Consequences Of Truth
By LoveAndSerenity
So, at long last, I post something again. And it's an NCIS fic, of all things! Well, my NCIS obsession is really an addiction now, so it's not surprising.
This was written in a few hours, and I did some serious revising here and there. Now, it's my first NCIS fanfiction, so please be nice. I know it probably isn't very good, but I wanted to post it today. Right now. Before the episode "Reunion" airs and we find out the truth.
This whole fic was based on a commercial for the episode 7.02 "Reunion" that I saw. It was a brief scene between Ziva and Abby. I know commercials edit the clips, so the conversation they had was most likely not what will happen in the show, but it's what I based it on. In the commercial, Ziva greets Abby in her lab and Abby yells at her, looking absolutely pissed. The quote at the beginning of this story is what Abby yells in the commercial. After she says it, there is a black-and-white flashback of Tony getting hurt from when he went to save Ziva. Then the scene changes to Tony and Ziva in the bathroom, where Ziva says she "almost killed him where he stood". Tony grabs her shoulders, and the narrator says, "This is the episode that will have you talking!" or something similar.
So, obviously, since I'm STRONGLY anti-Tiva, I had to get out my idea of what happened out before the show. If this is completely different from the episode "Reunion", it's because it was written before I saw it, based on a less than 30-second commercial.
By the way, the title was a manipulation of the season premiere's title, "Truth Or Consequences", if you were wondering.
Oh, and there is some language in this, but not very much at all, and I didn't think it deserved a T rating. So I went with K+.
Enjoy, and please tell me what you think. It'll only help me get better!
Disclaimer: I would like to ask this question again. Are disclaimers necessary? I know some people do them and some people don't. I only do them because I don't know if I have to or not. Do we have to post one? Is there some rule on it? Please tell me. Okay, now for the real disclaimer. I don't own NCIS, but I do have a growing love for Michael Weatherly. I own everything else besides that, though. The plot, the writing, etc.; you know how these work.
"What is wrong with you?! He risked his life to go save you!"
Ziva stared at the woman in front of her in shock. She had never once heard her talk like this. Never. She had never seen her look this furious, this upset, this absolutely livid. In the nearly four years that she'd known the woman, Ziva had not once been afraid of her like she was now.
"Abby?"
"What the hell is your problem, Ziva? How can you be so damn ungrateful?! He almost died for you! He would have died for you! How dare you just stand there, acting like nothing happened, when you know what he put on the line for you?!"
Ziva didn't move. She just stared. Steam was practically coming out of the taller woman's ears and nostrils, and her eyes were narrowed into a vicious glare. Her chest heaved a little from the force of her yelling.
"Well?! Do you have anything to say for yourself?!"
"Abby, I can assure you that I meant no offense—"
"No offense?!" she roared. "No offense? Are you that fucking stupid, Ziva?! You've insulted him worse than any words ever could! He was willing to give his life to save yours, and you didn't even fucking thank him!"
She looked intently at the tall, affectionate, hug-giving Goth woman she'd come to accept as a friend over the past four years. Something was wrong. Ziva knew that. Something was horribly, horribly wrong. Nothing had ever made her friend act like this. Nothing she'd ever dealt with, from two-faced lab assistants who threatened her at knifepoint to being stalked to Gibbs leaving them all to Jenny's death to Ducky being stabbed, had affected her like this.
Ziva just waited, watching her closely. She waited until the forensic scientist had calmed down slightly before speaking.
"I will go thank him, Abby. I do regret not doing it sooner. You are right; I owe my life to his willingness to risk his own."
"You're damn right you do," she growled. "Now, listen closely, Ziva, because I can still kill you without leaving any evidence, and I won't hesitate to do so if it comes down to it. You will go thank Tony, you will go tell him how grateful you are, and you will tell him that you will always remember what he did and was willing to do for you. Do you understand me, Ziva?"
Just as she asked the question, Ziva realized that she did. She finally understood why her friend had been acting so drastically. And it took all of her strength to stay composed when she finally put together the clues the other woman had been leaving for the last four years.
She loved him.
That's what it was. Her beautiful, kind-hearted Goth friend loved her Italian coworker. Well, she had always loved him, but now, Ziva realized the truth. She was in love with him, and if Ziva thought about it, she guessed that she probably had been for a long time.
"Yes."
"Good. Now, after you go tell him that, you're going to tell him something else," she said. "I think we both know what I'm talking about. It's pretty obvious that you know you haven't been completely honest about some certain feelings you have, am I right?"
Ziva immediately recognized her friend's selfless motives, and it just broke her heart. Once again, she was blown away by her friend's willingness to sacrifice her own happiness for others.
She loved him so much that she was willing to give someone else the opportunity to be with him, because she wanted him to be happy. She thought that Ziva could make him happy, so she was asking her to go do it. She thought that Ziva felt the same.
Ziva didn't love him. She knew that he didn't love her either. At least, not in the traditional sense. Maybe he loved her like a friend, or maybe even like someone he was romantically attached to. But Ziva was certain that he did not—and never would—love her in the way where he wanted nothing more than to wake up next her every morning and spend the rest of his life by her side. She was also certain that the feeling was mutual.
So, they might last for a little while, but Ziva knew that she and the man she'd spent the last four years calling her partner were never meant to be together.
The Israeli had learned from experience that sometimes lying was necessary. Every time she had to lie to someone because of her job with the Mossad, she believed it was required. It was to protect people from pain and harm that reality would cause. It was to shield them from the consequences of truth.
When she looked into the Goth's eyes and took in the complex emotions those striking green orbs held, she knew that this was not one of those times. This time, she would do as her friend asked, but it was only because she had asked. Because Ziva knew that nothing else would make the forensic scientist satisfied.
She prayed that her friend would have happiness in her own life. She deserved it. She hoped that the man her friend loved would see the intelligent, beautiful, compassionate woman that she was. Ziva said a silent prayer, asking Adonai to help open his eyes to see what he was missing right in front of him.
It hurt deep within her as she forced a nod. Yes, she would do as she was asked, but Ziva wouldn't do it for him. She would do it for her friend who loved the Italian enough to let him go, if it meant making him happy.
She told herself that she had feelings for him, and that it was what her Goth friend really wanted.
She knew that she didn't, and it wasn't, but she forced herself to lie. She had to. She had to protect her from the painful consequences of truth.
Ziva held back tears as she lied to Abby. She held back tears as she left the lab, went to the men's bathroom and lied to Tony. And then, for the second time in her life—only after when she had killed her brother—she held back tears as she managed to lie to herself.
Thanks for reading. Please review, add to favorites if you like, and help me pray that Tiva doesn't become canon--in "Reunion" or any episode!
Oh, just a note, in case you were confused. "Adonai" is the Hebrew word for G-d.
--Serenity