Safed, Israel,
24 hours before Day One
Zahava Mizrahi had been in Israel for the last week. Visiting. She still had a hard time believing that she was saying that, and it had been almost twelve years since she became an American citizen. But this home butting up against the Sea of Galilee, this was her home. Her only real home, anyway, with her deceased Sabba, and her Savta. Her grandfather, and grandmother. And now she would be leaving again, this time for a long while, with minimal communication with the two people she treasured the most.
Her grandmother looked up at her. Her big brown eyes met Zahava's green, the light hit the older woman's iris, creating a beautiful show of gold specks. Her grandmother always had the most beautiful eyes. A shaky, wrinkled hand met Zahava's face. She began speaking in Hebrew, "Oh, my dear, baby girl. You're going to do amazing things. I just hope I live to see the day you become a big FBI agent."
Zahava smiled sadly, grabbing her grandmothers hand and kissing the back of it softly. "Of course, Savta. You will. I'm going to make you and Sabba proud. I promise."
Tears leaked out from the elder woman's eyes, streaming down her crinkled cheeks softly. A smile on her full lips. "Go beat the world, Zehavvy. I love you."
"I love you too."
Zahava's best friend was her grandmother. Leaving her was emotional suicide. But, she lifted her suitcase anyway, and rolled it out of the stone house. Tears fell steadily as she made her way down the street to the nearest bus station. Zahava never cried. So much for that.
Day One
She couldn't believe her eyes. She could absolutely not believe she'd made it to Quantico. That she'd gotten accepted. That she was actually here. Even through orientation, even through the tour, she couldn't believe what was happening. It hadn't exactly settled in yet. When they'd gotten their uniforms to change into, she found herself slightly distracted, and bumped into the person in front of her. She cringed as she looked up to the woman in front of her.
Nimah Amin stared back at her, her black hijab circling her face. Zahava could have sworn she saw a look of anger right before her face softened again.
"I am so sorry." Zahava's thick Israeli accent protruded like a sore thumb. Especially now that she was nervous. "I really didn't mean to bump into you, I was just distracted and-"
Nimah sent her a small smile. "It's fine. I'm Nimah, Nimah Amin."
"Zahava...Mizrahi." She responded, giving her right hand to shake.
Nimah took it, and the two shook hands for an uncomfortable amount of time, making uncomfortable eye contact.
Zahava took her hand back slowly and cleared her throat as the two walked along together toward the dorms. Nimah looked at her for a moment before speaking, "Israel, right?"
She gave a nod. "Safed."
"Right." Nimah smiled. "That's a beautiful area."
"It's gorgeous. I've lived there my whole life." It wasn't necessarily a lie. "My grandparents homes butt up to the Sea of Galilee. It's a gorgeous thing to wake up to every day. I don't think I appreciated it enough while I was there."
"That sounds like it was lovely." She gave a small nod.
Zahava nodded back. "It was. How about you? I take it you're not from America originally either."
Nimah studied the other girls face slowly. "I guess that's for you to learn soon, hm?"
Zahava raised a thick eyebrow, a small smirk growing on her face. "I see how it is. You're on then."
The two separated.
Zahava noted that her dorm was on the opposite side of the hall from Nimah's at the furthest end from her. She also noted she also had a single. Her eyebrows furrowed at this. Alex and Shelby came up behind her, peering over her shoulder. "I understand, Nimah, but you're not Muslim are you?"
Zahava shook her head. "No. I'm Jewish, but not religious. I didn't ask for a single."
"Lucky girl." Shelby smiled at her before the two of them walked off.
She stepped inside, and closed the door behind her. Yes, she supposed. She was lucky.
When the group met upstairs, and Liam O'Connor gave his orders about picking a fellow trainee to size up, both Nimah and Zahava knew exactly who they wanted. But only Nimah came away with it. She held up the file to Zahava, who frowned back at the other woman, holding up some strangers file. Nimah shrugged, and walked away.
With a sigh, Zahava walked off as well.
That night, after searching for hours on hours to dig up dirt on her trainee, she decided she'd go knock on Nimah's door. She tied her thick curly black hair into a ponytail. Her black jogging pants were high waisted, and her purple sports bra was looser than she'd appreciate, but she could live. Her black sneakers clung to her feet as she made her way down the hall. She knocked five times.
"Who is it?"
"Zahava." She responded."Is it okay if I come in?"
A few seconds passed before the door opened. Nimah's hair was free, and fell around her face gracefully. Zahava smiled. "Hey, I wanted to know if you'd like to go on a run with me?"
"Do you ever sleep?" She joked, leaning against the doorframe.
"Sleep is for the weak, Nimah." She smirked in response. "So what do you say?"
With a sigh, she nodded. "Sure. Give me a couple to get ready, okay?"
"Sure." Zahava smiled in response. "I'll meet you at the track."
Nimah closed the door quickly, and Zahava turned on her heels and walked off down the hall. All she could think about was how beautiful Nimah looked with her hair down.
Day Two
Of course, after finding so much dirt on everyone, there were to be interviews to check the accuracy of said dirt. Nimah and Zahava were due to go second.
Zahava was set up to the polygraph, and to be truthful she was nervous. She knew what Nimah would find, and it wasn't something she wanted the rest of the class to hear about.
Nimah came through the door. "Zahava Mizrahi."
"Nimah Amin." She nodded back.
"You're bisexual."
Her eyebrows raised as a smile spread over her face. "I wasn't hiding that." She gave a small laugh.
"It didn't say anything about it in your file, though."
"I'm not too sure that it needed to be stated. I don't like to put myself in a box."
Nimah sat across from the younger woman. "Born in Safed, Israel, to Avraham and Serach Mizrahi, an ultra-orthodox Jew. Netueri Karta, right?"
Zahava gritted her teeth. "Yes, that's true."
"When you told your mother you had feelings for the opposite sex, she informed your father, who informed the head Rabbi in the sect. At night, many different men would be sent to your house, into your bedroom, to teach you which gender was right to feel sexually attracted to. Right?"
"Right."
"Is that where the scar on your stomach came from? The one on your forth rib, on the right side?"
Zahava swallowed down tears. "Yes."
"And that's why you were taken away. You almost died at seventeen years old, after your father slashed you in the side, puncturing your lung. You were put into the care of your grandparents, whom you stayed with until eighteen, and went to America for college."
"Yeah."
Nimah chewed on her bottom lip.
"Great job, Trainee Amin. You're finished now."
She ripped off the gear from her person, and rushed out of the room, tears now slipping down her cheeks freely. Nimah ran after her. "Zahava!"
Zahava paused, balling her fists. She turned around. "What?"
"I'm sorry. I went too far." Nimah said softly.
"I'm not mad, Nimah." Zahava sniffled. "I haven't had to talk about that verbally since I was seventeen years old. It was difficult for you to read it back to me. It was the most horrifying thing I've ever been through, but that was your job. So I'm not angry. I just don't want to talk about it again, okay? That part of my life is long over, and I don't want to talk about it anymore."
Nimah nodded. "Okay..."
So, Zahava walked off, tears still falling down her cheeks. She rested her hand on her ribs, holding it there as though it was once again aching.
Alright, sorry about the choppiness of the story, but I needed to cut to the chase and get across the budding relationship between Zahava and Nimah. I may skip over episodes in order to get to the reveal that Nimah is actually two different people, but for now this is what there is. I really hope you enjoyed, please leave a review for any constructive criticism or compliments. :)
-Sam
