"I've heard it said,
that people come into our lives
for a reason…"
He still remembered that first day. He still remembered the way she sauntered into his life, the way she intrigued him. The moment he laid eyes on her, he could feel this was going to be an important turning point in his life.
She still remembered that day. She knew deep down that this boy was special; she marked him off as something special. He must've been in his early 30's, but after that first encounter, she always thought of him as a boy- that goofy grin, the frat boy-esque aura, the way he joked.
There was a reason their paths crossed. The universe had thrust these two individuals at each other with an ulterior motive in mind.
They weren't sure yet, but there was a reason for all this.
"…Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return…"
Black was all she saw. The smell of sweat and dirt was everywhere. And blood. Always blood. It clung to her the way a child clings to their mother in an unfamiliar place. She steeled herself for when the curtain went up, for when the pain and assault and violation began.
But what she saw just might have hurt her more.
Before her sat a man, who was already feeling the heat of this damned desert. He was unrecognizable, even after her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room. No longer did she see a boy who acted selfish and shallow, but a committed man willing to make sacrifices for the sake of others.
It was true. There was a reason they had met. She'd helped him grow up, even just a bit, and now he understood what sacrifice was. He decided that he wasn't done learning from her, he couldn't live without the lessons she could have taught him. If she was gone, then he couldn't go on. He needed to return the favor, and that he did.
"…I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you"
Their dynamic shifted after the desert. They had both seen one another in a different light that day, and neither knew how to cope with that. Somalia had bonded them; their lives were bound together, evident in the years after that incident. As they traveled around the sun, they drew from one another: he became mature and a bit mellow; she had learned to not take life so seriously and be so reckless. They had molded the other, for better or worse.
"It well may be
That we will never meet again in this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made from what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend..."
They stood together on the tarmac, the dark and unusual cold of an Israeli night surrounding them. This could be their last time together, a fact unfathomable to both of them. When you build your life around a certain person, it's hard to continue on without them so constantly present physically. Like a comet pulled from orbit. So they stood, gripping one another firmly, as if they'd be torn apart by some extraterrestrial force.
As painful as parting was, there was no other way to go. She needed a fresh start and distance from the life she knew. She needed to clear her head and find herself. And he needed to respect that, to his great dismay. Although they wouldn't be so close, they'd always be with one another. Their fates were intertwined, bound by their hardships.
"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you..."
He watched out the window as the earth shrunk beneath him and he could no longer make out the speck on the ground that was Ziva and considered this, just as she watched from below as the plane was not even a speck of light in the distance any longer and did the same. After all the hell they had gone through together, after all they had put one another through, had they ultimately been changed for the better? As he held her necklace and she held his memory, the answer came through, clear as day.
"…I have been changed for good."