"Zi-" Tony mumbled under his breath.
"Shhh." she whispered, as she struggled to hold him upright. "I have got you." she told him gently.
"Zi...va..." he tried again, but still with very little success.
"It's okay." she whispered to him. "I am here." she said reassuringly.
'He's heavier than I thought.' she thought to herself.
"Can you walk?" she asked him, her eyes darting around the room--looking for a place to sit/lay him down.
Tony struggled, in her arms, to balance his own body--but wasn't having very much luck.
"Ziva...don't...go..." he muttered, trying to form a complete sentence.
"It's okay," she told him. "I won't leave you."
'Damnit.' Tony swore in his head. 'She doesn't get it. I'm trying to warn her.' he thought to himself. 'If I could just get the right words out.' he thought.
She led/drug Tony over to a spot against the wall by the staircase where she carefully lowered him down into a sitting position so that he could lean back and use the wall for stability.
Suddenly Ziva heard footsteps behind her. She was still in a squatting position, but still she turned half-way around--keeping part of her body in the way to act as a shield for Tony--and saw a man standing just several feet away with a gun in his hand.
The man had been hiding in the shadows the whole time--watching everything that Ziva did.
"Never should have dropped your guard." the man said, disapprovingly.
He held his own gun trained right own Ziva and Tony.
"My mistake." Ziva replied, slowly, anger burning inside of her.
"Yes. It was." the man agreed. "And now you'll die for it...and so will he." he added, motioning towards Tony.
Tony's thoughts were racing in his head. 'Damnit.' he swore to himself (in his mind). 'Come on DiNozzo...do something. Do something or you're both dead.' he screamed inside his own head.
The man primed his weapon, and then steadied his aim on Ziva (first).
Tony's one good eye (at the moment) glimpsed Ziva's side-arm just inches from his fingers.
'One chance.' he thought to himself. 'Gotta put everything I got left into this.' he told himself, mentally preparing for what he was about to try to do.
"Ziva..." he croaked out, almost inaudibly.
But Ziva heard him, barely, but she heard him.
"In the end, I guess, I still won." the man said, with a sneer.
"Duck." Tony muttered quietly.
Ziva kept her eyes trained on the other guy. Her mind raced with all of the things that she had wanted to tell Tony, but had not had the chance to do so yet.
Tony's finger(s) twitched towards Ziva's belt.
'This is it DiNozzo.' Tony told himself one last time. 'Put everything you got left into it.' he told himself silently.
"Tony," she whispered. "I never got to tell you-"
'Now!' Tony screamed inside his own head.
"Ciao." the man said, with a fiendish grin, as his finger closed around the trigger.
"Duck." Tony muttered, a little bit louder the second time.
Ziva squeezed her eyes closed as she braced herself for the oncoming bullet she knew was destined to take her life in that moment.
Also, at the same time she turned her body towards Tony intent on hugging him one last time.
Suddenly though, without warning, Tony's hand shot forward and grabbed the side-arm strapped to her backside.
With his other arm he pulled Ziva down across his waist as he raised the gun as high as he could--training it on the man standing several feet away from where they were positioned.
All of this seemed to take place in slow-motion.
BANG! A shot echoed through the room, and then Tony's arm/hand slumped back towards the ground letting the gun he had been holding only seconds before fall to the floor.
Tony could feel himself slipping away after that. The last of his strength was beginning to slip away, and he could feel a deep sleep starting to settle over him.
Ziva opened one eye, and then the other--slowly. She could see the man still standing upright, but something was different.
There was a look of surprise and horror in the man's eyes. Then suddenly he let his own gun fall to the floor, and then soon after that he crumpled into a lifeless heap upon the cold, basement floor.
"Ziva!"
That was Gibbs calling her name. She knew that voice.
"Ziva!" McGee's voice chimed in right behind Gibbs'.
"Down here!" she shouted back.
She looked to the side, and seeing her weapon laying on the floor--she scooped it up and quickly re-holstered it.
Then she heard their footsteps as they made their way down the steps into the basement.
She looked at Tony next. Her eyes glistened with emotion as she stared at Tony, still slumped backwards against the wall.
"Tony," she said his name, but got no answer. "Tony." she tried again.
Still nothing.
She leaned closer to him. He wasn't breathing.
"Tony!" she cried out, as she quickly leaned him over onto his back.
She immediately began to administer CPR on the Senior Field Agent.
"Ziva!" Gibbs said, as he hit the bottom step.
He took a second to quickly take in the scene, and then turned to where Ziva was.
"What happened!?" he demanded, as he dropped to Ziva's side.
She was still working feverishly on Tony.
"He saved me." she said, through tears.
"Move." Gibbs said, pushing her aside. And then he, too, began to administer CPR on Tony as well.
"McGee!" Gibbs called over his shoulder. "Get me an ambulance now!" he barked at the younger man.
"On it Boss." McGee said, as he turned and raced up the stairs.
.........To Be Continued in 'Healing DiNozzo'.........
Author's Chapter Notes:
Ziva and the rest of Gibbs' team race against the clock to find Tony before its too late.
Gibbs tries a desperate gamble, with Ziva's help, to try to trick Ray into telling them where to look for Tony.
Gibbs tries a desperate gamble, with Ziva's help, to try to trick Ray into telling them where to look for Tony.
Chapter End Notes:
I hope you guys are enjoying this little story as much as I am.
I have made a few changes to the story since I first posted it, so you guys may want to re-read over what has already been posted so that it will all make sense in the end. Thanks again! :)
I have made a few changes to the story since I first posted it, so you guys may want to re-read over what has already been posted so that it will all make sense in the end. Thanks again! :)