Outlasting Karma

Chapter 10

Jo and Ziva had been driving into the desert for 6 hours now, looking for the perfect place to leave the men they had captured. They had decided it was unnecessary to torture them considering they didn't need any of the information they had, which meant that the next best option was to arrest them. Unfortunately for the men, Mossad did not have the proper resources in country to effectively arrest them and their was no way the local police would respect the 2 Mossad agents authority. This left the girls with no choice but to find a way to put the two men out of commission for as long as possible without killing them. So, they were driving into the desert.

After another hour Ziva slowed the SUV to a stop. Jo pulled two backpacks full of supplies out of the trunk and dropped them on the sand before motioning for the men to exit the vehicle.

"Alright here's the deal. There's enough water and supplies to last you the walk out of the desert. If you continue in the direction we've been driving, there is a remote village about 150 miles away. I strongly recommend that over go back the way we came which will be about 450 miles to Cairo, but do whatever the hell you want. Um let's see am I forgetting anything. Oh yeah, look I strongly encourage y'all to not try to come back and get involved again. It took a lot to convince Ziva not to kill y'all this time and I really don't wanna spend that energy again so I'll probably just shoot you myself. So yeah. Try not to be idiots. There's a knife in each of the bags so use that to cut through your ropes and get untied. Right, well have a good one."

Jo flashed them a fake smile before spinning around and getting back in the passenger side of the car. Ziva eyes shone with amusement behind her sunglasses as she began to speak.

"You told them it was I who wanted to kill them?"

Jo let out a snort that she tried to cover with her hand.

"Yeah and they believed me. They don't know you're a big softy. Also that was bad grammar, say it was me, not it was I."

Ziva rolled her eyes at the younger girls correction.

"I speak 11 languages, forgive me if I occasionally mix up a word. And you are the only person that makes me look like a softy cause you're psychotic."

"Aww, thank you. That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I like channeling my inner Harley Quinn while we're working. "

Ziva whipped her head to look at Jo in concern.

"Who is this Harley Quinn, and why is she inside of you??"

This time there was no stopping Jo from laughing for a solid 5 minutes.

"It's a figure of speech, she's not actually inside of me although I bet she'd be good at that. She's not a real person so don't worry about it."

Ziva nodded slowly in understanding.

"Hmm I bet she cannot be that good in bed, I am sure I am better. Shall we test it out?"

"Eyes on the road perv. I have a girlfriend."

Ziva rolled her eyes but nonetheless obliged and looked forward again.

"It is a desert it is not like we are going to drive off the road. You were not opposed to sex the last time we worked together."

"That was different, I was not in a committed relationship then. Trust me Ziva, if I wasn't will Ellie we would be having a good time relieving stress right now, like we used to."

Ziva shrugged, taking no offense in the other girls comment.

"You love this Ellie?"

"Yeah I do. I'm leaving Mossad and the agency for her. She makes me want to be better."

Ziva again spun her head to stare at Jo in shock, prompting the younger girl to speak again.

"I told the director before we left for this mission that it would be my last one. He was not pleased, but it is not his decision."

Ziva thought about Jo's words for nearly a minute before finally speaking.

"I hope she is worth it. My father will not take kindly to your decisions to leave Mossad. He does not do well with not getting his way."

"You don't know what you're talking about. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don't care how mad your father is, she's worth it."

Ziva reached out and grabbed Jo's hand in an attempt to calm her down.

"Jo I did not mean it in that way. I simply want you to be careful. I care about you and I do not want you to be another casualty of my fathers anger. Just be careful ok?"

"Ziva one day, your father will not stand in the way of your happiness and you will not have to be concerned with the effect he will have on others. You will be director of Mossad, and maybe then I will step back into the business."

Ziva barked out a laugh.

"Jo, love is making you delusional."

Jo joined Ziva in her laughter shrugging her shoulders slightly to concede the point.

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Kelley put her hand on Alex's knee in an attempt to stop if from bouncing with nerves. The group of soccer players were in the middle of the flight to Cairo, and all of them were feeling anxiety about if they would make it in time. Ellie spent the entire first half of the flight glaring daggers at Adam while Alex chose to stare out the window and bounce her knee. Kelley, who was sitting next to her had last an admirable amount of time with Alex's nerves before finally attempting to get the striker to relax if only slightly. Christen was attempting to read a book, but her actions betrayed her as she failed to turn the page in the last 20 minutes. Next to her, Tobin was fast asleep choosing to practice her hard chill knowing that Jo wouldn't mind. After realizing that Alex wasn't going to relax anytime soon Kelley turned her attention to Adam.

"Why are you guys sending Jo to kill her family, isn't their anyone else who could do the job?"

Adam simply shrugged his shoulder at the defender.

"Sure, but she requested the job. And, she's one of best."

Kelley nodded slowly, not at all surprised that Jo requested the assignment. Kelley heard Ellie scoff from where she was listening to the conversation.

"You talk a big game about wanted to protect her mental well being, but if you really cared about her you never would have allowed her to be involved in this mission. There are other people who can do it, it didn't have to be Jo."

Again Adam only shrugged which only served to infuriate the Australian further. Again Ellie let out a scoff before focusing again on what she was writing. She was finishing a letter to Jo explaining how she felt.

Dear Jo,

Listen right now I'm so mad at you for disappearing again and for making me feel this scared whether you're going to be ok. I'm incredibly pissed off, but I still love you, but sometimes it hurts me to love you. I'm writing this because I know I'll never have the strength to say it to you in person, not when you look at me like I put the moon in the sky. I can't keep doing this. With you disappearing and me worrying about you and not knowing if you'll come back again. I love you so much and I know you love me, but dammit Jo I need you to show it. This isn't me breaking up with you, not by a long shot, this is me asking you to love me the way I love you. I need you take care of yourself so that I don't have to worry about you all the time. Please, just do what you need to do and when it's done please let it be done. I love you. Prove that you love me.

-Ellie

Ellie folded up the letter and handed it to Alex to ensure it was delivered no matter what could potentially happen. Alex looked at Ellie with a question clearly in her eyes.

"It's for Jo. In case something happens. I have a weird feeling about what's about to happen. So just please make sure she gets it."

Alex nodded slightly, grabbing the letter and tucking it in her pocket. The two women smiled lightly at each other as they felt the wheels of the plane touch down. It was time to save Jo from herself.