Abby put up a fight about being moved from 61178 Seminole Road to 62708 Piscataway Street because they were on opposite ends of town. For her trouble, she was hit again and warned that next time, a gun would be used instead of a hand.
What terrified Abby was that she and Tariq Al-Mubarak were the only ones who changed locations. At the first location, Tariq shot every one of his cronies and then proceeded to set the place on fire. Abby also hadn't seen Onyx, but she sincerely hoped that he'd stay away long enough to get caught.
Because McGee was behaving like a scary force of nature to be reckoned with, Gibbs had no trouble in letting him take the lead in the field. Once they struck out at Seminole Road, they went to Piscataway Street with the local LEOs and the ambulance paramedics hanging back, waiting to be allowed to come help. Ducky and Palmer were also en route.
When McGee and the others approached the building, they found that it was a long-since abandoned shoe factory. It was the perfect place to hide out.
Surveying the perimeter first, Ziva was the first person to say something.
"McGee, Tony, Gibbs!"
Ziva had found something, and she was having a hard time wrapping her mind around it, just because of the kind of day they'd been having.
"Ziva, what is it?" McGee asked.
Ziva pointed to the sight in front of her: a parked car next to the side of the building. It was a regular family car, but as the whole area was already abandoned, it was already suspiciously out of place.
"It is Lieutenant Clarkson... or, at least what is left of him."
McGee, Gibbs, and Tony shined their flashlights to where she was pointing her own. They were greeted by the sight of Lieutenant Onyx Clarkson in his car, except... he was dead. As they looked closer, it became clear that he'd shot himself in the head.
Ziva finally broke the silence. "Abby will take this roughly. Who is alerting Ducky that there is already a dead body?"
"I will. He and Palmer already on their way." Gibbs looked back at the building. "Abby and Tariq have to be here. There's no other place, but be on your guard, everyone."
Tony nodded in agreement. "Especially because we know that this guy is a firebug."
Ziva cast a questioning look at her partner while Gibbs placed a quick call to Ducky, telling him where to find the body.
"What is a 'firebug'?" she asked curiously.
"A pyromaniac."
Understanding that word, Ziva brightened. "Oh!"
McGee coughed pointedly. "Hello—we have to go get Abby! Remember?"
Ziva nodded and assumed a poker face. "Right. Lead us."
They followed McGee into the factory, and while Gibbs and Tony took the ground floor, McGee and Ziva went to the second floor to have a look around. They met empty room after empty room, until they reached the last one on the left. It was lit, and definitely not empty.
Abby was on the floor in a corner, sitting with her legs tucked up to her chin, as far as they could go because of her baby bump. Her hair had also come undone from the style she'd put it in that morning, and her clothes were dirty and torn. She even had her head tucked in, wanting to protect herself. In a word, Abby's appearance was heartbreaking.
"Abby!" McGee called. "Abby!"
She lifted her head, which felt hard to do because she was very hungry—it'd been quite awhile since the diner now—and the baby was not taking kindly to the lack of anything to eat.
Ziva beckoned to her. "Come along, Abby! Please!"
Abby went from looking worn to looking terrified. "You guys, get out!"
"Not without you!" Ziva beckoned again. "Come along, haver! Please!"
Abby was about to respond when a side door to the room opened, and she fell silent, paralyzed with fear.
While McGee called for Gibbs and Tony, Ziva entered the room with her gun drawn. When she saw who Abby was looking at, she almost felt paralyzed by fear, too.
It was Tariq Al-Mubarak. And he had a gun pointed at her.
"Well, well, well, my little peach blossom." he said coolly. "I am so glad that it is you who has approached me first."
Ziva kept her gun trained on him as she stood just inside the doorway, but she had to fight back the impulse to shoot him on sight as she was flooded with memories of Tariq raping her while Jenny had been forced to watch. Never would she forget the pain and humiliation that Tariq had put her through. She would also never forget the sounds of Jenny while she pled to be left alone by her tormentors while in the next breath, she apologized to Ziva over and over.
Ziva spat at Tariq's feet. "Why do you want me? I am not some old friend, and I thought this was about Clarkson!"
"It was," he said nonchalantly. "But neither her nor his friends, nor even his little girl are important."
"Then why so much killing and abducting?" she nodded towards Abby. "What of Abigail? What was the point in traumatizing her and Rubyjane? Do you not see that Abigail is with child?"
Tariq sneered. "Of course I see that she is expecting, but Rubyjane was just 'along for the ride,' as the saying goes. Where Abigail is concerned, I really could care less that she is pregnant. What mattered the most is that she is the one we decided to take."
"Why?"
"Because if she was in trouble, you would surely be the one to come to her aid—and you have."
Ziva realized what Tariq was getting at and she was not happy about it. "You used Abigail as bait? To see me?"
Tariq moved towards her, but Ziva held an even tighter aim on him with her weapon.
"Take one more step towards me," Ziva spat. "And I will out a bullet between your eyes!"
"The fact that you already have not shows that you are interested in what I have to say."
Ziva ignored that. "You have me here, after all these years, Tariq! What is it you want of me?"
"To take you back to Afghanistan, and have you again, like last time. You are coming tonight, whether you like it or not."
"LAST TIME, YOU TOOK WHAT LITTLE OF MY INNOCENCE I HAD LEFT BECAUSE YOU RAPED ME, YOU BASTARD! LAST TIME, YOUR PEOPLE HURT MY FRIEND SO BADLY THAT SHE COULD HARDLY WALK, AND SHE HAD TO BE IN REHABILITATION FOR A YEAR! NEVER—IN THIS LIFE, OR THE NEXXT, WOULD U LET YOU TOUCH ME LIKE THAT AGAIN! I WOULD RATHER DIE!"
Tariq was unfazed by Ziva's outburst, and continued on as if it hadn't happened, saying, "I want to have you again because I've been thinking of no one but you since last time. I want you to bear my children."
"You are a terrorist!" Ziva cried.
"And you are Mossad, are you not?"
"But I have changed and I am well above anything that you would do!"
Again, Tariq was unfazed. "Imagine what a child of ours would be like."
"I already had one." Ziva said shortly.
Finally, Tariq was taken by surprise. "You did?"
"Yes, but she died."
"What was her name?"
"You do not deserve to know."
"If you keep up with that attitude, peach blossom, I will hurt you, and I really do not want to. Perhaps you need the proper incentive to stay the course."
Tariq moved his gun from Ziva, to spot just behind her, on the right. His gun was pointed directly at McGee and Tony.
"HIT THE DECK!" yelled Tony.
Ziva immediately dropped to the floor, protecting her head, and a split second later, she heard two loud gunshots overhead. Tariq Al-Mubrark fell to the floor, dead. Instinctively, Ziva rolled out of the way, to avoid getting hit by his body, but when she came to a stop, she lay on the floor, just trembling.
Tony was beside her in a heartbeat. He moved into another corner with her, on the floor behind an old desk, and he held her in his lap.
"You're okay, Ziva." Tony told her as he disconnected their microphones and ear pieces, allowing for some privacy. "That monster will never hurt you or anyone else again."
Ziva felt disappointed in herself. "I should have shot him. Why did I not?"
"Because he got inside your head, but you held him off long enough for McGee and I to shoot him."
Ziva looked at Tony in surprise. "You both did?"
"And at the same time."
Ziva sat up and kissed Tony, although she only reached his throat. She kissed him there a few times, marking him as hers, before leaning against him again.
"Thank you."
By this point, the police forces and paramedics were in the room, but even still, nobody was paying attention to the two of them yet, figuring that they'd ask for help if they needed it. That left Tony free to turn to putty at Ziva's kisses. Which he did, especially when she impulsively gave him a few more kisses. He also felt her tongue on his throat. Ziva was absolutely marking him, and he was happy to let her do so.
Tony gave her a hug and said, "I think I hear them taking out Tariq's body. Can you walk?"
Ziva nodded, but made no effort to move, instead taking one of Tony's hands in hers and slipping it under her shirt and her undershirt, so that it was resting against her bare skin. Holding it in place with both of her hands now, Ziva maneuvered herself so that she was leaning against Tony, head resting slightly on his shoulder as she looked up at him.
"Tony, what do you suppose our children are going to look like?"
Tony felt his stomach do a flip. Had she not bared her soul to him about Sarai and the horrendous event that had made her, and even wanting another baby, and had Ziva not just marked him as her territory by kissing him in such a sexual manner, he would have asked someone to pinch him to make sure he wasn't dreaming. But this was real. This meant that he and Ziva really had a chance at a future together, and a very happy one, at that.
"Our kids will be healthy, smart, strong, and very beautiful." Tony caressed Ziva's middle with a thumb. "All our kids will probably be daughters, too."
Ziva smiled. "You think so?"
He began to glide his hand over Ziva's middle as returned her smile. "I do."
Clearly in a lighter mood now, she raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you think any of them will get your looks?"
Tony kissed Ziva on the lips. "Nah—they'll all be your clones, but I think that at least one of them will have my sense of humor."
Ziva chuckled. "There it is. I love you so much, Tony DiNozzo."
He kissed her brow this time. "And I love you, Ziva David."
Tony stood and pulled Ziva to her feet, motioning towards the exit. "Let's go."
And so they did.
On the other side of the room, poor McGee was having a harder time of things.
Understandably, Abby was feeling traumatized and as a result, she wouldn't let any of the emergency response people, or even Gibbs touch her. Once McGee got them to do other things, or else wait out in the hallway, he appealed to Abby, and she immediately melted into his hold, grabbing on to him very tightly.
Feeling secure, she finally allowed herself to cry. At one point, however, on advice from an EMT keeping watch from the hallway, McGee had to encourage Abby to stop or at least slow down because if she carried on like she was, she was in danger of dehydrating herself.
Abby didn't speak until her tears had stopped altogether.
"Tim, where is Ruby?"
"Onyx dropped her off at NCIS. The director, Ziva and I worked together to take care of her because she got caught in the rain." he explained. "She also had a message from Onyx on her. It turned out to be a confession, an apology, and a clue, all rolled into one."
Abby wiped stray tears from her eyes. "And where is Onyx?"
"Here, but dead—he killed himself."
"Oh." Abby sighed, not feeling any sadness towards that last statement. "Who has Ruby now?"
"The director does. She volunteered to look after her, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've bonded by now."
"I want to see them."
"And you can, but you're going to have to let the parame—Abby?"
Still on the floor, Abby was now sitting up and holding her ankles with her hands as she did breathing excercises.
"I'm seeing stars." she wheezed. "I might..."
Abby didn't finish her sentence, but her thought became clear immediately as she fell backwards in a faint.
McGee daughter her, and called out to the others in the hallway, "I need a medic in here!"
Meanwhile, back at NCIS, after Jenny received the news that the mission was over, and that Abby was going to go the hospital, she disconnected her computer from the MTAC feed and took off her headset, laying it on her desk.
Normally, she would have gone down to the bullpen to see everyone, but they were all gone, so she just moved from her desk chair to the sofa. Just as she did that, Rubyjane sat bolt upright on her cot, waking from a bad dream.
"Mommy?!"
Jenny matched Rubyjane's frantic tone with a calm one as she beckoned to her, inviting her to the couch.
"She's alright now, RJ. You're safe, with me."
"Auntie Jenny?"
The redhead nodded. "Uh-huh. Your mommy is safe."
Rubyjane pointed to the couch. "I can go there?"
"Yes, you may."Jenny nodded. "Come on, sweetheart."
Rubyjane got up and crossed the room, her bumblebee stuffi and her blanket in tow. Much like a baby jungle cat, Rubyjane shimmied up on to the sofa easily and got comfortable with Jenny very quickly.
"Mommy is safe?"
Jenny nodded and stroked Rubyjane's hair. "She is."
Rubyjane yawned hugely—she was already falling back asleep. (Jenny was very comfortable) She would have fallen asleep completely, but she grew curious when her hand brushed against something unexpected.
"What's this?"
She was patting Jenny's baby belly, curious about it.
Jenny smiled. "There's a baby in there, RJ. What do you think?"
Rubyjane leaned against Jenny again, draping an arm across it as she kept her toy under her other arm. She got even cozier when Jenny draped her blanket back over her.
Rubyjane let out a huge yawn and said, "I like babies."
"Well, that makes me glad because mine is going to need a friend."
"Me!"
Rubyjane tried to add on an additional thought, but fell asleep in mid-word. Her sleepiness had won out. Jenny kept one arm draped around her little charge, while she rested her free hand on her swollen middle. She could feel the baby's wiggles, and the movements never ceased to thrill her.
As Jenny sat in the quiet, taking in the joy of the moment, she suddenly realized something.
For the first time all day, she was at peace.