Ducky, what is it?" Gibbs asked as they all got out of the elevator.
"It's Ziva's body…it's not her body…in fact, it isn't even a body."
"What!?" Abby said wiping her tears.
"It's a new medical practice cadaver…it's almost identical to a human cadaver, so just by looking at it you would believe it's Ziva, she even had a face mould done."
"How the hell did she manage to fake her own death without telling anyone!?" Tony asked, he looked as if he might hit something again.
"Well I am mossad Tony…" a voice came from behind Ducky, "But I did have to enlist the help of Palmer."
"Why Palmer? Why not Ducky?"
"Ducky's love of storytelling. I'm sorry Ducky. I do trust you, but the less people that knew I was still alive the better. Besides, Palmer just went on that facial construction course."
"I understand that much, but why did you have to fake your death in the first place?" Ducky asked.
"I'd rather not say, at least not while the place is crawling with the FBI."
"You're on the run from the FBI again?" Tony asked.
"No, but the Hammas cell I'm on the run from has moles and various higher ups in their pockets."
"Okay, we need to get you somewhere safe…where have you been staying since you left NCIS?" Gibbs asked.
"It's only been two weeks." Ziva said. "I've been staying at my safe house."
"You have your own safe house?"
"I'll explain when we get there."
On the way to Ziva's safe house (they had managed to get her out of NCIS by disguising herself her as a probie) Ziva managed to keep under the speed limit. Tony guess it was to help her keep a low profile.
"So you have your own safe house…" Tony asked again as they all piled out of Ziva's minivan. (apparently the people who were after her wouldn't suspect her to be driving such a large vehicle)
"The Hammas terrorists know about all of the mossad ones, I had no other choice unless I had a specific death wish."
Ziva's safehouse was massive, five bedrooms at least. All on the one floor. They all found a seat in the giant living room.
"I'm still not clear on why you had to fake your own death…" Abby said, "I mean, without telling any of us."
"I had no other choice. They are the biggest Hammas cell in the whole of the US, they have moles everywhere. Even at NCIS. I didn't tell anyone what was going on, except Palmer, and I only told him that I needed him to make the face of the medical cadaver look like me. I couldn't tell anyone what was really going on, it was too risky. I even bought the tickets and made all of the arrangements to go back to Israel." Ziva said, "I'm sorry, I should've told you guys."
"There's no need to be sorry dear, we understand how difficult it would have been for you." Ducky said.
"I want to know why Palmer even went on a facial reconstruction course, after all, he works with the dead." Abby asked bluntly.
Everybody turned away from Ziva to look at Palmer curiously.
"Well…um…it couldn't hurt to widen my expertise, and my uncle is opening a cosmetic surgery business. He wants to keep it in the family." Palmer said nervously in almost one breath.
"Okay…now back to Ziva." Gibbs said, "Is there any way we can bring you ‘back to life' without getting you killed?"
"Only if you know of a way of eliminating the whole of Hammas, including overseas units. I'm their most wanted, almost every member will know about me."
"What the hell did you do?"
"I put the second in command in prison."
"Um…shouldn't we know about that?"
"He wasn't caught for being Hammas, even I didn't know that until three weeks ago, right before I gave my weeks notice. He's in for mass bombings on a marine base."
"I need to go lie down, this is way too much." Tony said standing up. Ziva directed him to one of the unused bedrooms. Three out of five were being used for weapons and ammunition storage.
"Um…I need to use the bathroom." Sally said, looking in the direction that Tony had just walked in.
"Sure, third on the right." Ziva directed.
Sally left. Moments afterward Ziva stood up and walked quickly in the same direction muttering, "that's the toilet that doesn't flush."
Ziva came back less than a minute later looking slightly confused.
"What's wrong Ziva?" McGee asked.
"Um…Abby?" Isn't Tony engaged to you?" she asked.
"Yeah…?" Abby asked, now also confused.
"So why's he making out with that new girl?"
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