Far Away

Cleaning Up

She was not in a good mood when she walked into the club.

Michael was waiting in a corner, hidden in the shadows. His face paled as she approached, and he seemed to flinch with each click of her heels. She might as well have been firing a gun at him.

"I am so sorry, Zi-"

She clapped a hand over his mouth before he could say her name. "Quiet."

He nodded, eyes wide.

She released him but kept their faces close. "Do not say another word. Do not even move without my permission. I want you to stay here while I go clean up your mess."

He opened his mouth, probably to apologize again, but seemed to think better of it.

Maybe he was learning.

"Stay here, Michael, or I swear I will kill you."

Her words weren't just an empty threat. She really meant it.

She couldn't take any more screw-ups. Screw-ups got the wrong people killed.

She strode away, heading to a table near the target. She drew a pair of non-prescription glasses from her bag and yanked her hair out of its ponytail.

If she blew her cover, they were done for.

But she needed to know how much the target knew, and to do that she needed to get close. Dangerously close.

She pulled her phone out and busied herself with taking notes on anything and everything. She just needed to be inconspicuous. A nobody.

Which was why she cursed like a sailor when her phone rang.

She just barely caught herself from silencing the call. If he had called her at any other time she would have been overjoyed.

But now was not any other time.

It was a bad time.

She cast a glance around and, deciding no one was paying her any attention, answered her phone.

"What?" she hissed, knowing she was being unnecessarily rude.

"Uh... Just wanted to let you know that I'm in-"

"I am sorry, but now is really not a good time, Tony."

"Oh. Are you busy?"

"Is that not what I just said?" She could only think how lucky he was that she had to keep her voice low.

"Yeah. Sorry. Can I call you la-"

She hung up before he could finish. And then she shut her phone off all the way and tucked it away.

No more distractions.

No more mistakes.

***

Tony frowned, pulling his phone away from his ear. She'd hung up on him.

Why would she hang up on him?

He thought that she would be happy to hear from him so soon.

But instead she seemed annoyed, angry even. And then she hung up on him without any warning.

Was it something he did?

Or was it her mission?

Was it going badly?

Was it worse than she anticipated?

He must've called at a bad time, like she said, he decided. It had nothing to do with him. She wasn't angry at him.

Was she?

He paused to look around. He wasn't sure what to do next, since no plans had been made to meet up with Ziva.

He saw a club across the street and figured, what the heck, that was as good a place to start as any. He'd let the rest of his night go from there.

He carefully crossed over and then stepped into the dark building.

Neon signs led him to the bar, where he ordered a much-deserved drink.

For a moment he stood there, just scanning the faces.

And then he saw her.

But it couldn't be her.

Could it?

Why would she be in Morocco?

And at the same time as him?

He didn't believe in coincidences, and yet that woman looked a lot like Ziva.

Sure, she was wearing glasses and keeping her head down, but the curls were the same, the alert posture was the same, the face was the same.

It had to be her.

He had barely taken five steps when someone collided with him and sent him crashing back into the bar.

He heard a deafening crack and then everything went black.

*****

Oh man, cliffhanger.

I considered going longer and then I decided it would be more fun to leave you hanging until tomorrow, lol.

Vote and comment.

If you guess what happened in that last sentence (you don't even have to be right, just as long as you guess), I'll dedicate the next update to you.