Paisley had been around NCIS for over a month now, and after being caught up in a case, she had been invited to stay at Ziva's place for a few days. Well, not so much invited as forced. By Gibbs. A well known gang member in the area who turned out to be much more than a gang member had threatened her, and that wasn't even the worst of her problems.
"Bit small. Bigger than my place though. If I'm gonna be staying here you better help me with my apartment search, ya know. Better to be have a sleepover than to sleep with an enemy, yeah? Not that we're gonna be sleeping together, I mean."
She hadn't got along well with many of the team members. Gibbs didn't really get along with anyone though. Tony wanted to hook up with Paisley the first time he saw her, and her feistiness got the same reaction Ziva's had in the beginning of her NCIS career. As for McGee and Ziva, they just generally didn't know what to do with her.
"The couch pulls out. I know it is not the best place but it is better you stay here than at home." She knew Paisley would interrupt if she paused, so she continued. "Yes, I know very well you have been training hard but you are not an agent yet. I needed babysat even after my father died and I have been doing this for almost nine years. I heard you got your citizenship, by the way. I would have attended had I been invited."
Paisley smiled and suddenly felt bad she hadn't tried to make a connection with Ziva earlier on. "Sorry, it slipped my mind you had already been through the same process. Abby and Uncle Don came though. I think he might need to retake the test. A lot's changed since he's come here." Ziva laughed at Paisley for even suggesting a family member of all people need to regain their rights to the country, but she was quite blunt with her opinions most of the time.
"Well, I am going to take a shower. Make yourself at home. There is pizza in the fridge if you are hungry." After Ziva made her way into her bedroom, Paisley began searching the apartment for anything interesting about her possible soon-to-be coworker. "Not very kosher, are ya?" she mumbled to herself as she searched through the refrigerator. She had a fully stocked kitchen when it came to food, but lacked on dishes. She obviously wasn't used to having people over to enjoy her cooking with her.
While there wasn't much to see in the one person sized space, Paisley did find herself attracted to a shelf of old memories of Ziva's. Of course there was a menorah in the center, with various family photos on either side. Ziva had an average looking family from her younger years, although that wasn't the case. A few pictures of when Ziva was in her late teens lacked a mother and sister she'd seen in younger photos. There was only one with her father, and one with a teenage looking boy along with a small child, and presumably Ziva standing in the middle.
She assumed that boy to be Ziva's brother, although she didn't know much about Ziva's family aside from deceased parents and a dead sister. She hadn't heard anything about another sibling, and for good reason it seemed. The final picture on the shelf had a single person, a male, smiling and sipping wine. She knew not to say anything out loud but his grin was the closest thing to the Cheshire cat she'd seen in her life. Which normally wouldn't be creepy, considering many people had fairly toothy grins, but she knew this one too well to ignore.
Paisley decided to ignore the picture for tonight and see what would come to mind the next day, if anything. She pulled out the couch bed and barely slept through the night. Paisley often had vivid and crowded dreams. She also dressed nicely but didn't really bother often to match the colors of her clothes, so she wasn't as concerned with her appearance as other might be. Some time in the middle of the night, she found herself dreaming and thinking about all the men she knew. Anyone she met in her life. Many's names which she couldn't remember, but she didn't think that mattered anyway until she decided to write them down. Unfortunately after finding a marker, she had no luck finding any blank piece of paper in the apartment. There wasn't even a blank sheet of paper for grocery lists on the refrigerator.
So, lacking any paper, Paisley decided she needed to be creative. For every man she'd ever met, she left a mark on her arm. Once that arm was full she switched to the other. She skipped her legs because she hated shaving, and had just shaved the night before, so she didn't want to ruin at least their appearance. Her face was her next target. It was a washable marker after all and hopefully after a shower in the morning the marks would all disappear. She soon fell back asleep with the marker still in her hand, but her sleep only lasted until about 6:00 in the morning. While she usually woke up at seven, she couldn't bring herself to ignore her last dream.
She hurriedly set the couch up the way it had been the day before, and accidentally made more noise than she meant to. She then went back to the pictures to get a good look at them, and after staring for nearly five minutes, realization hit her. She didn't have much time to think though before Ziva woke up.
"Oh, I hope I didn't wake you up. I think I made a little bit of noise puttin' the bed back." Ziva shook her head but looked quizzically at Paisley. "No, my alarm goes off at 6:10. You did not hear it?" Paisley shook her head, but still standing directly in front of the picture shelf, she knew Ziva was wondering what the hell she was doing. "You mind if I ask who's in this picture?" Paisley pointed to the picture of the man drinking a glass of wine, and noticed Ziva's smile was one more of sadness than happiness.
"That was my brother, Ari." Ziva took the picture off the shelf and gave it a glance before handing it to Paisley to get a better look. "Mind if I ask what happened to him?" Ziva was surprisingly open with Paisley about her brother, but that was because she hadn't known the redhead for long. She was a lot easier to talk to than anyone on the team because she wouldn't make a big deal about loss and family like the rest.
"Before I was an agent, someone else had my place. My brother was the one who ended her time on the team. I did not believe it was him at first, but when I found him ready to do the same to Gibbs... I knew what had to be done." Paisley looked confused, and Ziva wasn't sure if she understood what she was saying or not. "Why did he kill her? I don't mean to intrude on your personal life but he looks familiar."
Ziva nodded as if she understood and watched as Paisley set the frame back up in its original place. "He turned out to be a Mossad mole for Hamas, but he wanted revenge against our father after his mother was killed. He was just my brother when we were younger, but later on he lost his morals... Why do you have marks on your face?" Paisley ignored that question when Ziva had answered hers truthfully. The Israeli didn't take kindly to that at first, but with another curiosity from Paisley, she became just as worried as the younger woman looked. "So he wasn't a doctor, was he?"
Ziva scrunched her eyebrows but nodded after a few moments. "Yes, he had very good medical training. He went to Edinburgh, if you must know... Why does this matter to you?" Without wanting to worry Ziva about her brother with her facial expressions, Paisley turned back to the picture. "You do realize that's in Scotland, yeah?" Her voice was shaky, and Ziva grabbed Paisley's wrist to keep her calm or show support, or to keep her from doing anything unexpected.
"When I was sixteen I fell out of a tree and broke my wrist. I had to wear a damn cast for six weeks. My dad took me to a little restaurant after it happened to cheer me up. He went to the bathroom and a man came to our table and looked at my arm. I didn't know any better so we talked about five minutes. He was nice, gave me a cherry so I thought he was alright. He left right before my dad came back. The ditz didn't even notice the cherry or the bird that flew in when he opened the door. I am 99% sure that was your brother I talked to."
It took Ziva several minutes to think about why this would even matter to Paisley, or why she should care. But she was soon curious herself about when these events happened. "Paisley, how old are you?" The redhead turned and at first didn't know why Ziva was asking her age at a time like this, but knew after a few moments. "I'm almost 25. Why?"
Ari had held Kate, Gerald, and most importantly Ducky hostage in autopsy roughly nine years ago. If Paisley was 15 when she met Ari and was 24 now, there was no way him meeting Ducky's young niece could be coincidence, especially because by that time Ari would have been well out of college.
"Paisley, you and I are going back to NCIS early. I think we need to have a talk with your uncle."