A/N – Yes…more updates… for those of you who can't already tell, can you tell I don't like Vance. Got something very SPECIAL planned for him… and Trent Kort (mwahahahaha!) There's a tingle of TIVA in the chapter, and I'll probably get'em together in about 2-3 chapters.

Oops, before I forget. DISCLAIMER: (ahem) The show…CBS's. The characters…some of theirs and some of mine. The plot of this story…all mine. The chapter that finally brings TIVA together…priceless. And, away we go…

Chapter 9 – Bombs Away

A delivery truck stopped at the Navy Yard entrance. The guard came out, checked his ID, and gave him a delivery pass to the NCIS building. The driver drove around to the NCIS main building and went inside to drop off the package at the front desk. All of sudden, an explosion rocked the building.

Alarms went off, and people poured of the three NCIS buildings. They congregated in the parking lot in front of the main NCIS building and looked on as the Navy MPs, and firefighters cordoned off the explosion area, which was where the delivery truck had parked, and began putting out the fire. Once the fire was put out, then the questions began.

This, of course, brought out the NCIS Director's worst side. For this to have happened on his watch was unacceptable. Director Vance Climbed on top of a car to get the attention of all the people gathered in the parking lot. "All right, people! Non-investigative personnel, head back to your offices. Forensics and investigators, you got one job to do for me today: find out who, what, when, where, why and HOW THIS HAPPENED!!" He climbed down from the car and walked off to where his assistant was standing, and started firing off directives. "Tell Agent McGee to go to MTAC and pull security videos. I want Dr. Mallard and Ms. Sciuto to get up here and start combing through the explosion debris and look for detonators to tell us where this came from.

His assistant wrote this down, and then said to Director Vance, "The driver of the van is right over there with the MPs and Mr. Palmer."

Vance headed over to where the driver was being treated. He did not suffer fools lightly, and this point was evident on his face. "Who were you making a delivery to?"

"Uh, sir, I gave the package to the front desk clerk. She had just signed for it, when…BOOM! No more truck. I can look on my docket to see who-"

"If you would, please?" Director Vance gritted out.

"Uh, it was simply sent to NCIS – Forensics."

"No name?"

"No, sir. But I had the correct address."

"That's the problem. Take him into custody," Vance signaled to the two MPs standing a few short feet away from him. The driver jackrabbited. He pushed Jimmy into the MPs, and took off through the parking lot, zigzagging to avoid being shot or seen. The MPs had split up, and were trying to corner him, when they heard a choking sound coming from behind some cars. One of them called out, "I see him!" The other ran over to join his companion, only to find that they were too late. The driver was dead, foam coming from his mouth. One of the MPs radioed for help and an ambulance.

Vance finally made it over to where the MPs stood, and saw the dead driver. "Damn" was all he could mutter. He made a phone call to the building's front desk and asked the secretary, "What did you do with the package that was just delivered?"

"Uh, sir, what package? He came in and asked for directions, and was leaving to go the annex building when the explosion occurred."

"He said that he delivered a package to you. What happened to it?!" Director Vance yelled into the receiver.

"Director, there's no package here," the secretary stammered, sensing that the Director had reached his limit. "I saw him when he came in, he asked for directions to the NCIS Annex Building. I told him how to get there and-"

"Young lady, how long have you been with NCIS?"

"Uh, six months, sir."

"Well, considering that, I will place you on probationary status. All packages are delivered to the Federal Building in DC before we receive them here to go through inspection. You should have learned that on your first day. The only deliveries we get are from the NCIS mailroom." Vance hung up his phone and turned to his assistant. "Where is Ms. Sciuto?"

"I'm trying to locate her now. She did come out of the building but I don't…oh, there she is," and she pointed to the truck, where a jumpsuit-clad Abby was picking through the remains of the truck, along with McGee.

Vance hightailed it over to the destroyed vehicle and snapped, "Status?"

Abby turned, and, in typical Abby-fashion, went off on a tangent. "Director Vance, sir. Umm, we were just cleared to get started going through the debris. We haven't found anything yet of any use. There are no human remains so far, mostly paper and other packing materials. Do you want me to call you once we find something?"

Vance looked at her as if she were crazy. "Yes, Ms. Sciuto, please let me know when you have something for me to look at. McGee, I need you in MTAC. Let Ms. Sciuto and the other technicians go through the debris."

"No problem, sir, Director Vance, sir." She turned around and got busy.

"Okay, right behind you, Director." McGee answered at the same time. He grabbed his backpack and headed into the building with the Director.

Ducky sidled up to Abby, and said, "Did you call Jethro and tell him about our little fracas here?"

Abby smiled, and said to Ducky, "Of course, Duckman. He was silent for a moment, and then asked if we were okay. I told him that were we all okay, including the Director. And of course, Gibbs said, 'Well Abbs, thank you but I didn't ask about him.'"

Ducky chuckled, "Leave it to Jethro to make a point."

Meanwhile, McGee was in MTAC trying to explain to a pissed-off Vance, "Uh, well …it's just…it seems that someone managed to jam the signal to one of the three cameras for the building that would have captured the explosion."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, JAMMED?" Vance shouted. All of a sudden MTAC fell silent, all eyes on Vance. He walked up to McGee and asked him in a deadly low voice, "Do I need to get more people up here with you, McGee to help you find that footage?"

"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you, sir. The only footage that we caught was with one of the Annex building cameras, they only had the tail end of the truck in its viewpoint, and then the fire from the explosion. The only thing that the cameras in front of our building caught was the fire trucks coming to put out the fire, sir."

Vance pulled out a toothpick and began to chew on it for a few minutes, while his brain was on overdrive. After a few moments, he said, "Check to see if someone has-"

"Broken past the firewalls or bypassed the servers to hack in the security mainframe? Just about to do that sir." McGee finished.

"Keep me updated. Have you heard from Agent Gibbs?"

"No sir. Not since he was here."

"You do know McGee, that I can verify that."

"Yes, sir." McGee turned to face him. "But why would I lie?"

Vance looked at the field agent for a second, then turned and walked out of MTAC. There's something going on, and I am going to find out what it is, Vance thought to himself, even if I have to fire somebody to do it.

_____

Hawaii, 5 days later

"Okay, a couple more reps and we'll call it a day, Ms. David," Thomas said to Ziva, as she walked herself along the parallel bars. Due to the bruising on her legs, she was still hobbling around, and was making some progress. The doctors wanted to strengthen her legs before they got her out of the wheelchair and on either crutches or a cane. That, the physical therapist, was up to the patient.

The patient, however, had a different timetable. She wanted to be mobile by the end of the week. So she pushed herself. And her therapist chided when she fell during one of her sessions, not to rush things. No such luck with this patient. She didn't do slow.

The main thing that was driving Ziva to get well faster was the fact that Gibbs had assigned Tony to be her chauffer/nanny/babysitter/security detail/main irritant. So for the first two sessions, he ended up doing nothing but sitting there watching her during the sessions, saying nothing.

At first, she thought she could block him out. But when the exercise got tougher, and she fell a few times, she felt his eyes burning into her. It bothered her to no end that he was there. After the second session, when she was finished and the therapy nurse was setting her time for the next day, she turned to Tony to see if she could simply get one of the hospital vans to pick her up from the house. Tony shook his head.

"I was told to bring you to her and bring you back to the house. Gibbs's orders."

"And what if I don't want you watching me during my therapy?"

Tony turned to the therapy nurse and asked if they had a gym onsite, which they did. Tony turned back to her, and said, while pushing her out of the door. "I now have something else to do. You can be alone."

That was that.

Now, as Ziva sat outside in the hallway, waiting for Tony to finish up, she was getting a little upset. The therapy nurse told her that she would be starting her psych visits tomorrow. This always made her a little anxious, because she preferred to deal with things on her own, suffer quietly, and come to things on her own terms and time. Now, because of everything that happened, the doctors made it mandatory for her to have these evaluations before returning to active duty.

Tony came down the hallway to catch her fiddling with her hands. "You done?", he said, as he wiped off his face from the shower.

"Yes. I was waiting for you, for a change."

"Well, we can go. Do you want something to eat while we head back?"

"No, I just…want to go home and go to bed."

Tony didn't respond to that. He wheeled her to the car, helped her in and drove the short distance back to the house. When they got in, she wheeled herself to the kitchen, and he heard her open the refrigerator. He heard her mutter something in Hebrew.

"Did you need some help?"

"No. I was just trying to find…never mind. I can get it."

Tony walked over to the kitchen door to watch Ziva struggle to reach the top shelf of the fridge, and almost asked her if she wanted help. After the reception she gave me last week, I'll just wait it out.

To say that their initial meeting (after everything) was tense, was put it mildly. She was sitting on the patio, when Tony came back from his early morning jog.

"Good morning." Ziva said, drinking a cup of coffee.

"Good morning." Tony bent over at the waist, breathing hard. "Is there any more left? Coffee, I mean?"

"Yes." A pause, then, "How are you?"

"Other than winded, I'm fine. The question is, how are you?" He wiped his face off with the towel he left sitting on the ledge of the patio's fence.

"I'm…better." Uncertainty laced her voice.

"That's…good." Unsure of what to say, and not wanting to put his foot in his mouth, he said, "I'll be taking you to PT tomorrow."

"What time should I be ready?"

"9:30 is good."

"Alright."

Tony waited for her to say something else, something more. But it never came, and he walked into the house to encounter Gibbs sipping his coffee in the kitchen's breakfast nook. Tony poured himself a cup and sat down across from Gibbs. Neither man said anything at first, then Tony put it out there. "I'll tell you what's going with one if you'll tell me what's going with yours?"

Gibbs looked at him for a second, then said, "Mine said give her space."

Tony nodded. "Well, from the looks of things out there," and he pointed at the patio, "there's a galaxy's worth there."

Both men clinked mugs and silence re-ensued the room.

That was almost a week ago. Tony couldn't manage the façade of "not talking" much longer. As he stood in the doorway watching her struggle, his tongue managed to pry itself from the top of his mouth. "You can't stand for anyone to help you."

"Not true. If I am to get better, I must become self-reliant," Ziva said with some censure.

"Self-reliant is one thing. Being stubborn is something else."

"I am not stubborn."

"Bullshit."

Ziva turned to meet his face. "And why does it concern you?" It was like she was daring him to say something wrong.

Tony took the challenge. "It concerns me, because now it's twice your stubborn ass has had a chance to ask for help, and each time you never took it when it was offered."

"Twice? Obviously you can't count because the only time you asked if I needed help was when you were in the other room." She turned back to the refrigerator. "What other…" and her voice drifted off.

"Yeah, kinda figured it'd take you a minute to remember. The first time, you put me on my ass for helping you. Figured I didn't want a repeat of that performance." Tony snorted, and walked over to the refrigerator and took down her favorite Fiji apples and peanut butter, and dumped them in her lap.

He got down to her eye level, and looked her dead in the eyes, making her understand that he was as serious as his glare was. "I'm only going to say this once, and them I'm done. Take it for whatever it's worth to you. As a team, Gibbs has beat some things into our heads. We are a family. Not by blood, but by choice. We may not always show it, but it's there. And to Gibbs, Abby, McGee, Ducky, Jimmy and myself - it INCLUDES you. We don't leave each other behind. We can walk away, but never too far that we can't reach you. We take care of our own, even when they don't want it. We can pick on each other, but no one else can. And the most important: sometimes when you have people that care about you, you ask for help not because you need it, but because they want to give it to you." He slammed the door and walked out the room.

Ziva sat in her chair and absorbed the bomb he dropped on her. Family? She thought. Was that what Tali and Roy were trying to tell me? She wheeled out to find him sitting on the sofa, remote in hand. "I didn't ask for this."

"Well, too late, sweetheart, you've got us." He flicked through the channels.

"I mean, I didn't ask you to come get me," she gritted out. "I had…other solutions."

He looked at her. "So you would have committed suicide rather than fight?"

"Yes, I mean, no. Rrrrgh! I DON'T KNOW!" Ziva wailed. "All I know was that I was hurt, from Michael, from my father, from you, from Gibbs, from everything, and I wanted it all to go away. And I struggled between…life…. or …death… and all I wanted was to come back…"

"Home. To NCIS. To us." Tony walked over and sat down in front of the now crying Ziva. "I've learned something while being in NCIS. Home is never a what. It's a who. To you, we're home."

Ziva wiped her face and nodded. "I couldn't choose."

"And that's what made me mad. You shouldn't have had to. That rat bastard Rivkin and your father tried to force you to choose: them or us."

Ziva looked up hotly at him, "He was not a bastard!"

"Like hell he wasn't." Gibbs sauntered into the room. "No father would have done what your father has done to you. I would never…." Gibbs paused, then went on, "I'd never ask Kelly to choose between the people she loved. And I didn't ask you to either. Door was always left open, up to you to come back through it."

Ziva looked at Gibbs. "I had to choose between Ari and you!"

"And what did that show you?"

Ziva was quiet for a moment. She said quietly, "That given the choice, I would always follow my heart."

"Not my choice, Ziva, it was always yours."

Ziva dissolved into tears. Gibbs pulled her out of her chair and just let her cry. The three of them sat that way for a while.

.